The KUPMC Blog

School of Public Affairs and Administration Graduation Ceremony (April 20, 2012)
Comments Delivered By Brian Handshy
Brian has been named a 2012 Presidential Management Fellow. Fewer than one percent of applicants are selected to take part in this prestigious program, which matches outstanding graduate students with federal leadership opportunities and employment. Click here to read the full article regarding Brian’s accomplishment.

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I speak tonight on the ideal of dedication of self to public service.

I ask, on what occasion should humanity withdraw from personal interests and self-absorption, and rather tilt forward toward calamity, toward peril, toward possible obscurity, to preserve the hope and future comfort of its posterity?

Abigail Adams, wife and confidant to our second president, John Adams, in a letter to her son, once said what I consider to be the answer, “These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are found in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues.”

“Great necessities call out great virtues” and signal best the occasion for serving others’ needs.

We, who are alive today, face no real shortage of ‘great necessity’.

Our world is smaller, faster, and daily becoming more crowded as technology extends and improves life for some, even as it exacts famine, strife, indifference, and death upon others.

Who then amongst us will answer the challenge of ‘great necessity’? I tell you tonight that in my experience, answers abound everywhere. For instance, I think of:

-Blue Hills Community Services (BHCS), a Kansas City, Missouri based non-profit affordable housing developer, who has used a block-by-block approach to urban revitalization.

In 25 years of service, BHCS has rehabilitated over 200 family units, eliminating blight, decreasing crime, creating local employment, and helping older residents to remain in their homes.

Or,

-Beth Sarver, a local artist, is committed to the idea that humanity is more than our productive capabilities. She has helped adults and children learn about the world around them through play, storytelling, and creative outlets of all kinds. Her efforts in working with local governments, non-profits, and numerous private organizations have led to the improved cognitive and social awareness of metro-area at-risk children.

Or perhaps,

-One of our own recent graduates, Chris Hoyt, who demonstrates service above self in a way that I can only aspire to; mentoring and educating not only hundreds of at-risk children in the rural villages of Mexico, but coordinating and training dozens of new volunteers, often outside of his normal work hours.

-Perhaps one of the best examples of public service that transcends any one sector of employment is the city of Greensburg, Kansas. In the aftermath of a tornado on 2007 that completely wiped away the infrastructure and physical presence of its town, when others might revel in despair, the people, government, administration, and businesses of this small town came together to re-imagine what a rural community can be in the 21st century. They have become a world icon of green-energy solutions, collaborative power, and the immense durability of a society that values the potential of the future, rather than the constraints of the past.

It is important, I think, that we see in these examples that public service is not the story of one person’s challenge or endurance, but the narrative of a committed few working to inspire and reach out to others.

Public service brings about a familiar vision of bureaucracy and politics. A vision that of late, has met with distrust, disgust, and contempt in many citizens’ minds. I don’t blame them, considering the examples of service in popular news media where servants have squandered both the financial resources and the delicate trust that they have sworn in many instances to uphold.

But, with this in mind, I challenge all of you to remember that together we have done wonderful things as a species, things greater than any one mind could imagine possible.

With this in mind, as some of us move on from graduation to career advancement and potentially more responsibility, and as others leave this graduation banquet to resume daily duties; I ask please that you endeavor to improve the lives of others around you.

Endeavor to work as a volunteer, or run for office, or offer your ideas and skills to your local government. Conversely, if you are privileged to serve the public as a government employee already – remember to listen and engage. These are not just customers, but your neighbors, family, and friends.

I began this speech with a quote from Abigail Adams, and so too will I close with one. One that I think best presents the challenge and the power of public service.

“Public business, my son, must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or another. If wise men decline it, others will not; if honest men refuse it, others will not.”

Here’s to celebrating those with the wisdom and courage amongst us – those who accept this challenge on our behalf.

