Developing organizational capacity is critical to developing a high-performing organization. Strategic planning, regular retreats, leadership and employee training are important aspects of a productive organizational culture, as is a structured management decision-making and communication process that engages everyone in the government.
Management Partners works collaboratively with organizations to develop feedback instruments (performance evaluations and organizational climate surveys) that allow organizations to continually improve service to the public by building on the strengths and talent of the workforce. We offer a variety of services applicable to both staff and elected officials. Our customer service training workshops are designed specifically for local government employees and offer skills and strategies for dealing with difficult customers. We design teambuilding workshops based on the needs of your organization, and we also facilitate retreats for a variety of purposes including goal setting, strategic planning and problem solving. We have planned and implemented strategic planning and goal setting retreats for councils and boards and have facilitated similar sessions for management teams of entire governments as well as individual departments.
Our list of training and facilitation experience is quite varied and includes:
• Myers-Briggs workshops
• Conflict-management workshops
• Customer service training
• Development of customer standards
• Employee feedback training
• Executive coaching
• Employee and customer surveys
Representative clients in the area of organizational development include the City of Shoreline, Washington. Management Partners has been working with Shoreline to build capacity and implement a value-based culture consistent with the City Manager’s vision for the organization and the City Council’s vision for the community. We have facilitated regular retreats with the governing body and the organization’s leadership team. Specific change initiatives have included training in Myers-Briggs and Performance Feedback. The City has since developed in-house capacity to carry these initiatives to all employees in the organization by certifying in-house trainers.
In another example, we assisted The Woodlands, Texas in documenting performance expectations for customer service for their entire organization. A task force of employees was convened to articulate customer service standards. After the standards were documented and approved, customized training was developed to introduce every employee in the organization to these standards. Management Partners then presented training in advanced customer service skills for employees who must work with “difficult” customers. Customer Service standards became part of each employee’s orientation package and ongoing training is offered by in-house trainers trained by Management Partners.
