A Single Performance Measurement Approach
For All Local Government Frameworks.
Hi ,
Local government all around Australia is facing a similar challenge: how exactly to build a measurement system that supports a Council to deliver a strategic plan, develop annual budgets and demonstrate community outcomes, plus every other part of managing one of the most complex (and siloed) organisations there is.
For performance measurement to work in local government, it must:
- avoid more complexity, in meeting the measurement requirements of all the strategic, community and operational frameworks across a vast number of services
- support financial sustainability, in the wake of unprecedented disasters affecting our communities
- not reinvent KPIs common to all local government, but balance the focus on internal uniqueness and priorities of local communities
"With the current resource constraints and desire to improve efficiency, it makes sense to be able to develop one set of measurements that can meet the needs of both IP&R and service review. Afterall, many performance measurements and service level measurements are used to measure the same end result, ie whether a service can meet the community’s current and future needs, achieve the ‘best value for money’ and sustain its best possible capability." - Patricia Dennis, Bega
Valley Shire Council
Then there's the challenge of how people feel about measurement. On the one hand, everyone needs the truth to know exaclty how to best use constrained resources to improve (or at least maintain) performance. On the other hand, not everyone constructively deals with the truth (the community, included) in a way that ensures it feeds learning rather than blame.
Local government needs a measurement approach that is sensitive to its current landscape.
Local government doesn't need more complexity. It needs a common measurement approach that works everywhere, all the time, with any framework.
And local government doesn't need more bureaucracy, either:
"We need an engaging measurement approach that is sympathetic to the values of community, collaboration, and learning. One that guides conversations about the impacts that really matter, what most needs to be improved, and how to find the most leverage with limited resources." - Iliada Bolton, Bega Vallley Shire Council
PuMP for Local Government can do this.
For nearly two decades, PuMP has found its way into every sector and hundreds of industries around the entire world. It's proven its universality as a practical and engaging performance measurement approach for every team in every organisation. For an overview of PuMP, [click here go to our PuMP for Local Government page].
We've already had hundreds of people from local councils around Australia learning and using PuMP over the last 13 years. But one thing we've never done, is frame PuMP for a specific sector. The methodology stays the same, because it's best practice. But we add a new layer to the learning and the conversations about the PuMP steps and techniques:
- how PuMP integrates with the local government structure, at the same time as connecting with our communities
- how PuMP aligns with and supports each framework, like Integrated Planning & Reporting and Service Planning
- how PuMP links every activity, output, outcome and impact together in a single underlying measurement framework
- how PuMP collaborates across council boundaries, both internal and external, to reduce rework and effort in measuring what matters
- how PuMP balances internal and external measures, for external reporting to stakeholders and for internal learning and improvement
"I was first introduced to Stacey Barr and her PuMP philosophy almost 20 years ago when I was in local government and we were struggling to understand our progress towards achieving our corporate and strategic outcomes. PuMP is simple, logical and so effective that my team and I used it in the development of all our corporate strategies at Gold Coast City Council and it is still used there today." - Steve Varady, Australasian Reporting Awards
Join our Local Government *exclusive* PuMP Workshop in November
The workshop is online with Zoom, so you can attend from anywhere. It is scheduled over 15-16 & 20-22 November, so you have time to digest and play with what you learn, as you learn it. It will be highly engaging, energisingly practical, and insightfully educational. And framed in local government context.
Searching for local government off-the-shelf KPIs won't fit the frameworks you now have to work with. Relying only on traditional measures won't find the breakthrough improvements that you need now. Brainstorming won't be powerful enough to get the alignment and integration of KPIs as easily as you want.
Make measurement work in your council, along with the growing Australian community of local government PuMP users, by joining our first-ever Local Government Exclusive PuMP Blueprint Workshop:
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