[The following appears in the September issue of the _Public_ Sector_Quality_Report_:] National Performance Review: Report Debuts To Praise, Questions The front-page headline on Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review reads this way: "From Red Tape to Results: Creating A Govemment That Works Better and Costs Less." At least at that level -- the "mom and apple pie" level -- the report issued Sept. 7 has garnered widespread support and acceptance in public sector circles. The devil, however, will be in the details as Congress, the administration, labor, and employees in the federal bureaucracy wrangle over such specifics as mohair and wool price subsidies, the closing/consolidation of field offices, and major reengineering of the civil service, procurement and budgeting systems. By now you're doubtless aware that the far-ranging report offers 800 specific and not-so-specific recommendations which its authors say will save $108 billion and cut 252,000 jobs within five years. NPR participants, more than 200 federal workers, focused on four main principles in their study. Those principles included: ù Reduce red tape by shifting from a reliance on forklifts full of rules and regulations to a culture of accountability and results. ù Put customers first by listening to them, and by restruc- turing processes and operations to meet their needs. ù Empower employees by decentralizing authority and pushing decision-making to the front lines. ù Get back to basics by eliminating obsolete, redundant, or special interest-driven programs. Initial reaction to the report tended to center on the numbers--$108 billion, 252,000 jobs. News organizations seized on the plan's projected dollar savings and workforce reduction goals, pressing administration officials on how they plan to achieve such goals, and predicting major roadblocks in Congress. PSQR questioned two NPR senior advisers -- David Osborne, co-author of Reinventing Government, and John Sharp, Texas' comptroller -- on the value of such specific, ambitious targets. Will the numbers overshadow the more quality-driven, process improvement-oriented recommendations in the report? Will NPR ultimately be judged by the numbers, regardless whether important gains are made in service quality and organizational effective- ness? Osborne said he initially opposed the budget/workforce targets, but was won over by the need to sell the plan to Con- gress and the public. "You need the numbers," he said. "Nobody's going to pay attention otherwise. The corporate people (involved in the study) all told us unless we had a big, bold, visible goal, nobody would pay attention. I started as a skeptic, but I became convinced that without that, you didn't have the goal that would make it happen." Responding to questions comparing the NPR with past studies aimed at streamlining the bureaucracy, Sharp and Osborne said the NPR has two things going for it other efforts did not: It was done by federal employees, not outsiders, and its findings are being advocated by an administration which essentially "believes" in government. "You have a lot of political demagogues who run around and say, 'This fat in government is something that's stuck out over the end, and you just take a hack saw and chop it off,'" Sharp said. "It's not. It's like marbling in meat, and you have to have very good people who can get inside those agencies and work it out." Osborne added: "The Grace Commission (a Reagan-era cost-cutting study) was mainly business people coming in to tell government how to do its job better. That doesn't work. The people who know what's wrong with government are the people who know government." ******** Leaving aside honey price supports and other specific budget cuts, the NPR report contains several quality management-oriented ideas of significance. They include: ù The President should direct "all federal agencies that deliver services to the public to create customer service programs that identify and survey customers. The order will establish the following standard for quality: Customer service equal to the best in the business." The report asks that agencies survey customers often, "post standards and measure results against them," and "benchmark performance against the best in the business." ù Agencies will develop measurable objectives and report results. By 1994, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will put objectives/results in the budget instructions it gives agencies. ù Over five years, the executive branch will decentralize decision-making and increase managers' span of control. "As our reinvented government begins to liberate agencies from over-regulation, we no longer will need 280,000 separate supervi- sory staff and 420,000 'systems control' staff to support them," the report states. ù The administration will issue a Baldrige Award for quality in the federal government. "For years," the report states, "the executive branch has taken steps to recognize and support good performance. In typical fashion, however, we have created three different award systems, each administered by a different organi- zation." The report calls for the Baldrige Award Office of the National Institute for Standards and Technology to merge the Presidential Award for Quality (administered by the