KingStat

KingStat is the King County Executive's performance management program. Its purpose is to facilitate ongoing review of departments' performance and encourage dialogue about performance results between the Executive and the departments. The intended outcomes of a KingStat meeting include:

1. Increased awareness of a department's performance by the Executive.
2. Enhanced understanding about ongoing and future efforts that address performance successes and challenges.
3. Guidance and assistance from the Executive on how to address challenges.
4. Mutual understanding of expected levels of performance in the future.

Frequently asked questions

What is KingStat?

At the heart of KingStat is a regularly occurring management meeting where key decision-makers discuss performance data to help inform policy decisions and achieve results. KingStat meetings are currently conducted at the Executive level to ensure that departments stay focused on top priorities, track changes over time, and use performance information to improve program effectiveness. The initial focus of KingStat is on the Executive level meetings, but an important goal of KingStat is also to have departments improve their internal use of performance information to manage and plan their operations.

What is discussed at KingStat meetings?
KingStat meetings cover key performance measures that track how a department is doing in both its core functions and major initiatives. Some KingStat meetings focus on "countywide measures" - internal measures that can be used to compare results between departments (e.g., risk claims) and measures for which multiple agencies share responsibility (e.g., bond ratings).

In contrast to some of the other "Stat" programs that focus on weekly tracking of program outputs or the amount of work produced, KingStat is designed to focus on key program results (or outcomes ) and community conditions. This outcome focus typically leads to discussions that focus on strategy, collaboration, partnerships, and policy issues.

KingStat logistics

• County Executive
• Assistant County Executive
• Chief of Staff
• KingStat staff

• Department Director
• Department Deputy Director and/or KingStat lead

Do all of the department presentations follow the same format?
Yes. The recommended format is included in the guidance. The format is flexible; departments may work with KingStat staff to modify the format if necessary.

What resources are available for departments to use before the meetings?
Before the meetings, departments can turn to KingStat staff for technical assistance. A GIS analyst is also available to help in the creation of maps and statistical analysis of geographical data.

Does Executive staff see the departments' presentations before the KingStat meeting?
Yes. Departments send KingStat staff a copy of the presentation two weeks before the scheduled meeting. KingStat staff reviews the materials and shares key questions or concerns with both the Executive and the department. The objective is to prepare the Executive, his staff and the department and to facilitate a more fruitful discussion.

How does KingStat relate to other county performance efforts?

How does the Auditor's Performance Measure Work Group relate to KingStat?
The Auditor's Performance Measurement Work Group is focused on developing an overall plan and strategy for improving performance management for the entire county government. The Executive Branch, as well as other branches of county government and representatives from separately elected officials, meet to promote performance within individual branches and agencies and to develop common efforts across the entire county government.

As the County Executive is committed to improving performance within the Executive Branch, KingStat is focused only on Executive Branch departments. There are also other efforts in the county to improve performance management within a single branch or agency. The work done for KingStat, such as defining better performance measures, promoting public reporting, or improving strategic and business planning are all directly supportive of the Auditor's Work Group goals.

To ensure that countywide performance management efforts are collaborative and coordinated, the Executive's Performance Management Director participates in the Auditor's Work Group and has been a regular contributor since its inception.

Departments are already collecting data, isn't this effort duplicative?
We all collect data about the work that we do - we know how many prisoners are in our jail, how many development permits we approve and fees we collect. But we don't always have a good understanding of how those activity-level measures, or outputs, impact the long-term outcomes that we are trying to achieve. Are our streets safer? Are we preserving open space? Are our methods cost effective? Of course, our work alone cannot make the streets safe and protect the land, but we do have an influence on those desired outcomes. The purpose of KingStat is to help the Executive and department leadership better understand the relationship between our work and our goals, and to make improvements when necessary.

How does KingStat relate to individual performance assessments?
KingStat is focused on organizational performance. One element of organizational performance is to ensure that employees' work plans are aligned with department goals and objectives. However, KingStat will not be used to focus on individual employees' performance.

How does KingStat relate to the departments' business plans submitted with the annual budget?
The link between performance measures and budgeting is very important. The goals of KingStat relative to the budget process are:

1. To increase the use of performance measure information in budget development;
2. To increase the alignment of performance measures with budget requests; and
3. To improve budget process so that performance data can be used as part of the evaluation of budget requests.