At this point in the series, you’ve built a solid framework for a team playbook.

You know:

• Why the team exists
• What matters most right now
• Who owns what
• How the team works best together

Now comes the question every leader eventually faces… how do we make sure this actually shows up in week-to-week work?

That’s where weekly team scorecards come in.

A weekly scorecard is a tool for sharing the realities of work and how to progress.

It can be as simple as a spreadsheet.

There are rows for:

• The main goal (what’s most important)
• Each defining objective
• Each standard operating objective

And columns for:

• Items (main goal, objectives)
• The owner for each item
• This week’s score
• Notes

The Scoring System (Green/Yellow/Red)

Each week, each owner scores their items using three options in a group meeting:

• Green: Going great, on track.
• Yellow: Going okay, but progress could derail due to obstacles.
• Red: Going poorly and off track.

Each score is an invitation to talk. Blame and failure statements should be avoided.

Scoring only takes a few minutes, but the rest of the time should be focused on discussion.

For Green:

• Acknowledge the success
• Move on

For Yellow:

• Ask: What could derail this?
• Identify one or two concrete steps to keep it on track.
• Confirm who owns those steps.

For Red:

• Ask: What happened? What do we need to do to recover?
• Focus on forward motion, not post-mortems.
• Decide the next best action and assign ownership.

Weekly scorecards create something most teams desperately need:

• Shared visibility
• Clear ownership
• Peer accountability
• Fewer surprises

They help prevent late reactions, create focused conversations, and allow for accountability.

One Important Rule

Owners score their own items, not leaders or peers. This helps build trust and keeps the scorecard honest.

Next week, we will jump back into the team playbook and complete the final section on values.

PS: Need help creating scorecards or building a scorecard system in Microsoft SharePoint? Reply to this email for details on how The Outlier Team can help.

Perry Myers
​The Outlier Team​