Journal Reflections for Modual 4.3 - Cultural Competency and Equity

[Editors note:  The following is a journal entry addressing the CPM course taught by Dariush Khaleghi for module 4.3]

1 Do you have any biases, conscious or unconscious? How do they impact your attitude, behavior, and life in general? How about at work and in your role as a public service manager?

Logically, since everyone has different life experiences that shape how they respond to people, and since biases would seem to be relative to how others see the world, everyone including myself must have biases. How they impact my attitude, behavior, and life in general would be difficult to say and probably vary greatly between particular instances.

I suspect my self evaluation of this subject would be biased enough to be nearly worthless.


2 Why are diversity, inclusion, and equity important in the workplace? What is the purpose of Equal Employment Opportunity and the Affirmative Action?

Our American government has based on the premise that all people are created equal, and therefore should be granted the respect that a human life intrinsically warrants. Hence interacting with people independent of their differences is a primary principle of our society.

The purpose of those particular laws appear to be specific attempts to correct specific unjust practices that occurred in the past within our society.


3 What is the relationship between motivation, leadership, and managing diversity effectively? What are the consequences of not proactively managing diversity?

As leaders it is important to strive towards the ideal. In the area of diversity, that means treating each individual with respect and dignity.

4 Define cultural competency and its impact in service delivery? What are some of the barriers to achieving it? And, how can they be removed?

Cultural competency is gaining an understanding of the traits, commonalities, and background of other groups of people. By being able to understand the context within which others are acting, it is much easier to empathize with them, understand the motivations behind their actions, interact with them in inoffensive ways, and appreciate their uniqueness.

The largest barriers to cultural competency would tend to be the unconscious presumption that others are like ourselves in ways that they may not be.

The best way to overcome that would be to seek more to understand than to be understood. Asking the questions of “Why would a reasonable, rational, and decent individual do something like that?” would be a good start.


5 How should you as a leader demonstrate your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Ideally, I would like to treat each person with respect and dignity.

Secondly, I believe management should be giving others the opportunity to succeed. That opportunity should be given because they are a human being and should not be withheld due to whatever specific traits they may possess.

Journal Reflections for Modual 4.2 - Public Perception and the Rold of Media

[Editors note:  The following is a journal entry addressing the CPM course taught by Adam Miller for module 4.2]

Reflect on recent news media coverage of your organization or another public agency:

Recently, the Muckleshoot Tribe purchased the Emerald Downs horseracing track.

The story can be found in the local print media here, here, and here

Journal Reflections for Modual 4.1 - Policy, Perspectives and Sustainability/Organizational Culture

[Editors note:  The following is a journal entry addressing the CPM course taught by Wendy Holden and John Swannack for module 3.4.]
Reflections from Module 4.1

Looking over my notes, the amount to be remembered from this class was significantly less compared to the other classes.

However, four separate incidents struck me about how much information I have gained in knowledge and application over the past year.

Journal Reflections for Modual 3.4 - Leading Change and Understanding Organizational Culture

[Editors note:  The following is a journal entry addressing specific questions provided by the CPM course instructor Wendy Holden and John Swannack for module 3.4.]
Given the readings, the three parts of the case Express Transit, and the class work for and discussion in the course "Organizational Culture and Leading Change:

What would you do next if you were Martin Jiles? Describe his next steps, particularly in light of the culture of Express transit and its experience/record in managing and leading important changes.

Key component #1. Say thank you. Acknowledge and appreciate the work that the committee did. I found the report was well written and diplomatic. It also did well at exposing a number of the underlying problem that were in the articles, but may not have been apparent to all the players at the time.

Journal Reflections for Modual 3.3 - Process Improvement and Project Management

[Editors note:  The following is a journal entry addressing specific questions provided by the CPM course instructor Dr. Wendy Fraser for module 3.3.]

1.Briefly describe what you learned from the activities, instruments and discussions.  What stands out for you?

I found the readings for this class very good, particularly the Maleyeff article “Improving Service Delivery in Government with Lean Six Sigma”. That article made a couple of points that will correlate directly to my project.

