service leadership team performance management guidebook...janet mountain, lory pilchik and virginia...

Performance Management GuidebookFall 2009

Service Leadership Team

expect Successakland Unified School diStrict

first and foremost, we would like to acknowledge the Michael & Susan dell foundation for their partnership over the past several years. their continued support has enabled us to develop and grow the oUSd Performance Management system. Specifically, we would like to thank Janet Mountain, lory Pilchik and Virginia Ballato for their unwavering support, expertise and encouragement.

We would also like to thank all of the Service team leaders for their participation in and dedication to the creation and continuous refinement of the oUSd Performance Management system. We recognize that some of these changes have not been easy and we appreciate your commitment to using Performance Management to continuously improve our service to our schools, families and community.

Many thanks to the Union leadership, who have partnered with us to create, promote and implement a professional development plan that engaged classified employees at the central office and site in learning how to build a service culture. in particular Mynette theard and Morris tatum attended many planning meetings to develop a plan that would build skills that would help the employees in the areas of customer service, operational effectiveness, and technology efficiency.

the Board of education has modeled a commitment to performance management through the development of coherent governance policies which provide the overarching student results goals and operational expectations that link to each of the schools and central office performance standards and reports. they have consistently supported the efforts of the staff to build these performance systems and hold us accountable for our results with regular opportunities to report these results at Board of education meetings.

thank you to those who so graciously shared their stories and quotes for this booklet.

We also would like to thank our new Superintendent, dr. tony Smith, for his enthusiastic support of the performance management system and look forward to his leadership in taking the culture, processes and tools to the next level in assisting our district in achieving equitable and excellent results for our students.

acknoWledgeMentS

Service leadership team

the oUSd Service leadership team is comprised of all the managers of central office departments that provide services to school sites. all these units have a common role: they provide critical and direct central office services to school site staff. therefore, all these units participate in the Service leadership team Performance Management system outlined in the guidebook.

We utilize the term “Service culture” to describe the underlying customer service philosophy of this team. Monthly Service culture meetings bring this group of service providers together as a Professional learning community (Plc). More details about how these monthly Plc’s have used their time are described later in this booklet.

Chief ACAdemiC OffiCer Adult And CAreer eduCAtion instruCtionAl serviCes

ProgrAm for exCePtionAl Children

sChool Portfolio mAnAgement

Chief finAnCiAl OffiCer

ACCounting

Budgeting

oPerAtions

risk mAnAgement

stAte And federAl ProgrAms AssOCiAte superintendent Of fACilities

fACilities And PlAnning

Building And grounds

CustodiAl serviCes

Chief serviCes OffiCer Attend And AChieve

ComPlementAry leArning

fAmily And Community offiCe

humAn resourCes

informAtion teChnology

nutrition serviCes

oPerAtions suPPort

PoliCe serviCes

reseArCh And Assessment

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dear colleagues,

one of the unique aspects of oakland’s reform effort has been our commitment to transform the central office to better serve our schools for the benefit of students and families. We have created a performance management system that holds central service areas accountable for a meaningful set of multiple measures. these measures are grounded in a customer service culture which is the heart of our reform effort. We have worked diligently to shift the mindset and structures of our central office to reflect our belief that student achievement can be accelerated when schools are supported by central services that are aligned to the needs of schools.

We have built a new culture by engaging all of our central office leaders and staff in a rigorous conversation about what it means to be customer focused and how this orientation can actually improve academic and social outcomes for students. Many of our beliefs about the traditional role of central office had to be unpacked and reframed. for example, we had find ways to help keep the overall district solvent and in compliance by supporting and building capacity of school leaders and staff with empathy and respect for the challenges they face on daily basis. We wanted to shift our role from compliance auditors to collaborative problem solvers.

We hold ourselves accountable to our schools through a tiered accountability System that reports the results from our Service Score cards. each department’s Service Score card defines what critical services schools need and the key customer satisfaction factors we strive to meet in providing those services. We receive annual feedback on the perception of how well provided these services through the Use Your Voice survey administered every spring. our goal is to create a consistent and positive experience for our internal and external customers. We track our prog-ress year to year, and although our baseline scores were low initially, we continue to see improvements each year with dramatic gains in many cases. like our schools, we are using a data-driven, collaborative approach to continu-ously improve the quality of our products and services and to ground the dialogue with data in our professional learning communities,

another unique aspect of our customer focused performance management system has been the inclusion of our classified staff at both schools and central office. the spirit of expect Success can only be realized if we invest in building each person’s capacity to perform at higher levels. a multi-year plan was created and implemented with our classified union leaders to build the mindset, knowledge and skills in customer service, technological profi-ciency and operational effectiveness.

