Balanced scorecard slide with four perspectives in a 2x2

What is on the slide

Financial

Hold occupancy at 96% and cut agency spend. Agency hours: 4.1%. Surplus: $1.8M.

Resident

Review care plans on time and answer calls faster. On time: 91%. Call answer: 3m 20s.

Clinical

Fewer pressure injuries and cut medication errors. Injuries: 6 per 1,000. Errors: 11 a quarter.

Workforce

Keep staff past a year and finish dementia training. Retention: 78%. Trained: 142 of 160.

Closing band

Four perspectives, one measure per objective.

When this is the right slide

A four card 2x2 suits a balanced scorecard slide when the four perspectives carry equal weight and each one can be reduced to two objectives and two figures.

What to swap it for

Grouping: Balanced Scorecard 4 Perspectives. Swap to the four perspective grouping layout when the deck wants a strategy map reading, where the perspectives stack in order and the relationship between them is the point.

What this slide shows

A title reads Aurora Aged Care Scorecard over a two by two grid of four cards, each with a large circular icon, an uppercase perspective name and four short lines. The Financial card lists hold occupancy at 96% and cut agency spend as its objectives, then agency hours at 4.1% and a surplus of $1.8M as its measures. The Resident card lists review care plans on time and answer calls faster, then 91% on time and a 3 minute 20 second call answer. The Clinical card lists fewer pressure injuries and cut medication errors, then 6 injuries per 1,000 occupied bed days and 11 errors a quarter. The Workforce card lists keep staff past a year and finish dementia training, then 78% retention and 142 of 160 staff trained. A brand band closes the slide with the line four perspectives, one measure per objective. Each card takes a different tint from the theme, so the four read as a set of four rather than as a gradient from most to least important.

When this is the right slide

Use it in a board pack, a quarterly review or an annual planning session, where the audience already knows the organisation and wants to see whether the four sides of it are moving together. It suits any organisation with exactly four dimensions that carry equal weight, which is the whole premise of a balanced scorecard. It is the wrong slide when the measures need their targets and trends beside them, because four short lines cannot carry actual against target against last year, and a scorecard table can. It is also wrong when the story is about cause and effect, where a strategy map with arrows between the perspectives shows how workforce training feeds clinical outcomes and clinical outcomes feed occupancy. Three perspectives or five will not fit a two by two at all.

How to adapt it

First, rename the four perspectives in the language of the organisation, as this slide does with Resident and Clinical. The original labels come from a general management framework, and a board hears its own words faster. Second, write the objective as a verb and the measure as a number, and keep them in that order down every card, so the eye can read the eight objectives without the eight figures and then the other way round. Third, hold each card to about 90 characters across four lines. That is roughly two to five words a line, which is why the measures are shortened to agency hours 4.1% rather than agency hours as a proportion of total nursing hours. Put the definition in the board paper and the number on the slide.

What makes this slide work

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