Hot
Management Info for 2002|
The Complete Management Course for Planning Directors has just completed courses in Kansas City, New Orleans and Raleigh, with eight more cities to go in the current series. What struck me so far is a reminder that planning and planners must have good political instincts and political skills. I'm currently focusing on the following 10 key ideas:
Reader Responses Great resource with this tip. I have some discomfort with #10 on occasion (Build personal relations with the elected officials. This doesn't mean playing golf with them. It does mean finding ways for them to see you as a person and you to see them the same way.) as I don't want to compromise my neutral/non-political role. Needless to say, your point is well taken. I enjoyed your Complete Management Course for Planning Directors in Raleigh, though unable to attend the second day given the sudden death of a co-worker's wife. Day one was helpful as you offered ideas that were different than mine, and some affirmation of practices and attitudes. I was most impressed with your bibliography and sources. I'd welcome any more recent employee surveys that you may come across. Steven Finn The hot topic message on political skills was GREAT. Well done! It should be published somewhere. I believe you captured a top 10 list to be an effective planning professional. It also helps you maintain job longevity and program success. I think you did a good service to planners in the trenches in circulating the list. If it is characteristic of the information in your Management Course, the training should be very powerful. K.L. Cubic If Not Golf, What?? It's a reality of life that many of those in power do play golf, and that a shared game or two builds valuable personal relationships. If I were younger, I'd learn. I realize that it's never too late to learn, but if you're not at or near the beginning of your career, it's difficult to learn to play well enough so you're not a drag on the golf course. I think that would be worse than not playing at all. So what's the alternative? If you're a different gender from your boss, it may not be that easy to "do lunch," which may be a good alternative in some situations. What about involvement in civic projects that may be of interest to the official(s)? Or joining a club/organization with the movers and shakers? Any merit to those or other suggestions? Have a great holiday season, and keep the advice coming! Nancy Brown Zucker's Additional Comments Nancy, In one of my jobs I had a person running for City Council on the campaign to fire me. After he was elected, I invited him to lunch and made certain we went to the restaurant where all the politicos and movers and shakers hung out. This created quite a stir and everyone who saw us wondered what we were talking about. This lunch had the desired effect and it cooled off the firing idea.It may not always work, but that time it did. Paul Zucker Thank you for the latest Hot Info of the month. I thought you might be interested in something I keep on my bulletin board on this topic. It's called "political values" and is attributed to John Nalbandian with the Department of Public Administration at the University of Kansas. It also seems to have been written with planners in mind. Respecting these values helps to keep me out of trouble. Frequently when we think of values, qualities like honesty, reliability, love and sincerity come to mind. These are values, deep-seated beliefs that lead to judgments about right and wrong, but they have to do with individuals and how we lead our lives individually. Political values influence public policy development as opposed to the lives of the individuals who make policy. The primary political value in our culture is responsiveness of governmental officials to public wants and needs. The value of responsiveness is reflected in demands for representation, efficiency, individual rights, and social equity. Representation - This is the deep-seated belief that government answers to the will of the people through elected representatives. The wishes of citizens should be represented in governing bodies. If a public policy is going to have an impact on a group of citizens, that group should have the opportunity to be heard. Efficiency - Citizens expect government to be run prudently. This is achieved through cost-consciousness and rational, analytical decision-making and an emphasis on expertise and professionalism, planning and merit. Individual Rights - Citizens are granted legal rights that protect them from arbitrary decisions by those who govern - both elected and appointed officials. These rights may be expressed in ordinances, statutes and laws, and the constitution. Property rights and civil rights fall into the broader category of individual rights. Social Equity - Frequently, citizens are treated as members of groups rather than individuals. Sometimes we classify people as veterans, disabled, African American, female and senior citizens rather than as Jose, Mary, Rita and Jacob. As group members they expect treatment equal to members of other groups. And they compare their treatment with that given to members of other groups. For example, people living in one neighborhood expect to receive a level of government services similar to that received in other neighborhoods; older neighborhoods might expect more service. K. Cannady November 2002 - Photosynthesis For Planners From Training, May 2002 The workplace is showing signs of experiencing a collective "nervous breakdown," according to research done by Integra Realty Services, New York, and Opinion Research Corp, International, Princeton, N.J. American workers are stressing over security uncertainties and current economic environment. This is translating into greater rates of turnover, absenteeism and lower productivity - the last things America needs while it is slowly begins to recover from the events of recent months. So why not fill your offices with plants? HR experts are encouraging employers to provide their workers with an environment that is comfortable and will inspire workers on their "off" time. Apparently, this environment is one filled with plants. Studies from Texas A&M University and Washington State University confirmed that visual exposure to plant