It is good to be back from vacation feeling rested and refreshed. One of the joys of vacation is having that "ahaa" moment when something you have been puzzling over in your mind suddenly becomes clearer. It seems like taking time away from the desk and computer, letting the mind relax and letting go the synapses suddenly line up and you get the new moment of clarity. For me, coming off this vacation the clarity moment was about how we tell our performance stories in the public sector.
It was one of those moments as a facilitator/trainer that I knew would come, but never expected when it happens. I was doing a two day seminar on results-based performance measurement. We had learned the basics of building logic models and designing relevant indicators. One of the participants then asked The Question: if you only had two indicators to report on - which would you choose? It was one of those moments where I could weasel out ("It depends!") or I could do the hard work and really try to answer the question with some insight. I took a deep breath, paused for a moment ("Great question, thank you for that!) and thought about it.
As senior managers of public sector programs and policy, we take tax payers money to invest in activities and produce outputs that contribute to outcomes and impact. In the final analysis there are only two things that matter: efficiency (did we use the resources wisely - did we do things right) and effectiveness (did we do the right things) that contributes positively to the impacts we are looking to enhance.
If we are restricted to just two performance indicators to tell our results-based performance story then those are the two: an efficiency indicator that helps explain how well we used our resources and and an outcome indicator that tells us how well we contribute to desired impacts.
So often we get caught up in designing several dozen indicators for a program. We know full well that we do not have the time, capacity or the data available to tell a full story on all of those dimensions. If we just started with two indicators: one on efficiency, and one on outcomes we would have 80% of the performance story we need to tell. That makes live a lot easier.
Taxpayers and our elected officials want to know how well we are using their money. We have a responsibility as public sector senior managers and executives to use the resources given to us wisely. We also have a responsibility to measure the contribution and impact of that investment - so that if the results are not positive that we can make better policy and investment decisions to ensure that the expected results can be produced. The ability to get the resources we need to make a difference in our work is totally dependent on our ability to tell compelling and authentic performance stories. Efficiency and effectiveness is the foundation of that story.
Luckily, it was a good answer! It resulted in a valuable discussion with the participants on focusing on the relevant few indicators, rather than the comprehensive many. Looking at the projects and programs under your management - if you could only have two indicators - one efficiency and one effectiveness - what would they be. In future posts we'll explore how to use Service Delivery Models to identify the best indicators.
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Feel free to contact me by email or follow me on LinkedIn. For further information on data driven impact and data driven government, visit my website at www.datadrivengovernment.ca.
