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Results Washington history

What does Results Washington do?
  • Tracks how Washington is doing in achieving priority outcomes
  • Delivers statewide data to help leaders make better decisions
  • Fosters constructive partnerships and collaborations to better surface and solve problems
  • Provides an enterprise-level perspective that helps agencies stay aligned with the Governor's priorities and helps break down historic silos and barriers to improvement
  • Leads and supports the state's Lean efforts. The 2018 Lean Transformation Conference was the state's - and arguably the nation's - largest Lean conference.

Washington state government has a long history of leading the charge in public-sector performance improvement. Leadership engagement and ongoing investment in performance management systems and tools reflects a state government culture committed to delivering better results.  

Results Washington is the current version of the Washington's performance management system.  I was built on the nationally-recognized GMAP program and used IdeaScale, a cloud-based innovation management platform, to gather public input on what should be measured and what mattered most to citizens. Discussions were also held statewide with stakeholders to gather feedback. Five goal areas were developed out of this work:

  • World-Class Education
  • Prosperous Economy
  • Sustainable Energy & Clean Environment
  • Healthy & Safe Communities
  • Effective, Efficient & Accountable Government

Goal councils for each of the five areas made up of agency heads and were assigned to each area and met monthly to review the measures and discuss performance in their area. These Results Reviews brought everybody to the table.
In 2018, Results WA began evolving in response to stakeholder feedback. Results Reviews were redesigned to better facilitate problem-solving and focus on the experience of Washingtonians. To better track state priorities, Results WA moved away from tracking nearly 200 assorted performance measures to focus on approximately 20 key outcome measures and supporting drivers that reflect key state priorities throughout Washingtonians lifespan. As technology has evolved, the way the state tracks, measures and visualizes performance data has changed. In 2019, Results Washington published new online dashboards that included the new outcome measures, narrative content connecting the data with results that matter to Washingtonians, and the real-life stories of people in Washington impacted by focus areas.

Lean Transformation Journey
Since the formation of Results Washington, the state has remained committed to creating a world class lean management system with the goal of delivering better value to Washingtonians. Between 2013 to 2018 agencies reported that their employees took part in 6,846 Lean improvement projects. We have seen improvements in child abuse investigations, cut the costs of X-rays, and helped more Washingtonians find work. More examples of real results from these projects include:

  • Cut transportation permit processing time from 15 days to 9 days.
  • Reduced audit appeals completion time from 441 days to 66 days, which saved employers $1.7 million in interest.
  • LNI reduced the processing time to post employers compensation premiums payments to employers accounts from 8 business days to 2 business days.  
  • The Washington State Patrol reduced the processing time for DNA samples by 48%, which is crucial in aiding criminal investigations.

Results Washington’s Continuous Improvement
The state continues to learn and adapt along this performance journey. Three key lessons:

  • Engage Leaders – engaged leaders are the key to sustained results
  • Partner with Experts – experts are out there and willing to help
  • Grow Informal Networks – people must drive cultural change
  • Support front-line employees to be innovators and problem-solvers

Responding to the need for a more collaborative structure (within and outside of state government), Results WA isLat promoting new and different partnerships, incorporating design thinking, and helping make Washington state government more human-centered.
In 2019, Results Washington delivers clear and useful statewide data, helps leaders make better state decisions, and tracks how Washington is doing in achieving priority outcomes. Using Lean principles, behavioral science and design-thinking, Results Washington is creating a more responsive, data-driven and human-centered government.
Moving forward, Results WA is becoming:

  • More human-centered. Connect the data and results to real people, their stories, and a clear human impact, applying behavioral science and human-centered design principles.
  • More evidence-based. Incorporating research to help identify key drivers of the outcomes and focus state government’s response.
  • More collaborative. Create learning opportunities, facilitate problem-solving, and build connections across state government to help deliver better results for Washingtonians.
  • Continue the state’s Lean journey. Provide leadership in applying structured problem-solving to identify and resolve problems across state government.

Prior to Results Washington