Local Government Performance Measurement That Works

1
Local Government Performance Measurement That
Works

• Georgia City/County Management Association
• Tifton, Georgia
• November 2, 2006

Michael Lawson, Director ICMA Center for
Performance Measurement www.icma.org/performance
202/962-3562
2
But first, an account from the field

• Presentation to council members
• Report from management and analyst types
• Perspective of a front-line employee
• Front-line employee A park where Im proud to
  bring my family
• Council member I want this to spread like a
  virus throughout the organization
• Culture of outcomes
• From perspective of resident
• Positive, internal motivation

3
Presentation Overview

• The why? question Why measure performance?
• Factors leading to creation of CPM
• CPM mission, services, activities state
  consortia
• Lessons learned

4
The why? question Performance measurement
the profession

• ICMA Strategic Plan (2000)
• Mission
• To create excellence in local governance
• Core beliefs
• The value of professional management as an
  integral component of effective local government
• The council-manager form of government as the
  preferred form

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The why? question Performance measurement
the profession(cont.)

• Form-of-government question
• Why is it necessary to hire a professional local
  government manager?
• How can we demonstrate it?
• Importance to the continuance and growth of the
  profession

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The why? question The world is flat for local
governments, too

• The World is Flat A Brief History of the 21st
  Century
• Outsourcing is just one dimension of a much
  more fundamental thing happening to the world
  todaythe world is flat. pp. 6-7
• Friedmans basic construct
• What on earth does this have to do with your
  community?

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The why? question(cont.)

• Answer
• Many business can and will go anywhere
• They are far more likely to start/expand in
  communities in which valued and valuable
  employees want to live
• Local government performance has a significant
  impact on livability/desirability

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The why? question(cont.)

• The World is Flat A Brief History of the 21st
  Century
• Money magazine excerpts (Aug. 2006)
• Summary Ironically, as place matters less and
  less for businesses, it matters more and more for
  local governments

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The Why Question

• Great Leadership (Jim Collins)
• Establishing piercing clarity of mission
• Rigorously assemble evidence performance
  measures
• Rigorous thinking and questioning
• Same concepts in Evidence-based Management,
  Pfeffer Sutton, Harvard Business Review,
  January 2006

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The why? question

• Great Leadership
• .What matters is not finding the perfect
  indicator, but settling upon a consistent and
  intelligent method of assessing your results,
  then tracking your trajectory with rigor.
• -- Jim Collins, Good to Great and the Social
  Sectors, p. 8

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The why? question

• Is my organization performing better this year
  than it did last year?
• How will I know what good performance is?
• How can I improve my performance?
• What are others doing to promote high performance
  in this area?

• A Local Government Needs to be Able to Answer the
  Questions

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Performance measures are useful to

• Elected officials in making policy decisions
• Management in making decisions about program
  operations
• Teams and work groups in evaluating goals and
  performance
• All by learning from other jurisdictions in order
  to continuously improve performance

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(2) Factors leading to creation of CPM

• Professional interest of city/county managers
• Simon Ridley, Measuring Municipal Services,
  ICMA, 1943
• Concerns about GASB activities (i.e., SEA
  reporting)

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Factors leading to creation of CPM

• CPM 1994
• More than two dozen managers
• Long-term effort to develop
• Chipped in time and money

15
What is performance measurement?

• A management tool for systematically collecting
  clearly defined data regarding the effectiveness
  and efficiency of service delivery.
• CPM Adds
• Comparative dimension
• Mechanisms for identifying effective management
  practices contributing to high performance

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(3) Overview of CPM

• Over 165 cities counties (and growing)
• All sizes (urban, suburban, rural)
• Among the larger ones Phoenix, San Jose, San
  Antonio, Portland, Austin, Fairfax Co., Santa
  Barbara Co., Sarasota Co., Prince William Co.
• Smallest (6,000 and under) Bedford and
  Purcellville, VA

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Mission

• Improve effectiveness efficiencythrough the
  collection, analysis and broad-based application
  of performance information

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How is mission accomplished?

• Defining indicators
• Collecting comparative data
• Ensuring consistent set of data
• Employing rigorous data cleaning
• Providing citizen surveys
• Annual data report

19
How is mission accomplished?

• Facilitating analysis and assisting participating
  jurisdictions
• Web (e-database rosters)
• Workshops
• CPM Forum
• What Works Identification of effective
  practices

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Services examined

• 15 services areas
• Police
• Fire/EMS

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Neighborhood Services

• Code enforcement
• Roads/streets
• Housing
• Libraries
• Parks recreation
• Refuse recycling
• Youth services

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Support Services

• Facilities management
• Fleet management
• Human resources
• Information technology
• Purchasing
• Risk management

23
Development of Data-Collection Templates

• Technical Advisory Committees
• City/County managers
• Primary coordinators in each jurisdiction
• Service-area specialists (e.g., fire chief,
  police chief, director of public works)

24
What do jurisdictions receive?

• Apples-to-apples comparisons
• Avoid reinventing the wheel
• Data books, Web-based data collection, texts,
  training manuals

25
What do jurisdictions receive?

• Opportunity to learn from others
• Participants-only Web site
• National/regional workshops

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What do jurisdictions receive?

