When you’re driving your car, there’s a LOT going on under the hood. And yet, there are only a few dials and displays in front of you to keep you informed, and keep your eyes on the road. Such is the idea of business process ”dashboards,” which distill only the most essential information into a single dynamic page or report, usually in graphic format (you can see a few samples here).
The for-profit corporate world has been using such decision-support tools for a long while now. According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, nonprofits are exploring them as well (thanks, Drew, for the link).
Of course, such systems raise a rather vexing challenge: what, exactly, are the few key indicators you would need to watch to monitor your success? It’s this question that actually proves to be more effective than the dashboard tool itself. To know what you should monitor, you need to know what you’re trying to do, and you also have to define what success looks like (more people? happier people? more art? better reviews? prolific artists?).
For Kaboom, the nonprofit featured in the Chronicle article, the dashboard development process led them to clarify their mission, and define their goals. According to Kaboom CEO Darell Hammond, it even led his organization to improve its focus.
”…we decided that we would focus on a system that would help us improve our own performance, and not mess with trying to prove the downstream social impact, like whether playgrounds lead to less childhood obesity,” [Hammond] says.
He adds: “We wanted the dashboard to be a tool to help us stay on course toward the social change we want to effect — healthier kids, more civic engagement — not be the barometer of that social change. If we do our job right and efficiently, that will come.”
So what are the three to five things you and your staff would measure every week if you wanted to judge your effectiveness in delivering your mission?
