New Zealand’s government reform efforts over the past quarter century have yielded both positive results as well as cautionary tales. Its proposed next steps, however, are worth examining. At the World Bank’s series of forums on performance management, I found John Whitehead’s insights particularly interesting. Whitehead is a former secretary of the Treasury in NewRead… Read more »
Check out my new article on visual management posted at ww.OhMyGov.com Eighteen years ago, I walked into an organization, took at quick look at its space and quickly realized that it had only one sign up anywhere. The sign was on a supervisor’s desk and said, “What part of ‘no’don’t you understand?” Recently, I walkedRead… Read more »
The answer may be yes! Studies show that while most government employees are satisfied with their jobs, many are not actively engaged in the performance and quality of their work. Yet, a hearty 63% of those public sector workers say that they intend to stay in their positions long-term. Factors such as leadership effectiveness, performanceRead… Read more »
This is a question to which agencies will now have to come up with an answer. And it won’t be easy! Background Earlier this Spring, Senator Tom Coburn grilled an OMB witness at a hearing about why OMB had not yet implemented a provision in the GPRA Modernization Act requiring the creation of a government-wideRead… Read more »
OMB has released its long-awaited guidance for the implementation of new provisions in the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010. It describes a novel way to meet a statutory requirement to annually judge the performance of government programs. Agencies will have to put this new approach in place over the next two years. A provision buriedRead… Read more »
Recently, there’s been some debate about creativity – or lack thereof – within the Government workforce. However, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is taking a new approach to fostering innovation. OPM has brought (or bought) a piece of Silicon Valley into its Washington, D.C.-based headquarters. The Washington Post reports that OPM has created anRead… Read more »
Providing the highest level of customer service is paramount for any industry. For the federal government – whether it’s the I.R.S or the Department of Veterans Affairs – a diverse audience of citizens, military personnel and other government employees make the requirements of good customer service more complex than in other businesses. A new bipartisanRead… Read more »
OMB has released a new performance framework for the federal government. It is embedded in its guidance to agencies on how they should prepare their budget requests for fiscal year 2014, which is called OMB Circular A-11. Last week, the Office of Management and Budget released its annual technical guidance to agencies regarding how theyRead… Read more »
The World Bank held a series of seminars this past Spring on the state of the international public sector performance and results movement over the past two decades. I came away more encouraged than I had expected regarding advances in several developing nations – with implications for the more developed countries. The World Bank heldRead… Read more »
In 1992 when some of you NextGen attendees were small, a report came out on applying entrepreneurial principles to make government more effective. Authors David Osborne and Ted Gaebler described why performance measures are important: • What gets measured gets done. • If you can’t measure results, you can’t tell success from failure. • IfRead… Read more »