Organization Development
A structured management decision-making and communication process that engages everyone in the government (elected and appointed officials as well as staff) is important element of a productive organizational culture. Management Partners works collaboratively to develop feedback instruments (performance evaluations and organizational climate surveys) that help to improve service by building on the strengths and talents of the workforce. We design team building workshops to gain consensus about important issues and work well as a team.
Our successes with this service include the projects highlighted below.
Bellevue Public Utilities Department, WA
We created “position resource guides” for 14 management or critical positions, which were likely to experience turnover during the next several years. The positions, such as department director, operations and maintenance assistant director, development review manager, telemetry technician, customer service manager and technical specialist, were quite varied. The assignment included facilitating the identification of leadership competencies necessary for success in management and supervisory positions. For each position documented, we conducted a 360º survey to identify the level of importance for each leadership competency. We learned and documented which competencies had the highest importance to each position. The information is being used to inform training and development of interested staff as well as the recruitment and hiring process when transition occurs.
Santa Cruz, CA
Management Partners assisted the City of Santa Cruz with the development of an organization-wide succession planning approach. The key elements of this project were analyzing the organization’s workforce needs, including identifying critical positions based on projected retirements and skills requirements; identifying leadership core competencies; developing a city-wide succession planning and workforce development approach that incorporates department-level efforts, individual development plans, coaching and mentoring, and new and targeted training opportunities; and creating an Emerging Leaders Academy to provide intensive learning and professional development opportunities.
Sacramento Area Council of Governments, CA
Management Partners assisted SACOG with succession planning by conducting two day-long career development assessment centers. The first was for managers and the second was for journey-level staff. The assessment centers were not mandatory, but the vast majority of SACOG employees took advantage of this opportunity. Following the assessments, Management Partners provided individual coaching sessions with each participant to create a development plan that the employee can use to advance the skills identified during the process. Management Partners also provided a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) workshop for employees to better understand each other's work style preferences. All SACOG employees voluntarily participated, allowing employees in each division to receive tailored reports on MBTI preferences, which contributed to improving communication and overall effectiveness.
"A great team effort due in no small part to the outstanding work Management Partners did!"-- Katy Simon, Washoe County, NV Manager |
