The Public Manager

Halting the Engagement Exodus

Jared Lemke — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 03:08:00 GMT

by Tracy M. Maylett and Julie Nielsen

Few would deny that the dramatic economic shifts of recent years have had tremendous impact on most organizations’ management practices. Those current economic realities have reduced headcount, decreased ability to provide quality and timely service, and limited employee development. But a greater concern has emerged: an “engagement exodus.”

Economic factors and other organizational dynamics have taken a toll on all levels of employee engagement within agencies and departments in the public sector. Due to budget reductions, an increased number of employees reaching retirement age, and myriad other factors, many public employees are left alone to “hold down the fort” previously occupied by two, three, or even four additional colleagues. Further compounding the engagement dilemma, employees within public organizations have faced multiple years of pay freezes. It’s certainly understandable that employees might be less engaged in doing their best work than in the past.

Some disengaged employees leave. Others stay. However, employees may be mentally leaving workplaces long before they exit the building for good.

Quit and Stay
A decade ago, the quickest resolution for employees disengaged in their jobs was to toss out a résumé because there was decent likelihood that it would be picked up by an interested party. However, the uncertainties inherent in today’s economy and a lack of job prospects have caused a large proportion of employees to be more cautious about trying to jump ship.

Apparent job security has significant value. Large numbers of employees remain with organizations they may have typically left in the past. This situation has created an organizational quandary—how to address the reality that an increasingly large number of employees “quit and stay” in their jobs. These are employees, as one agency manager described it, who “mentally retired two years ago and forgot to tell anyone.”

DecisionWise, a management development firm conducting engagement research, recently analyzed 9.2 million employee survey responses from organizations within both the public and for-profit sectors as part of a longitudinal engagement study. The results were interesting, but not altogether surprising. The study found lower levels of engagement among public employees than in private companies, and this trend has grown alarmingly worse in the past two years.

Five years ago, there were generally clear separations between fully engaged employees and fully disengaged employees. These separations were clearly identifiable by their favorable and unfavorable survey responses on a five-point scale. Generally speaking, a large percentage of the 2006-2007 survey responses—64 to 72 percent, depending on the organization—fell within the favorable range (a four or five on the five-point scale). A smaller percentage of responses were neutral (three on a five-point scale), with unfavorable responses (one and two) making up the minority. However, the study found that in 2010 and 2011, neutral responses replaced a large number of favorable-and even unfavorable—responses. For example, on some questions relating to employees’ level of engagement with their jobs, neutral responses accounted for nearly half of all responses—a significant departure from the 20 percent typically carried by neutral responses in the past.

The bottom line? Public employees are much more likely to quit and stay than ever before.

For many organizations, employee engagement has become the elusive Holy Grail because of the major role engagement plays in the success of an organization. Various firms, as well as numerous books, claim that they can definitively tell organizations what engages employees— an almost cookie-cutter approach to engagement. These firms and books report to have found the magic bullet that has blanket application across organizations, functions, industries, and employees. Organizations looking for the solution are quick to jump onto these claims and with little wonder as to why or how.

Numerous studies tie engagement to organization performance metrics, such as attrition, customer service, and profitability. A major step in combating the engagement exodus has simply been to acknowledge the concept of employee engagement as a true business performance indicator. This becomes particularly important when one considers some of the challenges faced by government entities. Although not unique to government, some factors, like underperformance, may be more challenging. One agency manager spoke of “shifting employees to the boneyard,” that is, moving employees to a responsibility or position where they could do the least amount of damage. While certainly not a common practice (at least one would hope!), it does illustrate a particularly common concern.

Terminating underperforming employees becomes complicated if there is fear that a vacancy left by dismissing the employee (or group of employees) will result in a vacancy that may not get filled due to hiring freezes or other practices. The something-is-better-than-nothing philosophy is, unfortunately, becoming more pervasive when it comes to terminating employees.

Quit-and-stay employees are particularly poisonous and highly contagious. These disengaged workers’ attitudes and work habits often result in customer apathy, poor quality, reduced levels of service, and decreased team performance. “Cells” of disengaged workers can create a cancerous effect on the overall health of the organization. Agencies and departments with little new blood also are deprived of fresh and innovative thinking. Disengaged employees breed disengaged organizations, which in turn further creates disengaged employees. It’s a dangerous, downward spiral. Organizations may be deeper into the engagement exodus than they suspect.

No Cookie-Cutter Approach
Many organizations have searched for the panacea for their engagement woes. The previously mentioned study found that engagement drivers—those factors that contribute to or detract from engagement—vary greatly by industry and sector. Factors that engage a manager working in the legal department of an environmental organization may relate to one set of circumstances, while a scientist in a research organization may find engagement in a completely different set of factors. Even within similar industries, sectors, or agencies, engagement drivers can vary.

Consider study findings from within the food service industry. Engagement surveys conducted across a fastfood chain with 400-plus locations identified key factors contributing to this company’s engagement levels:

the ability to associate with friends on the job
the opportunity for flexible schedules
the fact that they were given half-off the price of two lunches per week (that half-off bargain resulted in a minimal cost—about $.78 per employee each week).