Most performance data are designed to evaluate effectiveness by focusing on metrics that represent how well and how efficiently services are provided. While these “outcome” data can be valuable in highlighting areas of concern, their role is often less valuable during improvement projects that require “process” data. (Maleyeff, p. 11)

And

Management commitment to a Lean Six Sigma process improvement program must go beyond slogans, banners, or motivational speeches. The leadership team should exude a constancy of purpose, along with discipline and patience hat allows the program to take root. The management team must be made responsible and accountable for both managing the organization and improving its effectiveness. The creation of an infrastructure that sustains requires attention be given to the following four actions… Develop a sound, consistent, and robust methodology. Build trust by removing fear. Initiate long term cultural change. And Communicate the vision to all stakeholders. (p. 18)

The concepts of instilling a culture of continuous improvement, having senior management lead and demonstrate foundational commitment to that culture, and the basic introduction to the tools used for assessing continuous improvement were adequately described in the reading.

Discussion Topic #5 - The Lead Poisoning "C Case"

Within the CPM course class on Managing Performance and Data Based Decision-Making, we were presented with a case study regarding lead poisoning in New York City near the end of the 60's. The case presented some concepts in effective government management, dealing with complex independent systems with competing interests.

After contemplating the scenario for a little while, I had a couple of extra thoughts that might serve for discussion. Unfortunately my readers without access to the class discussion or the original case study may be left in the dark.

As I write this, I do not have a copy of the Case Study in front of me. So my numbers may not be precise, but I don't think it will significantly affect the content.

Journal Reflections for Modual 3.2 - Managing Performance and Data Based Decision Making

[Editors note:  The following is a journal entry addressing specific questions provided by the CPM course instructor Larisa Benson for module 3.2.]

Write your own reflections on what you learned that had the most impact on your development as a leader. What insight have you gained, and what difference will that make in how you lead in the future?

Here is my list of particular things I would like to remember from CPM Class 3.2.

Letting people want to learn about the system will make them want to improve the system.


Inspiring a culture of learning inquisitively should be the focus. Pushing people through a Taylor time motion study that dehumanizes them is not likely to yield as positive a response.


The instructor presented the formula of value as Value = Quantity x Quality/Cost or written V=Q²/C. To me this would be much more accurately written as V=nQ/$. Since Quality may not be constant for each unit produced and C may include more cost than simply money a further refinement might be:

There is value in being able to express (creatively and compellingly) the values and objectives of your organizations through maps and data.

Other advantages of a mapping exercise include:

1. Identifying the Right people
2. Find Right timing
3. Map before you jump
4. Map from other people perspectives
5. Identify pressure and support points

Miller’s Systems of Work Table:

Factory	Widget	Customer	Outcomes
What we do	What we make	For Whom	Why

(Note that this is not the same as the logic map.)

One of the key components of mapping is being able to identify our “Customers”. This identification serves as a tool to see the path forward in being able to better meet a customer’s needs. In identifying the customer what we are really looking for is the “Users” as the object or customer for our widget.

Assumptions about outcomes and customers can be very deceiving. Resolving these through systematic identification can be a key benefit from the mapping process.

Stakeholders may have hang-ups on using the word “customers”, so alternatives such as “users” or “consumers” may be more appropriate. Most of those hang ups tend to stem from the accepted mantra of “the customer always being right”.


Often in public governance, the electorate fills a role most similar to the shareholder with the legislative body being the board of directors.


There are places in the work chain for both “Brokers” and “Producer”. With Brokers, it is important to identify the value they actually add to the process.


The voice of the customer tends to fall into one of the 5 broad categories: Ease of use, Timeliness, Accuracy, Cost, Choice (Customization).


In assessing the operational effectiveness of a system, feedback and refinement is a crucial component. To incorporate feedback we need to be asking the following questions:

• Are there processes to look for and receive feedback?
• Is feedback being received?
• What do you do with the feedback once it is received? (Do we use it for relationship building. Are we viewing it from a purely Transactional or Inquiry viewpoint.)
• Deconstructing the feedback to make improvements can be very difficult and subjective.

Customer Surveys tend to have very marginal value. Some of the key concerns with surveys are the following:

• What do you plan to do with the data?
• Results are of limited value since the responses may be ambiguous or subject to interpretation.
• Customer responses can confuse, provide misleading information.
• The results may not even provide the correct information.
• If you do not share or react to the information gathered in customer surveys, it always results in a decrease in trust.

Given these impediments to customer surveys, focused customer interviews may be a much better source of meaningful feedback.

The Results Map worksheet questions are a good resource for developing a better system map. They are included in the section below.

