from data to decisions: the power of analytics october 10, 2012

From Data to Decisions: The

Power of Analytics

From Data to Decisions: The

Power of Analytics

October 10, 2012October 10, 2012

Setting the Stage

Federal agencies face major fiscal uncertainty—public attitudes toward government are at an all time low.

Analytics is at the heart of knowing how well an organization or program is performing.

GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 gives renewed focus on analytics.

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Agencies We Reviewed

Profile agencies/programs: • HUD and VA’s jointly administered Veterans Affairs

Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program• CMS Medicare Program, specifically the nursing homes

and transplant programs• FAA’s Safety Management System (SMS)

Vignettes:• Coast Guard’s Business Intelligence Tool (CGBI)• Navy’s Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE)• SSA’s use of mission analytics in customer service • NHTSA’s “Click It or Ticket”


Common Practice: Transparency, Accountability, Results

Leaders focus on transparency, accountability and results.

• HUDStat meetings are critical to leadership’s focus on transparency.

• CMS’ Nursing Home Compare Website provides transparency to multiple stakeholders.

• Coast Guard relies on its Business Intelligence system for real-time decision making.


Common Practice: Clear line of sight

Staff have a clear line of sight from where they stand to the organization’s desired goals and outcomes.

• HUD/VA staff understand how their work links to the goal of reducing veteran’s homelessness.

• FAA focuses on the importance of staff reporting to help mitigate risks, not punish mistakes.

• CMS staff value patient outcomes.

• Naval Aviation Enterprise help staff understand the link between flight readiness and its costs.


Common Practice: Agency Invests in Analytics

Agency invests in technology, tools and talent.

• SSA uses a rich system of analytics tools it’s been building since the mid-1970s.

• CMS has grown its analytics staff to meet the challenge of dealing with numerous programs and data sets.

Data can present challenges.

• The HUD-VASH program had challenges blending data.


Common Practice: Leveraging Partnerships

Agency cultivates and leverages partnerships across the organization and with partners who deliver services.

• NHTSA’s “Click It or Ticket” is a collaboration between multiple levels of government, law enforcement and advocacy groups.

• CMS uses regulation, cooperation and collaboration to achieve better health care results.

• FAA works with experts across the industry to understand safety issues and drive policy.


Debunking Myths

1. Agencies need the latest technology to be successful. • It’s not about the tools—it’s the process of analyzing data;

desktop tools can be a starting point.

2. Everything needs to be measured. • It’s not the number of measures that are important, it’s

ensuring they are meaningful, valid and core to accomplishing the mission.

3. Direct control over the activities measured is essential.

• Agencies can overcome barriers, build collaborative relationships and work with delivery partners to achieve common goals.


Debunking Myths

4. Focus on performance measures first and everything else will follow.

• Success is as much about building relationships to create an analytics culture as it is about collecting data.

5. The performance measures are the outcomes.• A meaningful set of measures is a means to an end not

the end itself—measures are simply indicators of performance.

6. Leadership in analytics has to start at the top.• Analytic programs can start in a component organization

and expand agency-wide.


Parting Thoughts

Use of analytics is a not a short-term effort—it’s an evolutionary process requiring time and commitment to performance management and continuous improvement.• Performance management takes leadership and champions

to gain and sustain buy-in and ownership at all levels.• Key ingredients are leaders knowing, and transparently

communicating, where they want to go—a clarity of goals and outcomes—and a clear line of sight for staff to program outcomes.

Agencies should take criticisms and failures as opportunities to improve and invigorate their performance management and analytics programs.


Parting Thoughts

Adopting a learning organization, building trust and creating a supportive and safe environment for staff to identify and address problems can help to drive out fear and build commitment.

It is collaboration, not just coordination—and it extends beyond the internal stakeholders to delivery partners and others.

Bumps along the road are normal—what’s important is getting started and to keep moving.

Start small and grow via pilots.


Mission Analytics II

Where do we go from here? How do we build or enhance our analytics culture?

What are the steps necessary for analytics to take root?


Mission Analytics II Agencies

FDA (Center for Drug Evaluation and Research and Center for Devices and Radiological Health)

DHS (Federal Emergency Management Agency and Transportation Safety Administration)

National Institute of Biomedical Imagining and Bioengineering

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Internal Revenue Service

Department of Interior (Bureau of Indian Affairs)

46th Wing Test, Air Force


Mission Analytics II

Report Release Event

Data to Decisions: Building an Analytics Culture

October 17, 2012

8:30am - 9:00am Networking

9:00am - 10:15am Report Presentation and Panel Discussion


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from data to decisions: the power of analytics october 10, 2012

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