A current buzzword in Higher Ed is the importance of Critical Thinking. This would be the ability to discern statements for what they are, see through the rhetoric, and apply logical reasoning. Consider the Balanced Scorecard. There are four measures
Financial Performance
Customer Satisfaction
Internal Business process
Innovation and Learning
Now stop and think. If you ask most administrators, CEOs, whoever, to describe their organization in 50 words or less what will they say? Typically most will respond by stating the number of employees, the amount of the budget, the number of books in the library, or the growth rate of whatever. But most of these measures are not OUTPUTS of the organization. They are INPUTS. I actually read a description of one Texas University by its President in which he listed the appraised value of the buildings on campus. What on earth value is that measure, unless of course we are trying to construct a viable starting auction price for the campus!
The measure of the Vision Mission Outcomes of the organization is the OUTPUTS it produces. The number of students that graduate versus those admitted, the starting salaries of the business grads, or perhaps who hired them. The Balanced Scorecard measures outputs.
Is the NOI up year over year?
Are customers more satisfied as evidenced by a higher rate of second time buyers than the competition?
Are we more efficient than last year, see the previous article about the Toyota paint shop.
Innovation and learning-Are we doing a better job of reaching the strategic goal?
Next time you hear a 'leader' describe his or her organization, ask yourself, are these measures inputs or outputs, only outputs tell the real story.
DLE
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