Town of West Boylston, MA - Goals/Desired Outcomes And Objectives

Performance measurement is valuable because it tells us how we are doing. They underscore our success and help us identify where we can make improvements. Of course, performance measures cannot tell us how to make improvements; other tools are necessary for that purpose, but they can serve as an early warning system to help us better manage and to address issues before they become problems. Performance measures are part of an overall conceptual and strategic framework for more effective management.

The conceptual framework for articulating the department’s purpose and how you want to achieve that purpose is a mission statement, a desired outcome and well-defined objectives for attaining those outcomes. You measure your progress towards achieving those objectives through specific performance measures. Within this framework, performance measures serve as your link to program operations and desired outcomes.

Simply stated, mission/goals/desired outcomes, objectives and performance measures form the links in the causal chain of applying resources to provide services and products to achieve a desired outcome and for continuing to improve your performance. Linking these together successfully will help lead the Town of West Boylston towards high performance management.

Step 1: Mission/Goals/Outcomes: Mission statements declare the Town’s or the department’s long-range intent, its fundamental purpose, its reason for being. Goals and intended outcomes are slightly more specific expressions coming out of the mission statement. Goals and intended outcomes help shape the department’s values and organizational culture and will link the mission with more measurable objectives.

Step 2: Objectives: Objectives are clear statements of the department’s performance intentions, expressed in measurable terms, usually with an implied or explicit timeframe. Embedded within objectives will be the performance measure of interest. Objectives set the performance targets you are trying to reach or standards you are trying to maintain.

Step 3: Performance Measures: Performance measures indicate how much or how well the agency is doing, its success. Ideally, they track the agency’s progress toward achieving its objectives, with objectives linked to the goals and mission of the organization. The measure itself is often a simple indicator whose value comes by its relationship with the target or standard set in the objective.

Step 4: Analysis for Continuous Improvement: Many agencies compare this month or this year’s performance measures to those of the past. Some are beginning to make comparisons with other agencies or other governments and initiating the process of benchmarking. When you analyze your performance measures, you should be able to identify areas for further improvement. It is over time that performance measurement information becomes the most valuable.

The West Boylston Master Plan (adopted 2005) identified an implementation plan targeting certain strategic areas. They are:

Each strategic area articulates broad purposes, but every department can establish a link to one or more of these strategic areas with its own mission statement. In some cases, the implementation plan clearly articulates those responsible for areas of completion. The Town Wide Planning Committee who authored the Master Plan is currently monitoring this process and is planning its first 5-year update, scheduled to be released in 2010.

For each of the seven strategic areas of the Master Plan, specific recommendations or desired outcomes have been defined. Recommendations and the associated desired outcomes can be thought of as guides or milestones toward the desired future. Goals identify the direction you want to take. Desired outcomes identify the desired results that are required to achieve the goal. Both are more precise statements than the mission statement, but not as specific as objectives. Here are several examples of goals and desired outcomes:

It is important to note that the Master Plan is not the ONLY location for recommendations for improvement. Recommendations also come from the public, the elected and appointed officials, the Town Administrator, and even from the Department Managers themselves.

Objectives are precise statements of measurable targets that describe the end results of a service or program that should be achieved in a specific period of time. You should create objectives to be S-M-A-R-T (Specific, Measurable, Aggressive/attainable/agreeable, Results-oriented, Time-bound). See below for several examples of objectives based on S-M-A-R-T criteria.

Objectives set the targets you want to achieve or the standards you want to reach. Many people establishing objectives for the first time set the targets too high. Everyone wants to make dramatic improvements in performance. Performance improvement, especially significant improvement, does not happen by accident. You must do something different to increase your performance. Generally, you have two ways to improve performance: increase the resources you have to do the job or change the way you provide the service or product.

Aggressive but Attainable and Agreed upon: Set objectives to challenge yourself, but do not set objectives that are impossible to reach or too easily achieved; they should be a challenge to you, but potentially within your reach. Front-line workers, supervisors and managers should agree upon objectives. Use a strong verb or verb form to start the objective.

Results oriented: Focus on the outcome: Keep your eye on the prize, especially for measures reported to the public.

Performance measures are quantifiable, enduring measures of outcomes, quality, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, process, inputs and outputs of services or goods you provide. Sometimes we call them performance indicators. Performance measures by themselves are only a word or two or a phrase that captures an important dimension of your work. Performance measures are embedded within objectives, and it is through the objective that the measures take on value.

Let’s follow an agency by reviewing its own mission statement and performance measures and the linkage to the Town’s stated goals. This will help establish the linkages needed for you and the citizens of West Boylston to understand the chain of effects from resources used to desired outcomes. We will use the aforementioned stolen vehicles as our service and examine mission, goal, objectives and performance measures that might be used for this service.

Town Mission: It is the mission of government of West Boylston to provide all of its citizens with the greatest possible spectrum of basic services, directed at publicly expressed community needs, at the least possible cost. This includes providing a wide range of high quality constituent service to the citizens of the community, continually support a strong economic base for the community, and continuing to work in the best long-term interests of the community while working as a team.

Police Department Mission Statement: We, the members of the West Boylston Police Department, are committed to excellence in the delivery of total quality police service and responsive to the needs of our community. We guarantee dignity and respect to every individual while recognizing our responsibility to maintain peace and order in our community. Our objective is a police and community partnership, which seeks to improve the quality of life, solve community problems, and promote an environment that is safe and secure.

Strategic Plan Goal: Enact programs to protect the property of the citizens and visitors of West Boylston