ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Analytics/Evaluation
The Missing Piece in OMB’s Push for High-Value Government
Andrew Feldman and Kathy Stack, Government Executive
The administration should seize the opportunity to catalyze high-value work at all levels of government.
Why Taking a Step Back From Social Impact Assessment Can Lead to Better Results
Anita Fuzi, Lidia Gryszkiewicz, and Dariusz Sikora, Stanford Social Innovation Review
Before diving into measurement, organizations must establish awareness of and readiness for impact in every aspect of their operations.

Collaboration
How to Build High Performing Teams
Harrison Tasoff, Government Executive
Government-funded research shows the major factor for success: connectedness.

Customer Service
How Leaders Can Get Customer Experience Results in 2019
Eric Keller and Kathy Conrad, Government Executive
Four concrete steps that will enable lasting improvements.
Building Organizational Muscle and Mindset to Gather Participant Feedback
Brad Dudding and Chris Watler, Stanford Social Innovation Review
How shifting attention from gathering data about clients to gathering data from them helped a criminal justice organization improve services for participants and increase equity in the process.

Innovation
Census Project Matches Your Agency’s Data with Civic Innovators
Aaron Boyd, Nextgov
Through The Opportunity Project, Census is connecting data-laden federal agencies with private-sector innovators who can use that data to solve real problems.

Performance Management
Not enough for OPM to claim ‘innovation’ in performance management, GAO says
Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Network
Chief human capital officers told GAO they’re seeking best practices, guidance and research on leading performance management concepts from OPM.
OPM Could Do More to Help Agencies Fight Perception High-Performers Aren’t Rewarded
Erich Wagner, Government Executive
GAO finds the government’s HR agency does not update its website enough, and it does not share its research into private sector innovations in performance management.
Time for a Three-Legged Measurement Stool
Fay Twersky, Stanford Social Innovation Review
Going beyond traditional monitoring and evaluation to focus on feedback can lead to new innovations in the social sector.

Analytics/Evaluation
Agencies look to bring partners into federal data strategy ‘conversation’
Jory Heckman, Federal News Network
With OMB soon to release the draft version of its federal data strategy, forward-thinking agency program offices see opportunities to leverage their data to get a better sense of how much performance they get out of each dollar in their budgets.

Customer Service
Engaged Employees Deliver Better Customer Service
Shannon Fitzgerald, Government Executive
Key lessons from the 2018 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.

Innovation
Help Tackle the Grand Challenges of Our Time
Teresa Gerton, Government Executive
The National Academy of Public Administration is launching a new initiative, “Grand Challenges in Public Administration,” to identify and address the biggest challenges that government faces through the 2020s.

Performance Management
OPM Grants Greater Flexibility With Senior Executive Personnel Appraisal Systems
Erich Wagner, Government Executive
Officials, senior executives group tout the changes as a move toward results-oriented compliance.
OPM to alleviate long-felt burdens on senior executive performance review process
Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Network
The Office of Personnel Management announced a series of changes that it said will alleviate existing burdens on agencies to prove their senior executives are meeting mission goals.

Customer Service
Trump admin looks to overhaul Paperwork Reduction Act to ease customer service overhaul
Jory Heckman, Federal News Network
Despite the momentum gathering around the Trump administration’s priority around transforming customer service in government, agencies still face challenges getting feedback from the public under the PRA.
What’s UX, what’s UI and what’s the hype?
Andrew Griffiths and Josh Wilson, FedScoop
Websites need to work the way users want them to work while allowing the owning organization to achieve their goals. Enter the practice of User Experience (UX) and the focus on User Interface (UI).

Innovation
First ‘Pay for Success’ Project for Veterans Underway
Liz Farmer, Governing
The VA is working with states and cities to use the innovative financing approach to help veterans with PTSD find gainful employment. If it’s successful, the payoff for investors is big.
Pay for Success offers support for unemployed veterans with PTSD
Kimberly Burrowes, Urban Institute
Many US veterans with PTSD remain undiagnosed or do not seek treatment. A pay for success project for the VA is hoping to change that, and it’s the first multistate PFS project to focus on veterans.
The New VA.gov Shows What’s Possible For Government Tech After the Healthcare.gov Disaster
Michael Coren, Government Executive
Expect to see more Silicon Valley–style site design in Washington, DC.

Analytics/Evaluation
Draft Federal Data Strategy Too ‘Unwieldy’ to Implement, Stakeholders Say
Aaron Boyd, Nextgov
Stakeholders who use, generate and rely on federal data got a chance to speak directly to fellows working on the strategy set for release next year.

Management
OPM offers up more guidance on implementing the rest of Trump’s executive orders
Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Network
Agencies have more guidance now from the Office of Personnel Management about how they should continue to comply with the president’s May executive orders — and respect a recent court order that invalidated several key provisions of them.

Reorganization
Expect ‘profound change’ with House oversight’s approach to federal workforce, government reform
Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Network
House Democrats say the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will refocus on investigations of the executive branch, questions of cabinet-level ethics and a new twist on issues that concern the federal workforce.
Arkansas’ Ambitious Plan to Reorganize State Government
Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene, Governing
The governor wants to downsize the number of cabinet-level agencies by more than half — without laying people off.

Open Government
When Citizen Engagement Becomes Too Much
Alan Ehrenhalt, Governing
Politicians say they want citizens to be involved. But it can make things harder to achieve.

Analytics/Evaluation
‘Laundry list of problems’ from DoD audit driving new data systems
David Thornton, Federal News Network
DoD Comptroller David Norquist said the audit forced the department to embrace data analytics on a more granular level, and that’s enabling better decision-making.
Why data management matters
Chris Prophett, Federal Computer Week
New technologies are changing government’s approach to data and cloud — or they should be.

Collaboration
Interagency programs to protect financial sector from cyber attacks off to a good start
Scott Maucione, Federal News Network
Pilots involve simple combined analytics, information sharing and small scale solutions.

Innovation
An Operating Model to Make Social Innovation Stick
Ann Mei Chang, Stanford Social Innovation Review
The former chief innovation officer at USAID outlines a way for social sector organizations and funders to build innovation into their DNA.
5 technologies agencies need for mission optimization
Tommy Gardner, Federal Computer Week
Making sense of the emerging technologies that promise to have a real impact.

Management
Engagement up, happiness stagnates in 2018 survey of feds
Chase Gunter, Federal Computer Week
Employee engagement saw a slight bump in 2018 over last year, but overall employee happiness stagnated, according to the newest Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey results.
The Agencies With the Biggest Gains—And Losses—in Employee Happiness
Erich Wagner, Government Executive
Education, Agriculture and some labor agencies’ satisfaction scores plummet.