The KUPMC Blog

by Kent R. Austin, CPFO
City of University Park, Texas

Intolerance

Good leadership and good management require intolerance. Not intolerance for the ethnicity, culture, or race of others, but rather intolerance for mediocrity, unproductive behavior, and suboptimal performance.

Pain with a Purpose

Profound theories aside, management ultimately means the infliction of pain for a purpose.  No manager wants to discipline, reprimand, or terminate a likable but underperforming employee.  But continued tolerance of subpar performance becomes an organizational cancer that lowers the standards and effectiveness of an entire work unit.

Inner confidence in the manager is essential for confronting and correcting poor performance.  Many times managers will be hesitant to correct employees because they know their own example is not what it should be.  How can a manager punish a chronically late employee if the manager himself is often tardy?  Punishment without credibility communicates hypocrisy and erodes trust.

Alternatively, the reduction of fear and self-doubt can unleash energy and a heightened sense of intolerance.  The manager constantly asks, “why do I put up with this?”  This unleashing of energy is captured artfully in the “Courage Wolf” Internet meme shown above.

Acceptance of Responsibility

The ability to manage takes another huge step forward when managers reject voluntary helplessness and resolve to take full ownership of everything within their domain.  Managers acknowledge their “responsibility for the quality of work at the radio station,” as Billy Crystal’s boss says in the movie “City Slickers.”  Confronting the Crystal character’s low performance, the boss steps in and temporarily takes over Crystal’s decision making authority.  It required the infliction of pain, but it was the right thing to do.

The Power of Pushback

Constructive intolerance can also begin with one simple word:  “pushback.”  While the term is an informal synonym for ‘resistance,’ it suggests a more active, assertive response—physically pushing back on statements or actions that conflict with one’s desires.

Amazing things can happen when people reach the point of pushback and beyond.  Much of history is the story of individuals deciding they will no longer tolerate oppressive conditions or behaviors, from the flight of the Israelites in Egypt to the American Revolution to the Civil Rights movement.

Punk Rock Primer

Even punk rock is instructive on this point.  Punk grew directly out of the economic malaise and social unrest of mid-1970’s Britain, coupled with a vehement rejection of the perceived pretentiousness and consumerist nature of contemporary rock music.  The punk spirit advocated a three chord, do-it-yourself approach that eschewed instrumental skill or elaborate production values in favor of full, free expression.

Leading the anarchic charge were the Sex Pistols, whose vulgar yet energetic pushback struck a nerve with a generation of young Britons similarly disaffected and despairing.  Even though the BBC refused to air the Sex Pistols’ music, in 1977 their single “God Save the Queen” shot to the top of the charts—at the same time as Queen Elizabeth’s 25^th anniversary jubilee celebration.

As jarring as the music was, the lyrics were even more shocking and despairing:

“God save the Queen/She ain’t no human being.

There’s no future/In England’s dreaming.

Don’t be told about what you want/Don’t be told about what you need.

There’s no future, no future, no future for you.”

Although the Sex Pistols imploded in 1978, they changed rock music and popular culture in ways still felt today. Their explosive pushback was horrifying and inspiring, depressing and liberating. While the nature of their expression has little in common with the life of a government finance officer, the energy released by the Sex Pistols’ pushback and their ability to initiate change are worth remembering.

Cultural reinforcers:  Intolerance, Pushback and Willingness to Impose Change

• Books:  That First Season: How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory, by John Eisenberg (2009); The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work, by Peter Block (1991).
• Movies:  City Slickers (1992); A Bug’s Life (1998); Rocky (1976); Erin Brockovich (2000); District 9 (2009).
• Music:  “God Save the Queen,” the Sex Pistols (1977); “Fight the Power,” Public Enemy (1989); “Get Up, Stand Up,” Bob Marley and the Wailers (1973); “A Little Less Conversation,” Elvis Presley (1968).
• Historical figures:  Spartacus; St. Thomas More; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Rosa Parks

This is part 2 of Kent Austin’s article “How Indifference, Intolerance and Selfishness Make a Better Finance Officer” which will appear in GFOA’s Government Finance Review in February 2013. Find part 1 here and look for part 3 in the coming weeks. Kent is a 1988 graduate of the KU MPA program. He serves as the director of finance for the City of University Park, Texas and is the 2012-13 president of the Government Finance Officers Association of Texas.

by Kent R. Austin, CPFO
City of University Park, Texas

A famous management handbook, first published in 1946 and reprinted continuously since then, opens with this memorable sentence: “You know more than you think you do.”

