ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Management
Reconstructing the Administrative State
Donald Kettl and Paul Verkuil, Government Executive
Five ways to recover from the shutdown.
Employees Should Be Managed as Valued Assets
Howard Risher, Government Executive
Good government will never be achieved without a well-qualified and committed workforce.
The earthquake that may cause a retirement tsunami
Jeff Neal, Federal News Network
Another government shutdown may be the earthquake that causes the retirement tsunami to finally strike.

Customer Service
Customer Satisfaction Drops Across Federal Government
Frank Konkel, Nextgov
The federal government’s 11-year high in customer satisfaction—achieved last year following two years of progress—was short-lived.

Innovation
Five Paradoxes of an Innovation Culture
John Kamensky, Government Executive
They’re hard to create, and hard to sustain.
GAO creates new team to ‘enhance and expand’ science and technology work
Tajha Chappellet-Lanier, FedScoop
GAO has created a new team to focus on its science and technology work, as the congressional agency aims to meet the increasing demand for access to such expertise.
Harnessing Innovation in the Opioid Fight
James Oddo, Governing
Civic hackathons are one way to build new tools that can augment existing efforts to combat the epidemic.
Cultivating, Not Just Calculating, Social Impact
Moaz Brown, Stanford Social Innovation Review
A new impact investing metric can not only help investors estimate the social impact of their investments, but also foster more thoughtful strategies for promoting social and environmental good.
How Artificial Intelligence Can Transform Government
Steve Bennett, Nextgov
Private businesses already use AI to find efficiencies in their own business and improve the return-on-investment of products and projects.

Management
Last One Out, Turn Off the Lights
Howard Risher, Government Executive
For years, academics and civil service watchers have been warning about the coming retirement wave of federal workers. It may very well be upon us.
Amid government shutdown, commission wants to make public service popular again
Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Network
Congress tasked an 11-member Commission on Military, National and Public Service back in 2015 to find ways to encourage more Americans to serve their country.
Navy needs to follow these steps to make pay for performance work
Scott Maucione, Federal News Network
As the Navy announces the start of its first ever pay for performance pilot, the initiative will have to contend with the mixed history of similar programs in the civilian Defense realm.

Analytics/Evaluation
Evidence-based policy bill passage sets stage for upcoming federal data strategy
Jory Heckman, Federal News Network
Stakeholders and former government officials who laid the groundwork for the passage of a landmark data transparency bill say the new law will help pave the way for a broader federal data strategy the Trump administration expects to roll out in the coming weeks.
Opportunity is knocking: Create an evidence-based culture with new policymaking law
Robert Shea and Robert Hahn, Federal News Network
Robert Shea and Robert Hahn, members of the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, offer six ideas for agencies to begin taking advantage of new evidence-based policymaking law.
One Small Step for Sensible Policymaking
Peter Orszag, Bloomberg
President Trump just signed a new law to help measure the effectiveness of government programs. That’s good, but not good enough.

Customer Service
How End-User Feedback Can Become a Nonprofit’s Innovation Engine
Frank Daidone and Benilda Samuels, Stanford Social Innovation Review
Nurse-Family Partnership has institutionalized the practice of gathering end-user and partner feedback, influencing changes to its systems, services, and business model.

Management
How the 2019 shutdown could impact a ‘whole generation of workers’
Jessie Bur, Federal Times
The lengthy, partial government shutdown will likely have negative impacts on both recruiting and retention afforts at agencies and contractors.
Navy starts small with pay for performance pilot
Scott Maucione, Federal News Network
The Navy is experimenting with a way to reward sailors for good work.
Why ‘Nudge’ Policies Should Be Used Gently
Alan Ehrenhalt, Governing
Behavioral economics is a powerful tool to encourage people to make certain decisions, but governments need to use it with caution.

Innovation
When Should a City Hire a Chief Innovation Officer?
Zack Quaintance, Government Technology
Although the position is an increasingly common one for local governments, cities that don’t yet have one must still carefully weigh a number of factors before deciding to make the move.

Open Government
Open Federal Data is Now the Law of the Land
Jack Corrigan, Nextgov
President Trump signed the OPEN Government Data Act into law, requiring agencies to publish machine-readable data and appoint chief data officers.

Reorganization
10 Things to Know About Government Reorganizations
Alan Balutis, Government Executive
The “soft” stuff turns out to be the hard stuff.

Management
Shutdown entering uncharted waters, with impacts on 2020 budgeting
Adam Mazmanian, Federal Computer Week
Reopening government agencies after a shutdown and picking up required activity from a full stop carries presents serious challenges, and a prolonged delay will also have an impact on future budget plans.
Bridging the 2 Worlds of Performance Improvement
Howard Risher, Governing
The private sector has long blended measurement and workforce management. Often in government that’s not the way it works.
What Federal HR Could Learn from Tennessee’s Reforms
Steve Goodrich, Government Executive
What the state has accomplished could offer lessons for civil service reform.
The Key to Modernizing the Public-Sector Workforce
Noelle Knell, Government Technology
Studies show American workers are changing jobs more frequently than ever before — government workers included. Updating the workplace for public-sector staff is just as key as any technology evolution.

Analytics/Evaluation
DOD audit sparks new financial database
Lauren Williams, Federal Computer Week
DOD’s acting deputy secretary of defense discussed the Pentagon’s pilot database to help track spending and utilize data analytics.

Innovation
Turning a Commitment to Outcomes Into Practice
Lisa Morrison Butler and Danielle Cerny, Governing
A vision for results-driven government isn’t enough. The way business is conducted needs to change.

Open Government
How the shutdown affects open data
Chase Gunter, Federal Computer Week
Developers rely on government data to build public-facing apps and services, and a lapse in appropriations can make things complicated.

Management
A Shutdown Would Have More Negative Effects than You Might Think
William G. Resh and Susannah Bruns Ali, Government Executive
The budget impasse threatens our future capacity to govern.
Shutdown ‘perfectly timed to prevent people from joining. government’
Chase Gunter, Federal Computer Week
The federal workforce takes the brunt of the shutdown impact, but there’s another group who may be dissuaded from joining government altogether: young prospective employees and students.
Improving Program Management
John Kamensky, Government Executive
Two years after the Program Management Improvement and Accountability Act was signed into law, slow but steady progress is being made.
Is the Federal Workforce Reaching Its Breaking Point?
Howard Risher, Government Executive
The level of burnout across government may be approaching a crisis point. The cost is substantial and growing worse.

Analytics/Evaluation
A Playbook for Designing Social Impact Measurement
Gwendolyn Reynolds, Lisa C. Cox, Nicholas Fritz, Daniel Hadley, and Jonathan R. Zadra, Stanford Social Innovation Review
Thinking about social impact measurement on a spectrum can help organizations develop a clear, evidence-based idea of how or why their programs work.
Social Impact Bonds: More Than One Approach
Gary Painter, Kevin Albertson, Chris Fox, and Chris O’Leary, Stanford Social Innovation Review
A look at how social impact bonds differ between projects and geographies, and how those differences impact practical implementation.

Open Government
Federal financial data hub fails to meet certain requirements
Jessie Bur, Federal Times
USAspending.gov meets some key open data best practices, but still falls short of some legislative and administrative requirements.