Washington State Local Government Auditors Association

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WSLGAA is committed to providing relevant, low-cost training to its members.  See our upcoming activities below.  

 

 

Precision Questioning & Answering for Auditors

 

CPEs - 3

Location - TBD

Date and time:  Wednesday, March 3rd  - 11:30-2:30 TBD

Cost:  $15

Registration – Kymber.waltmunson@kingcounty.gov

 

A description of the training, generously offered for only the cost of materials by Vervago, follows:

 

About Precision Questioning+Answering

It used to be that smart was what you knew. Information was manageable, and problems usually developed at a controllable pace. But in today’s workplace, there is too much to know, and what we do know is changing rapidly. Our work now demands that we attack this complexity by asking questions that reveal assumptions and penetrate to the heart of the matter. Today smart is what you ask.

Yet there is often a gap between the precision of the questions in our minds, and the precision of the questions in our mouths. We want to ask, “What are the main risks to hitting your next milestone?” but instead we ask, “How’s the project going?” So we get the story of the project, not a bulleted list. This leads to information overload and high levels of inefficiency.      

To do our work with the necessary intellectual rigor often requires both focused questions and crisp, concise answers. This workshop will introduce Precision Questioning and its sister skill, Precision Answering. Come get a taste for how these skills improve both our critical thinking and the effectiveness of our meetings and discussions.

How PQ+A Was Developed

Dennis Matthies developed the PQ+A methodology while working as an instructor at Stanford University. Demand for Dennis’ teachings in critical analysis spread from undergraduate and graduate classes to alumni association seminars and courses offered via the Stanford Instructional TV Network, where he first came into contact with executives in Silicon Valley. These executives wanted their employees both to ask questions that quickly drilled deep into the work and to give answers that concisely captured only the key details.

Who Uses PQ+A Today

Since 1995 over 27,000 people around the world have completed the PQ+A workshop. Nearly 20,000 of those people took it at Microsoft, where it remains the company’s most-requested workshop for intact teams. Cypress Semiconductor and Qualcomm have certified their own trainers so they can offer PQ+A internally. Vervago has also delivered PQ+A to clients in industries like accounting and health insurance. PQ+A develops a set of skills that benefit any organization looking to increase meeting efficiency and to improve decision-making processes.

 

 

 

Accountability in the Obama Administration: Implications from Practice

Friday, April 9, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Fairmont Hotel, San Jose, California

 

This symposium will compare and contrast the Obama administration's accountability initiatives with those of previous administrations. The focus will be on understanding new accountability developments, including the Obama Evaluation Initiative, against the backdrop of research about performance measurement, evaluation and other accountability measures adopted by previous administrations. Lessons learned from the practice of accountability and performance measurement as well as the likely effects of current accountability initiatives will be discussed.

 

 

Kathryn Newcomer

George Washington University

 

Keynote

The Current Context for

Performance Management in the Federal Government

John Kamensky

IBM Center for the Business of Government

 

Obama’s Performance Management Plan

Jeremy Hall

University of Texas

 

Performance Tracking of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Funds

Maria Aristigueta

University of Delaware

 

Managing for Results in State Government: Institutionalizing Performance Management in Six States

Kaifeng Yang

Florida State University

 

Federal Agency Performance Reporting Efforts and Employees’ Daily Work: 2002~2008

Jackie Nowicki

Government Accountability Office

 

Performance Budgeting:

Past, Present and Future

Marc Holzer

Rutgers University

Keynote

Obama and State Initiatives in Historical Perspective

Robert Schwartz

University of Toronto

 

The Politics of Accountability Revisited

 

 

Discussants

Cheryle Broom, County Auditor, King County Auditor's Office

Allen Lomax, Consultant

Andrew Murray, County of San Francisco, California

Jeff Tryens, Measures Matter

Kevin Woodhouse, City of Mountainview, California

 

REGISTRATION

http://www.aspanet.org/2010conference/page.cfm?name=itemdetail&id=NC10PROG/NC10_PD02

 

Note: Participants not planning to attend the ASPA conference are invited to register for the CAP Symposium only

Contact: Robert Schwartz, CAP Chair, Robert.Schwartz@utoronto.ca