Chronological Listing of Website
Additions and Changes
1/18/12
Expanding the Evidence Universe: In a new paper just released by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, authors Lisbeth Schorr and Frank Farrow argue for a much broader conception of evidence considered allowable in funding decisions by government and philanthropic agencies. The legitimate focus on funding evidence-based practice has led to an over-reliance on experimental design as the only legitimate source of knowledge about what works. This has limited our vision of what programs and strategies should be funded and diminished our chances of making a difference at scale on outcomes for children, families, and communities. The paper presents very specific recommendations for changes in policy and practice for funders and for the research and evaluation community. The paper also urges use of results-based planning and decision-making processes, as central components of community change and system change initiatives. Please consider taking an active role in promoting this paper within your professional network. Download the paper.
Addition to Why I hate Microsoft page: Pages numbers fail to print in Microsoft Word. Microsoft Excel command structure makes it hard to figure out how to erase cells. And check out the December 11 letter to the editor of Discover Magazine. Microsoft is arguably responsible for an estimated 20 million lost person-years of productivity annually.
12/30/11
Experimental menu bar added to Mark's Page...... not yet centered...... colors need to be fixed.......comments welcome.
RBA/OBA Licensing Page: Minor editing. Addition of the following language to section G3a:Preferred attribution language: "From Results-Based
Accountability TM as presented in the book Trying Hard Is Not Good Enough by Mark Friedman."
Natural Humidifier: additional note: If the pan diameter is too small, the towel may hang over the edges and water will still get on the floor. To stop this, take a 3 or 4 foot length of ordinary rope and create a lasso that can be pulled tight around the lower portion of the towel to bring the ends in toward the center.
8/8/11
Next Generation Contracting 2.0 An approach to Flexible Funding and Integrated Outcome-Based Contracting, Presented in Australia and New Zealand RBA workshops August 2011
8/7/11
What's Wrong with Logic Models, by Phil Lee, published by the Local Community Services Association (LCSA), New South Wales, Australia. Thanks to LCSA director, Brian Smith. August 2011
Outcomes UK Turning The Curve Newsletter
Volume 1 Number 1 Summer 2011
Featuring articles by Rob Hutchinson, Andrew Cozens and David Burnby. Thanks to Editor Steve Pitt!
August 2011
RBA
Questions on business-size cards - produced by NCSL and Hennepic
County These are
both a number of years old, but still represent very creative tools for
communicating basic RBA ideas. They are printed on both sides of
business card size card stock. The NCSL card was created with the help
of Susan Robison.
1/28/11
Revisions to Train the Trainer Sorting Exercises: Most
ambiguity removed from card sets, some new cards added, blank cards for
participants to make up their own examples, revised instruction sheet, and blank
template so that you can create your own sorting exercises. All materials
are now in accessible Word format.
Instruction Sheet: One
per table
Scenarios (3 sets of each)
a. Community effort to reduce the Teen Pregnancy rate
b. Community effort to get All Children Ready for school
c. Community effort to achieve a Clean Environment
No Cost/Low Cost
Idea: Later high school start times reduce depression and increase graduation
rates:
Gordon D. Wrobel,
"Impact of School Starting Time on Family Life, The>," Phi Delta
Kappan 80.5 (1999): 360, Questia, Web, 27 Dec. 2010.
Kyla L.
Wahlstrom, "The Prickly Politics of School Starting Times," Phi
Delta Kappan 80.5 (1999): 344, Questia, Web, 27 Dec. 2010.
12/20/10
Check out the reference to natural
humidifiers on Wikipedia.
The natural humidifier shown on Mark's Page
comes up (on this date) as the number one item on a Google search
for "natural humidifier."
Building
Child Friendly Cities A UNICEF report from filled with great
ideas about what works to improve the lives of children, from the
International Secretariat for Child Friendly Cities in Florence, Italy.
(Thanks to Nigel Richardson)
11/9/10
Fractal
Foundation - very cool stuff -
Thanks to Jonathan Wolfe
and Pete Baston.....
MELBOURNE, AU December 1/2,
2010 AU/FAC
ATLANTA January 26/27, 2011 RLGPOSTPONED
9/27/10
RBA
recognized in Victoria State awardCongratulations
to the Inner East Community Health Service and Melbourne
Citymission for their award from the State of Victoria for Innovation in
the Nonprofit / Community Sector. . View
video
RBA/OBA
Implementation
Self-Assessment
The
Results Leadership Group has
released an excellent poster
sized implementation
checklist. Click on this link
for more information. Thanks
to Justin Miklas and Dave
Hirsch.
Correction: La Casa Chica is in Sarasota County, not
Hillsborough County.
8.
The performance of teachers. 9.
Organic vs. Architectural Change
My son-in-law, Wangkho, a
Tibetan Refugee, has been falsely accused of a serious crime by the
District Attorney in Breckenridge Colorado. Please consider donating
to his legal defense fund. www.supportwangkho.com
Recommended ReadingStop what you're
doing and read at least one of the following books by Richard
Dawkins. It will change your view of life on earth:
1.
