ACHIEVING THE
PERFORMANCE IMPERATIVE
with Results- Based Accountability
In “The Performance Imperative: A Framework for Social Sector Excellence,” a group of more than 50
nonprofit and public sector leaders making up the Leap of Reason Ambassadors Community set out to
define what it means to be a high-performance non-profit organization.
According to the document, “The purpose of the community is to inspire, motivate, and support
nonprofit and public sector leaders (and their stakeholders) to build great organizations for greater
societal impact and to increase the expectation and adoption of high performance as the path to this
end.” High performance, as the group collaboratively defines it, is the “ability to deliver—over a
prolonged period of time—meaningful, measurable, and financially sustainable results for the people
or causes the organization is in existence to serve.”
Resulting from this collaborative effort is the “Performance Imperative”—a framework that establishes
seven pillars of a high-performance organization:
Figure
1: The Sevenadaptive,
Pillars of a High
Performing
I.
Courageous,
executive
andOrganization
board leadership
II. Disciplined, people-focused management
III. Well-designed and well-implemented programs and strategies
IV. Financial health and sustainability
V. A culture that values learning
VI. Internal monitoring for continuous improvement
VII. External evaluation for mission effectiveness
Figure 2: The Seven Pillars of a High Performing Organization
Achieving the
PERFORMANCE IMPERATIVE
with Results- Based AccountabilityTM
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© Results Leadership Group 2015
The Leap of Reason Ambassadors come from
different backgrounds with different
perspectives on how best to achieve the
Performance Imperative. As a member of this
diverse group, I come to the table with a
background in Results-Based Accountability
(RBA)—a strategic planning, management, and
budgeting framework described by Mark
Friedman in the book Trying Hard is not Good
Enough.
The Performance Imperative framework
represents a significant step forward in defining
the conditions necessary to becoming a highperformance organization. RBA inherently
complements the Performance Imperative
because it can help organizations attain and
maintain these conditions.
By utilizing the RBA concepts laid out within
this paper and completing the attached
Organizational Assessment once annually, your
organization will be able to measure, improve,
and maintain your achievement of the 7
Performance Imperative Pillars, bringing you
one step closer to being a high-performance
organization.
WHAT IS
RESULTS- BASED
ACCOUNTABILITY™?
-Trying Hard is Not Good Enough
Achieving the
PERFORMANCE IMPERATIVE
with Results- Based AccountabilityTM
Results-Based Accountability (or RBA) is a
disciplined way of thinking and taking action
that is being used by governments and
organizations around the world to improve the
lives of children, families, individuals, and
communities. It is also being used to measure
and improve the performance of agencies,
programs, and service systems. Because RBA is
a comprehensive problem-solving framework,
it can be used to guide planning, budgeting,
and management decisions, making it the ideal
complement to the Performance Imperative.
RBA is different from other management
frameworks because it starts with ends and
works backwards to means—ends being the
conditions of well-being desired for
communities, and means being the strategies to
get there. It also distinguishes between
population and performance accountability. In
population accountability, a group of partners
takes responsibility for the well-being of an
entire population. In performance
accountability, managers take responsibility for
the performance of a program, agency, or
service system.
In performance accountability, RBA uses the
common sense performance measurement
categories:



How much did we do?
How well did we do it? , and
Is anyone better off?
Once organizations identify key program
performance measures that need to improve, a
simple ‘Turn the Curve’ thinking process is
used to develop strategies to improve those
measures. In Turn the Curve Thinking (see Fig.
5), baselines are established for key
performance measures and a series of questions
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© Results Leadership Group 2015
are asked to help literally ‘turn the curve’ on
the baselines that are not satisfactory.
By making the collection, analysis, and sharing
of data imperative, RBA provides a solid basis
for management decisions and increases the
accountability and transparency of the
organization. This also provides funders and
the public with evidence of organizational
efficacy.
Using RBA to achieve the Performance
Imperative will enable organizations and
communities to put each of the seven pillars
into operation in a disciplined way that fosters
continuous improvement. Instead of just
talking about how to achieve high-performance
and the seven pillars, RBA actually provides a
step-by-step process for getting from talk-toaction quickly and making a difference.
