Leading and Learning through Dynamic Performance Management in Government

Performance management in government is at a crossroads. The advent of big data and advances in technological and analytical tools have provided opportunities to measure and track a wider variety of internal and external indicators on a more timely basis. Public leaders require new vision and capacity to design and manage knowledge-building systems. This article provides two tools: (1) a more comprehensive open systems performance management framework and (2) a model of leadership needed to orchestrate such systems-knowledge brokers who orchestrate the demand for and supply of evidence. This article recommends that public agencies strategically build evidence to better track measures of the effects of governmental actions on public value and their intended and unintended consequences on the ecosystem; articulate, measure, and test the assumptions built into their operating models; and learn from routine monitoring of the dynamic environment in which their organizations strive to achieve their missions.