About Mark Friedman

Mark Friedman is the author of the book Trying Hard Is Not Good Enough: How to Produce Measurable Improvements for Customers and Communities. He is the Director of the Fiscal Policy Studies Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, best known for his international work on Results-Based Accountability (RBA), a framework for turning data into action.
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2.3 How do we get people to understand the difference between indicators and performance measures?

The Short Answer Indicators are about whole populations. Performance measures are about client populations. Indicators are usually about  peoples' lives, whether or not they receive any service. Performance measures are usually about people who receive service. Indicators are proxies for the well-being of whole populations, and necessarily matters of approximation and compromise. Performance measures are about a known group [...]

2017-02-20T22:47:46-05:00By |Categories: RBA Implementation Guide|Tags: , |0 Comments
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2.4 What are some populations for which results can be developed and used?

he Short Answer 1. Populations and subpopulations can be defined by geography or by both characteristic and geography. 2. Examples of populations include: all children in the county, all children 0 to 5 in the county, all children 0 to 5 in the Fairfield neighborhood of the county; all elders in the state, all elders [...]

2017-02-20T22:47:46-05:00By |Categories: RBA Implementation Guide|Tags: , |0 Comments
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2.5 How do we select results for a given population?

The Short Answer 1. Results are plain language conditions of well-being for children, adults, families, and communities. 2. Choosing results is a political process more than a technical process. You are looking for a set of statements that are understandable to the public, say something important about the well-being of a given population, and are [...]

2019-04-24T13:24:58-04:00By |Categories: RBA Implementation Guide|0 Comments
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2.6 How do we identify results in terms of everyday experience?

The Short Answer 1. Ask people how they experience the results (e.g. healthy and safe children) in their every day lives. What do we see, hear, feel? For example, for safe children, we might observe children wearing bike helmets. 2. Experience" is the bridge between plain language results and indicators. Each experience is a pointer [...]

2016-04-25T20:49:07-04:00By |Categories: RBA Implementation Guide|Tags: |0 Comments
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2.7 How do we select indicators for a result?

The Short Answer 1. Start by assessing the result in terms of everyday experience, what we see hear, or feel about children ready for school or stable families. 2. Brainstorm a list of candidate indicators. Each entry is a data statement, e.g. % of children reading at grade level, rate of foster children per 100,000. [...]

2023-03-21T13:06:24-04:00By |Categories: RBA Implementation Guide|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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Chapter 2.8 – Where do we get the data for Indicators? How do we get better data?

The Short Answer 1. Look at what others have done. There are many websites with report cards and data sources that others have used. (See tools.) 2. Get your partners to help access what now is produced. Sometimes the best data on child and family well-being comes from the public health and education systems. State [...]

2018-08-17T14:07:33-04:00By |Categories: RBA Implementation Guide|Tags: |0 Comments
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2.10 How do we create a report card and what do we do with it?

The Short Answer 1. Gain organizational and political sponsorship, necessary to produce the document and give it standing in the decision making process. 2. Identify results and indicators, using a broad process to involve partners, and grounded in a conceptually clear framework. See 2.5 and 2.6, and 2.7. 3. Gather the data, starting with the best available and pursuing [...]

2017-02-20T22:47:46-05:00By |Categories: RBA Implementation Guide|Tags: |0 Comments
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2.12 How do we identify what works to improve conditions of well-being?

The Short Answer 1. Look at the research, but don't be limited by research. Find out what has worked in other places to turn the curves you are working on. But research will never give us all, or even most, of the answers. Use your common sense and knowledge of your community to decide what [...]

2017-06-07T13:03:38-04:00By |Categories: RBA Implementation Guide|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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