EXECUTIVE SESSION

Excellent Performance

Robert Kaplan, Harvard Business School
Steve Kelman, Professor of Public Management
Shelley Metzenbaum MPP 1978, PhD 1992
Director, Performance Management Project

Will George W. Bush, America’s first MBA president, apply his management lessons to the federal government? Will he focus as much attention on what federal agencies actually do accomplish as he does to the policy and political debates about what they should (or should not) accomplish? Will he encourage his cabinet members to manage for results, so agencies deliver what they promise the American people?

Unfortunately, few in Washington value good management. Too often, cabinet and subcabinet members win kudos for their political influence and media skills, not for delivering results from their multibillion-dollar organizations. The president wishes to improve military readiness and move towards an educational system that leaves no child behind. But will his senior executives at defense and education actually devote the time and resources to translate these campaign visions into objectives that are clearly stated and understood within the agency, and will they monitor actual
performance against targeted objectives? When HUD announces a goal of increasing homeownership for 650,000 low-income families in the president’s budget, will it help its employees understand how this commitment translates to their daily work and near-term initiatives?

The good that can be accomplished when agencies measure, monitor, and manage to results is impressive. In 1994, the Department of Transportation (DOT) piloted a project at the Coast Guard to focus on performance outcomes, such as safety and health, rather than activity goals, such as the number of inspections. Within one year, the Coast Guard halved the fatality rate of towboat workers. Between 1993 and 2000, DOT, focusing on performance management for the agency, reduced vehicle-train collisions at railroad grade-crossings 42 percent despite an increase in freight railroad congestion. The rail fatality rate dropped 38 percent from 1993 to 1999.

The National Weather Service realized comparable gains. Several years ago, the service adopted a vision of providing the American people with a “no surprise” weather service and began building a modernized information system to help it deliver on that vision. Since then, the weather service has increased the accuracy of its severe weather forecasts from about 65 percent to more than 80 percent.