Gov Innovator podcast

Too often, contracting is seen as a back-office function, even though many government programs are actually implemented with contracted service providers. In reality, contracting — and contracting reforms — can be a key driver of better results in human services, including for the most vulnerable families and individuals. We discuss specific steps in results-driven contracting with Lisa Morrison Butler, the former Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) and now the Executive Vice President and Chief Impact Officer at Results for America. She served as Commissioner of DFSS — the largest funder of human and social services in the city — for more than five years across two mayoral administrations. Under her leadership, she led an organizational transformation aimed at achieving greater overall impact, including overhauling the department’s approach to contracting. The five main steps in DFSS’s path to results-driven contracting that we discuss are: Build consensus around the need for change related to contracting. Choose a pilot division. Develop a calendar to roll out reform across the department. Build clear goals and new expectations into each new RFP, among participating divisions. Adopt active contract management, including developing learning cohorts that met quarterly. Learn more: To hear other Gov Innovator podcast interviews on results-driven contracting, click this link. Read Lisa’s “Innovator Interview” with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Government Performance Lab on her efforts to improve outcomes at Chicago’s DFSS. The post How results-driven contracting improved outcomes for Chicago’s most vulnerable: An interview with Lisa Morrison Butler, former Commissioner, Chicago Department of Family and Support Services – Episode #202 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

When we think about what skills leaders need to be successful — such as making good decisions, regulating their emotions and stress, and forming strong and healthy relationships with others — an important foundation for those skills is mindfulness. Our guest today has deep expertise in helping people cultivate self-awareness and mindfulness in order to (to paraphrase his own words) help them become the person they’re meant to be in the world, hopefully growing towards that day by day. Rabbi Marc Margolius is the Senior Program Director at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. He hosts IJS’s daily mindfulness meditation sessions and teaches an online program called “Awareness in Action” designed to cultivate character through mindfulness. The post Using mindfulness practices for greater self-awareness and self-improvement: Rabbi Marc Margolius, Senior Program Director, Institute for Jewish Spirituality – Episode 201 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

To celebrate our 200th interview, we are joined by one of the most respected people within the evidence and evaluation field, Dr. Naomi Goldstein, to share reflections on her 21-year career at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Human Services. Dr. Goldstein (@NaomiGoldstein1) is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning, Research, and Evaluation at ACF. She will retire from federal service this week after a 21-year tenure at ACF, including becoming Director of the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) in 2004 and Deputy Assistant Secretary in 2015. Beyond those important career achievements, it is her kindness, humility, candor and commitment — and, I would add, all with a sense of humor — that have made her such a valued colleagued and friend to so many over the years. Interview transcript: Available here. Learn more: Her recent blog post on the OPRE website is “How Do I Love My Job? Let Me Count the Ways“ Previous podcast interview: Why evaluation policies are useful to results-focused federal agencies (with Molly Irwin) Previous podcast interview: Strengthening evaluation capacity within agencies The post Career reflections from an evidence leader: An interview with Naomi Goldstein, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Episode #200 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

Colorado is a leader in the U.S. in terms of using evidence to guide state budget decisions, so that dollars flow to programs that are effective. It’s also a leader in terms of building evidence to better learn what works in key program areas. For example: State agencies are required by the governor’s budget office to show the evidence behind requested budget changes. In doing that, agencies use a framework called the “Evidence Continuum” that describes the stages of building and assessing program information. Also, the legislature now requires agencies to use consistent definitions of evidence-based programs in their budget requests. And Colorado is one of only a handful of states to have a dedicated fund to support program evaluations. A recent report by the The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Results First initiative, titled “Colorado’s ‘Evidence Continuum’ Promotes Efficient, Effective Public Programs,” discusses the state’s progress in these areas. To get an overview, we are joined by one of its authors, Sara Dube who directs the Results First initiative at the The Pew Charitable Trusts. The post Colorado’s nation-leading practices in using evidence to guide budget decisions: An interview with Sara Dube, Director, Results First Initiative, The Pew Charitable Trusts – Episode #199 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

