The Solution - Build Balanced Scorecards & Automate Them
The TriHealth executive team determined that a Balanced Scorecard management system – using web-based software – would help them drive the changes they sought, because it would enable the organization to:

• Communicate strategy to all organizational levels using a consistent framework and tool
• Ensure resources are applied to highest priority improvement initiatives
• Align efforts to the strategic needs, both across the six business units and down the hierarchy
• Have "drill-down" visibility into related strategic objectives, metrics, problem areas, and status of organizational initiatives
• Conduct more productive Business Reviews, which in turn would drive accountability and results
• Link the work demanded by the organizatio’’s initiatives with the HR performance system

Starting early in the process, TriHealth partnered with ActiveStrategy management consultants to build the content for TriHealth’s Balanced Scorecards. First, a top-level Scorecard was developed that reflected the system’s strategic plan and focused on the most pressing objectives. Next, Scorecards were created that began to link the six business units to the top-level objectives and system goals. Then, key improvement initiatives were identified and prioritized, based upon performance improvement opportunities.

As this work was being done, the Scorecards were being loaded into ActiveStrategy’s ASE software, which automates and links the multiple layers of “cascaded” Balanced Scorecards. At this point, ActiveStrategy consultants began coaching the TriHealth executives and their management teams on the underlying business management methodologies that support TriHealth ’s Compass Management System, as well as on how to effectively use the software as a true business management tool.

Habig explained that “the software goes beyond simply reporting performance; instead it actually drives the performance-based management system. It establishes visible links between the corporate strategy and the work within our system’s six major business units, allows a transparency into performance that we’ve never had before, and creates accountability throughout the organization in a non-threatening manner.”

More Productive Performance Discussions
TriHealth’s Compass Management System, automated within ASE software, has led to an enhanced way for the organization to discuss performance. Rather than reviewing static reports of sometimes older data, executives and managers can now log in to the online system and quickly see how well the organization is currently performing in the defined strategic objectives. They may then click to “drill down” and see how contributing measures are performing, view progress of aligned performance improvement initiatives, and even see individual employees’ names associated with every objective, measure, and project.

Prior to working with ActiveStrategy, TriHealth had various "dashboards" in existence, but they were basically stand-alone pieces of paper and spreadsheets. They were not necessarily aligned to the strategy, they were disconnected and thus not able to reveal cause-and-effect relationships, and there was no way to interact with them in real time.

The cascaded Balanced Scorecard system in ASE software has replaced all of these disparate tools with one, comprehensive communication framework, which articulates the organizational strategy and allows everyone to see progress toward its achievement. "The CEO uses the software to review his Scorecard both with the Board and within our organization, ensuring that we are all on the ‘same page’ in terms of what TriHealth needs to accomplish," explained Habig.