The Selfish Gene
2. The Blind Watchmaker
3. The Greatest Show on Earth
4. The Ancestor's Tale
2/13/10
United
Way Testimonials about RBAMany United Ways in the US and Canada
are finding RBA to be a powerful way to organize community impact work,
strategic planning and grantee performance accountability. Read comments
from leading United Way senior staff.
From Outcomes to
Budgets New posting to Papers you can read
on line This is the original 1995 paper on Outcome Based (or Results Based)
Budgeting. Many of the foundational concepts in Results-Based
Accountability can be found here.
The
Most Results a long lost
paper with 5 proposals for investing in change that don't cost a lot of
money. Maybe someday a funder somewhere will try one of these.....
RBA
Practitioner Conferences
Australia:
December 2009: 200 RBA practitioners
from across Australia and New Zealand gathered in Sydney for the first
Australasian RBA conference. The conference was sponsored by Creating
Links and NSW Family Services (FamS). For more information go to the
FamS website. Connecticut:
September 2009: Over
100 RBA practitioners from
across the State gathered in
Hartford to share
experiences implementing
RBA. The conference was
sponsored by the Annie E.
Casey Foundation and The
Charter Oak Group, LLC and
attracted participants from
state agencies, communities,
and philanthropies.
To view the first meeting of
the Practitioner's Network,
click http://ct-n.com/ondemand.asp?ID=4970.
For more information,
contact
bpudlin@charteroakgroup.com.
Improvements to the RBA/OBA IDEAS
space, addition of prompting questions, and supplementary comments on
the question of measuring the success of population strategies.
Addition of new
comment #6: The
population role of education
RBA
and ABCDThis paper by Dan Duncan, Senior Vice
President, United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona shows the powerful
ways in which RBA and Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) methods
can be used together.
RBA/OBA IDEAS
This space is intended to help
support the worldwide
community of Results-Based
Accountability (RBA) and
Outcomes-Based
Accountability (OBA)
practitioners.
1/16/10
RBA Book sales top 20,000
1/6/10
Updates to shared banner header and What's New page......
Note, that there are many changes that have not been posted since
11/19......these will be posted later in January...
OECD
3rd World Forum:The OECD 3rd World Forum
was held in Busan, Korea,
October 27 - 30, 2009. Much
of the conference focused on
the challenge of how to
measure quality of life. One
parallel session included a
presentation of the basics
of RBA. Click
here
for copies of papers,
powerpoint and selected web
links.
Parody of a Logic Model:
This is very funny and I wish I knew who created it. A paper is
in the works on the 5 Things Wrong with Logic Models (and why
everyone hates them). Added to "What's
New" Page
9/13/09
Resurgent bed
bugs are coming soon to a town near you. And they can be brought
back from staying in hotels. Once inside your house, they are
difficult and expensive to get rid of. For those of you who do
any traveling, you should check out the
Bed Bug Travel Kit.
9/9/09
WEBSITE
NEWS:
From
September, 2005 to September 2009 (4 years) there
have been over 3.2 million hits on RBA websites.
That's over 800,000 per year.Click
here for details
Movement of RBA/OBA
BLOG to Google blog hosting site.
8/9/09
Creation of the RBA/OBA
BLOG......
1st enties about more detail on how to implement "Next Generation
Contracting." and the "Definition of Service Systems."
Standardization of the use of
the acronym OBA to stand for plural Outomes-Based Accountability
not singular Outcome-Based Accountability (approx 7
replacements)
A new
software platform for
implementing Results-Based Accountability™
and linking agency
performance measures to
community indicators:
Developed by the Results
Leadership Group with
technical partner
Insightformation.
Click here for more
information.
Next Generation
Contracting: Traditional
contracting (or "commissioning" methods work OK
when applied to buying units of service (How
much did we do?) and quality of service (How
well did we do it?). But these methods break
down when applied to customer results or
outcomes. Here's a slide that proposes a
different approach. Accompanying paper pending.
4/11/09
New: UK
OBA 101 Workshop Workbook 1.9: Changes to OBA 1.9 Workshop
Workbook: Editing changes to pages 5 and 6; New page 34 top and
35 bottom; Pages 12 and 28 show side by side schematic and 7
Question display for both population and performance
accountability. Page 49 new more thorough self assessment
questionnaire.
4/4/09
Sol
Impressions and
Tibetan Ocean
Massage:
Julie Friedman and her husband Wangho are
owners of this terrific massage parlor in Breckenridge, Colorado... and are
activists in the fight for Tibetan rights.
And
Bed Bug Busters
addressing the return of the bedbug in NY City.
RBA 101 Workshop Materials Optional: Print the
Next Steps Form Ask people to write
their answers to the two questions and turn the form in with their evaluation.
