Oregon Benchmark Case Study

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Pages: 4

Introduction
The nation’s economic recession of the early and mid 1980s hit the forest product industry, Oregon’s largest industry, harder than most others. The Oregon Benchmark program was born from Governor Neil Goldschmidt’s campaign promise of an “Oregon Comeback” as a means to gauge the social, economic, and environmental health of the state and, accordingly, set short-term and long-term goals. These goals were intentionally ambitious and meant “to reflect the state’s collective aspirations” (cite: Case). From the Benchmarks’ inception in 1988 to the case study’s publication in 1999, we followed the program through governor and program director turnover, as well as votes to abolish the program entirely. Although the Benchmark Program
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About 180 community leaders, from both the public and private sectors, were organized into 16 committees that gathered data and made recommendations on different issues. Next, Wyse formed an Oregon Progress Board that would translate this information into benchmarks and track the state’s progress on them. Then, Wyse made sure the engage the governor and keep him involved. However, during this benchmark creation process, only those involved actually understood the program because the Progress Board performed without transparency (cite: Kettl). Ultimately, the Progress Board’s limited communication to agencies throughout the state and even the state legislature would be the board’s most significant management flaw, causing ripple …show more content…
Kitzhaber kept the program alive via executive order. Around this same time, Wyse accepted a job elsewhere. The Oregon Progress Board would need a new leader, a leader that could revive the benchmarks. When interviewing for the position of program director, Jeff Tryens was encouraged to meet with the biggest critics of the benchmarks. After doing so, Jeff felt confident that the critics were not deadset against the benchmarks, but were instead open to change and adjustments. Jeff is a self-aware leader, and him knowing that he is a “fixer” which made this position a fit for him. As Jeff said about Wyse, “He’d dreamed his dream—he’d created his dream—and now it was my job to make his dream work” (cite: Case). The Oregon Benchmark Program had its