The same concept holds true for finance officers, and for public managers more generally: they know more than they think they do. Why? Because experience and learning are continuous processes, resulting in an enormous aggregation of memories, thoughts, feelings, likes, and dislikes in each one of us.

First and foremost, individuals are hired to be problem solvers, whether in government finance or any other line of work. Consequently, what an individual brings to a job is far more than simply specific technical knowledge in a given field. Individuals bring a lifetime of learning that originates from an untold number of sources. Consider:

• Every book, magazine, comic book, and newspaper you have ever read
• Every family member, friend, co-worker, or acquaintance you have ever met
• Every movie, TV show, and Internet video you have ever watched
• Every vacation, business trip, or daily commute you have ever taken
• Every meeting, public hearing, conference, and celebration you have ever attended
• Every class, seminar, training session, and workshop you have ever taken.

Each one of us has massive amounts of information that we carry around every day. Why limit on-the-job problem solving abilities to the technical skills required by the job description? Each one of us knows so much more than we think we do.

To help harness this huge knowledge base, think how it relates to three traits traditionally considered undesirable—indifference, intolerance, and selfishness. Turning these negative traits inside out leads to an understanding of how to renew one’s approach to life and work—a personal “reboot.”
Indifference
Traditionally, “indifference” refers to a lack of caring or a deliberate decision to ignore or avoid certain ideas, places, or people. Around 1543, Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Roman Catholic order of priests known as the Jesuits, developed a radically different definition.

To him, the purpose of man’s existence should be to love and serve God. Everything else should not matter.

Thus, by centering one’s being on the single goal of loving and serving God, a Jesuit would seek to be indifferent to all other things—being rich or poor, fat or thin, intelligent or slow-witted, and so on. All else paled besides pursuit of the central mission. This Ignatian indifference gave a tremendous clarity and focus to the Jesuits, which drove them to accomplish incredible things in the service of their goal.

Mission Focus
While theological concepts from the 16th century seem far removed from local government challenges of the 21st century, the Jesuit emphasis on mission is instructive for today’s finance officers. So often it is easy to become consumed with an increasing number of tasks, which seem to accumulate with each year. We become busier and busier, never feeling caught up or never spending the time on planning that we claim we want.

Barnacle Theory
This phenomenon is similar to the accumulation of barnacles on the hull of a ship below the water line.

Over time, the barnacles increasingly act as a drag on the ship’s ability to move through the water; although everything looks fine above the water line, more effort and engine power are required to make the same rate of progress. Periodically, then, the ship must be taken to dry dock so that the barnacles can be removed and the ship’s performance restored.

Lyrics from the song “Reboot the Mission” by Jakob Dylan and the Wallflowers (2012) sum up the solution succinctly:

“Eyes on the prize/Reboot the mission.
I lost my sight/But not the vision.”

Periodically one must stop and remember, or formulate for the first time, what the essential mission of their unit is. This does not require lofty vision or mission statements, elaborate goals and objectives, or detailed action plans.

Instead, it simply requires some reflection on what it is that an organizational unit brings to the services delivered by the organization. Is the department helping or hindering this delivery? Is the department an overprotective watchdog or a helpful resource for departments trying to provide front line services?

Popular culture reinforces: Indifference –> Focus on the Mission
• Books: The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz (2004).
• Movies: Moneyball (2011); Twelve O’clock High (1949); The Untouchables (1987)
• Music: “Reboot the Mission,” Jakob Dylan and the Wallflowers (2012)
• Historical figures: Abraham Lincoln; Ulysses S. Grant; Vince Lombardi

This is part 1 of Kent Austin’s article “How Indifference, Intolerance and Selfishness Make a Better Finance Officer” which will appear in GFOA’s Government Finance Review in February 2013. We’ll publish parts 2 & 3 here on the blog in the coming weeks. Kent is a 1988 graduate of the KU MPA program. He serves as the director of finance for the City of University Park, Texas and is the 2012-13 president of the Government Finance Officers Association of Texas.

