Getting results with performance management.

• Author: Kinney, Anne Spray
• Position: From the editor

Performance management requires much more than selecting measures and reporting data. Performance management tools and practices help governments set community-driven goals, identify promising strategies, fund programs aimed at accomplishing results the public needs and wants, and track progress. This issue of Government Finance Review presents performance management techniques that will help your organization focus its resources on achieving results for your community.

Gwinnett County, Georgia, is dedicated to continuously improving its administrative processes so the county can keep providing superior service. In "Gwinnett County's Department of Financial Services Embraces Lean," Richard Reagan explains how the county uses Lean management techniques within the Department of Financial Services to achieve this goal.

Waste is a drag on performance, consuming scarce resources without producing value for the organization and the community. In "The 8 Sources of Waste and How to Eliminate Them," Shayne Kavanagh and David Krings explain how to improve performance by identifying and eliminating waste with Lean.

In "Performance Management as a Sustainable Enterprise," Daniel B. Edds uses the successes achieved by the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board to illustrate what an organization can achieve by embracing performance management and continuously evaluating the results.

When Polk County, Florida, faced a serious reduction...