An important area of innovation within higher-education policy in recent years has been tuition-free college policies — also known as Promise Programs — designed to make college more affordable and accessible. Our previous podcast interview with Professor Elizabeth Bell of Florida State University provided an overview of the topic. In this new interview, we focus further on state-level programs, including the fact that Promise Programs have spread to states of very different political leanings. To do that, we are joined by Dr. Michelle Miller-Adams (@mmilleradams). She is the co-director of the Upjohn Institute’s place-based research initiative and is a national expert on tuition-free college initiatives. Her latest book is The Path to Free College: In Pursuit of Access, Equity, and Prosperity. The post How state tuition-free college programs are spanning political divides: An interview with Michelle Miller-Adams, Senior Researcher, Upjohn Institute – Episode #198 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

Tuition-free college policies have become a cornerstone of policymakers’ efforts to expand college access, affordability, and degree attainment. The movement began at the local level with initiatives such as the Kalamazoo Promise, but has since been taken to the state level, with 21 states currently operating Promise Programs. To learn more about these important policies and the evidence behind them, we are joined by someone who has examined them closely, Dr. Elizabeth Bell (@PoliSciBell). She is an Assistant Professor at the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University and also serves as an Academic Affiliate for the Office of Evaluation Sciences within the federal government. The post How Promise Programs are expanding college access, affordability, and degree attainment: An interview with Professor Elizabeth Bell, Florida State University – Episode #197 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

Arnold Ventures launched its evidence-based policy initiative in 2015 in large part to increase the number of social policy programs with strong evidence behind them. To do that, the team funds randomized controlled trials of programs in social policy whose prior evidence has shown the potential for sizable effects on education, earnings, crime, and other important outcomes. To date it has funded over 100 RCTs and disseminates the findings through its Straight Talk on Evidence (@NoSpinEvidence) and Social Programs that Work websites. To hear lessons from that work and also broader observations from someone working to advance evidence-based policy for almost two decades, we are joined by David Anderson. He is the Vice President of Evidence-Based Policy at Arnold Ventures and previously served as was the Vice President of the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy. The post Insights about building credible evidence in social policy: An interview with David Anderson, Vice President of Evidence-Based Policy, Arnold Ventures – Episode #196 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

Minnesota has been identified by several good-government organizations as one of the leaders in the nation on evidence-based policymaking. The Pew Charitable Trusts, for example, has noted that “Using evidence-based policymaking has enabled Minnesota…to provide better outcomes for residents, [and] improve the way research and evidence inform the budget and policymaking processes….” One important piece of that story is how the state launched an Impact Evaluation Unit within  Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB). The Impact Evaluation Unit helps lead the development of program inventories used for evidnece-based budgeting and also conducts rigorous program evaluations to help the state learn what works. To learn more, we are joined by Dr. Weston Merrick (@WestonMerrick). He is a senior manager at MMB and leads the Impact Evaluation Unit. The post How Minnesota’s impact evaluation unit supports evidenece-based budgeting: An interview with Weston Merrick, Minnesota Management and Budget – Episode #195 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

Minnesota has been identified by several good-government organizations as one of the leaders in the nation on evidence-based policymaking. The Pew Charitable Trusts, for example, has noted that “Using evidence-based policymaking has enabled Minnesota…to provide better outcomes for residents, [and] improve the way research and evidence inform the budget and policymaking processes….” One important piece of that story is how the state launched an Impact Evaluation Unit within  Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB). The Impact Evaluation Unit helps lead the development of program inventories used for evidnece-based budgeting and also conducts rigorous program evaluations to help the state learn what works. To learn more, we are joined by Dr. Weston Merrick (@WestonMerrick). He is a senior manager at MMB and leads the Impact Evaluation Unit. The post How Minnesota’s impact evaluation unit supports evidenece-based budgeting: An interview with Weston Merrick, Minnesota Management and Budget – Episode #195 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

Ohio’s Department of Education is one of the leading state agencies in the U.S. in terms of its focus on helping and encouraging school leaders to use evidence-based educational strategies and supports. For the past almost four years, Dr. Heather Boughton (@hrosemaryb) helped lead those efforts. She’s the former director of the Office of Research, Evaluation & Advanced Analytics within the Department. She served in the department for almost 13 years before starting a new role last month as Director of Education Policy Implementation at Results for America. In our interview, she discusses the mission of her former office and then provides three pieces of advice based on her experience: 1) Use evidence to create a cycle of continuous improvement; 2) Understand that using evidence can be messy; and 3) See evidence building as a team effort. She also provides advice for state education departments that are earlier on the path to doing this type of work. The post Insights on evidence use from Ohio’s Department of Education: An interview with Heather Boughton, Results for America – Episode #194 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