Compare that to results on the same set of survey questions applied to a separate restaurant chain of approximately 110 upper-scale restaurants. Survey results indicated ability to grow, develop, and advance throughout the company was at the top of the list of its engagement drivers—factors rarely noted in the fast-food survey responses for the other chain. Additional key drivers included trust from managers and rewards from guest satisfaction. Although both restaurant chains were in the same industry, engagement factors differed significantly. Just as the cookie-cutter approach to managing engagement could not have been applied uniformly across these two companies operating within the same industry, a definitive set of factors cannot be applied universally across all public-sector employees.

The Organization’s Contribution
Where is the source of engagement found? Organizations generally begin with the question, “How do we engage our employees?” This implies that motivation is something done to employees—something inflicted upon them—and that the executive suite has the power to pull the levers to increase engagement. This line of thinking also assumes that employees are extrinsically engaged. In other words, they are engaged through extrinsic reward (or punishment). While the overall organization does have an impact on engagement, the reality is that the top of the organization chart plays only a minor role.

Upon finding that engagement levels are slipping within the ranks, some organizational leaders set out to determine what can be done organizationally. They embark in such efforts as nationwide salary surveys to ensure compensation is fair. They look at working conditions and benefits as well as other organization-wide factors.

These ideas are not without merit. Employees are not likely to find satisfaction in a job where they don’t have basic tools for their job, where they are underpaid, or where they worry about whether they will be employed tomorrow. These areas fall within the purview of the senior management team.

Organizational leaders also must ask, “Is our direction clear?” One common organizational denominator found throughout this DecisionWise engagement study was the need for the organization to clearly establish and communicate direction. Employees who report a low level of understanding of the direction of the organization typically displayed much lower levels of engagement. Understanding the direction of the organization helps employees feel part of the organization’s overall mission and allows them to tie their own aspirations and goals to that mission.

Engage With Development
One positive side effect stemming from reduced resources can be found in the area of employee development. Rather than bemoaning reduced training budgets, some savvy organizations use added responsibilities created by the economic environment as opportunities to develop their employees. Training and development opportunities abound now, and many don’t have to involve taking a course. New methods to increase employee learning, such as communities of practice, also improve employee engagement.

However, what may engage one individual in his or her job may not engage another individual, and vice versa. These findings may not be surprising, but they present a management challenge. If engagement factors vary across sectors, organizations, departments, functions, and employees, how does an organization go about addressing the inexact art of engagement, which is needed to slow or even halt the engagement exodus? The answer lies with the manager.

A Manager’s Role in Engagement
Managers play a critical role in creating a culture of engagement. Engagement survey responses related to managers consistently show significant correlation to engagement, or lack thereof. The first role for a manager, therefore, becomes creating a culture in which employees can choose to be engaged. Many managers fall into the same trap as the organization in which they belong, spending time and effort on how to engage their employees, when the reality is that this time is better spent in creating the environment where employees can choose engagement over disengagement.

One of the most interesting correlations found in the study was the relationship between levels of engagement of a particular manager and that of his or her employees. Engaged managers typically had engaged employees. Disengaged managers had disengaged employees. While that may appear intuitive, many managers fail to put that concept into practice.

Managers must understand the key drivers of engagement within their unique team, as well as their own level of engagement. Creating and participating in a culture where employees will want to be engaged becomes a manager’s first variable in the engagement equation.

Second, great managers focus on, as Jim Collins states in his classic Good to Great, “getting the right people on the bus.” This doesn’t necessarily mean that the most engaged employees are those that rise to the top spots in the recruitment pool. There are plenty of examples of strong employees who eventually become disengaged in their roles. However, the “right people” assume responsibility for their own engagement. Many organizations and managers spend a great deal of effort attempting to engage employees who have simply chosen to be disengaged. Instead, a manager must hire and develop the type of people who can engage in that culture. This is the second responsibility a manager has for engagement.

Third, don’t blow it. A manager cannot cause an employee to be engaged. However, a manager’s actions can certainly contribute quickly to an employee’s disengagement. Despite the fact that an engagement choice always resides with the employee, managers have the ability to affect disengagement faster than they can facilitate engagement. In the DecisionWise engagement study, it quickly became clear that some of the greatest contributing factors in lack of engagement during the past three years tie directly to the employee’s manager. Failing to build trust, set the vision, lead with integrity, and develop employees were among the fastest ways managers contributed to their employees’ lack of engagement. Set the environment, hire the right employees, and then don’t blow it up.

Addressing the Exodus
The potential for the engagement exodus is real, and many are feeling its effects. With external factors beating hard against today’s public organizations, it’s becoming even more critical than ever before that public managers stand up and take notice of the factors that contribute to engagement. The willingness of employees to contribute minds, hands, and hearts to their work dictates the success of the organization.

Engagement isn’t something that is “done to employees.” It doesn’t begin in the offices of agency heads and corporate officers, although there are certainly areas where the senior team can contribute. Managers, too, have the power to create an environment in which employees can choose to be engaged or disengaged. But ultimately, engagement is a choice—the employee’s choice.

