Our founder and CEO Marv Weidner has outlined Five Rules of the Road for “managing up” – that is, for successfully managing your boss. We all “manage up” in one way or the other, and particularly successful employees do it very well.
Over on marvweidner.com, Marv has shared his thoughts on the First Rule of the Road: Initiative - Take It! If you’re a boss, have a boss, or – like many of us – can say “yes” to both of those, this series is one you won’t want to miss. Check it out!
We recently found a terrific resource that we wanted to share.
In February 2009 the Government Performance Project and the Pew Center on the States released “Trade-Off Time: How Four States Continue to Deliver.” This report – which you can download by clicking here - profiles how the states of Virginia, Utah, Maryland and Indiana are aggressively using performance management techniques, including performance budgeting, to address the extraordinary challenges they face in funding and service delivery. 
From the report:
“The Pew Center on the States has followed state government performance for more than a decade, studying good and bad practices and analyzing what works. Our research has shown that results-based budgeting systems can aid states during economic downturns by cutting wasteful spending on programs that are not showing results, and directing resources to programs that evidence has shown to be more effective. Such an approach also can provide lasting benefits, laying the foundation for a leaner, more effective government during the next economic upturn.”
We’ve repeatedly seen the benefits that come from sharing tools and information – it’s a big part of the reason we have this blog. We hope you’ll be able to take this report and put it to good use in your own organization – and let us know what you learn!
Our long-time friend and consulting partner Carla Penny volunteers actively around animal welfare issues, and has some thoughts to share about how performance measurement can drive better results -
Defining an organizational mission and correctly identifying performance measures are all too often treated as complying with a bureaucratic requirement. This is unfortunate. Good measures have the potential to seriously impact the problems organizations are trying to solve for their customers. By engaging and focusing the agency’s and the community’s attention on the whole story, they are better able to do the right things that
make a difference.
One case in point is Animal Services. There are few issues more likely to ignite passions and controversy in parts of a community than the euthanasia of companion animals at the local animal care and control shelter. Open-intake shelters are statutorily required to accept all comers and usually implement a range of services to reduce euthanasia through preventive programs (licensing, spay/neuter, education, feral trap-neuter-release, etc.) as well as placement/retention programs (foster, adoption, behavior training, etc.).
Strategies such as these address both the supply and the demand sides of pet overpopulation and, when successful, will ultimately lead to fewer animals euthanized in shelters. The shelter euthanasia rate, therefore, is a good, all-round reflection of shelter success at decreasing intake as well as achieving live outcomes through adoption, etc. However, when the euthanasia rate measure eclipses other important information, it not only distorts the picture but can lead to misplacement of resources and even perpetration of greater harm to animals.
So what are good measures for animal shelters? The answer is “it depends.” The particular selection of performance measures should be determined by how the agency defines its mission, what the community is concerned about, the agency’s ability to collect data, existing and potential strategies and their intent, the precise nature of local practices that encourage pet overpopulation, etc.
At a minimum, animal services organizations should consider additional performance measures that will help provide a more complete view into operations. These may include:
In addition to telling a richer story, each of the measures has the potential to affect staff behavior. What, for example, might be the impact on animal care staff if “% of animals contracting illness in the shelter” were a measure that was reported and discussed in monthly staff meetings? Would hygiene practices for cage cleaning be improved?
The bottom line is that shelters must choose the story that needs to be understood by staff, decision-makers and stakeholders and then create the measures that will reveal that story.
Our April 2010 webinar featured Long Beach Animal Services and their remarkable story of manaing for results to drive change in an agency in crisis. You can see the presentation materials from that webinar by clicking here.
We’re very pleased to announce that our powerful “drag & drop” reporting engine for our MFR Live performance analysis and reporting software is now available!
With this new tool any user can quickly and easily create a customized report including any of your performance data. And that custom report format can be saved and reused again and again, giving you unprecedented flexibility to share performance information anywhere and everywhere you need to.
This system effectively balances power and flexibility with ease of use. Want to see it in action? Jeremy Stephens, our Lead Software Representative, put together a brief demonstration video to show you how it works.
To watch the “drop & drag” report demonstration video, please click here.
Want to learn more about MFR Live? You can see an introductory video here.
We know from talking with you and your colleagues across the nation that it has never been more important to measure and manage performance – even as budget cuts make it more challenging to do so. To help meet this need, we’re pleased to announce that for the month of July we’re offering a 20% discount off of the initial license fee for MFR Live.
Want to find out more about MFR Live and this discount offer? Contact Jeremy Stephens, our Lead Software Representative, at jstephens@weidnerinc.com.
