Literature Reviews with Envisio - Starting Simple in Performance Measurement Blog (ICMA Blog)
Welcome to Envisio’s LinkedIn Literature Reviews, our informal article review series, where we do a short shout-out to interesting pieces on performance measurement, strategic planning, and trust and transparency in the public sector.
Today, we are taking a closer look at this article published on the ICMA - International City/County Management Association blog, “Starting Simple in Performance Measurement,”? by Raman Shah ., PhD.?
What we appreciate about Dr. Shah’s article is how sensible it is. It gives meaning to measuring output by situating it within the greater context of impact.?
Measuring performance is particularly important in local government and for the public sector – it’s a crucial step towards building trust, and ensuring you’re keeping in step with your strategic plan (and, able to modify it when needed). Keeping track of the broader shifts, consequences, and responses in a society as a result of, for instance, a change in a municipal service, is really important.
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But starting with that high level place of measuring impact is actually a pretty slow process. It is complicated, and at worst, could end up impeding important initiatives and services getting off the ground. And, as Dr. Shah notes, the world is not a static place. Things change all the time, and the full impact of something can take years to be understood. This article acknowledges the importance of impact measurement, but grounds it in the notion that to get goals off the ground, we should start with the operational, day-to-day, output-based questions and high quality data.?
Dr. Shah’s piece provides a highly pragmatic approach to performance measurement–an approach which we agree is often the perfect starting point for many local government organizations.?
And, it doesn’t dismiss the importance of impact measurement either: rather, measuring output is a tool to help us on our way to a greater, more precise dialogue about the impact we have.?