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Executive Biographies

Kamensky   John M. Kamensky
Senior Fellow, IBM Center for The Business of Government
Associate Partner, IBM's Global Business Services
1301 K Street, NW
4th Floor, West Tower
Washington, DC 20005
(202)515-4102
E-Mail: john.kamensky@us.ibm.com

horizontal rule Career Overview

Mr. Kamensky is a Senior Fellow with the IBM Center for The Business of Government and an Associate Partner with IBM's Global Business Services. During 24 years of public service, he had a significant role in helping pioneer the federal government's performance and results orientation. Mr. Kamensky is passionate about helping transform government to be more results-oriented, performance-based, customer-driven, and collaborative in nature.

Prior to joining the IBM Center, he had a significant role in helping pioneer the federal government's performance and results orientation. He served for eight years as deputy director of Vice President Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government. Before that, he worked at the Government Accountability Office where he played a key role in the development and passage of the Government Performance and Results Act. He has edited four books and writes and speaks extensively on performance management and government reform. He currently focuses on management challenges associated with the upcoming Presidential Transition and blogs on it at:"www.transition2008.wordpress.com".

Mr. Kamensky is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and received a Masters in Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, in Austin, Texas. He can be reached at: john.kamensky@us.ibm.com

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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.

2009

 U.S. Senate Creates Task Force on Government Performance (12-2009)
Observers have complained for nearly two decades that Congress doesn't care about performance. This changed in October 2009 when the Senate Budget Committee created a new Task Force on Government Performance.

 New Report: Building a Better Government Performance System (10-2009)
The Government Performance Project, a consortium of academic, advocacy, and private sector partners, drafted a set of principles and recommendations for action by the new Obama Administration's chief performance officer. This June 2009 report provides a useful overview of important steps for improving government performance.

 Maryland's Fact-Driven, Strategy-Based Governing Approach (08-2009)
Governor Martin O'Malley imported to state government his award-winning Citi-Stat approach from when he was mayor of Baltimore. However, he found issues more complex, so he created a "Delivery Unit" to focus on cross-cutting, longer-term priorities.

 Transparency: The New Frontier of Performance Management (06-2009)
New transparency-driven reporting requirements embedded in the Recovery Act are likely to change the way government measures and reports performance. These more transparent and real-time approaches are also being reflected at the state level, with the rapid spread of state-level "open checkbook" laws.

 Web 2.0 Meeting Performance Reporting (04-2009)
Web 2.0 - which allows users to both interact with data on the web and create on-line communities – makes it possible to engage either an agency’s workforce or the public in assessing or reporting on performance information. This can be done real-time, not just annually. This allows the data to be used to inform decisions, not just for accountability.

 Advice to Obama's New Chief Performance Officer (02-2009)
A new IBM Center report by Shelley Metzenbaum offers recommendations to the new Obama Administration on ways to achieve results using goals and measurement.

2008

 Building Obama's Performance Management Approach (10-2008)
Candidate Barack Obama laid out his vision for his performance management approach while on the campaign trail in September: "As President, I will go through the entire federal budget, page by page, line by line, and I will eliminate the programs that don't work and aren't needed." He also said, "As for the programs we do need, I will make them work better and cost less. I will create a High-Performance Team that evaluates every agency and every office based on how well they're serving the American taxpayer."

 Bush's Performance Management Legacy (10-2008)
Over the course of his two terms in office, President George W. Bush has doggedly emphasized the impor tance of performance. What was accomplished? What will the next President inherit?

 Results-Focused Governance: Trends in State Governments (08-2008)
State governments are pursuing four strategies to become more results-based in their governing approaches, according to a recent IBM Center report by Keon Chi.

 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