Results Leadership Group

As printed in the New London Day on 6/7/2009

For a very long time Connecticut has done a poor job of deciding how much tax money to spend on state programs. Typically the General Assembly renews programs each year without any objective review of how effective they are.

In good times, the legislature increases spending to pay for raises and provide for inflation. When professional staff identify unmet needs or problems, the automatic response is to throw more money at the issue. But there is usually no follow-up to determine whether the increased spending is effective.

In hard times, when spending cuts are required, they are equally ill informed. With no good measure as to which programs are effective and which are not, the governor and legislature base cuts on their political priorities, missing the opportunity to eliminate wasteful operations and maintain funding for quality ones.

Rep. Diana Urban, a Democrat representing North Stonington and Stonington, has for several years been the leader of a once small but now growing number of legislators willing to try a fundamentally different approach - results-based accountability (RBA). The concept is to base budget decisions on tangible results.
This newspaper has consistently supported RBA. Up until now, however, the Connecticut legislature has experimented with RBA only on a very small scale. That is about to change.

Confronted with unprecedented budget deficit projections, the General Assembly approved a bill that requires the Program Review and Investigations (PRI) Committee to assess human services programs, which account for among the largest expenditures in the budget, using the RBA method. By January the committee must report to the Appropriations Committee with recommendations on whether to modify or terminate programs and with an evaluation of the results-based method. The state agencies are required to cooperate with the review.

We strongly urge and expect Gov. M. Jodi Rell to sign this pilot program into law. If successful it could radically change the budget process for the better. It won’t solve the current budget crisis, but it could help avert future ones.

Rep. Urban expects the Department of Children and Families will undergo the first review. The DCF mission statement sums up the result the state expects from the money it invests in the department: ?To protect children, improve child and family well-being and support and preserve families.?
Did the $935.4 million invested in the department this year effectively further that mission? If so, what is the evidence? Did the $5.5 million spent on ?Family Preservation Services? really preserve families? Is spending $4.65 million on child abuse and neglect intervention sufficient, effectual or properly targeted? Are other state agencies supporting the work of the DCF, duplicating it or working at cross purposes?

The legislature needs such answers to make the right spending decisions. And when confronted with the facts, lawmakers need the political will to cut ineffective programs and shift spending to successful ones without regard for the cry of the special interests.

RBA is no panacea. Debates will continue, and should, on what is the proper role of government. And determining the effectiveness of social programs will always be more challenging than assessing success in the private sector, where the bottom line is sales and revenue generation.
But if not perfect, it is far better than the thoughtless ritual taxpayers now witness each session. It is time for a change.

As printed in the New London Day on 6/5/2009 by Diana Urban

As Gov. M. Jodi Rell continues to throw barbs at those of us in the legislature, I can’t help but be reminded of the magician admonishing us to ?watch the bouncing ball? in order to perform the sleight of hand necessary to complete the trick.

This continual brouhaha distracts us from the real issues of the budget; specifically the most recent iteration of the governor’s plan to balance it. We can argue endlessly about whether this budget is actually balanced.

Rectifying numbers is particularly elusive in Connecticut because we don’t practice Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP.) We ceased using GAAP in the early 1990s and switched to modified accrual accounting as a way to, quite frankly, fudge the numbers. Not exactly responsible, but nevertheless true.

But given a closer look, the governor’s latest budget is very revealing. There are huge cuts in help for seniors, providers of health care and people trying to get off state assistance and back on the job rolls. Even coverage for eyeglasses is cut. And yet there is $10 million in grant money for our long-suffering farmers. You would think that I, being a longtime advocate for our farmers, would be ecstatic.

Well, I am not, as it is a symptom of all that is wrong. Simply giving these grants to farmers is a short-term fix when what we need is a long-term policy that recognizes the importance of farming to the future of our state. Sure, grants will help some farmers get over the hump and continue to limp along trying to make a living, but it won’t solve the problem.

Getting a foothold in Connecticut

As many know I have been pushing the model of Results Based Accountability (RBA) and have finally gotten a foothold in the General Assembly. If we look at this particular issue from an RBA perspective, the result we would want to achieve with farm-relief funding would be: ?Safe, nutritious food for the people of Connecticut through a network of small economically viable farms.?

Yet I faced fights from the administration as I worked to save 14 raw-milk farmers, representing 5,000 acres of farmland, from going out of business because of suggested new regulations from the Department of Agriculture. I also had to fight them on my bill to allow farmers to produce acidified products such as pickles and salsa in farm kitchens for sale at farmers markets. So the administration is recommending $10 million in grants for farmers, while fighting me as I try to help the farmers stay economically viable.

Witness our dairy farms trying to stay afloat when the consumer is paying on average $3.83 per gallon and the farmer is receiving $1.04 per gallon for milk it cost them $1.60 per gallon to produce. What Connecticut needs is a comprehensive long-term policy that includes fighting for our own marketing order instead of the federal marketing order.

