The MFR Blog Has Moved!

Hey Folks-

We are excited to announce we have launched a fresh and exciting new website designed with our customers in mind! We will continue to share opportunities, stories, commentary and videos, but going forward, the MFR Blog will live within our new site at www.weidnerinc.com/blog.

Click here to check it out and be sure to subscribe to keep those posts going straight to your Inbox!

Join us in D.C. this June!

Hey folks - there's a great conference opportunity coming up that we're part of and we wanted to invite you to be part of it. Our friends at the Advanced Learning Institute are convening a gathering on "Meeting the New Government Performance and Results Act" in Washington, D.C., on June 20-23.

Workshops will cover a wide range of critical elements for creating and strengthening your organizational approach to performance management. Marv Weidner, our founder and CEO, and Kate Blunt, a member of our consulting team, will be co-presenting an interactive workshop on "How To Plan, Manage, Measure, And Communicate Your Results: Building A Performance Management System To Achieve Success" on Thursday, June 23.

You can get more information about, and register for, the conference by clicking here. Hope to see you in D.C. in June!

Results Conversations: Clyde Namuo, Office of Hawaiian Affairs

In 2009, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) developed a new Strategic Plan, built on the input of more than 3,000 individuals, and very much focused on measurable results for Native Hawaiians. To take a look at OHA’s a remarkable Strategic Plan, click here. Now, throughout 2010 and 2011, OHA is implementing Managing For Results at all levels in their operations - including Budgeting, Business Plans, Work Plans, Performance Measures, Individual Performance Plans and Performance Based Contracting - and they are using our software tools, MFR Live and MFR People, to support the effort.

While on a recent on-site visit, our CEO and founder Marv Weidner sat down with OHA CEO, Clyde Namuo, to reflect on their considerable accomplishments and what it all means to OHA and to the Native Hawaiian community. Listen in while Clyde shares the OHA story.

Did You Get Our Latest E-newsletter?

We sent out our latest e-newsletter earlier this week, and if we may say so ourselves, it's a particularly good one -- offers for free webinars, links to dynamite resources for performance contracting -- even a chance to sign up for a new weekly Manager's Letter!

Our e-newsletter doesn't cost a thing and it consistently features great resources for you to put to use right away in your organization. Why not sign up today? Click here to do so.

If you didn't get our latest e-newsletter and would like to receive it, send en e-mail to waaron@weidnerinc.com -- we'll get one to you right away.

"It's my job to ensure results"

If you didn't see this op-ed piece in the March 2 New York Times - "Why Your Boss Is Wrong About You" - it's worth a look:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/opinion/02culbert.html?emc=eta1

Regardless of your perspective on the questions raised by recent events in Wisconsin, the column makes some excellent points about the power of ensuring employees are focused on results in a clear, fair and systematic manner.

The author makes a point that's very familiar to us: without clear expectations established around results for customers and agreed upon measures for performance, employee performance reviews can stifle, not support, a focus on results and on innovation.

Under such a system, in which one’s livelihood can be destroyed by a self-serving boss trying to meet a budget or please the higher-ups, what employee would ever speak his mind? What employee would ever say that the boss is wrong, and offer an idea on how something might get done better?

Only an employee looking for trouble.

We call this the "whack-a-mole" culture. What happens when an employee sticks up their head to point out an issue or to make a suggestion? If they get "whacked" for it, how many times are

they going to do that? Or are they going to (correctly) conclude that, if they want to work in an organization where they can contribute, they need to go elsewhere?

Managers and leaders at all levels have the power to create a work culture that helps employees succeed and that clearly defines success in terms of results delivered for the customer. As the column notes, in such a system:

Instead of the bosses merely handing out A’s and C’s, they work to make sure everyone can earn an A. And the word goes out: “No more after-the-fact disappointments. Tell me your problems as they happen; we’re in it together and it’s my job to ensure results.”

Sounds about right to us.

We've been sharing rich resources recently to help governments create Employee Performance Management systems that accelerate performance. Check out our previous posts on aligning employees to the organization's priorities and why managing employee performance matters to your customers. Look for links to our EPM webinar series here as well -- coming very soon!

Words From Weidner: Focus on Results

We're excited that our Founder and CEO, Marv Weidner, has started sharing some of his thoughts and expertise in short videos. We'll be posting these here and at marvweidner.com as we do them, and we hope you find them useful.

Marv's a pretty sharp guy, and in 20 years of working in state government in Iowa, he learned all of three things. Here, he talks about the first thing he learned:

Results Conversations: Terrell Blodgett, Performance Pioneer

If you don't know, or know of, Terrell Blodgett, then it's time to fix that. Terrell stands as one of the giants in the movement to help governments measure, manage, and be more accountable around their performance. His "Managing For Results" conferences through the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in the late 1990s brought together hundreds of government leaders to drive a greater focus on government's results for customers.

Indeed, there's a clear line of sight from the work Terrell has led to the powerful guidance that organizations such as the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, the Association of Government Accountants, and the Government Finance Officers Association have provided in recent years around government performance management.

We had the opportunity to sit down with Terrell recently over lunch and talk about his latest project, a book on the history of government performance management, and about the increasing importance of governmental focus on results for customers in this time of reduced resources. It's great stuff; take a look --