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Strategy Map

Overview - Flat and Complex Models

The strategy map, accessed from the tool button, pictorially describes the performance management framework of the organisation, i.e. what the organisation is trying to achieve. Although it is necessary if the organisation is going to create performance targets it can also be interrelated with the other two performance areas: action planning and assessments.

Note: Action plans do not need a strategy map or performance targets but performance targets do need a strategy map and should use action plans.

The map framework can be hierarchical, cascading from a single ‘Vision’ and broken down until measurable target objects or it can be described simply as a flat map with measurable ‘targets’ listed directly below it.

The advantage of the flat strategy map model is that it allows an organisation to set up performance targets quickly, does not require the existance of a strategy and also permits direct impact of each target's strategic contribution on the organisation's overall vision.

An organisation can assign different icons to targets to distinguish their major objectives if they are known (in the example below; community, environment, corporate). This will allow easier filtering in reports:

 

The organisation could then cut and paste in a more complex strategy at any time without affecting performance.

If the organisation already has a stategy in place then they can design a more complex strategy map. In the example below the map is based on an organisation's Corporate Plan - one of the objectives has been expanded to illustrate target items:

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Both models, flat and complex, have one thing in common: they must at some point contain objects that are measurable. That is they must contain objects that can be linked to performance indicators to create timed performance targets that in turn have a strategic contribution (the amount of which is decided by the organisation) to the success of the organisation's vision.

In addition to these objects, all strategy map items can contain action plans that are the organisation's road maps for acheiving specfic performance targets but do not contribute quantitatively to the performance targets. These can be created in situ in the map or in the action planning module.

How the organisation sets up their strategy map, therefore, is up to them. It is not uncommon for an organisation to use their own existing Corporate Performance Plan as a template. Because the Escendency system requires SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely) measurable targets to enable the performance plan to be measured it can thereby help streamline, and in some cases improve upon, an organisation's existing performance plan.

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