Performance management is about feedback, information and growth, patterns and productivity, but most important performance management is about evidence. The challenge for federal agencies is to manage all of their complex entities strategically, synergistically, and with the appropriate alignment to obtain overarching organizational goals and objectives. Performance measurement and managing by it is what makes an organization thrive – without it, coordination and alignment and growth in the direction of your strategic goals is impossible.
Using performance measures to make lasting improvements to your organization will result in informed decision-making. Trends and patterns will be revealed. Comparisons can be made overtime. For example, did a leadership decision result in a gradual slide in performance or a dramatic shift? Is there large or small variability in results over time? Did a decision in one area inadvertently sabotage another area or cause an unexpected result in another?
As with any management methodology there are pit-falls. In performance measurement there are many and navigating through them with ease and understanding will help improve your organization’s results, performance culture, and senior leader decision-making. Some of the pit-falls that organizations tend fall victim to include: over-measuring and becoming overwhelmed by data, measuring what is predictable, available and easy to access; or relying on readily available data that doesn’t reveal useful information that senior leaders can base their decision upon.
Federal organizations also tend to use lofty language to describe their strategic goals (largely because their missions are so important) making it nearly impossible to measure progress towards them. And the worst pit-fall of all is to not involve all members of an organization in the performance culture, or to use performance management as a hammer rather than an opportunity for collaboration and synchronicity.
Performance consulting support to the most senior echelons of the federal government requires a high degree of skill in performance management and analytical capabilities, graphics design, facilitation, and patience. With performance measurement and a savvy tool to display them in an informative manner your organization will experience heightened clarity about what matters most. Leaders will be able to see trends, shifts, and patterns that they may not have known before. With Abraham LLC on your team, your organization will be able to discern root causes for results and will gain an appreciation for un-tapped parts of the organization that have been ignored or undervalued.