• Should be a gauge and not an idiot light—a gauge gives a context of spectrum as opposed to everything is good or everything is bad.
• Should hold many staff accountable and communicate priority and progress.
• Rarely tells us if we accomplished our mission—indicates how well the machine that gives us the opportunity to accomplish the mission is doing. Compare it to a gas gauge; I pay attention to the gauge, but my goal is not a full gas tank but rather transportation from A to B. The dashboard is not the ultimate goal.
• Easy to understand—use colors, happy faces, and emoticons to be clear.
• Update regularly—useless without weekly and monthly updates so make those updates easy.

Opening Question

1. How do you communicate complicated financials to your staff?
2. Many times we leave our staff in the dark and give occasional general statements at the monthly staff meeting.

Closing Thoughts

• Change it often—don’t be afraid to put a new thing on it for just a few months.
• Tell folks why things are bad or good—how did we get to this spot? They will appreciate honest assessment even if it is bad news.
• Prayer and trust in God is good—sharing good and bad news with your team puts more people in the loop of trusting and praying to God. Don’t be a Lone Ranger. Communicate simply and constantly.