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By Katherine Carttar (KU MPA 2012) & Margaret Mahoney (KU MPA 2012)

The 36 year hiatus after the first women’s conference has almost been forgiven as the second “Inspiring Women in Public Administration Conference” in two years displayed real potential for the conference to become a nationally-recognized and attended annual event. Over 150 women and a handful of men attended the one day event hosted by the KU School of Public Affairs and Administration and KU Public Management Center on the K-State Olathe campus. Dynamic speakers, such as Treasurer of the United States Rosie Rios, inspired us to take every opportunity to empower the women around us. International attendees from Middle Eastern countries, at KU for a month taking classes with the KU Women’s Leadership Institute, helped us view our environment through a new lens. Their awestruck reaction to seeing a woman in a police uniform [Ellen Hanson, Chief of Police for the City of Lenexa, KS] illustrates how far we have come, but the fact that there was only one woman in uniform in attendance also shows how far we still have to go. As we participated in thought-provoking roundtable discussions and good conversation, common themes began to emerge as issues important to women in public administration.

Civility
One of the recurring themes throughout the day was the need for civility as professionals in public service. The topic was addressed in the morning panel and in both the morning and afternoon breakout groups. Julia Novak, President of The Novak Consulting Group, gave some great advice on the topic of how to handle incivility. She pointed out the need for more deliberation and less debate. Deliberation is a skill that we can all learn and practice, and it includes using negotiation and compromise. As a leader, you set the tone—so don’t allow incivility, don’t do it, and practice respect. This advice was echoed by Beth Linn, City Administrator with the City of Edgerton, who stated that we should lead by example and treat others with respect. Karen Davis, Senior Management Advisor with Management Partners Inc. and conference Chair, also noted the importance of diffusing incivility up front—do not assume it will get better as time goes by. Incivility is an unpleasant reality faced by many public service professionals, but with this advice it can be dealt with proactively and professionally.

Communication
The importance of honing the skill of good communication was referenced repeatedly throughout the day. In a morning breakout session, Sheryl Sculley, City Manager of Antonio, TX, described communication as a necessary skill to acquire in order to make the leap to the top. Women especially need a confident presence and the ability to speak assertively, while remaining willing to learn and be coached. Women have a tendency to wait for projects and promotions to be offered but we must become more comfortable with asking for what we want professionally. Mary Birch, Government Relations Coordinator at Lathrop & Gage LLP, took the necessity of good communication skills a step further. Collaboration and leadership are both achieved through communication. The best way to solve a complex issue is by taking the time to discuss it face-to-face but be sure to arm yourself with the objective facts, research, and data to achieve the best solution. In addition, the ability to convey a clear, concise, and compelling plan results in leadership that inspires and instills hope.

Professional Development
It is a good reminder to all of us to continue our professional development and education. For many of us, we have the great resources available through KU for continuing education and lifelong learning, but wherever you work, don’t be afraid to ask your employer to attend conferences and take classes. Moreover, encouraging education for your employees is critical. As Susan Stanton, Principal at SMS Consulting, points out, the public sector needs to act more like the private sector in recognizing that human capital is the most valuable asset. Sheryl Sculley also suggests doing a lot of different types of work early in your career to get a variety of experience and learn new skills. Jewell Scott, Executive Director of the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City, also suggests “going into orbit” every day—pick up a magazine, newspaper, watch the news, learn about something new—rather than “ossify” in our own narrow part of the world. Opening up to new experiences and paying attention to the world around us not only allows continual growth both personally and professionally, but it allows us to be more creative and innovative.

Innovation
Every business in every sector must find a way to innovate or eventually perish. Much of the success in the private sector is a result of fearless innovation. These businesses plan ahead for every scenario so that an unsuccessful innovative gamble will rarely bankrupt them but rather provide information to ensure the following variation is a success. The act of receiving tax payer money has turned the public sector into followers and late adopters of efficiency increasing trends. In the afternoon keynote, Susan Stanton challenged public sector administrators to get out of the comfort zone of following and start taking risks by becoming true innovators. Public administrators are notorious for automating the same old process and calling it innovation. The real innovation needed in government is a total shake-up of organizational design to function across jurisdictions and allow the government to act proactively instead of always reactively. Unfortunately, with true innovation comes failure, which is not accepted in the public sector. As citizens and in our professional capacity, we must be willing to accept some amount of failure as it is an important aspect of success and progress.

