Institute for Government Improvement

07/31/2022

From Bruce Waltuck…

I wrote this in 2011. Dear FB popped it up as a memory from a 2020 post.

Needed now as much as ever…

A post I wrote back in 2011, that I happened to come across today.

Now, as much or more than ever.


how to run government (or any org)...
. think deeply about your mission
. articulate and share your vision/objectives with everyone in and out- all stakeholders
. listen to ALL voices from all stakeholders
. distribute control, responsibility, and accountability
.measure two kinds of things, two kinds of ways: for linear, stable processes, count the usual measures of how many, what cost, how long, etc. For complex processes and outcomes, measure a)fidelity/congruence to core operating values/principles, and b)impact (how well..).
.link employee engagement and satisfaction, to goals and objectives. Link results to learning and resource planning/allocation
.devote a percentage of your staff time and your money, to "exploring possibility space." Try without fear. Learn deeply from all attempts.
.do not give your people so much work, that they have no time to participate in improving/experimenting.
.assure universal access to people and information. Connect everyone to each other.
.if you have unions, welcome them to the table as partners. Management can not exist without workers, nor workers without leadership. Help everyone see that it is in the interests of both sides to collaborate, thrive, and survive.
.forget monetary rewards. There is plenty of data to prove they are more hurtful than helpful. Give frequent and public recognition.
. follow the example of the former Navy Commander at Alameda base- who insisted everyone get an annual appraisal "as meaningless as possible." All got a de facto satisfactory, with a tough process to justify higher or lower. In a year, grievances dropped, morale and productivity soared.
.and, teach leaders, managers, legislators, citizens, the wisdom of both Einstein and Deming, who both noted that there are things that can be counted, that don't count; and things that count, that can't be counted

04/07/2022

In one of the largest organizations, employees can not strike, and their unions can not negotiate pay increases. This is the Federal government. Yet there is much that matters about working conditions that affect every employee.

As a union leader at the U.S. Department of Labor, I handled over a thousand employee grievances. I came to learn there was a better way than traditional adversarial negotiating.

The late Ed Cohen-Rosenthal and his book “Mutual Gains” along with Peter Scholtes et al’s classic “TEAM Handbook” showed the better way. When President GHW Bush mandated business process improvement in Federal government, I saw the opportunity to change the dynamic at the U.S. Department of Labor. With Jim Armshaw, we created a system that gave meaningful input into the decisions affecting them, to every one of our 10,000 employees.

Our approach was based on collaboration. Open communication. Consideration of each idea. And honoring commitments together.

On the day in 1990 that the new union-management partnership was signed, Secretary Elizabeth Dole stated “we recognize that our employees are our greatest asset.” Within six months over 220 union-management teams self-organized to make the USDOL better. In three years we won a national quality improvement prototype award.

A year after this partnership began, the contract with the union was to expire. From the new partnership, the union and management agreed to negotiate a different way. Seeking… mutual gains. Win-win. The result was a 242-page collective bargaining agreement, with every word agreed to by the consensus of all of us- 22 negotiators. This had never been done in the U.S. Federal sector before.

So, Mr. Schultz, if you truly want Starbucks employees to be “partners” - treat them as partners. Empower every voice. Hear every idea. And do it in collaboration with the union.

You can find and read the journal article about my DOL work in the link below.

Union-Management Partnership in the U.S. Department of Labor | Armshaw, J.; Carnevale, D.; Waltuck, B. | download | BookSC. Download books for free. Find books

02/28/2021

As we (Dale Weeks and Bruce Waltuck) convene thought- and practice-leaders from around the world in dialogue about catalyzing action for the pursuit of government excellence, here is a piece from Bruce Waltuck:

“Here are my first thoughts in response to our ongoing correspondence and dialogues around the topic of what I would broadly call “the pursuit of excellence in government.”

So..

I believe government exists to effectively and efficiently meet the needs and wants of its citizens and residents.

I believe the needs, wants, preferences, and priorities are not merely a decision to be made by a simple majority, either of citizens or their elected leaders.

I believe that government at any level is part of multiple simultaneous ecosystems of communities, jurisdictions, regions, states, nations, and more. That the underlying interests and needs of the people being served are never fully in isolation from the ongoing interaction and dynamics of others.

