In June 2009, President Obama made Jeff Zients the country’s first chief performance officer with a mandate to make the government run smarter and cost less. Considering that the federal government employs two million people, and that most citizens would not put “smarter” and “cost less” in the same sentence with “federal government,” he’s got some work to do.

In “Obama’s efficiency expert” (Fortune, Jia Lynn Yang, December 29, 2009), Zients observed, “What President Obama has done with the chief performance officer title is say, ‘Management matters.’” In recent testimony before the Senate Budget Committee, he said, “The test of a performance management system is whether it is used…the current approach fails this test.”

I think the test of a performance management system is how effective it is. Whether it is used is a test of leadership, which also happens to be when management matters.

I have some advice for CPO Zients: Instruct every department and agency of the federal government to integrate the Baldrige model. Demand annual Baldrige assessments. Implement strategic and action planning processes to address the opportunities for improvement. Track and post every unit’s scores. By the time Obama leaves office in seven years, you will have institutionalized the best performance management system available throughout the federal government.

To make your job easier, the Baldrige program is run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology—a federal agency! And the Baldrige program is open to all government entities.

In fact, a federal agency won the Baldrige Award in 2009: the Department of Veterans Affairs – Cooperative Studies Program Clinical Research Pharmacy Coordinating Center. If you’re looking for smarter and more cost effective, consider the Center’s results:

• Revenue per employee of $221,000 in 2008
• An agile matrix management system and interlocking committee structure creates a learning organization
• A Federal Executive Board Employer of Choice in 2008 and 2009
• 100% of customers claimed good-to-excellent overall satisfaction with the Center in 2009

Mr. Zients has an impressive background as a management consultant and CEO and I’m sure he has experience with what works and what doesn’t, but if he’s unfamiliar with Baldrige or if he’s intent on short-term, piecemeal solutions, he will fail. The federal government as a system is broken. It needs to integrate a proven management system to become more effective and efficient.

The Baldrige model is perfectly positioned to do just that.

(4 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)

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