2. Performance Management

The governor established the framework for statewide performance management through the implementation of the Arizona Management System (AMS). At the executive level, the Governor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) and the Government Transformation Office (GTO) collaborate in overseeing strategic planning, performance data management, and process improvement through structured problem-solving. GTO has a full-time staff of leaders in the development and sustainment of continuous improvement and innovation, emphasizing service excellence and process efficiency. Each cabinet agency has established an Office of Continuous Improvement (OCI) to assist in implementing and sustaining AMS.

Cabinet agency executive leadership teams conduct monthly business reviews, at which they discuss the performance of their scorecard metrics against targets established on their scorecards. Agencies that are more mature in their adoption and deployment of AMS will also include progress on their strategic plan and budget status. As part of AMS, agency staff receive training in problem-solving techniques that they apply to underperforming metrics or initiatives. AMS standard work, tools, and training materials are provided at AMS/Resources.

In addition, Arizona has established Communities of Practice (COPs) for agency strategic planners and AMS practitioners throughout the state. These COPs enhance communication, accelerate learning, identify best practices, solve common problems, and develop standard work and resources across state agencies.

Issue Areas: Child Welfare, Criminal Justice, Economic Mobility, Education, Health, Workforce

California’s Department of Health Care Services has a performance dashboard initiative that aggregates enrollment, client demographic, access, and coverage data. The information is also available on the California Health and Human Services Open Data Portal. California’s Department of Social Services uses the Cal-OAR system to continuously improve county-based CalWORKs programs by collecting, analyzing, and disseminating outcomes and best practices. The California Department of Education’s California School Dashboard documents state and local education performance. The state indicators include: academic information, English learner progress, chronic absenteeism, graduation rate, suspension rate, and college/career readiness.

Issue Areas: COVID-19, Economic Mobility, Education, Health

A 2013 Colorado law required all state agencies to submit annual performance reports to the Colorado state legislature, which must include: (1) performance measures for the major functions of the department; (2) performance goals for at least the subsequent three years; (3) a description of the strategies necessary to achieve those goals; and (4) a summary of the department’s most recent performance evaluation. The Governor’s Director of Operations and Cabinet Affairs oversees the development and execution of statewide performance goals. The Governor’s Office of Operations maintains the statewide performance management system required, by law, to be published on an annual basis. The office provides guidance on developing annual strategic goals and annual performance plans and identifies opportunities for process improvement (CRS 2-7-204). Consistent with this management system, executive branch agencies continue to identify annual Wildly Important Goals (WIGs) that align with their agency’s mission, the statewide strategic goals, working group goals, and the Reimagine State Government Initiative.

To support the Governor’s strategic priorities, the Governor’s Office of Operations maintains monthly working groups (Economic Development, Environment and Renewables, Health, and Education and Workforce) with cabinet members and relevant leadership, including: deputy directors, division directors, and/or key program staff, as needed. Those working groups set annual performance goals aligned to support the Governor’s priorities and progress toward the goals displayed on the Governor’s Dashboard with data updated monthly. The Office of Operations, Office of State Planning and Budgeting, and Policy Office within the Governor’s Office regularly coordinate to provide feedback on performance goals, budget requests, and legislative items, respectively.

The Governor’s Office of Operations supports innovation by offering free training to all state employees in Lean, Agile, and Change Management. Broadly, within the state, there is a culture of data-driven innovation. One exemplary effort includes that the Colorado Department of Transportation has an Office of Process Improvement that hosts a Lean Everyday Ideas program within the Department and tracks the impact of those projects. 

Issue Areas: Child Welfare, Criminal Justice, Economic Mobility, Education, Health, Workforce

A 2017 Indiana law created the Indiana Management Performance Hub (MPH) within the state’s Office of Management and Budget, which is overseen by the statewide Chief Data Officer (CDO). The law mandates the CDO to oversee a variety of performance management and continuous improvement activities such as advising each executive state agency to identify and implement continuous process improvement in state government, and conducting operational and procedural audits of executive state agencies. As such, the CDO and MPH regularly assist with key performance indicators’ tracking for agencies.

