Posts Tagged: government performance

Is Performance Budgeting Hopeless?

A recent academic symposium on performance-based budgeting suggests that trying to apply this noble idea across government may be hopeless. Decades of research and efforts to implement performance budgeting across federal, state, and local governments in the U.S. seem to consistently come down to the conclusion that no matter how rational it sounds, politicians don’tRead… Read more »

A Results-Oriented Commerce Department?

I’ve long admired Gary Locke for his commitment to results-oriented government. He pioneered new approaches in Washington State both as the chief executive of King County and as governor. But I’d never met him until last week at a Partnership for Public Service event where he summed up his tenure as Commerce Secretary, before departingRead… Read more »

Free Tix – How is your agency improving performance measurement?

Goal setting and running regular, data-driven reviews are tools an agency can use to improve performance. Across the federal government, we need to understand where we are regarding current performance, and be able to regularly ask the right questions to review progress on meeting those goals. It’s less about hitting a specific target and moreRead… Read more »

DoD/PIC Partnership for Performance Symposium

The Department of Defense is partnering with the Performance Improvement Council to host the upcoming Performance Symposium for all federal government employees. You must be a federal government employee to register. The event will take place on June 27-30, 2011 at the National Conference Center in Lansdowne, VA. Federal employees are invited from every departmentRead… Read more »

Highlights of Senate GPRA Oversight Hearing

Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) chaired a joint hearing on the implementation of the GPRA Modernization Act and he seemed to enjoy himself. In fact, after the hearing he lingered a long time talking with hearing participants, almost being the last to leave the room! What sparked his imagination? Here’s a link to the hearing record.Read… Read more »

Starlings, Transparency, and Thad Allen

I always consider a conference a success if I come away inspired by one big idea. That happened to me at the recent annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration. I’ve been mulling over a series of presentations given at that conference that coincidentally helped me think more clearly about “complexity theory” andRead… Read more »

Service Initiative Has GPRA Element

Customer service is about to become an annual performance goal for each federal department. First, there was last week’s presidential order on customer service. Then the Office of Management and Budget began pushing along compliance with the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Modernization Act of 2010, which calls for agencies to measure customer service.Read… Read more »

I am all about Customer Service!

President Obama has instructed federal agencies to come up with ways to use technology to improve their customer service offerings. Agencies have 180 days from the date of the executive order to develop customer service plans. As to what constitutes a good customer service plan, the executive order states, “The plan shall set forth theRead… Read more »