“Governing for Results” embodies our shared values. The State of Michigan has embraced this process at every step of the way, continually seeking better ways for state government to deliver the results most important to our citizens. The process to ensure that all state agencies were pulling in the same direction has evolved into a process where Michigan agencies are all pulling as one. The State of Michigan is “Governing for Results.”
Family Resource Centers
Department of Human Services (DHS) workers have begun working on-site at high priority schools, coordinating human services needs for the families of students so that teachers can focus on doing what they do best – teaching. Bonita and Jerry Johnson know first hand, as the on-site DHS worker correctly identified their daughter’s behavior problems as a disguise for a learning disability. The DHS worker was able to resolve the human services challenges that prevented the student from an optimal learning experience.
As of the end of 2004, 39 family resource centers have opened across the state to help thousands of students.
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In the summer of 2003, the governor chartered the first Cabinet Action Plan. The Governor’s Advisory and Planning (GAP) Team worked with management from each cabinet member’s management team to identify key agency business goals and the initiatives in progress that worked toward those goals. In developing the agencies’ business goals, the GAP team and management worked to ensure that the agencies’ business goals aligned to the state’s priority areas.
Upon completion of the agency plans, the GAP team analyzed the statewide portfolio of business initiatives, examining initiative alignment to the six priority areas, identifying risks and challenges associated with those initiatives, and highlighting the initiatives that involved the collaboration of multiple agencies. The compiled portfolio formed the first Cabinet Action Plan, which was shared among all of the cabinet members and the Governor’s policy advisors. State agencies began using this living document as a means to learn more about what each agency was doing to contribute to bettering Michigan and to identify how state government can become more efficient.
One of the most compelling lessons learned in the Cabinet Action Planning process was just how important it is for the agencies to work together to achieve common goals. The Cabinet Action Plan highlighted that each agency contributed in multiple priority areas, and that multiple agencies played parts in each others’ initiatives. More importantly, as the cabinet came to understand the “big picture” of Michigan government, the Governor and each cabinet member learned to identify areas in which state government could achieve more as a team than as individual agencies. The Governor used this lesson to celebrate the
successes that multiple agency teams were enjoying. She also used this opportunity to issue the challenge to bust silos, encouraging her cabinet members to work in multiple-agency teams to tackle Michigan’s priorities.
Managing Achievement
The Cabinet Action Plan is the tool citizens can use to hold the cabinet accountable for promises made. From the prioritized initiatives listed in the Cabinet Action Plan, cabinet members updated posted timelines during cabinet meetings. As target dates were passed, the cabinet celebrated successes and developed solutions to help address challenges encountered in meeting their targets. Additionally, every agency reported on a broader set of its priority initiatives each month so that the Governor and her policy staff could help them achieve success.
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