Courtesy of BOCC-Palm Beach County's Dr. Keith Clinkscales, below is a transcript of his speaking session on 'Think Like A County, Operate Like A Top Fortune 500 Company' to Build a Thriving Enterprise that took place at Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Summit & Industry Awards.
Session Information:
Balanced Scorecards, Total Quality Management, High Performance Teams, Employee Engagement, Rewards & Recognition, Process Re-engineering, Benchmarking, Lean Six Sigma, Strategic Planning, Vision, Mission, Goals, Objectives all attributes usually associated with an innovative and progressive Fortune 500 company. However, this presentation will take you on the journey of how Palm Beach County went from good to GREAT by still “thinking like a county”…but learning to operate like an innovative, progressive Fortune 500 Company.
Come and hear:
Session Transcript:
To be planning or mismanagement for a Palm Beach County I did this one number of years like 25 years for the private industry and now I'm trying to bring in public you think change is difficult in the private industry tried doing this for Palm Beach County or any County any municipality things like a county up what my main things like accounting meaning everything that we do in the residence we have 600 employee to remember to the resident customer.
First in de tony is not about property laws is not about trying to make money it's about how we treat the residents in the county providing the services that actually make dear life paradise but we should not do that without thinking about strategy mission goals objectives being innovative process data driven continuous process and building high performance team so what's Norman's County we have a record number a record.
It's a great we call it punch on call it paradise we have I mean so I was he had a roommate and his roommate had not a position in the and one is he wanted this guy to come in here in blue first time so the guy got on the class and he went to the night where they were gonna do for me and he got there early and we got there early the shovels were teaming up between the violence between
this organization is one side positiveness just one employee no more no feedback will back you back or just criticism and no recognition you just continue the work and over here there's a life
there's goals you know performance looks like there are metrics to accent better performance you have team recognition not just individual readiness.
You have team recognition engineering fire rescue community service new services wish organization one to ten palm Tran which is a transportation department the three would you rather work organization like this but then I see no this is not just organization the organization is made up of people and employees we gotta change the mindset of each individual in the six employees.
That we have informants County so I asked them I said in terms of characteristics of the people that you work with do they have these they get credit they come in great shape so what we do I started off by telling the Mordecai commissioners and the department's heads that we need to model you need to model a high performance team when you get together the Board of County Commissioners we have seven when they see you when the 6600 employees.
See you they need to see the leadership of a high performance team that you've got to come together and working together and solving problems so how are you going good to great one of the things that I had very dear son I used to be a massive assault about for five years the greatest thing is to walk into a company and have them really really fail because so yes you're doing yes but when you see a mission statement that is a whole.
Paragraph or have to pay something needs to be the mission should be something you can fit on the back your business role is division because start the mission the vision team was sick you go in a death this is me actually selling it at the very top so cultural transformation is coming hard and really start at the top the leadership has to be on board these are our commissioners now you can't get for the camera the equipment to your seat up.
That you're comfortable to agree to a two-hour workshop planning at the first thing nineteen when I came on forward I met with every single department director 35 in that pass a slaughterhouse what are the strengthen County where the weaknesses where the opportunities was the threat to things rings there the first one final we operate inside nobody talk to each other.
I thought about 35 departments you may have six departments all working or something but that's the summit at the very heart of once I cut their commitment we came out of that session with a new vision thank you jibley anticipate future ensure that decisions we make today have a laugh to god that sustainability so if that means if I believe or the commissioners leave or the department has me is in the culture they do that so them ingredients here.
Our mission and got it down to where everybody that sit and memorize to drive a continuous improvement culture of excellence that achieved immeasurably high level public satisfaction now notice some of the words in there this is a this is a county continuous improvement culture that they agreed these about your organization you want to continuously improve come measurably says we are willing to hop on the scale I tell every single person tell me every time that I talk to them if you want to lose weight then and approve 643 warriors now what we're trying to is something that every single.
Department 35 Department of Mines County every employee 6600 employees when they look at the vision and in the picture strategic priorities they can see where they fit if you are doing a talk where you don't see what you fit in the purpose that they said earlier today the purpose not to talk responsibility to purpose that something's wrong so we have a strategic housing the homeless.
Problem you saw how you are moving to the environment protection infrastructure public safety and this one right here three four five years ago this it's real in Florida Florida one of the top so we have to be very strategic priority yeah but all hands on deck to try to solve our core values fundamental competence unbreaking to admit creatively interactive communication core by now I'm gonna challenge of thinking when I got to understand this this is let's say the time so when I say performance management all they thought about those metrics it is an integration of decades and decades of ideas and when we used to call it the salty flavor of the month.
You remember total quality management process matter I had some 5,000 I was an honor its it every document effective and maintain bench marking they're not going to hold any circles on the surface 200 said you know what quality is not just the Quality Assurance organization for the Quality Control Department whole is everyone's responsibility high performers team balance for car Lane six li take the way stop BPR when that came out oh my godness it was a consultant dream oh no me region either processing this is possible engineering I'm telling the Palm Beach County that you need all of these all of these you guys need all these teams and techniques there's some times you're going to need to benchmark another company or another process you know what I say bitch market.
