2.16.2006
A new language
This semester I am taking classes in Strategies, Proposal Development, Monitoring and Evaluation. I am learning about conceptual frameworks, results frameworks, evaluation frameworks, log frameworks, and the difference between aims, objectives, goals, and expected outcomes. It's all DevSpeak, it's paper. But at the moment it seems worthwhile to learn. I can't tell if that's just become I'm in this public health industry bubble, if I'm learning the system so I can someday change it, or if it maybe actually does.
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I think devspeak translates pretty easily into govspeak. Performance metrics are all the thing these days. OMB requires Federal agencies to PART all their programs periodically. PART used as a verb is derived from the Program Assessment and Rating Tool OMB uses to measure the effectiveness of each program as part of the Federal budget process. (It's a painful exercise requiring all kinds of justification and performance measures for programs that are already authorized in law and that Congress is going to fund (and often earmark for questionable projects) anyway reqardless of the PART score and OMB's inclusion or not in the budget).
And I just finished writing all the annual performance expectations for each of my staff with critical outcomes, based where possible on the strategic business objectives and core accountabilities of the agency. Then of course there's the President's Management Agenda (PMA) - where each agency strives to stay "green" on the five categories on the scorecard (as opposed to yellow or red, which are bad things.) Then there's strategic planning where you have to distinguish between vision and mission and goals and objectives.
I hate this stuff. In theory it sounds good, but it ignores the role of intuition and common sense and the gut knowledge smart people have of what works and what doesn't - and what's worth doing. (Oh, and now I spend time every day - usually after 6 PM - filling out my labor distribuition report (LDR) for managerial cost accounting (MCA), so the agency can track how I spend my time (in half hour increments) on activities that are tracked back to Departmental strategic goals and agency core accountabilities to satisfy the performance measurement item on the PMA )
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And I just finished writing all the annual performance expectations for each of my staff with critical outcomes, based where possible on the strategic business objectives and core accountabilities of the agency. Then of course there's the President's Management Agenda (PMA) - where each agency strives to stay "green" on the five categories on the scorecard (as opposed to yellow or red, which are bad things.) Then there's strategic planning where you have to distinguish between vision and mission and goals and objectives.
I hate this stuff. In theory it sounds good, but it ignores the role of intuition and common sense and the gut knowledge smart people have of what works and what doesn't - and what's worth doing. (Oh, and now I spend time every day - usually after 6 PM - filling out my labor distribuition report (LDR) for managerial cost accounting (MCA), so the agency can track how I spend my time (in half hour increments) on activities that are tracked back to Departmental strategic goals and agency core accountabilities to satisfy the performance measurement item on the PMA )
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