Limiting outcomes to a tangible scope is important. When the outcome is “all creation will dwell in peace” you have extended your system to abstraction and likely past the point of usefulness. The outcome needs to be something that people can connect to their motivations.


Striking visuals (collapsed building photo) can be key in effective communicating.


Herzog: Motivation cannot be given. Managers can only connect work to internal motivations.


Synergy can be defined as “focused energy”.

To build team synergy, first you must create the opportunity to accomplish something significant.


Book list relevant to this subject: Creating Public Value by Mike Moore, We Don’t make Widgets by Ken Miller, The First 90 Days in Government by Peter Daly

Journal Reflections for Modual 3.1 - Planning and Budgeting in the Public Sector

[Editors note:  The following is a journal entry addressing specific questions provided by the CPM course instructor Larry Dzieza for module 3.1.]

1. Identify what you think are the two big strategic and budgetary issues facing your organization.  (Possible opportunity to do a SWOT analysis).

First, our existing ordinance is outdated and essentially irrelevant.  Without an enforceable ordinance, we lack a basis for identifying our services, authority, or funding ability.

Without this formal authority it is difficult to tie budgets to levels of service.  Therefore we tend to be stuck in getting the baseline appropriation from the previous year in each subsequent year.

Second and tangentially related, our accounting system uses budget codes that have no relevance to the services we provide.

When combining these two issues, we have no clear picture of what we should be providing and have no meaningful information about where we spend that money or how effectively we spend that money.

Discussion Topic #4 - Deconstructing the Obviously Rediculous

Within the recently completed course on budget management we were presented with a comical video that has stuck in my head. Perhaps discussing it will help me not dwell on it so much.

It presented a middle aged, middle manager making a ridiculous argument against public parks.

If I recall correctly the actor was white, overweight, balding, and in a non-descript brown suit. He was complaining that since the new city manager arrived, the city had been getting all these government grants for parks and recreation projects.

This was a terrible thing since it meant he had to do more work actually building parks or implementing recreational programs. This devolved into a rant about how any parks were a bad thing since the government shouldn't be in the parks business at all. His preferred approach was to privatize parks like the "Chucky Cheese" model.

At the end of the video, we all agreed this video made a great point about how necessary government services were and how ridiculous the chucky cheese model was. The instructor even asked for any discussion on the subject and no one replied. Potentially since to advocate on behalf of the managers position would seem ridiculous and to advocate against it was unnecessary.

I've thought about it since then, and have some of the following observations that I would love to hear further discussion on. I will try to note them with minimal editorial opinion so as to not accidently place myself in the defense of the ridiculous manager.  After all anyone who could even slightly agree with the loser manager, must be one himself.


But a little deconstruction and discussion would be fun.

Journal Reflections from Module 2.3 - Communicating Effectively: Presentation and Writing

[Editors note:  The following is a journal entry addressing specific questions provided by the CPM course instructors for module 2.3.]

What learning stands out for you as you reflect on the classroom experience?  Consider what you learned from the activities, readings, videos, and discussions.


The key learning for me was the correlation between voice tone level and depth of personal engagement.  Understanding the power that the deeper personal engagement has in connecting with others is amazing.


Realizing that my normal dialogue tone is quite high with factual information but lacking in personal expressiveness, gives me an area to work on improving.

For me, the primary takeaway for my leadership development is to focus on minimizing the quantity of information in favor of stories with larger meanings with more power and gravitas. Those stories then can lead to a lower tone as they weave in aspects that are more personal.


The book for this module, Lead with a Story, was a great complement to the course. The concept that stories have the power to define a culture is insightful. The book made the claim that a company’s value statement does not meaning anything, but the stories that have accumulated are the true expression of how those values are practiced and conveyed.

Assembling a generic values statement is an exercise in shuffling some trendy ethical terms into a roughly coherent sentence but the result is superficial, ambiguous, and cold. Building a culture with a series of stories is much more effective at fleshing out what the organizations collective values are.

Personal Development Project - Report #6 - Silence or Violence

Part of the Certified Public Manager program involves the completion of a personal development project.  My selected project is to prepare a series of lectures to my fellow managers about basic managerial concepts.  These series of posts are intended to document my progress in that endeavor.  This report pertains to a presentation made on 4/28/14.


Silence & Violence

 For this week's lecture on key management concepts I began what I hope will be a series of lectures covering some of the important concepts I have learned from my listening to Crucial Conversations.

