Developing an Action Plan

The innovations have been administrative in that they account for and control the organization's operations. The re-organization, development of time management documentation and becoming involved in performance measurement documentation will ultimately result in strategic innovation.

Open to Learning

Organizations guided by values and performance measures, rather than regulations and rules, seem most capable of maintaining this openness. Mark H. Moore

Innovation and Risk

Any innovation in the public sector that involves risk and the chance of failure provides opportunities and hazards for management. Political overseers often have low tolerances for risk and some just want you to fail. Employees also have low tolerances for risk and the changes it brings. Management faces demands for improvements and yet if there is a failure they may be scapegoated or determined to be irresponsible. No wonder public sector innovation is a slow and varied process.

Today's Quote

It took me aback because for the first time since I returned home from the West, a suspicion dawned in me that had not occurred to me before. I began to suspect that what surrounded me was something worse than the brute force present. I began to suspect that what surrounded me was not just organized terror but an enemy more dangerous than anything else, an enemy against which there is no defense: stupidity.
Sándor Márai, Memoir of Hungary 1944–1948 (Budapest: Corvina, 1996), 386–87.

Need Space

Buildings and Grounds Department currently rents the old Light and Water building on Campus Street and have maxed out the space in the building. The building is in need of a new roof and the over-all condition of the building is very poor with health and structural issues. The Campus Street building is the largest building used by the Buildings and Grounds Department. The restrooms are in bad shape. The mechanical shop used to work on their equipment has very limited space. There is also a lot of wasted time spent traveling to all of the different storage places located all over the city, for pick-up and storage of equipment.
The old Light and Water building is pre 1900 and a structural engineer should be asked to make general observations regarding the condition of the facility and identification of code-related issues affecting continued or future municipal use of the structure.
An assessment of the Buildings and Grounds present facilities, a review of the departmental organizations, identification of operational inefficiencies, proposed assigned areas, discussion of building environment/workflow issues, communication needs, employee safety/security upgrades, equipment support, parking/site requirements, future staffing/equipment projections, and general concerns should be addressed.

That Kind Of Day

I am not crazy! At least, no more than any other person who works here...the problem is that there's no background music when you’re talking to me, so I never really know whether something mysterious, evil, sad or adventurous is about to happen.

Dysfunctional

One of the most dysfunctional Council member behaviors is attempting to get city staff or workers all the time. Often this forms the public image of the Council and staff. What a sad practice.

Council's Risk

Apparently, from the management report, auditors are risk averse. Internal control is a serious issue which Councils fail to appreciate, but there is little chance of adding more staff. It’s more likely that there will be staff reductions. When there is an internal control issue, management will be to blame – not the Council.
Executive management should provide guidance to the Council to help them assess the level and the kinds of risk that they find acceptable and not acceptable. Using this guidance and the risk assessment information provided, managers should work with the Council to document whether they want to accept the risk in a given situation, prevent or reduce the risk, or avoid the risk entirely.

Complexity Management Theory

"Given that the key finding claimed for complexity theory is the effective unknowability of the future, the common assumption among managers that part of their job is to decide where the organisation is going, and to take decisions designed to get it there is seen as a dangerous delusion. Management, afflicted by increasing complexity and information overload, can react by becoming quite intolerant of ambiguity. Factors, targets, organisational structures all need to be nailed down. Uncertainty is ignored or denied. The management task is seen to be the enunciation of mission, the determination of strategy, and the elimination of deviation. Stability is sought as the ultimate bulwark against anxiety, which might otherwise become overwhelming. All of these managerial reflexes, many of them seeming unassailably commonsensical, are (we shall see) quite counter-productive when viewed from a complexity theory perspective." Stacey (1993)
Now it's about preparing for chaos as defined by actions that defy predictability. Was the housing crash of 2008 unpredictable? Most models used by City Managers would not have shown any evidence of the market changing so radically, but was it unpredictable?