Federal Quality Institute), the Award for Management Excellence (from the President's Council on Management Improvement), and the Presiden- tial Quality and Management Improvement Awards (from the Office of Personnel Management). ù By 1995, the administration should issue a yearly "Accountabil- ity Report" to the nation. The report, compiled by OMB and Treasury, will contain outcome measures. ù Under "Exerting Leadership," the NPR advances two major sugges- tions. First, a call for every agency to designate a chief operating officer (COO), responsible for "applying quality principles in transforming the agencies' day-today management cultures." Second, the report asks Clinton to create a President's Management Council (PMC) "to lead the quality revolution"and drive adoption of NPR findings. The PMC would be chaired by OMB's deputy director for management, would be "overseen" by the vice president, and would include COOs from major federal agencies. Among other duties, the PMC will launch "quality management 'basic training' for all (executive branch) employees." ù The president should require agencies to eliminate half their internal regulations within two years. ù Simplify federal procurement, "shifting from rigid rules to guiding principles." The report calls for raising the simplified procurement ceiling from $25,000 to $100,000. ù OMB should eliminate or minimize budget restrictions and employment ceilings, giving managers more flexibility. ù The role of Inspectors General should be expanded beyond strict compliance auditing toward evaluating management control systems. ******** Reaction from two experienced public sector quality profes- sionals to the NPR report: Tom Glenn, former director of quality at the National Security Agency, systems operator of the TQM Bulletin Board System Glenn said he "likes about 80 percent" of the report, particularly where it stresses principles of quality management. He's less comfortable with suggestions that focus purely on cost-cutting. "Despite the disclaimer in the opening of the report, something like 70 percent of the issues are cost-cutting. That's a mistake. Any of us can cut costs if we're willing to let quality slide. The approach that's worked in industry and govern- ment is to work on quality. When you do, productivity and effi- ciency go up and costs come down. Glenn adds that while top leadership is critical to the success of most quality efforts, the report hedges on Clinton's involvement. For example, he said, the proposed President's Management Council (PMC) should be led by the president, not by the deputy director of OMB. "For this effort to work, the presi- dent will have to be a fierce leader. If the president wants to make management improvement a success, he will have to lead it himself." Babak Armajani, participant in the NPR, CEO of the Public Strategies Group, Inc., a consulting firm "I'd say, overall, I think the report had good news, bad news, and no news. The no news was consolidating things and cutting things, which was typical of earlier commissions. "The good news was much of the report, for the first time this century, focused on actually getting at the bureaucratic system -- reducing layers of management, empowering front-line employees, getting rid of red tape, dealing with mistrust and the cost of mistrust. This kind of rhetoric we've never had before." Armajani also voiced pleasant surprise at labor's support for the NPR. "They're basically saying, 'We'll take the tradeoff of a few jobs, if it's done through attrition, in return for liberation.'" And the bad? He says the study, while calling for reform of the Office of Personal Management and the General Services Agency, did not go far enough regarding OMB, which he calls the "heart of the bureaucratic system." Like Glenn, Armajani puts little faith in the PMC as a surrogate for presidential leadership. "I think the key to changing the system will be whether the real chain of command, starting with the president, makes it a priority." ********* So what if you're "reinventing" a federal agency or depart- ment already? What are you to make of the NPR? PSQR put the question to Gore. His response: "The one's that are innovative and creative and fostering excellence in spite of the current rules and regulations, they're the people who've given us the ideas that are in this report. That's where all this comes from. Very little of it comes from anywhere else. We have been besieged by federal employees eager to help in the effort to transform the government. The one's who've been pioneers are real heroes. They've conducted a kind of 'guerilla' quality movement within the federal govemment, and they've had to hide their innovations from the bureaucracy lest they get their heads chopped off. We've got a lot of examples in the report. So yes, they're to be commended and encouraged, and we want them to continue. We want them to teach the rest how they have succeeded." Copies of the NPR report can be obtained by visiting a General Printing Office bookstore, or by calling the phone number below: CONTACT: General Printing Office bookstores, or call (202) 783-3228. [For more information or to subscribe, contact: Public Sector Quality Report 17733 Kingsway Path Lakeville, MN 55044-5209 Phone: 612-898-5058 Fax: 612-892-7710]