• CPM Forum at ICMA conference
• Access to network of likeminded jurisdictions

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(4) State/Regional Performance Consortia

• What current participants told us
• More comparisons, especially regional/state
  comparisons
• More training and workshops
• Focus on fewer measures (but retain ability to
  dig deeper)
• Reduce fee (a barrier to entry for some)

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(4) State Performance Consortia (cont.)

• Vision and Goals
• Types of activities
• Evolve and grow based on needs interests

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(4) State Performance Consortia (cont.)

• Key provisions
• Based on time-tested templates (with core
  measures selected by the consortium)
• Web-based data collection
• Data cleaning, verification reporting
• Inclusion in national data report
• Whisker plots
• Bound loose-leaf copies of the annual data
  report

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(4) State Performance Consortia (cont.)

• Key provisions
• 7. What Works (mini case studies)
• 8. State national network for sharing effective
  practices
• 9. List serve for primary coordinators
• 10. Access to password-protected Web site
• Also e-library, among many other features
• 11. CPM Forum at ICMA Conference

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(4) State Performance Consortia (cont.)

• Additional provisions for regional consortia
• Waive 3,900 training fee
• Facilitate analysis and identification of
  effective practices
• Assist in creating new measures for other service
  areas
• Special workshops training
• No additional fee for current CPM participants
• Links to other consortia (and findings)

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Section 5 Lessons Learned

• 1) Clear statement of mission, goals, and
  outcomes
• Purpose
• Governance Policy
• Management
• Financial
• Other
• Audience
• Short- and long-term use
• Level of aggregation/detail

33
Different Levels of Information Needs
Public
Elected Officials
Chief Executive Officers
Department Heads
Program Managers and Supervisors
Other Employees
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Lessons Learned (cont.)

• 2) Commitment from...
• Manager top leadership
• Key staff

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Lessons Learned (cont.)

• 3) Process for selecting services, measures, and
  definitions
• Steering committee
• Need to achieve buy-in by users

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Lessons Learned (cont.)

• 4) Collecting, cleaning, verifying data
• Collection period (wk, mo, qtr, yr)
• How/when to collect, verify, report, analyze data

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Lessons Learned (cont.)

• 5) Citizen surveys
• Perceptions matter
• Interrelationship between management measures and
  citizen surveys

38
Lessons Learned (cont.)

• 6) Facilitating analysis use
• Use it or lose it.
• in budgets, team/individual goal setting,
  discussion of effective practices among staff
• Workshops and effective practices

39
Lessons Learned (cont.)

• 7) Miscellaneous tips
• No overall ranking
• Assignment of a primary coordinator
• Confident humility
• Need to achieve buy-in by users

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In closing.
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How much time/resources currently devoted to

• Tracking dollars
• Developing and preparing budgets?
• Monitoring month-to-month financials?
• Preparing annual financial reports?
• Audits?
• compared to tracking how well those dollars are
  spent?

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Which is the riskiest course of action?

• Continuing to try to do the same thing in much
  the same way with constricting political and
  financial resources?
• ----- OR -----
• Modifying processes to focus on results?

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Role of Performance Measurement

• Performance Measurement is Quadrant II
  activity really important, but not time
  sensitive
• Ive got a job to do I dont have time to
  think.
• Without it, Quadrant I activities will continue
  to grow and accelerate. Reflect on this, in the
  context of the Why discussion.

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Key element of organizational leadership
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Change is Hard
I know evolving from hunting and gathering to
agriculture is tough, but hey, no one said change
is easy!
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Key element of organizational leadership

• Ive got a job to do I dont have time to
  think.

- Without it, Quadrant I activities will continue
to grow and accelerate.
47
Summary Reflect on park maintenance story.

• Presentation to council members
• Report from management and analyst types
• Perspective of a front-line employee
• Front-line employee A park where Im proud to
  bring my family
• Council member I want this to spread like a
  virus throughout the organization
• Culture of outcomes
• From perspective of resident
• Positive, internal motivation

48
Summary Reflect on park maintenance story.

• Presentation to council members
• Report from management and analyst types
• Perspective of a front-line employee
• Front-line employee A park where Im proud to
  bring my family
• Council member I want this to spread like a
  virus throughout the organization
• Culture of outcomes
• From perspective of resident
• Positive, internal motivation

Leadership
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Local Government Performance Measurement That
Works

• Georgia City/County Management Association
• Tifton, Georgia
• November 2, 2006

Michael Lawson, Director ICMA Center for
Performance Measurement www.icma.org/performance
202/962-3562