The best OGSM dashboard is a simple visual that shows you — at a glance — whether your Measures are green, amber, or red, who owns each one, and when it was last updated. You don’t need expensive software. A Google Sheet, a PowerPoint slide, or even a whiteboard wall can do the job. The goal is to make progress (or the lack of it) impossible to ignore.
Why Most OGSM Implementations Stall at the Tracking Stage
You built the OGSM. You ran the workshop, aligned the leadership team, printed it on a nice slide. And then… nothing. Six weeks later, nobody’s looking at it.
This is the most common failure point in OGSM execution — not the strategy itself, but the absence of a tracking rhythm. Without a dashboard that makes it painfully obvious whether each Measure is on track, the OGSM becomes a once-a-year exercise rather than a live management tool. I’ve seen this in organisations of every size. The strategy is sound. The execution tools are non-existent.
The problem isn’t that leaders don’t care. It’s that nobody built a simple visual to anchor the weekly conversation. A dashboard removes the friction of having to ask “where are we?” It puts the answer in the room before the question is asked.
The fix isn’t a fancier tool. It’s a visible, consistently-updated display of your Measures that forces the conversation every single week.
What a Good OGSM Dashboard Actually Shows
Before you look at examples, understand what your dashboard needs to communicate. A useful OGSM tracking dashboard surfaces four data points for each Measure:
- RAG status — Red, Amber, or Green. No percentages. No nuance. Just a colour that tells you whether this Measure needs attention this week.
- Trend — Is it getting better or worse compared to last week? An up arrow, down arrow, or flat line is enough.
- Owner — One name. Not a team, not a department. One human who is accountable for moving it.
- Last reviewed — The date this Measure was last discussed in a meeting. Stale dates are a red flag that your review rhythm is slipping.
That’s it. Four data points per Measure. If your dashboard shows more than that, you’re adding complexity that slows down the review conversation and gives people reasons to debate methodology instead of fixing problems.
For a deeper look at how to design your Measures in the first place, read how to write OGSM measures that actually get tracked.
3 OGSM Dashboard Examples
Example 1: The RAG Spreadsheet (Google Sheets or Excel)
This is the default for most teams and the right starting point.
Layout: One row per Measure. Columns: Measure name | Target | Current value | RAG status | Trend | Owner | Last reviewed | Notes.
How it looks: Use conditional formatting to colour the RAG status cell automatically — green if you’re at or above 90% of target, amber if you’re between 70–89%, red if you’re below 70%. The colour-coding does the work. You scan the column and instantly know where to focus. No interpretation required.
Who it’s for: Any team that already lives in Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Zero extra cost, zero setup friction. Export it as a PDF and paste it into your weekly agenda so the data is in front of everyone before the meeting starts.
Illustrator note: A clean table with six rows (one per Measure), a vivid RAG colour in column 4, and simple up/flat/down trend arrows in column 5. Use a muted grey background for the header row. Keep the font clean and the layout uncluttered.
Example 2: The One-Page Slide Dashboard (PowerPoint or Google Slides)
When you’re presenting to a leadership team or board, a single slide works better than a spreadsheet.
Layout: Four quadrants — one per Strategy. Inside each quadrant, list the 2–3 Measures for that Strategy with their RAG dot and owner initials. At the top of the slide: the Objective in bold, and a single RAG status for the overall OGSM. One slide, total picture.
How it looks: Think of a 2×2 grid with a header bar. Each cell is a Strategy, labelled clearly. The Measures inside are concise — five to seven words max. A large coloured dot (●) sits to the left of each Measure name.
Who it’s for: Executive teams who meet weekly or fortnightly and need a single artefact to anchor the conversation. Print it double-sided — OGSM on the front, action log on the back. It’s also the right format for a board update where you have five minutes to communicate strategic health.
Illustrator note: A clean slide with a bold title bar (“OGSM Dashboard — Week 19”), four coloured quadrant boxes in two columns, and RAG dots beside each Measure name. Minimalist, data-forward. White background, dark text.
Example 3: The Wall Chart (For In-Person Teams)
If your team shares a physical office, nothing beats a wall chart you can see from across the room.
Layout: Print your OGSM on A0 paper (or use a large whiteboard). Use sticky dots — green, amber, red — to mark each Measure’s current status. Add a “last reviewed” date label under each dot using a marker.
How it looks: A large printed OGSM framework with physical coloured dots stuck on each Measure. The dots are changed during the weekly stand-up. When the whole left column is green, there’s a visual satisfaction that no digital tool replicates. When something goes red, the whole team sees it instantly — no email needed, no login required.
Who it’s for: Operations teams, manufacturing floors, agile product teams, any group that physically gathers. The wall chart creates social accountability — everyone walking past can see the state of play. It’s also useful for teams that find screen-based meetings draining.
Illustrator note: A large printed OGSM on an office wall, with circular sticky dots next to each Measure. One person (illustrated from behind) is updating a dot — swapping a red dot for an amber one. Bright, energetic office setting.
How to Run the Weekly Dashboard Review (5 Steps)
Having the dashboard means nothing if you don’t use it. Here’s the five-step process I recommend for teams running a weekly strategy review:
Update before the meeting. Each Measure owner updates their RAG status the morning of the review. No surprises, no data gathering during the call. If data isn’t ready, the status defaults to amber.
Start with the reds. Open every review on the red Measures only. Greens don’t need airtime. Cap each red discussion at five minutes.
Identify the single next action. For each red or amber, agree on one action, one owner, one deadline. Write it in the notes column immediately.
Take five minutes on trend. Even if something is green today, a downward trend is a warning sign. Flag it before it becomes a red.
Update the “last reviewed” date. This sounds trivial. It isn’t. A date that hasn’t moved in two weeks tells you the review rhythm is breaking down before anyone has to say it out loud.
The whole review should take 30 minutes or less. If it’s taking longer, you have too many Measures or too many people in the room.
Common Dashboard Mistakes
- Tracking activities instead of outcomes. “Delivered 12 training sessions” is not a Measure — it’s a task. Your dashboard should show what changed as a result of those sessions: retention rate, engagement score, time-to-competency.
- Updating the dashboard retroactively. If owners are backfilling data to make things look green, your RAG status is fiction. The discipline of real-time updates is where most teams fall down. Build it into the meeting ritual, not the prep work.
- Too many Measures on one dashboard. An OGSM should have 6–10 Measures total across all Strategies. If your dashboard has 25 rows, you’ve confused activity tracking with strategy tracking. Go back to your OGSM framework and cut ruthlessly.
Get the OGSM Template
If you’re building your first tracking dashboard, start with a template rather than from scratch. The free OGSM template includes a pre-built RAG spreadsheet with conditional formatting already set up — add your Measures and you’re ready for your first weekly review.
Rock on.