Pillar 1:
Courageous, Adaptive Executive
and Board Leadership
Leadership is the foundation of a highperformance organization. Without it, the
remaining pillars cannot be achieved. RBA
Achieving the
PERFORMANCE IMPERATIVE
with Results- Based AccountabilityTM
enables leaders to set clear expectations for the
performance of programs and services.
It helps managers and staff identify the most
important customer outcomes and the
measures that reveal whether those outcomes
are being achieved.
When leaders set their sights unambiguously
on improving the lives of their customers, they
provide a clear path for their staff and others to
follow.
Boards and executives need to invest in their
leadership development programs while
making sure those programs reinforce the
remaining pillars in their approach. Leadership
programs and behavior change should be
focused on finding ways to achieve meaningful
and measurable results in a financially
disciplined way—these are three components
that are emphasized by both the Performance
Imperative and RBA.
RBA can help achieve the conditions of Pillar 1
because it shows how measurement can be
applied to leadership itself. Using a board and
staff survey to rate leaders on the seven aspects
of the definition of “Courageous, Adaptive
Executive and Board Leadership” will allow for
your organization and board to focus on which
elements need to be most urgently developed.
It should also be the role of leadership to
measure, monitor and manage the seven pillars
of the Performance Imperative. Using a
Performance Imperative scorecard based on the
principles of RBA can help leaders do just that.
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© Results Leadership Group 2015
The RBA Results Scorecard is an accessible,
online Scorecard platform that enables you to
measure and manage your progress in real time
towards achieving effective leadership and the
remaining pillars. See below for an example
(fig.2):
The sample scorecard in Figure 2 provides an
overview of a hypothetical organization’s
achievement of each of the seven pillars with
performance measures for each. An example
performance measure for each pillar could be
the “Average Achievement Score across Pillar
Elements.” This data could be collected through
the use of staff surveys, with an example being
attached to this document as Appendix A.
This sample scorecard can also be found at:
http://resultsleadership.org/performanceimperative/. A generic Performance Imperative
Scorecard without RBA elements can also be
modified and created in the tool.
Pillar 2:
Disciplined management and
decision-making
Figure 2: Sample RBA Scorecard to help measure
and manage progress toward achieving the
Performance Imperative. View this scorecard
online: http://resultsleadership.org/performanceimperative/
Using a scorecard can be an effective way to
track your progress toward achieving the
Performance Imperative because it lays out
your data visually.
Achieving the
PERFORMANCE IMPERATIVE
with Results- Based AccountabilityTM
Disciplined, transparent management and
decision-making are the hallmarks of the RBA
framework. The RBA methodology and Turn
the Curve Thinking should be used in all staff
meetings and in one-on-one supervisory
meetings. This will ensure that all meetings are
focused on creating the best strategies to make
a difference.
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© Results Leadership Group 2015
A few years ago, Results Leadership Group
created a self-assessment tool that measures the
14 elements of disciplined management and
decision-making that are needed for any
organization to create measurable results. These
elements are all based on RBA principles.
Adopting these 14 elements for your organization
will ensure that you have the fundamentals in
place to achieve the conditions set out for this
pillar. Figure 3 is the poster that highlights all 14
elements of the RBA Self-Assessment.
Figure 3: Creating Measurable Results Self-Assessment Poster.
