Most of us begin keeping score at sporting events or discount shopping centers. Score keeping instills a sense of clarity, control, confidence, and superiority (at least if you win). The numbers speak to you. If you really know your sport or your shopping, you understand the dynamic picture behind the cold, calculating numbers. On the other hand, if you cut up your credit cards and don't shop for a year or swear off basketball except during the Final Four, the numbers provide only a fuzzy picture, dull color and blurred line. Choosing between sale items or handicapping becomes guesstimating; risk increases.

The same is true when deciphering the financial records of your museum. The financial picture is always fuzzy to new directors. And seasoned leaders often forget that financials don't help manage the future. Financial standards result from lobbying efforts by various industries to minimize tax consequences. The Financial Standards Accounting Board, which sets and monitors the standards, aims to provide accurate public reporting methods. These two outcomes-minimized taxes and standardized public reporting-have little to do with the success of your museum.

A significant danger arises in a museum when the financial records are the only measure the board reviews. The balanced budget becomes the target people understand. The danger is what was called "target fixation" in WWII: the pilot so intently focused on the target, he forgot to pull out of the dive. An overemphasis on the financial picture can lead your organization to places it should not go.

We know that healthy museums require healthy finances, but solid finances don't necessarily make healthy museums, or healthy businesses. In fact, many, many museums have a stable financial picture but they routinely underperform. Others have balanced budgets but they have, in effect, bankrupted their mission. They don't attain even minimum levels of curatorial effort, collections management, outreach, public service, maintenance or risk management.

Keeping meaningful score in a museum means measuring more than financials. Because it is hard to measure some of the most important things we do, measurement has often been trivialized (we measure mission success by the number of visitors) or neglected.

Creating a meaningful score card for your museum will be an uphill battle. The work is hard; the territory new. But doing it is worth the effort because the right scores can be predictive. You can gauge your future success potential based on your current situation.

For example, field work is critical to the future success of a natural history museum. If the amount and quality of field work have declined by 20% each of the past four years, what will happen to publications, exhibitions, and scientific staff recruitment in the next decade?

Or how about this... Many museums depend upon a very small number of donors (often less than 100) for over 80 percent of annual giving. Do you know what is happening to that donor pool? What is the mean age of your donors? Is that pool of people being appropriately cultivated? Are new donors being recruited? Can you calculate future success based on current effort levels?

Many museums survive over the long haul because of an active member-base. Do you know how much it costs to acquire a new member? How long do you expect a member to stay active? What is the true and complete cost of the benefits the member receives? Why are members failing to re-up? Has the percentage of dropouts changed over the years? Why?

How to Create a Score Card
The best way to exploring this issue to create a small, ad hoc committee, five to seven members of the staff and board to identify meaningful, non-financial scores that will help the museum predict it's future success. The key scores will be different for museums of different sizes, geographic locations, disciplines, and stages of development.

The matrix of the model below presents two of the most challenging conflicts which face any organization-short verses long term issues; internal versus external focus. As you consider your own situation, remember that organizations with short-term, internal focus lose connection with the external world and fail to build a foundation for the future. Achieving balance in all four quadrants is the goal.

This model is a beginning to stimulate your thinking. We ask for your response.