Technology Innovation 2

The focus of the change process should be on the manager’s ability to identify and measure those critical elements that they need to achieve their objective – public value. On your way to making any change, recognize that the natural human response to change is resistance. People become attached to familiar ways of doing things, even ways they initially regarded as cumbersome, costly, or ineffective.
One irony of initiating a change in processes is that to secure commitment and to ward off anticipated resistance from both staff and decision makers, the first thing that should be done is to slow down. By slowing down, you get the chance to develop working relationships, better communication, and more staff involvement. While managers naturally jump into a change seeking to reach full speed in short order, the reality, proven through the ages, is that the best change process starts with a measured, deliberate pace.
The goal is to maximize technology to support timely, relevant and accurate information; optimizing technology solutions that will enhance our ability to interact and communicate more effectively with our internal and external clients; and develop an enabled and knowledgeable workforce by setting up an information system that will be the key to the successful implementation of a performance management framework.

Today's Thought

The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.
Nhat Hanh
Reconciliation requires changes of heart and spirit, as well as social and economic change. It requires symbolic as well as practical action.
Malcolm Fraser

Be Fair

Although not mandated by law, it is highly recommended that the local government obtain quotes from several sources (preferably three vendors) to obtain the best price. The Local Official should telephone vendors and ask them to submit a written estimate/quote for goods or services. Additionally, the official should maintain a file with the names of vendors contacted, the written quotes obtained, and a written explanation of the vendor selected (if not low bidder).
The local government should avoid a conflict that would arise when the employee, officer, or agent, any member of his or her immediate family, his or her partner, or an organization which employs or is about to employ any of these parties, has a financial or other interest in the contract. No employee, officer, or agent should participate in the selection, award, or administration of a contract if a real or apparent conflict of interest would be involved.
In order to ensure objective contractor performance and eliminate unfair competitive advantage, contractors that develop or draft bid specifications, requirements, statements of work, and invitations for bids and/or requests for proposals should be excluded from competing for such procurements.
For quotes, awards should be made to the vendor whose quote is responsive to the solicitation and is most advantageous to the recipient, considering price, quality and other factors.
“Public contract” means any contract for the construction, execution, repair, remodeling, improvement of any public work, building furnishings of supplies, material of any kind whatsoever, proposal for which are required to be advertised by law. (See Sec. 66.0901(1)(c), Wis. Stats.) The definition of “public contract” has been previously interpreted by the Wisconsin Attorney General not to include equipment. Attorney General opinions have stated that farm machinery, a police car, and a heavy movable engine constitute equipment, are not supplies or material, and therefore are not subject to competitive bidding requirements.
Local Officials must realize that procurement is not a mechanized process, but rather one carried forward by the actions and decisions of people. As such, procurement officials and evaluators must understand and fulfill their responsibilities at each stage of a procurement process. All decisions and activities must be measured against a standard of fairness that will withstand public and legal scrutiny.
Unclear or ambiguous communications with vendors and stakeholders can compromise even the best procurements. To avoid misperceptions, solicitations, notifications and award decisions must be clear and well communicated. In addition, all records relating to a procurement are open to public inspection and should be maintained in a central location.
The procurement process must be open to the public and officials.

Being Logical

You can't be attentive and passive at the same time. Don't look, see. Don't hear, listen. Be focused on the details. The little things are not to be ignored, for it is just the little things that lead us to the big things. Assumptions or blinks lead to mistakes.
D. Q. McInerny

State The Problem

The problem is that I assume if I know what the problem is - everybody knows what the problem is, right? When presenting possible solutions and discussing the preferred solution, I need to make sure everyone knows what the problem is. A short, concise statement about the problem never seems to be enough for me, I need to go into painful detail to prove that I have done my due diligence if I remember to state the problem.
When an expert has a problem to solve, the first thing done is to gain a complete understanding of the problem, including the desired objectives. I handle this just fine. The problem comes at trying to bring decision makers into the problem. The following statement is an attempt to define the problem, does it work?
The Public Works Department needed to replace some time clocks and rather than just buy some more of the same old time clocks, we looked at our options. Staff believes the time management web-based solution proposed will provide a better option for effective time management of our programs, enhance decision making, assist in identifying and documenting areas that need attention, strengthen managers’ focus on results, facilitate continuous improvement, motivate staff and support annual and long-range planning.
After an expert defines the problem, they usually start acquiring information about the problem that is diagnostic in nature. One of the most important aspects of conducting an evaluation is choosing the right ways to find information. The time managment solution will provide the information needed to measure performance.

A Critical Thought

Most local government managers are hired to maintain, generate and create public value. The skills that probably got you hired are expected to match up with the values of the organization. The political management by the manager is generally than directed at external stakeholders and employees as the majority of overseers are already politically aligned with the values of the manager.
As the overseers come and go over the years, the values of the overseers change and may no longer align with the manager. The concept of politically managing the overseers now takes on a huge ethical scope. Where does providing good policy analysis diverge ethically from championing a separate set of values? If the overseers have no conceptual political values other than believing they are better managers than the manager mean that you can’t try to instill some political value? At least understand how to determine what values they are using? The worst fear of all is having them become radically value inconsistent, no rhyme or reason to the decisions.
The reality is that they are trapped in our own subjective experience of the world. They bring our pre-conceived reality with them into every new situation and it would be foolish to pretend that they can simply put that aside at will in order to view the present issue without bias or judgment. It’s not possible. In fact, it’s not even desirable. What we want is for them to make the best possible use of their expertise and to act in logically appropriate ways in order to achieve their goals.

Today's Definition

The GAO describes performance measurement as regular collection and reporting of data on: inputs (money, staff and materials), workload or activity levels, outputs or final products, outcomes of programs, and productivity (efficiency cost per unit of output or output per unit cost)