Available here: http://resultsleadership.org/?p=11523
1
We have adopted a common language
that allows us to distinguish between
population and performance
accountability
2
We can translate our language usage
into that of our funders and other
partners
3
We have identified one or more
community/population results to
which our work contributes
4
We and our partners have identified
the 3 to 5 most important indicators
for each of these results
11
5
Working with partners, we track and
review these indicators on a regular
basis
12
The population and performance baseline
curves we want to turn are displayed
prominently as charts on a wall
6
Working with our partners, we apply
Turn the Curve Thinking to each
indicator
13
We have identified an in-house expert
to train and coach other staff in this
work
7
We understand the role our organization
plays in the overall strategy to turn the
curve of each indicator
14
We are successfully turning curves;
creating measurable improvements
for customers and communities
Achieving the
PERFORMANCE IMPERATIVE
with Results- Based AccountabilityTM
8
We have established the 3 to 5 most
important performance measures for
what we do
9
We track and review these
performance measures on a regular
basis
10
We apply Turn the Curve Thinking to
each of the performance measures
We have adapted our management,
budget, strategic planning, grant
application, and progress reporting forms
to reflect Turn the Curve Thinking
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© Results Leadership Group 2015
Pillar 3:
Well-targeted, well-designed, and
well-implemented programs and
strategies
Asking whether strategies are well-targeted,
well-designed, and well-implemented is good,
but misses a critical element of success:
This impact can be experienced as changes in
attitude, behavior, skills, knowledge, or
circumstance of an organization’s customers.
The process for identifying performance
measures using these questions can be found
beginning on page 67 of Trying Hard is Not Good
Enough.
RBA provides a disciplined 5-step process for
identifying the 3 to 5 most important
performance measures from the data you
already have—and the priorities for new or
improved data in the form of a Data
Development Agenda. RBA's three types of
performance measures are summarized on the
chart below:
Is the program
having any
impact
In addition to
1) whom they serve
(who the customers are),;
2) what they do, and;
3) how well do they do it;
Organizations should be asking:
4) is anyone better off?
The question “is anyone better off” speaks to
the combination of quality and impact of a
program or organization on the specific
community members it is meant to serve.
Achieving the
PERFORMANCE IMPERATIVE
with Results- Based AccountabilityTM
Figure 4: The 4 quadrants of RBA Performance Measures
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© Results Leadership Group 2015
Pillar 4:
Pillar 5:
Financial health and sustainability
A Culture that Values Learning
RBA can help identify financial management
performance measures and use those measures
to improve the organization’s financial
condition.
RBA also provides the tools to create a ResultsBased Budget. Results-based budgeting asks
two questions: "Do we need it?" and "Is it
working?" The first question is about what role
the program or agency plays in achieving
community well-being. If it is decided that the
program or agency plays a relevant role in the
community, the second question, “Is it
working?” is asked. This question is an
examination of whether the program in its
current form is making the best possible
contribution to the community.
For this Pillar, we use the same metrics used in
program management and make budgetary
decisions based on the need for the program or
agency and its performance.
A culture that values learning and
improvement or what some consider a
“learning organization” emanates from the first
leadership pillar and reflects how crucial the
foundation of good leadership really is. Great
leaders create great cultures for those involved
in the organization.
Team members need to feel like they can
challenge the status quo, explore new options,
grow personally and professionally, feel
invested in and connected to the work, and
challenged. This may make the difference
between a program that gets results and a
program that does not.
Organizations that use RBA and continuous
improvement tools like Turn the Curve
Thinking are inherently learning organizations
because they engage leaders at all levels in
transparent, data-driven decision-making.
Using the same Turn the Curve thinking
process for management, budgeting and
strategic planning, provides a way to unify
these three, often separate, processes within the
organization.
Achieving the
PERFORMANCE IMPERATIVE
with Results- Based AccountabilityTM
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© Results Leadership Group 2015
Pillar 6:
Internal monitoring and
measurement for continuous
improvement
Whether it is establishing clear metrics,
producing simple and frequent performance
reports, making use of data part of the
organization’s DNA, collecting only the most
important information, or thinking about what
works from others in the Turn the Curve
thinking process…RBA is the ideal and
comprehensive tool that supports all of these
elements.
RBA ‘Turn the Curve’ Template
What is the “end”?
Choose either a result and indicator or a performance
measure.
How are we doing?
Graph the historic baseline and forecast for the indicator
or performance measure.
What is the story behind
the curve of the
baseline?
Briefly explain the story behind the baseline: the factors
(positive and negative, internal and external) that are
most strongly influencing the curve of the baseline.
Who are partners who
have a role to play in
turning the curve?
Identify partners who might have a role to play in turning
the curve of the baseline.
