Performance Excellence

The Institute for Public Service is a sponsor of the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence (TNCPE) 2011 Excellence in Tennessee Conference to be held in Franklin on February 22-23.

TNCPE conducted the Baldrige Express survey for IPS in 2009 to help us improve our organization. Participants in the IPS Leadersihp Academy are also working on a clas project related to the Baldrige criteria. At the conference, national and regional experts and leaders from world-class organizations will provide training on best practices and improvement tools.

To learn more about TNCPE, or the Excellence in Tennessee Conference, please visit www.tncpe.org or call (800) 453-6474.

Conference details are available by clicking on the image above.

A sampling of sessions at the 2011 Excellence in Tennessee Conference include:
* Is Baldrige Your Answer to Healthcare Reform?
* Work Systems That Work: Your guide to successful process management
* Six Thinking Hats: An innovation tool for group discussion and parallel thinking
* Vision, Engagement and Strategy: The executive leader's role in continuous improvement
* Achieving 8 Dimensions of Excellence: A pragmatic approach that will strengthen your ability to achieve strategic outcomes

Consider this as possible professional development opportunity for this year and share with your customers as appropriate.

New Legislators

Last week IPS hosted 12 newly elected state senators and representatives during a two-day workshop at the Baker Center on the Knoxville campus.

Training topics included transitioning from campaigning to governing, the economic outlook for the nation and the State of Tennessee, and the state budget process from the legislative perspective.

All the sessions were well received. Tom Kohntopp and his staff did an excellent job demonstrating the service mission of UT. This was our second opportunity to host new legislators and the program was a resounding success.

Professional Afilliations

Each one of us has some sort of professional area of expertise. It may be legal, financial, administrative, manufacturing, public safety or any number of areas that exist throughout IPS. One way to nurture that area of expertise is to be involved in professional associations.

As you think about your professional development plans for the year, consider how you might be more involved professionally. Budgets are tight, but there are plenty of opportunities within the state. As budgets improve, there will be more opportunities to travel out of state. Many state associations have regional affiliates and national affiliates. Some of my most rewarding experiences have come from serving on regional and national boards and councils. We have several staff members who have also held offices, such as Richard Stokes in human resources associations.

If you have not already, consider affiliating with a professional organizational. It will enrich your work experience.

Annual Performance Reviews

It's that time of year! It won't be long before you'll be hearing from your agency director about this year's process. So, why do we conduct APRs?

You should have regular discussions and/or receive regular feedback about your performance throughout the year. The APR process is simply the method we use to document your performance for this specific period of time.

There should be no surprises during the APR process. This is not a time to save up complaints or compliments. Those should be distributed throughout the year when they are warranted.

The APR process is used to evaluate the previous year and to agree on a work plan for the coming year. It is a process to summarize on one page the overall accomplishments of the individual.

What do we do with the data? After the forms have been reviewed with the agency director, appropriate assistant vice president and the vice president, the APR forms go in your official personnel file at the university's human resource office. The performance review summary is entered in to IRIS as a part of your official electronic personnel record. Then, when we have an opportunity to give merit/bonus pay, we have documentation to justify our decisions.

So, let's look forward to the process with anticipation. It should be a positive experience. We are providing training to all supervisors to help improve the process. Be sure to provide feedback when you get the opportunity.

Leadership Gold

The IPS Leadership Academy just completed reading the book "Leadership Gold." And, their mentors read along with them. Many of the lessons on leadership were refreshers of things we already knew and practice, others challenged our thinking.

A few of the lessons include "loaning your influence," "sending you ducks to eagle school," and "summarizing your life in one sentence."

When you see one of the Leadership Academy participants or a member of the Leadership Team, ask them about their most significant take-away from the book. I recommend it to all our staff. It is worth your while. And, while you're at it, ask them about the new book we are reading, "Strengths Based Leadership."

Happy New Year

2011 has arrived and the University of Tennessee welcomes our new president, Joe DiPietro, to Andy Holt Tower.

Joe has a strong commitment to the service mission of our land grant university and I know we can count on him to support our goals for moving IPS forward. Hopefully, you will have a chance to meet him soon. Be sure to introduce yourself and let him know your are from IPS!