settings produced significant recovery from stress within five minutes while enhancing productivity by 12 percent. Another Washington State University study said people exposed to plants demonstrated more positive emotions such as happiness, friendliness and assertiveness. Negative emotions such as sadness and fear decreased. Green thumb or not, maybe what your office needs is a little photosynthesis within its walls to reduce stress, pump up morale and increase productivity. Reader Response I have just returned to work after six weeks of stress leave. I have a 10-foot tall plant in my office,.and there are plants throughout our floor. Maybe it helps, but it isn't enough to cope with masters who expect instant response all day and all night when termination is the result of not meeting their expectations. Anonymous October 2002 - Why Should Anyone Be Led By You? From Sept/Oct 2000 Harvard Business Review by Robert Gaffee and Gareth Jones. Everyone agrees that leaders need vision, energy, authority and strategic directions. But, the authors found that inspirational leaders share 4 unexpected qualities:
The authors also discuss 4 popular myths of leadership:
September 2002 - Be Careful With Your Values "Take a look at this list of corporate values: Communication, Respect, Integrity, Excellence. They sound pretty good, don't they? Strong, concise, meaningful. Maybe they even resemble your own departments values, the ones you spent so much time writing, debating, and revising. If so, you should be nervous. These are the corporate values of Enron, as stated in the company's 2000 annual report. And as events have shown, they're not meaningful; they're meaningless." In our experience, most government value statements are bland, toothless, or just plain dishonest. "Empty values statements create cynical and dispirited employees, alienate customers, and undermine managerial credibility." Cookie-cutter values don't set a department apart from others; they make it fade into the crowd. "Values can set your department or city apart from the others by clarifying your identity and serving as a rallying point for employees. But coming up with strong values- and sticking to them- requires real guts. Indeed, an organization considering a values initiative must first come to terms with the fact that, when properly practiced, values inflict pain. They make some employees feel like outcasts. They limit an organization's strategic and operational freedom and constrain the behavior of its people. They leave executives open to heavy criticism for even minor violations. And they demand constant vigilance." What's the first thing many directors do after they decide to embark on a values initiative? They either hand off the effort to the HR people or have a staff retreat. They use the initiative as a feel-good effort. They roll out surveys and hold lots of meetings to gather input and build consensus. "That's precisely the wrong approach. Values initiatives have nothing to do with building consensus-they're about imposing a set of fundamental, strategically sound beliefs on a broad group of people." Surveying all employees about what values they believe the company should adopt is a bad idea for two reasons. First, it integrates suggestions from many employees who probably don't belong at the company in the first place. And second, it creates the false impression that all input it equally valuable. The best value efforts are driven by the department head and a handful of key employees. Managers also need to understand that a good values program is like a fine wine; it's never rushed. The above is extracted from the Harvard Business Review, July 2002, "Make Your Values Mean Something" by Patrick M. Lencioni. The entire article is worth your reading. August 2002 Multiple Permits - Multiple Jurisdictions You may find this hard to believe, but four Washington State communities have combined part of their permitting functions. On July 22, the ePermits online application for Kirkland, Mercer Island, Issaquah and Bellevue went live. For the first time, that we're aware of, citizens and contractors can apply for multiple permits from multiple jurisdictions, make a single payment and receive the permits online. A truly cutting edge business application. Individually, the cities could have each launched their own ePermits application. While this would have been a great customer service enhancement for each city, the eGov Alliance is taking customer service to a new, much higher level. In addition to serving its customers better, it has established the ground work for other online services and are significantly lowering the cost of online services. The group hopes to bring our other partner cities on board. Sammamish has already put together much of their content and is beginning to work on business processes. The Building Officials from eight cities are scheduled to meet in August to formalize plans to move forward. To see the application, click here. Select the "Application" tab at the top of the page, then select Apply Now! To run through some of the application process, select "Apply for Permit Now" under Property Owner Options. Since property owners do not need to pre-register, it is possible to run through the application process all the way up to payment. For more information, contact: John Backman July 2002 Workplace Of The Future Abstracted from Management Review, January 2000 What will the workplace of the future be like? The following scenarios offer some clues. They come from three business visionaries: Leif Edvinson, director of the Skandia Future Center in Vaxholm, Sweden; Caela Farren, CEO of MasteryWorks Inc. in Annandale, Virginia; and Jim O'Connell, a workforce economist and vice president at Ceridian Corp., Minneapolis, Minnesota.
A note from Paul Zucker to Planners: Since we are supposed to be leaders and futurists, let's see who among you can translate the above into planner specifics. We'll share it with our e-mailers. Reader Response I challenged our readers to translate the July information.
Mike Percy did a good job of it below:
Just a few thoughts from a practicing long range planner. Michael Percy June 2002 Turnover Every planning client we have is complaining about staff turnover. Check out these six myths of turnover.
