Imagine this scenario: After attending an event with a friend who drove you there, you head to the parking lot to leave. Approaching what you think is your friend's car, you try to open the door, but it doesn’t budge. Confused, you try again, only to realize a moment later that it’s the wrong car entirely — different model, different color, everything.

In this case, not being familiar with cars doesn’t disrupt your life significantly, except in moments like these where it becomes obvious how little you know about them. Perhaps recognizing car brands or models has always been a challenge, and driving isn’t something you prioritize. For some, this level of familiarity might be fine—it’s a personal choice, and that’s perfectly okay.

However, there are other areas, such as one’s professional life, where not being an expert puts you on a very steep slope. As part of my daily working routine, I monitor the implementation of approved strategies.

I believe we’ve all heard the expression “Houston, we have a problem” at least once. When astronauts on Apollo 13 sent this message, everyone at NASA’s mission control rushed to collect all the data needed to create a rescue plan. It was all hands-on deck and reaction time was crucial.

This is only one among the myriad ways of collecting data and people have been engaged in data collection for millennia. Remember the Paleolithic era? All those writings on the walls of caves? They can be considered one of the primary methods of data collection. But instead of laptops, machine learning algorithms and executive dashboards, people were using cave paintings, flint tools and charcoal back then. Data collection was among the greatest innovations of humanity (if not the greatest), but if you look closely at those historic times, you realize that data collection method was questionable to say the least. Data wasn’t governed: one cannot say if the source was an individual or the result of group experience. Not to mention that it cannot be easily replicated.

But enough with the parallels – I think you got my point.

If you google “executive dashboards” you get instantly flooded with a lot of information. Some are accurate, some offer a (let’s say) novel perspective over what passes as informative. However, if one googles specifically “executive dashboards for maturity assessments” the results relevancy drops to very low levels. So, we thought to bring more clarity here.

First things first, let’s set up the context: the Executive Dashboard tool delivered as part of maturity assessments is one of the outputs meant to provide organizations with an overview of their status quo, scores and maturity level across different organizational capabilities. In this case we are referring to: Strategy Planning, Performance Measurement, Performance Improvement, Employee Performance Management and Performance Culture.

Long story short. the Executive Dashboard comes up with a critical, visual representation of the scores obtained by the organization for each assessed capability. It can and should be distributed to top management to ensure a clear perception of the organizational maturity level in terms of performance management system implementation.

Quite simple, isn’t it?

And if you’re part of the Executives tribe, you would very much like to have access to it as it comes with lots of benefits. Below you have the main ones:

1. Clear perspective – since you can’t and/or shouldn’t be involved in every detail that happens in your organization, an executive dashboard provides you with the status quo of your organization’s maturity level.

2. Quick decision-making chain – when dealing with vital strategic decisions, the last thing you want is to find yourself flying blind as they say. Having an incomplete or (even worse) an overabundant set of data is the noise that affects an efficient decision-making process. With metrics like overall maturity scores, capability-specific scores, and comparative graphs, decision-makers can quickly grasp the current state of the organization. By transforming complex data into an accessible and focused format, the executive dashboard empowers decision makers to make informed, timely decisions that drive meaningful progress.

3. Tracking progress – the well-known adage “what you don’t measure, you can’t improve” perfectly captures the value of the executive dashboard. These dashboards serve not only to monitor current maturity levels across various organizational capabilities but also to compare results from multiple maturity assessments over time, tracking progress and the organization's proximity to achieving the highest maturity level.

4. Targeted improvements – an executive dashboard offers a comprehensive view of your organization's current health while highlighting weaknesses and areas requiring future attention. This clarity enables organizations to allocate resources effectively and focus improvement efforts on the areas that will have the greatest impact.

But knowing what an executive dashboard brings to the table and knowing what their structure should be, it’s a whole different story.

Key components of an executive dashboard:

• Overall score and maturity level: this is a snapshot of where an organization stands. There are lots of formulas and structures (depending on industry), measurement directions, goals, and many other criteria to consider – all extremely important. Instead of having all these criteria and dozens of variables overwhelming your eyes, an executive dashboard gives you the “keep it short and simple” image of your organization’s maturity level on a scale from 1 to 5. From level 1 characterized by “randomness” decision making to level 5 also known by the attribute “excellence”.

• Capability and dimensions scores: a breakdown of scores for each assessed capability and its associated dimensions.

• Graphical comparisons: visual aids to highlight the organization’s highest and lowest scores for easy reference.

A Benchmark for Future Progress

The Executive Dashboard serves not only as a diagnostic tool but also as a baseline for measuring future progress. By comparing current scores with results from subsequent maturity assessments, organizations can track improvements and evaluate the effectiveness of their initiatives.

Best practices in developing Executive Dashboards

1. Apply data visualization principles – when designing executive dashboards, establishing a clear visual hierarchy is essential to direct users’ attention to the most important information first. Utilize visual elements such as color or size to emphasize key data points. Organize the data in a logical structure to ensure it is easily understandable and intuitive for users. Without clear, well-organized visuals, you risk creating a confusing array of data that could mislead decision-making and result in poor choices.

2. Understand your audience – like in any activity field, it’s mandatory to understand the KPIs that matter most to your audience. Just a silly example here, but which makes my point: take the financial dept and those funny guys from marketing. They have different priorities and KPIs, therefore a one-size-fits-all dashboard won’t effectively serve both groups. Each executive dashboard should be customized to meet the needs of its specific audience.

3. Relevant content – the content presented in the executive dashboards must be meaningful, relevant and accurate, reflecting real-time data. This ensures that decision-makers can act quickly and effectively, using the insights provided to make clear and immediate decisions.

CONCLUSION: Not deeply understanding the effects / results of your own strategy costs more than embarrassingly trying to open the wrong car door. It can cost you millions of dollars and years of dead-end, wasted effort.

And no, if you think you can wing it because your experience is vast and it helped you lots of times in the past, don’t do it. Studies such Bonabeau, 2003 pin-pointed executives as frequent intuitive decision makers. This tendency, present in all of us, is often due to the natural pattern recognition capabilities of the human information processing system. While winging-it in your personal life may have led you to unexpected successes, when dealing with large data sets (such as in the current business environment) decisions based solely on gut feelings are often less reliable.