Crushing It! Using Performance Data to Make Better Decisions
By: Stephany Medina
How many of us have created a workplan with goals, objectives, action items, and were proud of the work we outlined in there and thought, “I’ll get to defining the performance measures later,” but “later” never came?
Or maybe we’ve found ourselves on the flip side. We took the time to count and measure everything we could think of and realized later that it was a lot of administrative burden to track all this data that didn’t help us improve our program?
I ask because I’ve put myself in both of those situations. So, let’s talk about how to create a great performance management system!
Performance management is using performance information (data) to make better decisions. This is different from tracking data required by funders or statute requirements.
It becomes a performance management system when our agencies commit to this process across programs and over time. It needs to become a culture of performance management.
So, what makes a good performance management plan?
Set aside the time to thoughtfully plan it out. We want to identify our priority actions that we can measure to make better decisions about efficiency and effectiveness.
We want to make sure our possible measures can be feasibly collected, in a timely manner, and contribute to outcome improvements we could make.
Discuss roles and responsibilities within our teams. Who collects the data? Where is data collected? How often? Who initiates discussions about using the data for quality improvement efforts? Are there established meetings to discuss this or do we need to set a new meeting specific to performance management?
While there are many performance management software / programs out there, you can create a robust system using tools you already have available, like Excel. Whatever you use, commit to it.
Carry out our program and track the data.
Assess the data at the pre-determined interval (e.g., quarterly), and decide if performance-based action is needed.
Repeat.
The steps above are similar to the Plan, Do, Check (or Study), Act model of work. See the image below from the Public Health Foundation (PHF).
Image source: The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) webinar below, presented by the PHF.
I have no doubt that this is something we can all do and benefit from, if we carve out the time and commit to tracking the measures. Don’t forget to celebrate your successes along the way!
Want to learn more about performance management? Check out this webinar series from ASTHO, or the Region V Public Health Training Center training options.