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STRONG TURNOUT AND HIGH RATINGS FOR STATNET'S FIRST TRAINING DAY
| Over 120 Local & State Officials, Non-Profit Managers, and Academics Spent Day at UMass Learning about Performance Management
 While public managers often have access to a lot of data, knowing how to use that data to improve public services can be a challenge. Through an initiative called StatNet, the Collins Center, in association with the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, has been convening data-savvy municipal managers several times a year to learn from each other and compare performance data across communities. Last month, StatNet hosted its first all-day training at UMass Boston, drawing a standing room only crowd. More than 120 representatives from New England municipalities, state agencies and non-profit organizations attended the event, held Wednesday, May 28th at the University's Healey Library conference center.
Over the past several years, many communities in New England have adopted an approach to performance management called CitiStat. Their leadership teams hold regular meetings to review current data to analyze performance, identify and solve problems, set targets, and learn about best practices. While these internal municipal teams tackle the challenges of collecting and organizing their own data, they have had few opportunities in the past to compare their numbers and analyses with colleagues in other communities.
Managers and analysts from StatNet's member communities, now including Amesbury, Boston, Braintree, Hartford, Lowell, Somerville, Springfield, Westfield, Woburn, and Worcester, meet three times annually to bridge that gap. Participants fill out a data survey before each meeting, and StatNet staff analyze the responses and create a presentation to start off the group discussion and to help participants understand what data different communities are tracking, how they use the data, and what the data can tell participants about best practices and benchmarks. Past topics have included local departments of public works and police, outside contracting for municipal services, personnel management, budget development and implementation, and constituent relations.
StatNet's participants decided to host a training for practitioners that would be hands-on and interactive. The goal was to give public managers the tools either to implement performance management or to improve their current system right away
Attendees were welcomed to the Training Day by Collins Center Executive Director David Sparks, StatNet Co-Chair and Worcester Budget Director Jarrett Conner, and Stephen Lisauskas, now a Senior Associate at the Collins Center. Liskaukas, formerly the Executive Director of Springfield's state-appointed Finance Control Board offered opening remarks discussing the Springfield CitiStat program that was created and implemented during his tenure in that City.
 The event's first session, led by former Springfield CitiStat Director and current Chief Information Officer for Springfield Public Schools Paul Foster, featured a panel discussion with the following experienced performance managers:
· Stephanie Hirsch, Director of SomerPromise, (Somerville's performance management initiative on at-risk youth) and former SomerStat Director
· John Harding, SomerStat Analyst
· Pamela Cardillo, ProvStat Director
· Devin Lyons-Quirk, Senior Project Manager for Performance, Boston About Results
· Jennifer Yim, AmesStat Director
· Michael Herbert, StatNet Co-Chair and Lowell's Data Management Analyst
· Sarah Stanton, Purchasing Director, Woburn
Panelists discussed the mechanics of CitiStat and similar programs. They explored questions around staffing the program, which departments to include, how often to meet, what role performance indicators or scorecards might play, and how to find the balance between collaboration and confrontation.
Stephanie Hirsch then led a hands-on exercise in which participants practiced analyzing data and role-played a CitiStat meeting using the data. Here is a link to her presentation.
 Professor Robert Behn, from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, made a presentation on what he calls the PerformanceStat strategy. He is currently writing a book on the topic, and he drew on examples from across the country. He explained that this strategy works by focusing everyone's attention on the executive's priorities, providing the team with operational updates, and helping them to identify problems, diagnose causes, develop strategies, invest resources, and learn. He notes that the strategy also helps to recruit talent, as skilled managers and analysts are often drawn to this approach.
Click here for more information on Professor Behn's research.
At the conclusion of the morning sessions, attendees worked through lunch, assigned to tables that represented a cross section of representatives from different organizations and participated in facilitated discussions about how to start performance management programs.
The afternoon's program began with a presentation by Steve Poftak, the Pioneer Institute's Research Director, who talked about goals, strategies and tactics, outcomes, outputs, and inputs - the key conceptual vocabulary of performance management systems.
Following Poftak's presentation, the group broke into several simultaneous breakout sessions, giving participants a wide choice of topics. Kendra Amaral, Deputy Director of Lowell's Department of Planning and Development and former AmesStat Director, walked participants through the process of data-driven decision-making in small communities using real examples. Devin Lyons-Quirk discussed cross-departmental collaboration, outlining how Boston uses citizen request data to bring together public works, transportation, property management, parks and inspectional services staff to solve problems. StatNet Co-chairs Tom Moses, Lowell's Chief Financial Officer, and Jarrett Conner, Worcester's Budget Director, discussed ways to use performance data in the budget process.
Hirsch led the Training Day's final session on the challenges of running a CitiStat program. She had surveyed department heads in four communities with established CitiStat programs before the event to solicit feedback on the management approach. Challenges discussed included making sure there is buy-in at all levels of leadership, keeping up a program's momentum, and ensuring that participants experience benefits relative to the effort they invest in the program. Remarks from StatNet Co-Chair Michael Herbert concluded the programming.
The StatNet training day will likely become an annual event, as the turnout was strong and the feedback positive. Collins Center Executive Director David Sparks commented, "This training was a wonderful chance for StatNet and the Collins Center to engage in the kind of practitioner-focused, real-world training that the Center was created to provide. We hope it will be the first of many trainings like it."
StatNet's programming is overseen by a Steering Committee made up of representatives of the member communities. The Steering Committee approves the group's budget and work plan, selects topics for the regular meetings and also selects co-chairs annually for the initiative. Worcester and Lowell are currently chairing StatNet.
The next StatNet meeting will be held in July in Worcester and will focus on municipal departments of public works. For more information about the meeting and to receive the pre-meeting survey or to sign up for the StatNet listserv, please contact Amy Dain, StatNet Coordinator for the Collins Center, at dainresearch@gmail.com.
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Enhance your knowledge of Performance Management this summer.
This 6 week online course in Performance Management is designed for the working professional who values learning new and relevant skills. You can participate in the course from anywhere you have computer internet access; you can still go on vacation and it won't interfere with your professional development plans. If you're not sure how it works or would like more information, please contact Sandy.Blanchette@umb.edu or call 617-287-5534.
Visit: www.uc.umb.edu/corporate/government-performance/ to read the course description and register.
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The Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management
100 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, MA 02125
Phone: (617) 287- 4824
FAX: (617) 287- 5566
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 | McCormack School Dean Steve Crosby
on the Collins Center |
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About Ed Collins
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Throughout his outstanding public career, Edward J. Collins, Jr. epitomized the spirit and goals of the Center that now bears his name. We at the Collins Center are proud to continue the work of Ed's life - helping governments work effectively and productively for the benefit of their citizens.More about Ed |
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