Ways to Improve

I am always looking for ways to improve. Improving the way we do business, the way we work as a team and the way we feel about our work. In the quest for enlightenment I found a few things that may help us improve. I have been looking into Intrinsic motivation verses the carrot and stick motivation. Government work does not lend itself to carrot or reward based methods. Although UDOT has some reward programs they have been minimized due to tight budgets and the overall down turn of the economy. When the carrots have been eliminated the sticks sometimes remain. My goal is that we eliminate the stick and feel good about what we do as government employees. This requires that we have three things that motivate our work, they are purpose, autonomy, and mastery. In working for the public we are trusted with making decision for the good of the public as a whole. Our purpose is to do what is right, find ways to promote the public good and be trustees for the taxpayers investments. We also need autonomy, in other words no stick. We need to be able have the autonomy to decide what needs to be done, how we do it and what resources we need to do our work. This will require allot of trust from everyone from our Region Program Manager(Kevin) and his group all the way up the line to UDOT's Executive Director John Njord and the public at large. Another element is mastery of the work, which I view in terms of core competency. Everyone wants to be the best in their field. In doing our work we have many opportunities to learn new things. As I have stated before I would like the experts to be us. Mastery of your particular field will not only give you satisfaction, but will also help build the trust needed to be able to work with autonomy and purpose. Building trust will keep us all motivated and is linked directly to job satisfaction.

Leadership Strengths

I recently read the book by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie called Strength Based Leadership. The book looks at what strengths each person has in terms of leadership. Each of us may have different strengths that we bring to the Job. The book infers that if we evaluate what our strengths are and what are the strengths of those around us we can better organize and use the strengths of each person to build the best possible organization. The book defines thirty four themes of leaders and categorizes them into four domains. I won't list all 34 themes, but the 4 domains are; Executing, Influencing, Relationship building, and Strategic Planning. When I purchased the book it came with a code so that I could go to their website and take an evaluation questionnaire that would tell me my leadership strengths. The program they use is call Strength Finder 2.0 and the website link is http://strengths.gallup.com/110659/Homepage.aspx . As you may have guessed I took the evaluation. My top five themes of leadership are "Arranger, Individualization, Context, Connectedness, and Futuristic". I will show the results they sent me for the first theme "Arranger" just so you can get a taste of what they came up with. The Arranger theme falls under the Executing domain.

Arranger
By nature, you are willing to stop whatever you are doing and thinking to talk to group members about large-scale ideas. Often these conversations help you figure out how to coordinate events, projects, investments, schedules, mergers, or trips. Chances are good that you sometimes marvel at how good your life is. Favorable feelings may flood over you when you determine how diverse individuals can better cooperate. Perhaps you are happy when you can figure out how they can be more productive. Maybe you are delighted when even just a few people begin to appreciate each other’s talents, knowledge, or skills. It’s very likely that you are likely to be a team member in some cases and the team leader in other instances. The role you play probably reflect the demands of the current situation. Because of your strengths, you occasionally take on additional tasks. Why? Maybe you want to keep busy. You may be compelled to assume full ownership of your work. Perhaps you continually discover more things you can do, should do, or must do. Perhaps you willingly accept the consequences of your words, deeds, action, or lack of action. Instinctively, you may feel good about life when someone important takes a special interest in you as a person. Perhaps you can recall educators or coaches who gave you extra attention, pointers, or assignments. Sometimes they may have removed bureaucratic barriers so you could benefit from opportunities to acquire knowledge, master a skill, or gain experience.

Based on what strengths we have will help determine how we approach a challenge and what circumstances may require help from others.

I have Strength Based Leadership in my library so you can read it, although Brett currently has it checked out. I will also be happy to share the entire results of my evaluation. If anyone is interested in my evaluation just let me know and I will e-mail you the PDF.

Look Ma I'm Flying

Recently Brett Myself and Jeff made a visit to the I-Fly in Ogden. I-Fly is a Skydiving simulator that simulates the free fall of skydiving. It was a great experience that I will repeat after my back quits aching. I would like to thank our instructor, Mike for not letting us injure neither our bodies or our egos. Now I know what it's like to fly!

Staff Meeting Update

Just want to update you on a few items that were discussed at The Region's staff meeting. Dashboard measures and Budget cuts will be what I will elaborate on. Performance plans were also discussed, but I will talk about them with you on another post.

