AMS Fundamentals

Because every state agency has a vital mission, it’s our responsibility as state employees to continuously improve our ability to deliver mission outcomes for the citizens we serve. We maximize this long-term mission benefit for Arizona by delivering value to customers, and by engaging employees who do the work to reflect daily on how they did, find where the waste occurred, and figure out how they can do better going forward. The Arizona Management System provides us the methods and tools to drive continuous improvement.

When we say “continuous improvement,” what we mean is everybody, every day, everywhere reflecting on how we did yesterday, finding where the waste occurred, and figuring out how we can do better going forward. Obviously, tracking performance is critical to our success. At its most basic level, the Arizona Management System is about:

• Measuring what matters most and setting targets for improvement.
   
• Visually tracking performance against the targets and identifying gaps between our intended targets and actual results. These problems are opportunities for getting our performance back on track.
   
• When we’re off track, taking action by implementing counter measures to close the gaps.

These basic steps are depicted in the following diagram.

The tools of the management system help us see and visually manage for performance. Every cabinet agency today tracks its most important mission performance measures on agency scorecards, and their executive leadership meets for monthly business reviews to measure progress on their scorecard targets and to take stock of the agency’s overall health and performance. Employees’ performance in day-to-day work on mission priorities contributes directly to what the agency is tracking on its scorecard.

The agency scorecards roll up monthly to the Governor’s office for review and feedback. The scorecards align with the Governor’s Fundamentals Map, an important document that visually presents the foundational touchstones for Governor Ducey’s administration: its mission, vision, core values and beliefs, as well as the key goals and metrics that define success for Arizona. The Fundamentals Map helps every department, every team, and ultimately every employee understand how what we all do connects to the Governor’s most critical goals.