How to Navigate Government Performance Management under the Obama Administration’s Recovery Act

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is a significant economic stimulus bill that not only promises to help the American economy recover in the short-term, but also to prepare the country for the future with the modernization of key areas. One of these areas is government performance. In this Profit through Process Podcast, Genna Weiss of Six Sigma IQ speaks with Dr. Richard Beck, Director Planning and Performance Management for the United States Department of the Interior, who discusses how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will affect government performance management.

Dr. Beck reveals the two major things that have been set in place under the Recovery Act: an increased emphasis on the planning and tracking of the use of funds in terms of the time phasing of obligations and expenditures, and an increased realization of the different types of performance—output and activity performance and outcome and results performance—that an organization measures. He discusses the ways that government organizations can ensure that their government performance management is linked to process improvement under the new performance policy, and he gives his advice on how to connect an organization’s objectives with the strategic objectives of the U.S. government. Using the Department of the Interior as a case study example, Dr. Beck also highlights how his organization has begun to strategically align its performance management program with the Recovery Act’s objectives.

In addition, Dr. Beck shares his tips for tracking your organization’s performance management progress, including assessing whether your organization is ready to implement special software packages to track its metrics.