Issue Areas: Child Welfare, Criminal Justice, Economic Mobility, Education, Health, Workforce

In 2019, the Governor appointed an Assistant Secretary to lead the Office of Program and Performance Management within the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. The role leads the Office of Performance Management and Oversight, which measures the performance of all public and quasi-public entities engaged in economic development, tying its financial and programmatic support to economic outcomes on behalf of the state.

Issue Areas: Child Welfare, COVID-19, Criminal Justice, Economic Mobility, Health, Workforce

As required by a 2013 Maryland law, the Maryland Department of Budget and Management’s Managing for Results initiative publishes annual performance reports as part of the state’s budget process. These reports track agencies’ key goals, objectives, and performance measures. The Maryland Governor’s Office of Performance Improvement, established by a 2015 executive order, assists “agencies with measuring and managing performance information” to support the state’s efforts. Further, the Maryland Children’s Cabinet maintains a Child Welfare Scorecard, which tracks indicators for eight statewide child welfare goals.

Issue Areas: COVID-19, Child Welfare, Criminal Justice, Economic Mobility, Education, Health, Workforce

The Minnesota Governor’s Chief of Staff convenes weekly goal review meetings for the administration’s strategic goals. During these meetings, the Governor’s Chief of Staff discusses performance, progress, and next steps for hitting these goals. Further, Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) publishes performance data for all state agencies in its biennial budget documents. In addition to being available for use by executive branch officials, these data are available to legislators and their staff as they develop budget and policy recommendations.

Issue Areas: Child Welfare, Criminal Justice, Economic Mobility, Education, Health, Workforce

New Jersey’s Governor’s Performance Center tracks, on a quarterly basis, key performance indicators for each department aligned with departments’ Core Missions. Core Missions are updated across departments to reflect the values of the current administration. Additionally, outcome data are also printed in the annual Governor’s Detailed Budget Message.

Issue Areas: Child Welfare, Criminal Justice, Economic Mobility, Education, Health, Workforce

LeanOhio, an initiative of the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, uses the Lean process improvement methodology to assist state agencies in streamlining their service delivery through consultations and training. Between 2011 and 2021, LeanOhio ran more than 400 projects in 45 agencies, boards, and commissions.

Issue Areas: Child Welfare, Criminal Justice, Economic Mobility, Education, Health, Workforce

A 2018 Oregon statute requires agencies to submit key performance measure data to the Legislative Fiscal Office on a regular basis, in addition to sharing reports publicly to indicate Oregon’s progress toward identified measures. Oregon also has a Key Performance Measure system in which agencies report regular progress on identified measures to the legislature and the Governor’s Office. With the development of Oregon’s Racial Justice Council, the state is in the process of establishing a centralized vision for racial justice and equity that includes guidance for agencies on identifying strategic objectives and measures to support racial equity and in evaluating services from a community-focused standpoint. To support all these activities, in 2021, the Oregon Chief Data Officer hired the first Statewide Performance Manager. The role is responsible for building a culture of performance management and establishing guidance and feedback for agencies in using data to inform decision-making, identify strong outcomes, and ensure that Oregon state agencies are strategically aligned to advance the Governor’s strategic outcomes.

Issue Areas: Child Welfare, Criminal Justice, Economic Mobility, Education, Health, Workforce

In 2018, the Pennsylvania Governor signed an executive order that created the Office of Performance Through Excellence, to serve as the commonwealth’s central performance management and continuous improvement office. The office is led by an executive director that serves as the state’s chief performance officer.

