IN THIS EDITION LG Innovator insights - Performance reporting and community engagement: Catalysts for business improvement and positive community outcomes. Read here. In Focus - You are what you measure: outputs vs outcomes. Read here. Trending - Power BI in local government. Read here. Spotlight - The Town of Gawler and their Power BI case study. Read here. Working differently - Community engagement in the public realm. Read here. Connect - events and online discussions. Read more.
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THE LATEST NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE
LG PROFESSIONALS SA BUSINESS PERFORMANCE & IMPROVEMENT NETWORK
Welcome to our second edition of The LG Innovator! In today’s edition, we are talking about all things performance reporting and community engagement, and showcasing how effective reporting and engagement can translate into improved community connections, strategic alignment and more informed decision making.
Performance reporting comes in all different shapes and forms, and the use of modern technology and data is providing us with valuable insights like never before. This edition deep dives into the use of platforms like Power BI, and how tools like these can improve our community engagement and performance reporting.
We're calling for nominations for the Business Performance & Network committee. Be part of a Network committee that aims to bring councils together to improve service planning, delivery and focus on improvement and performance outcomes. For further information regarding nominating for the Business Performance & Improvement Network Committee, please click here.
The committee is supported by Melissa Davis-Bishop, Manager - Professional Networks Engagement via melissa@lgprofessionalssa.org.au and the team from
LG Professionals SA. Meet our current committee here. You can contact us or any members of the Network committee or via our Viva Engage site. |
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PERFORMANCE REPORTING AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: CATALYSTS FOR BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT AND POSITIVE COMMUNITY OUTCOMES
Council performance reporting and community engagement are intrinsically linked components of robust and responsive governance. Both are crucial for ensuring accountability and transparency, fostering business improvement and achieving positive community outcomes.
Looking to learn more about how reporting can support you best deliver work?
LG Professionals SA Business Performance & Improvement Network member, Ania Karzek, has pulled together some insights on the topic that covers: - Why is performance reporting important?
- The role of community engagement
- The intersection of reporting and engagement
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YOU ARE WHAT YOU MEASURE: OUTPUTS VS OUTCOMES Metrics and
determining success indicators to measure performance is crucial in enabling councils to quantify progress, connect activities with objectives, monitor
advancement and give insight into opportunities for improvement. However, what
you measure can come at a cost, and becomes the steering wheel that navigates
organisational behaviours and community outcomes. Keep on reading to gain a better understanding on best utilising the data available to us, the differences between outputs, outcomes and objectives, and how performance measurement can lead to informed investment and improved management decisions. |
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Power BI is becoming increasingly popular within the local government sector, and it is easy to understand why.
Power BI is a business analytics tool developed by Microsoft that enables users to visualise and share insights from their data.
It integrates various data sources, allowing users to create interactive reports and dashboards that provide actionable insights and can greatly assist with measuring performance (see the amazing work of Town of Gawler in our Spotlight section).
The visualisation of data is exciting (and confronting for some) and while it can help us better understand our performance, it can also expose our internal gaps (particularly in data validity and data governance). Like most IT departments will tell you, rubbish in = rubbish out, and your journey to visualise data may soon change itinerary to improving data quality.
But, like anything, the journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step, so exposing your data flaws is the first step in the journey to reach data driven decision making. |
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Where to start?
Define objectives
Start by defining what you want to achieve with Power BI. Identify the specific performance metrics and KPIs that are important for your council (remembering that you are what you measure). This might include metrics related to your Community Plan, financial management, community engagement, or operational efficiency.
Prioritise, collect and prepare data
Understand your current state of data and begin to gather data from various sources within your council. Start with what is easy (usually a good place to start are metrics we already collect for other statutory reporting). As mentioned, you may find that your data is not reflective of your actual reality. Poor data will mean that Power BI may begin as more of a cleansing tool than an insight tool. For effective Power BI, it is critical that data is clean, accurate, and structured properly.
Understand the different uses of Power BI
Power BI has three core components and can be used independently of one another. Familiarise yourself with the capabilities of each and determine what is best fit for you to meet your defined objectives.
- Power BI Desktop: A free application used for creating reports and data visualisations.
- Power BI Service: An online service for sharing, collaborating, and accessing reports and dashboards.
- Power BI Mobile: A mobile app for viewing and interacting with reports and dashboards on the go.
Engage your stakeholders
Working collaboratively in the development phase with high impact stakeholders is key to ensuring that Power BI becomes a tool, rather than another IT toy. It is important that others understand what it is in for what it is in for them and how it is going to improve the way we work in a positive way. Including those who will be using Power BI in the development phase will assist with the change management journey of its implementation. Using technology as a tool to remove tedious 'work' and creating space for meaningful work, is a benefit which needs to be communicated and understood by those impacted in the work environment. Holding workshops with key groups to understand what is important for them is a great way to create engagement... Read more. |
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As part of
the State Government’s Local Government Reform, the Town of Gawler is striving
to provide greater transparency, reporting and monitoring of what and how they
conduct business. An important new focus area for their council is better
understanding business data and the analysis of such data to drive process
improvements and community outcomes. The Town of Gawler’s Community Scorecard
forms a new component of Council’s key performance measurement platforms and
part of our strategic reporting framework including Business Plans, Financial
Plans and Annual Reporting. The Community Scorecard provides a high-level
overview of the council's performance regarding the services they provide to
their community and assist them in monitoring the implementation of the
Community Plan.