Thoughts from Jeremy Stephens, our Lead Software Representative and resident Rock Star -
The company used a powerful software system to handle the collection and reporting of their performance information. Unfortunately, although the software was powerful, it wasn’t very accessible – in fact, to get data o
So while the performance information was meaningful and used in high-level management discussions, for most employees it was something “they” — the senior managers and leaders — paid attention to.
Unfortunately, we all know that it is far too common in organizations of all types, private or public sector, that instead of performance data driving decision-making at all levels, the data is closely held, or feared, or ignored.
So how does performance data get a regular seat at the table for how we do business? How does it move from being something “they” use to something “we” need?
What we’ve seen over and over again is that you have to begin by recognizing that data collection and reporting cannot be done in a vacuum. You cannot expect one person, or a small team, to be the only ones involved in collecting, analyzing and reporting the performance data for an organization – and then have those results resonate at all levels of the organization.
How could they? In this situation, for nearly everyone in the organization, performance is something “they” worry about. Most of the team – most of “us” – played no part in the collection and analysis.
In many cases, it simply comes down to the systems and programs. If you manage your performance information using a powerful system with lots of bells and whistles – but which is not easy to use or accessible – the majority of your employees may never know how to utilize or have the desire to try to use the system.
So in the end, it doesn’t necessarily take a village to transform government, but it does take the government as a whole (managers and employees alike) defining, collecting, analyzing, reporting and having conversations about results. You don’t have to do it all at one time, but you do have to do it. Only then can you hope to truly drive meaningful change at all levels. That’s your transformation!
We were pleased to be able to use our April webinar to feature a compelling story of an organization that is using a focus on results for customers to accomplish an amazing turnaround. John Keisler is the Manager of Animal Care Services for the City of Long Beach, CA, and, with his Chief of Operations Michelle Quigley, they shared their success and the valuable lessons they have put to work to make it happen.
William, our Chief of Consulting Services and Innovation, has been thinking about the secrets we keep (and shouldn’t) –
You’ve most likely got deadlines for reporting your performance information, so, as a conscientious manager, you’re collecting your data and putting it into the database or Excel sheet or whatever reporting mechanism you use. Sent. Done. Check.
But are you sharing it with the members of your team? Or are 
you treating it, intentionally or not, as top secret material?
If you want to improve performance, it’s essential that the team members who deliver services to your customers understand both how performance is measured and what the performance data says. Performance information provides the basis for powerful discussions with your team:
**Are we performing as we need to be – are we delivering the promised results to our customers?
** What do we need to do to improve our performance?
Having these conversations keeps your team focused on performance and on results for customers. Reviewing performance regularly with your team helps everyone respond when improvement is needed – and allows everyone to celebrate when results are strong.
One of they keys to success in any change initiative – and Managing For Results is certainly included on that list – is relentless, focused communication.
County Manager Terry Doolittle of Pinal County, Arizona, is leading the County through Managing for Results, integrating Board strategic planning, department strategic business planning, performance budgeting and reporting – and a big commitment to cultural change.
Counties are statutory creations of states and hold in dynamic tension the elected Board and agencies that report to then through the County Manager side by side with a host of independent elected officials and the Criminal Justice System. The structure of counties provides real challenges any effort to move the entire county in one direction – together.
Doolittle has used two of the oldest strategies on the books – inclusion and participation – to build what Board Chair David Snider termed “a preponderance of similar philosophy” among all elected officials. The Board and all elected officials participated in the development of the County Strategic Plan. Board members share the belief that by building the Strategic Plan together with all elected officials they will be better able to move through the current budget crisis. According to Snider, “The Strategic Plan tells everyone what is important and where we want to go as a County and what we are doing to accomplish when we are faced with big challenges like we are right now.”
Further outstanding evidence that Doolittle’s strategy is working is best told by senior leadership of the Criminal Justice System. Check out the extraordinary message of participation in Managing for Results by Todd Zweig, Chief Probation Officer, in one of Pinal County’s internal newsletters (click here to download it).
… but no one knows about it, have you changed anything?
The folks in Chester County, PA, are leading their government through a robust Managing For Results deployment, with departments creating Strategic Business Plans and core management systems being aligned around results for customers. They know communicating this change to their employees is a critical element of their success. They’ve built an internal website with a rich array of resources and recently published a “special edition” of their employee newsletter, which you can see by clicking here. It’s good stuff.
Getting the word out to your folks about change is critically important – but too often tends to get lost in the shuffle. To successfully drive change, you can’t let that slide. People are smart, and they look to their leadership to see what’s really important – to see what their bosses really want them to focus on in their work. Rich, frequent communication like this newsletter can be an important part of changing expectations and culture.
