City of Germantown

City of Germantown: A Journey to Excellence Through Strategic Planning and Performance Management

Executive Summary

The City of Germantown, Tennessee went from a recession-recovering municipality to a nationally recognized model of excellence, earning the 2019 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. This case study explores how Germantown used strategic planning, citizen engagement, and ClearPoint Strategy's performance management software to get there, including recognition as a Forbes "Top 10 City for Working Families" and as home to Tennessee's highest-performing school district.

About the City of Germantown

Germantown, Tennessee, is a city in southeast Shelby County, near Memphis. The population was 41,333 at the 2020 census. In 2016, the City adopted a strategic plan, which it then called Germantown Forward 2030. Its five-year reevaluation produced Germantown Forward 2035, the plan the City publishes now. Germantown Forward 2035 is the result of the work of a resident steering committee. The plan emphasizes public safety, community engagement, quality of life, education, fiscal responsibility and natural resources. Progress is published on a public community dashboard. Its official site is germantown-tn.gov.

A Community of Excellence

Germantown's well-educated population expects exceptional service from its city government. The community has been named a "Top 10 City for Working Families" by Forbes, hosts the region's only Apple Store, and its Germantown Municipal School District has had the highest ACT scores in Tennessee since its inception. These achievements didn't happen by chance—they resulted from deliberate strategic planning and performance management.

The Vision: From Government to Corporate Model

A Different Framework

City Administrator Patrick Lawton returned from a conference with a bold vision. Still mindful of the aftermath of the 2008 recession, Lawton wanted to pursue renewed excellence through the Baldrige framework. The city took an unconventional approach for local government, drawing on the book "We Don't Make Widgets: Overcoming the Myths that Keep Government from Radically Improving."

Germantown adopted a corporate model: citizens became customers, city services became products, and outcomes became the focus. Rather than simply maintaining parks, the city concentrated on what citizens wanted—spaces to form community bonds, exercise, congregate, and enjoy the full benefits parks bring to a community.

Building Germantown Forward 2030: A Grassroots Strategic Plan

Community-Driven Development

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved a process to develop Germantown Forward 2030, a 15-year strategic plan to guide the community's growth and development. To give the plan grassroots ownership, the Board handed development to a 30-member steering committee representing all aspects of the community—diverse in age, race, gender, and neighborhood representation.

The year-long planning process, facilitated by city staff, aimed to understand and influence the future rather than simply prepare for it. It engaged citizens at every level: after numerous meetings, a town hall discussion with over 200 citizens reviewed the vision. Task forces of citizens then created action plans and measures based on nine key performance indicators, adding objectives, action items, and performance measures to track progress. Community members invested approximately 2,000 hours in the plan.

Strategic Focus Areas

The Germantown Forward 2030 plan centered on:

• Quality-of-life issues
• Fiscal responsibility
• Strong public safety
• Community engagement

These focus areas guided the city while aligning resources to bridge the gap between present conditions and desired outcomes.

Implementation: From Vision to Reality with ClearPoint Strategy

The Technology Partnership

Excel spreadsheets wouldn't suffice for executing the plan, so Germantown partnered with ClearPoint Strategy. This cloud-based software gave the city a centralized platform for managing performance measures, aligning strategic and operational goals, and increasing transparency with citizens.

De'Kisha Fondon, Germantown's Senior Budget & Performance Analyst and ClearPoint Community Advisory Board member, oversees both the city's overall budget and its performance management metrics as part of everyday operations.

Solving Pre-ClearPoint Challenges

Before ClearPoint, Germantown struggled with:

• Reliance on Excel and various disconnected software tools
• Lack of alignment and consistency across departments
• Different reporting methods and formats
• Time-consuming reviews and analysis
• No centralized location for data comparison

Achievements After Implementation

ClearPoint delivered these outcomes:

Centralized Operations: A single platform for managing performance data, streamlining reporting, and ensuring consistency across all departments.

Time Efficiency: Automated reporting features and an intuitive interface reduced time spent on data collection, analysis, and reporting, so the performance management team can focus on strategic tasks.

Strategic Alignment: The software made clear connections between strategic and operational goals, so departments can see how their actions contribute to the city's overall strategy.