Back in the day they can still the same the number one company in collections that does collections that's the best go that somebody say are at IRS you know Pepsi doesn't necessarily need to bitch mark coca-cola some time to pick our process for a particular area and your department and you say okay what other organizations or companies are doing in that area so speaking of the rock is not just taking oh if I'm in transit and I want the top track and West for me let's just ditch mark links in Orlando counterpart so before spending is the integration so what did I have to do all of these concepts are new departments County and maybe due to you the part you accomplished your organization with if I'm gonna talk to the same where everybody's big black belt everybody needs to be Lean Six Sigma certified when my announcement.
Came out and it said dr. King still nation sigma black belt you know how people ask me why does me would be it was just madness do not change people planted check that these things in particular
people so here's one about I told you talk to you cycles and they dog breed silos development or customer service ventures out of the 35 different departments we have what I call service departments.
Over me officer might have a vendor budget purchasing facilities ISS the system they their customers are the other departments so they really don't they think we didn't see their internal customers education internal customers or customers today the customer to break the silos started implementing cross department each department has bought four five divisions with division.
Directors each one of those were silo so we have to create across different teams and then even some cross if you have a team that is led by a director or someone in leadership and all of the people on the team sort of report that person around the team how your team where all the people are from the same exact department in that case there be an innovation is not going to occur if you have levels that are not checked at the door you're like to make me some retribution to sharing or open the contributing you're not gonna have a good high intensity strategy is facilitated.
If you want to succeed imagine if all back in the day we you know peepees are talking about tucker
around me the coffee pot with a water bubbler and complain about would entertain all change all of that to people who are not problem finding the problem solving they're working together softball so how do we do this across parties we needed to attain convergence they they had to see each other
individual when when they come together they converge want you to see me in the back.
So the worst the first cross where all these departments this is out of the 35 these are the ones who actually had some rolls some money some resources being spent in economic development and they were doing it all on the side now the part of a team how in a moment these are all the departments who are dedicated to reducing homelessness and increasing all the libraries and substance use risk management Public Safety attorney attorney parts of recreation do you know
the number one place where suicides are a half hour committed from sucks is in the park they were addressing they were talking any other you know you know greens go you know yellow is worn.
Everything part the entire town wins and you want to see what the result is I what strategy you have to sort of prioritize and know that we can only work on so many objectives otherwise we stretch ourselves too thin and then nothing gets done so what are your thoughts on how to make sure you
SWOT analysis that's a good way to do it as well.
They said silos brick to silos and get HR to to be a better department because we depend on our people so a para was a issue for most of their partner and so we focus on those two you see everything is their teams and everything that we did is so it's focus on that one silence breaking the silence so do the a between the room do offer up SWOT analysis.
Just carry somebody brought these across departments together safety is policy we well so when we bring the team together the one who has the biggest skin in the game that has most money being spent and whose target mainly is my promise we have a public safety partner so that's the team leaders but they need all the other players on the football team so the other quarterback the sort of the department.
That stands out it pretty like one canonical I wish I could there's another slide that I have that I used to indicate that shows the higher polarization and then on the other side of it is the how you operate for that the best way to operate which is all teams so I think that you still need the hierarchal or forget hands it has its role but the way that work needs to get done needs to get done it has been
cross-functional in order so it's an education process they realize that the structure is needed but they also realize that the team structure is even more.
I'll give you the result there feel a new role and their job every single team member I've talked to be part of teams than they were before they ever it was a table because they were just coming in doing the job responsibilities but now they have purpose and again I applied this in private industry so I worked in fortune 500 now endoscopy is not just accounting so I'll be willing to a my experience
Director Strategic Planning & Performance Management, BOCC-Palm Beach County.
Dr. Keith A. Clinkscale is a recognized Lean Six Sigma Black Belt & Operational Excellence Executive known for establishing best-in-class strategic performance management programs. Keith Clinkscale demonstrates a combination of broad industry experiences, performance management acumen and a history of results-oriented management consulting to drive significant improvement and cost savings. As a seasoned Industry Executive and Management Consultant, Keith built a reputation of excellence in all areas of operations.
His skillset includes over 30 years of Executive Coaching, Training and Content Design, Process Improvement, Benchmarking, Total Quality Management, Balanced Scorecards, Business Process Re-engineering, Strategic Planning, and High Performance Teams. Keith’s experience and sensitivity to customer concerns has always enabled him to provide a high level of service, whether in industry or as a consultant. Keith has headed the Performance Management Office at Palm Tran. Keith’s team provided executive coaching, goal and target setting through benchmarking, established and reported balanced scorecards, developed department scorecards and held department directors accountable for addressing deficiencies. Dr. Clinkscale has been the champion of Performance Reporting, Management and Improvement at Palm Tran.
Keith has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Boston University and a PH.D in Strategic Leadership from Concordia College & University. He is now the Director of Strategic Planning and Performance Management for Palm Beach County and supervises all activities related to the long-term strategic plan of Palm Beach County as well as the strategic planning of over 30 county departments. Keith is responsible for assisting the Board of County Commissioners (BCC), Executive Team, Department Directors, and staff with the development of long-term goals, objectives, strategies, and actions.