The discussion on dashboard measures revealed that the measures for Region One Preconstruction was not up to date. The measure that was posted on the innerweb had not been updated since January 2006. Total Preliminary Engineering cost is what was being measured back then. Jason asked that all outdated measures be removed from the dashboards and he also asked that we review our measures and find a meaningful measure to place on the dashboards. Our group has been working with the Project Managers to improve the RPDU which looks at Project Delivery. Preconstruction RPDU measures schedules and budgets specifically, but also shows comparisons of contractor payments and contractor's bids vs engineer's estimate. We will look at the RPDU for a replacement measure to update the dashboards for Region Proconstruction and Project Management.

Another item that was discussed was budget cuts. Jason indicated that John Njord stated that we will not balance the budget on the backs of the employees. John was referring to furloughs that other agencies have used to balance their budgets. UDOT will not fill vacant position unless they are criticle to our operations. Those position should not go away but just would not be filled until the budgets can accommodate them. Other budget cuts include things like bottled water, and reviewing both cell and land line phone needs. We have already identified two cell phones that were non essential and are looking at removing some landlines for those who have cell phones. The only issue to this is that currently the front desk cannot forward a phone call to cell phones. Joni is looking into if that can be fixed so then we will identify which landlines can be removed. The water issue can be solved if everyone would like to contribute I will put the water account in my name and continue the service. The cost per year is about $600 or for 30 people it would be $20 each per year. The only caveat for me is that I would want to pay for the whole year up front. I have talked with a few of you and those whom I talked too want the water.

Changes

As everyone knows we have a new Region Director and many have been speculating on changes to come. Although Jason will have his own style and perspective his overall goals will remain the same as Cory's goals, which are UDOT's goals "Quality Transportation Today, Better Transportation Tomorrow" . I think Jason's perspective and advice will give us one more person to draw from when looking for solutions. We can benefit a great deal from his experience and with his insight we can expand our vision just like we have every time a new team member has joined us. I have learned a great deal from each of you and I hope to learn more by including Jason as part of our team. Think back on your own career and remember some of those whom you have worked with that have influenced you in a positive way and then think if you had never had the opportunity to work with that person. Like other team members Jason will help shape how you grow and experience your career. I am certain it will be a positive and rewarding experience for all of us. Although we will miss Cory, this change will be to our advantage because we will have the opportunity to work with Jason.

Charity Starts With You

Recently Kevin Griffin, Darin Duersch, and myself toured both the Utah Food Bank and the Homeless shelter which is called "The Road Home". It was a sad commentary that these facilities are needed, but it is also a testament to the Utah spirit that many people are willing to give both time and money helping those in need. During the tour of the shelter it was pointed out that the fastest growing population in the shelter is families. Most of the people in the shelter, over 86% are what is call the working poor. Below are a few facts about "The Road Home"

The Road Home Vison Statement
We envision people moving seamlessly from the cold streets into warm housing from despair and alienation toward hope and inclusion.We envision a community that recognizes the inherent dignity of those who live in poverty and homelessness.The Road Home will work with all of our important partners to realize this vision.

The Road Home History
The Road Home, formerly Travelers Aid Society, is a private, non-profit social service agency established in 1923 in Utah to assist stranded travelers, unescorted and runaway youth, and other disconnected persons. Although historically known for its booths in train stations, bus stations and airports, The Road Home positioned itself to assist a wider range of individuals requiring assistance, including homeless people. Case management by a social worker is emphasized as the critical element in providing quality, long-term resolution to challenges that the individual faces.

The Road Home Accomplishments
The Road Home provided support for thousands of people who were homeless in fiscal year 2007-2008. The Salt Lake Community Shelter and Self-Sufficiency Center served 2,400 households consisting of 2,743 persons, including 1,681 single men, 373 single women and 157 families consisting of 219 children and 188 adults. A total of 195,320 shelter stays was provided. Average length of stay was 30 days for single women, 36 days for single men, and 74 days for families. The Community Emergency Winter Housing Program provided shelter to 2,256 single men, 339 single women, and 143 families with 510 family members. A total of 60,134 shelter nights were provided from October 13, 2006 to April 1, 2007. The Emergency Assistance Office served a total of 3,248 individual clients with 7,891 services including bus passes, birth certificates, clothing and more. Through our Housing Program, 162 households were placed from homelessness into housing. Overall, the Housing Program served 336 households this fiscal year.


We often think about charity only during the holiday season, but the need is there all year long. I would encourage everyone to give something every month to help someone in need. Don't ask why someone has found himself without food or shelter as it does not mater. What counts is that when someone is in need you reach out and help. We adopted a family for Christmas and provided hope and joy for a family in need that we will never meet. I am proud of each of you for your part in our holiday endeavor, you were very generous and I thank you.