The Situation
The department recently completed a comprehensive employee survey under the new leadership of Joe King, Assistant City Manager. This survey was designed to identify those issues or roadblocks inhibiting the department from becoming a World Class Organization. The survey results obtained are highlighted in the following list of human resource issues:

• Low productivity and workforce morale
• Perceived favoritism influencing management decision-making
• Inconsistent treatment of employees across divisions, groups or between individuals
• Lack of employee involvement in decision-making
• Inadequate communication involving matters outside immediate work groups

The Response
Recognizing the need to enhance operations, Assistant City Manager for Utilities Joe King and Human Resource Specialist Jim McInerney initiated a long-term partnership with GENEDGE ALLIANCE. The partnership objective was to develop and deliver a customized, comprehensive supervisory development and job enrichment program. Existing city departmental policies and procedures were imbedded in the program, which served to complement and reinforce previous Supervisory Development skills activities. The supervisory development and job enrichment program unfolded through a series of five knowledge building workshops and programs.

1. Laura Rathburn, GENEDGE ALLIANCE's Team Leader, launched the project with Keystone, a leadership program designed to assist management in building a culture that can support and sustain change. The purpose of the program was to align the department’s management team relative to its organizational values, vision and long-term strategy. It was hoped that the program would foster confidence in management, promote teamwork and inspire a commitment to involve and empower others for daily operations.
2. Following Keystone, the supervisory staff was divided into cross-functional teams. Each team successfully completed sessions of Leadership Foundations, which addressed the challenges and opportunities faced by front-line leadership. Through Leadership Foundations, front-line supervisors were provided the skills and abilities necessary to supervise, coach, coordinate, and lead the activities of their subordinates and peers.

At key points in the program, leadership skills were reinforced and refocused upon such critical areas as team building and effective communications in the workplace.

3. The entire management team then participated in Team Building, a half-day workshop designed to improve team effectiveness for both workgroups and the leadership team. The experience provided a basic awareness of the dynamics of teams and the power of collaboration.
4. The introduction of Effective Communications at Work, a full-day workshop, provided a comprehensive focus on communications in the workplace, specifically where there are potential conflicts.
5. Finally, a core group of employees were exposed to techniques intended to improve their communication skills relative to the training of their peers. Through this instruction, the group gained insight into the fundamentals of adult learning, the various learning styles, and how to adapt training to each particular style. Also included in the program were the creation and use of effective visual aids, lesson plan development, and the management of training dynamics associated with various forms of communication meetings. The participants were required to deliver several presentations covering topics relevant to their work, instilling them with the confidence and skills needed to facilitate meetings and deliver effective presentations.

The Results
The supervisory development and job enrichment program proved to be an important factor in breaking down the functional barriers that had impeded the Department of Utilities’ effort to achieve its goal of becoming a World Class Organization. Through the development of enhanced communication and collaboration skills, productivity throughout the Department increased and morale, as well as overall job satisfaction, improved significantly.

Applying their newly enhanced skills to improve the overall effectiveness of the organization, Danville Utilities is now better prepared to pursue their ultimate goal: to provide unparalleled customer service and support to its customers. Employees were indeed empowered, as evidenced by the fact that although the entire management team was involved in a full-day session, there was no loss of productivity. According to Danville City leaders, "…This could not have been achieved six months ago."

GENEDGE ALLIANCE also certified Jim McInerney in the delivery of this program as a means to benefit the entire city staff through the creation of a similar internal program. Jim’s certification is continuing and course development is underway for him to deliver program content in July, 2004, a continuing cost saving to the City of Danville.

Although annual accumulated savings have yet to be calculated, the overall financial impact of this program upon the Danville Utilities Department was significant.

Management's Comment
"The programs that GENEDGE ALLIANCE provided to us were key to our on-going efforts to develop an effective Management Team," said Assistant City Manager for Utilities Joe King. "I was impressed by the high quality, personal service we received from Laura Rathburn and her group. She took the time to get to know our operation and made sure the program focused directly on our needs. Leadership Foundations served as the core of our training program. It was very well suited for our Management Team, including our critically important frontline supervisors."

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