think about using the passions, interests, gifts, strengths, and abilities of its staff
The best way to have collaboration is to get people with common interests and passions together, talking, and this includes clients. They do this in industry trainings, in breakout groups, so this is nothing new. What needs to happen is to have Interest groups (committee sounds so bureaucratic) composed of people who share the same interest. Your enemies might be wearing your uniform, and your friends might not be wearing your uniform, so to speak. I used to love the TV show Babylon 5, because it showed some extremely diverse people who had to cooperate to survive and get anything done. Good metaphor- they were aliens, from different planets, even. There is nothing more fun than being in a group with people who share the same interest. Right now we have the Silo walls keeping us apart. If you put people together, who share the same interest, magic happens, as David Bohm notes. A lot of new ideas start emerging. There is a name in biology for a process you will have to invoke, to succeed with your plan. It is Emergence. In a 5 person company, there is probably not a HR specialist. In a 100 person company, there probably is, at least part time. The HR position is "emergent", as the system grows and gets more complex, new order emerges. Getting people into groups, to talk, fosters "emergence". You don't know what will work, in the activities that will accomplish your goals. I don't care how smart you are, you simply don't know. Even if you did know, you couldn't put it all on paper. What you need is to have a way to support the emergence of the ideas that, when implemented, will do the job. An extremely important role for HUD will be the Web backup for these interest groups, where ideas can be sorted intelligently, where resources can be identified and shared, where people with a wealth of new information realize that a set of ideas makes something possible which has never before been realized. The Internet itself is emergent, and we haven't begun to use or realize all the possibilities in it. The same is true for using the Internet to foster the emergence of solutions to the problems we face. Shaun, Ron: if you do nothing else, you need to do this. Period. This is more important than any other feedback on this forum.
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AFGE
commented
Private-sector researchers have recently uncovered a way to improve employee satisfaction that's within managers' control. Unfortunately, management currently blocks collaboration across silos, and creative efforts. That culture needs to change. here's a start.
In May 2009, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag put agencies on notice. Job satisfaction, he said, “needs to be built into the way we run government.” He made his comment at the Partnership for Public Service ceremony announcing agency rankings in the annual Best Places to Work survey. He followed through by including employee survey data and agencies’ efforts to improve their ratings in his agency-by-agency reviews for the fiscal 2011 budget cycle.
As a result, agency managers have been scrambling to figure out ways to improve employee satisfaction. Private-sector researchers have recently uncovered an approach that seems to work. Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, in a recent Harvard Business Review article called “What Really Motivates Workers,” tell managers: “The key to motivation turns out to be largely within your control.”
Their advice? “Scrupulously avoid impeding progress.”
Amabile and Kramer surveyed more than 600 managers and then conducted a multiyear study of hundreds of knowledge workers, asking them to keep daily diaries to discover the top motivator of performance. Not surprisingly, managers and workers came to different conclusions.
Managers were asked to rank the impact of five workplace factors commonly considered significant motivators: recognition, incentives, interpersonal support, support for making progress and clear goals. “Recognition for good work” topped their list.
However, the recognition factor was ranked dead last by workers. The researchers found that workers ranked “support for making progress” as their No. 1 motivator. “On days when workers have the sense they’re making headway in their jobs...their emotions are most positive and their drive to succeed is at its peak.” However, “on days when they feel they are spinning their wheels or encountering roadblocks to meaningful accomplishment, their moods and motivation are lowest.”
In a close analysis of thousands of diary entries, Amabile and Kramer found that “making progress” was linked to 76 percent of employees’ reported “best days.”
What are the implications of those findings? Managers have a lot more control over motivating employees than they might have thought. “Create a culture of helpfulness.... Roll up your sleeves and pitch in,” the authors wrote. “Provide meaningful goals, resources and encouragement, and ... protect [your] people from irrelevant demands.” They conclude by saying, “Recognition can’t happen every day. You can, however, see that progress happens every day.”
Does that approach really work? Think about your best bosses. Weren’t they the ones who made it their goal to deal with the bureaucracy and irrelevant demands so you could deal with the work? Wasn’t it a great feeling to make real progress because your boss had cleared the way? Great leaders seem to understand that intuitively. For example, Gen. Colin Powell often said his job wasn’t only to clarify overall goals but also to sweat the small stuff so his staff could focus on the big problems.
It’s a new year. Try this shift in management emphasis. Ask your employees what gets in their way of making progress and try to do something about it. After a few weeks, take some time to see if your efforts have made a difference.
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Jordan
commented
HUD is tied for last…..
Annual rankings of federal workplaces
Washington Post
Wednesday, September 1, 2010 It's something every worker can relate to: Your office isn't meeting its goals, customers aren't happy, there's turmoil at the top - and morale is plummeting.
It happens in the federal government, too, where agencies facing intense public scrutiny, shifting priorities and unstable leadership can see nose dives in worker satisfaction. Both the Securities and Exchange Commission, a critical player in this battered economy, and the Office of Management and Budget, the agency responsible for implementing President Obama's government reforms - hit the skids in the fifth "Best Places to Work" rankings, a closely watched report of federal employees.
The rankings account for the perceptions of more than 263,000 workers at 290 federal organizations. It is compiled by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan think tank devoted to promoting public sector careers, and American University's School of Public Affairs.
***The primary factor in job satisfaction, however, remains effective leadership from senior agency bosses***, the survey concluded. Over the years, senior leadership has scored low in the survey, and the Obama administration is no exception.
***The Department of Housing and Urban Development*** and National Archives and Records Administration ****tied for last among large agencies***.
The survey gave several examples of how an agency's leadership can affect results. The Federal Labor Relations Authority, stagnant during George W. Bush's administration, saw its scores more than double thanks to strong reviews for agency leadership. It earned the biggest year-to-year jump among small agencies.
Scores on the survey's 100-point scale ranged from an 81.8 for NRC to a 57.1 for HUD and the National Archives. The survey is emerging as an important management tool for agencies looking to spot trouble areas, said Partnership President Max Stier.
"Particularly in an environment like the government, where you don't have profit and loss statements and stock prices, this information becomes even more important," Stier said.
The partnership (which maintains a content-sharing arrangement with The Washington Post) compiled the rankings using data from the Office of Personnel Management's Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Agencies not part of OPM's survey asked workers to complete similar questionnaires.
To review the full rankings please visit www.BestPlacestoWork.org. -
Dave
commented
Where are the arts related goals for Community Development? Creative Community Builder's Handbook: How to Transform Communities Using Local Assets, Arts, and Culture [book]
HUD is not apparently including arts in its community development strategy. This is unfortunate, as there is lots of evidence that this is critical to CD success. Previous HUD publications on CD have at least given lip service to the arts; this needs to get good emphasis, in the Strat Plan.
