Posted Oct. 15, 2007  

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The Hard Work of Boosting Performance

By ZACH PATTON

NEW YORK — Managing the performance of government is vitally important — but it isn’t easy. Several speakers at Governing’s Managing Performance conference last week emphasized the point that performance management is crucial for improving government, but it’s hard work.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels

”Government is the last real monopoly,” said Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. “Government has the luxury of doing a bad job and nothing bad happens. It’s hard to get performance management when there’s an absence of competition.”

Daniels talked with conferees about some of the successes he’s accomplished in Indiana, including balancing the budget, implementing a fully funded 10-year transportation infrastructure plan, deregulating the state’s telecommunications industry and consolidating state government’s IT shops and procurement services. Using performance measures, Daniels has helped the state achieve results in areas such as reduced wait-times at DMV offices and a marked increase in the percentage of child-support payments being collected.

”Progress starts with data,” he said, adding that top-down support is also critical. “In a monopoly, accountability for results has to be implanted by strong leadership.”

Successful performance management also takes an overhaul of the entire nature of government. Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser called for a “culture change” in states and localities. “I want a culture that has respect for facts, data and analysis,” he told conference attendees. “I want respect for professionalism and professional expertise. I want a government that’s accountable for its outcomes, especially citizen satisfaction.”

The first step toward that accountability, he said, is increased transparency: Be honest with citizens — give them real, truthful, unbiased information on how your government is performing — and you can start to gain citizen trust. You can then begin building on that trust by honing your measures and giving citizens the improved results they want.

Olivia Golden, the director of state operations for New York, underlined that idea in a breakout conference session focused on reshaping government by focusing on results. “It takes more than a technical systems fix,” she said. “If your goal is to increase your performance, your strategy is going to be more complicated. It takes a change in your entire environment.”

Golden outlined the steps governments must take to implement a new culture of performance: articulate goals, start immediately, measure early, refine your measures and learn as you go. The value of a focus on results — creating a better, more responsive, more efficient government — is inarguable. But, she said, it’s going to require driven leaders dedicated to changing the culture of the way government works.

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