Presentation slides from John Bull on results based accountability. Presentation was delivered at the 2015 Sport and Recreation Alliance Leadership Convention

1. TallTree Performance Leadership
Results Based Accountability
Building a culture of high performance around the
key measures we’re trying to shift

2. TallTree Performance Leadership
4 interrelated components of an
effective performance culture
• Clarity of focus
• Gathering evidence around effective measures
• Strategy – working out what winning depends on
• Review conversations as a team and 1-to-1; to
improve our strategy

3. TallTree Performance Leadership
What’s the purpose of a goal/outcome?
• To motivate, inspire and stimulate innovation
• To focus people’s attention & align people
• To provide a clear benchmark to measure our
progress against
–To act as a catalyst for continuous improvement

4. Evaluating the effectiveness of our clarity of focus
[on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is excellent]
1. How clear are people on the outcomes & measures we’re trying to make a difference to?
2. Engagement - How motivated/energised are people by what we are trying to achieve?
3. How effective are we at tracking our performance against these measures?
– i.e. Does everyone know how well we’re performing at any point in time
1. Is there a clear agreed strategy within the team around how best to maximise our impact
on these outcomes?
2. Individual clarity of role – how effectively does our high level clarity of focus translate
into clear goals for each individual?
3. Reviews/debriefs -how effective are as a team have frequent high quality
review/learning conversations around the progress we’re making, what’s working and
what’s not?
4. To what extent do our goals act as a catalyst for teamwork and collaborative behaviour

5. TallTree Performance Leadership
Some key concepts from best practice from
‘Results Based Accountability’
• An important distinction between two types of accountability
– ‘Population’ outcomes (overarching outcomes we are ultimately trying to achieve and
make a difference to)
– Specific programme outcomes
Population outcome
Programme
outcome

6. TallTree Performance Leadership
Some key concepts from best practice from
‘Results Based Accountability’
• An important distinction between two types of accountability
– ‘Population’ outcomes (overarching outcomes we are ultimately trying to achieve and
make a difference to)
– Specific programme outcomes
• Indicators and baselines – defining the ‘performance curve(s)’ we’re trying to turn
– Selecting the best indicators/measures of our impact against the overarching outcome
(picked on the basis of relevance & data available)
– The purpose of the baseline is to clarify our starting position and the trend line (if we do
nothing) which we will look to benchmark our impact against
• Exploring the story behind the curve - collective reviews & action planning
– Exploring collectively the causes and drivers (both positive and negative) behind the curve;
along with potential partners, and what we already know works or think might work
– Out of this will come your ‘strategy’ which defines what people should focus their energies on;
but it is critical that we are open to this strategy evolving as we continue to learn

7. TallTree Performance Leadership
Some key concepts continued…
• 3 types of measures of our programmes
– How much did we do?
– How well did we do it?
– Is anyone better off?
NB: The first of these is the easiest to capture, but least meaningful.
• Importance of individual clarity of focus, and a clear line of sight around
how their work links to your overarching ‘population’ outcomes

8. TallTree Performance Leadership
Giving each individual a clear line of sight
between their role & your core objectives
High level ‘population’ or organisational effectiveness
outcomes we’re trying to maximise our impact on
High level ‘population’ or organisational effectiveness
outcomes we’re trying to maximise our impact on
Translated into a few key measures / ‘performance curves’
we’re trying to turn
Translated into a few key measures / ‘performance curves’
we’re trying to turn
Strategy - Defining our key areas of focus
based on insight into what works in
turning the curve
Strategy - Defining our key areas of focus
based on insight into what works in
turning the curve
Team and Individual goals, with a clear line
of site to the high level outcomes
Team and Individual goals, with a clear line
of site to the high level outcomes
Reviews – collective and 1 to 1, driving learning
around what works in turning the curves
Reviews – collective and 1 to 1, driving learning
around what works in turning the curves

9. TallTree Performance Leadership
Some key concepts continued…
• 3 types of measures of our programmes
– How much did we do?
– How well did we do it?
– Is anyone better off?
NB: The first of these is the easiest to capture, but least meaningful.
• Importance of individual clarity of focus, and a clear line of sight around
how their work links to your overarching ‘population’ outcomes
• Importance of review conversations; as a team (driving collective
accountability and learning) and 1 to 1(performance conversations)
• Importance of ‘pilots’ to give you an opportunity to learn about what
works/doesn’t work on a small scale, before scaling it

10. TallTree Performance Leadership
Workshoping some outcomes &‘curves’ we need to rethink our approach to:
Part 1: Quantifying the performance curve we are looking at:
•What are the best measures we should focus on ‘turning the curve’ in our pursuit of this outcome?
•What is our starting baseline in terms of the current position against this measure(s)?
•What is the likely trend if we do nothing different?
Part 2: Story behind the curve:
•What are the key drivers/causes (both +’ve & -’ve) behind this curve we should pay attention to?
– Based on the above thinking, what will success depend on?
•Who are the key partners who can help us to turn this curve? How engaged are they currently?
Part 3: What do we think it will take to turn the curve:
•What do we already know works? (Including what we know works elsewhere).
•What do we know doesn’t work?
•What do we think might work? What are we not trying which we should? [i.e. new ideas]
•What additional research or pilots would we suggest to learn more about what works?
Part4: Prioritising 3-5 areas of action which the group thinks will have the greatest impact
•Prioritise 3-5 areas of action which the group thinks will have the greatest impact and represent good
value for money.
•Discuss and agree what measures we should use to assess the impact of this proposed action

11. TallTree Performance Leadership
Workshoping some outcomes &‘curves’ we need to rethink our approach to:
Part 1: Quantifying the performance curve we are looking at:
•What are the best measures we should focus on ‘turning the curve’ in our pursuit of this outcome?
•What is our starting baseline in terms of the current position against this measure(s)?
•What is the likely trend if we do nothing different?
Part 2: Story behind the curve:
•What are the key drivers/causes (both +’ve & -’ve) behind this curve we should pay attention to?
– Based on the above thinking, what will success depend on?
•Who are the key partners who can help us to turn this curve? How engaged are they currently?
Part 3: What do we think it will take to turn the curve:
•What do we already know works? (Including what we know works elsewhere).
•What do we know doesn’t work?
•What do we think might work? What are we not trying which we should? [i.e. new ideas]
•What additional research or pilots would we suggest to learn more about what works?
Part4: Prioritising 3-5 areas of action which the group thinks will have the greatest impact
•Prioritise 3-5 areas of action which the group thinks will have the greatest impact and represent
good value for money.
•Discuss and agree what measures we should use to assess the impact of this proposed action

12. TallTree Performance Leadership
Some further reading & resources…
http://resultsaccountability.com
http://resultsleadership.org