Actions

Our many years of experience helping organizations create and implement major systems change has taught us that the #1 impediment to creating breakthrough system designs and strategies is prematurely anticipating implementation challenges.  Doing so will kill a change initiative at the start.  So, we have learned to think through the new design or approach first, and then, plan how to make it happen.  We call this designing actions.

An action Lab combines the expertise of Lab participants about their unique culture, politics, history, etc. with expertise in supporting strategic change.  Re: DESIGN uses a comprehensive approach to planning actions that opportunistically seeks to align as many elements of organization life as possible with the new direction.  These elements could range from the performance review system, to a speech given by an agency executive, to material on an agency bulletin board.  No element is too small to support the change.

All change produces resistance.  Paradoxically, our experience has taught us that resistance is not something to be avoided, but rather embraced.  Resistance teaches us what we need to know and do in order to move ahead.

Examples of Our Work

(Members performed this work while part of The Public Strategies Group)

“Powering Success: Micro Aid for Student Achievement”
New Mexico

 New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union(NMEFCU) and the University of New Mexico(UNM) initiative uses microfinance to help underbanked and high-risk students access financial services and training, avoid predatory lenders and complete their higher education. Nationally, New Mexico ranks 41st in degree attainment. As little as $200 in unexpected costs can cause a student to drop out of school. This design project sought new strategies for making microfinance as powerful within the educational realm as it is in the economic realm. The Lab produced action strategies for making their microfinance project effective, sustainable and compatible with existing financial aid and banking systems.

Office of Federal Student Aid

The Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) was designated as the first federal Performance Based Organization. We assisted in their management of the changes required to shift the focus of this enterprise to its customers. More importantly, we helped to design and implement strategies to assist the organization as it adapted to the massive changes in mission, policy, and information technology.

New York City Department of Finance

The New York City Department of Finance (NYCDoF) asked for help in designing -  and implementing - a basic performance management system. In the first phase of the project, the agency was assisted in the process of focusing on results, developing performance measures, and implementing the measurement and learning process. In the next phases, the agency was assisted in managing the changes required to make this performance management system sustainable through a transformation of the agency’s culture (i.e., its work “habits”) and all the systems that support it. This included the redesign and reorganization of it core business processes and administrative systems, modernizing its information systems, and managing the processes through which these new designs and new systems are developed and implemented in the workplace.

New York State Office of Persons with Developmental Disabilities

NYSOPWDD asked for help to support its efforts to create a culture that more actively supported the abilities of persons under its oversight, enabling better outcomes in health, home, employment and relationships.  We supported  a range of activities aimed at mobilizing individual and organizational actions to bring about immediate changes for people and long-term changes to the system.