We will all be tested with the severe budget cuts we are facing, but i believe that our shared vision of a customer focused central office will inspire us to stay the course until all of our schools say that central services are indeed helping them ensure all our students can achieve at high levels, ready for college and/or career. our youth and families are expecting the very best from our schools and our schools should continue to expect the best from us, their partners in educational equity, the most important social justice issue of our time. We hope this guidebook will contribute to codifying and sharing our learning within our district and with other school districts who share our passion for student success. thank you.

Sincerely,

laura Moran

Letter from the Chief Service Officer

Laura Moran

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“the Performance management System that has been built in the district provides the systems that support our commitment to social justice. in order to close the opportunity gap and create true equity for our students, we must hold all adults accountable for performance. i am participating in our customer Service training with new principals and central office leaders and am impressed that we have a shared model and tools for building a culture that delivers on a promise to serve all, especially those that have been least served. i look forward to building on this Performance Management System to help oakland take the next steps to success.”

tony Smith, Superintendent

“i like the fact that we have a balanced and standard way of evaluating all our service areas. as the chief financial officer, it is important to me that one of our key metrics is Budget/ resources

Management. this year we wanted to ensure that we did a more in-depth review of this area and created a set of criteria for evaluating and assigning a score vs. a simple budget to actual metric.

We looked at a variety of indicators including budget to actual, revenue generation, process improvement, vacancy/ staffing, and “green” initiatives. these review sessions were conducted in

partnership with the chief Service officer and allowed us to learn more about how we can support our leaders to effectively use their resources to achieve their service standards and improve their

overall level of service to schools and other internal customers.”

Vernon hal, chief financial officer

“the performance management system in oUSd has helped me transform both custodial Services and Buildings and grounds. the leaders and their teams in these areas have motivated their staff with clear goals, supports and rewards and have increased their scores consistently each year. i believe that this transparent system of defining and measuring success has helped our customers and the public see our improvement over time and helps keep us motivated to reach higher levels of performance. i also believe that the cross functional work we have done with the home run projects has been a huge boost to our custodial services department and this has contributed to providing better learning environments for our students.”

timothy White, associate Superintendent of facilities

“the schools and network officers have really appreciated the openness of the service organization to receive on-going feedback on their performance. We had a very robust mid year review where

every service area not only reported on the progress of their service standards but made a clear and intentional link between their work and two of our key strategies this year which: providing extra

support to our lower performing schools and supporting new teacher retention. We provide feedback on an annual basis on the service standards to ensure continued alignment between our academic

focus and the goals of the Service areas.”

Brad Stam, chief academic officer

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Union leadership involvement and commitment ensures alignment of Performance Management with Strong customer Service Professional development

“SeiU and afScMe were invited to a different kind of labor/ management table three years ago that gave us the opportunity to shape the district’s approach to performance management and the service culture. We were part of a team that created the classified professional development plan that ensured our members would receive the type of

support they needed to achieve success. Prior reform efforts had failed to include a strong voice for classified unions and we were able to help promote a customer service program that we had been advocating for over many years. We helped pilot and select the program for customer service that would help employees both at schools and central office treat each other and our community with dignity and respect.

Morris Tatum (AFSCME), Mayor Ron V. Dellums, and Mynette Theard (SEIU) at the 2007 Leadership Retreat.

We also encouraged senior leadership of the district to participate in the training along side the site leaders so that they could understand and support the values and skills of customer service our staff was learning. We continue to urge all leaders to honor the standard we set that all classified employees

have an individual learning plan in the areas of customer service, technology proficiency and operational effectiveness and that they encourage employees to dedicate at least 40 hours a year to achieving this plan. We believe that if you want to set a higher standard for performance for employees you must also provide a level of professional support required to achieve this standard.”

