PRACTICE INSIGHTS ON ADDRESSING CROSSCUTTING PROBLEMS USING INTERAGENCY PERFORMANCE TARGETS Selecting Results • Focus on a few problems • Involve other agencies in selecting problems to be addressed • Build on existing relationships when selecting results to pursue • Measure intermediate outcomes • Align results, targets, and measures • Commit publicly Designing Accountability • Hold leaders collectively responsible • Get started and learn by doing Managing Collaboration • Start simply • Limit group size • Signal shared responsibility Reporting on Progress • Report on trends • Share success stories SPRING 2024 // Canadian Government Executive / 29 MIDDLE MANAGEMENT marks need to be tracked and independently validated. While Canadians believe that government’s job is tougher than that of business, people’s expectations of government continue to be higher. Whole-of-government indicators must capture a range of dimensions that balances multiple stakeholder interests. Citizens want access to information that sets the context, reflects home-grown values, highlights current trends, shows steady progress, assesses comparative data, and enables grasp by various audiences. Learning is a sustainable organizational advantage that leads to good governance. The aim is to cost-effectively establish the basis of good practice that can be promoted and replicated. Public management tools and techniques influence wider accountability reforms. While practices may need to be adapted and tested to fit local context, they offer useful guideposts for managers to follow. The road ahead calls for managers to refresh performance frameworks with new results that solve difficult problems. This means: • Teaching the performance basics of baselines, targets, outcomes, impacts, and logic models; • Challenging western concepts of evidence and attribution against Indigenous experience; • Cascading senior-level performance plans throughout the organization; • Exploring how national approaches can be replicated to address regional and local problems; and • Reporting progress publicly, knowing that citizens are the best test of success. John Wilkins is a Teaching Practitioner with the School Of Public Policy and Administration at York University. He was a Career Senior Public Servant and Diplomat. (wilkins@yorku.ca) 1. Reduce the number of people continuously receiving Jobseeker Support benefits for more than 12 months. 2. Increase participation in early childhood education. 3. Increase infant immunisation rates and reduce the incidence of rheumatic fever. 4. Reduce the number of assaults on children. 5. Increase the proportion of 18-year-olds with a high school diploma or equivalent qualification. 6. Increase the proportion of 25- to 34-year-olds with advanced trade qualifications, diplomas, and degrees. 7. Reduce the rates of total crime, violent crime, and youth crime. 8. Reduce the criminal re-offending rate. 9. Support business operations and growth with a one-stop online shop for all government advice. 10. Complete citizen transactions with government more easily in a digital environment. THE 10 RESULTS Source: Interagency Performance Targets.pdf (businessofgovernment.org), 7-8. Source: Interagency Performance Targets.pdf (businessofgovernment.org), 32. Dramatic improvements were achieved in all ten areas by 2017, with progress reported publicly every six months. Evaluations revealed successful design features, management innovations, and adaptations by public servants responsible for achieving the targets. The box below lists thirteen practice insights. Lessons for managers Results-based management relies on systems that inform the right balance between autonomy and accountability. The benefits are greatest when outcomes are reported to ministers and governing bodies. Behind-thescenes political and policy aims sometimes supplant stated claims of better service and increased operating efficiencies as the outcomes worth measuring. A handful of key outcome measures and best-in-class bench-
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