High Performance Government Network

Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning is critical to successfully drive high performance in an organization.  In order to become a high performing organization, it is essential to define common values, build a shared vision, identify highest level strategic priorities, and have methods to measure progress and success.

Building the Foundation:  Values, Vision, Mission. HPG Network will facilitate a session with the organization’s top leadership team to develop its overall guiding vision and  mission.  These documents will provide the basis from which all strategies and goals of the organization must align.

Format:  In this full day session, the facilitator will incorporate limited lecture, dialogue that will foster team-building and improved communication relating to personality type traits, a short video to demonstrate the importance of shared vision, open dialogue and guided workshop to develop the organizational values, vision and mission statements.

High Level Strategic Map and Balanced Scorecard. HPG Network will facilitate a session with the organization’s top leadership team to develop its organizational strategic priorities, set goals at every level of the organization that will allow achievement of the strategic priorities, and establish metrics to gauge success of the plan.  The outcome from this workshop will be a completed high level strategic map and balanced scorecard that will serve as the roadmap to achieve the overall organizational strategic priorities.

Format:  In this full day session, the facilitator will utilize brainstorming, team and group discussion.

Organizational Alignment. HPG Network will facilitate a session with a department’s top leadership team to develop its organizational strategic priorities, set goals at every level of the department that will allow achievement of the strategic priorities, and establish metrics to gauge success of the plan.  The outcome will be a completed strategy map and balanced scorecard that will serve as the roadmap for the department to achieve the overall organizational strategic priorities that align with organizational priorities.

Format:  In this full day session, the facilitator will utilize brainstorming, team and group discussion.

Leadership Development

A high performing organization requires a system that supports and develops leaders, that is driven from the top, and models the way for others.  Leadership must demonstrate skills and competencies that fuel changes necessary to achieve excellence.  Those competencies include:  communicating a sense of urgency, emotional intelligence, fostering a culture of innovation and creativity, modeling ethical behavior, instilling accountability, a bias for execution, results-driven strategies, and utilization of high performance tools.

Executive Coaching: Personalized, one-on-one sessions conducted with a key leader to help build leadership effectiveness.   Clients will be provided tools and guidance to self-assess strengths and development opportunities, recognize personal motivators, receive peer feedback on performance, and engage in development activities.

Format:  Sessions can be held on-site at the client’s office or other neutral environment, via phone or e-mail.

Fundamentals of Performance. This four day session is designed to provide key organizational leaders with the tools to support performance improvement.  The sessions build leadership competency in communicating a sense of urgency, emotional intelligence, fostering a culture of innovation and creativity, modeling ethical behavior, instilling accountability, a bias for execution, results-driven strategies, and utilization of high performance tools.  Additional outcomes will include practice and dialogue in real-life application of concepts, individual action planning, overview and practice in high performance tools. 

Format:  Four day session allows participants to engage in assigned reading, developing and delivering team presentations on material, group dialogue, and limited lecture.  Facilitator will appeal to all learning styles through utilization of audio/visual materials, reading assignments, group discussion, and hands-on group activities.

Leadership Refreshers: Sessions are designed to enhance skills and competencies in specific leadership abilities including communicating a sense of urgency, emotional intelligence, fostering a culture of innovation and creativity, modeling ethical behavior, instilling accountability, a bias for execution, results-driven strategies, and utilization of high performance tools.

Format:  Facilitator will employ assigned reading, dialogue, group discussion, teaming, in-class practice, and participant action plans to instill core competencies.  Each session is typically 4 hours long.

Management Training

Appropriate management of resources is vital to achieve desired performance results. Managers must demonstrate competencies and skills in the following areas:  strategic alignment, operational excellence, and performance management.

Strategic Alignment. Managers must demonstrate a clear understanding of the organization’s overall strategic plan, develop a departmental strategic plan that aligns to it,  and create a system of measures that will gauge the level of success toward meeting those overall goals.  The following strategic alignment sessions are available:

Creating a departmental shared vision: It is imperative that each department of an organization develop a vision that aligns to the overall organization’s vision, mission and strategic priorities.  Managers will gain an understanding of the importance of communicating the organization’s strategic plan to its staff,  and developing a department vision, mission and strategic priorities that will enable the organization to realize its organizational strategic plan.

Measuring for Success: Managers will become familiar with the use of strategic tools:  strategy maps and balanced scorecards to measure their success in meeting goals and objectives that align with the overall organizational strategic plan.