Reprinted from the Kansas Government Journal October 2012 issue

Kansans enjoy autumn for many reasons. For farmers, the last harvest of the year is a time to get paid for months of hard work. For others, it’s a brief respite from our often-brutal summers and winters. But for me, autumn’s always been about football.

My dad got me hooked at a young age, but once I started playing the sport I had no chance of ever kicking that addiction. I know it’s cliché for a grown man to think back to the “old playing days,” but one part of those Friday night battles has stayed with me–how much teamwork was required for success. You’ll never gain one yard on a football field unless you work together with your teammates, and that requires a commitment to an important value—trust.

Unfortunately, beyond the gridiron, America is experiencing a trust-deficit. Public trust in institutions has been decreasing since the 1960s, and it’s now at record lows. Only 44% of Americans trust organized religion, 29% trust the criminal justice system, 25% trust the media, and 21% trust banks and big businesses. The federal government is possibly the least trusted, at only 13%. And although institutions closely connected to people like small businesses and local governments are still trusted (65% and 61% respectively), they too are garnering record-low levels.1

This diminished trust should matter to local governments. Studies have shown that as trust in government diminishes, so the does the rate of compliance with the law. Additionally, trust is necessary for a community to work together to fix problems, and without it there can be paralyzing inaction. Trust is also a fundamental component of a healthy democracy, as it encourages citizen engagement in politics and enhances support for democratic ideals.2

Why is contemporary trust so low? That debate is best left to the thousands of academic papers on the topic, but there are a few key factors worth mentioning, many of which are beyond the control of city officials. There is a strong relationship between economic growth and institutional trust, and sometimes trust just depends on the individual (citizens who are younger, have lower life satisfaction, and have more education, all tend to have lower levels of trust). Residents of bigger cities are also less trusting of local governments than those of smaller cities.3

But luckily, there are trust factors that local officials can influence. For example, residents that participate in community improvement activities tend to manifest higher degrees of trust in their municipalities.4 One organization in our state that’s been instrumental in coordinating these trust-building activities is Kansas PRIDE. The Kansas PRIDE Program is a partnership of Kansas State University, the Kansas Department of Commerce, and Kansas PRIDE, Inc., that assists local governments and volunteers in making their communities better places to live and work. PRIDE has facilitated the restoration of a mini-park in Smith Center, maintained historic structures in Greeley, started the farmers’ market in Elk City, and initiated hundreds of other projects in cities across Kansas.

Fighting the perception of corruption is another way to build trust. Even if corruption is non-existent, citizens are skeptical of entities managing large amounts of public funds, so municipalities should be as open as possible. Although transparency on its own is ineffective, educating the public about the local governments’ structure and decision-making processes is a proven way to build trust.

Overland Park, which was one of three Kansas municipalities to receive a 2012 Sunny Award from the Sunshine Review, a non-profit organization dedicated to state and local government transparency, has taken some great steps to build trust with public information. The City’s website, www.opkansas.org, gives the function and contact information of all governing body members, City departments, and City boards. The City also posts their own governing body manual online, which describes how specific decisions are made. These small steps demystify local government and increase citizens’ trust in their city officials.5

As many city leaders would probably guess, the most powerful explanation of public trust is the degree of satisfaction with municipal services. Recognizing the importance of high-quality city services, the City of Wichita has set up “Neighborhood City Halls.” These halls are in several convenient neighborhood locations, and allow residents to meet with city council members, talk to representatives of the city police, inspection, and health departments, enroll in parks and recreation programs, and get assistance with issues like trash, loose dogs, and dangerous structures.6

The City of Gardner has also taken action to improve municipal services. Each year, the City conducts a citizen survey to see which services its residents are satisfied with and which it needs to improve. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of the quality of municipal services, and is an important tool in its resource-allocation decisions. By providing tools that respond to citizens’ service demands, Gardner and Wichita have increased their residents’ trust in their local governments.

Any municipality trying to gain the trust of its residents needs to remember that trust can only be built up over time, and that any initiative requires the involvement of both parties. Whether that means creating volunteer opportunities, educating residents about how local governments work, staffing centers to respond to service requests, or simply asking residents how they feel about their community, trust can only be established by creating tools for residents to interact with the local government. Once that happens, the city and its residents can work together as a team to build great a community.