What works to turn the
curve?
• Determine what would work to turn the curve of the
baseline.
• Include no-cost/low-cost strategies.
What do we propose to
do to turn the curve?
Determine what you and your partners propose to do to
turn the curve of the baseline.
Figure 5: The RBA ‘Turn the Curve’ Template - This template provides an overview of the step-by-step
RBA “turn-the-curve” decision-making process.
Achieving the
PERFORMANCE IMPERATIVE
with Results- Based AccountabilityTM
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© Results Leadership Group 2015
Continuous improvement is at the heart of ‘Turn the Curve’ thinking—the hallmark process of RBA. In
Turn the Curve thinking, individuals look deeper into key performance measures, asking specific
questions to help them actually turn the curve on performance baseline trends.
You don’t just do Turn the Curve thinking and then you are done. You want to be able to consistently
monitor your baseline trends and make mid-course corrections as necessary. Data is obviously a key
ingredient to be able to monitor trends, so you need to be able to pick a few, important measures to
ensure staff do not become over-burdened by data collection.
Pillar 7:
External Evaluation for Mission Effectiveness
Evaluations are an important tool for managers and funders. They are often the only way to be certain
of the effect of program services on customer outcomes. And they have direct bearing on the
sustainability and growth of programs in the budget process. Evaluation studies also provide
important information about best and promising practices that are useful to the government and
nonprofit sectors in making choices about the use of limited resources.
As noted above, RBA makes use of evaluation findings in several key steps in the "Turn the Curve"
talk-to-action thinking process. And RBA has been used in evaluation design to construct testable
hypotheses about the relationship between quality service delivery (How well did we do it?) and
customer outcomes (Is anyone better off?)
Harvard Family Research Project Evaluation Exchange (Volume XI, No. 2, Summer, 2005) provided an
overview of eight outcome models. Of these outcome models, only four (Logic Model, Outcome
Funding Framework, RBA and Targeting Outcomes of Programs) were appropriate for program
planning and management. RBA was the only model found to be well suited for the variety of uses
that are necessary for a comprehensive approach to: program/agency improvement plans and
budgets; grant-making; project planning and start-up; development of community report cards and
evaluation design.
Achieving the
PERFORMANCE IMPERATIVE
with Results- Based AccountabilityTM
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© Results Leadership Group 2015
This report found that RBA has the following strengths:



It is a thorough system for planning community-change efforts and improvement in program,
agency or system performance;
It uses lay language and provides a direct link to budgeting;
It is useful for integrating different outcome systems.
RBA also provides accessible methods for continuous improvement that complement formal evaluation
methods and can be used between formal evaluation studies. If an organization is of the right size and
maturity to take on an external evaluation, RBA concepts should be used as part of the evaluation
design as well as for the ongoing performance management system used during the period of
evaluation.
Conclusion:
I am proud to be a part of the Leap of Reason Ambassadors community and believe the Performance
Imperative represents a great step forward in defining the conditions necessary to being a highperformance organization. I believe that, when coupled with RBA and the Results Scorecard, the
Performance Imperative has the potential to be a powerful tool in maximizing your organization’s
ability to deliver measurable improvement to the communities you serve. It will help you to start
implementing the Performance Imperative instead of just talking about it.
If you are interested in learning more about RBA and getting serious about high-performance, I
recommend that you take the following steps:



Have your staff take the attached survey once a year and record your results in your
Performance Imperative scorecard. You may even want to embed this scorecard on your public
website. You can sign up for a free 30-day trial at resultsscorecard.com.
Read Trying Hard is Not Good Enough by Mark Friedman and The Holy Grail of Public Leadership
by Adam Luecking
Visit resultsleadership.org and raguide.org for more resources and explanations.
Special thanks to Mark Friedman and Kayleigh Weaver for thoughtful editing .
