ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

A Bipartisan Vote for Better Customer Service

Government Executive

Under a House-passed bill, OMB would create metrics and collect data to measure the quality of service delivery by federal agencies. Agency officials would have to establish their own metrics and work throughout various offices and components to ensure compliance, while also collaborating with the new federal lead at OMB.

A Survey of 1 Million Federal Employee Reflects Low Morale

Washington Post

While some agencies have faltered, the 2023 ratings mark the first government-wide increase since 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc. More than 1 million federal workers from 532 agencies and subcomponents responded to the survey, the greatest response ever in the Best Places rankings.

The Power of Objective Evidence

Urban Institute (Podcast; 25 min.)

Justin Milner, executive vice president of evidence and evaluation at Arnold Ventures, joins Urban Institute executive vice president Kimberlyn Leary for a conversation about the role and challenges of using evidence to shape policy, philanthropy, and learning agendas.

Building a Data-Driven Culture: Three Mistakes to Avoid

MITSloan Management Review

When people resist changing the way they make decisions, well-intentioned data science projects are doomed. Here’s how to overcome key challenges, such as recommendations that were counterintuitive: “The graveyard of data science initiatives is filled with solutions that are advanced, accurate, and well-meaning yet unused.”

Using Foresight to Create the Future We Want

Stanford Social Innovation Review

The future is having a moment. Philanthropic and nonprofit organizations can use the foresight tools long championed by private industry to build more desirable futures for their communities.

Resource of the Week: A Futures Guidebook: A Curriculum for Anticipatory Governance

Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development

OECD identified what is available, what works, and what is still missing in equipping public officials with the tools, mindsets, and practical approaches to build anticipatory innovation into their governance, policy-making, and service delivery work.

Veterans Affairs Department Urged to Tighten Contract Performance Standards

NextGov

Three Democratic senators are pressing the Department of Veterans Affairs to prioritize stronger accountability standards as it negotiates a new one-year contract with Oracle Cerner to deliver its electronic health record system. 

Blueprint for Using Behavioral Science in Evidence-Based Policymaking

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Successfully leveraging social and behavioral science allows the federal government to produce more efficient and effective efforts with more positive, meaningful, and equitable outcomes for all individuals. The failure to understand and address the social and behavioral dimensions of issues reduces effectiveness of policies, programs, and outcomes for the American public and risks unintended consequences.

Baltimore County Debuts Its New Strategic Plan

National Academy of Public Administration

The goals of the plan – which include facilitating vibrant communities, equitable decision making, workforce empowerment, and government accountability – all reflect back on NAPA’s Grand Challenges to help drive public administration into a brighter future.

Why Infrastructure Is So Hard to Fix

TIME 

Great piece on how a consortium of civil society groups have come together to support the Local Infrastructure Hub to navigate federal grant application and reporting processes, lamenting: “ Technical assistance, and, critically, support for local innovation, data, and project management muscle should be built into federal investments.”

Resource of the Week:

An Evaluation Policy Guide: Results for America

This Guide is intended to help government policymakers trying to make better decisions and deliver faster results. Governments are at different stages of their evaluation and data-driven decision-making journeys. This Guide was developed to support both building new evaluation policies and evolving current practices.

Long-Time OMB Official Moves to Social Security

Federal News Network

A long-time official at the Office of Management and Budget is taking on a new role at the Social Security Administration. Dustin Brown is the SSA’s new chief operating officer and acting chief of staff. . . And in related news . . . . 

Social Security Launches Public Data Hub

Federal News Network

Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley has been on the job for over 100 days, and now the public has the opportunity to follow along with his work against stated agency goals on how SSA serves customers. . . . This week, SSA launched a page dedicated to showcasing data around O’Malley’s top priorities to fix customer service problems at the agency charged with delivering disability benefits, retirement payments and more. 

Resource of the Week: Towards Generally Accepted Performance Principles

The Commonwealth Secretariat

Praja Trivedi and  Marc Holzer’s monograph for the Commonwealth Secretariat develops a set of 16 principles for creating highly effective governments. It is based on research, publications, and insights from panelists at various international forums.