ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Performance Management
Improving Local Government Performance in Louisville: ‘It’s All About The People’
Bill Lucia, Route Fifty
The deputy director of performance management in Kentucky’s largest city shares some tips about developing and keeping talented staff.
Improving Engagement Scores Is the Wrong Goal
Howard Risher, Government Executive
A better measure would be employees’ impact on agency performance.

Analytics/Evaluation
The Other Pay for Success: The Promise and Peril of Paying for Outcomes
Patrick Lester, Social Innovation Research Center
Outcomes-based funding – payments to social service and other providers based at least in part on the results they achieve – is an idea that has been around for decades. Unfortunately, the history of this other version of pay-for-success has been far from universally positive.
Outcomes-based government: New mindset for 21st century solutions
Jim Shelton and Marta Urquilla, The Hill
Government has a responsibility to ask whether its investments had an impact, and how much relative to costs. To do so requires shifting to a new mindset.
National Science Foundation building big data hubs, spokes
Aaron Boyd, Federal Times
The National Science Foundation announced a set of grants and a slate of upcoming solicitations to boost its big data capabilities and forward the progress of science.
Obama wants regulations to be effective, but agencies are ignoring his orders, study finds
Lisa Rein, Washington Post
According to a new analysis, few regulations are ever tracked for how well they’re working.

Leadership
White House Announces Inaugural Participants in Program to Develop New Federal Leaders
Eric Katz, Government Executive
Fellows went through “rigorous” selection process and come from “all walks of life,” OPM says.

Performance Management
Goal Power: Use It, or It’s Useless
Shelley Metzenbaum, Government Executive
If cross-agency priority goals are viewed as an annoying requirement, they won’t work.

Analytics/Evaluation
A Tipping Point on Evidence-Based Policymaking
Susan Urahn, Governing
More and more, governments are turning to data to answer a crucial question: What works?

Collaboration
Strengthening Connective Links in Government
John Kamensky, Business of Government
Over the past five years, the Obama administration has pursued a host of innovation-fostering initiatives that work to strengthen the connective links among and within federal agencies.

Innovation
Applying behavioral insights through the EAST (Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely) framework: An interview with Simon Ruda, UK Behavioral Insights Team
Andy Feldman, GovInnovator Blog
How can public leaders apply the insights of behavioral economics and other behavioral sciences to improve results? A simplified framework for the application of behavioral insights provides a useful way to start.

Open Government
Agencies still searching for a way out of their own data silos
Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Radio
Agencies are still opening up and tying together data within their own individual silos. Breaking down those walls and drawing connections between them will take more time, as agencies implement the DATA Act.

Presidential Transition
Report outlines road map for 2017 administration
Carten Cordell, Federal Times
The Partnership for Public Service has partnered with The IBM Center for The Business of Government to develop a management roadmap for the next administration.

Collaboration
How to enable coordination and integration among agencies
Dan Chenok and Alan Howze, Federal Times
How can the next administration overcome the obstacles that make it difficult to achieve enterprise government?

Innovation
Challenge.gov redux: How GSA helps the government change
Steve Kelman, Federal Computer Week
To bring about change a critical element is the presence of governmentwide entities with the capacity to facilitate change, by acting as cheerleaders for innovation and providing technical assistance to agencies.
The Rise of Agency Innovation Labs
Hallie Golden, Nextgov
The White House wants more federal agencies to tap into creative ideas from their employees’ heads by launching innovation labs.
Civic Graph Charts the New World of Civic Tech
Jason Shueh, Government Technology
Microsoft’s innovation teams launch a map of crowdsourced insights for civic tech leadership and organizations.

Open Government
How the Data Act reveals what agencies don’t know
Zach Noble, Federal Computer Week
Can centralized, standardized looks at agencywide data uncover challenges and opportunities that have always been lurking?
Making DATA Act Real Means Working Nights and Weekends
Charles Clark, Government Executive
Financial management leaders remain hopeful on standardizing data to measure program performance.
GSA Hackathon 2: twice as big and open to govvies
Zach Noble, Federal Computer Week
In a sequel to its spring hackathon, GSA awarded thousands in prizes to outside techies, and looked to bring some participants on board full time.