Anne Arundel County, Maryland, has a population of just under 600,000 and is south of Baltimore and East of Washington D.C., with the county seat being Annapolis. In 2018, under County Executive Steuart Pittman, the county launched a performance-focused office called ArundelStat. One of the key initiatives of the office so far has been developing performance plans for 30 county departments. Those plans are being used by top executive leadership within the county to track departmental performance trends and focus on and tackle priority performance challenges. To learn more, we’re joined by Elizabeth Funsch. She is the founding manager of ArudelStat and, prior to that, served as a senior performance manager in Prince George’s County in Maryland. The post Developing and using agency performance plans: An interview with Elizabeth Funsch, ArundelStat Manager, Anne Arundel County in Maryland – Episode #193 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

What does it take to be a successful evaluation office within a public agency? Three things that are important are being trustworthy, being engaging, and being relentless, explains Dr. Susan Jenkins. Since 2016, Dr. Jenkins has been the Director of the Office of Performance and Evaluation at the Administration for Community Living (ACL) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She also teaches program evaluation at American University and, prior to ACL, served on the evaluation staff of the Peace Corps. ACL’s mission is to maximize the independence, well-being, and health of older adults, people with disabilities, and their families and caregivers. Both ACL and Dr. Jenkins have been recognized by Results for America for their leadership in creating a culture of evidence-based decision making. The post Three keys to a successful agency evaluation office: An interview with Susan Jenkins, Director of the Office of Performance and Evaluation, Administration for Community Living, HHS – Episode #192 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

The New Hope Project was an anti-poverty program in the 1990s in Milwaukee that offered a simple but powerful pledge: If participants were willing to work full-time, they would not be poor. The program used a wage subsidy, support for child care and health insurance, and (if participants needed it) short-term subsidized employment to achieve that pledge. While the program ended more than 20 years ago, its lessons, including from a five-year randomized evaluation and from longer-term research on impacts for children and youth, are especially important today as the nation struggles to tackle racial and economic inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic. A new brief published by Georgetown’s Center on Poverty & Inequality reexamines the lessons from New Hope and we’re joined by two of its authors. Julie Kirksick (@kerksick) served as New Hope’s Executive Director from 1997 to 2008 and as Associate Director prior to that. Since New Hope, she has held senior roles in human services agencies in both Wisconsin and Colorado. And Kali Grant (@kaligrant) is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality. The post Lessons from the New Hope Project for today: An interview with Julie Kirksick, former New Hope Executive Director, and Kali Grant, Georgetown University – Episode #191 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

New Mexico state government is a leader in the use of evidence, lead by its Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) that has been a catalyst for evidence-based budgeting, including through its participation in the Pew MacArthur Results First Initiative. In this part 2 of our interview with Charles Sallee, the Deputy Director of the Legislative Finance Committee, we get an update on progress. That includes: Sharing a great example of how credible research influenced policymaking on a key issue in New Mexico, pre-school education, with large increases in funding in recent years. How an important piece of good-government legislation — the New Mexico Evidence and Research-Based Funding Requests Act of 2019 — has spurred the development of program inventories in high-priority policy areas that support evidence-based budgeting. The post Evidence-based budgeting in New Mexico: An interview with Charles Sallee, Deputy Director, Legislative Finance Committee, New Mexico – Episode #190 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

Last month, New Mexico’s Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) did something that that possibly no other legislative committee in the U.S. has done to date: It launched a “PerformanceStat” initiative. As listeners to this podcast will know, the PerformanceStat process was pioneered in New York City for policing and then expanded to other government settings, as with Baltimore’s CitiStat and Maryland’s StateStat. The approach involves ongoing, data-driven performance reviews between leadership and departments or divisions. New Mexico’s LFC adapted PerformanceStat to a legislative setting, dubbing it “LegisSTAT.” To learn more, we’re joined by Charles Sallee. For more than a decade he has served as the LFC’s Deputy Director. Learn more: An op-ed in Governing, written by Charles Sallee, LFC Chair Patricia Lundstrom and Andy Feldman discusses the piloting of LegisSTAT in New Mexico. The post Launching LegisSTAT in New Mexico: An interview with Charles Sallee, Deputy Director, Legislative Finance Committee, New Mexico – Episode #189 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