Achieving the
PERFORMANCE IMPERATIVE
with Results- Based AccountabilityTM
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© Results Leadership Group 2015
Attachment A: Organizational Self-Assessment Pillar 1
Courageous, Adaptive Executive and Board Leadership On a scale of 1 to 5, rate how well your organization and its staff are achieving the following aspects of a High‐Performance organization. Rate your organization based on how well it is currently achieving each aspect, not whether or not you believe each aspect is important. Place the number of your score in the right column, then total and average your scores in the last two rows to get an overall score for each pillar. Repeat these steps for each Pillar in the survey. Use the scale below to help you determine your score. For example, if you believe your organization’s boards and executives do extremely well at clearly defining their respective roles, you would place a “5” under the score column for that aspect. 1 Poorly 2 Not Very Well 3 Adequately 4 Fairly Well 5 Extremely Well PERFORMANCE ASPECT: SCORE:
Boards and executives clearly define their respective roles. Boards are strong, assertive governors and stewards, not just supporters and fundraisers. They recognize that they have a responsibility to understand the issues the organization is addressing, risk probing questions about whether the organization is living up to its promises, admit when course correction is needed, and prepare the organization for contingencies that could undermine its ability to meet its mission. Boards and executives clarify the mission (purpose) of their organization and inspire people to work to achieve it. Boards and executives recruit, develop, engage, and retain the talent necessary to deliver on this mission. They know that great talent is a huge differentiator between organizations that are high‐
performing and those that aren’t. Boards and executives marshal the partners and resources necessary to deliver on this mission. Boards and executives passionately push the organization to get better at meeting its mission and to reduce costs without compromising quality. Boards and executives are humble enough to seek and act on feedback on their own performance and that of their organization. Even the highest of high performers know they haven’t figured it all out and acknowledge that they still have a lot of work to do. Boards and executives are constantly assessing not only what the organization should be doing, but also what it should stop doing, with an eye to redirecting scarce resources to the highest‐
opportunity areas. Total: (Add up each score) Average Score for Pillar 1: (Total divided by 8) Achieving thePerformance Imperative Organizational Self-Assessment
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©ResultsLeadershipGroup2015
Pillar 2
Disciplined, People-Focused Management
1 2 3 Poorly Not Very Well Adequately 4 Fairly Well 5 Extremely Well PERFORMANCE ASPECT SCORE:
Managers translate leaders’ drive for excellence into clear workplans and incentives to carry out the work effectively and efficiently. Managers’ decisions are data‐informed whenever possible. Managers, like the executives and the board, have the ability to recruit, develop, engage, and retain the talent necessary to deliver on the mission. They help staff get the tools and training they need in order to deliver the desired results Managers provide opportunities for staff to see themselves in the work –that is, to see how each person’s work contributes to the desired results. Managers establish accountability systems that provide clarity at each level of the organization about the standards for success and yet provide room for staff to be creative about how they achieve these standards. Managers provide continual feedback to team members and augment this feedback with periodic performance reviews. They view performance reviews as an opportunity for staff development and coaching. Managers acknowledge when staff members are not doing their work well. They give these staffers help to improve or move them to more suitable roles. If it becomes clear that staff members are unable or unwilling to meet expectations, managers are not afraid to make tough personnel decisions so that the organization can live up to the promises it makes to beneficiaries, donors, and other key stakeholders. Total:
(Add up each score) Average Score for Pillar 2:
(Total divided by 7) Achieving thePerformance Imperative Organizational Self-Assessment
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©ResultsLeadershipGroup2015
Pillar 3
Well-designed and Well-Implemented Programs and Strategies
1 2 3 4 5 Poorly Not Very Well Adequately Fairly Well Extremely Well PERFORMANCE ASPECT: SCORE:
