The Single Negotiated Score Principle (also known as “one score”, “consolidated score”, “composite score” and to a certain extent “balanced score”) is an important aspect of driving engagement and business results with the use of scorekeeping.

The value of a single score is three fold:

• simplicity and ease of access – when you tell someone their score is 25 /100 it’s simple and clear to understand.
• ease of distribution – a single score can be distributed in pretty much any medium – whether it’s a notification on your smartwatch to a big screen TV in your office
• ease of comparison – comparing past performance with current performance or comparing your performance versus others – if everything is condensed into a single (often weighted) score then comparison becomes easy.

The value of a negotiated score is more subtle, but just as important:

• both managers and players have high ownership of the score – high scores deliver outcomes that both parties want
• it is inherently flexible and therefore adaptable – the value of any one scoring system necessarily decays over time as technology changes, needs change and so on. By building negotiation into your score algorithm design, you future proof your score as every so often the algorithm will be forced to change to keep up with the needs of both managers and players.
• privacy and security considerations are covered – by having all stakeholders intimately involved, the “creepiness” and “manipulation” element that plagues many  measurement programs goes away.

So there you have it, by serving your intended audience with a single negotiated score you get the benefits of simplicity and high buy-in, without sacrificing the sophistication you need to drive multiple behaviours among your team.

The only question is – what score will you create?