More prison capacity problems! 70 seminar participants packed into the canteen at Oslo Prison.

The Foreign Department, State Auditing Department, Justice Department …, all were represented Are Høidal, Director of Oslo Prison, Norway, opened a seminar entitled ”Balanced Scorecards in Practice” in the canteen of Oslo Prison on Wednesday 21st. March. The significant interest from other organizations was not least due to all the praise and attention directed at the Director of Oslo Prison and the Prison Staff after receiving the prestigious Government Centre for Economic Management (SSOE) Prize for 2007. Today the prison is regarded as an national and international reference within organizational and scorecard management. 

Background
Many people probably wonder why a prison of all places such manage to achieve such a prize, for beyond the walls, out in the community, the image of prisons is not exactly associated with them being streamlined, finely-tuned or measurable: At first glance, the main goals of the Norwegian Correctional Services ("Kriminalomsorgen") can appear to be lofty, and the achievement of goals rather utopian, faced as the prison is with a large number of reconvicted prisoners and an ever changing world of criminality.  Despite this, the organization must be managed in accordance with established goals and allocated resources, a common demand for all government organizations. Oslo prison has chosen to meet this challenge by adopting the tool  ”Balanced Scorecards” (BSC) and has experienced success with it.

BCS, in Oslo Prison, is a strategic management steering system that includes capturing and measuring critical success factors  and initiatives that are defined at top level (CSF, Region), also by the prison's own managers (on all levels), as well as all other employees, including various professionals. BCS is a steering system for management, but it also involves a great deal of work in capturing specific, local requirements for further development. The purpose is to achieve an integration between steering from top-level and participation from below. This represents a challenge which it was necessary for us to focus strongly on. We now have specific projects for improving and strengthening the involvement from all employees in this process.

The seminar

Director - Are Høidal - opened the seminar by innforming participants of the process that has taken place at Oslo Prison since the introduction of Balanced Scorecards in 2003. The system is now well established for daily operations and is deployed actively down to local departmental level. 

Elisiv Taraldset, Senior Consultant at the Centre for Government Economic Management (SSOE), presented the centre's new guide for steering of goals and results in the Norwegian Government.

It was SSOE that, earlier during the year, awarded Oslo Prison the prize for best government initiative, on the basis of its implementation of BSC.

Knut Kielland Lund, Senior Consultant at SAS Institute A/S, has contributed significantly during implementation of BCS as a management steering tool at the prison.

His presentation concentrated on how an organization can get started quickly and effectively with its balanced scorecard project, and also on the prerequisites and conditions that need to be accommodated in order for an organization to achieve success with use of the tool.

The day was concluded by a brief tour of the prison, starting with a bare security cell and finishing here at the "Senior Department".