A learning-and-growth metric for strategy-focused organizations

Based on the consulting experience that the conventional enablers of learning and growth in the balanced scorecard framework (BSC) are insufficient for “driving down” strategy, we introduce into BSC an additional tier of “meta-enablers” for learning and growth. Meta-enablers are mental-growth competencies that ground and enable the conventional enablers , such as employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention (staff competency, use of strategic technology, climate for action). The novel metric is applicable to executing strategy in other than BSC frameworks. It is based on the Corporate Development Readiness and Effectiveness Measure (CDREMTM), an interviewand questionnaire-based tool that makes visible, and opens to intervention, formerly intangible mental-growth assets of personnel. The reasons for introducing the amplified metric, its nature, benefits, sample applications, and a cost-benefit equation are outlined. We refer to the conventional statistical enablers of learning and growth as “tier 2,” and to the novel developmental factors that enable tier-2 enablers as “tier 1” of the BSC learning-and-growth metric. A glossary of terms helpful for understanding meta-enablers is found at the end of the article. Strategic relevance of a developmental employee metric A learning-and-growth metric (or employee metric) is a framework for quantitatively assessing employee satisfaction, productivi ty, and retention in the framework of the balanced scorecard (BSC). Such a metric targets the learning-and-growth perspective of BSC that is and remains “the foundation for all strategy” (Kaplan & Norton, 2001, p. 93). A metric that is not just behavioral and statistical but “developmental,” in the sense of development of adult mental growth over the life span (Laske, 1999a/b, 2000), adds to learning-and-growth enablers a second “tier” that refines the metricization of a company’s strategic human resources. The CDREMTM metric makes visible, and quantifies, intangibles: levels and degrees of adult mental growth, or “readiness.” Measures of readiness have been shown to function as “meta-enablers” that “enable the enablers” with which they stand in a cause-effect relationship (Laske, 1999b, 2000). In the initial application, meta-enablers define a “developmental baseline” against which the effectiveness of performance drivers over the long term can be measured. While the customary BSC enablers—staff competencies, technological infrastructure, and climate for action---are global and remain external to the individual, a developmental metric addresses individuals and teams from a personal perspective. Metaenablers have two main features: first, they are “internal” (not external) and “qualitative” (not statistical), in that they refer to actual individuals’ and/or teams’ mental growth in terms of both kind and degree; second, meta-enablers make visible the cause-effect relationship existing between adult mental growth (“tier 1”) and customary learning-and-growth enablers (“tier 2”). What are the benefits of such a developmental, two-tier metric? The metric strengthens a company’s ability to track, as well as boost, learning-and-growth enablers. It also uncovers blind spots in learning-and-growth that have been missed. In addition, it strengthens a company’s ability to link learningand-growth enablers to the internal business process and customer perspectives, thereby refining strategy