Next, senior leadership worked with staff to build out an operational plan and cultivate buy-in for the strategic plan. “With support from staff, our plan grew to include 20 initiatives and over 120 cascading action items, all aligned to accomplish our six key priority areas,” explained George.

While previous strategic plans had been captured and managed in spreadsheets, this new plan was more comprehensive, with relevant data to measure progress.

“How were we going to track all this information? How were we going to hold the staff and the board accountable? How could we ensure that we followed-up on our action items and reported on our successes?” considered George. “That’s when we looked for a solution and chose Envisio. Their support team did a great job of plugging our strategic plan into their cloud-based solution, where it is now easily tracked and monitored.”

So, what exactly is causing envy across city halls nationwide? Lemont’s rich performance measures, advanced analytics and sophisticated management reporting framework are giving Lemont’s leaders an edge. They’ve moved beyond strategic planning, beyond measuring progress… to managing and accelerating performance.

Let’s explore Lemont’s management reporting framework – the comprehensive set of structured and scheduled dashboards, reports and notifications designed to allow each stakeholder to analyze data, make better decisions, drive performances and build community trust.

Progress tracking fosters accountability

While Lemont’s six strategic priorities cascade down to key initiatives and supporting action items, effective reporting starts at the bottom and rolls up. Each of the Village’s 120+ action items has an assigned owner and due date. Providing daily or weekly updates in Envisio keeps staff highly engaged and focused on what matters.

“Action items are the nuts and bolts of the plan,” explained George. “There’s a lot going on here at the Village. Using Envisio, our staff can track and update action items as they occur. Live personal dashboards provide a way for our staff to stay focused on their actions while providing accountability. We’ve also set up notifications and email reminders when action items become due. It’s another way to keep us on schedule. We’re now taking on more with the same level of staff and everyone is doing a great job.”

To track progress at a glance, action items include color-coded progress bars. Blue indicates an action item is completed, green means it’s on track and yellow indicates a disruption. “The system provides immediate feedback on what’s happening with the plan. The progress bars provide clear markers to identify disruptions early that need attention, while written action updates provide the context to help us keep moving forward,” said George.

“More importantly, reporting allows our staff to tell their stories,” he continued. “They’re excited to share their contributions towards the strategic plan with the board and the community.”

Team reporting supports better decisions

Since city hall performance is a team effort, departmental reporting is a critical component of effective management reporting. These are the weekly or monthly reports that help teams make better decisions and support leaders in allocating resources to align with strategic objectives.

Performance measures accelerate performance

Many cities make the mistake of taking a bottom-up approach – looking at the data they have, then using it to build their reports. Lemont leaders took a strategic, top-down approach, focusing on outcomes-based reporting with KPIs and performance measures to support priorities.

“We collected lots of data early on so the board could make informed decisions on which outcomes they wanted to achieve and how we were going to work towards them,” explained George.

“Today, we’re tracking over 50 measures. That’s one of the exciting parts about this plan versus previous plans. Our performance measures and statistics help communicate our workload to the board. They also show our community that we’re doing a lot of work. Our key outcome indicators show that all our work is delivering value and driving us towards achieving our ambitious goals and strategic priorities.”

This level of reporting empowers Lemont’s leaders to manage performance and keep the Board of Trustees abreast of progress made towards strategic priorities.

Public dashboards build trust in the community

“I think it’s important to have transparency. Part of building trust is showing people how things work and what’s actually happening. It builds credibility,” explained George. But sharing too much data without context can also be confusing he warned: “Even worse, it could be dangerous if people draw conclusions that really aren’t there.” That’s why Lemont uses Envisio.

“What’s been really cool with Envisio is being able to share our success stories. We now have a public dashboard that’s showing our performance at work. Envisio did a great job of building a public dashboard to share a high level of information, including proper context, with the ability to drill down into the details.”

Transparency, enthusiasm, integrity, continuous improvement and teamwork make up the core values at the Village of Lemont. If you go to the Lemont’s website and explore their public dashboard, you’ll see these values at work towards achieving better community outcomes.

“Our staff is doing great work and they’re getting that recognition. Our Envisio public dashboard is helping to build trust between the staff and the Board,” concluded George. “It’s also a great way to share successes in the community. It helps to build a shared vision when people understand what you’re trying to achieve and how you’re doing. They can get behind it and celebrate the successes along with you.”