Building an integrated performance management system in the City of Philadelphia: implemented in just 10 months, Philadelphia's interconnected Stat and 311 systems provided positive results right away.

• Author: Friedman, Jeff
• Position: [PM.sup.2] Connections: PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT & MANAGEMENT

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In 2007, Philadelphia's mayor campaigned on a platform of making city government more transparent, accessible, and accountable. Upon election, he charged his newly appointed managing director with the task of creating an integrated performance management system that would include Philadelphia's version of PerformanceStat and a 311 call system. Philadelphia's managing director created a five-person performance management team to get these two programs running within ten months. The performance team had a brief window of opportunity to implement two very important management programs that produced early, demonstrable results in the midst of one of the worst financial crises in recent memory.

While many cities have developed one or both programs, few jurisdictions have implemented both at the same time, and in such an ambitious timeframe. However, it was necessary to move quickly for the administration to achieve the mayor's goals for making the city safer, improving educational attainment levels, making the economy more green, and creating healthy and sustainable neighborhoods. Years of operations that did not work in coordination, compounded by ethical lapses, had rendered the public deeply skeptical of local government. Philadelphia needed to make a concerted effort that would allow it to determine whether it was marshalling resources in strategic ways and whether ongoing efforts were making a difference.

STRUCTURE

The managing director created a dedicated performance management team to establish interconnected Stat and 311 systems for more than 30 agencies. Three of the five team members were devoted to the design and management of PhillyStat, and two were committed to the planning and implementation of Philly311. The framework was flexible enough to allow the team to tackle any additional problem, issue, or subject identified through any channel, in concert with the operating departments, city leadership, or outside partners. From its inception, the team was expected to make change possible throughout the organization by building a new performance system, exposing issues, developing solutions, and helping implement those solutions.

To help with the workload, the team created a performance network of more than 100 city employees. The objective was to equip a group of employees with the tools necessary to identify and understand organizational problems, build solutions, and help create change in their respective...