10/04/2010 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Search

2. Get as much feedback as practical from employees, including what they think are the problems and what should be done to resolve them. 3. Know why we're making any changes. What goals do we hope to accomplish? 4. Keep perspective. There is no "silver bullet" that will completely turn the organization around and make things better for everyone all the time. 5. Keep focused on delivering services to the residents as cost effectively and efficiently as possible. 6. Successful change must involve management staff and the City Council. 7. Include closure in the plan. Components of the organizational assessment would include the following: 1. A benchmarking study of city positions to see how Lino Lakes compares with other cities of similar size and characteristics. 2. A review of the City's organizational structure, which would include going over job descriptions with the department directors and individual employees to determine if their job descriptions still reflect the duties and responsibilities they perform on a regular basis. This will expose any redundancy in the organization. 3. An examination of the City's internal processes and systems. This drills down to the how, what, and why questions. How do we change from System Y to System Z? How do we get people assume more responsibility, to be more creative? What are we trying to accomplish? What changes are necessary? What indicators will signal success? What standards apply? What measures of performance are we trying to affect? Why do we do what we do? Why do we do it the way we do it? Asking "why" questions gets to the ultimate purposes of people. The term "system" can be defined as an arrangement of resources and routines intended to produce specific results. In that context, you look at both the "hard" systems (e.g., computer -based information systems) and the "soft" systems (e.g., compensation plan, appraisal system). One additional component might be to hire a consultant to administer an organizational assessment instrument, which generally involves personal interviews, surveys, and questionnaires to identify positive and negative influences, to provide a "gap" analysis, and to impart directional recommendations. There are many organizational assessment tools that would provide information as to how well the City's critical elements are working together to achieve its strategic goals and missions. Two basic questions that organizations often ask are: "How do we know that resources are being properly allocated, and how can we better utilize our limited resources." It's these two questions that should move us to examine the whole issue of what the important elements are which contribute to organizational success. Requested Council Direction Staff is seeking further direction from the Council.