RESULTS BASED ACCOUNTABILITY™

ABOUT MARK FRIEDMAN

Mark Friedman is a speaker, consultant and author of the book “Trying Hard Is Not Good Enough: How to Produce Measurable Improvements for Customers and Communities” available from Trafford Press (www.trafford.com). Mr. Friedman directs the Fiscal Policy Studies Institute (FPSI) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and has provided training and consultation on Results Accountability in over 40 states and 7 countries around the world.

Before founding FPSI in 1996, Mr. Friedman served as a senior associate at the Centre for the Study of Social Policy in Washington, D.C. for four years, where his work focused on providing technical assistance to states, counties, cities, school districts, and communities working to reform their child and family service systems.

Before that, Mr. Friedman served for 19 years in the Maryland Department of Human Resources, including six years as the department’s chief financial officer. During this time, Mr. Friedman played a key role in social services program and fiscal policy, including responsibility for financing one of the country's first family preservation programs and implementing several major revenue initiatives. Mr. Friedman has authored a wide range of papers on results-based decision making, budgeting, strategic planning and financing,

Many of his publications can be accessed through the FPSI website: www.resultsaccountability.com.

ABOUT RESULTS BASED ACCOUNTABILITY

What are the basic ideas behind Results-Based Accountability, and results-based decision making and budgeting?

The Short Answer

• Start with ends, work backward to means. What do we want? How will we recognize it? What will it take to get there?
• Be clear and disciplined about language.
• Use plain language, not exclusionary jargon.
  • Keep accountability for populations separate from accountability for programs and agencies.
  • Results are end conditions of well-being for populations in a geographic area: children, adults, families and communities. They are the responsibility of partnerships
• Customer or client results are end conditions of well-being for customers of a program, agency or service system. They are the responsibility of the managers of the program or agency.
• Use data (indicators and performance measures) to gauge success or failure against a baseline.
• Use data to drive a disciplined business-like decision making process to get better.
• Involve a broad set of partners.
• Get from talk to action as quickly as possible.

For the Full Answer visit  www.raguide.org