Richmond Works. Seriously.....
The words "Richmond" and "Works" are rarely used in the same sentence, but the two may soon become synonymous with the reduction and elimination of bureaucratic waste that has plagued this city for much too long.
The keepers and defenders of our past incompetence and culture of governmental inefficiency have a nightmare and it is called RichmondWorks. It is a program that gives no quarter to who your friend or cousin or schoolmate is that collects a city paycheck.
Patronage to the level we have known it will soon be gone (but of course not completely - this is still a government), and the waste, lethargy and "why do today what we can put off until next week" mentality will soon be the exception rather than the religion.
I was fortunate enough to sit in a meeting recently that unveiled how the program will work and at one point had to turn and ask "what city are we in?" because the talk, execution, and expectation about this program is a reason to be bullish on Richmond.
RichmondWorks is based on a program that in six years of operation in Baltimore (called CitiStat) has saved Charm City $350 million, or nearly $60 million per year. Just one example: "The results were tangible: During a three-month trial period, overtime in the Public Works Department dropped by 25 percent and unscheduled leave fell by more than 33 percent."
It is our best hope yet of reversing the lost decades in city government here in River City. Think of the possibilities of what Richmond can do if we can free up tens of millions of dollars EACH YEAR that are currently lost to inefficiencies and sloth.
Imagine if the schools had the guts to implement a data based performance tracking operation such as this? Together the city and the schools could save a staggering amount of money, but the city will do this, the schools won't, and the latter will demand the savings we achieve all for themselves.
But I digress.
Think of Richmond Works as peer review with teeth. It is set up so each department head (and senior staff) will regularly go before an executive committee and have to explain and answer questions, problems, and issues within their department. They will have to defend their department under stern but constructive questioning and make the case against the numbers and trending data, something not easy to do and something completely ignored when patronage rules the roost as it has here.
Furthermore, accepted excuses for non-performance will be in short supply. It was made clear as day that these meetings would be constructive but adversarial, yet would not be confrontational or unprofessional. If you do your job and make your department more efficient and responsive, you have nothing to worry about.
Hard questions would be asked so if you were under the lamp, then you and your staff better come prepared with the very latest information, status of projects, and knowledge. It was also made clear that in countless instances in the past, unknown answers would be deferred and those questioned promised to "get back" with the info. No more.
With Richmond Works, unanswered questions are required to be answered within 48 hours at the most. The more unanswered questions and recurrent or unanswered problems appear under your name and department, the faster you are shown the door. That extends from the department head down to the lowest pay scale. Prove your worth or go work for someone else. Thanks for your service.
Best of all? These meetings will be TELEVISED. There will be nowhere to run and nowhere to hide (now you know the schools won't get near this). Excuses, delays, and dogs eating homework will not be accepted and everything will be tracked. The data and software are George Orwell's worst nightmare because they keep the score.
For most of this year, data has been and is being loaded into software that will track performance by the numbers and spot trends before they become major problems so they can be addressed, a concept often lost on government.
If a department is not responding to work orders (or is taking longer than usual), or if personnel issues (such as the overtime example above) are a problem, the software will spot it and that department will be notified of the trend so they can address it or be put to the front of the line for the RichmondWorks Committee to explain it.
This is a continuous pre-emptive strike into governmental operations so they do not become intractable and irreversible problems and/or waste thousands or millions of dollars.
Where am I?
An example they gave in the meeting was the Fire Department response time v. the national average. Every recent year but one (2003), the numbers were above the average. What explained the slow response times in 2003? Ms. Isabel.
The sheer number of calls generated after Hurricane Isabel skewed the numbers since call volume and blocked streets were the order of the day. The software can extrapolate that data and reveal that such a statistical warning in this case was an anomaly and not the symptom of an inefficient department.
But that is how the system will work when fully implemented. Problems will be tracked based on historical data and national and industry averages.
A new era of responsibility and transparency in the functioning of each government department, hopefully improved services and fewer employees, freeing up more money through operating efficiencies, no more excuses, and no more systemic, suffocating patronage or getting your friends to CYA and bail you out.
