In The Performance Institute’s ongoing effort to help create a transparent, accountable and performance-based government, we have collaborated with government agencies and other good-government groups to produce a number of research reports. These reports address government problems with logical, definable and measurable solutions, relying on our knowledge bank of performance measures and best-practice management strategies.
Transitioning to Performance-Based Government
In 2000, The Performance Institute worked with the government performance coalition to convene a series of “Transition Dialogues” on creating a management improvement agenda for the new President. The project resulted in numerous recommendations that were ultimately incorporated into the President’s Management Agenda. Read the report and the associated dialogue transcripts.
Implementing and Measuring Innovative Recruitment Strategies in Government
A comprehensive report cataloging various recruitment initiatives being managed by federal agencies and assessing their relative success in attracting quality employees to federal government service. The project will survey all federal agencies to identify the most innovative recruitment initiatives, examine common lessons learned, review measures of performance, and evaluate overall recruitment success.
Managing for Results at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The Performance Institute oversaw a major project looking at performance management at the U S Environmental Protection Agency and penned this groundbreaking report on instilling a results-oriented culture at the agency.
Creating a Performance-Based Electronic Government
In May 2002, a coalition of good government groups launched a research project to identify the “best practices” in defining and measuring e-government initiatives. A research team surveyed CIOs and IT staff from every federal agency to determine how they design, plan, justify, manage, and measure the success of their e-government initiatives. This report presents the findings of that research—providing case studies from various agencies and articulating a framework for the development and use of IT performance measures.
Stewards of a Changing Planet
In response to the call for a new strategic plan, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) convened five day-and-a-half-long meetings of external stakeholders in five cities: Seattle, New Orleans, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Boulder, Co. (there were two additional brief meetings in Cleveland and Puerto Rico). These external stakeholders were called together to discuss and debate what they feel the role of NOAA should be and to help brainstorm outcome goals, intermediate measures and strategies for achieving these goals. Using The Performance Institute’s Government Performance Logic Model, the stakeholders identified an extraordinarily detailed listing of directions NOAA can follow in order to develop its new strategic plan.
A Collaborative Approach for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and the Environment
Over the past decade, the United States has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of large and intensive wildland fires. As a result of the increased number, size and intensity of these fires, there has been a significant increase in the amount of money and resources spent to combat and suppress them as well as the economic and ecological impact of such severe and large-scale damage on the communities and environments that they impact. Not counting resources from state and local governments as well as private and nonprofit organizations, the Federal government alone spent over $2 billion in 2000 on activities to respond to and suppress wildland fires.
San Diego Citizens’ Budget Plan
In November, 2003, The Performance Institute launched the “San Diego Citizens’ Budget Project”- an initiative that would study the city’s budget with the objective of identifying cost savings and performance improvement reforms during the FY 2005 budget cycle. The San Diego Citizens’ Budget Project would provide the “local” government model for the application of performance, accountability, competition and transparency reforms. In addition to providing ideas on how the City could balance its budget in FY 2005 and beyond, the project seeks to focus the city, stakeholders, media and the general public on long-term reforms to the city’s budget and management processes.
California Citizens’ Budget 2003-2005
Although 45 states face budget shortfalls for the coming fiscal year, the State of California is faced with a deficit in the ballpark of $30 billion — by far the nation’s largest. Working with Reason Foundation, The Performance Institute applied the methodologies and strategies it routinely uses with federal agencies and programs to the State of California’s proposed FY04 budget. What we found was that governments facing budget deficits have more than two choices — It is no longer merely an issue of raising taxes or slashing budgets across the board. Our research yielded the Citizens’ Budget — a non-partisan, 150-page plan that details a set of 10 reforms that, if implemented, would close California’s $30 billion gap and actually produce a $6.5 billion surplus. The reforms recommended within the Citizens’ Budget can be applied to state and local budgets nationwide.