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01.24.11 CC WS Mtg Min CITY OF SHOREWOOD 5755 COUNTRY CLUB ROAD CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION COUNCIL CHAMBERS MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 2011 6:15 P.M. MINUTES 1. CONVENE CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION Mayor Lizée called the meeting to order at 6:15 P.M. She then introduced Attorney Keane. A. Roll Call Present. Mayor Lizée; Councilmembers Hotvet, Siakel, Woodruff and Zerby; Attorney Keane; Administrator Heck; Planning Director Nielsen (arrived at 6:27 P.M.); Director of Public Works Brown; and Engineer Landini Absent: None B. Review Agenda Zerby moved, Hotvet seconded, approving the agenda as presented. Motion passed 5/0. 2. MEASURABLE MANAGEMENT Mayor Lizée stated Molly McDonald is present this evening to provide Council with an overview of a program titled Measurable Management. Ms. McDonald noted she provided Council with an overview of the Measurable Management program during a September 2010 Council work session. She explained that Mayor Lizée and Administrator Heck thought it would be valuable to come back and present the information again because Councilmembers Hotvet and Siakel are new to the Council. Ms. McDonald explained Measurable Management is organizational improvement through change leadership. Robin Burn, from Great Britain, authored the program about 15 years ago. It’s practiced on a number of continents and it has been used in the United States for about the last six years. Prior to creating the Measurable Management program Mr. Burn worked for Xerox during the time when Xerox won the Malcom Baldrige Award on two continents for business excellence. Ms. McDonald stated she works for a company called Fritz Partners located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has been with them for about two years. She has been responsible for introducing this program into the States of Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin along with her colleagues. She noted she has 20 plus years of sales experience. She is also a successful professional singer and works with a number of arts organizations in the Twin Cities. Fritz Partners is a licensee of Measurable Management. Wendy Fritz Mader who is the top executive coach in the Great Lakes region, owns the company. Rebecca Heiderpriem is a co-facilitator with her. Ms. Heiderpriem created the Leadership Academy, a management development institute, while managing Xerox’s International Training Division. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES January 24, 2011 Page 2 of 3 Ms. McDonald explained Measurable Management provides a vehicle for translating the strategies identified by the City Council for the City through the City staff and out to the City’s customers. Front line staff identifies areas for improvement, they identify how to make the improvements, and they implement the changes. Fritz Partners’ philosophy is the best consultants an organization has are the individuals who work in the organization. They know where most of the problems are and most often know how the operation could improve if provided the opportunity. If front line staff does not know how to execute the strategies for the City, they’re not achieved. There are many companies who are skilled at helping organizations develop and enhance policies and strategies. What differentiates the Measurable Management program is it heavily involves the front line staff. It provides them with the leadership qualities needed to get the people working together as well as the technical knowledge needed to execute the strategies. Ms. McDonald highlighted four key issues Administrator Heck had preliminarily identified for the City last fall. They are: 1) improve and further develop relationships between cities to share resources; 2) increase the efficiency of processes and procedures; 3) stabilize/decrease City expenditures; and 4) develop a plan to finance the City’s roadway improvement program. The 3 – 4 key issues identified and agreed upon by Council and Staff will become the success criteria for the program. Everything the participants work on in the program should help address one of the issues. Ms. McDonald then explained the program works on three platforms: 1) leadership and team building; 2) process management; and, 3) action. The Measurable Management program teaches participants to enhance both their soft skills and their technical skills. The participants attend seven meetings. The meetings are scheduled every other week and the meetings are three hours long. The first meeting is the introductory meeting. It’s extremely important for Council to attend the first part of this meeting to show support for the program and to let staff know that Council is empowering staff to make improvements. The first three sessions in the program focus on “pull style” leadership. Instead of a “my way or the highway approach to leadership” it teaches leaders to work together in a more inclusive way. It promotes involving various people when solving problems. The skills learned in the first three weeks are used in the second platform. During the first two platforms, program participants focus on identifying improvement opportunities in the areas of resources, relationships, and processes. They are encouraged to look for areas of disconnect in not only their job but also the organization as a whole. By the end of the second platform, participants should have developed a lengthy list of ideas to explore. The first two platforms will take about three months. At the conclusion, participants will meet with the mentor of the Measurable Management program. They will each choose three ideas to implement. During the third platform, each participant will select an idea and implement the idea. At the end, the participants will review with Council the idea/problem they selected to work on, the effect it was having on the organization, what changes were made to improve the situation, how they measured results of the change, the return on the investment, and how the improvement is linked to one of the key issues identified. Each participant will repeat this for two more improvement ideas. The goal is for participants to view the exercise as one that can be used for continuous improvement. Ms. McDonald cited one improvement made at the City of Waconia. The improvement involved using Carver County sentence-to-serve people to clean Waconia’s public service facility. The improvements saved Waconia $6,719 annually. She cited a second improvement, which involved changing the cleaning detergent for a pool which saved about $3,000 annually. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES January 24, 2011 Page 3 of 3 Ms. McDonald reviewed the financial costs for the program. A $3,500 fee is charged for each of the ten participants a minimum of ten people is required. If the Measurable Management program doesn't facilitate $35,000 in revenues or savings for the City, Fritz Partners will return the difference between the program cost and the benefits realized. She noted that the average savings per program generated in the United States is about $44,000. She clarified the results are extended out over a year. Ms. McDonald recapped that the Measurable Management program equips staff to execute the City's strategies and to deliver results to the bottom line. It helps people overcome resistance to change. It helps develop teamwork and leadership. And, Fritz, Partners guarantees the City's return -on- investment. Mr. McDonald reviewed the next steps. Council needs to decide if it wants to move forward with the program. Program participants need to be selected. The schedule needs to be finalized. The list of key issues needs to be finalized. Ms. McDonald stated the City has very forward thinking people at the top of the leadership group. In response to a comment from Councilmember Siakel, Ms. McDonald explained Fritz Partners can also provide services to assist with strategic planning. Ms. McDonald stated there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about the program. Mayor Lizee asked Administrator Heck to distribute copies of the case studies Ms. McDonald provided. Mayor Lizee also requested this be discussed during a future Council meeting. 3. ADJOURN Hotvet moved, Siakel seconded, Adjourning the City Council Work Session of January 24, 2011, at 6:53 P.M. Motion passed 5/0. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED Christine Freeman, Recorder Christine Lizee, Mayor