Case Studies

Municipal Government: Enterprise-wide change process
Utilizing cross-functional teams to survey, pilot, fine-tune and successfully implement a new system for 100 users.

Community Centre: Improving Information Flow
I facilitated a values-based workflow and communications process improvement project which led to more effective meetings, clearer lines of authority and communication, and a renewed commitment to education and orientation of all Board members.

Individual Coaching

Government worker: Career Transition

Lawyer: Balancing Work and Personal Life

Chairman: Strategic Planning and Alliance Building

Municipal Government: Enterprise-wide change process

Situation: A local municipal government was facing increasing internal and external pressures for better access to their documents. Senior management in the Clerk's Office identified changes to the Freedom of Information Act as incentive to immediately address the issue.

Intervention: City Council approved funding for an enterprise-wide electronic document management system and internal consultants from the Information Systems Department (IS) led the design and implementation process from start to finish.

As the IS Electronic Document Management project co-ordinator, I led a cross-functional team charged with the responsibilities of: identifying needs of all departments; developing implementation success criteria; and working with department managers and users to test and implement the new software. I liaised with stakeholders to ensure: communication of user needs and concerns; escalation of software enhancement deliveries from vendor and programmers; internal marketing of new system; design and delivery of staff training; and post-implementation support for users.

Results: The first municipality in BC to implement an enterprise-wide electronic document management system achieved success, with all users making the transition to the new system over a period of months.

Users now index documents based on what makes sense in their particular department as well as on a common global index. The Clerk's Office automatically indexes individual City Council agenda items for internal and public access on the municipal website. After 8 years, this organization continues to successfully utilize and enhance this system and is helping other municipalities set up similar systems.

Community Centre: Improving Information Flow

Situation: A local community services centre wanted to improve communications between the Board of Management (14 directors and three municipal partners) and its committees. The client's goal was to balance inclusiveness and a systematic approach to governance to: a) improve information sharing from the Board; b) develop a more consistent and effective decision-making process; and c) clearly define roles and responsibilities of Board members and of committees.

Intervention: I facilitated sessions with the Board as a whole and with the Executive Committee where they learned new communication and meeting skills, designed new processes and worked on action planning. I coached the Vice-chair and Executive Director around global planning issues for the project and on leadership development skills.

Results: At the end of the project, I surveyed the participants and found a dramatic improvement in their board meetings. A year before, three-hour meetings typically ran two hours overtime, whereas now they finished on-time or early. This was achieved by improved skills, following agreed-upon procedures for inclusive discussion and decision-making; and increasing expectations around pre-meeting preparation. The Executive Director observed, a formerly, "difficult" board member was now working well with the other directors. The Board as a whole began to shift from being a working board to being a policy-making board.

As my involvement with the client came to an end, the Executive Committee and senior staff had reviewed and amended committee mandates to bring them in-line with current needs and processes. They planned to continue the process by: a) refining and implementing the new committee structure and b) Board members offering their new skills and procedures to all committee members for the benefit of the Centre.

Government worker: Career Transition

Situation: A government staff worker wanted to acquire Certificate in Conflict Resolution, Justice Institute of BC, and integrate those skills into her work and her life. She identified her dyslexia-like learning disability and being a non-native English speaker as specific hurdles to overcome.

Intervention: She had six one-hour private coaching sessions and one follow-up session prior to Conflict Resolution Assessment.

Results: She passed her assessment on her first attempt, with "Strong" in all four components (only one in three candidates pass the first time). Changes this client reported include: more positive relationships with family and co-workers, increased focus and productivity at work, improved ability to identify her emotions, more positive and less negative self-talk, more self confidence, and the ability to see more options and take action.