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Table of ConTenTs

introduction theory of action – the Why of it all

the four Big ideasthe data-driven, continuous improvement cycle•achieving Service excellence – Building a Performance culture through exemplary •customer Servicerater – the 5 key factors in customer Satisfaction•the tiered accountability System – holding ourselves accountable for results•

Big idea 1: the data-driven, continuous improvement cycle cycle at-a-glance•reflect Step-by-Step•

“Stepping Back to reflect contributes to r&a’s double digit growth in rater •Scores”

Plan Step-by-Step•“nutrition Service Staff’s focus on empathy raises customer Service Quality •Perception”

lead Step-by-Step•“custodial Service’s relentless attention to What Matters and Visionary leadership •turns a critical Service around

Service leadership Performance Management calendar•calendar at-a-glance •Monthly Service culture Meetings•Mid Year review of Progress•resource Management / Budget review Panel•end of Year Service leadership retreat•

Big idea 2: achieving Service excellence – Building a Performance culture through exemplary customer Service

“the Yin-Yang of Professional development” by delano garner•

Big idea 3: rater – the 5 key factors in customer Satisfaction

Big idea 4: the tiered accountability System – holding ourselves accountable for results

ops Support creates a Bridge While district improves Service delivery

a home run Success Story: Sub-fill rate increases to Meet the needs of Schools

“oUSd Service leaders regarded as exemplars in Service Performance Management” by laura Moran

PrologUe

appendix – tools and templates

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the oakland Unified School district exists to serve one basic, yet essential purpose: preparing students for the academic, social and professional challenges that await them in life. accomplishing this is impossible unless a clear vision of what constitutes a quality education is articulated and solid expectations for how we are to provide it is established. the oakland Board of education, in concert with oUSd staff and the broader oakland community, has developed a vision of the qualities oakland Public School students should ideally exhibit. Making the ideal a consistent reality is the charge of every single employee in the oakland Unified School district. it is our Mission to ensure that all students graduate as caring, competent and critical thinkers as well as fully-informed, engaged and contributing citizens, prepared to succeed in college and career. the bedrock Values underpinning this effort are: Achievement, Equity and Accountability. these values are at once essential and inseparable. continuous improvement in academic achievement is the primary metric by which we will evaluate our progress in educating oakland’s children. this progress will not come in full measure, however, without an unflagging commitment to equity – defined here as the belief that every kind of child can succeed and is entitled to the tools, means and instruction which allow them to do so. this relentless emphasis on equity as a lever to lift achievement is only possible when consistent accountability exists at all levels of the organization, and in all positions. it is through the diligent application of these values in pursuit of oUSd’s mission that we work toward the day when the following goals are realized:

InTroduCTIon

1. all students are reading proficient by the end of third grade

2. all students are algebra proficient by the end of ninth grade

3. all students graduate prepared for college and career by the end of twelfth grade

4. all students take responsibility for themselves and the common good

5. all students possess the skills and resiliency necessary for success in the workplace

as a critical strategy to reach our vision and goals, oUSd’s reform efforts include the design and implementation of a robust Performance Management System throughout the district. as a high priority, the district leadership team has made significant investment in Performance Management with the added support of funding from the Michael and Susan dell foundation. our district-wide approach to Performance Management is guided by a unified vision which was developed by the Performance Management Project team:

“We are building a district-wide performance management culture in which all oUSd employees:

v know and understand the district goals,v can articulate a limited number of individual

and team goals and targets aimed at critical outcomes that will contribute to academic acceleration,

v have access to key metrics to assess performance,v frequently reflect on progress, practice, and

outcomes,v are rewarded for exemplary outcomes andv face consequences and receive differentiated

support when they do not succeed.”

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177 Schools

109 K-12 Public Schools36 Child Development Centers

32 Charter Schools

4,861 Employees

4,255 School-site Based606 Non School-site Based

40,653Students

$419.3 MillionOperating Budget

Oakland Unified SchOOl diStrict “at-a-Glance”

44 Native Languages Spoken

68% Free or Reduced Lunch

data based on numbers reported on oUSd’s “fast facts” document, dated august 2008.

Challenges have included chronic underachievement, lack of equity, and a fiscal crisis that precipitated a state takeover in 2003.