Importance of Mentors
It is impossible to attend a conference today where the importance of mentors is not touted. While “mentor” may be a current conference buzzword, there is no disputing the validity of this advice. Karen Davis described mentors as a foundation for support and a person to approach for honest feedback. Mary Birch reminded mentors that they can get as much or more out of the relationship since it is only a matter of time before the mentor becomes the mentee. Treasurer Rios viewed the mentor relationship more broadly. She encouraged the women in the conference to establish informal foundation that supports women because it is our job is to inspire the next generation and create the conditions where women can succeed. It is important to view past and current challenges as women in public administration as an investment for future generations rather than a sacrifice. All forms of mentorship can result in profound and unexpected benefits for those on either side of the relationship.

Life Balance
As professionals, wives, mothers, friends, daughters, and the countless other roles that woman play, how do we stay balanced and live up to our own expectations and the expectations of others? Treasurer Rios suggests using a “pie of life” to describe what “having it all” means to a woman. Quite simply, you define what kind of pie you have and what goes in it. She advises us to let go of guilt and individually define what “having it all” means and also to remember that the pie will change. Susan Stanton suggested a similar approach—finding balance in your life by aiming for a balance in the totality of life. It may not be perfectly balanced at this moment, but it will be balanced overall.

Conclusion
Throughout the day of the conference a variety of topics were discussed, but one common theme to all of them is the importance and impact of women in public service today and into the future. The conference allowed us to take a moment in our busy lives to come to together to realize how far we, as women, have come, and how much further we have to go. Relationships with mentors and forming our own networks are critical to empowering each other, as well as utilizing effective communication and creativity. This conference is a great first step toward enacting these themes in our daily lives to improve our professional performance and personal wellness, and we encourage everyone to attend in the future.

Comments Delivered By Craig Weinaug, Douglas County Administrator
On November 18, 2011

As we approach another election cycle, I feel a mixture of excitement and dread as our attention is drawn again toward discussion of public issues. It certainly seems to me that at the state and national levels, some candidates base their entire campaigns on a baseless claim. They tell voters that government is responsible for virtually everything bad going on in the world today. Candidates for elected offices at every level compete to be perceived as the candidate who would eliminate the biggest chunks of this thing we call government.

Even in TV sitcoms and in almost all popular culture, any character part of a mayor, state legislator, or any other public job is almost always portrayed as incompetent, lazy, and/or just plain comically stupid.

Government is rarely presented in public debates or in popular culture as a positive force.

I once had a conversation with a young lady who was working toward her M.P.A. degree. She had interviewed the governor of the state where she went to undergraduate school. When he found out that she was pursuing a career in public service, he could not understand why a topflight student would seek a career in the public sector as her first choice when she could make so much more money in the private sector.

I am here to make an important point that seems to have been lost in public discourse: Government is the means that we have to collectively pay for and provide those services that we collectively need.

Government is not a boogeyman. Government is roads and bridges. Government is schools and libraries. Government is the military keeping us safe around the world, and government is public servants keeping our water and air safe at home.

The vast majority of government workers are public servants who have chosen a career in public service because they want to make better life for all of us.

Government includes our teachers who spend every day of their professional lives giving our children the opportunity to be all that they can be, regardless of the level of success of their parents.

It includes occupational rehab specialists that work with our neighbors with disabilities so they can live with dignity and be productive citizens regardless of the disabilities that they may have.

It includes law enforcement officers and fire fighters that are prepared on a moment’s notice to risk their lives so the rest of us can be safe.

It includes road engineers that devote an entire career in the continuing effort to make our roads as safe as possible and minimize the loss of life.

It includes public health officials who work to protect us all from the outbreak of diseases that would regularly threaten our communities, if it were not for their perseverance.

It includes the social workers at SRS who work to ensure that there is a safety net for the children of our citizens who have lost their jobs.

It includes the psychologists at our community mental health centers who work to meet the critical needs of our neighbors with mental health disorders. In many cases, the services of our mental health centers make the difference between a productive life and a life spent in and out of jail or worse.

It includes building inspectors who try to assure that our businesses and homes are safe and secure for us to live and work in. Government includes the emergency communication specialists that can quickly direct virtually any type of emergency personnel to meet a citizen’s need, and when needed, they can even give instructions to someone on the scene to clear the air path of a suffocating citizen.