Strategic Leadership is a Joint Process

I attend Council meetings representing the operational side of City government. I like the open debate and the related give and take. I understand that this can be troubling for Council representatives when trying to accomplish the desired result and have an administrator interfere in a rather Socratic approach. The goal is to have a full and complete debate that hopefully provides a well defined problem and an effective solution. I believe that staff has prepared the best plan possible and defend it as such. However, the desire is to use this process to provide strategic leadership in identifying public value.
The second phase is to develop processes that are effective at achieving the desired outcome and then be efficient. Efficiency without effectiveness is still a waste of money, labor and effort. Sometimes you just have to give on efficiency to reach the public value. This is sometimes a trying area where the Council may demand to achieve the public value and the efficiency and fails to see the mutually exclusive nature of the conditions.

Extremism

Little did I realize how far the left and the right have moved away from me. Chaos at all costs.

Today's Quote

“Understanding is the knowledge of the general. Judgment is the application of the general to the particular. Reason is the power of understanding then connection between the general and the particular”
Immanuel Kant (1960)

Northside Neighborhood Plan

Locating New Mixed Use Development in order to further enhance the quality of life of Lake Mills residents and prepare for population growth over time, the City pursued redevelopment of the Community Gateway.
The superior access, visibility and large tracts of land available north and south of the I-94 interchange at STH 89 and along Tyranena Park Road continue to pique the interest of developers. The City planned for a mix of uses in redevelopment areas. New development promotes walking and biking; and links to other neighborhoods and downtown. Without the presence of a quality master plan, development will likely result in an abundance of isolated, car dependent, commercial strip projects. This type of development results in a great deal of wasted land, diminished roadway capacity, and an erosion of small town identity.
Community Gateway Redevelopment The “Community Gateway” at STH 89 and I-94 is a priority redevelopment area in Lake Mills. This intersection is the front door to Lake Mills for residents and visitors entering the community from I-94 or STH 89 from Waterloo. Within the TIF district (TID #4), the area has the potential to redevelop with a mix of high quality uses including sports-related specialty retail outfitters focused on: fishing, hunting, cycling, and water sports. Additional encouraged development includes hotel, conference/meeting and banquet facility, and office development. New residential development north of the I-94 interchange and on the northwest side of Rock Lake will provide additional demand for community retail and service uses such as a full-service grocery store, day care, fitness center and bank.
Two community gateway features and wayfinding signage are located at the intersection of STH 89 and Tyranena Park Rd. to indicate points of interest in the City. Streetscape enhancements should begin at this intersection as well leading people into downtown Lake Mills.

Time To Graduate

Just finished my third year of portfolio reviews. The portfolio is a student’s history of their high school career (grades 9 through 12) as they would like it told to employers, schools, or scholarship review committees. The portfolio can be worked on throughout high school and is submitted senior year to the high school career advisor. I really enjoy this activity.

Program Policy

The budget as a policy document could be used to measure qualitative and quantitative efficiencies of a program. Efficiency measures the outputs -- qualitative and quantitative -- in relation to the inputs. It is an economic term which signifies that the program uses the least costly resources possible in order to achieve the desired results. This generally requires comparing alternative approaches to achieving the same outputs, to see whether the most efficient process has been adopted. When evaluating the efficiency of a program, it is useful to consider the following questions:
• Were activities cost-efficient?
• Were objectives achieved on time?
• Was the program implemented in the most efficient way compared to alternatives?

Today's Quote

“Life is all about timing... the unreachable becomes reachable, the unavailable become available, the unattainable... attainable. Have the patience, wait it out it’s all about timing.”
Stacey Charter

DSS

Decision support systems are generally thought of as computer-based systems that help decision makers confront problems through direct interaction with data and analytical models. Some of the classic decision support systems texts show that the focus of research and application of decision support systems has to a large extent been on individual managers and on organizational decision processes.

Decision support systems provide a set of opportunities directed toward improving the efficiency and productivity of managers and professionals, boosting the organization’s effectiveness, and rationalizing the decision making process within an organizational context. They aim at realizing the desire for accurate, timely and relevant information to help individual managers in organizations deal with an increasingly turbulent economic environment and the growing pressures of competition.