Results-Based Accountability (RBA) is a disciplined way of thinking and acting to improve entrenched and complex social problems. Developed by Mark Friedman and described in his book Trying Hard is Not Good Enough, RBA is being used in all 50 United States and in more than a dozen countries around the world to make a measurable change in people’s lives, communities, and organizations. Acting on behalf of Mark Friedman and Fiscal Policy Studies Institute, the global company Clear Impact, previously known as Results Leadership Group, enforces the fidelity of the RBA framework. Clear Impacts performance improvement experts have worked side-by-side with FGLN to develop an RBA framework that is helping us improve the lives of children, family, and communities and improve the performance of programs, services and agencies. RBA seeks to:
Programs, agencies, and service systems within communities, cities, counties, states, and nations are using RBA to hold each other accountable for impacting both population level results and performance level outcomes. The population versus performance distinction is what separates RBA from all other frameworks. It is important to understand because it determines who is responsible for what.
Population accountability:
organizes our work with co-equal partners to promote community well-being.
Performance Accountability:
organizes our work to have the greatest impact on our customers. What we do for our customers is our contribution to community impact.
RBA helps organizations identify the role they play in community-wide impact by identifying specific customers who benefit from the services the organization provides. For programs and organizations, performance measures focus on whether customers are better off as a result of your services. These performance measures also look at the quality and efficiency of these services. RBA asks three simple questions to get at the most important performance measures:
Once you identify the most powerful measure(s) to improve, RBA provides a step-by-step process to get from ends to means. This is called “Turn the Curve Thinking” and includes the 5 question steps listed below.
At the Flint & Genesee Literacy Network we have certified RBA facilitators who have been trained to provide focused RBA technical assistance and support for partners looking to create measurable improvements for customers and community by offering the following supports in:
Contact us to learn more about how FGLN can support your organization or program with embedding Results-Driven approaches and practices that support our collective impact!
Jeremiah White, Community Impact Coordinator
Ja’Nel Jamerson, Executive Director
810.232.2526