There was an insightful quote that led off the meeting. It went something like this, "If you treat people as customers then they will act like taxpayers. If you treat them as citizens, then they will act like partners." This runs in the face of government acting more and more like businesses. The point being that government isn't a business and if you expect to have a different relationship with the people you are accountable to, then you have to engage them in the governmental process, not just treat them as customers.
Much has been said about performance management making government accountable. This could be accountable to citizens or the elected official(s). It hit me that first and foremost you should embrace performance measurement so that you are accountable to yourself. Measuring what type of progress you are making.
