Governments at all levels are increasingly using research findings from behavioral economics and other behavioral sciences to improve program and agency outcomes. These interventions and program changes draw on how people process information and make decisions and can often be implemented quickly and at little cost.

One way to help support the use of behavioral insights within an agency is to create a community of practice. To learn more, we are joined by Melissa Leal, a change management specialist at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). In 2019 she led the formation of a community of practice around behavioral insights within the the department.

Related interview: CDPHE is using the Behavioral Insights Team’s EAST framework in its current project, aimed at improving the health of its employees. The EAST framework was discussed on the podcast here.

What evidence-based strategies can you use to more effectively craft communications with practical purposes, so that busy people respond and take needed action? We get insights from Dr. Todd Rogers (@Todd_Rogers_), a behavioral scientist and professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. His work applies behavioral science insights and methods to understand important social challenges and to develop interventions to mitigate them.

Among the topics he’s explored is how to improve written communications with practical purposes. His recent op-ed in the Boston Globe, co-authored with Jessica Lasky-Fink, is called “Write shorter messages.” As a preview of their insights, they find that keeping communications short, simple and skimmable makes it more likely that people will respond or take action.

The California Policy Lab (@CAPolicyLab) was launched in January 2017 with a mission to create partnerships between researchers at two of California’s leading universities — UCLA and UC Berkeley — and California’s state and local government agencies. The goal: to generate scientific evidence that solves California’s most urgent problems, including the issues of homelessness, poverty, crime, and education inequality.

To learn more, we’re joined by Janey Rountree, the Executive Director of the California Policy Lab at UCLA, and Evan White (@EvanBWhite) the Executive Director of the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley. They work in close collaboration with the Lab’s faculty directors, Till von Wachter and Jesse Rothstein.

How can public agencies build credible evidence about what works to help move the needle on important social policy challenges? It’s often a multi-step, iterative process. A good example is the efforts across the past two administrations by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – in particular, their efforts to help support public housing residents to access higher education.

This example has a specific policy focus — higher education access – but the steps that HUD has taken to build evidence provides lessons for any public agency, whether federal, state or local, that is working to tackle important policy issues and using evidence to inform their decision making.

To learn more, we’re joined by Dr. Calvin Johnson. He’s the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research, Evaluation and Monitoring within the Office for Policy Development and Research (PD&R) within HUD. He is a leader within the federal evidence community and a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Additional information: Read about HUD’s work with the Office of Evaluation Sciences to design low-cost behaviorally informed interventions — letter, in this case — to encourage FAFSA enrollment [link].

The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Evidence Act) was enacted in early 2019 and has led a wide range of federal agencies to take new steps in building and using evidence, including developing learning agendas. The Act, however, didn’t come with new funding, so resources are likely a constraint in many agencies in doing this type of work. It’s one reason why the topic of researcher-practitioner partnerships — including using Intergovernmental Personnel Act agreements (aka IPAs) — is an especially timely one. It’s also a valuable topic for agencies not covered by the Evidence Act that want to better use evidence and data to inform decisions.

To learn more, we are joined by Dr. Dayanand Manoli. He’s an economist and a professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and has collaborated with the IRS on several research projects, as we highlighted on this podcast in 2016. Recently, he co-hosted, with Kathy Stack, a workshop at the Partnership for Public Service on the topic of IPAs within federal agencies.

North Carolina’s Office of Strategic Partnerships was launched at the end of 2018 under Governor Roy Cooper with a mission to enhance partnerships between state government and North Carolina’s research and philanthropic sectors. As its website notes, “This includes elevating the State’s internal capacity to use and generate evidence in its policy and programmatic functions.” The office is situated within the state’s Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM), within the Governor’s Office. OSBM’s priorities include data-driven and evidence-based decision making.

To learn more, we are joined by the office’s founding director, Jenni Owen (@jenniowen). She was previously the Governor’s Policy Director and, before that, was on the faculty and the director of policy engagement at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

The State of Colorado under the previous Governor, John Hickenlooper, had a multifaceted performance-improvement strategy that included performance management, operational improvements and talent development, among other elements. That work continues today under current Governor Jared Polis. We look back at the previous administration to draw lessons for other states. We’re joined by David Padrino. He served under Governor Hickenlooper as Colorado’s first Chief Performance Officer and as the former Chief of Staff to then-Lieutenant Governor Donna Lynne. Today he is the Chief Recovery Officer at the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.

Web extras: Mr. Padrino discusses how the efforts have continued and advanced in the new administration, under Governor Polis. [click here]. He also discusses the connections and differences between performance measurement / management and evidence-based policy. [click here]

Learn more: Colorado is featured in Results for America’s Blueprint for Delivering Results in State Government, released in 2020. Also see the related Gov Innovator interview with Henry Sobanet about Colorado’s lean initiative.

In King County, Washington, under Executive Dow Constantine and the County Council, equity and social justice has been an important focus of the county’s work. That includes the launch in 2015 of an Office of Equity and Social Justice and the creation of its strategic plan, designed to help the county become a place where race and place are eliminated as predictors of prosperity and quality of life for the residents.

To learn more, we are joined by Arun Sambataro, the Senior Equity and Social Justice Policy Advisor within the Office of Equity and Social Justice.

The nonprofit Results for America has been an important advocate of — and catalyst for — evidence-based policy and decision making over the last decade. It recently released two new resources: The 2020 Invest in What Works Federal Standard of Excellence (click to see the federal standard and the press release), as well as a similar What Works Standard of Excellence for states (click to see the state standard and the press release). Each report examines best practices in results-focused government and then highlights and tracks the progress of leading federal agencies and states against those practices.

To learn more about the findings and where we are today with evidence-based policymaking on the cusp of a new presidential administration, we are joined by Jed Herrmann (@HerrmannJed). He is the Vice President for State and Federal Policy Implementation at Results for America. He previously served at both the federal and local levels, including as a Senior Advisor to the CEO at the Corporation for National and Community Service and Chief of Staff and Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs.

Montgomery County, located just north of Washington D.C. is a leader in the use of performance management, including through its CountyStat initiative, drawing on the model of other PerformanceStat efforts. Its reputation for results-focused government continues today under County Executive Marc Elrich, who has been in that role since 2018.

To learn more about the county’s journey with data-driven decision making and what lessons we can draw for other jurisdictions, we’re joined by Dave Gottesman. He’s been the CountyStat manager since 2012. He also co-leads the Mid-Atlantic Stat Network, a group of PerformanceStat staff from the region that convenes periodically to share their insights. Dave was previously on the podcast in 2013.