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Keywords: Child welfare, human services, system reform, catalytic combinations, foundation strategy, organizational changeIn a state with a national reputation for being one of the best run in the country, it was an early and unpleasant eye-opener for newly elected Virginia Governor Tim Kaine: The commonwealth sported the worst record in the country when it came to children aging out of foster care absent any permanent connection to family or community. Said Kaine, who took office in 2006,When we saw the data we realized that what we knew anecdotally to be a problem was in fact persistent and pervasive, that Virginia was a clear outlier, with fewer discharges from foster care to permanency of any state. (Walters, 2010)But while Kaine may have viewed Virginia as an outlier, the fact is that many states continue to struggle when it comes to moving children out of foster care and into permanent homes with families. It is a simple reflection of a persistent problem: Public agencies assigned the difficult task of improving outcomes for vulnerable populations - poor children and families - have a mixed record. An extensive body of literature proposes various solutions for improving the performance of such agencies. Yet there has never been - nor is there ever likely to be - any silver bullet in this area. Complex systems, like complex families, have diverse strengths and needs, requiring thoughtful, tailored assistance; and transforming them sometimes requires novel solutions.One emerging and promising approach to such system change is the concept of "catalytic mechanisms," developed by management expert Jim Collins (2001) and employed to remarkable effect in reforming Virginia's child welfare system. Catalytic mechanisms are, according to Collins, "the crucial link between objectives and performance." They are "catalytic," he argues, because they produce unexpected results, redistribute power, create positive and negative consequences, and have an ongoing effect. For example, Collins (1999) cites a gravel company's new approach to customer satisfaction as a "catalytic mechanism": giving customers the right to pay only for those services they deem satisfactory. Once adopted, Collins reports that this policy radically and permanently improved the company's performance and profitability.While these so-called catalytic mechanisms may sound simple (too simple, really), Collins points out that it takes strategic thinking to identify and leverage the catalytic mechanisms that lead to improved performance. The change in billing policy was strategic because it was not the act alone that had so much impact, but rather its connection to other parts of the company's system that made the difference. Clearly, the short-pay policy forces both learning and change.It impels managers to relentlessly track down the root causes of problems in order to prevent repeated short payments. It signals to employees and customers alike that Granite Rock is dead serious about customer satisfaction that goes far beyond slogans. (Collins, 1999, p. 73)The question we consider in this article is whether the concept of catalytic mechanisms can be applied in the public sector - to child welfare in particular. Specifically, we want to see if it can help public agencies serve children more effectively and efficiently, and achieve well-defined objectives.The approach described here was developed by the authors while working as employees and consultants with the Casey Strategic Consulting Group (CSCG) of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. 1 In 2001, the foundation created CSCG as an in-house strategic consulting group to work with state and local government human-services agencies engaged in system-reform efforts. The CSCG teams combined staffwith traditional consulting experience with staffwith nonprofit and publicsector experience. The foundation invested in CSCG teams , which were assigned to state or city "clients," as an alternative to traditional grantmaking. …

Helping Government Agencies Become More Effective and Efficient: Discovering 'Catalytic Combinations' in Public Child Welfare Reform