How Collaboration is Changing N. Carolina, One Project at a Time

RouteFifty
States that want to tap universities and philanthropies to find solutions to policy challenges using the best research, evidence and data should look at how one state mastered the communications and logistics essential for effective partnerships.

Oregon Obscures Effectiveness of Paid Leave Program

Governing

A public dashboard shows only some of the numbers pertaining to the state’s family and medical leave program that launched in September, furthering distrust in a system that has already faced a variety of issues.

Resource of the Week: Our Take on What Matters

Delivery Associates

Insights, videos, books, and podcasts by the staff of Delivery Associates, a consultancy founded by Sir Michael Barber, the pioneer of Tony Blair’s Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit.

How Do We Create Systems to Support the Use of Evidence?

Administration on Children & Families, US HHS

There is a growing body of research that suggests investment is needed in “evidence-using systems” that facilitate the use of evidence. Such systems, or interventions, to facilitate evidence use span from linear (i.e. traditional dissemination efforts) to relational (i.e. fellowships or research-practice partnerships) and systems (i.e. leadership, infrastructure) approaches.

Response to Response Times

Barrett & Greene

When it comes to many vital public services, including police, fire and EMS, one of the primary – and sometimes the only – performance measurement that people use is response time. On the surface, this makes a lot of sense. . . . All that said, however, response times are often misunderstood. Sometimes, when they are overemphasized, they can actually lead to emergencies themselves.

New York City’s TrashStat

The New Yorker

On Thursday mornings, New York City Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch attends a meeting called Trash Dash. Whereas CompStat involves meetings about changes in crime stats—murders, shootings, and robberies—Trash Dash involves Sanitation brass grilling lower-ranked officers about missed collections, dirty conditions, and street-sweeping efficacies. 

D.C. Police Opens ‘Real-Time Crime Center’

Washington Post

D.C. police opened the Real-Time Crime Center, the 24-hour staffed nerve center where police watch live video feeds from numerous locations and coordinate responses. 

Quantum Leaps in Public Sector Performance?

Governing

Deloitte Center for Government Insights’ Government Trends of 2024 report concludes that AI and other technologies alone aren’t sufficient. True transformation necessitates a more holistic approach, one that combines technological innovation with process reinvention, human-centered design, behavioral insights and cross-sector collaborations.

AI, Analytics, Data and Baseball: Moneyball 2.0

Washington Post

Is Fredrick Taylor back in fashion? Improving baseball performance via Driveline involves video analysis that breaks down individual muscles and movements by the inch. Hardware (bats and balls) is equipped with software (sensors) that tracks every baseball action and renders them into equations that measure force and torque. A fun article to start off baseball season!

When Are Best Practices “Best?”

Barrett & Greene 

“Best practices, we’d argue, should be something like plug-and-play models that others can pick up and use with a reasonable assurance of success.” . . . . However, there “are five reasons we are concerned when a best practice is ballyhooed by a government official.”

Extending the Pandemic Analytics Center

Government Executive

Oversight officials say that the Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence needs to survive past the looming sunset date, unlike a similar analytics center used to oversee stimulus spending that shuttered in 2015. A bipartisan team of lawmakers introduced legislation to keep the interagency fraud center open.

Measuring Administrative Burden

Don Moynihan/SubStack

“My insight from spending a lot of time studying performance management in government is that you need different tools and different measures for different purposes. One tool that has been missing is a specialized measure of user experienced burden.” He and colleagues set out to develop one.

Are VA Metrics Reliable for its Community Care Program?

U.S. Government Accountability Office

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) met some but not all of the statutory requirements related to the administration of the Veterans Community Care Program. VA developed 15 metrics that measure periods of time within its community care scheduling process. However, GAO found four of the 15 metrics to be unreliable, as these metrics also require data on provider referral acceptance dates in order to be calculated.

Using AI to Analyze Performance Data & Trends

Barrett & Greene

The engagement and analytics company, Polco, is currently field testing its own AI tool using its proprietary treasure trove of public sector data. Dubbed “Polly”, it is designed to use real-time performance management data, comparisons, and historical trends for strategic planning, budgeting, grant applications, performance management, and more. It is projected to be available to users by May.

Resource of the Week: The On-Line Journal Vital City

Vital City offers actionable strategies to build thriving cities. Features original commentary, new research, and data analysis from leading thinkers, practitioners, and neighborhood voices (with a New York City focus). For example: Issue 7 – “Does Evidence Matter? Research Meets the Real World.”

Plugging Leaks in Evidence Pipeline

Barrett & Greene (Gary VanLandingham)

Using evaluation reports to support evidence-based policymaking faces a series of barriers because of leaks in the evidence pipeline. A major leak occurs because many evaluation reports cannot be accessed by research clearinghouses, which scan academic journals, government websites, and research funders to identify studies that have assessed program impacts. This is largely because many evaluation sponsors do not make the studies they have funded available to outside stakeholders.  

Performance Budgets at the Local Level

StrategiSys (John Mercer)

Here’s an illustration of a local government performance budget using a 3-level cascade of goals and measures for a Parks & Recreation Department.

Fiscal Year 2025: Are We Happy Yet?

IBM Center for The Business of Government

Budgets typically are about making promises concerning the future. However, the President’s recently released fiscal year 2025 budget also includes an assessment of the performance of government management initiatives over the past year, in addition to proposals for the coming year, with a prominent emphasis on a new emphasis on improving organizational health and performance.

How AI May Affect Public Performance (podcast)

The National Center for Public Performance (NCPP)⁠ and the Center for Innovation and Change Leadership (CICL) at Suffolk University 

Listen to an engaging webinar on the topics of Artificial Intelligence and public performance. Our panelists, Alan Shark and Ram Dhan Yadav Katamaraja, along with NCPP Director Aroon Manoharan and Suffolk University Professor, Kaushik Ghosh, deep dive into a conversation about the transformative impact of AI on government operations, workforce training, and societal norms.

Inspector General Report: Use of Data Analytics

Department of Energy

We initiated this review to introduce the legal framework and leading practices supporting the use of data access, management, and analytics while highlighting past oversight efforts related to the insufficient use of data analytics within the Department.

Pay for Results/Social Impact Bonds Are a Flawed Theory

Centre for Public Impact

“The whole concept of Payment by Results rests on a provably incorrect premise—that outcomes are delivered.” A provocative white paper by Samantha Magne discusses the need to move on from this idea and towards alternative approaches.

Resource of the Week: Federal Permitting Dashboard

The Permitting Dashboard is an online tool for federal agencies, project developers, and the public to track federal environmental reviews and authorization processes for large and complex infrastructure projects. It is part of a governmentwide effort to improve coordination, transparency and accountability.