It includes the garbage collector who picks up your trash and safely disposes of it in a sanitary landfill, and the public works employee that makes sure that when you flush your toilet that your human waste flows away from your house safely and does not flow back into our lakes and rivers until that sewage is clean and harmless.

It includes court officials who spend their entire careers balancing our constitutional safeguards against the need to incarcerate those who are a threat to our safety.

Government includes economic development specialists who work hard to make sure that our state retains and attracts jobs for all of us, including our children.

It includes the army enlistee who risks her life on the other side of the globe to keep us safe.

Government includes every member of this graduating class.

We are engaged in a great debate in this country and in this state about how much government we can “afford,” and it is an important debate. There are no easy answers.

There are always going to be people who want to distort the debate by characterizing what we do as somehow inferior or unnecessary or inefficient. Don’t let those charges go unanswered. Do your job well, do it with pride, and stand up for yourself and your colleagues.

We strive to find the balance between the services that we provide as public servants, the investments our communities need to make for the future, and the taxes it takes to support that vision without passing the bill on to the next generation.

And at every level of government, in every department or division or agency there are dedicated and determined public employees who are working every day to help our elected officials to strike the best and most appropriate balance.

Government is what we do. It is the work that you have dedicated your careers to and by earning this degree I know you are committed to doing it well.

Public service is a high calling. It is essential to who we are as Kansans and as Americans. Let’s perform that service with pride.

The November 2011 newsletter for the School of Public Affairs and Administration is now available! Check it out to learn more about:
• Our fabulous Director of Custom Courses, Jonathan Morris
• SPAA faculty member Chris Silvia
• A terrific supervisory training/collaboration project between the PMC and the City of Olathe
• And much more!

This special report from American City & County highlights an exciting project we’ve been working on with the City of Olathe so we’re reposting here.

Olathe, Kan., builds a collaborative culture to improve service delivery
By Jeff Johnston

Nowhere is the image of a silo more familiar than in America’s heartland, where the tall structures that contain harvested grain function as essential hubs in the spokes of agricultural commerce. But, silos take on negative connotations when they describe government departments that function independently with limited interaction or coordination with other organizations.

As resources become more scarce and service demands increase, many cities and counties are breaking down their organizational silos to foster cooperation and collaboration among their internal departments. By coordinating the use of limited funds, equipment and staff, cities and counties are finding new efficiencies and maintaining or improving their service levels.

Olathe, Kan., a suburb of Kansas City, recently embarked on a journey to eliminate the organizational silos between its departments and build a culture of collaboration instead. Knowing that they could not just tell departments to work together, City Manager Michael Wilkes and Assistant City Manager Susan Sherman sought to develop department heads’ collaborative leadership skills and recognize those skills in their performance reviews. The city worked with the University of Kansas Public Management Center and the School of Public Affairs and Administration to develop a supervisory training program for its managers that, among other things, included practical exercises designed to teach supervisors the skills they need to be effective collaborators. Researchers at the university are measuring the effectiveness of the training program and tracking the city’s transition to its new culture.

A ‘Shift in Thinking’
For the last decade, Olathe has been on a quest to deliver exceptional public service and has been measuring its progress toward that goal with annual citizen surveys. The surveys, administered by locally based ETC Institute, gauge residents’ satisfaction with city services, including emergency services, parks, water and wastewater, street and building maintenance, and communication. As all departments have been working toward improving their survey results, however, each became inwardly focused on their individual operations. “We were doing so much as a rapidly growing city, a lot of people were just focused on what they did and not what other departments were doing,” Sherman says.

Although collaboration was essential for certain tasks, such as emergency planning and response, elsewhere it was not pursued. “Everybody is so task-oriented, and collaboration really takes time,” Wilkes says. “We get so focused on the task and accomplishing the task and checking the stuff off the list that we don’t look for those opportunities to collaborate with others.”

So, when Wilkes and Sherman set out to create a new supervisory training program for city managers, they wanted to incorporate collaborative leadership skills training into the program. “We’re not going to get [all] the people that we’d like to have; we’re not going to have all the resources that we need for all of the stuff that we need; so, we’re going to have to figure out different ways to deal with and address our problems, and collaboration and innovation are the ways we’re going to get there,” Wilkes says.