Tracy M. Maylett, EdD, is CEO of DecisionWise, a firm specializing in employee engagement. Contact him at tmaylett@decision-wise.com.

Julie Nielsen is the senior director of human resources and organizational learning at ASTD, the nonprofit international association that owns The Public Manager. Contact her at jnielsen@astd.org.

Rescheduled Webcast - Disabled Veterans and Reasonable Accommodation in the Federal Workplace

Brittany Banasik — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:07:00 GMT

We will be having our rescheduled seminar on reasonable accommodation in the federal workplace on Tuesday, February 21st at 1:00 p.m. EST with our guest speaker Christopher Kuczynski, Esq. of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The event will be closed-captioned and a transcript of the conference will be available. A description of the discussion topics can be found below. Please click here to register for this event through WebEx. The audio will be through your phone; all attendees are...(read more)

Disabled Veterans and Reasonable Accommodation in the Federal Workplace

Brittany Banasik — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:51:00 GMT

By Jack Malgeri As our society seeks to assist disabled individuals, including our noble disabled military veterans, to fully participate as members of the American workforce, the topic of reasonable accommodation in federal employment has become a topic of considerable interest for federal human resource professionals. Christopher J, Kuczynski, Esq., Assistant Legal Counsel, ADA/GINA Policy Division, United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), will be discussing legal requirements...(read more)

Confronting the Challenge of American Homelessness in the 21st Century

Warren Master — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:07:00 GMT

The winter 2011 issue of The Public Manager kicks off with a 3-article forum on homeless in the U.S. and what government can do to make a difference. Having had first-hand experience on these matters during my long government career - including assignments with the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) during the early years of the 'war on poverty" and the US Department of Health, Education & Welfare/Health & Human Services (HEW/HHS) - I was interested to learn what 's different...(read more)

Ending Homelessness in Our Time: Why Smart Government Is Key

Jared Lemke — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:05:00 GMT

by Shaun Donovan

In the current political climate, the debate over government’s role has often been about “more versus less”—more government services, programs, and taxpayer dollars, versus reduced services, fewer rules, and less federal investment. But my two decades of experience in the public and private sectors tells me that families sitting around the kitchen table and sending their kids to school every morning aren’t interested in abstract theories about whether government should be big or small. They simply want to know whether it can be smart and whether their tax dollars are producing results that impact their lives and communities in a positive way.

Of all the challenges I’ve faced as President Obama’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) these past three years, few illustrate this point more clearly than the issue of homelessness. America pays an extraordinary price for homelessness: from the tremendous human toll it takes on the men, women, and especially children caught up in the nightmare existence of life on the streets, to the costs associated with the revolving door of shelters, emergency rooms, and jail cells that result. Perhaps the steepest cost associated with homelessness is the mistaken belief that nothing can be done to stop it.

Less than a decade ago, it was widely believed that people we often refer to as “chronically homeless”—those who struggle with chemical dependency and mental illness and cycle through the shelter, criminal justice, and healthcare systems—would always be homeless. Some even suggested these people wanted to be homeless.

But leaders outside Washington—from rural Mankato, Minnesota, to urban San Francisco—refused to believe the chronically ill, long-term homeless population couldn’t be helped. More than 300 communities committed themselves to ending chronic homelessness, partnering with local and state agencies and the private and nonprofit sectors. By combining housing and supportive services, they led a remarkable fight that has reduced the number of chronically homeless by more than a third in five years.

These communities are proving what just a few years ago seemed nearly impossible: that homelessness can be solved in America. Not reduced or managed, but actually ended.

That is why President Obama’s bold commitment to ending homelessness is so important. In releasing Opening Doors: the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness in 2010, President Obama made clear that ending homelessness is the right thing to do for America’s homeless population and the smart thing to do for taxpayers.

The most far-reaching and ambitious plan in our history to put the nation on a path toward ending all types of homelessness, Opening Doors, represents the culmination of more than a decade of testing new approaches and implementing new strategies in communities around the country. It commits our country to ending chronic homelessness and homelessness among veterans in five years, and ending homelessness for families, youth, and children within a decade, while putting us on a path to end all homelessness—breaking down bureaucracy and funding what works to get results.

Doing What Works

Over the past three decades, we’ve learned a lot about homelessness. The most important lesson is that in almost every case, homelessness isn’t an intractable problem, but one that can be solved with the right tools and approaches.

Second, we’ve learned that one size doesn’t fit all: different populations have different needs that sometimes require very different solutions. For instance, where a veteran returning from Afghanistan might need treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder to stay stably housed, the solution to homelessness for a family may be something as simple as paying a security deposit or a utility bill.

At a time when we should be using every taxpayer dollar as effectively and efficiently as possible, we need to focus our resources on doing what works—on evidencebased solutions that have been tried, tested, and have produced results. The two approaches that have shown the most success for the largest number of people are permanent supportive housing and rapid re-housing.