John Kotter (@JohnPKotter) is one of the most respected thinkers on the topics of leadership and change. He is professor emeritus at the Harvard Business School, a widely-read author, and the founder of Kotter International, a management consulting firm. Many of you might know his book Leading Change, which is a classic on the topic and describes eight steps for successfully leading change initiatives. Those steps include: 1) Create a sense of urgency; 2) Build a guiding coalition; 3) Form a strategic vision and initiatives; 4) Enlist a volunteer army; 5) Enable action by removing barriers; 6) Generate short-term wins; 7) Sustain acceleration and 8) Institute change. His new book, coming out this month, is called Change: How organizations achieve hard to imagine results in uncertain and volatile times. It covers many topics, including how to make strategic planning more successful and impactful, as we discuss in the interview. The post Leading successful change and strategy initiatives: An interview with John Kotter, best-selling author and management thought leader – Episode #188 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

Idaho’s Office of Performance Evaluations (OPE) was created in 1994 and is a nonpartisan, independent office that serves the Idaho legislature by conducting evaluations of state agencies and programs, as well as studies of key policy issues. With its staff of seven evaluators, plus its director, OPE’s mission is to promote confidence and accountability in state government. To learn more, we’re joined by Rakesh Mohan (@RakeshMohanEval). He’s been the director of the office since 2002. OPE was the recipient of the American Evaluation Association’s Outstanding Evaluation Award and Rakesh himself was the recipient of the Outstanding Practitioner Award from the American Society for Public Administration. Web extras: We discuss additional details about OPE and its work, including the use of contractors to support the work [click here] and the steps from project selection to report creation [click here]. The post Insights from Idaho’s Office of Performance Evaluations: An interview with Rakesh Mohan, Director – Episode #187 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

Idaho’s Office of Performance Evaluations (OPE) was created in 1994 and is a nonpartisan, independent office that serves the Idaho legislature by conducting evaluations of state agencies and programs, as well as studies of key policy issues. With its staff of seven evaluators, OPE’s mission is to promote confidence and accountability in state government. To learn more, we’re joined by Rakesh Mohan (@RakeshMohanEval). He’s been the director of the office since 2002. OPE was the recipient of the American Evaluation Association’s Outstanding Evaluation Award and Rakesh himself was the recipient of the Outstanding Practitioner Award from the American Society for Public Administration. Web extras: We discuss additional details about OPE and its work, including the use of contractors to support the work [click here] and the steps from project selection to report creation [click here]. The post Insights from Idaho’s Office of Performance Evaluations: An interview with Rakesh Mohan, Director – Episode #187 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

A logic model is a detailed visual representation of an organization or program that expresses the organization’s theory of change. It’s useful for getting a clear and shared understanding of how an office, division, program or initiative works. But what important questions should an organization ask once its created a logic model? To find out, we’re joined by Dr. Cynthia Phillips, who recently retired from the National Science Foundation where she served as the acting chief evaluation officer. She’s also the author of several publications on logic models, including co-authoring the book The Logic Model Guidebook. Our interview focuses on five questions that organizations can ask, using the logic models they have created: Are we doing the right work? Are we doing the work right? Are our products or services accessed and used as intended? What difference are we making? What will it take to sustain our work? And, relatedly, what have we learned? The post Five questions public agencies should ask to put their logic models to work: An interview with Cynthia Phillips, former Acting Chief Evaluation Officer, National Science Foundation – Episode #186 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

A logic model is a detailed visual representation of an organization or program that expresses the organization’s theory of change. It’s useful for getting a clear and shared understanding of how an office, division, program or initiative works. But what important questions should an organization ask once its created a logic model? To find out, we’re joined by Dr. Cynthia Phillips, who recently retired from the National Science Foundation where she served as the acting chief evaluation officer. She’s also the author of several publications on logic models, including co-authoring the book The Logic Model Guidebook. Our interview focuses on five questions that organizations can ask: 1) Are we doing the right work? 2) Are we doing the work right? 3) Are our products or services accessed and used as intended? 4) What difference are we making? And 5) What will it take to sustain our work? And, relatedly, what have we learned? The post Five questions that agencies and programs should ask to put their logic models to work: An interview with Cynthia Phillips, former Acting Chief Evaluation Officer, National Science Foundation – Episode #186 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.