May 2002 - Getting Your Department From Good To Great I've been a proponent of the need to set a clear Mission for your department as a key to your success. Although I continue to believe a clear Mission is needed, a new book on the market has raised a number of intriguing additional thoughts. The book is Good To Great by Jim Collins, Harper Business, 2001. In this book Collins suggests First Who…Then What. He suggests that the great companies first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off) and then figured out where to drive it. The rational for this approach is:
To accomplish this he suggests:
Reader Responses I didn't take the opportunity to get into the first round of this issue, but welcome the opportunity now. I believe the key to moving from good to great is having the guts and self confidence to hire people better than you are who do not agree with you but are willing to respectfully disagree. To go from good to great, everyone in the organization, especially the titular leader, has to grow, recognize their own limits and shortcomings, test their limits, and constantly risk failure. Larry Gerckens, FAICP Thanks for your message. When I was in private practice, I use to interview professionals who did not necessarily fit the job I had open because I would rather mold the job to fit the good person that had applied. In public service, our hiring rules have gotten so restrictive that I have lost some of the flexibility I had in the past. Keep up the good work. We need these insights from others. Stanley L. Klemetson, Ph.D. I like these! Problem is that senior management has to understand them, embrace them and then allow the right people to get the job done without micromanaging them. Michael A. Harper, AICP Planning Manager Hello Paul. Thanks again for your timely contributions to relevant thought. I have not had the benefit of reading the book you referenced. However, the philosophy is being tried. We are using a form of the “Who then What" concept. When we have hired people with good skills, knowledge and abilities, they are performing well having then to learn about where we are going. We are shaping our organization around our personnel, our strategic mission that targets the customer base according to the demand for services and products. The rationale for the “Who then What” concept and the methods to accomplish it have been tried, more or less. We would need to make adjustments to more consciously consider our culture, hiring practices, changed staff (eliminations), and especially, putting our best people on the “biggest opportunities” not “biggest problems." How does one test for “self-disciplined people” as a matter of the interview process, aside from checking references? Overall, these suggestions are well received by me. Thanks. Old Saying “The biggest enemy of Great is Good." Al Solis I agree with this completely. No matter how good a manager you are, if you don’t surround yourself with good people (subordinates, peers AND superiors!) your organization will fail. If you do manage to attract and keep good people, you can hardly help but succeed. After almost 20 years of management experience, I really believe it is that simple. Robert Atallo, AICP Planning Director April 2002- What Are You Reading? In my consulting practice I am working with hundreds of Planning Directors and other government managers. Almost without exception, I find these managers are not reading management material. Are you one of them? I believe you should be reading at least several management books a year along with several management-related periodicals. Start with two of my current favorites, First Break All The Rules and How To Be A Star At Work. If you feel either of these is a waste of your time, send me the book and I'll pay you for it. For periodicals, I suggest The Harvard Business Review, Business Week, Training, Governing and Government Technology. I'll also continue to share some of my reading with you in this space each month. For example, Spring 2002 Business Week has an article, "What Makes A Boffo Brand." This article talks about the popular topic of product branding. The topic has even made it to APA that is studying how to use branding to help planning. The article is based on a new book, A New Brand World, which I've not yet read. However, I was struck by the author's interview with Starbucks' branding expert when asked, "What was it that was most important to Starbucks' success?" His answer, "Everything matters." Seems to me there is a lesson here for Planners. Reader Responses I like the idea of hearing more about what others are reading. Speaking
for myself (although I suspect many share this trait), I find it very
difficult to keep up with all the books, articles, journals and magazines
an excellent planning director should keep up with! There’s just too
much stuff out there! For the longest time, I’ve worked to keep an
hour of my day for reading some of this. But as we all know, sometimes
the day just escapes our reach (wouldn’t Stephen Covey be disappointed?!). I am reading Dante's Inferno, as are many other staffers in the Chicago office of the American Planning Association as part of a reading group. Stuart Meck, FAICP Principal Investigator Growing Smart Project I have just finished reading a wonderful book that sort of fits into
the "management" category, although I would recommend it to anyone.
The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in
Corporate America by David Whyte. Although I don't work in corporate
America, working in a city government isn't that different. One of
the things I have noticed about planners is that many of us love what
we do, our work has a greater purpose than providing a paycheck, and
we try to bring ourselves (our souls) into the work that we do. This
book is a wonderful way to explore these thoughts with yourself. The
author uses poetry to tell us lessons about ourselves and the work
that we can do. March 2002 - Wisdom Of Jack Welch Now that Jack Welch has left GE and his book is out, it seems like he's continually in the business news. This is a good time to revisit his six rules. Paul Zucker's comments for planning are in paranthesis.
January 2002 - Productivity And Pride Based on Employee Insights 2000 survey of 1,300 people. Click here for survey. What would boost productivity?
Contributing to pride:
|
 
     |