Archive for category Change
Does Your Training Program Pass the Test?
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Change, Direction, Goals, Government, Leadership, Performance, Results, Training on June 29, 2011
It’s very common for things to be out of date or expire and it’s up to us to update or renew those things that have a limited shelf life, like your computer, the latest app and even the gallon of milk in your fridge. But what happens when your training program becomes outdated? Who is responsible for updating training resources?
You can expect more from your training program if you inspect more.
Luckily for government agencies, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has a Training Evaluation Guide that outlines regulations and best practices to assist agency leaders in evaluating their training programs and initiatives. According to the guide, the main purpose of evaluating your agency’s training program is to make good use of the agency’s resources, determine whether the current training is effective, and make adjustments to the programs, as needed.
Five key factors drive the efforts of this guide:
1. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management Training Evaluation Regulations – 2009 OPM regulations require agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of their training programs. These regulations form the foundation for this field guide, and will increase the contribution of training to agency mission effectiveness.
2. Accountability – Expectations for wise and documented use of training dollars are higher than ever. Clear connections between effective funding usage and agency outcomes are expected.
3. The Open Government Initiative – The current administration has put an emphasis on government accountability. It has detailed a mandate that government spending and related outcomes be made transparent to the public.
4. Training in the Federal Government – Within the Federal Government where mission accomplishment is vital and change is the only constant—training, and the effective evaluation of training, is critical.
5. The Federal Chief Learning Officers Council – This group of high level federal government learning leaders has made it a priority to accomplish the previous three factors, and have committed their time and resources to collectively make it happen.
High performing agencies are constantly focusing on improving their capabilities through learning systems, building knowledge capital, and transferring learning throughout the organization. These agencies seek knowledge about the work environment and employee performance. They treat mistakes and failures as important data, recognizing that they often can lead to breakthroughs.
How does your agency’s training program measure up?
Building Trust and Employee Engagement During Change
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Attitude, Change, Employee Engagement, Employee Passion, Leadership, Morale, Productivity, Telework on March 16, 2011
How can you provide a new level of leadership even when leading remotely with limited "face time?"
Recent changes within the government have given federal employees cause for concern. Reduced resources, shifting priorities, and environment and political changes can have a de-motivating effect on employees and directly impact work relationships. As changes are introduced in agencies, it is vital that employees remain engaged, motivated, and empowered.
The Ken Blanchard Companies will be hosting a Government Executive Briefing featuring leadership and development professionals that will share their insights on how trust and employee engagement can have a positive influence on change in the public sector.
What you’ll learn:
- Discover how you can increase competence and commitment through change.
- Learn strategies and techniques you can use to improve employee performance, motivation, and productivity.
- Understand the importance of trust and ways to create more effective relationships.
Immediately following the Executive Briefing, be sure to join us to learn important skill building tactics on how to integrate the latest motivation strategies into everyday management and operational practices during times of change. You will also discover disciplines that will enable you to effectively lead those working in a remote environment.
Speakers include:
Ken Blanchard, Cofounder – The Ken Blanchard Companies
Sharon Ridings, National Training Manager – Environmental Protection Agency
Drea Zigarmi, PhD, Researcher, Author, Professor – The Ken Blanchard Companies
Susan Fowler, Senior Consulting Partner – Ken Blanchard Companies
Date, Location & Registration:
June 1, 2011 – Washington, DC
Executive Briefing – 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Skill-Building Event (includes lunch) – 12:10 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
For more information or to reserve your seat now, call Christine Simmons at 800-272-3933.
The Ken Blanchard Companies has been awarded a contract under Schedules 874-4 – Mission Oriented business s Integrated Services (MOBIS) by the General Services Administration (GSA), contract Number: GS-02-F-0154U, MOBIS Training Services.
Letting Go of the Government of the Past
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Change, Direction, Leadership on February 2, 2011
Effective leadership is more about managing the journey of change than announcing the destination.
In his State of the Union address on January 25, President Obama discussed the opportunity to reorganize the government to make it more organized and better equipped to support American competitiveness. He stated, “We should give [citizens] a government that’s more competent and more efficient. We can’t win the future with a government of the past.” Obama’s plan is to realign organizations to better prepare for a more competitive global economy. The President noted that a major overhaul of the government hasn’t taken place since the middle of the last century.
It’s apparently time for change! This is why President Obama chose Jeffrey Zients, Chief Performance Officer (CPO), to lead the reorganization effort. The first order of business is to examine trade and exports to determine how these processes can be improved and allow Americans to be more competitive in the global economy.
With the number of changes being initiated in organizations and the pace at which these changes need to be implemented, change leadership is a critical competency for leaders throughout the organization. Indeed, it is often said that the only sustainable differentiator is the capacity to successfully lead change.
When leaders learn to lead change effectively, they can expect to
- Minimize resistance to change and gain buy-in from those being asked to change
- Minimize the typical drop in morale when a change initiative is launched
- Minimize the amount of time required to achieve their desired goals
- Build an adaptive organization that successfully initiates and implements change on an ongoing basis
A study conducted by The Ken Blanchard Companies outlines the challenges organizations generally face that demand effective change leadership. Learn what Blanchard uncovered about what happens with most change initiatives in this article on “Leadership Strategies for Making Change Stick.”
Promoting the Next Generation of Leaders
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Change, Leadership Development, Management on September 9, 2010
According to the Office of Personnel Management, 57 percent of Federal employees eligible to retire, will do so through FY 2014. A study by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) reports that since a majority of supervisors tend to be older and have more years of service, they will be the first to retire before non-supervisory positions. Agencies need to determine how they are going to fill this supervisory void now rather than later.
Agencies are facing a surge in Baby Boomer retirement.