Michael Koss a student in the KU MPA program and serves as the Membership Services Manager for the League of Kansas Municipalities. He can be reached at mkoss@lkm.org or (785) 354-9565.

1 http://www.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx
2 Sofie Marien and Marc Hooghe, Does political trust matter?, European Journal of Political Research, Volume 50, Issue 2 (March 2011).
3 http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/insights/I0835en.pdf
4 http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/insights/I0835en.pdf
5 http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/USBO/2010-0127-200123/Grimmelikhuijsen.pdf
6 http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/insights/I0835en.pdf

Rebecca Nesbit, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of nonprofit management in the School of Public Affairs and Administration at the University of Kansas. She researches volunteer management in public and nonprofit organizations. Feel free to contact her at beckynesbit@ku.edu with any questions about volunteer use.

One of the questions that I get most often from volunteer managers (or those who have been given the responsibility for coordinating volunteer efforts) is how they can get their supervisor or executive director to support their efforts at involving volunteers in the organization.

Many executive directors think that once they hire a volunteer manager they will no longer have to worry about the volunteer program. This is not true. Volunteer managers need specific, supportive actions from their supervisors or the head of their organization in order to make the organization’s volunteer program more effective.

Do you provide adequate resources for the volunteer program? Volunteers are not free. Beyond hiring a volunteer manager, the volunteer program will need a budget for supplies, communication, and recognition activities. At the very least, the action of giving a budget to the volunteer program indicates its importance in your organization.

Do you hold staff accountable for good working relationships with volunteers? Many executive directors believe that relationships between volunteers and staff at their organization are good, but the volunteer manager often knows differently. In many instances, especially when introducing a new volunteer program, staff might be reluctant or resistant to working with volunteers. (Look for a future blog article about employee reluctance to working with volunteers.) If the organization is truly committed to using volunteers, then working productively with volunteers should be part of employee job descriptions and performance evaluations.

Do you orient and train staff in ways to work effectively with volunteers? Executive directors often assume that volunteers can fit seamlessly into their organization, but working with volunteers requires a range of skill sets—interpersonal skills, communication skills, the ability to give feedback, managerial skills and time management skills. In addition, most employees do not understand what volunteers want and need in order to help them to be effective contributors to the organization. Staff members need training and orientation in these areas before being asked to work with volunteers.

What are the most frequent issues brought to you by the manager of volunteers at your organization?

Teresa Schwab, LMSW, is an Instructor with the KU PMC.  She is also a Trainer, Coach, and Facilitator.  She partners with individuals, organizations, and communities that are interested in making progress on issues that matter.  She lives in Lawrence with her husband and three young sons.  Teresa can be reached at teresa@arnavonstrategies.com.


My husband and I grew up in a very small town in rural Western Kansas.  The town has been slowly losing population for years, but after their school closed a few years ago, about all that remains now are a library, grocery store, one café/bar, and a post office.

This past weekend, we took our kids back there to spend Spring Break with their grandmothers who still live in the area.  While we were there, we took a walk around town to share memories from our childhood.  We started our walk through the alleys of downtown, which revealed something that we couldn’t have seen had we taken the sidewalk—almost all of the remaining buildings, emptied long ago of their businesses, were caving in.  I felt overwhelmingly sad realizing that in the not too distant future each of these buildings, remembered so fondly from our childhoods, would be reduced to rubble.

What does our small town have to do with your personal brand?  Basically, a brand is your identity, the way that you differentiate yourself from everyone else.  In order to create your brand, any brand really, you must first understand who you ARE and who you want to BE in a way that it influences what you DO and subsequently, how others see you.  Getting this kind of clarity gives you a blueprint for your future, informs the kind of tools you’ll need (skills, expertise, etc.), and allows you to make decisions about what kinds of materials you’d like to use (what you really need vs. what you can let go of).

Had our small community developed its identity consciously, perhaps defining that it wanted to always be a vibrant community, these buildings would never have been allowed to deteriorate and crumble.  Taking the time now to build your personal brand will prevent you from climbing a career ladder, only to find years down the road that your ladder has been propped up against the wrong wall.

