Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that each of you has a wonderful holiday break. Thanksgiving is a great time of year to reflect on the bounty we have before us:

• We are fortunate to live in a great State that is well managed and fiscally sound.

• We work for a great university that is blessed with outstanding leadership.

• We have the opportunity to provide valuable services to a committed customer group.

• And, we have evidence that the results of our work makes a difference in the lives of Tennesseans.

We should all be thankful for the opportunities before us.

Give thanks!

Marty Spears serves on the BoT

Guest Blog from Marty Spears:

I have been honored to represent IPS on the UT Board of Trustees' committee for Research, Outreach and Economic Development. This past meeting both IPS and Agriculture jointly presented on how each agency impacts all 95 counties in Tennessee with the services it provides through financial offerings to the public and private sectors.

The time I have spent on the committee has been very beneficial to me and, hopefully, for IPS also. I have been able to network and meet, not only peers with other agency’s, but Trustees, Chancellors of the other campuses and even the President of UT. When we think of UT we normally think of the agency that we work for, but there is so much more going on that I wasn’t aware of like the University’s involvement with Oak Ridge National Laboratory where UT has partnered with Battelle on many projects. The switch grass to ethanol project in Vonore, TN and the solar farm in West Tennessee that is converting sun light to energy being placed back to the TVA grid. There have been times during the reports whereas Mike Garland says “I have been like a dog watching TV”. I was sitting there and had no idea what they were talking about so I just smiled and nodded but in the end I did learn something.

As I said it has been a pleasure to serve and hopefully help IPS with my service to the University of Tennessee Board of Trustee committee.

How to Gain a Competitive Advantage

IPS is not a traditional "business", but we certainly have customers to whom we provide services. One way we can improve as an organization is to take a holistic approach to how we manage customer service.

Each agency has completed its Baldrige application and site visit. We are waiting on our feedback reports, but in the meantime we know where we can improve and how to get better.  I came across this Baldrige Blog that explains how one organization approached it:

http://nistbaldrige.blogs.govdelivery.com/2012/11/13/how-to-use-baldrige-to-get-a-competitive-advantage/

Perhaps some of our staff don't feel like we need a competitive advantage because of our unique services, but I think we realized during the Baldrige application process that we, in fact, have competition.

What do you think?

Creating Trust

I've been trying to get my arms around this idea of how to build trust across the institute, especially when most of us work long distances from each other.  I came across a book recently called "Working from a Distance: Being your best when you're not with the rest" by Debra Dinnocenzo. I thought it would help me, as a leader, get some good ideas. The main focus of the book is from the employee point of view. However, the section on trust is very thought provoking for all of us.

Debra says, "the key to successful relationships in any environment is TRUST. When working remotely..the potential for trust to erode is magnified exponentially. Factors such as physical separation, the challenges of communication methods and time variables make 'being on the same page' that much more difficult." I think she's identified our challenge at IPS!

Debra goes on to say that trust is formed as people get to know each other, realize they can count on each other, and have confidence in each other. She identifies three components that are essential to trust:

Familiarity          Reliability          Integrity

 

Familiarity - knowing people allows you to feel comfortable with them, relate to them on a more personal level, appreciate their unique skills and abilities, and have empathy for them - all of which are important aspects of working well together.

 

Reliability - demonstrating reliability is what allows colleagues to know they can count on you without needing to endlessly follow up, verify, double-check, or wonder if you'll deliver as expected.

 

Integrity - absolutely vital to the existence of trust, integrity impacts the way people are perceived relative to honesty, truthfulness, and respect for the rights of others.

Debra concludes that with a strong foundation of trust, building good relationships becomes the cornerstone of successful virtual teams and effective distance interactions. And it is important to maintain a commitment to continuing dialog to help stay connected, informed and "present"... from a distance.

Thanks to the timeliness of this book, we now have a few more ideas of how we can go about building more trust and stronger relationships among our staff and leadership team.

VOTE!

Today is election day. There is no more important civic duty than exercising our right to vote. If you did not participate in early voting, please take time today to participate in the governance process for our great nation.

Events of the Week

This week the UT System Compensation Advisory Board (CAB) will meet. Among the agenda items for discussion are proposed new salary schedules, long-term plans to close the market gap in compensation, benefits updates, and follow up to the employee engagement survey. I look forward to this exciting discussion.


Also on the schedule this week is the fall UT Board of Trustees meeting. Among the many topics on their agenda is a joint presentation to the Research, Outreach and Economic Development Committee of the Board on financial services provided across Tennessee by IPS and the Institute of Agriculture. 

Steve Thompson and UTIA Dean Tim Cross have worked hard to put together a dynamic presentation including a video of some of our customers talking about our services. 

Marty Spears is the IPS representative on this committee and I look forward to hearing his perspective on the meeting.