 |
|
||
This first appeared as a PATImes column in February 2007.
Carry Me Back to Old
Virginny – Raising the Bar in Performance Leadership
by
John M. Kamensky
I was a bit disappointed last year. Virginia’s flagship performance measurement website seemed to have been abandoned. A new governor had taken office. Did the state’s leadership in this arena evaporate, as happens in so many cases when a champion of change leaves?
No! In fact, there’s been remarkable progress that could serve as a model for other states and the federal government. The new approach – unveiled in early January -- is far more strategic than most states, and is being used to inform strategic outcome-oriented decisions, not just agency-level management. In fact, the new governor, Tim Kaine seems to have set a new bar for performance leadership!
Some Background
Three years ago, this column highlighted Virginia’s progress in managing its performance. The story was very encouraging. In 2003, Virginia adopted its version of the federal Government Performance and Results Act, which requires agencies to develop plans, measures, and report on their progress.
Then-governor Mark Warner developed a five-prong performance management system: (1) a statewide long-term vision, via a Council on Virginia’s Future. The 18-member Council, chaired by the governor, recommends long-term objectives and monitors progress; (2) statewide quality of life indicators, developed, tracked, and reported by the Council; (3) agency-level strategic plans; (4) agency-level performance reporting; and (5) agency-level management standards . His goal was to put in place a robust infrastructure for performance management in the state government.
When Governor Tim Kaine took office in January 2005, he wanted to redirect his predecessor’s system to make it more strategic. He says his management style is “to create goals and relationships.” He said his first year in office focused on defining statewide and agency level goals that result in outcomes that would be meaningful to citizens. This year, he plans to focus on integrating agency goals by creating collaborative relationships between agencies around common outcomes. He then plans to use these goals and outcomes as the foundation for the 2008-2009 biennial budget he will submit to the state legislature next year. This strategic approach to using performance information seems to be far ahead of both the federal government as well as other states.
Defining Strategic Outcomes
Governor Kaine publicly launched Virginia’s new strategic approach to performance management in early January. Calling his initiative Virginia Performs, the inaugural website showcases statewide and regional societal indicators, links to agency-level outcome measures, as well as to agency-level management capacity assessments. You can see it for yourself at: www.vaperforms.virginia.gov.
The Council on Virginia’s Future maintains the societal indicators website. Governor Kaine says this is “. . .how we measure the state’s current performance, plan for the future, and monitor our progress.” He says the Council creates “big picture goals that are larger than an election cycle.” The information on the Virginia Performs website, he says, “gives anyone the opportunity to see our progress” -- journalists, policymakers, and citizens.
The site has a “scorecard at a glance” that summarizes where Virginia stands in each of seven major areas, such as the economy, education, healthcare, etc. It then describes the status and direction of key indicators under each area, and the degree to which the state government has any influence over the performance of the indicators. For example, under the Education area, it notes that fourth graders are improving their reading and math achievement scores and that the state has had a significant influence over the performance of this indicator.
The website also provides key objectives, performance metrics, and – importantly – provides an ability for the site’s visitors to drill down to how these data differ between different regions of the state and conduct visitor-defined analyses for selected key indicators. This is a capability that the designers of the Key National Indicators Initiative have talked about as a futuristic vision. It’s here, now, in Virginia!
Determining Agency-Level Outcomes
In addition to broad, societal indicators, Virginia Performs also links to agency-level outcomes for over 70 state agencies. Governor Kaine said that this is where he and his staff invested a lot of time and energy this past year, negotiating with each agency to define a few key objectives, how they would capture information on progress towards those objectives, and when they would achieve them. He asks them for quarterly reports on progress.
Governor Kaine noted that he was directly involved in the agency goal-setting process, providing “individual, detailed comments on each of the agencies’ drafts.” He thought the exercise helped agencies clarify what their long term goals were. The early drafts showed that there were a lot of targets and goals not tied to agencies’ core missions or the broader societal indicators. Sometimes agencies went through three or four drafts before they were able to clearly articulate their key indicators to his satisfaction. The resulting measures, he thinks, are a good start, but he thinks the state has some work ahead of it to improve the system, mainly to create links between agency goals, measures, and objectives in strategically improving state performance in the context of the societal indicators.
Reporting on Agency-Level Management Capacity
In addition to mission-related measures, state agencies also report on the status of their capacity to manage their operations against a set of standards similar to the federal-level President’s Management Agenda. Each agency is rated on a red-yellow-green management scorecard that dates back to 2004 under the previous governor. Governor Kaine says that he meets every six months with his cabinet secretaries to apprise their agencies’ progress in these areas, such as financial management, technology, and human capital.
Use in Governing
The most significant impact, however, hasn’t been the refinement of goals, measures, and reports. The real impact has been how Governor Kaine uses them to govern. He took office in January 2006. The state has a two-year budget cycle, so for all practical purposes he had no significant input into the budget he had to submit days after taking office. So the first time he will have a targeted opportunity to influence the budget is in the mid-course corrections in the current, abbreviated session of the legislature. The first time he’ll be able to have an across-the-board impact will be in 2008.
In crafting amendment proposals to the 2006-2007 biennial budget, he will be using information from the societal indicators system. For example, he said the state is relatively strong in education and job indicators, but weak in its healthcare indicators. As a result, his key initiatives in this session of the legislature will be around improving healthcare outcomes.
In the budget process, he asked agencies to identify their key 3-4 outcome measures. He then has used these measures to assess agency budget requests, and agencies’ own goals to prioritize their proposals. The key question: “how effective are their proposals in achieving the outcomes and goals they’ve set?”
He says he plans to write his 2008-2009 budget around the performance process driven by the social indicators. He sees the indicators being a guide for what should be funded, and what should not be funded. He anticipates that by the time the state starts its budget preparation for the next biennial budget, they’ll have sufficient data and time series trends.
Next Step: Connecting the Dots
Going forward, Governor Kaine says that achieving outcomes will be a collaborative effort. He says he will increase his focus on agency management and program implementation after the legislative session is over. He also noted that he wants to enhance cross-agency collaboration in two areas:
Three years ago, I observed that Virginia was building an infrastructure for managing performance that: engages stakeholders, links to the budget, and creates accountability for key political leaders. The open question was: would it drive performance to new levels or devolve into a ponderous compliance exercise? At that point, I cited Harvard’s Bob Behn observation: it depends on leadership. Indicators to date seem to suggest that Virginia is on the right course in driving performance to new levels, with the right leadership.