 I started with the exercise of having the participants list behaviors of 4 year olds who don't get their way.  I then made the connection that adult patterns are not much different in their purposes.

Grouping these responses, we tend to have either silence or violence.  We either withdraw from the conversation into forms of silence, or we attack others in forms of violence.  Where what we need to be aiming for is dialogue and discussion.

So the two main takeaways from this discussion are to first realize when we see these responses in ourselves and realize that we are avoiding dialogue because of safety issues.  The second main takeaway is when we see others employing these responses we need to realize that they do not feel safe.

There was some very good discussion at the end of this session I will describe below.

Learning Goal #1 Improving Comunications, Report #2 - The Septic Tank Service Log Status

This series is intended to document my efforts towards one of my learning goals within the UWT CPM program.  Specifically my goal of positively and proactively addressing conflict by using crucial conversation skills.


When I received an email from my boss about the status of a service log of the septic systems maintained by our public works department, I felt myself going to silence or violence.  The email also raised the question as to whether the lack of this service log lead to a recent issue from one of our residents who had a septic system issue last week.  I unwittingly started with my story telling.


My initial thought was "I had asked C (not his real initial) to do this last summer and he never got it done.  And now look what happened, somebody's septic tank backed up, my boss is upset, and I'm going to be in trouble for not hounding him to get it done."  Boy, am I good at this victim/villain story thing!


So rethinking through the issue, I thought I should get some more facts to base my story on.  Armed with my crucial conversation skills, I set about to have one.  I tentatively shared my facts and story and then asked for C's story.


Turns out the septic system inspections were occurring regularly.  Annually for most units and roughly quarterly for high use systems.  The system that had failed was checked just last summer. 


When C responded to the work request this last week, it was apparent that the occupancy of the home had increased significantly beyond what the system would be capable of handling and this had likely caused the problem.


By having this conversation in a calm and straightforward manner, it helped to build trust and safety while bringing out the real issues. 


We discussed things we could do to move forward and one action that we agreed to was having C provide notes about the septic tanks as he inspects.  I can then update our inventory list with this information and it will allow us to document more completely the work that is being done.


At one point in the conversation, the topic shifted off of this particular subject.  It may have been an attempt to avoid issues by shifting to silence.  I made a point of building safety and then re-entering the conversation.  At that point we made the agreement of who will do what to bring the issue to resolution and were able to conclude the conversation in a positive manner.

Journal Reflections from Module 2.2 - Group Process, Conflict and Facilitation Methods

[Editors note:  The following is a journal entry addressing specific questions provided by the CPM course instructors for module 2.2.]

1.  What learning stands out for you as your reflect on the classroom experience? Consider what you learned from the activities, instruments, readings, videos, and discussions.

“Dog Fooding”  Great name for the concept of beta testing by actually using the product.

 

Utilizing the three level framework for meetings/ interactions

• Content
• Process
• Relationship

Looking over this concept again brought to mind Francis Schaeffer’s three criteria for evaluating art.  1.  Technical skill in using the medium.  (Content Level)  2. How well the art conveys meaning.  (Process Level)  3.  The validity and value of the idea being conveyed.  (Relationship Level)

 

I liked the exercise of measuring or inquiring into your own or your audience’s level of Focus, Energy, and Engagement.

 

“Groups w/o meetings do not function well” is a great concept.  I had never heard it articulated before, but it does ring very true.  As much as we dread dull meetings, relationships built that way.

A corollary to this may be that Oshry’s Bottoms need to be included in meetings so they can become and feel interconnected.

 

Using the term “Requests”, rather than ground rules for establishing meeting norms.  Interesting way of reframing a subject by simply adjusting nomenclature.

 

The use of metaphors lends itself to Reflective, Creative, and Analytical thinking.  I have always admired and enjoyed working with individuals capable of effectively using metaphors but have never known why.  This class, combined with the questions in the Hay Group Survey from a couple of months ago, has lead to some additional thinking about that.  It seems like a valuable skill to develop and use.  I have been trying to allow myself to be more free in using metaphors and stories based on this information.

 

Framing difficult conversations as either:  Telling vs Learning.  Another reminder that we always need to be receptive to what others are adding to the pool of meaning.

 

Cognitive dissidence exercise of looking for blue items for a minute and then being asked to recall white items…  That was a powerful insight into how narrow our focus can be.  I hope to use this as a tool in my self focused project later this month.