Building engagement: Employees must understand how their individual job performance contributes to the achievement of the departmental and organizational strategic goals.  Managers will gain an understanding of how to develop outcome-based job descriptions, set performance goals, and how to measure performance results.

Format:  Each of these workshops can be set as a full or half-day session, and will include an overview of tools, case studies, and peer exchange of best practices.

Operational Excellence. Managers must demonstrate competencies that drive efficiency and effectiveness within their scope of authority.  The following operational excellence sessions are available:

Purchasing Strategies:  Topics will include, but not be limited to:

Joint purchasing

Reverse Auctions

Procurement cards

Contracting for similar purchases (copiers, computers, etc.)

Mitigating Risk:  Liability risk is vital in reducing cost to the organization.  Topics will include, but not be limited to:

Reducing on the job injuries

Reducing days lost to work-related injuries

Health Insurance Savings Strategies

Implementing New Revenue Streams:  Finding new sources of revenue has become essential to the survival of local municipalities.  Topics will include, but not be limited to:

Tax revenue options

Appropriate user fees

Appropriate fine

Format:  Each of these workshops can be set as a full or half-day session, and will include an overview of strategies, case studies, and peer exchange of best practices.

Performance Management. Managers must demonstrate competencies that drive efficiency and effectiveness within their scope of authority.  The following performance management sessions are available:

HR Strategies:  This workshop will provide an overview on HR strategies that will drive high performance. Strategies will include, but not be limited to:

Outcome-based job descriptions

Defining expectations:  Linking performance to strategy

Measuring outcomes, rather than activities, during the employee evaluation process

HPI: Assessing for Root Cause  of Performance.  This workshop will provide participants with an understanding of the scientific methodology that can assess the root cause of performance issues,  identify the six (6) influencers that can enable or hinder job performance, and how to close the gap between underperformers and key performers.

Feedback:   Feedback is the greatest tool to enhance employee motivation.  People want to know whether they are meeting or exceeding their job expectations, or if they need to improve in their performance.  This workshop will discuss the importance of feedback, different approaches to feedback, and offer participants the opportunity to practice feedback.

Format:  Each of these workshops can be set as a full or half-day session, and will include an overview of strategies, case studies, and peer exchange of best practices.

Process Improvements

Fixing broken processes is critical to improving the performance of local government.  The HPG Network assists government leaders review, analyze, and improve troubled processes.

Activity-Based Management. Traditional government budgeting processes typically lack an activity based calculation.  Many department heads do not know the cost per fire run or the cost per acre of property mowed.  This training teaches fiscal agents how to use activity based management as a tool to track the costs associated with a particular activity.

BEST Teams. Every community has resources – businesses that face similar challenges, experts in a particular area such as purchasing, risk management, or health insurance, and civic minded business leaders.  Drawing on the expertise of those in your community is an often overlooked step in solving critical challenges in local government.  The HPG Network facilitates the BEST Team process that draws on the expertise of those already in your community by asking them to participate in a structured, well-defined process that will result in a roadmap of suggested solutions for local government leaders to follow.

HPI Services. Too often when a performance issue exists, managers immediately respond with either discipline or training -- frequently with little improvement results.  HPI (Human Performance Improvement) is a scientific methodology that pinpoints the root cause of poor performance (6 factors that can enable or hinder performance), studies how key performers in the same environment are able to succeed, and provides recommendations to close the performance gap between underperformers and star performers.

Lean Six Sigma. This business improvement methodology has been championed in successful companies like General Electric, Motorola, and Toyota.  The Six Sigma methodology – “define, measure, analyze, improve, control” – is equally important to fix broken processes in local government.  The HPG Network can arrange for discounted or free training for local government project leaders.

Process Mapping. Fixing broken processes requires understanding why the process is broken.  The HPG Network facilitates a detailed process mapping that involves those employees who carry out the process – from front line employees to department managers.  Systematically mapping each step of the process and the time and accuracy associated with each step provides a clear roadmap how to fix the problem.

Networking to Problem Solve

Networking with other communities is critical to facing shared challenges.  The HPG Network provides high-quality, low-cost educational networking opportunities around topics of specific interest to local units of government.

Topic-based Networking. Provides an opportunity for local government leaders to share successes and challenges in a particular area, learn from others, and hear from “experts” in the field.  Topics include, but are not limited to:  becoming a green city while reducing energy costs, innovative purchasing strategies, reducing health insurance costs, fostering high performance teams, etc.

