National performance management advisory commission releases framework for state and local governments: the framework was developed based on the demand from governments for more information about performance management practices.

• Position: [PM.sup.2] CONNECTIONS: PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT & MANAGEMENT

The following excerpt is from the National Performance Management Advisory Commission's final report, A Performance Management Framework for State and Local Government: From Measurement and Reporting to Management and Improving. It is a message from the elected and appointed government leaders who served as members on the commission.

At no time in modern history have state, local, and provincial governments been under greater pressure to provide results that matter to the public, often within severe resource constraints. At the same time, government officials and managers are challenged to overcome the public's lack of trust in government at all levels.

We have developed this Performance Management Framework for State and Local Government to help public-sector organizations address these challenges.

The primary motive driving the commission and public-sector performance management in general is the conviction that governments must improve their focus on producing results that benefit the public, and also give the public confidence that government has produced those results. The emphasis on process and compliance that has typified traditional public-sector management has not been sufficient to make this happen. Therefore, governments must change their approach. Public-sector management must become synonymous with performance management.

Now is the time for governmental leaders to ensure that the organizations they lead are taking responsibility for achieving results that matter to the public--by practicing performance management.

Accomplishing this will require more than a conceptual framework. It will require public-sector leaders at all levels, both elected and appointed, not only to set high expectations for performance but also to make a commitment to improving performance. Leaders must instill a sense of urgency about improving performance in their governments, build performance-based organizational cultures and management structures, continuously communicate the necessity of listening to the public, and provide resources to assure that a performance-based culture and related practices are initiated and sustained. We believe that seeking out, understanding, and applying performance management principles and practices is not only a critical responsibility of public officials and managers, but that it is an ethical obligation.

To practice performance management, officials and managers must have accurate, timely, and relevant information...