I believe that all voices of citizens and residents, stakeholders and beneficiaries, need to be heard. All will not be equally informed by available facts, science, data, and relevant information. But all coherent narratives offer valuable insights into the complex underlying dynamics that create both challenges and opportunities for improvement.

I believe that despite the messiness at times, people and their governments are best served by inclusive dialogue, and that such dialogue is most effective when participants agree at the start on a short set of core values and operating principles, which become the active basis for evaluating ideas, and holding participants accountable for their actions.

I believe that the foundation of the pursuit of effectiveness and efficiency, through the pursuit of continuous improvement, must lie in the establishment and persistence of relationships of trust and open communication.

I believe that to be as effective and efficient as possible, government at any level needs to actively pursue the knowledge, understanding, and application of the principles and methods of continuous process improvement.

I believe that the pursuit of continuous process improvement must be based on the understanding that the situations and challenges we experience and perceive are not all the same. That some are clear, and require the application of best practices. That some are technical and complicated, and require the application of expert knowledge and practice. That many are complex, and require the pursuit of emergent useful practice, through the iterative process of multiple safe-to-fail trials of promising ideas, from which we stabilize and sustain what is working, and stop what is not working.

I believe that the pursuit of continuous process improvement must also be based on the insights and methods of not only Deming and Scholtes, but contemporary creators of methods for collaborative change dialogue, including Richard Knowles, Ed Morrison, David Snowden, and Cynthia Kurtz.

From these foundational beliefs, learnings, practices, and insights, we can then craft an invitation. I like to begin the invitation with a consensus statement by the initial organizers on WHAT we are hoping to do; then WHY we believe it is important; WHO we hope will attend; and ask that attendees be able to offer ideas in dialogue about HOW they will address the challenge; WHO they want to work in and on it; WHERE and WHEN they intend to act; and HOW THEY WILL ASSESS the outcomes of actions subsequently taken.

For us, now, I would open the door to any and all who express curiosity and interest about helping government pursue continuous improvement on a path to excellence. My own thinking is to initially focus on U.S. Federal government, as there is clearly a significant moment of opportunity here now. I would invite the leaders of OMB, OPM, White House advisors, leaders of the two principal unions, AFGE and the NTEU, and leaders from private organizations like Tina Sung of the Partnership for Public Service, Bob Tobias, Norman Ornstein, and others who themselves have had long and productive histories of working in pursuit of these objectives. Journalists and authors. Dialogue leaders like Carolyn Lukensmeyer, and others.

So... these are some initial thoughts and responses for now.

Thanks for the invitation to think and share and act together.

Stay safe and well,

Bruce

Bruce Waltuck, MA, Complexity, Chaos, and Creativity
Yes, it really says that on the diploma

01/21/2021

We have been in dialogue with colleagues in the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere, about the great moment of need and opportunity facing government in the United States right now.

Whose voices, ideas, and practices, truly hold great potential to improve workforce trust, reliability, effectiveness, impact, innovation, and improvement? Can and will we once again see the establishment of, and commitment to, a central home for the support of this work throughout the Federal government? Will organizations that have acted - though they would never admit it- from the sidelines and shadows in recent years, to preserve and protect their status and business, now rewrote their narratives, and tell the stories of their gifts in the bright light again?

Here, Bruce Waltuck ‘s reply to a post about fostering innovation and improvement:

Employees... at all levels... must feel...

Empowered to express all coherent ideas...no matter how seemingly impossible now.

Courageous, knowing they need not fear... failure, embarrassment, retribution, ridicule, and even success.

Free, to spend the time in dialogue with others, comparing ideas, sharing information, negotiating meaning, and coordinating action.

Curious, to explore multiple promising ideas simultaneously, no matter the outcome, to learn from failure and success.

Connected, to each and all, in the open and proactive exchange of ideas and information.

Accountable, to act in accord with their own and their group’s clearly expressed core values and operating principles. To compare outputs and outcomes with intended results. To stabilize and sustain new successes, and to end new failures.

These are the core principles that I co-designed with Jim Armshaw, as we led what became the highly successful Employee Involvement and Process Improvement initiative at the USDOL, and which I later brought to my work at SAMHSA.

