Choose leading indicators—task completion rates, approval turnaround, connector health—alongside lagging results like DSO and payroll accuracy. Tie every dashboard tile to a decision you will actually make. When metrics guide actions, teams care. When they entertain, they distract. Keep clarity ruthless, share context generously, and invite feedback so numbers tell a story that empowers improvements rather than creating scoreboard anxiety without practical next steps.
Translate saved hours into avoided hires, reduced overtime, or accelerated revenue. Track error classes—misclassifications, duplicate vendors, missing bank details—and connect them to dollar impacts. Before-and-after comparisons build credibility with leadership and lenders. Transparent math invites healthy debate, aligns priorities, and ensures automation efforts stay grounded in value creation rather than novelty, turning operational excellence into a measurable asset that compounds over quarters and expansion waves.
Publish a monthly note summarizing improvements, open issues, and next experiments, then invite replies from finance, HR, and IT. Highlight a simple playbook others can reuse. Celebrate one small process fix that saved an afternoon. This steady storytelling sustains momentum, builds trust, and turns your operational backbone into a shared project where everyone sees themselves as contributors, not passive recipients of yet another tool rollout.