Permanent Supportive Housing

Over the last five years, and beginning with the Bush administration, the emergence of permanent supportive housing—housing connected with health and social services—has literally changed the face of homelessness in many communities. Working in collaboration with the federal government, localities have created thousands of units of permanent supportive housing and reduced the number of chronically homeless people across the nation by more than a third.

The number of beds for permanent supportive housing has increased by 34 percent since 2007. Because affordable housing with necessary services generally costs less than those associated with multiple emergency room visits and stays in jail, this shift in focus to permanent supportive housing has saved significant money for the taxpayer.

Armed with this proven success, HUD, with support from President Obama and Congress, has made an unprecedented commitment to permanent supportive housing to end homelessness for people with severe disabilities and long histories of homelessness.

Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing

Another proven solution to ending homelessness that we’ve embraced is the combination of prevention and rapid re-housing. In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act created the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP), and earlier this year, the program marked an important milestone, saving more than 1 million people from homelessness.

HPRP has helped homeless men and women transition into permanent supportive housing—often providing those at risk of homelessness with something as simple as a security deposit. For the majority of the people assisted by HPRP to date, it was the program’s ability to help them find or stabilize housing arrangements quickly and effectively that made the difference.

Grantees report that fully 90 percent of people assisted by HPRP in its first year successfully found permanent housing. In a state like Michigan, 94 percent of homeless persons in rapid re-housing didn’t fall back into homelessness. That’s an impressive record.

We’ve seen similar successes across the country. These funds have helped speed progress in states like Utah, which over the last few years has invested in permanent supportive housing—helping reduce chronic homelessness by nearly 70 percent since 2005. By targeting its HPRP resources to rapid re-housing, Utah was able to reduce chronic homelessness an astounding 26 percent over the last year alone.

In addition, HPRP introduced a new federal commitment to help people avoid homelessness altogether. According to the report, more than three out of every four people assisted by HPRP received homelessness prevention services.

While the lives of those who were homeless or at risk of homelessness have been helped dramatically by the HPRP approach, just as significant is how HPRP is “fundamentally changing” the way communities respond to homelessness, as the U.S. Conference of Mayors put it.

For instance, Cleveland’s Continuum of Care program is using HPRP funds to create a central intake system that provides customized services to those entering the shelter system. This helps the community not only manage beds and services more effectively but also ensures that households are transitioning to permanent housing as quickly as possible.

Cleveland provides a good example of how a federal program like HPRP is helping communities move from fragmented, duplicative programs to a comprehensive 21st century system that targets resources to those most in need—not with top-down rules, but with flexible tools from the ground up.

Using Existing Resources More Effectively

In times of economic uncertainty, existing resources often fail to match the scale of need. Again, getting better results is not necessarily about more resources, it’s about using the resources we already have better and smarter.

In addition to using HUD resources that already target our homeless population, we are reaching out to our Public Housing Agency (PHA) partners and our private and non-profit assisted housing sponsors to guide and support them to become full partners in the effort to end homelessness.

We are encouraging peer-to-peer mentoring by PHAs that are already deeply involved in the effort to end homelessness in their communities. Plus, we are working with federal partners to improve coordination between social service agencies and PHAs to ensure formerly homeless residents have the support they need to stay in their new homes and maintain their health.

But using resources more effectively isn’t only about doing more with less. Just as often, it is also about small investments that yield big savings.

One study, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, centered on Seattle’s 1811 Eastlake supportive housing project. Researchers examined 75 of the center’s chronically homeless residents—half of whom had serious mental illness and all of whom struggled with alcohol addiction. In the year before participants in the program entered supportive housing, the 75 residents collectively spent more than 1,200 days in jail, and visited the local medical center more than 1,100 times at a cost to Medicaid of more than $3.5 million.

In the year after entering 1811 Eastlake, days spent in jail were cut almost in half. Medicaid costs dropped by more than 40 percent because hospital visits dropped by almost a third.

Another study in Chicago reached a similar conclusion. Housing assistance provided to homeless patients suffering from HIV, AIDS, or other chronic illnesses made medical services that were available so much more effective that the days in the hospital dropped 42 percent, days of required nursing home care dropped 45 percent, and most critically of all, the number of emergency room visits dropped 46 percent.

These kinds of studies have an impact on what is possible, even in tight budget environments. When I was the housing commissioner in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg and I worked with Governor George Pataki, to enter into NY/NY III—a billion dollar investment to create 9,000 new units of supportive housing for the homelessness.

Given his background in business, Mayor Bloomberg was motivated by data proving that supportive housing successfully kept people off the streets. Governor Pataki was attracted to the long-term savings—the fact that that the real cost to the taxpayer wasn’t the cost of housing the homeless, but what resulted if we didn’t.

Focusing on a Clear Set of Measurable Results

These examples show us that government can’t produce results if it doesn’t measure success. Already, HUD collects extensive data on homeless men, women, and children through annual on-the-street “point-in-time” (PIT) counts and through housing and shelter counts in almost every county in the nation. In addition, this year VA and HUD released a first-ever supplement to the Annual Homeless Assessment Report that specifically focuses on veterans.