 

When we were discussing the style preference, I kept recalling the initial meeting I participated in as part of Casey’s advisory team.  Casey was very focused on introductions and finding common ground between the team.

I didn’t exactly know how to interpret the conversation.  I was ready to work on getting Casey’s capstone project moving forward and making sure it is the ideal project for him to undertake.  Then we spent the time talking about things we all had in common and our backgrounds.  I began to wonder if I was being coddled, placated, or accommodated since I was the outsider to the group?  (My victim story.)

It was only in the style preference discussion that I realized Casey’s “Amiable” style preference lead him to prioritize ensuring we were all comfortable with each other as the ideal starting point.  I realized that my “Driver” preferences needs to be held in check in order to best accommodate Casey’s comfort level.

 

Tips for My Driver Style or Lack of Expressive Style.  I appreciated the help and suggestions the class provided in how to deal with my lack of expressiveness.

• Verbalize emotions
• Present intentionally
• Non-Verbal communication

 

Listening orientations.  “I Hear Me”  “ I Hear What You Say”  “I Understand You”.   I liked the comment that we revert to Level 1 as a defense mechanism.  It protects us by giving us opportunity to optimize our reply at the expense of others.

 

Huddling.  Implementing a standing 10 minute, check-in meeting in lieu of a formal drawn out meeting.  This avoids much of the dragging out and formal dreariness of meetings.  It also tends to limit extended discussions and fosters side conversations that can be more productive.

 

Two general concepts from the planning of meetings material are good to keep in mind.

• “What has to be different in the world because of this meeting.”
• DPPE of meetings.  Data, Purpose, Plan, and Evaluation.

 

I liked the stereotyping of meeting participants discussion.  (Silent One, Helper, Complainer, Whisperer, Joker, Info Miser, Sideliner, Roadblock and Inarticulare.)  The exercise of leading a meeting with various participants acting out different roles was worthwhile.

 

I had never heard of the 10 5 rule.  If you are within 10’ of another person you acknowledge a person.  If you are within 5’ of another person you should greet the person verbally. 

 

This would be a great rule for me, since I need to be more expressive and my “driver” side tends to brush past people in efficiently carrying out my objectives.

 

No pointing.  I’m not sure if this concept is to avoid an aggressive action of physically pointing, or if the intent is to bias people toward involvement and dialog over gesturing.  Either way it seems like a good idea.

 

2.  Oshry comments in his article that most conflict is seen and diagnosed through a personal framework. He suggests viewing organizational events through a "people in context" lens.

2a.  What's the difference?

When issues are reframed as people acting within their roles of “Responsible”, “Tearing”, or “Oppressed” we have another tool for understanding the sources of potential conflict.  This reframing then can help us build answers to the “why a reasonable, rational, and decent person is acting this way” question.

 

2c.  How does your “lens” influence what you notice and how you might work with people and conflict?

Broadly speaking the Top, Bottom, or Middle environments in which we live provide barriers to seeing how others perceive our actions and how we see others unless we explicitly look for them in this context.  I often miss this perspective.

 

2d.  Does his perspective mean there is no value in working on conflicts at the personal level?

Considering the concept of the waterline model, which suggests addressing issues first at structural roles and context as the preferred initial approach, reinforces Oshry’s perspective on dealing with issues at context levels.

Building on the waterline model, the shallower levels tend towards more immediate results that can be achieved with less investment.  The experience gained in initially addressing shallower levels problems may then build the capital in first hand knowledge and insights to begin the investment in addressing lower levels effectively.

 

2e.  How do Weisbord and Janoff’s ideas about facilitation inform this question? How can you determine the appropriate level for an intervention?

Weisbord and Janoff’s approach focuses on understanding one’s position relative to the group being facilitated and to allow the participants themselves to lead in seeking and finding resolutions.

As an aside, I wonder how Oshry’s context levels relate to Gen Y/X tendencies.  Since theses generations tend to have less respect for hierarchies, does this lack of clarity mix up the category for which they act compared with how they might be perceived?

 

3.  As a leader, how might a facilitative approach to conflict and group dynamics be useful? What specific skills and abilities would you like to develop

Being a neutral party to a conflict often seems like what is desired in order to help keep things moving toward resolution.  (Or in the crucial conversations terminology, for the parties to resume contributing to the shared pool of meaning.)  The perspective on mediation I found interesting from Weisbord and Janoff is that this neutral third parties role should be to shepherd the various other parties in building the skills needed for finding resolution rather than to arbitrate between them.