36.5%African American

33.7%Hispanic

15.3%Asian

6.8%White

7.8%“Other”

after four years of implementation, oUSd has both progressed immensely in improving central office services, and also has further to go toward accomplishing sustained, high quality service. nevertheless, oUSd is regarded as an industry leader in implementing performance management across both teaching and learning and central office and is sought after by other urban districts for site visits and partnerships.

this guidebook focuses on the Service leadership team’s Performance Management System. as a partner to the academic side of the district, the Slt is committed to providing high standards of service to their customers, especially school sites, in order for high standards of teaching and learning to flourish. there are four big ideas that underpin the Slt’s Performance Management System and this guidebook is organized to discuss each in more detail:

1. the data-driven, continuous improvement cycle: reflect – Plan – lead annual cycle

2. Building a Performance culture through exemplary customer Service and achieving Service excellence training

3. five key factors in customer Satisfaction: reliability, assurances, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness

4. the tiered accountability System, a color-coded public accountability reporting structure that parallels the oUSd school accountability system.

these big ideas are exemplified through oUSd department stories and appreciative quotes from customers regarding improved customer service are sprinkled throughout this guidebook as a testament to the successes of several of our departments.

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???the why of it all

Theory of aCTIon

the Service leadership team’s approach to supporting the achievement of high standards of learning for each and every student in oakland Unified School district is founded on the following theory:

“if central office Services successfully deliver high quality service, especially to school sites, and generate high internal customer satisfaction, then school staff can increasingly focus time and energy on activities that directly improve student achievement.”

the ultimate customers of every district function are the families we serve with the ultimate beneficiaries being the children in our schools. customers are people who have resources and choices about where to spend their resources. With the advent of charter schools and “school choice” options for parents in public school districts, an important social justice opportunity has emerged, shifting our public education system toward a more competitive and open marketplace.

in our public education model, each student/family can choose whether they “spend” their ada (average daily attendance – the term used for the dollars per pupil funded to districts and schools). Some choose to allocate their ada in one or our schools by enrolling their students in their local school or other “choice” school within the district. other families may choose a charter school. Some others may choose to enroll their students in a neighboring district if they are not satisfied with the educational services provided by their local public school. the latter actions essentially divert resources away from our schools in the district. however, these choices empower all parents to choose where to “spend” their allocation of ada, something previously reserved for parents with higher incomes who had sufficient discretionary resources to opt out of the public education system entirely.

in a competitive marketplace, focusing on improving factors such as reliability and responsiveness for your customers becomes critical in order to stay in business. the advent of charters, and thus the more open marketplace, has essentially lifted the importance of customer service to every function within the district.

the following graphic illustrates the customer value chain from regulators and external vendors to families and students, and where central office service teams lie with respect to the ultimate customers. Predominantly, families and students receive educational services directly from schools their students attend. as a result, site leaders, teachers and staff are directly linked to families and students in our customer value chain. central office services primarily service the schools – the site leaders, teachers and staff – who provide direct service to families and students. therefore, our direct customers are the school site leaders, even when a particular service from a central office department touches a student or families directly.

regulators centralServiceteams

networkleaders

Siteleaders

teachers & Staff

Vendors

high levels of Service high levels of Student achievement

families (Students)

community/Boe

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a.S.e.

BigIdeas

The Data-Driven, Continuous Improvement Cycle*

Achieving Service Excellence (ASE)Building A Performance Culture through Exemplary Customer Service

The Tiered AccounTAbiliTy

SySTeM

Holding Ourselves Accountable for Results

the core of successful Performance Management is the continuous process improvement cycle for both schools and the central office service leader-ship team. for the central office, department cycles follow a three-step “reflect – Plan – lead” annual work flow.

reflect – includes a thorough review of performance data that will illuminate the “current state,” an accurate assessment of the causes and a set of key findings and implications for the following year. “reflect” puts the emphasis on accountability as well as learning in this culture. Plan – once a set of implications are clear, improvement goals and strategies to reach the goals are defined by the department’s leader and staff. a project plan with milestones, a plan for staff development, as well as a set of metrics to monitor implementation are developed. lead – once plans are set, the work of implementation takes center stage. a service leader puts the work of improving services first, similar to the instructional leader who places highest priority on the work of improving instruction in classrooms.