The city began working with the University of Kansas Public Management Center to develop the program that would start with the city’s executive leadership team and, over one year, bring together managers and assistant managers in groups representing each department for three days of training. The main goals of the program were to link the supervisors’ responsibilities to the city’s stated vision, values and mission, and to teach collaborative leadership skills.

“When we talk about collaborative leadership, what we’re really talking about is that we have to learn to align very different goals at times; we have to coordinate multiple partners; we have to learn to share information effectively; we have to learn to work through conflict so that we can achieve the best possible solution to these pressing public problems that are not isolated to any one sector,” says Heather Getha-Taylor, assistant professor in the University of Kansas School of Public Affairs and Administration. “We’ve realized that producing public value is best achieved when we overcome the fragmented and siloed approaches – when we can take an integrated approach and solve problems using expertise, resources and information that spans boundaries.”

The training program also aimed to change the mindset of department supervisors who were focused on being direct service providers and building up the capacity of their departments internally. “It represents a need for a shift in thinking,” says Jonathan Morris, instructor and program manager for the University of Kansas Public Management Center. “If local government has traditionally been the direct service provider, what we hope to address in this training is to get the leaders and supervisors to rethink their role and see themselves instead as the convener of multiple providers, as the collaborator of public and private entities or intergovernmental collaboration. So, as you begin to rethink that role, it requires new skill sets.”

A small group setting and specific exercises created an environment that encouraged collaboration. After the three-day training, participants met with their small groups independently to discuss how they were putting their new skills into practice and making progress toward a collaborative project with another department. Also, collaboration was added to the performance goals of managers, who needed to show how they were engaging other departments, Wilkes says.

Collaboration Pays Off
To measure the results of the training program, University of Kansas researchers are conducting a long-term survey of city supervisors. Participants not only report their immediate reactions to the training, they must report on changes in their behavior and results over time.

A final report is due in October, but preliminary survey results show that the training has been successful in showing managers the value of collaboration. “Those who participated in the training perceive collaboration as key to getting their jobs done, and they agree that collaboration is worth the extra effort involved,” Getha-Taylor says. “We see a strong positive relationship between participation in the training and self-awareness, listening and communication skills. Those are the key collaboration skills that we need to be developing.”

In practice, collaborative efforts paid off for Olathe last winter when it experienced some of the heaviest snowfall and winter storms in recent history. In preparing its snow response plan last year, the streets department for the first time worked with the fire and police departments to develop a snow-clearing strategy. Previously, the streets department created its plan independently and had divided its crews to focus on different types of roads.

By working with the emergency departments to prioritize route clearing and by strategically directing plows during and after storms, the city improved its performance even during one of its worst winters. “We were good at snowplowing before, but we were outstanding in the winter of 2010-2011,” Wilkes says. “We had more snow than we usually have in Kansas City, and we got better results from our customers than ever before. And, I think it was because we worked together in a way that we had never worked together before.”

Although collaborative efforts might take more time and the outcomes might not be clear at the beginning, Wilkes and Sherman have seen that the risks are worth the effort. To break down the silos, they say local government leaders need to brush up on a few skills and then arm themselves with a little courage to take the first steps. “The first thing to do is to jump in and try something. Take a little risk and try something you haven’t done before, and hope it is successful,” Sherman says. “But if it isn’t, learn from it and try again, and try again.”

Jeff Johnston is an Atlanta-based freelance writer.

Public sector employees have been trained to deliver results within the boundaries of hierarchy, but what new skills are necessary to work effectively through networks, partnerships, and collaborations?

Dr. Heather Getha-Taylor, who will be joining the faculty of the KU Public Administration Department in the fall, will present a roundtable session at the City & County Management conference next week intended to help attendees collaborate more effectively.

The “Identifying and Developing Boundary-Spanning Skills” session will offer insights on the competencies that are linked to boundary-spanning success. Dr. Getha-Taylor will also present evidence of collaborative competencies among government, private sector, and nonprofit managers who together are working to address complex public problems. The discussion will conclude by considering the ways in which public organizations can foster collaborative skill building to support effective partnerships.

Click here for the complete conference schedule and registration information.