May 5th, 2009

Results Based Accountability is about starting with Ends and working backwards to a Means. The Video gives the PowerPoint video explains all of the directions for the activity created by Mark Friedman.

To learn more about Results Based Accountability, get the latest Results Accountability DVD by Mark Friedman.

It all began when Pam McCann was given the opportunity to attend a Results Based Accountability (RBA) workshop hosted by Family and Consumer Services (FACS). You see, Pam McCann just transferred from Child, Youth and Family Services to managing Family Works Hawkes Bay. Pam was determined to figure out a better way expressing what they were trying to achieve and what a difference they were making mainly to keep the funders informed in an organized manner. Pam was able to get the answers she was looking for from the highly interactive workshop.

"Information gives you a powerful tool to talk to funders, not necessarily about getting more money but to ensure the right services are there for your community."

Pam feels she now has a set of tools to better understand her clients and she believes that Results Based Accountability has a role to play for collaboration among other social services providers.

"Because this allows people to look at the bigger picture, they go beyond their own organization’s viewpoint to see their community’s needs more objectively."

Pam has taken the initiative to spead the benefits of Results Based Accountability and has co-presented a series of results-based workshops in Gisborne, Wairoa, Hastings, Napier, and Dannevirke which was organized by Family and Community Services.  

Congratulations to Representative Diana Urban (CT) on her recent op-ed article on March 08, 2009 featured on TheDay.com headlining “Stability Requires Accountability“. Diana Urban paraphrases the economic situation in the article, “Americans seemed to expect that building an economy on a false foundation of speculation, borrowing and conspicuous consumption could go on forever.”

The real focus is Results Based Accountability being distinguished as a vision not a fad and more of a solution than a patch. The Co-Chairman of the Results Based Accountability Subcommittee adds, “RBA is about creating a shared vision for the future. A vision that identifies outcomes that have been deemed important. Outcomes like affordable health care for all Connecticut residents and access to quality jobs that pay a living wage.”

Diana Urban’s leadership in Connecticut continues to inspire collaboration and improved performance across the state. Congratulations once again to Diana’s article, as it conveys a solution not the patch of the financial crisis for state budgets accross the country.

Using Mark Friedman’s Outcome-based Accountability approach, the United Kingdom’s Department of Children, Schools, and Families has developed a new approach to planning and taking action to improve the quality of life and outcomes for all children (and other populations) and to improve the performance of specific services, agencies, and service systems. It provides a pathway for multi-agency partnerships and individual organizations to prioritize the outcomes they want to improve and determine what strategies are needed to achieve them.

The department recently published a Better Outcomes for Children and Young People resource, containing two new publications. From Talk to Action describes the outcomes-based accountability approach to planning and taking action to improve outcomes for all children, and Turning the Curve Stories offers a range of examples of councils using an outcome-focused approach to plan and implement services, and improve outcomes.

Kudos to Stephen Butz, president and founder of Social Solutions Inc., whose work, company, and personal passions were recently profiled in a Baltimore Sun article, A Program of Conscience .

Social Solutions, a strategic partner of Results Leadership Group, was launched in 2000 offering a Web-based software program that can be customized for any non-profit organization to track results and measure accountability. Today, more than 2,500 organizations employ the software, from The Latino Coalition to Girl Scouts of the USA. The ETO Software generates a clear and accurate measure of impact to improve service delivery, earn more funding, and reduce the time and resources dedicated to tracking performance. Social Solutions is also the only software provider to have a Results Accountability reporting feature.

For non-profits using the software’s results-based approach, the benefits are tangible, one fan told The Sun: “Because there were no measures [before], people were kind of funding the activities rather than the outcomes …. Both government funders and foundation folks are beginning to realize that the focus can’t be on the activities that get us to the end, it has to be on what the results are at the end.”

Be sure to read the article and then check out Social Solutions’ blog. Congrats to Stephen and Social Solutions!

Results Leadership Group Seeks Qualified Full Time Deputy Chief Administrative Officer

The Results Leadership Group, a Rockville, Maryland-based performance management/leadership consulting and training firm seeks a full-time Deputy Chief Administrative Officer. The successful candidate will be able to work at the office with the ability to attend meetings and staff workshops when necessary.

Responsibilities for the position include:

• Managing distribution of online DVD and book sales
• Updating company Web site
• Managing open enrollment workshops and webinars
• Creating and tracking invoices
• Staffing workshops and trainings for senior staff at client sites

Requirements
Education: Bachelor’s degree preferred.

Skills/Qualifications: Strong knowledge of MS Excel and PowerPoint. Excellent interpersonal skills and customer service orientation. Self-directed individual who can work independently after being given initial instructions and guidance. Must have a “whatever it takes” attitude. In addition, excellent organizational skills and attention to detail are required. Passion for improving conditions of well-being for children, families and communities.

Compensation commensurate with experience. Generous benefits package included.

Please submit a cover letter and resume to info@resultsleadership.org.

EOE M/F/D/V