Leaders and managers are clear on the target population or audience they serve and passionate about serving them. Leaders and managers base the design of their programs and strategies on a sound analysis of the issues, insights from intended beneficiaries, and evidence‐informed assumptions about how the organization’s activities can lead to the desired change (often referred to as a “theory of change”). Leaders and managers design programs with careful attention to the larger ecosystem in which they operate—including racial, cultural, geographic, historical, and political dynamics. Leaders and managers implement their programs with consistent high quality. They view collecting and using data as part and parcel of implementing high‐quality programs. Leaders and managers do a good job of recruiting, retaining, motivating, listening to, and learning from their participants and intended beneficiaries. In the case of direct‐service organizations, leaders and managers invest in building strong relationships between staff and participants because this relationship may be the single biggest determinant of whether participants will stay engaged in programming and thereby will achieve the desired results. Leaders and managers guard against the temptation to veer off course in search of numbers that look good in marketing materials or reports to funders. Total:
(Add up each score) Average Score for Pillar 3:
(Total divided by 6) Achieving thePerformance Imperative Organizational Self-Assessment
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©ResultsLeadershipGroup2015
Pillar 4
Financial Health and Sustainability
1 2 Poorly Not Very Well 3 Adequately 4 Fairly Well 5 Extremely Well PERFORMANCE ASPECT: SCORE: The board and senior management take charge of their organization’s financial destiny. They articulate the value they deliver and develop overall financing strategies, tightly aligned with their mission, to support and sustain it. The board and senior management establish strong systems for financial stewardship and accountability throughout their organization. The board, management, and staff build and participate in budget processes that are oriented towards achieving results and not just achieving activities. This means allocating adequate resources for monitoring and evaluation. And it means making hard choices, especially in tough financial times, to direct money where it needs to go to drive the intended results. The board and senior management share their financial results transparently with key stakeholders at regular intervals. The board and management nurture the eternal financing relationships required to support their operations. They treat fund development as a strategic function that requires focus, management, capital, and specialized skill sets. They ensure clearly defined roles for the board and staff. The board and senior management operate their organizations with margins that allow them to build their balance sheet. They fund the depreciation on buildings and equipment. They build internal cash reserves that brace them for unknown events, put them in a position to finance their own receivables if necessary, and enable them to negotiate a line of credit with a financial institution. The board, management, and key staff understand their organization’s cost structure, which aspects of it are required to produce quality programs and/or services, and how it aligns with reliable revenue sources available to fund it year in and year out. They are relentless in making necessary investments with an eye to costs and benefits, which being equally relentless at reducing unnecessary costs. Senior management uses financial models to make clear and transparent the organization’s financial condition and, at any given point, predict how it will end the year (and what will make the predication more or less reliable). Senior management instills an organization‐wide discipline of compliance with all regulatory requirements. Total:
(Add up each score) Average Score for Pillar 4:
(Total divided by 9) Achieving thePerformance Imperative Organizational Self-Assessment
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©ResultsLeadershipGroup2015
Pillar 5
A Culture that Values Learning
1 Poorly 2 Not Very Well 3 Adequately 4 Fairly Well 5 Extremely Well PERFORMANCE ASPECT: SCORE: Management and staff understand the organization’s mission and desired results and review them periodically to ensure they are still relevant. Management and staff continually seek to do even better for the people or causes they serve. People in all parts of the organization have high expectations of themselves and of their peers. Management and staff take on the challenge of collecting and using information, not because it’s a good marketing tool, and not because a funder said they have to. They believe it is integral to ensuring material, measurable, and sustainable good for the people or causes thy serve. Management and staff look for opportunities to benchmark themselves against, and learn from, peer organizations that are at the top of their field. Senior management leads by example and encourages people throughout the organization to be curious, ask questions, and push each other’s thinking by being appropriately and respectfully challenging. High‐performance cultures are innovative cultures, mindful that every program and process eventually becomes dated, even obsolete. Leaders create the conditions for staff members to feel safe acknowledging when there are problems. They use what others might deem “failures” as an opportunity for learning. Even the busiest leaders, managers, and staff members carve out some time to step back, take stock, and reflect. Total: (Add up each score) Average Score for Pillar 5: (Total divided by 8) Achieving thePerformance Imperative Organizational Self-Assessment