This opens a plethora of doors for the next generation of government leaders. Earlier this year, Young Government Leaders (YGL) and GovLoop, a social media site for government employees, wrapped up the first-ever Summit dedicated to young rising stars in the federal, state, and local government. The event was an opportunity for first-time leaders to connect and share ideas, develop leadership skills, and learn from current government officials.
What changes will the next generation of government leaders bring to the work environment?
Agencies will have a mix of four or five generations working together in the next ten years. Each generation brings different backgrounds, educations, and work/life experiences to the workplace. Changes are evident. Virtual training, teleworking, and more flexibility will be requirements. What is important now is how agencies are preparing for the needs of new government leaders. According to the book, Generations at Work, organizations that have successfully leveraged the strengths of an intergenerational workforce have applied five critical operating principles into their workplace. If you would like to read more about these operating principles, you can access the white paper here.
How are you and your agency preparing for the “retirement tsunami?”
Change is A’Coming to Rocket City
Posted by Kristina Marzullo in Change, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict, Direction, Government, Ken Blanchard, Leadership, The Ken Blanchard Companies, Training, Trust on August 19, 2010
An article in Government Executive magazine announced that Huntsville, Alabama is becoming the next stomping grounds for several government agencies. This transition kicked-off with the expansion of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) in 2005 when the Missile Defense Agency learned that they would be relocating their agency from a Washington suburb to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. Since that announcement, several agencies have followed in the MDA’s footsteps. A few of the MDA’s neighbors now include:
- 1700 positions from the AMC and USASAC
- 180 positions from SDMC
- 400 positions from the Aviation Technical List Center & Rotary Wing Platform
- 113 positions from the 2nd Recruiting Brigade
When the BRAC transitions are completed in September 2011, approximately 4700 positions will be relocated to Redstone.
Organizational change is a fact of life in the workplace.
All of this change has led to increased stress levels on the organizations and people involved. The transition has required employees to wear multiple hats while leaders have been implementing several training efforts to get others up to speed.
Leading people through change is an ongoing challenge in any agency. So how do BRAC or other leaders maximize high levels of productivity and morale and ensure a successful transition?
A U.S. Department of Education project originally conducted by Gene Hall and his colleagues at the University of Texas suggests that people are faced with change express 6 predictable and sequential concerns.
- Information concerns
- Personal concerns
- Implementation concerns
- Impact concerns
- Collaboration concerns
- Refinement concerns
Resolving concerns throughout the change process builds trust in the leadership team, puts challenges on the table, gives people an opportunity to influence the changes process, and allows people to refocus their energy on the change.
At the Ken Blanchard Companies, new work by Pat Zigarmi, Judd Hoekstra, and Ken Blanchard on the Situational Leadership II and Leading People Through Change programs provides guidance for diagnosing concerns and then using the appropriate change leadership strategy to address those concerns.
Watch this video of Ken Blanchard discussing the reality of change.
Is Innovation Alive In Your Agency?
Posted by Dominic Giammarinaro in Change, Collaboration, Culture, Government, Innovation, Leadership on July 8, 2010
The Center for American Progress in partnership with The Young Foundation recently teamed up to identify ways public leaders can ensure a constant flow of promising ideas into the federal government.
This report, How to Generate Innovation in the Public Sector, provides the following recommendations:
• Identify priority fields for innovation: The government must first identify the fields of public action where innovation is most needed.
• Open up the space for ideas: The second priority should be to widen the range of options, creating more space for creative and entrepreneurial solutions.
• Finance innovation: At least 1 percent of agency budgets should be used to develop, test, and scale up new and better ways of doing things in the public sector.
• Fix incentives: Greater recognition may be both more effective and more efficient than existing programs and initiatives.
• Change the culture: Innovation has to be supported from the top, and senior leadership in the executive and the legislative branches should signal that they recognize that some ideas will fail, and that’s acceptable.
• Grow what works: There should be a much stronger focus in government on trying to scale up ideas that work—even if that means closing down popular programs or initiatives that have been less effective in the past.
This report also identifies over twenty ways governments around the world have generated ideas to stimulate innovation in government. They are organized under five themes:
• Unleash the creative talents of agency staff
• Set up dedicated teams responsible for promoting innovation
• Divert a small proportion of your budget to harnessing innovation
• Collaborate with outsiders to help solve problems
• Look at an issue from different perspectives to notice things you wouldn’t otherwise
You can read about these innovative ideas here.
In a white paper published by The Ken Blanchard Companies, Managing and Motivating Intrapreneurs, intrapreneurs are described as “someone who innovates inside a company.” A common characteristic is that “intrapreneurs like to push the envelope of the status quo.” This white paper goes on to say, “(Intrapreneurs) motivation for innovation is not necessarily increased tenure with the organization, or even to get rich, but rather their desire to leave a mark, to make a difference.” Does this sound like many of your public sector employees?
Changing Priorities in Government Agencies
Posted by Dominic Giammarinaro in Change, Government, Leadership, The Ken Blanchard Companies on April 29, 2010
By Ruth Anne Randolph
When President Obama’s appointees head up government agencies, they shape the priorities, but it remains the task of leaders and frontline employees from GS-15 to GS-3 to actually do the work. Adapting to change becomes the challenge for civil servants from senior to front level. Only then can leaders lead others through changes. How can leaders at all levels address their own needs to understand changes and deal with their personal concerns?
Pat Zigarmi and Judd Hoekstra developed a program to help employees ‘influence change’ by understanding it and addressing six predictable stages people go through in whole heartedly embracing change. Leading Up During Change is designed for the frontline, who is impacted by change, but not the ones at the top and not the ones feeling much control over the waves of change.
What have you experienced when your organization has been the receiver of change from the top or even from the outside? What worked? What would have worked?
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