by Kate Riley

Leaders at the June 21 Quarterly Event heard the message that, more and more, we're being expected to manage with facts and data. Or, as Dorothy said to Toto in the movie, The Wizard of Oz, "… we're not in Kansas anymore." Increasingly, Financial Management is being asked to provide answers to questions like: "How efficient and effective are you?", "What kind of management tools are you using to guide your operations?" and "What data do you have to support your request for resources?"

Our answer is dashboards. A dashboard is a management tool that gives a balanced picture of how well an organization is performing in four important areas: finances, customer satisfaction, internal processes and staff development. The dashboard conveys a message to both staff and customers about what's important and how well we're doing.

The focus of the recent Leaders Event was to showcase the dashboards at both the FM division and department levels. Each department presented key information about its dashboard how it is being used, what challenges arose in development, and what are the plans for the future. The event was energizing, particularly for those who had responsibility for creating the presentations. There was a shared appreciation of the effort needed to reach this point, because everyone had contributed to developing a dashboard.

What's next in our management journey along the dashboard path? Departments are now asking questions like: "Is this the best way to measure this process?" and "How can we produce our dashboard more easily?" Each department will work to improve the quality of its data and the usefulness of the dashboard approach.

Representatives from each department have been selected to continue support for dashboard development. Responsibilities include working with their leadership group to improve measures and to make good use of the data, and ensuring the dashboard is updated frequently. This group is comprised of: Christi Chapman, RAA; Diane Cooley, SFS; Jeff Follman, Financial Accounting; Tom Phillips, Financial Services; Judy Peterson, Treasury; Heather Norberg Stewart, Payroll; and, Kate Riley, Financial Management.

You can see the FM Division dashboard on-line at the FM QI Home Page (www.washington.edu/admin/finmgmt/qi/) and through the measurement systems link in the QI Pyramid www.washington.edu/admin/finmgmt/qi/pyramid/index.htm.