Last week’s B&G Report included the second in a series of lists, compiled by experts, about managing performance. The first such list, compiled for us by performance management guru John Kamensky, kindly included our own book about the topic “The Promises and Pitfalls of Performance-Informed Management” (Rowman & Littlefield)
Our book party on March 5, 2020, occurred just before the pandemic shut down the country, but we continue to be proud of its contents, even though it may not have received quite the attention we had anticipated just days earlier.
When we originally wrote the book, we were aware of a sea of writing that ballyhooed the potential of performance management to cure what ailed state and local government. And so, we’ve always thought that some of the most useful sections pointed out the many challenges, including insufficient resources; a lack of data expertise; weak internal training; counterproductive incentives; fear of adverse reaction; flaws with targets; legislative indifference and lack of sustainability.
But though we wanted to paint a full picture, we didn’t want to leave readers feeling a sense of futility, so we published a sidebar called Rx for Pitfalls. We believe that this counsel has withstood the test of time and so we’re re-printing it here:
It is important to acknowledge that performance management systems are an integral part of government – like budgeting or procurement – and not just an adjunct effort.
Performance management efforts are more likely to be sustainable if they are not overly identified with an outgoing political administration. It is better for them to be identified as a tool of the city than as “the former mayor’s thing,” says Zach Markovits, who was then director of city progress at What Works Cities and now is vice president and local practice lead of Results for America.
The Urban Institute and others strongly recommend that narrative explanations are presented side-by-side with performance measurement information or other data. This provides the opportunity to put the numbers into context and to make sure that readers understand any exogenous factors that influence results. If numbers used in performance measurement systems are thrown wildly off by a forest fire, flood or hurricane, for example, it is important to communicate that.
Communication of performance measurement information to legislators should be kept short and to the point to increase the likelihood that it is read. Knowledge of committee schedules and study assignments are extremely helpful in determining when information may be most useful and when it will overload legislators or their staff.
Sharing experiences with individuals in other cities, counties and states who are involved in performance management efforts provides an ongoing support system and way to share ideas and experiences. The ability to gather with other people who are working in neighboring or even faraway governments and dealing with the same issues and frustrations has enormous payoffs,
Building an organized information infrastructure can help both central offices and agencies know the work that has been completed in the past that may be relevant to current efforts. Central data inventories help managers know what information from other agencies would be useful to them. Centralized easy to access websites that provide retrievable copies of government reports and evaluations make sure that past work is not lost.
Caution should be exercised when utilizing incentives as an inducement to meet performance targets. Too often, incentives whether in contracts, pay-for-performance plans or linked to increased funding, lead to gameplaying with performance results.
The beginning of a new program or policy initiative is the best time to consider the data that will be needed to analyze and evaluate how well it is doing and what changes may be needed to make it work better.
Building up workforce data skills is a pressing need that can be accelerated through both internal and external resources, with train the trainer and mentor relationships helping to spread the knowledge. Coaching is also needed to keep building skills among workers without technical training. Networks help to encourage participants to see performance management as a living breathing process that they can support through their participation in training forums, strategic conversations, and design workshops and which will break down silos, erase feelings of loneliness and fear of change and bring joy to the performance management effort.
Performance management benefits from a dash of realism in what can be accomplished with the resources available. This means avoiding over expectations and over-selling of the initiative and not under-projecting staff and resource needs.
The importance of building relationships between government and academia, with an emphasis on better communication on both sides, is already in the air. One example: A half-day forum that was focused on bringing policymakers and academics together in 2017, sponsored by APPAM and the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Some of the key messages: 1) The need for safe spaces to have discussions without the threat of publicity, 2) A more systematic way for practitioners to know what research universities are currently engaged in, 3) The importance of considering research needs at an early stage of a project rather than down the road.
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