This data shows declines in urban homelessness and increases in rural and suburban. Importantly, it allows us to target our efforts to the communities with the greatest need.

At the HUD headquarters building in Washington, DC, we have a map that visually represents where veterans are homeless in our country, and another map that shows where HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers are being used—and they are virtually identical.

To build on this progress, we kicked off a new process called HUDStat to hold our programs accountable for their performance.

HUDStat is already paying dividends when it comes to homelessness. Last year we partnered with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish joint goals and monitor progress in the fight to end veterans’ homelessness. HUDStat helped identify promising practices and problems. Where problems arose, HUD staff quickly began to address those issues, often in collaboration with their counterparts at VA. As a result of focusing on performance and problem solving the number of veterans housed under the interagency HUD-VASH program increased by nearly 20 times in just two years. By June 2011, HUD and VA assisted nearly 30,000 veterans— surpassing the program’s target by 50 percent. Because of this progress, we’ve requested another 10,000 vouchers for HUD-VASH in our proposed FY2012 budget.

In the coming year, we will continue to track performance on our efforts to end veterans’ homelessness while adding performance measures around both family homelessness and homelessness among persons with disabilities.

With data that shows the real progress we’re making— and the challenges that still remain—we can make the case, even in a tough budget environment, that this investment works and actually saves taxpayers money.

Coordinating Across Partners

As our work with the VA reminds us, homelessness is far more than simply a “housing” problem. Certainly, every homeless person living on the street lacks affordable housing, but just as often, they lack access to health and social services, and employment opportunities as well.

That’s why our efforts at HUD to end homeless have included partnerships with the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor (DOL), VA, and Education. One partnership with DOL and VA prevents homelessness among veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Another partnership includes HUD, HHS, and the Department of Education designing a program for homeless families. Even though new funding has not yet been provided, the partnership is focusing on ways to collaboratively accomplish the goals using existing resources.

As the HUD-VASH partnership has proved, new partnerships can be challenging at first, but communities have shown us they can be overcome and are leading the way.

For example, the Greater Kansas City area is developing a Housing Sustainability Plan that integrates many of the strategies in Opening Doors—forging partnerships at the metropolitan level among governments, local businesses and nonprofits, philanthropies, and the investment community. Nashville is using some of its HUD neighborhood stabilization grants, which help communities buy up vacant and abandoned properties, to provide rental housing to families that have lost their homes to foreclosure.

As these communities prove, ending homelessness won’t be accomplished by the federal government alone— or government at any level—but rather by partners across the spectrum.

Ending Homelessness in our Time

As we finish the first year of the Obama administration’s effort to end homelessness under the Opening Doors strategic plan, there is much work left to be done. But already we are beginning to see results—even in the midst of the most difficult economy in decades—as we work to end homelessness among families and children by 2020, end chronic and veteran homelessness by 2015, and put ourselves on a path to end all types of homelessness.

In this age of budget deficits, some say we can’t afford to be that ambitious, but I believe we can’t afford not to. Whether it’s Utah ending homelessness for 7-in-10 of the hardest-to-house members of the population or HUD-VASH beating its goal of housing homeless veterans by nearly 50 percent, these efforts demonstrate that the real issue isn’t big or small government, but smart government.

With smart government, we can solve big problems. Few problems are bigger than homelessness. And to be sure, we will have to make our case for resources in not just this budget cycle, but in every one.

By focusing on approaches with proven success, by finding new and better ways to use existing resources, by building partnerships to provide comprehensive solutions, and by holding ourselves accountable for producing results, we can make that case—and we can end homelessness in our time.

Much work remains to be done. But with President Obama in the White House, we not only have a president who believes that no one should experience homelessness, we also have the leadership, tools, and plan in place that we need to see a day in which no one will.

Shaun Donovan is U.S. Secretary for Housing and Urban Development. He is committed to make quality housing possible for every American. He previously was commissioner of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where he created and implemented the largest municipal affordable housing plan in the nation. He also worked with foundations and banks to finance affordable housing. At New York University, he wrote about the preservation of federally assisted housing. Contact him at Shaun.L.Donovan@hud.gov.

Back to Fixing the Federal Budget Process

Brittany Banasik — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:53:00 GMT

Steve Redburn and Demian Moore This past fall, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (popularly, the “Supercommittee”) created by the Budget Control Act of 2011 tested the possibility that our fiscal challenges could be met by bypassing the regular budget process. The Supercommittee talks’ collapse just before Thanksgiving has pointed everyone back to the drawing board. We now must reconsider whether it is possible to reform the regular budget process, to help support...(read more)

People - Let’s Meet in the Fed Cloud

Brittany Banasik — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:47:00 GMT

By Dan Helfrich, William Eggers and Charles Tierney For all the hype attached to the term, “cloud computing” is at heart about sharing and managing information, tools, and systems in a more efficient way. Email, instant-messaging, office software suites, data storage and analysis, voice communications, photo and video sharing— today you can do all of them without having the software sitting on your own computer. Both individuals and corporations have found they can cut costs, boost...(read more)