 

4.  What do you want to learn more about?  How might you do that? How will you apply that learning into intentional, observable behavior?

Since I am not presently leading extended retreat training meetings, much of the Weisbord/ Janoff material did not seem as applicable as it may to others.

From the subjects discussed this month, I want to continue to practice utilizing the Crucial Conversation skills.  To that end I am interested in focusing on mastering my stories, being expressive, and becoming more emotionally intelligent.

Conversely, finding the ‘your foible in my subconscience’ does not portend to likely be a productive endeavor.

Personal Development Project - Report #5 - The Stay Interview

Part of the Certified Public Manager program involves the completion of a personal development project.  My selected project is to prepare a series of lectures to my fellow managers about basic managerial concepts.  These series of posts are intended to document my progress in that endeavor.  This report pertains to a presentation made on 4/21/14.

Stay Interview Questions

For this week's lecture on key management concepts I addressed the concept of the "Stay Interview".

Historically, exit interviews have gained acceptance as a valuable source of feedback on workplace conditions.  Unfortunately, an exit interview may be too late to find out this type of information, particularly if it is a valuable employee leaving.

For the presentation I handed out a series of questions that had been provided to me by Mrs. Jane Wood in conjunction with the Washington State Supervision Essentials class.  (I have yet to express my thanks to Mrs. Wood for the excellent class yet on the blog, and I really should correct that oversight.  Thank You, Mrs. Wood)

Some of the concepts that I tried to highlight was that it is important to be asking our employees about their motivations instead of making assumptions.

I did wonder while giving the presentation how many of our employees the managers would actually want to stay.

Conversely my assumptions about the employees run along the lines of, they are working at jobs for which their security is tied more to their family connections than their performance, they have positions that accommodate their fishing and fireworks endeavors, and they work close to their families.  So why would they want to leave.

With the reformulation of my capstone project, I anticipate this will be a worthwhile and interesting tool that I can draw upon.  More on that later.

As an aside, we did touch on the frustration of providing performance appraisals that was addressed in the March human resources course.  That they tend to be only a tool for building a case for discipline, that they are difficult to base on objectively measurable items, in most cases are not particularly effective, and therefore they tend to be endured rather than utilized.

Personal Development Project - Report #4 - Generational Differences At Work

Part of the Certified Public Manager program involves the completion of a personal development project.  My selected project is to prepare a series of lectures to my fellow managers about basic managerial concepts.  These series of posts are intended to document my progress in that endeavor.  This report pertains to a presentation made on 3/31/14.

Generational Differences in the Workplace. Continuing the series of management discussions at the weekly staff meeting, I presented a discussion on the differences between the generations in the workforce.

The generations are typically classified as Traditional (born in '22-'45), Boomers ('44-'62), Gen X ('65-'80), and Gen Y ('81-00).  Interestingly, I had a member of the first three generations in the room and one person who readily put his son in the Gen Y category.

The group identified with many of the general traits of the various generations.  I was very pleased to have the conversation culminate in a statement to the effect that we all need to realize there are different styles at work and that we need to appreciate differences.

As for a presentation, I struggled the most with this topic so far.  The concept was more complex than anything I had presented before.  I wanted to keep the presentation brief and concise and that proved challenging.  Given that it is four concepts to explain, then explain how those concepts play out in the work force, and then to compare the concepts.  In all it was a bit of a challenge.

Personal Development Project - Report #3 - Effective Recognition

Part of the Certified Public Manager program involves the completion of a personal development project.  My selected project is to prepare a series of lectures to my fellow managers about basic managerial concepts.  These series of posts are intended to document my progress in that endeavor.  This report pertains to a presentation made on 3/17/14.

Keys to Effective Recognition.

Continuing the series of management discussions at the weekly staff meeting, I presented a discussion of the keys to effective recognition.

I started the discussion by reviewing the concepts we had covered before.  These included the SMART employee assignments and Herzberg's list of Satisfiers and Dis-Satisfiers.  The one concept that is both a Satisfier and Dis-Satisfier from Herzberg's work is the concept of recognition.  This provided a great segue into how to do recognition effectively.

The three key concepts to effective recognition are:  It should be SPECIFIC.  It should be IMMEDIATE.  And it should be SINCERE.

