It's Time
For a
Crisis

To: The West Dakota Director of Economic Development
From: Bob Behn
Re: Managing Up from Medocrity
Date: August, 1999

Create a crisis. As a leader of any organization, you possess the most leverage to change things and improve performance when (1) you are new to the job, and (2) you have a crisis. You have already exploited the opportunity presented when you first became director two years ago to improve the department from poor to mediocre. Now you need some kind of crisis to take it from mediocre to excellent.

Such a crisis may soon present itself. If not, you have two ways to create one. You can use the data that suggests the department had not significantly improved performance. Or you can use the Governor’s Business Advisory Council to tell you the same thing.

USE THE DATA TO CREATE A CRISIS

The data suggests that the Department of Economic Development has not really improved performance. Results are up—sort of. But West Dakota isn’t really attracting many more tourists, recruiting (or keeping) many more businesses, attracting more foreign investment or making more foreign sales.

But the data do not speak for themselves. You have to make them speak for you. You need some simple charts that will puncture the complacency that permeates your department’s staff. You need to use these charts to set performance goals for next year for each division of your department. You need to use these charts to create a sense of crisis within each division. Then, as one of your divisions—any division—makes progress towards its goals for next year, you can use that progress to motivate the other divisions.

After your department has begun to ratchet up performance, you can use these charts—with the slight upturn—to generate the flexibility and resources necessary to produce even better results. You can take the charts to the governor, the legislature, the editorial boards, the business community and other stakeholders, explaining what your department has already accomplished and how much more you could do if you had the necessary resources and support.

USE THE ADVISORY COUNCIL TO CREATE A CRISIS

If your people are too complacent to let a little data disturb them, you can use the Governor’s Business Advisory Council to do so. Simply ask the council—or ask the governor to ask the council—to evaluate how well the state’s economy is doing and how well the various divisions of your department are contributing to economic growth.

The council looks like the logical group to ask this question. It is composed of your department’s most significant stakeholders. It is composed of people who are (almost by definition) respected by the rest of your stakeholders and by others in the state who are actively engaged the political and policy debates. When the council issues a report, others will listen. (If the council’s members don’t have enough weight, create another “special” task force of people who do carry such authority.)

The council should be asked two very specific questions—one evaluative, the other prescriptive: How well is the Department of Economic Development contributing to economic prosperity of West Dakota? And what should the department do to better serve the citizens and businesses of the state? The council’s answer to the first question may, at first, appear humiliating. But only if you ignore it. Moreover, you can guide the council’s thinking. Assign key people from your research bureau to help staff the council’s deliberations. To do its work competently, the council will need professional help, and you need to make sure that it gets it.

Develop a personal rapport with the council’s chair and make him or her a partner in your effort to improve the department’s effectiveness. Make sure that the council and particularly the chair recognizes the key inadequacies of the department—and also recognizes that you understand them completely. Be completely honest with the council. Make it an ally, not an adversary. Make sure that the council appreciates that you are trying to improve significantly the effectiveness of your department, but that you can’t do this without its help.

When the council’s chair holds the press conference to release the report, be there to pledge your personal commitment to implement its proposals. In fact, you ought to begin implementing some of the easy ones even before the council issues its report. After all, if you have developed a real partnership with the council—a partnership based on your mutual desire to improve the state’s economy—its members will be happy that you are carrying out their recommendations.

Indeed, you want to do exactly what the council recommends. It provides the stimulus (or excuse) for what you want to do: “I’m just doing what the Governor’s Business Advisory Council says needs to be done to ensure that my department is an asset to the state.”

But you also want the council to tell you to do what you already know needs to be done. This means that you need ask the council the right questions. You need to decide what the department should do to ratchet up performance. Then, you need to ask the right questions and provide the right data to ensure that the council is equipped to provide you with the right answers.

Then, you can use the mandate from Governor’s Business Advisory Council to create the crisis necessary to move from mediocre to excellent.

Agree or disagree? If you think you have a better way to deal with this month's Manager's Choice dilemma, or would like to expand on Bob Behn's approach, share your thoughts with other readers here. Send your solution to mailbox@governing.com. Please include your name, location, government or business title or job description, and a daytime phone number (for verification purposes).