A Little [Personal] Growth NEVER hurt Anyone?!

I am seated in the airport on a windy, rainy afternoon in Atlanta - on my way back from several very enlightening days at Training Magazine's - Training Summit 2009. An adventure that I have undertaken primarily due to the new culture shift management assignment that I have been recently writing about - you know the drill, share our early approach with hundreds of content and process experts and see how much of it appears to be on-track and realistic.... oh, and steal a couple dozen good to great ideas in the process!

Mission accomplished.

(and yes, we are so ahead of the industry curve. This has been a great validation)

I admit, it has only been several weeks (and one post ago), that I shared a personal sidebar example of what I had been calling the continuum theory of employee investment (see previous blog post on organizational change and culture for that detailed rant)

Confession Time....

So yesterday afternoon, I am sitting in a workshop being facilitated by a former Monk and his colleague CEO of a large multi-national energy/utility corporation (sounds like the first line to a bad joke). Listening to them tell their very compelling story of culture change, the former Monk shared a very powerful (multi-dimensional) employee empowerment model that completely tweaked my perception - honestly, it blew my previous perspective right out of the Red Sea.

In short, his model (called the 4 room apartment - originally conceived by Claes Janssen: The Four Rooms of Change Theory) basically argues that within any group or organization - heck, when any group of people come together, they exist in one of four "rooms" with regard to their behaviors, attitudes toward their work, work culture, and the like. Each of these rooms have a single door and the door to each room opens into the next room (in a counter clockwise direction) and in only ONE direction. (see graphic insert)

The rooms are pretty self explanatory:

- Contentment

- Denial

- Confusion

- Renewal

In the contentment "room" people are happy with the status quo and happy with where they are within the group or organization. In the Denial room, people are resistant and afraid of change. Likewise, in the Confusion room, people are anxiety ridden and lack self confidence, and, in the Renewal room people are in what amounts to a personal growth space - independent, creative and spontaneous.

The points being made resonated loudly with me:

ALL OF US ARE DESTINE TO OCCUPY ONE OR ALL OF THESE ROOMS OVER TIME!

The reoccurring message reminding me of the quote from John A Simone Sr. who said "If you're in a bad situation, don't worry, it'll change. If you are in a good situation, don't worry, it'll change."

Basically, people move from one room to the next when:

1. They are ready;

2. (when) Life invites them;

3. (when) Reality kicks them.

The former Monk pointed to his 20 years of corporate experience and shared with example after example that people are more willing to move (from one room to another) when we keep the doors open and we do this by letting go of our need to fix, judge or condemn them... which is basically what I was doing in my misinformed prior posting.

So, while I have learned lots about the positive course our culture change strategy seems to be taking during this best practice jaunt - I have also learned even more about my own (limited) perception of individuals within the machine.

I am officially trashing my one dimensional construct and looking forward to developing and deploying an appreciation for the more dynamic and fluent four room model. I guess what it really boils down to is actively shifting from a mandate or compliance stance to an invitation based, commitment seeking approach - which, in the longer term will most certainly prove far more long lasting and systemic.

Patience is a virtue, however, I am no Monk, so this will be an interesting new direction for me to explore and discover... a divine invitation, indeed.

Cheers!

Process Becoming Culture: A Case Study in Organizational Change

For years, Stanislaus County has experimented with off the shelf organizational management trends and techniques -from total quality management in the early nineties to the principles of Malcolm Baldridge through the end of the millennium. While these approaches had their relative successes, none quite "fit" our organization or our unique culture.

In late 2004, on the heels of a new and progressive CEO leadership appointment - the County began a very forward thinking process of developing its own organizational management approach. Not your off the shelf variety - this new direction, for a time, went primarily unnoticed to myself as I was deeply immersed in the multiple assignments and projects that define my contribution.

Recently (last spring) I was asked to take on a more hands on role with this approach - now three fiscal years into deployment, with the specific assignment to "market and educate line staff" to what has, to this point, been primarily a department head and senior leadership mandate.

A FEW WORDS ON THE PROCESS

Ours is a priority based framework.

County elected officials - working with senior department heads and executives have developed seven (7) core priorities. They are:

A Healthy Community

A Safe Community

A Strong Local Economy

Promoting Effective Partnerships

A Strong Agricultural Economy and Heritage

A Well Planned Infrastructure

Efficient Delivery of Public Services

These broad brush categories serve as guideposts to the various disciplines and departments that make up the Stanislaus machine.

Annually, each of the priority teams (comprised of those departments that align best with each of the priorities - i.e. Sheriff and Probation help comprise the Safe Community priority team) report out in public session to the Board of Supervisors, sharing their successes (and misses) related to goals and objectives self projected in advance of the fiscal year. The process is gaining a healthy momentum with senior leadership and has created a very open and honest forum for stretching and aspiring to better and more efficient deliveries of public service.

However, at this point (as I eluded to above) the process has been purposefully inspired from the top down - meaning, very little participation or input has been solicited from the many employee groups that bring our goals and objectives to life and who perform countless hundreds of varying jobs of work.

That is my directive: Share the priority process with the masses and develop an educational and social space to provide employees an opportunity (and the tools to empower that opportunity) so that employees from all walks have a better understanding of the process and more importantly - an understanding of how they fit into that process.

No simple task.