Here are a few steps to get you started building your own personal brand:

Step 1
Understand who you are, especially your strengths. Make a list of what you perceive to be your strengths, then add any feedback you’ve received over the years from supervisors, colleagues, friends, family, and even strangers.  Pull out annual evaluations and/or any assessments you may have taken and re-read what they say about you.  This step helps set the context for the next few steps.  When you’ve got a pretty good combined list, you’re ready to move on.

Step 2
Define who you want to be and what impact you would like to have. Ask yourself, what difference do I see myself making in this world?  By the end of my career, what impact would I like to have had?  You may not completely know the answer to this yet, but you should feel okay about making a “best guess” based on where you are in your career path.  For some people, this is an evolutionary process.

Step 3
Define what you want to be known for. Ask, what do I want people to see when they look at me?  What do I want others to say about me to other people?  Articulate the value that you uniquely offer to others.  This step is important because this is the outward expression of your brand, i.e. what others see and experience as your unique value.

Step 4
Define for yourself why what you want to be and what you want to be known for are important. Values drive behavior, so make a list of values that are important to you.  This step is important because it keeps you focused on the most important priorities when you meet the inevitable barriers along the way.

Step 5
Get clear about what you need to do and how you want to do it. It may be helpful to limit your timeframe to either the next 12 months, or perhaps a little longer, like 3 years.  Ask yourself, what do I really want or need to do in this next year (or next 3 years) that will set me on a path to making the difference I ultimately want to make?  What projects do I want to initiate or complete?  What new relationships do I need to establish?  What additional training do I need?  Think not just about what you yourself would like to do, but also about what your organization or other stakeholders need or want you to do—you may not be able to control every project you take on, but you can certainly control how you carry it out.

One final note, just as a building built in the 1950’s needs to be updated and remodeled, it is important to understand that developing your personal brand is a process–you’ll need to revisit it periodically.

After you’ve had a chance to develop your personal brand, I would love to hear how you’re using it to move forward in your life and career!

The Green Tape Doctor

The Green Tape Doctor is Leisha DeHart-Davis, an associate professor in the University of Kansas School of Public Affairs and Administration. She conducts research on effective organizational rules, which she refers to as “green tape.” Feel free to email her with your questions on creating effective rules for public sector organizations (lddavis@ku.edu).

Is It Time To Write a Rule?

I once interviewed a public manager who told me, “I decide to write a rule when I’m becoming stressed from people coming into my office with the same issue or problem.”

The manager’s comment suggests that rules can solve workplace problems. But when to write a rule is sometimes unclear: on the one hand, managers need administrative capacity to empower action. On the other hand, they do not want excessive bureaucracy in their workplaces.

How do you know when a written rule is needed? Here are three questions to ask:

** What is the worst that will happen if you do not write a rule? Answering this question is a good way to figure out whether a workplace issue is important enough to write a rule. If the worst-case scenario is likely and imposes unacceptable costs on organizational integrity or operational effectiveness, then a written rule may be in order.

** Are you clear on rule objectives? Written rules are well-suited to clear objectives. Even general objectives – reduced personal Internet usage or increased employee professionalism – greatly simplify rule-writing and help focus the rule on what you are trying to accomplish.

** What is causing the issue? Written rules are like the practice of medicine: prescribing the remedy requires diagnosing the ailment. Take time to investigate the causes of a workplace issue before formulating the rule. If the issue pertains to depleted sick leave, talk to employees to find out what’s going on. Written rules are more effective when designed with root causes in mind.

If the worst-case scenario is unacceptable and if you have clear rule objectives and a good grasp on root causes, then your workplace problem is a good candidate for a written rule.

Is there a workplace issue that you solved using a written rule?  What was it?

When the Green Tape Doctor returns to our blog, look for advice on creating logical rules.

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.

In an interview in the New York Times, Peggy Klaus, author of The Hard Truth About Soft Skills, was asked “What exactly are soft skills and why should we be worried about them?”

She replied that “the hard skills are the technical expertise you need to get the job done. The soft skills are really everything else — competencies that go from self-awareness to one’s attitude to managing one’s career to handling critics, not taking things personally, taking risks, getting along with people and many, many more.”

