Beyond good intentions

While successfully providing counselling to victims of domestic violence, a Washington DC-based organization launched a new programme to treat the perpetrators of this violence. Shortly after the programme began, the organization discovered that its efforts were contributing to an increase in the violent tendencies of those they counselled. In short, the programme was doing more harm than good.

Fortunately, the organization has systems in place to manage its performance, so it was able to recognize the deficiencies of its programme and make the appropriate adjustments to improve performance – and possibly save lives. Unfortunately, the ability to effectively manage performance is rare in the human services sector.