President DiPietro "visits" IPS

On October 3 President DiPietro will hold his annual "System to Institute" visit with IPS. Instead of holding a half-day meeting with a series of power point presentations demonstrating how great we are, we are taking a different approach this year. We are taking the President in the "field."

Northeast Tennessee is the site of this year's visit. The day will start at the Greene County Asphalt Plant and include a visit to the Greene County Courthouse, the Kingsport Higher Education Center and at least one CIS customer's site. A luncheon will include a host of customers discussing workforce and economic development.

Steve Thompson, Rick Hall, Pat Hardy and Dwaine Raper are the President's hosts for the day. I look forward to hearing about the experience and how well it achieved our goal of helping the President better understand the work that we do.

Stay tuned...

Guest Blog from Mandy Johnson

Getting back to Basics with Modern Technology – Connecting with our Customers

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit in on training about using social media.  To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I use some social media personally, but I have struggled to find ways to effectively use social media at work.  And, truthfully, keeping up with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a blog just make my “to do” list even longer.   Who has the time? 

But, then, sitting in class I had that “ah-ha” moment.  The moment where it clicks and you realize not only do I get it – but we, as an organization, can’t afford not to get it.  For me, there were two key points that brought home the essence of social media.  The part I was missing. 

#1 Social media, when used correctly, is a way to get back to the basics of doing business – person to person.  I know, it sounds crazy – personal interaction via technology – but it is true.  Social media takes business back to the same fundamental values when business transactions took place with a handshake between two people.  Social media removes the barriers of the digital divide created by mass marketing, radio, television and the web.  It restores the person-to-person interaction of business.  Social media fosters complete transparency.  It offers immediate access and results.  It relies on word of mouth reputation.  And, it issues severe penalties for cheating.  While it may not be conducted literally face-to-face; social media is personal.       

#2 People want to connect with me.  Our customers want to connect with us – not the Institute for Public Service, MTAS, CTAS, CIS, LEIC, etc.  They want to know us – individually – not the organization.  Our customers want to know Kevin Lauer (CTAS fire consultant) and see the pictures he has posted from his latest trip to Philadelphia with the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).  They want to share in the excitement of the students who got to participate in the first National Forensic Academy Collegiate Program.  Your blog post, Tweet or status update doesn’t have to be a dissertation.  It is the accumulation of small, meaningful interactions (yes, interactions through technology) that build the relationship.  For as long as I can remember, IPS has touted that our employees are our greatest resource.  Yet, we are hiding behind printed brochures, static web pages, and e-newsletters.  The people that get the opportunity to meet us, attend one of our trainings, or receive our services, love us.  But, how can new people find us or hear about the great work we have done for others?  We have to put ourselves out there – not just as the Institute for Public Service – but as the people who make us great.

So, really, social media isn’t more work – it’s more of being ourselves.  It’s helping us achieve what we want most – a meaningful connection with our customers. 

For more on the training and Mark W. Schaefer visit http://www.businessesgrow.com/.  A copy of his presentation is on the I drive in I:\Social Media.

Baldrige Site Visits

All four IPS agencies submitted Level Three Applications for the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence Baldrige Award. The process includes a two - day site visit and they are all coming up soon.

CTAS – site visit scheduled September 19-20. All the management team will be there plus Marty Spears who was on the committee.

 

MTAS – site visit scheduled September 25-26. Preparation was begun at the annual conference.  Margaret Norris and Josh Jones will be instrumental in the on-site visit. They are familiarizing staff with information.

 

CIS – site visit scheduled October 2-3. They have talked with all the team leaders about what is involved. Lynn Reed, Wendy Eddy, Andre Temple, and Dwaine Raper will be talking with staff.

 

LEIC – site visit October 24-25. Don Green, Mike Hill, Donna Kelley and Mandy Johnson will host and they are currently reviewing the application with staff.

 

Once the visits are complete the team will write a feedback report that each agency will receive in December. The feedback report is a valuable tool in helping us to understand how we can improve as an organization. I look forward to reading them.