We did have some discussion that we could do much better at this than we presently are.  Our current practice of an "employee of the month" selection at a semi-regular monthly safety meeting, is probably better than nothing, but it does not adhere to many of these concepts.

Discussion Topic #3 - Term Limited Employment

As a discussion topic, I would like to explore further the concept of term limiting employment in the public sector.  What would be the pros and cons of making employment hires under the condition that the job will last no longer than 10 years.

Certainly, some of the details would need to be refined.  Perhaps providing substantial bonuses at the 5, 8 and 10 year marks.  Retirement accounts would need to be adjusted, but probably along the lines of the current movement towards defined contribution plans.  Jobs could be staggered to avoid any single mass exodus.  And potentially, provisions could be made to give the agency an option to retain the employee for an additional 4 years.  And the transition from our current system to this model would require a thoughtful approach with all the stakeholders.

The con’s that were presented in class seem to be losing institutional knowledge and difficulty in attracting top talent.  I will attempt to address those first.

Institutional Knowledge 

Working with the understanding that an employee was term limited would create more of a focus on documenting institutional knowledge.  This was a primary incentive behind our discussion for succession planning.  And given today’s free agency mindsets, should management not always be preparing for any employee to leave at any given time?

Attraction of Talent

The second objection to the concept was the difficulty in retaining top talent with the prospect of service being limited to 10 years.  Do we, or the top talent, believe they will want to be in any one position longer than 10 years?  We need to be challenging that top talent to grow and develop.

In contrast, is a top talent that has been doing the exact same job for 10 years, really ideal?  I was just reading recently HBR's When It;s Time For the CEO To Go that identified the CEO's optimal time to be 7 years plus or minus 2 years.

Other Considerations

Additionally, how many job descriptions, written 10 years earlier are likely to still be relevant.  This would give a great way of reassessing needs periodically and also of intentionally finding talent to meet specific needs.

One running joke in our HR class was that there was no problem in the HR field that could not be cured in 30 years.  Wouldn't it be prudent to cut that by a third? 

And how many of my CPM class cohorts, instructors, or lecturers have held one single position, without significant advancement for more than 10 years.  From what I know, that number is probably pretty small.  That is just becoming less of a reality for the Gen X/Y demographic. 

Finally, this might provide a great counter balance to bureaucracies intrinsic desire for self preservation described in the first installment of this discussion series.  In this model self preservation becomes building skills and talents that are valuable for the employee in the future, not hoarding institutional knowledge so as to become irreplaceable?

Journal Reflections from Module 2.1 - Human Resources

[Editors note:  The following is a journal entry addressing specific questions provided by the CPM course instructors for module 2.1.  Suggested questions had not been provided at the time the post was published, so the author took the liberty of recounting key insights gathered from the three day instructional session and 215 pages of suggested readings.]

Character Trait Inventories

How many more character trait inventory surveys can we possibly take?  So far I recall having done the following?

1.     Poster about ourselves

2.     Growth inventory assessment

3.     Recounted our best management moment

4.     MBTI personality traits

5.     360 Feedback

6.     Values Identification Exercise

7.     Conversation styles in conflict

Fierce Conversations

The Fierce Conversations book talked about by Betsey BeMiller looked like a repackaging of the Crucial Conversations methodology.  Fierce Conversations was just not as straightforward and with more steps to remember.

During the discussion, I was able to track in parallel the alignment of the Crucial Conversations methodology in the Fierce Conversations material.  I was pleasantly pleased with how well I could remember the Crucial Conversations material.

That the author of Fierce Conversations was an executive coach, I found to be  interesting.  I had just finished listening to Marshal Goldsmith’s What Got You Here Won’t Get You There and so the topic of addressing targeted deficiencies was something that was already on my mind.

The story of the executive who came to realize that he had a alcohol problem, seemed like it could have come from either book.  Both authors noted the inability of even successful people to identify our own shortcomings.

Mental Focus

One interesting parallel between Goldsmith and Cynthia Shaffer’s presentation was the discussion about having the ability to mentally focus.  I was recalling Goldsmith’s exercise of focusing on counting to 40 with your eyes closed and seeing how far you get before your mind has wondered onto another topic.

I'm lucky to make it to the mid 20's myself and I have often heard people marvel at my ability to focus on particular tasks.

