How joyous to get up to a fresh new day at the start of 2010 with a light patter of rain drops. These drops seem to be heralding the breaking of our 10 year drought. AT LAST!
What a tough year we endured last year!
Lets just put that behind us.
Here’s a quote I sourced some years ago.
ENDURANCE
HE CONQUERS WHO ENDURES
- Persius
Hope you like it.
Cheers
The USA Executive Office of the President has decreed that federal agencies place more emphasis on impact evaluations to determine causal effects of programs, in particular social, economic and educational programs.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-01.pdf
An Inter-agency Evaluation Working Group will be established to build evaluation capacity, share best practices, and facilitate information exchange and availability of research expertise.
The CIN’s Sue Wiliiams of DSE in collaboration with the Carnegie Management Group, has drafted up a simple process called the 4 I’s to Innovation. This tool is one that can assist in growing the organisation, providing an impetus for transformation and career progression.
The 4 I’s comprises the following steps:
The key elements of this simple yet handy approach are outlined in the document attached: the-4-is-to-innovation2
The American Evaluation Association (AEA) recently published an evaluation policy focused on evaluation policies for the United States Federal government. Aspects of this policy may be applied to government in Australia.
Evaluation is an interdisciplinary field, and involves the gathering of evidence to assess the merit or worth of a program, policy, strategy, product or organisation, for example. This evidence may then be used to demonstrate accountability and learning, and inform decision making. Evidence obtained from an evaluation may also be made available to the public encouraging government transparency. Refer to the following link for the US Office of Management and Budget and its Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART).
Evaluation planning should form an integral part of program management and occur at the initial design stage of a program to set the stage for evaluating a program throughout its life cycle.
A copy of the AEA Evaluation Policy Task Force handout describing evaluation and evaluators and what they can contribute to good government is attached.
A wide ranging audience from across DSE and the VPS heard George Grossek and Jess Dart talk about the evaluation of the Victorian Biodiversity Strategy.
biodiversity-strategy-evaluation-gg-041208
George, Project Manager for this external evaluation study began the seminar by setting the context for Jess Dart of Clear Horizon to discuss the evaluative techniques her consulting firm used to conduct this evaluation. George summed up with an overview of the findings and recommendations and how these are currently being implemented.
jess-seminar-on-methodology-vbs-evaluation-2008
This evaluation was conducted to identify key lessons from the development and implementation of the VBS. These lessons are currently being utilised for the development of a renewed strategy and the Land and Biodiversity White Paper.
Evaluative methods used for this evaluation included qualitative or social enquiry, document content analysis and the collation of secondary data concerning the environmental goals.
A copy of the summary report of this evaluation is available on the Biodiversity Strategy Renewal website.
DSE held its first evaluation seminar on 29 November to provide an introduction to use of evaluation and its application to a case study.
dse-evaluation-seminar-one-what-is-evaluation
Byron Pakula of Roberts Evaluation provided an overview of evaluation techniques. Max Coster, Project Manager, Vision for Werribee Plains followed with a case study on the evaluation of the Vision for Werribee Plains.
werribee-plains-evaluation-seminar-1
The purpose of the Werribee Plains evaluation was to identify the effectiveness of the first stage of the grants program and determine how well its objectives had been achieved. The findings and recommendations of the evaluation have been taken into account in the development of the second stage.
bmk-evaln-aes-2008-sewilliams
We have had some time for reflection and have decided to refocus this Community of Practice towards the integration of evaluation and benchmarking. This site will now be called the BMK & EVALN CoP.
aes-2008-bmk-evaln-workshop-sewilliams
As we know benchmarking is a useful tool for initiating and sustaining continuous improvement. It has now been recognised that benchmarking can be built into evaluation studies. For example, in planning an evaluation, questions may be asked about specific examples of effective practice in relation to what is being evaluated. The process of benchmarking could then be used to seek out how and why these exemplars are effective.
Gaps in performance of the program under evaluation may then be identified and benchmarks established for improvement. It is the process of benchmarking that helps to explain the reasons behind excellent performance.
Any number of areas that may be the subject of an evaluation study, for example: projects, programs, policies, strategies and services lend themselves to a benchmarking exercise. The results of the benchmarking exercise can lead to enhancements to the subject area being evaluated.
According to an article by William Greaves Ferrari pit stop saves Alexander’s life accessed from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news, surgeons from London’s major children’s hospital have transformed the way they transfer their tiny patients to intensive care after surgery from researching the pit stops of Formula One racing teams.
There had been some critical incidents in the handover process after some paediatric cardiac operations in a short space of time. Not long after this several specialists, who were fans of Grand Prix racing, recognised similarities between their handover process and the pit stop changovers.
In just a few seconds a huge number of actions are carried out by a Formula One pit crew. Each crew member has a specific job that must be completed with the utmost precision and in complete silence.
This realisation led to a very successful collaboration between the operating staff and several Formula One teams. Using benchmarking principles (especially process mapping) the hospital team adapted what it learnt from the pit stop operations and restructured its patient handover procedures. There was a significant reduction in critical incidents after the changes had been implemented.
Damian Ritossa, DSE kicked off a discussion on Lean Six Sigma in the VPS.
He outlined a number of key success factors that are necessary to sustain a process improvement program such as Lean Six Sigma in a public sector organisation. Damian referred to the IBM Center for the Business of Government report, Improving Service Delivery in Government with Lean Six Sigma published in 2007.
improving-service-delivery-in-govt-with-lean-six-sigma-ibm-full-version1
These key success factors include:
· Inspiration from a leader with business experience
· Minimal leadership turnover
· Removal of barriers to improvement initiatives with changes in organisational culture
· Establishment of a full time administrative position to coordinate the program initially
· Organisational champion
· Commitment that improvement initiatives will not lead to redundancies
· Recognition that patience is required to achieve results.
Debra Barron, DTF gave us an overview of a pilot project examining the use of innovation tools based on ISO, Six Sigma and de Bono thinking across the department. This pilot project will comprise three case studies, likely to include:
· A portion of the State budgeting process
· Vehicle disposal process
· Customer relationships.
Evidence gained from the pilot project will provide information for a decision to be made whether to roll out an improvement framework.
Those present at the meeting discussed the two benchmarking projects that have been proposed.
Members of the BMKCoP may wish to alert their HR managers of the possibility of joining the HR benchmarking study on recruitment and selection.
The key performance indicators and survey instrument for the DHS motor vehicle study will be circulated to the VPS Fleet Manager for consideration.
We will discuss these benchmarking studies and the future of the group at the next meeting on Thursday 4 September.
VENUE: Collins Room, level 32, 121 Exhibition Street
Join fellow VPS BMK CoP members on Thursday 7/8 from 12 noon until 1.30 pm to discuss:
bmk-cop-meet-7-agenda-sw79-20080807
1. HR – recruit, source, select benchmarking opportunity
2. Motor vehicle benchmarking project
VENUE: DSE meeting room 1, level 14, 8 Nicholson Street
RSVP: Sue Williams 9637 8754 BY 5.00 pm Wednesday 6/8