Data-Driven Decisions: City leaders shifted from debating data accuracy and formatting to asking meaningful questions: "How much did it cost?", "How long did it take?", and "Did it have the impact we wanted?"

Continuous Improvement: The software's analysis capabilities helped identify areas for improvement and suggest actions for better results.

Transparency and Engagement: Germantown's Community Dashboard, powered by ClearPoint, enhanced transparency and citizen engagement by displaying real-time progress on strategic initiatives.

Operational Excellence

Every quarter, the City Administrator meets with each department director to review key metrics using "Business Plan" reports generated through ClearPoint. Directors can view high-level overviews of the strategic plan at any time, seeing clear alignment between goals, measures, and processes at all organizational levels. The reports are concise, with status icons that easily focus discussion on performance.

The Journey to Baldrige Excellence

State Recognition First

As a step toward national recognition, Germantown engaged with the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence, the state-based Baldrige program. Its work on Germantown Forward 2030 and the community dashboard won top honors from the Tennessee Center—an unofficial prerequisite for the national award.

The Baldrige Framework in Action

In 2019, Germantown prepared a 55-page application covering all seven Baldrige criteria for performance excellence:

1. Leadership
2. Strategy - Demonstrated through Germantown Forward 2030 and ClearPoint tracking
3. Customers - Exemplified by the transparent Community Dashboard
4. Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management - Enabled by ClearPoint's comprehensive tracking capabilities
5. Workforce
6. Operations
7. Results - Centralized in ClearPoint for easy reporting and sharing

Having much of the required information organized in ClearPoint made the application process more manageable, as the team could easily export data for the submission.

The Site Visit and Victory

Out of 26 applicants in 2019, only 12 received site visits. In October, Germantown hosted nine Baldrige examiners for a week-long deep dive into city operations. ClearPoint made it straightforward to show the required information as examiners interviewed leaders, reviewed documents, and verified findings from the initial application.

On November 12, 2019, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross delivered the news: Germantown had achieved its 10-year goal and was being honored with the 2019 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. At the time, the city became one of only four municipalities nationwide to receive this honor.

Key Success Factors

Several elements contributed to Germantown's transformation:

Systematic Approach: The city learned the importance of aligning processes and systems, being systematic across all operations.

Community Ownership: Involving citizens at every step created buy-in and ensured the plan reflected community values.

Technology Enablement: ClearPoint provided the infrastructure needed to track, measure, and report on progress effectively.

Leadership Commitment: From Patrick Lawton's initial vision to department-wide adoption, leadership drove the excellence journey.

Transparency: The public dashboard kept citizens informed and engaged throughout the process.

Looking Forward: Continuous Improvement

Germantown's leadership sees the Baldrige Award as a beginning, not an endpoint. The city planned to:

• Dig into feedback from the Baldrige application to identify improvement opportunities
• Update their Community Dashboard for Germantown Forward 2035
• Explore ClearPoint's artificial intelligence capabilities for advanced analysis and recommendations

Lessons for Other Municipalities

Germantown's journey offers lessons for other local governments:

1. Think Like a Business: Viewing citizens as customers and focusing on outcomes can change government services.
2. Invest in Community Engagement: The 2,000 hours citizens invested in the strategic plan created buy-in and ownership.
3. Choose the Right Tools: Moving beyond Excel to a platform like ClearPoint enables performance management.
4. Maintain Focus on Alignment: Ensuring all departments understand how their work contributes to overall strategy is crucial.
5. Embrace Transparency: Public dashboards and regular reporting build trust and accountability.
6. Commit to Excellence Frameworks: Pursuing recognized standards like Baldrige provides structure and validation for improvement efforts.

Conclusion

Germantown moved from a recession-recovering municipality to a Baldrige Award winner through strategic planning, citizen engagement, and effective performance management. With ClearPoint Strategy and a commitment to excellence, it built a model of municipal governance that prioritizes outcomes, transparency, and continuous improvement.

Their success shows that local governments can achieve private-sector levels of efficiency and effectiveness while keeping their public service mission. Germantown remains committed to the principle that excellence isn't a destination but a continuous journey of serving its citizens better each day.

‍