Senate Kickstarts Government Performance Task Force
By Elizabeth Newell
The Senate Budget Committee yesterday announced the creation of a new Task Force on Government Performance. The task force, to be led by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., will examine the federal government's management framework and identify opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs and services, the committee said.
""This bipartisan group of Budget Committee members will focus on making our government run more efficiently and effectively,
and ensuring that we get the most out of the investment of taxpayer dollars," Sen. Kent Conrad, D-ND and chairman of the committee said. " As a former governor and business leader, Senator Warner has tremendous insight and knowledge in this area and is the ideal person to lead this effort. I thank him and the other members for agreeing to serve on the Task Force."
The task force will examine current measurement systems and how performance and program evaluation information is used during the budget process. It will examine best practices from public, private and nonprofit organization, as well as previous federal performance reform efforts. Sen. Warner said he is very grateful for the opportunity to lead the task force.
"I strongly believe in the mantra 'what gets measured gets done,'" he said. We have put together a terrific bipartisan group of senators to take on the difficult challenge of making our government agencies and programs perform better through better measurements, enhanced transparency and greater accountability."
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A good idea -- in concept. But, if your summary of the important points is at all on target I don't see what they're doing as a game-changer.
It's not a bad idea to "examine best practices" as long as enabling factors are also considered; too often things that sound good elsewhere don't fit or operate nearly as well when grafted onto different environments.
Focusing on "how performance and program evaluation information is used during the budget process" seems short-sighted. If the measures aren't any good in the first place, the HOW of their use will produce positive effects only by happenstance.
The senator largely is correct; "'what gets measured gets done.'" But, if you're measuring the wrong stuff, the wrong stuff gets done, and if you're measuring the right stuff in the wrong way, that, too, leads to misguided data-enhanced decision making.
Good measurement can be summarized as deploy down, improve up. The summary embodies all the important aspects: an aligned hierarchy of measures (and priorities!) that supports mission objectives; documentation at all levels to identify past and present performance and the ability to predict future performance; and, ongoing high-level engagement and advocacy.
EJC in ATL Posted Monday, October 26, 2009 7:46 AM"What gets measured gets done" is true, but less than half the story. Wrong measures can lead to the wrong recommendations. And worst of all, there are valuable things that cannot be measured either due to lack of technology, lack of knowledge, or for good moral reasons. Good leaders also know when measurement fails and finds other ways to improve than holding up a yardstick.
Dave B. Posted Monday, October 26, 2009 9:47 AM"Better measurements, enhanced transparency, and greater accountability" -- isn't that what OMB under Messrs. Orszag and Zients are already working on? Of course, if this is about improving "measurement, transparency, and accountability" for how the LEGISLATIVE-BRANCH performs - now that would be something!
Christopher Hanks. Posted Monday, October 26, 2009 2:15 PMJust as long as CS are asked to be held accountable or have job requirements. We are unaccountable and intend to remain that way
dan m ketter Posted Monday, October 26, 2009 5:42 PMIf you are waiting until you start to have measureable outcomes to determine efficiency and effectiveness, you have waited too long. If things are wrong at that point, resources have already been wasted. Programs and services need to be planned correctly from the beginning. Otherwise, you just end up with with the status quo ante - more fingerpointing at the end.
Lane Narrows Posted Tuesday, October 27, 2009 9:19 AM