Trying Hard is Not Good Enough: How to Produce Measurable Improvements for Customers and Communities

by Mark Friedman

Mark Friedman's framework is about getting from talk to action quickly and making a difference, not just trying hard and hoping for the best. It has been used in over 40 states and seven countries outside the U.S. He provides practical methods for taking action together that are simple and common sense, that use plain language, produce minimum paper and are actually useful to managers, community members and decision-makers.

The book's Results Accountability framework can be used to improve the quality of life in communities, cities, counties, states and nations, including everything from the well-being of children to the creation of a sustainable environment. It can help government and private sector agencies improve the performance of their programs and make them more customer-friendly and effective. Results Accountability is a common sense approach that replaces all the complicated jargon-laden methods foisted on us in the past. The methods can be learned and applied quickly, and all the materials are free for use by government and non-profit organizations and for-profit organizations of five persons or less.

In addition to presenting practical methods, this book is also makes a contribution to social theory. The book makes a clear distinction between population and performance accountability. While public and private organizations bear responsibility for their own performance, no organization can claim ownership of the well-being of a whole population. Population accountability is not an extension of performance accountability but a separate, and perpetually unfinished, collective enterprise. The book clearly and completely explains the differences and connections between these two forms of accountability.

The Results Accountability progression of thought from results to experience, measures, baselines, story, partners, what works and action can be applied to any population challenge from the highest level consideration of world peace to the economic prosperity of nations and states to the safety of children in a particular community. The same thought progression can be applied to any performance accountability challenge from the management of whole governments to large public and private sector agencies to the smallest program and finally to our personal lives. Results accountability may be the only planning framework of this scope.

Genres: Leadership, Business, Nonfiction, Management

179 pages, Paperback

First published September 19, 2005

About the author

After teaching high school math for one year, Mark Friedman served for 19 years in the Maryland Department of Human Resources, including six years as the department's Chief Financial Officer. In 1991 he joined the Center for the Study of Social Policy in Washington, D.C. where his work focused on helping state and local governments finance innovative child and family services. In 1996, he founded the Fiscal Policy Studies Institute (FPSI) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Since 1996, he has provided training at the federal, state, county, city, school district and community levels.

Friedman's work has involved nearly every kind of government and non-profit organization from social services, health and education to transportation, environment and many more. His widely acclaimed methods have been used in over 40 states and seven countries outside the United States.

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very hard to follow, but it did make a good point that too often we settle for doing a little bit of good because the problems we are facing are just too overwhelming. If we settle for less than excellent we will fail. If we really want to change the world we need to know exactly what we're after...we must set goals and a vision that is clear and then let these goals and results drive an action plan to get there. We should not settle for less than the result we are planning to achieve!

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most important things in ministry are intangible. Yet everyday we make 'gut' assessments about the success of what we do. This book gives some practical tools to assess whether what we do is really making any difference. Using it properly will take discernment, wisdom and a lot of thought but it could help make the difference between doing good things and see good things happen in the lives of people. A great tool for social services and even church if we think hard enough about it.

[Kevin Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the most pragmatic book I have ever read. The principles, tools and concepts are applicable and understandable at every level in an organization. We apply this in the public health, human services and public administration fields. It helps to avoid blaming, turf issues and gives permission for groups to work together....

[KATE! · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for planning programs and other community-based organizations. I highly recommend the RBA model.

[Todd]

I'm in a book club that's reading this one. Key read for not-for-profits.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enthusiastically agree with the general point in the title.
But I have some big problems with some of the specific recommendations.
This approach is likely better than the status quo in many places, but overall the book is not very convincing.

Nerd addendum:
For a dummy graph for early planning, it's OK to make up nonexistent future data, but that's not meaningful for an evaluation. Also, unless you have super dramatic impact, a simple before-after design with no comparison group at all is uninformative. Also, I worry whenever someone says not to prioritize evidence-based approaches. If you don't start with what's known to work and you don't rigorously measure whether what you're doing is working, then I don't see how you produce real results.
It also seems fishy that he uses successes like MADD--that he presumably had nothing to do with--as examples of his approach.
It was also unclear if there are any published evaluations of his approach. You would think that someone preaching "results accountability" would eat his own cooking. On the website, I could not find publications demonstrating how they had made things better in some community because of applying this stuff.

[Ruthie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, clear explanation of RBA enlivened by humour and casestudies. And lots of things to agree with, such as the closest we've come to a perpetual motion machine is the endless centralising of services, followed by local management of services, followed by centralising...