What is the purpose of the central office?

Occasionally I am asked why we have an IPS central office and what all those people do! During the strategic planning process this year the IPS leadership team worked very hard to clarify roles and responsibilities. The UT president's staff developed a mission (purpose) statement for the UT system administration and we thought that was a great way to address these questions posed by our staff.

Below is the first-ever Purpose Statement for the IPS Central Office followed by the Mission Statement for the UT System Administration.

Central Office Purpose Statement 

The purpose of the Institute for Public Service Central Office is to support and advance the agencies of the institute through leadership that:

·         removes obstacles,

·         understands needs,

·         provides advocacy,

·         secures resources,

·         promotes accountability,

·         fosters diversity,

·         promotes innovation,

·         coordinates agency efforts, and

·         delivers efficient and effective central services.

UT System Administration Mission Statement:

The mission of the UT system administration is to advance the educational, discovery, creative and outreach programs of the campuses and institutes through leadership that:

·         removes obstacles,

·         understands needs,

·         provides advocacy,

·         secures resources,

·         promotes accountability,

·         fosters diversity,

·         promotes innovation,

·         coordinates campus efforts, and

·         delivers efficient and effective central services

See any similarities? It's not by accident. We are trying to clearly align our work with the UT system. Are we accomplishing that purpose?

System Strategy Implementation Teams Launched

September 5 the President launched five system-wide teams to help implement the new UT System Strategic Plan. Each team will focus on one of the five goals in the plan and four of the five teams will have IPS representation. We are excited to be a part of this process and will keep you updated on the teams' progress.

Goals:

• Academic Excellence - N/A
• Research - Steve Thompson
• Outreach and Engagement - Mary Jinks
• Efficiency and Effectiveness - Chuck Shoopman
• Advocacy - Jim Thomas

Guest Blog from Erin Ketelle

By now I am guessing that most IPS employees have heard the five letters “TNCPE.” For those not familiar with TNCPE, the acronym stands for Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence. TNCPE operates a four level awards program based on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program.  As part of the IPS Leadership Academy, our class project was to submit a level 1 application and a level 3 application.

I will admit when we started the project I was completely lost. I read the criteria book multiple times and did so many Google searches on the criteria that it still comes up in my search auto fill. I felt like I was reading some foreign language.  I have come to learn that I actually was reading a foreign language, the Baldrige language.

In my quest to try to better understand the criteria and process, I attended the 2011 TNCPE Conference and a pre-conference workshop on level 1 application writing. I left the workshop a little more comfortable with the terminology, but I was still very apprehensive with the thought of working on an application. Thankfully, I had great groups to work with in drafting our level 1 application which was submitted in August 2011. 

After completing our level one application and site visit, our teams were back to work, but this time on a level 3 application. The level 1 application we completed previously was a five page organizational profile, now we were on to the 35 page application with much more detailed questions all written in Baldrige language.

In our early stages of working on the level 3 application, I felt like someone who had taken an introduction to Spanish class trying to understand a fluent speaker. It wasn’t the words that didn’t make sense it; I was struggling with how to respond to the questions. Remembering the benefit of attending the application workshop the previous year, I decided to attend an advanced application workshop at the 2012 TNCPE Conference. During the workshop and conference things started to fall into place and all the Baldrige stuff was making sense. I had finally gotten myself to think Baldrige. I left the conference so engaged and excited about Baldrige that I even talked my boss into letting me become a TNCPE Examiner.

I took my new understanding and excitement back to our application writing team and became our team leader. Once I really understood the value of Baldrige and the criteria itself, the application changed from a Leadership Academy assignment to something I really wanted to work on. Our team worked diligently through the spring and submitted our level 3 application in July. We are very excited to have our site visit and receive our feedback report. I am very thankfully that my participation in the Leadership Academy introduced me to TNCPE and the Baldrige Program.

