PuMP Pilot – Losing Momentum and Direction

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Over the summer, I completed PuMP training. I found it really beneficial and started a PuMP pilot for my department, Budget and Analytics. Things started off well but lately the process has stalled. We created results for our mission, vision and strategic objectives. Next we looked at two results and developed measures.

We then had a change in management and started over. This time we started by developing a mission and list of the products/services we provide to the organization. This was very helpful as our department was newly formed.

The two results identified were 1.) Department non-personnel spending (expenses and current fiscal year obligations) is as close as possible to budget without going over and 2.) System-wide salary and benefits spending is as close as possible to budget without going over.

There has been discussion on whether these are measures and not results and if they’re results how much influence do we really have. As a department we use historical information to develop an annual operating budget that meets our organization’s current needs and is not wasteful.

Our team, which has great people on it, is struggling with next steps performance measures and fatigue. Any feedback or recommendations for our PuMP pilot would be truly appreciated. THANK YOU!

Hi Michelle,

Our measures team are currently on steps 3 & 4, your use case sounds promising – too bad about the bad timing with a management change!

Normally, results describe a state of performance, without actually implying a target of sorts. For example, contrast “suppliers deliver in full, on-time” (there is a full spectrum of a potential state of performance) with “Spending is close to budget” (the target is already pretty hard baked into the result).

In general, our measures team has found that whenever discussion goes round in circles, it means one of two things:

1) Move on to the next step, trusting that future steps will make your work better (nothing wrong with making changes to step 2, after realizing something that’s revealed in steps 3 or 4)!

2) You need to go back to the planning phase, and more specifically the “why” of what makes these results the most relevant? We had a few “starts” as we got a better understanding of things, and totally changed our scope, I think it’s all part of the process.

Lastly in terms of fatigue, Stacey mentioned that the “80% good enough” ethos is important, again because future steps will continue to make the results better. So if there’s some gridlock, try to help people remember that nothing is “locked in”. It’s constantly evolving , so feeling fatigue actually means “proceed”, rather than “pause”.

Hope that helps Michelle, curious to hear how you go!

Thank you very much! That’s constructive advice that will help us move forward. Thank you again for your time and feedback. It’s greatly appreciated.