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Profile

Robert D. Behn, Lecturer in Public Policy, is faculty chair of the School's executive program, Driving Government Performance: Leadership Strategies that Produce Results. Bob specializes in governance, leadership, and the management of large public agencies and conducts custom-designed executive education programs for public agencies. He has served on the staff of Governor Francis W. Sargent of Massachusetts, as a scholar in residence with the Council for Excellence in Government, and on the faculty of the Harvard Business School and Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. Bob is the author of Rethinking Democratic Accountability (2001) and Leadership Counts: Lessons for Public Managers (1991), and "Why Measure Performance: Different Purposes Require Different Measure" (2003). Bob's most recent publication is Performance Leadership: 11 Better Practices That Can Ratchet Up Performance(2004). Bob holds a BS in physics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a PhD in decision and control from Harvard. He is the author of Bob Behn's Public Management Report.

Courses

Spring

• STM-104 Performance Leadership: Producing Results in Public and Nonprofit Agencies

Media Expertise

Robert Behn welcomes media inquiries on the following subjects:

• Accountability
• Leadership
• Management
• Management Reform
• Management Reform
• Performance
• Political
• Public

Additional experts may be found by clicking on each subject listed. You may contact faculty directly or if you need assistance contact the Communications Office at 617-495-1115.

Research

Research for a complete list of faculty citations from 2001 - present, please visit the Harvard Kennedy School Research Report Online.

Selected Publication Citations:

• Book Chapters
  • Behn, Robert. "The Challenge of Evaluating M-Government, E-Government, and P-Government: What Should Be Compared with What?" Governance and Information Technology. Ed. Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, and David Lazer. MIT Press, 2007, 215-238.
  • Behn, Robert. "The Adoption of Innovation: The Challenge of Learning to Adapt Tacit Knowledge." Innovations in Government: Research, Recognition, and Replication. Ed. Sandford F. Borins. Brookings Institution Press, 2008.
• Magazine and Newspaper Articles
  • Behn, Robert. "The Five Big Errors of PerformanceStat." Governing.com (Governing Magazine) (December 12, 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. "On Why Public Executives Need to Remember That: Luck is Recognizing It." Bob Behn's Public Management Report (December 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. "On Why Public Executives Need: A Few Priority Measures - Plus More." Bob Behn's Public Management Report (November 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. "On Why Public Executives Must Be Alert to the: Danger of Using Too Few Measures." Bob Behn's Public Management Report (October 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. "On Why Driving Performance Requires a Focus on: Only a Very Few Priority Measures." Bob Behn's Public Management Report (September 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. "Beyond the GASB-GFOA Brawl." Governing.com (Governing Magazine) (August 22, 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. "On Why Every Executive Should Hand Out Cards for: Buzzword Bingo." Bob Behn's Public Management Report (August 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. "On Why Both Government and Business Must Fix: The Underperformance Problem." Bob Behn's Public Management Report (July 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. “On Why Public Executives Need to Fix Their Agency's: Binding Constraints." Bob Behn's Public Management Report (June 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. "The Tyranny of the Template." Governing.com (Governing Magazine) (May 16, 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. "On the Responsibility of Helping Others to Learn: The Tacit Knowledge of Leadership." Bob Behn's Public Management Report (May 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. "Performance Deficit." Government Finance Review 23.2 (April 2007): 79-80.
  • Behn, Robert. “On Why Public Managers Have So Much Difficulty: Measuring Individual Contributions." Bob Behn's Public Management Report (April 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. “On the Managerial Challenge of Setting: Service-Delivery Completion Targets." Bob Behn's Public Management Report (March 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. "Public Purpose and Public Leadership." Governing.com (Governing Magazine) (February 21, 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. “On Why Public Executives Have: The Responsibility to Craft Purposes." Bob Behn's Public Management Report (February 2007).
  • Behn, Robert. "On Why It Is Necessary to Remember That: Mandates Can't Force Good Behavior." Bob Behn's Public Management Report (January 2007).
• Research Papers/Reports
  • Behn, Robert. "Designing PerformanceStat: Or What Are the Key Strategic Choices that a Jurisdiction or Agency Must Make When Adapting the Compstat/CitiStat Class of Performance Strategies?" Paper presented at the 29th Annual Research Conference of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, Washington, D.C., November 2007.

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