From Well-Managed to High Performance and the National Networks Supporting the Journey

We sat down with a few experts from high-performing organizations to discuss their paths to ‘high performance’ and the role national networks played along the way.

Our panelists walked us through the challenges and successes they met on the path to excellence and shared the lessons they learned. They explained how national networks and established frameworks can support performance management in local government, and why innovation and teamwork matter.

Meet your panelists:

• Lawrence Pollack - Budget Director, City of Fort Collins, CO
• Josh Edwards - Assistant Budget Director of Strategy and Performance and I-Team Leader, City of Durham, NC
• Joey Sherlock - Sr Applied Behavioral Researcher, Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight
• Lauren Su - Associate Director, Certification and Community, What Works Cities, Results for America

Journey to Excellence: Achieving Baldrige and Beyond

Lawrence started the conversation by describing Fort Collins’ path to winning the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a continuous process they call their ‘Journey to Excellence’.

Lawrence explained why they pursued the Baldrige Award in three words: focus, framework, and feedback. Baldrige provides a focus on the customer’s needs and expectations as the foundation for achieving excellence. The Baldrige Excellence Framework outlines best practice criteria for performance assessment, which is then used by specialized examiners to provide feedback on the organization’s strengths and opportunities for improvement (OFIs). Lawrence found this feedback invaluable. He pointed out that they won Baldrige in 2017, after a few years of applying, in the same year they received the most OFIs. That fits his point: the work never ends, and there is always room for improvement.

Once you have identified your opportunities for improvement, Lawrence suggested using them as key goals in your strategic plan. Fort Collins is now working to achieve Baldrige for a second time. Lawrence saw the 2017 award as a chance to keep growing and improving, not as a stopping point.

Getting Started on Your Journey

Josh opened by asking the group a question: ‘What journey are you on and where are you at on that journey?’

Then he walked us through Durham’s path to embracing strategic planning and developing a performance management culture. He stressed getting buy-in from leadership and learning to use data to make decisions and share them with the public, especially when allocating resources and making tangible improvements for citizens. Josh also explained the role that innovation played in Durham’s progress, including developing an internal innovation team, collaborating with What Works Cities, and eventually establishing an Office of Performance and Innovation.

Josh’s final takeaway for the group was the importance of asking for help. Partnerships matter on the way to high performance. We may each be on our own paths, but we will be most successful if we can share them.

The Human-Centered Approach to Local Government Performance

When Joey started working with Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight, he thought he was moving from the UK to the US for just six months. Three years later he is still here, continuing the Center’s work and partnering with the City of Durham.

The Center takes a psychological approach. Through experiments in its behavioral science and economics lab, Joey focuses on human-centered design and psychology-based decision making in local government performance. He believes randomized control groups are the best way to see how things are going and how to improve them.

Fostering Connection and Competition through Networks

Lauren shared how the What Works Cities (WWC) network gives cities a national standard of excellence, connects them with world-class experts to make informed decisions, and brings cities together to share best practices and learn from one another. WWC knows cities are competitive and want to serve their citizens, so it encourages benchmarking to drive higher performance.

In a later presentation, Lauren shared more about the WWC network and the benefits of joining it. See our What Works Cities recap.

Key Takeaways

You do not need large numbers of staff or resources to get started.

• Josh said to keep going regardless of capacity. It might take more time, and that is okay.
• Lawrence suggested prioritizing what is important. Ask yourself: what do you really need and what works best for your community?
• Lauren emphasized that you do not need a mature data culture to get started with WWC, so don’t let that hold you back. It is okay to start small and grow from there.

Relationships with other departments are encouraged.

• Lawrence says that at Fort Collins, successes are celebrated organization wide.
• In Durham, Josh works with many other departments on projects, which builds collaboration. Get the right people involved from across the organization.

Educate yourself on the different frameworks and network opportunities.

• Josh suggested thinking about the skills that you need, building capacity by training people, then using the ‘high performance’ frameworks as a benchmark of progress. It is more about the individual employees and their ability to share ideas, learn, and feel valued.
• Lauren brought up the WWC courses that they provide and encouraged enrollment.

It is okay to say ‘No’.

• Lawrence understands the desire to innovate, but you need to recognize where you get the most return on investment.

Just do it!

• Lawrence emphasized that there is no reason not to get started. You can use your strategic plan to provide organizational focus and then slowly build it out and grow from there.
• Josh recommends adding a new skill to your toolbox and then finding like-minded people who are doing the same to create an informal team. Figure out what you need to be successful and then pursue it.