| Panel
John Opperman introduced
the panel and reminded all that the purpose of the
day’s Conference was to think about how to
increase innovation in Texas state organizations and
heighten the level of efficiency under potentially
more restrictive economic times in future months.
Ric
Williamson
Bill Kuntz and Brian Francis
Stephanie Stanford Jim
Templeton
John Opperman Karen
Jennings
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Mr.
Williamson focused upon the complex environment in
which government operates. He stressed the reality
that it was not simply that leadership was important
but how difficult it was for leadership to relate to
aspects of the environment that had a legitimate and
powerful call on setting the directions of the given
agency. He noted that in his own organization, the
Texas Department of Transportation that those actors
would be the Governor, the
Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker, and senior
legislative leaders such as important committee
chairs, the Legislative Budget Board and also local
leaders such as influential mayors. He felt that
there was a considerable challenge for every state
organization to deal effectively with the complex
set of institutions and persons that could serve to
set directions for the organization.
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Mr.
Kuntz and Mr. Francis, using slides and video clips
illustrated the organizational strategy they had
employed to respond to the deep fiscal problems of
their organization when they assumed leadership in
2000. They also found a profoundly demoralized
staff. Using the Survey of Organizational Excellence
data, they began to identify those areas of most
serious deficiencies and then, importantly involved
all staff in further identification of the problems
and the search for alternative solutions. Their
efforts in 12 months moved the organization from one
slated for legislative termination to a model of
efficiency and innovation.
Central to their efforts were to identify key momentum
or leverage issues to begin to build a sense of
movement and success. Throughout the process three
core values will repeatedly iterated: Respect,
Trust, Communications. Mr. Kuntz and Mr. Francis
were participants in a case study on organizational
change conducted by the Survey and the findings are
located at Texas
Real Estate.
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Ms.
Stanford’s presentation examined the role of
understanding and using technology to improve
organizational innovation. She emphasized the
importance of fully understanding technology and
being certain that one was not blindly “riding a
dead horse” by failing to assess the issue and how
to use the technology. Ms. Stanford noted that
appropriate use of technology can deepen an
organization’s understanding of its core mission.
She introduced Jim Templeton of the Texas Department
of Public Safety to provide a specific illustration
of the use of technology to improve the quality and
efficiency of a specific service provision.
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 Mr.
Templeton explained in some detail how his agency
had used Internet technology to offer to citizens
the option of driver’s license renewal. Faced with
important security concerns and a variety of older,
“legacy” hardware and software that ran
requisite data bases, the Texas Department of Public
Safety provided a popular and convenient alternative
to driving to an office in person. Important to
their success, Mr. Templeton said was to design the
service so that it appeared as a third alternative
to mail renewal or in person renewal. The software
makes effective use of partnerships with the state’s
online portal and the Texas Information Center in
San Angelo. The presentation was a clear
illustration of the use of information technology to
make an important service more broadly and
conveniently available.
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Mr.
Opperman summarized the Panel presentation and
invited Mr. McTigue to join the Panel in fielding
questions from the audience. Mr. Opperman emphasized
that many events including those deriving from the
terrorist bombing of September 11 mandated
thoughtful
examination of organizational structure and in many
cases use of de-centralized virtual organizations.
He noted that the intent of the Conference and
follow up activities would expect each state agency
and university to think through strategically what
they vision and role should be. He urged them to
think fundamentally about what statutes might need
to be changed to optimize fully achieving the vision
and goals of their organization.
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At
the conclusion of audience questions, Mr. Opperman
introduced Ms. Jennings. Ms.
Jennings thanked the audience for inviting her and
related to them her appreciation of the critical and
distinctive role that state government played
particularly made relevant by some of the crises of
the fall. She offered the change circumstances of
SBC as a potential case study in how best for an
organization to meet and respond to change. She
cited two events as critical to how and why that
Southwestern Bell faced imperatives for change. The
first was the Federal court decision that ended the
American Telephone and Telegraph national public
monopoly on telephone service. That decision made
SBC/Southwestern Bell an independent entity that
would provide local telephone service. The second
event was the 1996 Federal Telecommunications Act
that substantially increased competition in
providing telephone, wireless and other forms of
electronic communication. The end result of these
two landmark policy changes caused SBC to change
from a regional subsidiary providing a public
monopoly on service to a company that must compete
in local and national markets. She said this lead to
three fundamental principles that she viewed as
critical to the current success of SBC. The first
principle was to operate on the observation that the
organization that wins is not necessarily the one
that is first to innovate but the organization that
best responds to change. The key job is to respond
to change not try to predict change. She used
General Electric and Jack Welch’s leadership as
especially instructive. The second principle is
never to view change as an end in and of itself. A
change must relate to a genuine business objective
and provide revenues. The third principle was that
organizational change requires commensurate change
in leadership. She used the example of SBC, when
faced with a new operating environment, relocated
its headquarters from St. Louis to San Antonio. That
moved relocated the company in the heart of its
largest customer market and moved it much closer to
its increasing investments and participation with
the Mexican telecommunications company, Telmex. She
said this also served to energize all company
leadership with an understanding of using the
physical move to underscore the importance and
imperatives of the organizational changes. Her
presentation ended with a call to all to move toward
making the important choices and to make the choices
well with the full involvement of all employees. |
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