The DICE framework is a tool originally developed by Perry Keenan, Kathleen Conlon, and Alan Jackson (all current or former Partners at The Boston Consulting Group). It was originally published in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) article "The Hard Side of Change" in 2005 and has been republished in HBR's "Lead Change--Successfully", HBR's OnPoint Magazine and recognized in HBR's "10 Must Reads on Change Management" publication. The DICE framework was awarded a patent in 2014.
Contents
A DICE score is a leading indicator of the likely success of a project based on objective measures. The DICE framework allows for consistency in evaluating various projects (even though the inputs are subjective) and the framework can be used to track projects, manage portfolios of projects, and force the right conversations. The power in the DICE framework is that it initiates a real two-way conversation at multiple levels of an organization. With enormous pressure on employees' time, this simple tool provides an efficient way to target potential issues before they cause a project to go off-course. Using this framework, leaders can predict and manipulate project outcomes and allocate resources strategically to maximize delivery of an overall program or portfolio of initiatives. Ultimately, DICE is an extremely powerful tool for an organization's leadership to manage change programs and the implementation of strategic initiatives.
Although originally developed at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), this framework has become widely adopted and is used by many companies and professionals.
DICE Acronym
The acronym DICE stands for:
Calculation
Based on the statistical analysis from the outcome of change projects, success can be determined by assessing four factors (duration, team performance integrity, commitment, and effort). A DICE score between 7 and 14 is in the "Win" Zone (very likely to succeed), while a DICE score between 14 and 17 falls in the "Worry" Zone (hard to predict success), and a DICE score higher than 17 falls in the "Woe" Zone (indicating high unpredictability or likely to not succeed). The DICE score is calculated according to the following formula: