How do you communicate and cascade your balanced scorecard to your stakeholders and employees?

1 Define your audience

Before you communicate your balanced scorecard, you need to identify who your audience is and what they need to know. Different stakeholders and employees may have different levels of interest, involvement, and influence on your balanced scorecard. For example, your board members may want to see the big picture and the strategic alignment, while your frontline staff may want to see how their actions contribute to the customer satisfaction and the financial results. Therefore, you need to tailor your message and format to suit your audience and their expectations.

2 Choose your channels

Once you have defined your audience, you need to choose the best channels to communicate your balanced scorecard. There are many options, such as presentations, reports, dashboards, newsletters, emails, intranet, meetings, workshops, or webinars. You may use different channels for different purposes and audiences, depending on the level of detail, frequency, and interaction you want to achieve. For example, you may use a presentation to introduce your balanced scorecard to your board members, a report to update them quarterly, a dashboard to share the KPIs with your managers, and a newsletter to highlight the achievements and challenges with your employees.

3 Use visuals and stories

One of the best ways to communicate your balanced scorecard is to use visuals and stories to illustrate your points and make them memorable. Visuals, such as graphs, charts, diagrams, or icons, can help you simplify complex data and show the relationships and trends among your perspectives and KPIs. Stories, such as case studies, testimonials, or anecdotes, can help you connect with your audience emotionally and show the impact and value of your balanced scorecard. For example, you may use a graph to show how your customer retention rate has improved over time, and a testimonial to show how a satisfied customer has referred more business to you.

4 Encourage feedback and dialogue

Another important aspect of communicating your balanced scorecard is to encourage feedback and dialogue from your stakeholders and employees. Feedback and dialogue can help you gain insights, perspectives, and suggestions on how to improve your balanced scorecard and your business model. They can also help you build trust, commitment, and ownership among your team and foster a culture of learning and improvement. For example, you may ask your stakeholders and employees to share their opinions, questions, concerns, or ideas on your balanced scorecard, and respond to them promptly and respectfully.

5 Align and reward

Finally, to communicate and cascade your balanced scorecard effectively, you need to align and reward your stakeholders and employees with your vision, mission, and goals. Alignment means that you ensure that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities in relation to your balanced scorecard and how they can contribute to its success. Reward means that you recognize and appreciate their efforts and achievements and provide them with incentives and opportunities to grow and develop. For example, you may align your stakeholders and employees by setting clear expectations, providing training and coaching, and creating action plans. You may reward them by giving feedback, celebrating wins, and offering bonuses or promotions.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?