Leadership, Management & the Role of Performance Measurement

1. Leadership, Management & the Role of Performance Measurement Michael Lawson, Director ICMA Center for Performance Measurement www.icma.org/performance; www.icma.org/ncs; 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… • “A park where I’m proud to bring my family…” • “I want this to spread like a virus throughout the organization…” • Culture of outcomes • From perspective of resident • Positive, internal motivation

3. Presentation Overview “Good to Great”: Performance-Based Evidence as a Key Ingredient to Your Leadership & Management Coda: Making the Time for Performance Management: “So Easy a Cave Man Can Do It” (?!?)

4. Brief Background • What is the International City/County Management Association? • What is the ICMA Center for Performance Measurement?

5. (1) Performance-Based Evidence as a Key Ingredient to Your Leadership & Management Great Leadership (Jim Collins): • Establish “piercing clarity” of mission • “Rigorously assemble evidence” [performance measures] • Apply rigorous logic, thinking & questioning Same concepts in “Evidence-based Management,” Pfeffer & Sutton, Harvard Business Review, January 2006; reprinted with permission in ICMA’s Public Management magazine (September 2007).

6. (1) Performance-Based Evidence as a Key Ingredient to Your Leadership and Management Piercing clarity of mission (or lack thereof) Example: • Fire service If lacking…how this can distort: • Policy making by elected officials • Management decisions

7. 1) Performance-Based Evidence as a Key Ingredient to Your Leadership & Management Seven Key Diagnostic Questions* A. Establish “piercing clarity” of mission: • Are we doing the right “what”? Who is “we”? • According to whom? • Why be high performance? What is at stake? • …and, therefore, what outcomes and results do we need to achieve? _________ *Univ. of Virginia, Commonwealth Centers for High Performance Organizations,www.highperformanceorg.com

8. Seven Key Diagnostic Questions B. Rigorously assemble evidence: 4. How do residents view our performance? …fellow employees? 5. Are we good at it? How good are we? 6. What is the appropriate level of performance for us? 7. How would we know if we were? Sidebar: The importance of methodologically rigorous citizen surveys

9. 1) Performance-Based Evidence as a Key Ingredient to Your Leadership & Management …And one set of action steps: C. Apply rigorous logic & questioning: 8. How do we improve? What real or assumed constraints get in the way? • What can we learn and apply from high performers? [“Best” is not monolithic: (1) top overall, (2) best at leveraging, (3) best pct. Improvement.] • How do we avoid “mindless mimicry?”

10. 1) Performance-Based Evidence as a Key Ingredient to Your Leadership & Management 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

11. Coda: Making Time for Performance Management & Organizational Ldrshp. • * “I’ve got a job to do; I don’t have time to think.” *Without it, Quadrant I activities will continue to grow & accelerate.

12. Change is Hard… “I know evolving from hunting and gathering to agriculture is tough, but hey, no one said change is easy.”

13. Food for thought: 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?

14. “Doc, it hurts when I do this..” • It “hurts” when we continue to prioritize, budget and manage in much the same way with constricting political and financial resources focusing primarily on inputs and maybe some outputs… • What about trying to focus primarily on outcomes & results?

15. In closing: 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 I’m 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

16. Leadership, Management & the Role of Performance Measurement Michael Lawson, Director ICMA Center for Performance Measurement www.icma.org/performance; www.icma.org/ncs; 202/962-3562

17. Appendix: Overview of ICMA-CPM [FYI only: This section will not be part of the formal presentation but is provided for those who may wish to have additional information on ICMA-CPM] • Over 200 cities & counties (and growing) • All sizes (urban, suburban, rural)

18. Mission • Improve effectiveness & efficiency…through the collection, analysis and broad-based application of performance information for managerial and organizational leadership

19. How is mission accomplished? • Defining indicators • Collecting comparative data • Ensuring consistent set of data • Employing rigorous data cleaning • Providing citizen surveys • Annual data report

20. How is mission accomplished? • Facilitating analysis and assisting participating jurisdictions • Web (e-database; rosters) & workshops • Statewide performance consortia (14 so far) • “What Works:” Identification of effective practices • For more information, visit www.icma.org/performance; www.icma.org/ncs