One Minnesota: Our State! Our Future! Beltrami County’s Experience With Outcome-Based Government

The Traditional Role of Counties For counties, the management focus has always been on the provision of state or federal services/programs as mandated. Traditional service delivery has primarily been concerned with “input” variables (persons served, program costs and rule compliance.) Forces related to rising cost structures, shifting demographics and technology advances have created a sense of urgency to improve both the efficiency of program/services and the results of those mandated activities. “People and their managers are working so hard to be sure things are done right, that they hardly have time to decide if they are doing the right things.” - Stephen R. Covey

Changing Beltrami County’s Focus About 5 years ago, Beltrami County initiated an effort to redesign the traditional county business model. We have established strategic performance targets, objectives, key performance indicators and cross- departmental action teams. We are involving citizens in determining priorities and service delivery partners in establishing performance measures. We now tie financial systems and contracts to the new performance management system. We have initiated a number of outcome-based pilot projects and strategic initiatives. “REDESIGN is about finding better ways to provide many services for all Minnesotans through: - Bold local leadership. - Increased collaboration. - Improved process efficiencies. - Structural changes to the status quo.” - Association of Minnesota Counties (AMC)

The Challenges of Redesign Overlap & Duplication o It is extremely difficult to achieve alignment with those who should be considered partners, collaborators and contractors. There is a reluctance to share a vision, performance targets, resources and accountability. Program Centric not Citizen Centric o There is a vertical orientation (silos) for traditional program delivery methods. A citizen centric focus requires us to horizontalize our methods to meet complex citizen needs. Lack of Data Analytics o There is a need for greater sophistication in our efforts to analyze the correlations between clients and costs buried in our own data. We struggle to use data analytics to design and implement new solutions. Lack of Clarity on Innovation Expectations o Sustaining Innovation and/or Disruptive Innovation “True innovation and redesign is not about line-item budget changes; it is about rethinking problems and deciding whether traditional solutions are working. This means taking risks and providing wholly new solutions to public problems. - Minnesota Local Government Innovation & Redesign Guide

Case Study: Income Maintenance The Beltrami County Income Maintenance Office is administering 11 major state/federal public assistance program areas with about 7,000 client cases Process Redesign (Sustaining Innovation) o Case Banking (cheaper, faster than case management) o Process Automation (document management system) o Centralized Intake (one point of entry into system) o Functional Consolidations Hard-to-Serve Client Redesign (Disruptive Innovation) o Horizontal Data Analytics to Identify and to Understand the Hard-to-Serve Client Base o Establish Citizen Centric Service Redesign Projects o Incorporate Lessons Learned into a Redesigned Income Maintenance System “The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.” - Steve Jobs (1999)

Contact Information Tony Murphy Beltrami County Administrator 701 Minnesota Avenue NW Bemidji, MN “Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.” - H.G. Wells