CJansuebsri/Shutterstock.com

​Five Ways to Avoid GAO’s High-Risk List

The challenge isn’t just performance measurement, but also communication.

In February, the Government Accountability Office welcomed the incoming Congress with its 2015 high-risk list of poor performing federal programs—an unlimited gift card for some, a messy glitter bomb for others.

I read the report. Well, OK, I skimmed it and focused on the sections of most interest. Federal real property is at the top if the list for me. The trend I noticed over and over again were the low scores on demonstrating progress. Immediately I wondered—are agencies not making actual progress or is it a communication issue?

There is no objective, observable way to know. So, I suspect it’s somewhere in the middle—performance measure purgatory.

Performance measures are incredibly fragile and yet they endure year after year—even when they’re not precisely what we want to measure. They are almost always confusing or misleading and ripe for manipulation.

Despite the challenges we all have in working with performance measures, they are what we have right now to quantify our impact. Unfortunately, we never get as much accomplished as we’d like. We have to explain ourselves at every turn, justify the budget, make up for delays, motivate staff, and on top of it all—measure our performance. Federal programs are no different.

Our persistence in trying to figure out the right measurements is rooted in our common beliefs that we work hard, are passionate about our programs, and are always looking for ways to get more done. No matter what program is under evaluation, managers and examiners struggle to boil all of this nuance and culture and circumstance down to a handful of figures that accurately tell their story.

It’s not an insurmountable problem, but it is an issue rooted in the structure of agency organizations.

Federal real property is a prime example. Human capital is another. Facilities functions are often subgroups within a larger division. As a general rule, facilities staff do not have a standing role in the strategic decisions of their agency, but consume a significant portion of the budget or operation costs—often second only to the labor itself.

This disconnect is a problem. Spreading accountability across a wide target means no one is really on the hook. Further, with these broad programs, managers struggle to tie the detailed measures that are meaningful to facilities and human resources folks to the broader agency mission. Something is always lost in translation and these problems revert to a reactive, defensive mode.

Agencies should take a look at their performance measures with an eye toward connecting their impact to the broader agency or administration priority or public need.

The key to starting these conversations is looking at the current set of performance measures, finding alignment those broader goals, then translating these for greater connection, integration and effectiveness.

There are a lot of good reasons to seek greater impact for broad federal programs—even outside of those on GAO’s bad list. High impact programs enjoy higher employee morale, more effective mission support, greater opportunities for staff advancement, and stronger, more sustainable and resilient programs.

Going back to the example of federal real property, managers must document what is important to them.

That may be lot of things. On any given day, facilities staff in the field are making sure systems are up and running, routes into the building are clear, everyone knows where they’re supposed to be and are responding quickly to any calls that come in. At the program level, managers are concerned about planning for new construction and rehabilitation, making sure the agency has sufficient, suitable space for program, and that the workforce is as efficient as possible with resources. Common performance measures used by federal real property managers include the Facility Condition Index, mission dependency, annual operating costs and so on. In addition to these metrics, federal real property managers talk lot about system performance, increasing complexity, emergency preparedness, data, staff turnover and finding talent, and reducing our footprint.

In stark contrast, let’s take a look at what the directors, secretaries, and the Office of Management and Budget care about. The senior leadership is looking at overall mission risk, public perception, technology, gaining fiscal advantage by winning support in Congress and the administration, and positioning the mission to support national and global challenges. There are some common themes, but a lot that are different.

This disconnect is at the heart the challenge facing program managers—for federal real property and for a host of other broad programs on GAO’s list. How do they bridge the gap between these different priorities to demonstrate progress and, in turn, get more support and recognition and maybe even an open invitation to be a part of the strategic direction of the agency?

If you were to examine these two different priority lists side by side, you would start to see some “bridging metrics.” This term captures the idea that federal program managers can and should still measure what is important to them. But when they take that message outside of their offices or respond to an inquiry from GAO, the performance measures must be translated to reflect issues our leadership cares most about.

Getting push back on performance measures from an agency leader or external examiner of is the result of that person understanding the numbers but them failing to see the connection with the bigger picture.

To overcome this performance measure challenge, there are five simple (but not easy) steps to consider:

  1. Inventory current performance measures. My guess is that you’ll be shocked to see what people are tracking on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. It’s always a lot. At the same time, document the top issues for your agency, as well as, any previous findings from past GAO or OMB reports or other audits.
  2. Complete a mapping exercise. Look at these two lists slide by side. Review them and focus on any that can be renamed or calculated slightly differently to better translate the measure into a language that is meaningful to the bigger picture objective. (During this exercise, you’ll probably also identify a bunch of stuff that is no longer needed. Take the opportunity to do some spring cleaning while you’re there.)
  3. Plan a series of strategic conversations with the right staff—agency heads, OMB advocates, or other senior staff.
  4. Seek alignment by using bridging metrics. With a calendar loaded with strategic conversations, program managers can demonstrate a the connection to the broader mission, get input on the tweaks to the measures, and gather input on whether or not there is additional data that might be available or relevant to combine.
  5. Jump in. The alignment taking place through the first four steps will certainly uncover new activities and opportunities for advancing the program. The trick then is just delivering on those refined expectations.

When planning strategic conversations with colleagues both within and outside the agency, you are elevating the perception of your program every time you make a thoughtful contribution to someone else’s top issue and offer a connection between program goals that had not yet been considered. As you do this, you can be creative about possible cross-division partnerships and figure out how you want the program to come across and what are the lingering impressions you want to make.

Robin Camarote is the founder of Craft and Atlas, a federal management consulting firm. See more at her blog goviepop.

(Image via CJansuebsri/Shutterstock.com)

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.