Many organizations have created a Balanced Scorecard, but they don't know how to use it. Some just use their scorecard as an annual strategy planning tool. Others will create a report each year based on the results. Some organizations even have strategy review meetings on a monthly or quarterly basis. These organizations see results and have success in executing their strategy. One of the keys to keeping the strategy alive and at the center of the management process is to interact with the strategy throughout the year, and not just at the strategy review meetings.

There's been a lot of writing on the importance of leadership in an organization. There have also been volumes written about the importance of management. But one of the critical issues -- how management and leadership intersect -- hasn't been dealt with to any great depth. A few years ago, Bob Kaplan wrote an article for the Balanced Scorecard Report called "Lead and Manage Your Organization with the Balanced Scorecard."

This post builds on my earlier post called Preparing for your Strategy Review Meeting. Let's assume now that you have prepared for your monthly strategy review meeting well, and it is time to start thinking about the meeting itself. There are a few things that you want to have in order. First, you want to have a clear agenda for the meeting. You want to send this agenda and your prepared data to all of the attendees in advance. It needs to be clear to the group what you will be discussing, why you are discussing it, and what you hope the outcome of the meeting will be. This step is more than just an email with the document attached. You want to ensure that the attendees are prepared to take action in the meeting.

We're happy to announce the relaunch of the Balanced Scorecard Community at www.bscCommunity.com. The all-new Balanced Scorecard community is a 100% free, no registration required, collaboratively edited question and answer site. It's a great resource to ask questions about the Balanced Scorecard and get answers from the community.

Last week, over 120 social and public sector leaders from across the world, including Russia, the UK, South Africa, Tunisia, and Finland convened in Washington, D.C., to discuss ways to more effectively manage their organizations' strategy.

It is hard not to get excited about the Mission-Driven Performance Summit that starts tomorrow in Washington, DC. Drs. Norton and Kaplan are great key notes when it comes to understanding and applying leading edge thinking around the topic of strategy management. There are clinics on Tuesday and then great case studes on Wednesday and Thursday. Over 100 people are registered to attend.

Ten years ago, the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) had low and declining student achievement, demoralized teachers, crumbling buildings, high turnover among superintendents (average tenure of two years) and disaffected parents pulling their children out of the system. More than 60 percent of the city's high school students missed at least two weeks of school per year, and the district had more than 700 teaching vacancies. The system was failing its students and stakeholders. Fast forward 10 years, and Atlanta has reversed its dismal numbers.

This post continues my thinking on running a successful Balanced Scorecard strategy review meeting. Remember, this review meeting happens quarterly and is focused on strategic issues and not operational information. To set the table for this review, we need to quickly define several roles. In smaller organizations, some of these roles may be filled by the same individual. The first role is that of the executive team. This is the Executive Director or CEO and his or her direct reports. This group is typically 5-12 people who are responsible for executive the strategy, so they are the ones that make the strategic decisions. These are the active people in the meeting.

Ascendant Strategy Management Group is looking for a associate consultant in the Washington, DC area to support our rapidly growing public sector practice. As an associate consultant (entry-level) with Ascendant, you'll get a chance to participate actively on client engagements, help out with creating new products and services, and help us define and grow the company.

The Washington, DC school reform effort has been getting a lot of press recently. I think the teachers and administrators in Washington deserve a lot of credit for the advances they've made so far, but I think to really reform the district they have to start focusing more on strategy. My quick comment on a LinkedIn discussion turned out to be a little more lengthy, so I thought I'd share it here, too.