HUD Secretary Donovan: Focus on What’s Possible Yields Housing for Veterans

Ilyse Veron — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:02:00 GMT

At last week’s Excellence in Government conference HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan reminded us to focus on what’s possible – including collaboration. One of HUD’s four priority goals set at the beginning of the Obama administration was finding housing for homeless veterans, Donovan recalled, and in two years, a program combining forces of HUD and Veterans Affairs is ahead of its targets; it found housing for 25,761 homeless veterans. Often the temptation is to design programs...(read more)

Government Workforce: Learning Innovations Ignite Presentations Now Available

Brittany Banasik — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:56:00 GMT

Click the links below to view session recordings of each of the three Ignite Presentations offered during the Lunch & Learn at this year's conference held November 2nd: Ignite Your Workforce Presentation by Lauree Ostrofsky Educating the Public on How Military Does Science Presentation by Dr. John Ohab All I Really Need to Know, I Learned Online Presentation by Andrew Krzmarzick The Public Manager together with the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) hosted this year's...(read more)

2011 Government Workforce: Learning Innovations Conference Highlights

Brittany Banasik — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:01:00 GMT

On behalf of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) and The Public Manager , thank you for participating in the 2011 Government Workforce: Learning Innovations Conference. Your innovative ideas and stimulating discussion are what made this year's conference a great success. For highlights, Discussion Notes, White Papers from our sponsors, and Session Descriptions from the 2011 Program Guide for this year's conference, held November 2nd at Washington, D.C.'s Newseum,...(read more)

Comprehensive IT: The National Nuclear Security Administration Case

Jessica Ourisman — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:28:00 GMT

by Kenneth B. Sheely The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is a government agency that recently implemented a project management framework to increase efficiency. Through the creation of project management tools, standards, and best practices NNSA developed what it called G2, a stateof-the-art project management information system developed to manage its global Threat reduction initiative (GTRI). NNSA established GTRI in 2004 to consolidate efforts to prevent the acquisition of nuclear...(read more)

The Emerging Pay-For-Success Bond Model Shows Real Promise

Jessica Ourisman — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:43:00 GMT

In the fall issue of The Public Manager , Jeffrey Liebman writes about how pay-for-success bonds can drive better outcomes and inspire more innovation. Liebman is the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and has previously served at the Office of Management and Budget as acting deputy director. He has a unique perspective on this new financing model. Although most pay-for-success pilots will be established at the state and local level, federal agencies have an important...(read more)

Graduating into a Government Job?

Brittany Banasik — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:07:00 GMT

Last night I ran into a political science student who will be graduating this December, like I am. I asked her what she would do after graduation, and not surprisingly she overlooked the question, like I usually do when someone asks for my post-graduation plans “Do you know Ashley?” said my friend. “I envied her so much because she is majoring in computer engineering! Now engineers are needed everywhere!” I didn’t know whether this is the case until I saw an article...(read more)

So Satisfying: Leading From the Middle in the Coast Guard

Jared Lemke — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:12:00 GMT

by Geoffrey Abbott

It was August 2005, shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. The levees had just given way and the waters were rising. Within hours, Coast Guard helicopters and boat crews scrambled to rescue more than 30,000 citizens from rooftops and balconies across the city.

During one of the many missions, a Coast Guard pilot signaled to his rescue swimmer below that he needed to return for refueling. As the sound of the chopper’s blades subsided, the rescuer could hear the cries of help from a family trapped beneath the roof of their house.

There was little time. The water was already above the second story windows and rising. The rescuer tried to pull up shingles with his bare hands, only to find plywood underneath. He tried kicking through the plywood roofing but could not. He did not have the right tools for the job.

When the pilot returned, the rescuer—angry, frustrated, and sad— recounted the story. In an anguished voice he told the pilot: I joined the Coast Guard to save lives, not lose them! I’m afraid that family drowned because I couldn’t help them.

When that helicopter returned to its home base at Mobile, Alabama, about midnight that night, this rescue swimmer and some of his colleagues went to a local hardware store and bought every fire ax it had. The next morning every Coast Guard rescue swimmer on every helicopter leaving Mobile had a fire ax to rescue people trapped in their roof spaces.

The swimmer did not wait to formally request fire axes through his supervisor and official channels. He did not put in a procurement request to the storekeeper. And, he did not know, nor care, whether he would be reimbursed. Indeed, he likely could have gotten in trouble for bringing unauthorized, potentially dangerous equipment on board weight-limited helicopters. But he took the initiative.

What made him do it? What made him in effect “lead from the middle?”

It was his clear sense of his ultimate mission—saving lives—and his keen situational awareness that every hour and every day counted.

I remember this story from my deployment during Hurricane Katrina because this employee represented the culture of innovation that I had come to know in the Coast Guard. He had passion for his work and compassion for the people he was trained to save. He knew the Coast Guard expected him to use good judgment to take initiative and to innovate when the objective was clear, but normal procedures proved ineffectual. He felt empowered to act to produce good outcomes. His actions and his method of urban search and rescue helped him and his colleagues rescue dozens of citizens that week.

