Have you ever witnessed the following situation? A company goes through a careful process to implement a management system, such as BSC, but doesn't put it into practice properly, leaving it frozen…
Beyond the idea of leveraging the work already done with the implementation, there are other reasons for you, the manager, to unfreeze your BSC and reap its benefits.
Follow along and find out what they are!
How to recognize a “frozen” BSC”
If your company implemented the Balanced Scorecard but simply doesn't use it, it's certainly frozen. But this isn't the only picture of the problem. If your company uses the BSC but doesn't update it, it's in the same scenario.
A common situation: companies implement management systems and other processes and maintain them exactly as they were designed. If this happens, the management model does not keep up with the changes that influence the company's routine and results, thus generating frustrated expectations.
Therefore, if you feel your BSC seems like an outdated tool today that hasn't evolved to keep up with the company's reality and needs, it's likely that it needs attention.
See here: The 5 Steps to Getting the BSC Up and Running
Why defrost the BSC instead of getting a new model
Companies that have their Balanced Scorecard frozen sometimes begin to question the effectiveness of the management model and may end up believing that the answer to the problem is “out there,” in other models, possibly among the most recent and trendy ones, such as the OKRs, for example.
Even though, in fact, other solutions might be interesting, the important thing is to understand that it doesn't matter which management model your company adopts; if it keeps it frozen too, it will soon stop leading to the expected results and will start to be questioned.
Therefore, it's worth keeping in mind that the core of the problem is the company's failure to update its BSC usage, and updating it — that is, going through the unfreezing process — will bring back all the benefits that made this system such a popular solution in the corporate world.
How to Defrost Your BSC and Reclaim Your Advantages
There are different stages to implement the BSC what are known when the company decides to adopt the strategy for the first time:
Definition of strategic objectives;
Company alignment with its objectives;
Linking relationships and outcomes;
Performance monitoring;
Implementation of improvements.
The unfreezing of the BSC is nothing more than a review of this process and everything that was defined for the implementation of the management model. And this means, for example, re-evaluating and realigning the company's objectives to ensure they are adequate to the new reality of the organization, its market, and its stakeholders.
Unfreezing your Balanced Scorecard might point to changes in solid, routine company issues, but if the goal is to regain advantages, it's crucial to invest in aligning the business vision, its objectives, actions, and goals.
This makes it possible to find new ways to improve corporate routines based on financial, market, internal process, and organizational growth variables. The result is the return of your BSC's effectiveness.
A newly implemented BSC may also need reassessment to ensure new results. Check it out this other post and discover if you are sabotaging your company's management!