A CONTINUUM THEORY

Before discussing our implementation strategy I should probably make a quick disclaimer at this point, a disclaimer that I call my "continuum theory." What I mean is, (my belief and my opinion - not the collective) in all organizations (public and private) employee motivation and willingness to make cultural change can be measured on a simple continuum. Picture in your mind a horizontal plane. On the far right side of this plane you have your overachieving, mission dedicated types - you know the ones, willing to try new ways and embrace new policy and procedure. On the far left side are the opposites. Those employees who clock out early, forget their work by the time they hit the elevator and see any attempt to align work and culture as a waste of time and far outside the sphere of what they are paid to perform. Like most large organizations, ours has its fair share of individuals on both ends of this continuum - very fortunately, more on my theoretical right side than on the left.

However, it is not these extreme sways that our effort will focus toward.

After all, those on the far right will come along willingly just as those on the far left will balk and deny regardless of the perk or the purpose. No, the primary attention that our strategy will speak to are those (majority) employees who fall somewhere in the middle (or just left or right of the middle).

A STRATEGIC OUTREACH

Our outreach process is multi-pronged and includes a concerted effort to:

a) simplify the messages,

b) develop an organizational dialogue - to better communication, and

c) to provide tools for self analysis.

The primary outreach includes developing:

1. A Board Priority Handbook - a simple primer on the subject matter

2. Quick Start Primer - developed to align with department internal workshops

3. Monthly E-Newsletter - sharing best practices and tools

4. Intranet Web Presence - home base information and resource center

5. Improved Customer Satisfaction Survey development and deployment - including improved data collection and internal/external analysis

All of these tools will be shared to the organization in a phased approach.

This roll out will begin later this month and continue through quarter one 2009. Our goal is to reach 30% of all employees during calendar year 2009.

These are just the broad highlights of our employee outreach effort.

Rather than take this simple blog post to a white paper level - I have left out the specifics and time tables associated with the initiative.

Needless to say, this will be an organizational journey, one that will succeed or fail based upon buy in and ownership from policy makers, senior leaders and our wonderful, inspired employees.

Stay tuned....

Reaching Out: Its all about Community....right?

January is National Mentor Awareness Month - those several weeks when our governments National and State recognize the power and importance of this most valuable civic/social activity.

Here in Stanislaus County, this January (2009) marks an impressive milestone in our local flavor of youth mentoring as our County Employee Mentor program turns an impressive 10 years young....

Thats right - ten years.

No typo.

This is an undeniable testimony to the employees of our county - from all employment walks: healthcare to public works, workforce assistance to the Chief Executive Office, our employees give back.

These mentor champions give back, not for some monetary reward or overt public display of heroism, rather, out of an overwhelming sense of community and community pride.

So what is in the water here in Stanislaus County that has allowed this uncanny sustainability to transpire? Why here? What defines this success culture? After all, as a region we experience many of the same struggles and hardships that other locations grapple with and perhaps (in some instances) we may even have it a little tougher. Why do so many public employees find the energy and the passion to give of their lunch times, after work or weekends to spend time with a struggling third grader or socially/academically lost fifth grader?

I believe that the reasons (there are several) are simple but noteworthy:

1. Our County leadership is committed to this cause.

The County Board of Supervisors, the Stanislaus Office of Education, and local business and service groups understand the positive social and civic ramification of spending quality time with young people. There has NEVER been a hard sell, stealth marketing tactic, or political wrangle applied to reach these multiple leaderships - they simply care... very much.

In many instances senior leaders are themselves actively involved, a classic example of "walk the talk" leadership.

2. Mentoring is addictive.

Over the years I have talked with dozens of fellow employees and partner/affiliate participants and to the person they reflect a value to self more powerful than time or influence.

Bottom line: They get more out of the experience than the students and this wonderful eppiphany fuels returning mentors and inspires a rich word of mouth infrastructure that helps the program thrive.

3. The education community is on board.

We are very fortunate to have committed school sites and principals that recognize the fragility of this effort and they continuously monitor the ease and accessibility of the program so that employees experience a process that is effortless and rewarding.

In a time when governments are increasingly bashed and berated and public sector "servants" stereotyped as indifferent, faceless and paper driven - I believe that we need to strike some fairness and balance against the typical machine rant. There is a movement afoot in Stanislaus County. A movement by, between and among employees, service clubs, education and businesses that is commendable, worthy, simple, inexpensive and proven.

I encourage you to check our program out and consider emulating something similar in your own communities. Reaching out IS all about community and a very special synergy has been born through youth mentoring activities growing in the very fertile social soils of Stanislaus County.

[for more information on the Stanislaus County Mentor Program visit: www.employeementors.com]

Maiden Voyages....

This is my maiden voyage into the blog-o-sphere.

So, if by some wild happenstance some one (1) of you read this - please be patient.

Just to set some background...

I am a Deputy Executive in the Chief Executive Office for a mid-sized California County - which is to say, a governmental entity that in many states would equal a majority share of that state's population. That doesn't really mean anything - just stating that the machine that I speak to is of a larger variety and rife with its own battles with culture, morays and idiosyncrasies...:)

I work primarily on Economic Development projects.

Mine is a very project driven assignment (which is a good thing because I have a very low threshold for bordom)

I live in a world of land use policy, business and industrial park developments, community technology strategies and outreach, facilities fees and incentive programs and even regional tourism initiatives.

I have (for too many years) been very fascinated with all things organizational theory - how things tick (and tock) in a large bureaucratic structure.

I will speak to my direct and indirect experiences periodically - and I do mean periodically.

I am passionate about my work, my family and my many artistic special interests so I will post irregularly - when the mood and the content provide themselves.

This is NOT a transparent attempt to seek business, market a new blanket with arms in it, or sell anyone or anything.  Just my own (hell, its free) cyber-space venting ground.

If you find my ramblings of any interest - or not, I would love to hear from you and to gain your perspective on all topics of life within the machine.

Best to you all.....here goes,

tiehead

12.08