In the years since, my research on the Coast Guard’s innovation program and a survey of 170 “documented” Coast Guard innovators demonstrates that empowered employees who are proactive and take initiative to make improvements in the workplace not only significantly improve organizational performance, but are “jazzed” about their work. They have much higher job satisfaction than their peers. The research findings could provide profound insight for federal executives and managers faced with the challenge of improving, or even just sustaining, workforce productivity and organizational performance levels in the face of agency budget cuts, fixed federal salaries, and reductions in bonuses for superior performance.

What Is Innovation and How Does It Occur?
There must be a thousand definitions for and examples of innovation—from the latest cellular technology to improving educational practices. How do we know which to apply? In his 2008 master’s thesis describing the Coast Guard’s innovation program, Lieutenant Commander Chris Kluckhuhn of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves uses a definition adopted from the government of New Zealand: Innovation: The creation, development, and implementation of a new product, process or service, aimed at improving efficiency, effectiveness, or competitive advantage.

Innovation may be applied to products, services, manufacturing processes, managerial processes or the design of an organization. Both the organization and employees must be engaged for innovation to occur. First, the organization must establish goals and guidelines. Then it should empower people to take risks to find the best solutions.

The survey of 170 Coast Guard innovators, including innovation award winners, graduates of the National Graduate School (NGS) master’s program in quality systems management, and current and former innovation council members, revealed the following factors as most influential in enabling innovation to take place:

leadership support (37 percent)
empowerment (10 percent)
personal involvement (10 percent)
resources (8 percent)
a willingness to take risks (8 percent)
a change culture (7 percent).

Among these categories, leadership support received as many comments as did empowerment, personal involvement, resources, and culture combined.

What is necessary to create and sustain an innovative culture? The top responses included

leadership support (38 percent)
resources (13 percent)
recognition (13 percent)
open, frank feedback (often to leadership) (7 percent)
implementation of good ideas (7 percent)
motivated employees (7 percent).

Components of Coast Guard Innovation
Established in 2001, the Coast Guard innovation program has a solid track record of producing significant improvements in capabilities. The program has several components, including an innovation

staff: a small but dedicated team coordinating the innovation efforts
council: influential members representing various directorates as a collateral responsibility
process: developed by the innovation council to identify and promote the best initiatives
venture capital fund: a modest fund to invest in proofs of concept, or further develop promising initiatives, and used to conduct the annual Innovation Expo
expo: conducted annually to connect Coast Guard innovators, their program managers, leaders, executives, defense and homeland security partners, and stakeholders so they may communicate fresh ideas horizontally and vertically to improve the organization. Participation has grown from 200 at the first expo in 2001 to 2,500 at the 2010 expo. Some 28 countries have been represented.
awards: presented annually since 2003 by the expo Commandant at the expo in the areas of operations/readiness, science/technology, administration/training/support, and management
top leadership support: the innovation staff works directly for the chief of staff and co-locates the fall flag/Senior Executive Service leadership conference with the annual Innovation Expo.

The Coast Guard also has partnered with the NGS to deliver a unique master’s program in Quality Systems Management. This program includes experiential learning that is applied to improve processes in such business areas as logistics, operations, finance, law, engineering, acquisition, and planning. In addition to several courses in best business practices, this 12-month program requires students to conduct a team project to address an organizational business challenge, identify improvement opportunities, implement change, and measure the impact of the change.

Students may not complete their degrees unless they can show a positive return on investment to the organization. More than 700 Coast Guard personnel have earned Quality Systems Management master’s degrees in this program and have implemented team projects valued at $500 million.

Who Are Public Sector Innovators?
A lot of innovation comes from stars at the nation’s leading engineering and business schools. But the innovators that improve our public-sector organizations come from a wide variety of experiences, pay grades, ages, and job functions. When it comes down to it, where they came from does not matter. It’s what they did. Coast Guard innovation award winners include:

Lil, a lieutenant, started the Coast Guard partnership with the NGS, which (through 2010) has yielded 700 CG personnel with master’s degrees producing projects valued at $500 million
Jay, a warrant officer, found opportunities to improve healthcare to Coast Guard personnel and their families in remote locations through telemedicine
Zeita and Rahshaan, both lieutenants at the time of the project, worked on an NGS team to improve small arms weapons training using lasers. They significantly improved small arms qualification scores, and reduced training costs and the environmental impact of small arms training
Richard, a civilian medical professional and Coast Guard auxiliarist, established Coast Guard auxiliary healthcare support with more than 50 physicians, dentists, and licensed allied health credentialed providers who donated 5,600 hours of healthcare augmentation valued at $340,000
Justin, a 20-something third-class petty officer, developed a process to use cellular phone technology to provide search areas directly to Coast Guard search units saving time and relieving crew members from navigation duties to concentrate on search efforts
Bob, a civilian working at an information technology center, worked with a team to develop technology that added significant value to the Coast Guard common operational picture (displaying relevant information shared by more than one command) and improved USCG maritime domain awareness
Jan, a lieutenant commander and persuasive proponent of information sharing, became the architect of the Coast Guard’s internationally recognized information portal
Montgomery, a warrant officer, saved 18 months in acquisition time and more than $12 million when he helped replace a recently crashed CG helicopter using an available Defense department helicopter hull.

