Literature on stat-driven government performance models:

Robert Behn, “The Five Big Errors of Performance Stat,” Governing Magazine, December 12, 2007 (pdf).

No clear purpose, no one person authorized to run the meetings, no dedicated analytic staff, no follow-up, no balance between brutal and bland.

Robert Behn, “PerformanceStat as a Leadership Strategy: It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Follow-Up,” A Paper Prepared for the Twelfth Annual Conference of The International Research Society for Public Management, March 26-28, 2008 (pdf).

The three principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration form the cornerstone of an open government. Transparency promotes accountability by providing the public with information about what the Government is doing. Participation allows members of the public to contribute ideas and expertise so that their government can make policies with the benefit of information that is widely dispersed in society. Collaboration improves the effectiveness of Government by encouraging partnerships and cooperation within the Federal Government, across levels of government, and between the Government and private institutions.

Robert Behn, “What All Mayors Would Like to Know About Baltimore’s CitiStat Performance Strategy,” The IBM Center for the Business of Government, September 2007 (pdf).

A comprehensive, 61-page report detailing the nuts and bolts of how to start a CitiStat-style process.

Robert Behn, “PerformanceStat Leadership Strategy,” Harvard Kennedy School of Government, November 2009 (pdf)

PerformanceStat requires data; but it is not a collection of miscellaneous data published on a Web site. PerformanceStat requires regular meetings; but it is not an occasional gathering at which agency directors recount their recent triumphs. Performance- Stat requires analysis; but it is not a clique of analysts who, independent of the leadership team, evaluate subunits or give orders.

Stephen Goldsmith, “Chasing the Wrong Goals Faster,” Governing Magazine, December 19, 2007.

Leadership, leadership, leadership. Measure value, not activities. Understand that better performance can typically be achieved — in short bursts — by temporary spikes in resources. Marginal improvements in the numbers resulting from much harder work may obscure the fact that the system being used is so antiquated and bogged down with bureaucracy that performance stat efforts may obscure the much more urgent need for redesigning the process from the ground up. Performance stat needs to ensure that professional managers have all the necessary knowledge to succeed. The performance measured should include how the public managers leverage results across the network, not just in their own domain.

Lenneal J. Henderson, “The Baltimore CitiStat Program: Performance and Accountability,” The IBM Center for the Business of Government, May 2003 (pdf).

Case studies of how Baltimore’s Department of Housing and Community Development and Department of Health are using CitiStat to improve management and accountability within those two departments. The report contains recommendations on how the CitiStat process can be improved and simplified for broader public use.

David Osborne & Peter Hutchinson, The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis, Basic Books, 2006. A preview of the book is available at Governing.com.

Budget challenges should be met by engaging in strategic reviews of government services, not across-the-board cuts. Governments should focus on ensuring quality delivery of services by increase accountability and using technology. The book uses examples of initiatives from hundreds of localities to show what works and what doesn’t, and how government at all levels can make changes to increase the effectiveness of its programs, reduce costs, and deliver services.

Robert Behn, “The Data Don’t Speak for Themselves,” Harvard Kennedy School of Government, March 2009 (pdf).

“The facts do not speak for themselves. Look for the ventriloquists in the wings.” When the data speak, they do so only through some framework, some theory, some causal model, some logical construct, some perception of the world and how it works. Beware the biases inherent in the framework that produces data. Focus instead on using data to support community priorities.

Noah Weiss, “Government by Numbers: How CitiStat’s hard data and straight talk saved Baltimore,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2007 (pdf).

Before CitiStat, Baltimore had one of the highest rates of child lead poisoning in the country. Yet in the previous 10 years, the city had not taken a single action to enforce its own rules for keeping children safe from lead. “CitiStat is helping us replace a culture of delay and avoidance with a culture of accountability and results,” summarized O’Malley. “It puts information into the hands of many managers, rather than a few. And this shared knowledge allows government to change and adjust more quickly to better serve the public.”

Nancy Pursley, “A Review of Rethinking Accountability,” USC Institute for Public Service and Policy Research, June 2002 (pdf).

Not even the most public-spirited government workers can succeed if they are hemmed in on all sides by rules, regulations, and procedures that make it virtually impossible to perform well. The most talented, dedicated, well-compensated, well-trained, and well-led civil servants cannot serve the public well if they are subject to perverse personnel practices that punish innovation, promote mediocrity, and proscribe flexibility.

Carl Fillichio, “Getting Ahead of the Curve: Baltimore and CitiStat,” PublicManager.org, June 13, 2008.

How does CitiStat work? Every two weeks, city agencies covered by the system must work up and submit reports on an extensive range of performance and human resources data and indicators. The reports range along a spectrum of information that usually includes progress toward agency goals and effectiveness in managing decisions such as overtime and employee leave. Twice monthly, the mayor, his deputy, and selected cabinet members grill agency heads and their management teams on what they have reported. These meetings take place in a specially designed briefing room, equipped with two projection screens that portray the report information. The mayor and his team (the mayor calls them his command staff) ask agency leaders to account for their performance.

Problems are identified, and when necessary the agencies get help to tackle them. Each two weeks’ worth of data reported by an agency frames short- and long-term adjustments of resources throughout the organization. The changes affect the agency’s pursuit of its mission immediately and over time; later meetings judge how effective they have been. Staff analysts assigned by CitiStat to each agency study reports, highlight important issues, and produce charts, maps, and photos that portray or supplement the data reported, all part of the screen displays at the biweekly sessions.

Additional resources:

Robert Behn has a long list of publications posted on his site at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/thebehnreport/

Read more about NolaStat here, or download this NolaStat brochure — and feel free to distribute.

You can also get a bumper sticker from the media toolkit to proudly display your support for government reform in New Orleans.