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What is Managing for Results? Managing for Results is a complete management and leadership strategy that, when fully implemented, brings together people, resources and results for customers. Managing for Results integrates key elements from planning, employee performance, budgeting, data collection, reporting, evaluating and decision-making in a way that each stage influences the desired result.
Much of what Pinal County does right now is task-oriented. For example, we maintain roads, we vaccinate children or we administer programs for the state. These are the answers to questions that begin with “What does the county do?” Managing for Results will give each of us the tools to answer the bigger questions of what do we do, why do we do it, for whom do we do it and what is the desired result.
Managing for Results will give us the tools and the words to tell our customers – taxpayers, visitors, businesses, industries and people who want to relocate – the value residents are getting for their tax dollars. Whose idea is this? County elected and appointed officials and their staffs have agreed to adopt Managing for Results after seeing the dramatic, healthy and positive changes other government organizations have experienced.
The Managing for Results integrated management system is a trademarked leadership and management methodology that has been used in governments from coast to coast. The program is used in Nashville-Davidson County in Tennessee, Maricopa County, the Cities of Austin, Texas and Oklahoma City, the Chula Vista (California) Fire Department and many other branches of government. What does it involve? One of the most important aspects of Managing for Results is that we do it, we drive it, we own it. It isn’t an event that occurs and goes away. This isn’t the “trend of the week.” Your county elected and appointed officials and their management teams have made a commitment to a new way of doing business that ties the results we desire to our budget. How we do business in the future will be based on choices that we make for ourselves in the Managing for Results process.
A select group of county employees have become certified as Managing for Results Facilitators. Their job, in part, is to coach branches of Pinal County government as they develop their plans and then work as the county’s internal implementation team. These county employees, several of whom have been on staff for a while, will work with the specific branches of government to focus on results for the customer, not just tasks. What does the process involve? It takes an investment of time, earnest effort, energy and some creative thinking. Managing for Results involves strategic thinking and shifting your focus to the perspective of the customer – i.e. what is the customer’s experience like when he or she encounters me or my work unit. How does the customer benefit? In the case of work units that provide support services to other county departments, the questions are the same.
Here is a made-up example to illustrate the point: Let’s say the Information Technology staff establishes a performance measure that says: Systems will be available to 99 percent of the time during regular business hours. The department sets that goal with the end-user or customer in mind. Doing so meets a larger goal of minimizing employee disruption or, in the case of searchable databases that are accessed through the Internet; this goal enhances the internal and external customer’s experience. What are the desired countywide results? County elected and appointed officials and their management staff have identified several desired objectives that will result from the implementation of Managing for Results. Those include:
Internal audiences:
- To identify strategic priorities and allocate resources to those priorities.
- To tie funding to results, costs to activities and to forecast demand for services.
- To obtain the performance information we need to make good operational decisions.
- To foster more cross-departmental work and communication.
- For employees to know how their work product affects the county vision and success.
External audiences:
- For the public to perceive Pinal County as a competent, ethical, effective organization.
- For residents to more fully understand what the county does—its priorities, direction and successes.
- To improve long-range planning, i.e. to better identify infrastructure needs before they become critical.
- To improve accountability and responsibility in serving the public.
- To deliver services in a cost-effective way.
Earlier you mentioned “performance measures.” What is a performance measure? A good performance measure is a lot like a good mission statement. It tells you, your department, your staff and your customer what you do, why you do it and what the desired result is. Here are some examples:
- By 2010, the Pinal County Public Health District will achieve 80 percent childhood immunization.
- By 2010, Pinal County departments will experience excellent customer service by the IT department as evidenced by 75 percent of customer center calls receiving a resolution to their issue on the first call/contact.
- The citizens and local governing bodies of Pinal County will benefit from an enhanced awareness of air quality risk and air quality pollution mitigation as evidenced by: by 2010, the number of people who participate in the travel reduction program will increase from X to Y.
- Example from Maricopa County: By December 31, 2007, the Flood Control District will have the requisite number of 500 points to increase its FEMA CRS rating from a level 5 to a level 4 thereby saving property owners in unincorporated Maricopa County an additional 5% on their annual flood insurance premiums.
- Example from Maricopa County Library District: By June 30, 2009, increase the number of active (card is used at least 3 times in 12 months) cardholders by 40% over cardholders on June 30, 2004.
How will I stay informed about Managing for Results? This website will be used to post plans as they are developed and approved by the appropriate elected officials. Once sufficient data has been compiled over a sufficient timeline, a progress report will be issued summarizing key measures and results. |
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