Correction to scoring of
RBA Implementation Self Assessment: Fixed the scoring in
5.b.
Correct scoring is Yes = minus 10 and No =0..... This correction
is made on the standalone sheet and also on all the RBA 101
workshop workbooks. Thanks to Phil Lee for finding this.
2/17/09
New website by one of the UK's leading OBA
consultants David Burnby
- references added to What's New page and Links page.
2/4/09
Correction to the Self Assessment Questions
on the last page: Items 3c and 3d are valued at 10 points, not 5
points. Click here for
revision details. Click here for RBA 101
Workshop Materials 1.9 which now fully incorporate this
change in the 53, 44, 29 and 10 page versions.
2/2/09
NSW
Family Services Performance Report (NSW,
Australia)
The report includes an excellent set of
performance measures, an honest assessment of
the story behind the numbers, an action
plan, plus a Data Agenda, Research Agenda and
Policy Agenda.
Met Along the Way and Also Met Along the Way
by Con Hogan: You will love these books of stories about life in
Vermont. Con is a master story teller and the characters will be
remembered and events retold for years to come.
Click here for an
order form.
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell: Another masterpiece.
Gladwell tells stories about success and the factors that go
into it. Intelligence and hard work are givens. But, you also
need luck, opportunity, and a culture that supports achievement.
This page also
includes other Scrabble Variations, including Conversion Ratio
Scoring, Pick one more letter than needed rule,
Make "Chess Scrabble" more like Go, Replace the blanks
rule, and of course Nonsense Scrabble.
RBA
Turn
the Curve (TTC) Debriefing Questions: the questions used in
RBA/OBA 101 to discuss lessons from the Turn the Curve Exercise
- for use by trainers, coaches and facilitators.
OBA Master
Class in London on 5 November brought together 160 OBA practitioners from
across the UK. Speakers included Mark Friedman, Dame Gillian Pugh, Christine
Davies, Rob Hutchinson CBE, Jacky Tiotto, Dr. Andy Gill, Dr. Jocelyn Parry and
Steve Pitt. The event was sponsored by the IDeA, and can be viewed in its
entirety, including all of the powerpoint presentations at the
Local
Government Association website.
Four
New Powerpoint Slide Sets that can help you teach the concepts
of RBA/OBA
1. RBA
in a Nutshell: One page containing the most important
innovations in the framework. Click here for the
OBA version.
2.
RBA the Journey Analogy: One page slide that shows how RBA
goes from report cards to action plans to the end of turned
curves. Click here for the
OBA
version.
3.
RBA/OBA the Star Exercise: A fun way to teach the concept of
ends vs. means.
4.
Cutting Budgets with RBA (OK, the fun's over): These slides
show the progression from Generating cut ideas, to Analyzing cut
ideas to Deciding what to cut. Each section displays both
traditional methods and RBA additions.
OBA
version
Plan-it JanetOrganizing the Planet One Closet at a Time.
Mark's sister, Janet, is a Broadway stage manager with
extraordinary powers of organization (and many other fine qualities including a
great sense of humor). Organizing includes everything from closets to parties,
personal bills and schedules. Also check out Janet's Stage Manager
website www.janetfriedman.com.
Turning
the Curve Stories: UK Department of Children, Schools and
Families releases report on Outcome Based Accountability
by researchers David Utting, Alison Painter and Judy Renshaw.
Turning the Curve Stories
describes the principles of the Outcome Based Accountability
(OBA) framework developed by Mark Friedman for planning and
taking action to improve the quality of life and outcomes for
all children (and other populations) and to improve the
performance of specific services, agencies and service systems.
The resource is accompanied by a series of England-wide case
studies, illustrating how the approach has been applied.
Addition of new
RBA Supplemental Powerpoint Slides This removes about 60
slides that were formerly attached to the main RBA 101
Powerpoint Slide Show. This makes the main Powerpoint file
smaller and easier to download, and makes it easier to add new
supplemental slides. Watch this space for such additions.
Updates and revisions to Training for Trainers
and Coaches workshop logistics.
5/5/08
Check out the terrific
songs of
Stephen Shapiro
(including new Iraq anti-war songs)
2.
Turning the curve on Positive Youth Shelter Discharges
from the Spectrum Youth and Family Services Homeless Shelter in
Burlington, Vermont: Trine Bech, authored this paper summarizing
the exceptional work of the shelter staff and residents using
Results Accountability methods to turn a declining trend.
3. to 7.
Turning Curves, Achieving Results: Five Annie E. Casey
Foundation Fellows (Craig Levine, Molly McGrath, Brenda Donald,
Dennis Campa and Yolie Flores Aguilar) describe their successes
using Results Accountability to measurably improve the
well-being of children and families in Essex County, NJ,
Chicago, IL, Washington, DC, San Antonio TX, and Los Angeles
County, CA. Don't miss the inspiring introduction by Molly
McGrath.
