When Everything's Green...But Nothing's Working
How oversimplified dashboards—and leadership denial—kill real growth (and sanity).
The “On Schedule” Lie
I like dashboards. When used correctly, they provide a clean, high-level snapshot of what matters. They let leadership teams focus on the few things that need attention instead of spending valuable time on what’s already under control.
The key phrase here: “when used correctly.”
After 25+ years in companies of all sizes, I’ve sat through too many meetings where the product launch dashboard or the initiative status spreadsheet said “on schedule.” Green dot. No concerns. Everyone exhaled.
But that wasn’t…completely accurate.
The project team was already behind. They’d been under-resourced from the start. And they didn’t feel safe asking for what they needed, because doing so might make them look incapable or risk their standing in the company. So they reported what they believed leadership wanted (or expected) to hear.
The timeline was only “on track” because no one was allowed to say otherwise.
And of course, the project slipped. Several times.
No one should have been surprised. But they were—because the truth was never on the dashboard to begin with.
Reducing Complexity to a Dot
Green/yellow/red dashboards are corporate equivalents of a Tweet. Short, simple, and easy to browse.
But they come at a cost: meaningful complexity is erased. Or worse, just ignored.
A single dot can’t communicate cross-functional risk, hidden interdependencies, vague assumptions, or morale problems. It just papers over them.
And that’s the point. Dashboards like these aren’t designed to surface complexity—they’re designed to make leaders feel like things are under control.
But here’s what too many leaders forget: leadership is hard. If it were easy, you wouldn’t get paid to do it. Leadership requires you to wrestle with ambiguity and complexity—not reduce it to a dot so everyone can feel better and move on.
Dashboards Reflect What Leaders Are Willing to Hear
Dashboards don’t show the truth. They show what people feel safe reporting.
When leaders reward green and punish red—even indirectly—teams will find ways to keep things looking “green enough.” The coloring becomes performative.
I’ve seen CEOs browbeat product managers into committing to launch dates they wanted to hear. The progress was great on paper. Wall Street was satisfied. But in reality, the team was struggling. And instead of getting help, they got pressure.
Very quickly, people learn the simple lesson: be honest, get punished. Be optimistic, get promoted.
That’s how a culture starts to blindly embrace its own dashboards…but loses touch with reality.
Soft Metrics, Hard Consequences
The problem isn’t the dashboard itself—it’s what we choose to measure.
Velocity, pipeline coverage, percent complete—these are easy to track and look great in a slide. But they often hide the signals that matter most.
Velocity says you’re busy, but not whether you’re solving the right problem.
Pipeline coverage says you have action, but not whether the deals will close.
“80% complete” sounds reassuring, until you realize the last 20% contains all the hard work.
You can have a green dot and still be weeks behind. You can be “80% complete” and still 6 months away from launch.
Soft metrics lull teams and leaders into a false sense of clarity, that is until the deadline passes, the customer churns, or the revenue doesn’t show up.
False clarity is more dangerous than honest uncertainty.
Better Questions > Better Dots
The fix isn’t fancier dashboards. It’s better leadership behavior around them.
Bob Howell, former CEO of Scient and a mentor of mine, had a simple mantra that we tried our best to follow: bad news first.
That phrase set the tone. It told everyone: honesty isn’t punished here—it’s expected. And it made meetings a LOT more productive. Instead of spending the bulk of the time talking about what was going well, we used the time to share and solve problems.
That’s what great dashboards should do.
Not just present a color. But spark a conversation.
If Everything’s Green…
If everything’s green and nothing’s working, your dashboard isn’t broken—your leadership is.
Dashboards should clarify, not conceal.
They should help leaders engage, not disconnect.
They should reflect reality, not shape it.
So instead of asking for cleaner slides, start asking for harder truths. Then reward honesty.
Because growth doesn’t come from green. It comes from clarity.