"The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual." -Vince Lombardi

Since the opening ceremonies in London last week, I have been watching the Olympics almost every night while doing work or just unwinding from the day. As I'm sure many of you have noticed, and those who have participated in sports already know, it is amazing to witness the sense of teamwork among members of the Olympic teams. Each athlete is committed to giving their best for personal reasons, but also committed to winning for their country and their team as well. It is this same type of commitment that leaders and managers seek to build in their teams on daily basis.

Is your organization facing a strategic need for change but your team is unready to navigate change? Citi Performing Arts Center is a great case study of how an organization used the Balanced Scorecard to unfreeze, redirect and build a new culture to achieve breakthrough strategic results.

One of my favorite clients forwarded me an article from the McKinsey Quarterly last week called "Managing the Strategy Journey." He said that this article flowed nicely into what they were doing (with our help) with the Balanced Scorecard framework. The premise of the article is that you need to have regular strategy dialog at the senior leadership level.

One of the interesting aspects of working with nonprofit and educational organizations is the very intellectual, consensual, and deliberate manner in which they do everything they do. This is a critical part of their cultural, which makes them successful in carrying out their day-to-day work and achieving their missions.

However, when it becomes necessary to change the way they do things, we consultants can view these characteristics--of needing to achieve absolute consensus and leaving no stone unturned before moving forward--as a bit of a drawback, causing inertia. This is often true especially when it comes to starting up a Balanced Scorecard at one of these organizations.

A key concept in the "Balanced" Scorecard is the idea of "balance." As originally envisioned by Drs. Kaplan and Norton, balance meant that financial indicators should be balanced by customer, internal process, and learning and growth measures. But over the years, the idea of balance has grown to mean a lot more in the world of the Balanced Scorecard.