10/20/2020

A very well-researched and well-written longer piece about the work of Labor Secretary Scalia, to weaken employee workplace protections, and Departmental compliance efforts. An important read.

As Election Day looms, Eugene Scalia, a cunning lawyer committed to dismantling regulation, is weakening one employee protection after another.

09/11/2020

A slightly edited version of a piece by Bruce Waltuck with Denise Easton a few years ago.

We have most definitely been FLUXed.

We All Get...FLUXed...Sometimes. By Bruce Waltuck and Denise Easton.

The word FLUX comes from the Latin, fluxus, meaning flow. The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives contemporary definitions as "a continuous moving on" (as a stream) or "change."

We commonly talk about the universe and our lives in it as being "dynamic." We think about how things are constantly in motion. But in fact, the universe- and our lived experience - is DYNAMICAL. This refers to the fact that the universe, and especially we humans living in it, are constantly and continuously affecting and being affected by most everything and everyone else.

As we further explored the common patterns of disruptive experience, we recognized four fundamental dimensions and capacities that directly flow from our lived experience, and impact our ability to successfully respond to disruption. We began to think about FLUX as a valuable framework for addressing DISRUPTIVE EXPERIENCES. Not just the catastrophic, damaging, or unwanted experiences, but also the remarkable surprises and unexpected opportunities that come from disruptive challenges.

Our constant experience of the dynamical universe shapes and defines how we FEEL about things. The complex nature of our lived experience shapes and defines what we LEARN, and UNDERSTAND. Our beliefs, values and intentions directly and dynamically impact present and the future actions, and how we choose to eXPLORE options for new possibilities. How we respond to the ever-moving FLUX of the universe and our lives determines both our individual and collective probabilities of successfully achieving our objectives.

Through our ongoing work and inquiry, we have come to understand "being FLUXed" as the experience of a Significant Difference between the Need or Opportunity to Respond and Our Current Capacity to Successfully Respond.

Everyone regularly confronts situations in life and work that may be disruptive, but our lived experience has taught us what to do. When we get a flat tire, we often know how to respond and fix it ourselves. We have LEARNED and UNDERSTOOD how to respond. We may FEEL differently based on the circumstances of the flat tire - is it on the driver's side which poses risks as we squat on the shoulder of a busy highway to repair it or do we discover it as we back out of the garage. In any event maybe we may simply call AAA for help!

What matters in any significantly disruptive experiences - when we are FLUXED- is what we call one's ARC. This stands for our individual or collective ADAPTIVE RESPONSE CAPACITY. This concept builds on Bruce's 2003 work developing capacity to go FAR- to be FLEXIBLE, ADAPTIVE, AND RESILIENT. Being ADAPTIVE relates directly to our living in a dynamical universe. What can we do to change our FEELING, what we can LEARN and UNDERSTAND, so that we can better eXPLORE new options for a successful response?

The ongoing emerging patterns of FLUX in our lives change over time, and so do our perceptions, sense-making, and decisions about acting in response. This temporal aspect of FLUX and our ARC results in us being at times REACTIVE (past-focused), ACTIVE (present-focused), or PROACTIVE (future-focused).

We believe that individuals and organizations can and should take steps to build their FLUX CAPACITY. A multi-dimensional approach to building a better ARC involves understanding and managing emotional responses; being more present and attentive; learning how to learn and where to get help from others; and how best to act into uncertainty and ambiguity.

In our presentations and workshops, we often use the example of the master surfer as a parallel to improving one's FLUX CAPACITY. The surfer begins by watching and talking to others. Experience, knowledge, and wisdom are shared. Ability and judgment improve. Bigger and more complex waves may now be conquered. But sometimes. . . even the master gets FLUXED.

09/11/2020

Today’s USA Today published an OpEd by Eight senior career civil servants from FDA in which they pledge to uphold the scientific integrity of their work and defend the agency's independence. "If the agency's credibility is lost because of real or perceived interference people will not rely on the agency for safety warnings." And they went on, "We and our career staff do the best by public health when we are the decision makers, arriving at those decisions based on our unbiased evaluation of the scientific evidence."