Basically, soft skills are those that enable you to put your technical skills productively to work.

Can you resolve a conflict with a co-worker about a work plan or about cubicle distractions? Can you sell the value of your approach to your boss and teammates? Can you write an email that gets the results you need? Can you challenge someone’s idea in a productive rather than destructive way?

Then celebrate and thank your soft skills. And as you mentally make note of everyone you work with whose lack of soft skills makes them unpleasant–or even unbearable–to work with, the pivotal role of soft skills in the workplace becomes very visible. Without the soft skills to support the technical abilities of a staff, projects simply don’t get very far. Even the US Department of Labor sees soft skills as “the competitive edge.”

This is a hugely important lesson that most of us have learned the hard way as we struggle to work with those who make everyone around them miserable. But having learned this lesson, make it work for you: make sure your hiring processes are designed to measure soft skills as well as hard skills.

There are some terrific web resources to help you do this. The Soft Skills blog offers questions divided by skill area to ask about. And if you’ve ever heard of or used behavioral-based interviewing, the focus is on soft skills. Here’s one good explanation and resource. And here’s another.

Meanwhile, don’t pass up any opportunities to improve your own soft skills. They’ll be key to moving into the next job you desire, and in the interim your co-workers will thank you for it.

“No service without proper ID!”

“No Outside Food or Drink.”

“DO NOT DISPOSE HYGIENE PRODUCTS IN THE TOILET.”

“Absolutely NO PARKING in this area.”

All government offices are filled with people whose work is, ultimately, about serving the public. But some offices serve the public more directly by providing direct service to customers who physically walk in the door.

Unfortunately, not all of the signs posted to communicate with those customers are written with the customer in mind. Instead, many are phrased in ways that highlight frustrations of staff.

While this is true of many businesses, too–just think of all the “NO” signs on the entry doors to some establishments–in those cases the customer is free to go to a competitor. In the case of government offices, the customer probably has no choice but to use that office and that service. When we greet people with signs that essentially say “here’s what we expect that you’ll do wrong and we find it very annoying so don’t,” there’s a huge missed opportunity.

Instead, we could write our signs in a reader-centered way to create a more positive impression of government services and the staff that provide them. Invite your customers to positively participate in what your agency is trying to accomplish.

“Please have your ID available so that we can assist you today. Acceptable ID includes…”

“Please help us maintain the plumbing by not disposing of hygiene products in the toilet.”

“Your patronage of our concession stand helps pay for pool maintenance.”

“We’re sorry you have to wait in line. If you use this time to make sure you have these 3 forms prepared, it’ll help us serve you more quickly.”

“Public parking is available behind the building.”

Once you’ve assessed the messages you’re sending to the public, you might also review the signs posted for staff and see whether some new wording might improve the tone of the workplace.

Have you ever been struck by a sudden bolt of insight that rearranging what’s stored where in the kitchen cupboards would better serve the way you actually use the kitchen? So you get out the step stool and started to pull things down, which leads to the realization that the cupboards need to be cleaned.

There are two main options at this point: put stuff back where it was since this is a larger job than you thought, or embrace the process and forge ahead because you anticipate the improved outcome being worth the hassle.

Even for those of us who opt to forge ahead, we’ll still find ourselves having to adjust to things being in new places. No matter how much better the new system, one that we came up with on our own, will function, we still struggle to unlearn old habits.

So if change is this hard when it’s our own idea, is it any wonder that most of us resist change in our organizations when the change wasn’t of our making and where our input may not have been considered?

Keep this in mind when you’re working to implement a change in a process or structure. No matter how beneficial the new arrangement may be, you’re still asking folks to give up something their comfortable with. Even if the current process is something they complain about, your colleagues at least know how to work the process. This gives them an experience of competence.

Change means giving up some of that competence so it brings on insecurity. To help the people around you move past the resistance they may have to a change, acknowledge what they’re giving up and make sure they’ll have the tools and resources they’ll need to become competent in the new system.

And be patient. Even if the mixer is now in the cupboard directly in front of where you’re standing, you’re still likely to go try to retrieve if from it’s old, inconvenient location multiple times before the benefits of the new arrangement work their way into your muscle memory.

What helps you embrace change?