As Tables and Figures show, Coast Guard innovators are a diverse group of people yet they share common characteristics.

According to their self-description, they are

highly-motivated employees (25 percent)
creative and open to new ideas (12 percent)
not afraid of failure or accepting risk (10 percent)
optimistic and enthusiastic (7 percent)
not driven by promotability (7 percent)
empowered (6 percent).

Coast Guard Innovation Strategy
As its innovation program evolved, the Coast Guard developed and refined a strategic approach that included soliciting, rewarding, implementing and funding, and sharing innovation. It was further supported by internal and external critical success factors, and mission and support activities.

Value-Added Innovation Program Results
The results achieved by the Coast Guard’s innovators have improved organizational performance in all mission areas. Some additional examples include

implementing e-learning technologies for training course delivery
modifying equipment to allow direct communications between Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection officers during joint counter-narcotic and illegal immigration operations
reducing the response time for congressional inquiries
improving flight simulator training for pilots
developing easy-to-customize generic specifications for boat repairs and overhauls
creating an Internet portal for authorized public members to access useful Coast Guard information
developing a budget metrics tracking system
creating a procurement request tracking database.

The Coast Guard’s innovation program rewards two types of innovation–independent initiatives like the one taken to secure the fire axes, and formal initiatives such as the master’s program. The NGS program formally captures the return-on-investment and value created for each team project. Note that “value” can be composed of three elements—time, money, and capability.

What Motivates Innovators?
What factors are influencing people to find better ways to perform their work? When researchers asked the innovators, their responses varied:

personal drive (29 percent)
to make improvements and lead productive change (23 percent)
to improve efficiency (16 percent)
to benefit the Coast Guard overall (9 percent)
to benefit my workplace and teammates (8 percent)
to fix broken processes (6 percent).

When researchers asked, “What ‘rewards’ are most meaningful to you as an innovator?” the top responses were:

recognition (formal and informal) (24 percent)
implementation of my idea/concept (21 percent)
improving the organization (12 percent)
personal satisfaction (10 percent)
appreciation/thank you (7 percent)
promotion (6 percent).

Monetary performance awards were eighth on this list and thus did not appear to be a major motivating factor for innovators. Most of all innovators wanted recognition from peers or superiors and the satisfaction of seeing their ideas implemented.

Innovators Have Higher Job Satisfaction Than Their Peers
The Coast Guard scored the highest job satisfaction ranking of any agency within the Department of Homeland Security in OPM’s 2008 Federal Human Capital Survey, conducted biannually, and the Coast Guard also finished in the top 20 percent of all governmental agencies for effective leadership and empowerment; DHS overall ranked 27th of 28 for major federal departments.

The recent research included survey responses to eight identical questions on empowerment and job satisfaction from 170 Coast Guard innovators, the general Coast Guard population (based on 2010 CG Organizational Assessment Surveys), and overall federal government, DHS, and Federal Emergency Management Agency employees (based on 2010 OPM Federal Human Capital Surveys).

A 5 percent difference in response rates was determined to be statistically significant for this study. While DHS insiders expected that three to four questions would show significant differences, the CG innovators responded more positively than their Coast Guard peers to all eight questions by an average of 12.2 percent. The overall federal government responses were similar to the general Coast Guard population.

However, the response rates of Coast Guard innovators were 24 percent and 22 percent higher than DHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency responses, respectively. Table 1 shows the results for two of the most meaningful questions asked: Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your job? Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your organization?

More than 90 percent of CG innovators surveyed said the culture of innovation encouraging employees to take initiative and risk improved performance and commitment to the CG as well as job satisfaction within it.

Implications for the Federal Leaders and Agencies
Federal executives and managers should take heed of a few recommendations from the Coast Guard research as they work to energize employees and improve job satisfaction while increasing workforce productivity in tough budgetary times.

When supporting workforce empowerment, strong visible and personal leadership engagement is critical.
When making hiring decisions, consider a potential employee’s motivation level; it may prove more important in the long run than experience.
Investing in employee’s strengths and empowering them in those areas may provide a better return on investment for an agency than attempting to fill gaps in individuals’ overall professional portfolios.
When rewarding and recognizing people, think carefully. Senor leader recognition of good work in front of peers, combined with their implementation of good ideas, are very meaningful to innovators, often much more so than monetary rewards.

---

Geoffrey Abbott is a retired U.S. Coast Guard Captain. He conducted this research as part of a National Graduate School doctoral dissertation entitled “Improving Organizational Performance Through Innovation and Workforce Empowerment.” He served in the Coast Guard for 30 years, spending the last few years developing the innovation program. Contact him at abbottginnovate@aol.com.

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