Compstat

The essence of Giuliani's success as mayor of New York were the Compstat meetings. First, a look at the results:

Murders and robberies dropped over 15% during Compstat's first year.

In 1995, 419 police officers fired shots. By 2001, that number dropped to 175.

The number of slashings and stabbings in Rikers Island prison was 139 in July 1995. In September 2001, there was one.

The principles here may not be as applicable to small organizations as large ones, but they provide food for thought:

1. Crime statistics were collected and analyzed every single day. Meaningful ones. Arrest counts and reaction times to emergency calls aren't the goal of a police force: Public safety and reducing crime are.

2. A weekly summary of stats displays trends such as week-to-date, month-to-date, year-to-date.

3. The key: Once every 4-8 weeks, the command of a borough stands before the brass and defends their performance. Questions are posed by the brass: "Why are car thefts down 20 percent citywide, but up 10 percent in your area?" This meeting won Harvard's Innovations in Government Award.

4. Every time a performance indicator was added, there'd be a similar pattern of improvement. For example, graffiti arrests rose from 475 in 1995 to 1,485 in 2001. One agency had no less than 592 indicators.

The system was resisted by many who didn't want their performance to be measured (human nature). That is, until the results started to emerge. What gets measured, gets done.