Chief Judge Janet DiFiore's excellence initiative is not only a new way of doing business for the courts, but it's also a new way of thinking. And a just-launched effort to adopt “results-based accountability” is a microcosm of that system-wide mindset.

Let me set the backdrop.

Several years ago, the court system joined the Partnership for Youth Justice, a multi-agency, multi-branch collaboration for ongoing juvenile justice reform. The partnership is co-chaired by Frank Woods, chief management analyst for the Unified Court System, Mark White, the deputy commissioner of the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), and Nina Aledort, associate commissioner with the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS).