2003-01-22 CC Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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8ITY!GObNH MANAGEMENT Charlotte adapts the 'Balanced Scorecard' For more than 25 years, Charlotte, N.C., measured government efficiency and effectiveness by setting objectives and tracking performance against them. Although the method served the city well, it focused pri- marily on the past. Therefore, the dty began searching for a performance measurement system that emphasized strategic planning for the future. In the early '90s the city manager researched the "Bal- anced Scorecard," a concept introduced in the private sector by Robert Kaplan, the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Business School, Cambridge, Mass., and David Norton, president of Renaissance Worldwide, a Newton, Mass.-based business and technology consulting firm. Charlotte adapted the model to apply to the public sector, becoming the first U.S. city to do so. service delivered. (Routine services, such as side- walk installation, garbage pickup or fire suppression, are better addressed on a department or division score- card.) Instead, the scorecard reflects the processes that must improve in order for the council to meet its strate- gic goals. "A Balanced Scorecard provides substantial focus, motivation and accountability in government... ," Kaplan says. "The scorecard ... communicates to external constituents and internal employees the outcomes and performance drivers by which the organization will achieve its mission and strategic objectives." In late 1996, after Charlotte's council had established the city's "corporate" scorecard, the process was repeated by the planning, transportation, engineering and proper- ty management, and police departments. Department- Charlotte's Corporate Scorecard Customer Reduce Increase Screngthen Improve Provide Maintain Promote perspective crime perception neighborhoods service safe, competitive economic of safety qualilY convenient tax: rales opporllUlily transportation Financial Maximize Expand Grow the Maintain accountability Benefit/cost non-city funding tax base AAA rating perspective Internal Increase Promote Secure funding! Improve Streamline Increase Promote process positive community- service partners productivity customer infrastructure business perspective contacts based problem interactions capacity mix solving Learning and Enhance Close rIle Achieve positive growth knowledge skills gap employee climate perspective management capabilities The Balanced Scorecard promotes the establishment of tangible objectives and measures that relate to an organization's mission, vision and strategy. It focuses on four critical success indicators; customer service, finan- cial accountability, internal work efficiencies, and learn- ing and growth. Priorities are set within the major cate- gories, first at the corporate level and dlen at division, department, team and even individual levels. In 1990, Charlotte City Council chose five areas - community safety, transportation, economic develop- ment, neighborhoods and restructuring government - on which to focus its strategic plan. Those priorities were later modeled (see the accompanying tabie), represent- ing the "corporate" level of the dty's scorecard. The Balanced Scorecard emphasizes strategic process- es over routine processes. In Charlotte, the council's scorecard does not and cannot include every important 32 October 1998 level objectives were matched with council-Ievelobjec- tives to ensure dlat the city would achieve its highest priori ti es. Today, all of the city's departments have scorecards, but it will take three years before the measurement sys- tem becomes a routine part of the city's business. The concept of having only a few performance indicators has been trouble~ome since previously there were unlimited measures. However, with the council's support and the participation of the departments, the city has been able to clarify its critical objectives, identify the processes necessary to meet them and produce a concise model to assist officials in tracking the city's progre,>s. * This article was wriuen by Charloue City Manager Pamela Syfert and Budget Analysts Nancy Elliott and Lisa Schumacher . AMER1CAN CITY & COUNTY