Performance Management
Agencies set 92 priority goals for final years of Obama administration
Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Radio
OMB released a set of 92 agency priority goals for the final year of the Obama administration — 40 percent of which are new.
White House Creates New Leadership Group to Help Execute Final Agency Goals
Eric Katz, Government Executive
Federal agencies released their final “priority goals” last week, laying out 92 objectives they will focus on before the next president is sworn in. For the first time the Performance Improvement Council has created a group to share common themes and challenges facing agencies as they attempt to reach their goals.

Analytics/Evaluation
HHS fraud teams turn page in big data movement
Nicole Ogrysko, Federal News Radio
Agencies like HHS and its Office of Inspector General are finding new uses for data and predictive analytics to weed out waste, fraud and abuse.

Collaboration
Enterprise government: How the next administration can better serve citizens
Dan Chenok and Alan Howze, Federal Times
Many priorities of the new administration won’t line up neatly with the agency structure of the federal government, and achieving them will require that agencies work together as an “enterprise government” – collaborating and integrating programs and activities across agencies.

Customer Service
Smiley faces come to federal government customer service
Steve Kelman, Federal Computer Week
Users of certain U.S. government services can now rate their customer experience in one easy step.

Innovation
Challenge.gov and change in government
Steve Kelman, Federal Computer Week
Challenges and other pay-for-success procurements are proof that government can reinvent for the better.
What’s Next for Digital Government? Look Beyond ‘Silicon Valley Superheroes’
Jack Moore, Nextgov
The next phase of the strategy to inculcate innovative digital practices in the halls of government might be to focus on the smartest people already in the room.
Boston’s Innovation District: A Case Study of Cross-Sector Collaboration and Public Entrepreneurship
Route Fifty
Emerging in urban centers across the country, city-level innovation districts are geographically distinct areas intended to attract cutting-edge companies, research institutions, startups, accelerators, and other related entities, creating a dense community of innovators and entrepreneurs.
Three Practical Steps for Fostering Innovation
Ron Ash, Federal Computer Week
How to translate ideas into reality despite the barriers.

Performance Management
Are Agencies Using Performance Info to Make Decisions?
John Kamensky, Government Executive’
Results are mixed, but reviews are boosting collaboration.
‘Data-driven reviews’ and agency performance
Steve Kelman, Federal Computer Week
The author takes heart that so many agency heads are leading “STAT”-style meetings.
Will New Regs Trigger Better Executive Performance?
Howard Risher, Government Executive
The focus is on public policy issues, not day-to-day management.

Analytics/Evaluation
Lots of data, lots of fears
Zach Noble, Federal Computer Week
A new survey shows many federal leaders are worried they don’t have what it takes to effectively tackle big data projects.

Customer Service
Enterprise Government: How the Next Administration Can Better Serve Citizens (Part One)
Dan Chenok and Alan Howze, Business of Government
Many priorities won’t line up neatly with the agency structure of the federal government, and achieving them will require that agencies work together as an “enterprise government” — collaborating and integrating programs and activities to achieve common goals and objectives.
Data and the Opportunity to Rethink Human Services
B.J. Walker and Tiffany Dovey Fishman, Governing
Bringing new technology and analytics to bear is critical for transformational outcomes.

Innovation
Challenge.gov keeps eyes on the prize
Mark Rockwell, Federal Computer Week
At age 5, Challenge.gov is opening doors to the federal market for problem solvers, but it may never be a vehicle for large-scale IT projects.
White House Renews Bet on the Creativity of the Crowd
Mohana Ravindranath, Nextgov
Five years after unveiling Challenge.gov, the White House is ramping up its investment in the ingenuity of everyday citizens.
White House Plans to Grow U.S. Digital Services, 18F in 2016
Jason Shueh, Government Technology
White House Senior Adviser and former U.S. CTO Todd Park reports that despite potential funding cuts, staff at the two agencies will reach 500 by the end of 2016.
Using behavioral insights to improve government performance: An interview with Maya Shankar, Chair, White House Social and Behavioral Science Team
Andy Feldman, Gov Innovator Podcast
the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team has released its first annual report that details the results of 15 different projects to apply insights from behavioral sciences to improve program outcomes.

Open Government
What Are the DATA Act’s Implications for Federal Agencies?
Jeff Adams, Business of Government
A new law passed in 2014 requires substantial changes in how federal agencies track and report their spending. The first step is standardizing reporting of financial data, which is underway, but more is coming – with a deadline of May 2017 for full compliance.