Who You Gonna Call?

By Stu Moring

Many technical people

who move into management positions often find they may be missing the humanities or financial skills to be successful in their new roles; they may be at a loss as to who can help them bridge that gap. Naturally, you can hire a management consultant to guide your strategic planning or develop a budget, but are a group of MBAs or efficiency experts going to understand the operations of your infrastructure enough to really set the priorities to guide your work? Or you could hire a lawyer to clarify the laws and regulations that may govern your activities, but is your goal just to do what is the legal minimum to satisfy a requirement?

Or would it be better to consult with a team of other “left-brain” people, who have been in your position and faced the physical challenges that you have – for fitting a sewer into the already congested territory underneath your city streets – and dealt with the challenges of explaining the job to a part-time city council or an unhappy resident? Perhaps you have a backhoe operator who doesn’t understand why his own safety dictates the need for a shiny safety vest, or rollover protection; can a lawyer or an accountant help in resolving that problem? If you are lucky, you may have mentors in your workplace who can provide the guidance you need to understand the best approach to your jobsite issues and how to present them to others. Mentorship is a growing expectation in the public works realm, and there are several valuable guides to establishing such programs. What if your mentor is an expert on roadway design or wastewater plant maintenance, and you need to develop a presentation to the chamber of commerce on the priorities for new construction?

Thankfully, the American Society of Civil Engineers has a program to allow of group of your peers to meet your staff,

review your facilities and documents, and provide some insights into ways that similar problems have been dealt with in other localities. The Public Agency Peer Review program is set up to bring together a small group of varied public works professionals to help you deal with the problems you are facing, or let you know when your operation is on the right track. The specific team will be tailored to the details you want to address – whether financial, project management or human resources. All our team members are seasoned public sector engineers, and some have special expertise in planning, transportation, financial operations, or city management, among other areas. And they all work on a pro bono basis, so the process is fast and economical as well.

Feedback from the dozens of organizations that have had Peer Reviews has been very positive, and many of them have had follow-up Reviews done subsequently. In Georgia, recent Reviews have been completed for the City of Roswell, Dekalb County, Gainesville Water Utility and Georgia DOT, and the very first Peer Review about 30 years ago was for the Savannah District, Corps of Engineers. Almost universally, the agencies reviewed have received high marks for working on continuous improvement through undertaking this assessment. Over the years, some patterns have emerged; most commonly there has been an issue with communications. Often there is a problem with management understanding the culture or concerns of the field workers, and just as frequently there is a sense that staff people are not kept apprised of what the overall strategy is. In many cases, both are at issue. The Peer Review process can help identify such “hidden” problems through a series of interviews with a representation of staff members, and the interview method has the added benefit of helping the employees recognize that their viewpoints are heard and considered. I believe that is one of the most important attributes of the Peer Review process.

Public Agency Peer Reviews have been conducted for over 100 organizations across the country and have demonstrated many advantages. For newly appointed managers, it is a rapid means to gain an understanding of the culture that makes the work happen. Oftentimes, policy statements are handed down, and only marginally understood by the working staff; this process can help you gauge that level of understanding. Or perhaps there is a dispute between different individuals or teams, and the confidential interviews can discern factors that a staff member would never share with his supervisor. But most often, a Peer Review will validate the strengths of a department while identifying opportunities for growth.

You may already be familiar with the APWA Accreditation program, which has similar objectives. It is a very comprehensive process that evaluates organizations in great depth and provides a model for organizational changes. In contrast, Peer Review is a much shorter activity that provides a “snapshot” of the agency and relatively short-term ideas for change. It requires much less commitment of senior staff time and a shorter time overall. From the time when a decision is made to proceed, a Peer Review can be undertaken in three to four months.

If you have questions, please contact Past President Stu Moring at smoring@aol.com for a no-obligation discussion..

PUBLIC AGENCY PEER REVIEWS HAVE BEEN CONDUCTED FOR OVER 100 ORGANIZATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND HAVE DEMONSTRATED MANY ADVANTAGES.