The commonwealth has a standard performance management framework known as Results PA that the Office of Performance Through Excellence (OPE) and several agencies have adopted at various levels. One component of Results PA is a series of monthly or quarterly team meetings dedicated to assessing progress toward goals; discussing the status of key outcome and process measures; identifying problem-solving or process improvement opportunities; and celebrating team successes. OPE staff support agencies in the development of their Results PA routines and periodically attend the agencies’ performance management meetings. Commonwealth employees discussed their experience with Results PA on a virtual conference panel in January 2021.

The Rhode Island Department of Health COVID-19 Response Unit Quant Team provides weekly presentations to the Governor’s Office on the “State of the Spread,” pulling together key indicators and insights for decision-making. The weekly meetings address the most recent data available – in many cases, data that have accrued the day of the meeting – to ensure that the Governor’s Office has the most current information based on the situation “on the ground.” Data includes testing, cases, hospitalization, fatality, and vaccination trends disaggregated by various geographies and demographics of interest, as well as predictive modeling outputs from partners at Brown University.

The Executive Office of Health and Human Service (EOHHS) applies the PULSE framework – Performance, Utilization, Leadership Support, and Execution – to manage and improve performance of the programs and agencies within the secretariat. EOHHS delivers on the Governor’s and secretariat’s strategic priorities through a project management approach focused on outcomes and collaboration. The framework is largely driven by the need to assess and define project-specific goals and success measures, in partnership with the departments, for secretariat review. PULSE includes:

• Problem diagnosis and strategic planning;
• Project management;
• Resource strategy and active resource management; and
• Performance and program evaluation.

Issue Areas: COVID-19, Equity, Health

Tennessee’s Governmental Accountability Act of 2013 established a statewide performance management system, Transparent Tennessee, managed by the Office of Customer Focused Government (CFG). The Office of Customer Focused Government and the state’s Chief Operating Officer continuously track and monitor performance data and report publicly available operational performance on Transparent Tennessee’s dashboards, which include specific goals, targets, and performance data for each of the state’s strategic priorities. The site also includes state fiscal data as well as OpenMaps, which showcases key metrics and an interactive budget tool.

Issue Areas: Child Welfare, Criminal Justice, Economic Mobility, Education, Health, Workforce

A 2021 Utah law requires agencies to set at least one performance measure for passed and approved budget requests of more than $10,000. These performance measures are reported to the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget (GOPB) and to the Office of Legislative Fiscal Analyst (LFA). Annually, agencies are required to report performance measures identified in the appropriations bills prior to October 1 to support preparation for the next budget cycle. Data pertaining to these performance measures will be published on performance.utah.gov and cobi.utah.gov prior to the 2022 Utah Legislative General Session.

Additionally, the law facilitated the creation of the Efficiency and Process Improvement Committee (EPIC), a joint committee by the legislative and executive branches to oversee agency performance and efficiency. EPIC will be composed of representatives from the Department of Government Operations, two other state agencies, the Chief Innovation Officer, GOPB, and LFA. GOPB staff supporting this effort also include a Director of Operational Efficiencies and Performance Measures Manager on its Management and Special Projects team.

Issue Areas: Child Welfare, Criminal Justice, Economic Mobility, Education, Health, Workforce

Vermont measures progress toward the goals of its five-year strategic plan, established by a 2017 Vermont executive order, through dashboards that track progress on the economy, affordability, vulnerability, and modernization. As required by a 2014 law and a related executive order, the Office of the Chief Performance Officer (CPO) also publishes annual Programmatic Performance Measure Budget Reports aimed at integrating strategic planning, performance management, and budgeting. 

In 2017, Vermont’s Governor launched the Program to Improve Outcomes Together (PIVOT), in conjunction with the Governor’s Government Modernization and Efficiency team. PIVOT combines outcomes-based improvement and Lean process improvement into a unified effort. Vermont’s CPO oversees the implementation of the continuous improvement effort, which is aligned with strategic outcomes and indicators enacted by the state legislature. PIVOT aims to “move the needle” on indicators aligned with the state’s strategic plan.

Issue Areas: Child Welfare, Economic Mobility, Education, Health, Workforce