It is critical that all who serve in government, and all served by government, are united in the support of public agencies relying on, and acting on, fact, science, and credible data. Our lives and society depend on it.

How would you work right now, to support competent and effective management, policy, and action within and by all public agencies? How eould you work right now, to quell and eliminate the disparagement and silencing of critical public employees?

08/12/2020

My response a month ago to a LinkedIn post by a very well-known commentator on Federal government management, that utterly ignored the significant history of customer service improvement initiatives that preceded the Clinton-Gore “Reinventing Government” initiative. Sadly, this commentator and a few other well-known voices chronically fail to mention the truly significant achievements that were done under the Federal Quality Improvement initiatives implemented under President G. H. W. Bush. This came from the success of Japanese industry applying the methods of Deming and others. There is an excellent archive of Federal Quality Improvement documents online.

There is also a remarkable story about the end of the Bush Quality Improvement initiative that very few people know. It is a story filled with irony, astonishing coincidence (in my learning about it and 8 years later confirming it), and even cruelty, in the way truly non-partisan leaders of the Bush-era movement were treated.

But for now, my reply on LinkedIn, about the apparently unprecedented work we did at the U.S. Department of Labor in the early 1990s on creating service improvements. Perhaps the greatest sadness is the lack of attention to pursuing excellence now.

And so...

Bruce Waltuck

I am consistently puzzled (no longer surprised) that long-time commentators on Federal government do not mention the initiatives and achievements of the Quality Improvement movement initiated under President GHW Bush. Not political, but motivated by the achievements of business using TQM worldwide. In Customer Service, the IRS (yes, really) won Quality Improvement Prototype awards (2d-highest Fed award) for Service (Fresno center, as I recall). And later, at the USDOL where I co-created and led our award-winning Employee Involvement and Quality Improvement initiative, I ran what was the first, and possibly only nationwide service improvement exercise. Coinciding with Customer Service month, the Serving Our Customer exercise designed by Ed Cohen-Rosenthal, had 90% of DOL employees voluntarily participate in local office sessions, where over 9,000 locally- and immediately-implementable improvements to internal and external customer service were generated. See the online archive of the Federal Quality initiative, and my article with David Carnevale and Jim Armshaw in the Journal of Public Administration (currently in print in a collected volume). Federal Government has achieved service excellence, and could again, if...

08/01/2020

A post I wrote back in 2011, that I happened to come across today.

Now, as much or more than ever.


how to run government (or any org)...
. think deeply about your mission
. articulate and share your vision/objectives with everyone in and out- all stakeholders
. listen to ALL voices from all stakeholders
. distribute control, responsibility, and accountability
.measure two kinds of things, two kinds of ways: for linear, stable processes, count the usual measures of how many, what cost, how long, etc. For complex processes and outcomes, measure a)fidelity/congruence to core operating values/principles, and b)impact (how well..).
.link employee engagement and satisfaction, to goals and objectives. Link results to learning and resource planning/allocation
.devote a percentage of your staff time and your money, to "exploring possibility space." Try without fear. Learn deeply from all attempts.
.do not give your people so much work, that they have no time to participate in improving/experimenting.
.assure universal access to people and information. Connect everyone to each other.
.if you have unions, welcome them to the table as partners. Management can not exist without workers, nor workers without leadership. Help everyone see that it is in the interests of both sides to collaborate, thrive, and survive.
.forget monetary rewards. There is plenty of data to prove they are more hurtful than helpful. Give frequent and public recognition.
. follow the example of the former Navy Commander at Alameda base- who insisted everyone get an annual appraisal "as meaningless as possible." All got a de facto satisfactory, with a tough process to justify higher or lower. In a year, grievances dropped, morale and productivity soared.
.and, teach leaders, managers, legislators, citizens, the wisdom of both Einstein and Deming, who both noted that there are things that can be counted, that don't count; and things that count, that can't be counted

09/12/2019

Steve Kelman’s blog post. And a bit of a letter we sent to the people behind Steve’s story at its start, years ago.

There is much to this matter to explore and understand. Begin with M. Q. Patton “Developmental Evaluation.”

Years after OMB began pushing the idea of soft paternalism in federal programs, a GSA office is quietly leading cutting-edge efforts.