Selected Publications – John Kamensky

 “Managing for Results” Columns 

John Kamensky is a regular columnist for PATimes, a monthly newspaper published by the American Society for Public Administration, and its electronic predecessor, ASPANET.  His columns are republished electronically here.

2008

 Sense-Making in the Age of Information Overload (06-2008)
A major complaint in many government agencies is information overload. Assess your capacity to manage and use strategic analytics to leverage large amounts of available data.

 Is Lean Six Sigma "Cool?" Ask Employees of Ft. Wayne, Indiana! (04-2008)
The use of Lean Six Sigma is finally making the cross-over from industry into government. Here are some examples.

 Creating Accountablility in Collaborative Networks: Can it be Done? (02-2008)
In a hierarchy, it is relatively clear how to establish accountability. It's far more problematic in collaborative networks. A new book offers insights.

2007

 Passing the Baton:  Sustaining a “Performance and Results” Approach  (12-2007)Describes new Presidential Executive Order creating agency-level performance improvement officers and a government-wide council.

 Peeking Over the Fence (10-2007)
Describes Canada’s “Management Accountability Framework” based on 10 essential elements for good performance and accountability in agencies

 More Similar Than You Might Think (08-2007)
Reviews a new book, “Transforming Performance Measurement” by Dean Spitzer, on corporate performance measurement trends

 Getting Our (Foreign) Affairs in Order: Project Horizon  (06-2007)
Describes State Department’s long-term, interagency scenario planning that identified 10 “big ideas” for ythe foreign affairs community to pursue

 Federal Agencies Ratchet Up Focus on Performance (04-2007)
Summarizes federal agency progress towards integrating performance and budget in FY 2008 budgets

 Carry Me Back to Old Virginny (02-2007)
Describes Virginia’s new performance management system, and its planned future direction.

 2006

Apple State Creates Core Measures (12-2006)
Describes Washington State’s use of a Citi-Stat process to manage state priorities and outcomes

 Making Big Plans: How President Bush is Using National Strategies (10-2006)
Describes President Bush’s use of National Strategies as a tool for cross-agency collaboration

 Update of Performance-Based Pay for Federal Executives (08-2006)
Summarizes a Council for Excellence in Government panel on the topic

 The 80 Percent Solution? (06-2006)
Summarizes IBM Center’s Metzenbaum Performance Accountability report

 Tall Corn, Rolling Prairies, and the Shopping Spirit! (04-2006)
Describes Iowa’s Purchasing Results budget system

 Creating Grassroots, Bottoms Up Pressure for Results (02-2006)
Describes Community Indicators Consortium and related efforts

 2005

 It’s the Outcomes, Stupid! (12-2005)
Summarizes Perrin and 2 GAO reports

 Institutionalizing a Performance Culture: Legislation vs. Leadership (10-2005)
Summarizes a GAO report and IBM Center’s Perrin report

 Power to the People: Reflections on the ASPA International Symposium for Developing Effective Performance Measurement Systems in Government  (9-2005) Summary of the Center for Performance and Accountability Symposium in 2005 on the state of performance measures (joint with Jay Fountain)

 Top Ten List:  Key Factors That Make a Balanced Scorecard Successful (07-2005) List of factors that make implementation of a Balanced Scorecard successful, based on the experiences of the Balanced Scorecard Interest Group

 The END Was Near:  Results-Oriented, Collaborative Network Shows Its Success (08-2005) Describes use of Incident Command System, used in eradicating Exotic Newcastle Disease (END)

 Capability-Based Planning:  Responding On-Demand in a Post-9/11 World (06-2005)
Describes the capability-based planning model, based on Sharon Caudle’s paper

 Demanding Performance and Results:  The President’s Second Term Management Legacy (04-2005)
Overview of the 4 challenges to embedding management reforms into the government

 Making Meaningful Distinctions:  A New Performance-Based Pay System for Federal Executives (02-2005)
Overview of new Senior Executive Service (SES) performance management system and its implementation

2004

Leveraging Performance (03-2004)
The use of performance-based contracting

 Virginia Results (05-2004)
Virginia’s approach to managing for results

 2003

 Keeping Score (11-2003)
District of Columbia government’s approach to managing for results

 Moving Boxes (09-2003)
Alternative approaches to reorganizing government

 Getting to Yellow (08-2003)
Progress on the PMA

 Beyond the Results Act (05-2003)
Progress on the PMA

 How Am I Doing? (03-2003)
Are we ready yet for a set of key national indicators?

 Performance Reporting (02-2003)
Use of Citi-Stat, Virginia Results, PART, etc. to publicly report performance

2002

 The Unsolved Performance Puzzle at the Federal Level, Parts 1&2 (11-2002)
Describes 10 ongoing OMB performance initiatives and how they need to better align

 Connecting the Dots Among Early Adopters, Parts 1&2 (09-2002)
Applying the 6-part MFR framework against 6 agencies

 It’s All About Connecting People to Goals (8-2002)
GAO report on 4 countries’ approach to performance

End of the Marking Period:  Grades Are In on President’s Management Scorecard (07-2002)
First update on PMA ScorecardE

 O Canada!  A Snapshot of Its Managing for Results Initiative (06-2002)
Overview of Canadian approach to managing for results

 A New Game of “Twenty Questions”  (05-2002)
Introduction of the OMB Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART)

An Update on the President’s Management Agenda (04-2002)
Panel of experts describe progress of the President’s Management Agenda (PMA)

 Levers of Alignment (03-2002)
The organizational levers to align around results

 “Yellow Rose” Does the Two-Step with Uncle Sam (02-2002)
FY 2003 budget begins use of Performance Based Budgeting

 Getting Results When No One Is In Charge (02-2002)
Use of public sector networks

2001

Results-Oriented Performance Agreements:  A Key Tool for Setting Clear Expectations (12-2001)
Writing performance agreements

 Connecting Promises to Performance  (11-2001)
Use of a Balanced Scorecard

 Performance Budgeting, Part Two – Texas Style (10-2001)
Texas performance budgeting approach

Performance Budgeting – American Style (09-2001)
UK vs. US approaches to performance budgeting

The Performance Gears of Government (08-2001)
First agency budgets under Bush

 What is “Managing for Results?” (07-2001)
Overview of the six elements of “Managing for Results” framework