Organizational Strengthening       Business Outreach/Customer Satisfaction Los Angeles District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers District Mission The Los Angeles District (LAD) employs approximately 900 civilian workers across a wide range of professional and business support disciplines. LAD is responsible for military construction, improvement and maintenance of coastal and inland harbors and waterways, beach protection, flood control and integrated land and water uses covering nearly a quarter million square miles in Southern California, Arizona and portions of Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. LAD is best known for large public infrastructure design and management capabilities but offers a comprehensive range of project planning, permitting, real property management, construction operations and other services which can be bundled to meet the needs of local sponsors as they deliver facilities solutions to residents of the region. It is accurate to expect the District to be involved in virtually all Federally funded infrastructure programs in some capacity either as a permitting agency or up to and including control of multi-disciplined project delivery teams engaged throughout project lifecycles. Organizational Culture in Need of Change Leadership at Corps Headquarters became alert to dramatic shifts in the annual the budget process with Congress and the impacts the resulting operational budget approvals made upon the way the Corps conducts business. These and other factors created a need for LAD to revise its management approach to increase customer satisfaction, improve performance and develop measurements to monitor progress and increase morale among civilian workers. Project Setting & Goals The project was focused on bridging entrenched business practices and philosophies with a more contemporary approach to building stakeholder awareness of customer needs and stressing individual and organizational accountability. Working closely with LAD senior leadership, the following specific areas of focus were identified: The key areas for change Individual organization strengths and weaknesses The acceptability for change as a positive force Measurements to monitor progress Establish the budgeting process as a functional planning device Approach & Outcomes The budgeting process identified compliance with guidelines as Green. Near compliance but need for improvement was classed as Yellow and un-acceptable or non-complying budgets were Red. The color coding tended to de-personalize the budgeting process and the watch phrase Getting Green became a rallying point from which Division managers developed a healthy competition. We next applied the Green concept to desired organizational outcomes and established an in-house Green Team to go about the business of helping separate Divisions meet specific goals set forth by LAD leadership. The Green Team was comprised mainly of highly motivated District personnel and a few consultants to help focus the work and help develop solutions. The resulting peer group pressure had positive impacts to co-workers and helped to achieve sustained benefits to LAD well beyond a more conventional report with recommendations for action approach. Working with Green Team members, we conducted private interviews with selected staff, developed sets of common themes then analyzed how best to make remedies to challenges facing individuals and organizations or get things Green. Demonstrating how business practice concepts can be brought to bear, the Green Team emerged as an on-going capability to restore and maintain organization health District-wide. The following outcomes were achieved: Strengthen civilian leadership through the Commander’s Council Develop improved outsourcing strategy Improve cost effectiveness of support services Identify needed changes with the Real Estate Division Develop awareness of customer orientation principles Develop and implement high level performance measures back to top Copyright © Sullivan Consulting Group, Inc.