Change management

Department wants to better serve the public

By Angelle Bergeron

For years, DOTD has had the same unwritten, unofficial avoidance attitude shared by many public agencies. Keep your head down. Keep your nose clean. Keep quiet and stay out of trouble.

But that is counter-productive to the function of an agency that is supposed to serve the public.

"If you take the stance that we will quietly go about our business, then your only contact with the media is when something is wrong," said Mark Lambert, DOTD communications director.

Since Secretary Bradberry took office last year, one of his primary missions has been to better serve the public, those who foot the bill for the DOTD. Improved service hinges upon increased communication and enhanced perception with the public and process improvements.

advertisement

"The whole idea is efficiency - to be able to do better with the money we have," Lambert said. "People want us to live within our means, and that is what we are attempting to do right now. Before we can ask for more money, we've got to prove to them that we are doing the best we can with the amount we have."

The concept of process improvement isn't new, said Kirt Clement, director of DOTD's Change Management program, the formal process improvement initiative started last fall. However, DOTD is committed to maintaining a dynamic process that will permeate every level of the department for years to come. "I've been charged with establishing a culture of continuous process improvement throughout the agency and empowering people to evaluate their own systems and constantly work to improve them," Clement said. First, areas of improvement were identified. Then teams worked to identify necessary changes and now those teams are in the implementation process.

"I think it is unique for state government," Clement said. "DOTD has had initiatives for process improvement, the most recent being Louisiana Quality Initiative about 10 years ago, but normally, after the process was examined, it didn't go any further. We never had the next wave."

The administration's commitment is evident in dedicated resources and the transparency of the process, which is detailed on the department's Web site, complete with performance evaluation deadlines. "The department thinks it is high enough priority to make it one of their top goals," Clement said.

The DOTD didn't want this to be yet another study that was placed on a shelf to gather dust. "We realized at the very beginning that we needed to dedicate resources to get any of the recommendations done," said Michael Bridges, undersecretary, Office of Management and Finance.

"Clement is the director and he has some staff that were brought in on a somewhat temporary basis from within the organization, some of the movers and shakers. The end result is you have resources to get these changes implemented and they're not simple changes that can happen overnight. I've been in a lot of organizations that had a lot of great ideas but didn't have any way to get from point A to point B."

As head of the training program at LTRC, Clement knew just about everyone within DOTD, Bridges said. "We needed somebody who could hit the ground running and Kirt has done a fabulous job."

For his part, Clement thinks Change Management is a "fantastic" idea that has fired up a lot of creative energy, momentum and enthusiasm within the department and the construction community. Employee involvement on every level - from team leaders and facilitators to part-time associates who dedicate four hours each week - has breathed new energy into the rank and file of the 5,000-member department and helped to identify performers for future leadership positions.

The department has received more than 120 recommendations from the 12 Change Management teams. "We will address each of these areas no different than construction projects with deadlines, critical paths and communication," Clement said. "Change Management proves we can do it a better way, though not necessarily the bureaucratic way."

The big challenge now is to keep the process moving, keep momentum, especially in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. "Another immediate goal is to manage the finances of the department, especially when trying to respond to the devastation of the hurricanes," Bridges said.