Format:  These half-day sessions are delivered on a host of topics of interest to local municipalities.  The format will cover an overview of strategies, case studies, and peer exchanges of best practices.

Leadership Speakers Bureau: Peer leaders in business and government will speak to government leaders about relevant topics including leadership and common challenges.

Format:  On-site, webcast, or downloadable one or two hour sessions.  Lecture based, with opportunity for participant Q & A.

Facilitation Services

Organizational Retreats. There are numerous reasons for organizations or working groups to conduct retreats, including but not limited to:  the need to develop a new strategic plan, to enhance team cohesion, or to foster innovation and creativity in the work environment.  HPG can tailor curriculum to meet the needs of your organization.

Format:  Typically full-day session, held off-site from the normal work environment.  The facilitator will utilize appropriate resources, approaches and tools necessary to achieve the organization’s goal for the retreat. 

Community Meetings. Community input is essential to government, as a means to gauge customer satisfaction, elicit creative ideas on solving community challenges, determine readiness for change, and to obtain buy-in on important projects.

Format:  The facilitator will utilize appropriate resources, approaches and tools necessary to achieve the organization’s goal for the community meeting.

Conflict Resolution. Conflicts between managers and employees, or between co-workers, is not only disruptive to the work environment -- it is costly to the organization as they can result in litigation, grievances, arbitrations, negative impact on the organization’s image, or just the lost time dedicated to resolving the dispute.  Healthy conflict is a by-product of a robust organization, where different perspectives are exposed, examined, considered and valued.  Unhealthy conflict in organizations is a by-product of closed organizations where differences are not valued, trust and respect are low.  Some conflicts are best managed with an external, unbiased facilitator.

Format:  Held off-site from normal work environment.  Facilitator will  establish ground rules, define outcomes, and guide the discussion toward resolution.

Assessments and Surveys

Environmental Scanning: SWOT or PEST Analysis. In order for an organization to achieve its strategic priorities, it must first understand what internal and external factors may impact their success. SWOT Analysis reviews the organization’s internal condition (Strengths and Weaknesses) and external factors (Opportunities and Threats). 

PEST Analysis reviews external conditions (Political, Economic, Social and Technology) that may hinder or enable the organization in meeting its strategic priorities.

Format:  Teams (cross-functional, inter-departmental) are assembled in half-day (4 hour) sessions to identify these factors and rate their potential impact on the organization.  Facilitator will provide the assessment tools and guide the meeting.

Learning Organization Assessment. A learning organization culture is the foundation of a high performing organization.  Employees in a learning organization culture demonstrate a habitual expectation for continuous improvement, a systems-approach to solving organizational challenges, are encouraged to challenge processes, view diversity of perspective as an asset, and value life-long learning activities.

Format:  HPG Network will provide the assessment instrument, instructions on distribution, aggregate results, and generate a report of findings and recommendations. 

Customer Service Assessment. Gauging customer satisfaction is essential for a government to measure its success in meeting citizen and community needs, determining what services provide real value, and to recognize areas for service improvement. 

Format:  HPG Network can provide various customer satisfaction tools and services, including but not limited to:  Point of service surveys, random sample mail surveys, secret shopper services.

Myers-Briggs Personality Workshop. Understanding our own personality type, as well as others, helps us understand our assumptions and motivations that can be the cause of miscommunication, team dysfunction and conflict in the work environment.

Format:  HPG Network will provide the MBTI test and will facilitate discussion and dialogue on how to interpret the results, how to listen for the mental models of other personality types, how and when to adjust your own style to enhance communication.  Format will include limited lecture, group discussion, in-class practice, and participant action planning.

Community Input. HPG Network will conduct community surveys and assessments on topics of importance to a specific local unit of government.

Format:  HPG Network will provide the instrument, will conduct the assessment via the most appropriate method (i.e., mail, phone, e-mail, point-of-service, etc.), tabulate results, generate a report on the findings, make recommendation on results.

Products

High Performance Government Executive Overview. See how to get your organization started on the path to high performance.  Learn the basics of performance and hear examples of successful case studies.

Format:  This 1 day session is held in Fort Wayne, Indiana on a monthly basis.  A schedule of upcoming sessions is available at www.hpgnetwork.com. 

Performance is the Best Politics by Mayor Graham Richard. This book captures the innovative Lean Six Sigma projects used in Fort Wayne to transform city government into a lean, results oriented organization.  Mayor Richard chronicles the success of the first city employees in the nation to use Lean Six Sigma in local government.  Available at www.hpgnetwork.com