Strategic planning and performance measurement: engaging the community to develop performance metrics

Fairfax County, Virginia is the Commonwealth's largest county, and one of the largest and wealthiest local jurisdictions in the United States. Its economy is large and diverse, as is its population, so measuring the success of the economy extends beyond traditional measures of economic development. In this paper, we describe a multi-year effort to conceive of performance management from a strategic planning perspective and develop a set of metrics that move beyond the traditional instrumentally focused metrics and views performance management as a governance process that builds relationships between stakeholders and fosters mutual learning. The metrics that emerged from this process were developed by engaging the public early and working with key county stakeholders to arrive at a set of metrics that encompassed not just county leaders' views of what makes a county economy work, but those of citizens, businesses, schools, nonprofits and other members of the public as well.