We are Competitive Creatures
John M. Bernard
I just completed an 8-month assignment working for the best gov leader I know - Social Security Commissioner Martin O'Malley(Mayor of Baltimore and Governor of Maryland. Launching THE GREAT AMERICAN REPORT CARD app.
(This is my sixth letter to those who serve us by working in state government. You are in a unique and critical position to support all Americans in their pursuit of happiness and to ensure our nation prospers. My hope is to inform and inspire you in your work.)?
Open Letter to State Government
To Our State Employees,
While many of Sigmund Freud’s theories about human psychology have been debunked, a fair number of his ideas stuck and changed the course of how we think about humans and what drives them.
“Competition is a natural state of being,” said Freud, and an inevitable consequence of the psychoanalytical view. I have no idea what that means, but that won’t stop me from translating the idea into plain language: We are by nature competitive.
?In my experience, this is certainly true.
?Our competitive nature comes in many forms ranging from the inner drive most of us have to improve the quality of our lives to the extreme desire to win we saw recently in the 2,833 athletes who competed for gold in Beijing.?
Competition is all about being the best.
The core of all competition is some means by which a score is kept that represents our relative success.
A score is a feedback mechanism
Most of the time a score is a good thing and a motivator. That’s because it encourages us to improve. But, when the score is used to embarrass or cause us fear, it’s problematic.
Fear may be a short-term motivator, but instead of motivating people to do their best work, it causes people to become cautious. Fear of not winning causes people to do all kinds of non-productive things from doping in the Olympics to “forgetting” to write down a stroke on your scorecard.?
Effective scorekeeping is nothing more than feedback that answers one of two questions:
How’s it going? (Process measures give us feedback as we work toward our final score).
How did it end up? (Outcomes measures report the result).
?Process Measures tell us how we are doing and tell us what is working and what needs adjustment.
These measures give us feedback as to what we need to adjust to get the result we want:
Outcome Measures give us the result.
?What was the score at the end of the game - the final outcome:
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Can you imagine in sports not having an indication of what the score is until the game is over?
?Can you imagine a flight crew not knowing how the flight is going until they pull up to the gate at their destination.
?Can you imagine the value of being able to see the early indicators that a child is failing in school – creating an opportunity for intervention?
The Score Along the Way
Perhaps the most basic and powerful measure is the score along the way – the snapshot in time that provides instant feedback as to how we are doing and gives us the opportunity to adjust.
An example of the outcome/process relationship that’s easy to understand is “wait times” at the department of motor vehicles. While the local office may be required to report it monthly, the people in the office can see how many people are waiting and likely know the wait time in real time. They can make adjustments.
Years ago I worked with a bank that faced long lines when people came in to do their banking over the lunch hour. The solution: Once the number of customers waiting hit a specific number it would trigger managers or back-office staff to open an additional teller window and post a sign for the transactions they were able to do such as “Deposits Only.” The solution solved the problem and cut lunch-hour wait times by 80 percent.
Real-time measures give us what we need to act immediately. They can cause us to make in-the-moment adjustments that result in improved outcomes.
Like with the scoreboard during a sports event; the score tells us how we are doing in the moment and communicates the likely outcome unless something is changed.
At a more macro level, process measures can be predictive of outcome measures:
Properly designed process and outcome measures help us understand the relationship between how we do things and the results we achieve.
All this to say: Measure design is critical because it communicates purpose and drives priorities.
Next week: There is only one way to improve results.
John
FREE WHITE PAPER________________________________________
Get a copy of John’s latest white paper: Level Three Government, Evolving State Operations from Reaction Driven to Results-Driven to Social Good Driven. Click the link:
FREE PRESENTATION________________________________________
If you run an agency or functional area or program in state government, in February, I am doing a limited number of?private presentations: Level Three Government, From Reaction Driven to Results Driven to Social Good Driven.?This presentation was the keynote at the recent Lean In Government conference organized by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Harrisburg University. Click?here?to schedule time with me to discuss or send me a note at?[email protected].
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