Strategic learning and feedback
The Balanced Scorecard concept contributes to strategic learning in the company and offers the possibility to give feedback on strategy realization.
Strategic learning is aimed at every single employee and at the entire company as a learning organization. Employees should be acquainted with the strategy and align their actions with it. During a defined feedback process, performance data is gathered to assess whether the strategy has been realized. Assumptions are checked by verifying previously established hypotheses on cause-and-effect relationships of strategic objectives.
This is how double-loop learning comes into being, where strategic targets are subjected to critical review in a bottom-up process, after which new cause-and-effect relationships are generated. These result in a more efficient pursuit of strategy due to a continuously growing information base.
Feedback is therefore extremely important as it represents the counterprocess to breaking down BSCs. Feedback comprises not only the reporting of KPIs in the form of plan progress figures, but also suggestions for further initiatives and new interrelations. It reveals potential inconsistencies in the pursuit of strategy.