The numbers and the computers are keeping score now, and we will be watching.
~
The keepers and defenders of our past incompetence and culture of governmental inefficiency have a nightmare and it is called RichmondWorks. It is a program that gives no quarter to who your friend or cousin or schoolmate is that collects a city paycheck.
Patronage to the level we have known it will soon be gone (but of course not completely - this is still a government), and the waste, lethargy and "why do today what we can put off until next week" mentality will soon be the exception rather than the religion.
I was fortunate enough to sit in a meeting recently that unveiled how the program will work and at one point had to turn and ask "what city are we in?" because the talk, execution, and expectation about this program is a reason to be bullish on Richmond.RichmondWorks is based on a program that in six years of operation in Baltimore (called CitiStat) has saved Charm City $350 million, or nearly $60 million per year. Just one example: "The results were tangible: During a three-month trial period, overtime in the Public Works Department dropped by 25 percent and unscheduled leave fell by more than 33 percent."
It is our best hope yet of reversing the lost decades in city government here in River City. Think of the possibilities of what Richmond can do if we can free up tens of millions of dollars EACH YEAR that are currently lost to inefficiencies and sloth.
Imagine if the schools had the guts to implement a data based performance tracking operation such as this? Together the city and the schools could save a staggering amount of money, but the city will do this, the schools won't, and the latter will demand the savings we achieve all for themselves.
But I digress.
Think of Richmond Works as peer review with teeth. It is set up so each department head (and senior staff) will regularly go before an executive committee and have to explain and answer questions, problems, and issues within their department. They will have to defend their department under stern but constructive questioning and make the case against the numbers and trending data, something not easy to do and something completely ignored when patronage rules the roost as it has here.
Furthermore, accepted excuses for non-performance will be in short supply. It was made clear as day that these meetings would be constructive but adversarial, yet would not be confrontational or unprofessional. If you do your job and make your department more efficient and responsive, you have nothing to worry about.
Hard questions would be asked so if you were under the lamp, then you and your staff better come prepared with the very latest information, status of projects, and knowledge. It was also made clear that in countless instances in the past, unknown answers would be deferred and those questioned promised to "get back" with the info. No more.
With Richmond Works, unanswered questions are required to be answered within 48 hours at the most. The more unanswered questions and recurrent or unanswered problems appear under your name and department, the faster you are shown the door. That extends from the department head down to the lowest pay scale. Prove your worth or go work for someone else. Thanks for your service.
Best of all? These meetings will be TELEVISED. There will be nowhere to run and nowhere to hide (now you know the schools won't get near this). Excuses, delays, and dogs eating homework will not be accepted and everything will be tracked. The data and software are George Orwell's worst nightmare because they keep the score.
For most of this year, data has been and is being loaded into software that will track performance by the numbers and spot trends before they become major problems so they can be addressed, a concept often lost on government.
If a department is not responding to work orders (or is taking longer than usual), or if personnel issues (such as the overtime example above) are a problem, the software will spot it and that department will be notified of the trend so they can address it or be put to the front of the line for the RichmondWorks Committee to explain it.
This is a continuous pre-emptive strike into governmental operations so they do not become intractable and irreversible problems and/or waste thousands or millions of dollars.
Where am I?
An example they gave in the meeting was the Fire Department response time v. the national average. Every recent year but one (2003), the numbers were above the average. What explained the slow response times in 2003? Ms. Isabel.
The sheer number of calls generated after Hurricane Isabel skewed the numbers since call volume and blocked streets were the order of the day. The software can extrapolate that data and reveal that such a statistical warning in this case was an anomaly and not the symptom of an inefficient department.
But that is how the system will work when fully implemented. Problems will be tracked based on historical data and national and industry averages.
A new era of responsibility and transparency in the functioning of each government department, hopefully improved services and fewer employees, freeing up more money through operating efficiencies, no more excuses, and no more systemic, suffocating patronage or getting your friends to CYA and bail you out.
The numbers and the computers are keeping score now, and we will be watching.
~
posted by Jon Baliles | 8:00 AM
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