Guest Post from Robin Roberts

Baking a Cake in the Legislature

It has been said that creating legislation is an ugly process. It could be compared to baking a cake without a recipe with an Italian chef, a French Baker, a German Chef, and an American Baker, each with their separate ideas, ingredients, tastes and concept of the end product. This is how one could look at a piece of legislation that had its beginnings in 2004 and continues to be discussed, created and possibly introduced for the third time as the 2013 County Financial Management System. A Little history is needed to fully comprehend the complexity of this piece of legislation.

Formal accounting standards were developed and created after the stock market crash and during the great depression. These standards were established in financial reporting that would allow investors, lenders, and regulators to make decisions and prevent another crash and depression. Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) were established and private industries and governments with publicly traded financial instruments on the stock markets regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were required to be audited and reported in compliance of GAAP. Transparency and uniformity were some of the goals to be achieved from the standards. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) was created to develop and maintain the standards.  In the 1970’s Governmental Accounting Standard Board was created to develop, adopt and enhance the standards that were unique to governmental accounting and reporting.

The Tennessee Legislature passed legislation in 1957 to assist in meeting the standards, provide uniformity, and efficiency in accounting for the funds of counties. This was the first legislation to centralize the budgeting and financial reporting of counties in Tennessee. This was a state law with local option of adoption by counties. Another state law with local option was passed in 1981, which enhanced the accounting and compliance of centralized accounting beyond what was contained in the 1957 law. Then in 2004 The University of Tennessee County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) was asked by the Tennessee Comptroller to assist in drafting an act to be presented in the 2005 legislative session. The 2005 act was presented with mandates for counties to comply and not as an act with local option for adoption. Strong opposition from various officials was immediately presented to the Comptroller. The education lobby expressed the greatest opposition to the proposal and the bill was withdrawn.  This bill languished until 2011 when it was modified and represented as the 2012 County Financial Management System. It still contained mandated enactment over time. The Comptroller stated the bill was introduced to generate discussion and find the common areas to address to eliminate the opposition from the various groups. This is where the analogy of baking a cake comes to be. With each change of flavor presented or the final design it increases the level of opposition. Although, everyone recognizes the need for the desert to complete the meal, what each baker wants to deliver is different and they are not willing to accept the change in their concept. Each group of officials think their way is best, however the Comptroller charged with overseeing the standards for the counties and the compliance with accounting standards has not been able to sell his concept to their satisfaction. Knowing the state legislature has the ultimate decision as to the ingredients, they will be influenced by bakers (county elected officials) as to how they want their cake to look and taste. Interestingly, the elected officials within their own groups do not agree on what is best. When it is finally passed it will taste sweet to some and sour to others, and few will enjoy the icing.

Guest Blog from Libby McCroskey

What Is a Mentor?

Why Might You Want One?  Why Might You Want to Be One?

A mentor is, in short, an advisor.  Having one is a requirement of participation in the IPS Leadership Academy.  As a veteran of over 20 years at my job, I didn’t think I wanted or needed a mentor.  Being a participant in the Leadership Academy, I got one anyway.  The experience has been much more than I expected, and in a very good way.  Here’s a little of what I learned:

A mentor is a two-way relationship that is founded on trust and honesty.  The most important ground rule, to me, is that nothing within the relationship will be used to harm the other person.  The next most important rule is that each must have the best interests of the other person in mind.  

A mentor’s role is not merely to impart wisdom, and a mentee’s role is not just to listen.  Both parties will learn, and both will teach.  Both must be willing to listen as well as to speak. 

It is not a superior/subordinate relationship.  While the mentor generally does have more experience, is more accomplished, and/or has more knowledge, the relationship is primarily based on mutual respect.

Do I think that everyone should have a mentor?  Absolutely.  And if you have wisdom and experience to share, you should also consider being a mentor.  When the relationship works, it’s a very rewarding experience for both participants.

Advice to Mentors:  Your mentee may not always follow your advice, and may even (gasp!) disagree with you.  This may be an opportunity for you to learn in the relationship.  Be open-minded.

Advice to Mentees:  Your mentor will not always tell you what you want to hear, but instead will tell you what he or she thinks you need to hear.  Be open to learning.