Tolerance As Not Positive

The “tolerance as bad” principle that was presented in class seemed like a theory in need of further refinement.  Sort of a first draft of a masters or doctoral thesis.  There is value in the concept that “tolerating people” is less than the optimal method of interacting with others, but it didn’t seem to have the depth or polish of a comprehensive theory.

As I understand the concept presented, when we assess the differentiation between our behaviors towards those we “appreciate”, “tolerate”, or “despise”; we clearly want to be dealing with people in the “appreciate” manner and not to simply "tolerate" them.

Pretending everyone is your best buddy seems shallow and contrived.  Similarly, it would seem logical that there is a place for reserved or guarded interactions with those for whom the “cultural competency” has been as well developed.

Cultural Competency as Political Correctness

Also within this tolerance discussion, Mike made the interesting observation of equating “Cultural Competence” as the current term for “Political Correctness.”  I thought this was a very an insightful observation. 

Political correctness has achieved a certain level of stigma associated with its emphasis on refining our choice of words allowable to use based on an approved and acceptable list.

I think we all expect “Cultural Competence” will become stigmatized too, once it becomes another means of indiscriminately imposing the philosophies of our cultural and academic elite upon the practically minded masses.

Tips for Creating Job Duty Descriptions

Moving “Other Duties as Assigned” out of a job description’s Essential Duties to the “Non-Essential Job Functions” seemed like a great tip.  The reasoning being that this might help avoiding creating a situation of permanent accommodation which would effectively invent a job, apart from what the original job was created to do.

The underlying principle is to keep clean and accurate job descriptions.  That way organizations can be intentional about what ways they are serving their customers.

Harassment Game

The key concept I took from the Harassment Game was the prerequisite condition of being able to identify the victim within a protected group as the critical component of moving a case forward under a discrimination claim. 

A tangential observations from the game was that the “Yes, it was harassment” side won much more frequently, particularly when the “judge” was emotionally interested in seeing the harassment.  Strict adherence to the letter of the law in the finding of a desperate class was not always the judges emphasis.  I suspect this is truer to life that we would hope.

Process for Conducting Investigations

The lecture about the steps to conducing an incident investigation was excellent.  Getting the slides in a readable format will be worthwhile.

Cynthia emphasized that ensuring the parties achieve "Process Satisfaction" by keeping them informed and making progress on the issue was key.  This ties in closely with Herzberg’s dis-satisfier of “poor organizational processes”.   Tangentially, it would also relate to another satisfier of demonstrating “competence of supervisors”.  Finally, the entire issue of resolving interpersonal conflicts fits with the overarching theme of Herzberg’s emphasis in the finding that the dis-satisfiers generally emphasis interpersonal relationship aspects.

Using the phrase “your account of events” rather than “Your story” or “your version” or “your side” when conducting an investigation was a good tip.  It makes it seem less confrontational or accusatory.

ADA

Making ADA accommodations on a case-by-case basis without regard to the precedent it would set for others, was troublesome but understandable.

Andrew Neiditz

Andrew Neiditz presentation about his experience working is City, County, and SouthSound911 was very interesting.  The next few thoughts relate to his presentation.

City Government Configurations

Explaining the differences between county home rule charter governments and City’s with their strong Mayor as opposed to Council/ City Manager configurations was helpful.

Effective vs Efficient

Mr. Neiditz made the point that governments tend to be oriented around Effectiveness rather than Efficiency.  This is certainly something I have seen in my limited experience. 

Two derivative challenges are probably at play in this statement. 

1.  This is not the intuitive expectation of our customers.  People expect things to strive towards efficiency and hence get frustrated when things are done with process and effectiveness rather than with economy as the key constraints. 

2.  As managers of limited resources, our ultimate function is to manage those resources for optimum benefit (efficiency and effectiveness).  At my next interview, I probably will not make the big selling point , “I don’t really care how much gets done, but I’m really good at following processes.”

“Decisions are Cumbersome”

This statement also is a great articulation of something that rings very true.  I’ve worked in private firms that had nearly the same problem, but this issue is inseparably inherent to our representative form of American government.

Employee Orientation

Moving policy presentation out of the first day orientation experience is a good idea.  This would improve the chance of this information being retained.  It would also facilitate a further continued interaction between the new employee and HR staff about a month after starting.  This then, focuses the employees first day on relaxing and enjoying the first experience.

Tips for Dealing with Difficult Situations

If employees are unwilling to proactively address problems on their own, managers would need to move into the directing mode.