Using Power BI, Town of Gawler have created an
innovative tool to share their performance with their community. To have a look
at their great work, click here.
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INNOVATION IN COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE
We have all heard the saying that local government is ‘grass roots democracy’ – and it’s the amazing nature of our work and what we do in being so close to our communities that makes engagement important.
Online, face to face, drop-in sessions, QR codes, neighbourhood meetings, citizen jury’s, deputations, petitions, surveys, corflute posters, digital screens, polls. There are so many tools we can access to help our community be involved in the decision-making process.
What if how we engaged our community meant more than just ‘having a say’? What if the engagement exercises we undertook and the tools we use could have some type of civic benefit – and give back to our communities through art?
Candy Chang is a Taiwanese American artist who creates participatory art. Her work seeks to reveal layers within communities by merging the civic and the sacred, her practice reimagines the future of ritual and includes installations, paintings, and videos generated from thousands of handwritten reflections from the public. She is most known for 'Before I Die', which has been created in over 5,000 cities in over 75 countries and called “one of the most creative community projects ever” by The Atlantic. Trained in architecture, design, and urban planning, Chang began creating street art while running a record label and applied these tactics to new forms of civic engagement.
One of her most successful installations (pictured below) was 'I wish this was' which fused street art and urban planning. It is a participatory public installation that reveals people’s dreams for their own communities. Chang posted thousands of “I wish this was ___” stickers on vacant buildings across New Orleans to invite neighbours and residents to easily share their hopes for these spaces. After attending many community meetings where the 'voice' of the community amounted to a handful of people or the loudest ones in the room, Chang experimented with more inclusive and embedded forms of civic engagement. Mimicking the common design of name tags, the stickers reframe empty buildings in terms of their potential identities.
The key engagement principles that stand out through Cindy’s work, which are often missed in traditional engagement are:
- Meet people where they are – don’t expect them to go out of their way to participate.
- Use language and tools people can easily interact with – without instructions! and,
- Make it fun!!
If you know of any other examples of engagements that were effective, share them on the BPIN Viva Engage site, which you can join here.
Below image: 'I wish this was' – a participatory art installation by Candy Chang. |
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END OF YEAR FORUM: 360 degree feedback with our community
Mark your calendars for Thursday 28 November 2024 where we will host our final Business Performance & Improvement Network forum for the year at the City of Adelaide at 25 Pirie Street.
We will be building upon the discussion of this LG Innovator edition – think community engagement, feedback and performance measuring!
Keep an eye on your inbox for your invite in the coming weeks. We look forward to seeing you there. |
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Business Performance & Improvement Network Forum: Translating Big Dreams into Strategies, Plans and Daily Operations
On 25 July 2024, the second LG Professionals SA Business Performance & Improvement Network Forum for the year was held at the Kauri Sports and Community Centre in the City of Holdfast Bay.
The theme of the day was Translating Big Dreams into Strategies, Plans and Daily Operations and some 50 people attended (and thank you if you were one of them!).
Dan Jellings previously of the City of Mitcham and currently a Senior Consultant at BRM Advisory, and Alice Smith, Strategic Planning Project Officer at the City of Mitcham, kicked off the forum with a content-rich presentation titled ‘From Paddock to Peak’. Dan and Alice shared the approach the City of Mitcham had taken to build partnerships, develop acumen, and elevate strategic ambition when undertaking their strategic management planning. Some key thoughts that resonated strongly included:
- The best leaders prioritise doing the role that ONLY they can play, not duplicating what others can do (ie, those on the mountain need to stay there, not keep running through the paddock).
- Quality results need quality questions.
- It’s worth putting the time in to build a shared language and a shared understanding of acceptable behaviour/group norms, and
- Making the right decision involves doing the right thing, for the right reason, at the right time with the right people, and understanding the time horizon at play.
While Dan and Alice were a hard act to follow, Ania Karzek from the City of Holdfast Bay then led participants in the room and online through a ‘choose your own adventure’-style workshop entitled ‘Strategic Dreams: BHAGs walk among us!’. Ania started by defining BHAGs (big hairy audacious goals) and sharing a powerful motivator for change: four possible and plausible futures developed by Arup, of which three were largely unpleasant. Participants were then invited to share examples of BHAGs, as well as the challenges of dreaming big. Much robust discussion was had, and the hardest part was getting conversations in the small groups to end so we could stick to the schedule.
Afterwards, a number of people stayed behind to network, enjoying the beautiful coastal view from Kauri.
The slides from all the presentations can be accessed here and we hope that we can see even more people in person at future forums.
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We welcome reader suggestions on future events. Are there any particular topics you’d like us to explore or speakers you’d like us to try to secure? Send your suggestions and comments to Melissa Davis-Bishop, Manager - Professional Networks Engagement via email melissa@lgprofessionalssa.org.au. |
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LG Professionals SA | Networks and more Did you know that the
Business Performance & Improvement Network is just one of many member
networks supported by LG Professionals SA? Alongside a range of training and
development opportunities, network events and forums are a great way for you to
connect with like-minded professionals within the sector.
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The LG Professionals Business Performance & Improvement
Network has a Viva Engage group! This collaborative space is where you can ask any
question relating to improvement or performance and connect with other local
government professionals in your field. To join, click here!
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