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©ResultsLeadershipGroup2015
Pillar 6
Internal Monitoring for Continuous Improvement
1 Poorly 2 Not Very Well 3 Adequately 4 Fairly Well 5 Extremely Well PERFORMANCE ASPECT: SCORE:
The board, management, and staff work together to establish clear metrics, tightly aligned with the results they want to achieve, for each program and for the organization as a whole. Management and staff produce frequent reports on how well the organization is implementing its programs and strategies. Management and staff use these reports to inform course corrections and make operational and programmatic improvements on an ongoing basis. Management and staff make the collection, analysis, and use of data part of the organization’s DNA. They ensure that people throughout the organization understand the key metrics. And they invest in helping staff gain comfort in working with data as a natural part of their job. Management and staff don’t collect excessive information. They focus on collecting information that is relevant for determining how well they are achieving the desired results, understanding what mix of efforts is critical to achieving those results, and continuously improving their results over time. Ideally, applying this information makes staff members’ jobs easier and more effective rather than simply adding to their burden. The board, management, and staff draw extensively on lessons from organizational assessments and evaluations of like programs serving similar causes or populations. Achieving thePerformance Imperative Organizational Self-Assessment
Total:
(Add up each score) Average Score for Pillar 6:
(Total divided by 5) 6|P a g e
©ResultsLeadershipGroup2015
Pillar 7
External Evaluation for Mission Effectiveness
1 2 3 Poorly Not very well Adequately 4 Fairly Well 5 Extremely Well PERFORMANCE ASPECT: SCORE:
Leaders complement internal monitoring with external evaluations conducted by highly skilled, independent experts. Leaders commission external assessments to learn more about how well their programs are being run, what these programs are or are not accomplishing, whom they are or are not benefitting, and how they can strengthen their programs. Leaders o not use external assessments as a one‐time, up‐or‐down verdict on the organization’s effectiveness. Leaders recognize that there are many different types of external assessments, and no one type is right for every organization or for every stage of an organization’s development. Independent evaluators who understand how different methodologies fit different contexts can help leaders match the tool to the task. Leaders call a clear distinction between outputs (e.g., meals delivered, youth tutored) and outcomes (meaningful changes in knowledge, skills, behavior, or status). Those who are working to improve outcomes in any way commission evaluations to assess whether they are leaving a positive net impact. In other words, they want to know to what extent, and for whom, they’re making a meaningful difference beyond what would’ve happened anyway. Leaders who plan to expand in a significant way any programs aimed at improving outcomes have a special obligation to commission a rigorous evaluation that can assess net impact. Even those leaders who commission the most rigorous of impact evaluations do not stop there. They continue to commission assessments aimed at helping them gauge their impact in new settings (or for new populations) as well as helping them achieve greater positive impact for the money they spend. Leaders share the methodology and results of their external assessments to contribute to others’ learning and help them avoid mistakes. Total:
(Add up each score) Average Score for Pillar 7:
(Total divided by 7) Achieving thePerformance Imperative Organizational Self-Assessment
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©ResultsLeadershipGroup2015
Are we Achieving the Performance Imperative?
Organizational Achievement Worksheet
In this worksheet, you will record your organization’s ‘Achievement Score’ for each of the 7 High‐Performance Pillars. To determine the Achievement Score, add together all of your staff members’ “Average Scores” from the appropriate pillar you are calculating, then divide by the number of surveys your staff completed. Calculation:
Achievement Score = (Sum of each staff member’s ‘Average Score’ for each pillar) / (number of surveys) Pillar: Achievement Score: Pillar 1: Courageous, Adaptive Executive and Board Leadership Pillar 2: Disciplined, People-Focused Management Pillar 3: Well-Designed and Well-Implemented Programs and Strategies Pillar 4: Financial Health and Sustainability Pillar 5: A Culture that Values Learning Pillar 6: Internal Monitoring for Continuous Improvement Pillar 7: External Evaluation for Mission Effectiveness **Itisencouragedyourorganizationtotakethisassessmentonceannuallyandtoreportyourfinal
AchievementScoresintheResultsScorecard.Thiswillallowyourorganizationtotracktrenddataandcreate
performanceimprovementplansforeachofthe7PillarsofthePerformanceImperative.
Achieving thePerformance Imperative Organizational Self-Assessment
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©ResultsLeadershipGroup2015