“achieving Service excellence” (aSe) is a research-based, customer service training program developed by forum®. as of June 2009, we have trained 1700 staff members of oUSd, including executive leadership staff, service area department staff, principals and other site level staff. aSe has provided oUSd with a common framework and language to support our efforts to achieve high standards of service to support high standards of learning. through aSe, we have nurtured our understanding of the driving principles of customer service (“think like a customer,” “follow a reliable process,” and “look beyond the transaction.”) as well as adopted the key factors in customer satisfaction, known as rater.

We have widely adopted the use of the rater acronym used by forum’s “achieving Service excellence” training. rater is a memory aid for the five key factors in customer satisfaction as identified by the research on customer ser-vice expectations. it is a well-researched framework for measuring customer perceptions of service, first developed by a team of researchers at texas a&M University. rater stands for:

the Service leadership team tiered accountability System is a color-coded, public accountability reporting structure that parallels the school accountability system. We publicly set goals, periodically monitor progress and report progress toward those goals, and report both overall service effectiveness and service improvement results to clients. in this way, we hold ourselves publicly accountable for results. Most school districts create elaborate performance management systems for schools but weaker, less data-driven and less public systems for central office. as a result, central office departments often lack the ability to identify what they are doing right and how they can improve services to schools as well as link improved service performance to improved results at the organization level, including increases in student achievement.

like the tiered accountability system for schools in our district, our system enables district leaders to allocate resources to service team priorities that more directly align with district goals. if a mission-critical service is not meeting internal customer needs, resources are prioritized to improve it in order for schools to deliver to our most important clients – oUr StUdentS.

there are five weighted components to a department’s tiered rating: Service Standards (30%), rater customer service survey results (30%), site leadership feedback on department’s level of supporting student achievement (5%), resource management (10%) and management of departmental staff (25%).

RATERThe 5 Key Factors in Customer Satisfaction

r A T e r

ReliAbiliTy

ASSurAnce

TAnGibleS

EMPAThy

ReSPonSiveneSS

Performing dependably and accurately

conveying trust and confidence through knowledge of products and services

creating an impression through appearance and equipment

communicating caring and individualized attention

helping customers willingly, promptly, and speedily

•••••

lEAD PlAN

REflECT

Page 12 Page 42

Page 46 Page 48

* The “Reflect-Plan-Lead” continuous improvement cycle model and the steps for each phase are derived from the “Plan-Lead-Reflect” model used by OUSD Elementary schools and developed by Performance Fact, Inc., 333 Hegenberger Road, Suite 750, Oakland, CA. Used with permission.

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Successful Performance Management is driven by a continuous process improvement cycle for both schools and the central office service leadership team. for central office service departments, a three-phase “reflect – Plan – lead” process guides our collective work. a graphic organizer for this annual reflect-Plan-lead work flow is depicted on the next two pages. the diagram illustrates:

• Theannualtimingofeachphase• TheactionstepscomprisingeachphaseoftheannualContinuous improvement cycle• Thekeydeliverableswithineachstep• Thekeyperformancemanagementeventswithinthecycle

The Data-Driven, Continuous Improvement Cycle

BIg

IDEA

1

The “Reflect-Plan-Lead” continuous improvement cycle model and the steps for each phase are derived from the “Plan-Lead-Reflect” model used by OUSD Elementary schools and developed by Performance Fact, Inc., 333 Hegenberger Road, Suite 750, Oakland, CA. Used with permission.

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lEAD PlAN

REflECT

reflect – includes a thorough review of performance data that will illuminate the “current state,” an accurate assessment of the causes and a set of key findings and implications for the following year’s improvement efforts.

Plan – once a set of implications are clear, improvement goals and strategies to reach the goals are defined by the department’s leader and staff. a project plan with milestones, a plan for staff development, as well as a set of metrics to monitor implementation are developed.

lead – once plans are set, the work of implementation takes center stage. a “service leader” puts the work of improving services first, similar to the “instructional leader” who places highest priority on the work of improving instruction in classrooms.


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the data-driven, continuous

improvement cycle at-a-glance

the Plan Phase – once a data-supported picture of the current state of service is clear and its underlying causes are understood, improvement goals and strategies to reach the goals are defined by the department’s leader and staff. Staff should feel confident that by reaching these goals, operational service would dramatically improve for our school-based clients. developing a project plan that identifies milestones of progress, needed professional development for staff as well as actions to monitor is also part of this phase.

the lead Phase – finally, once improvement plans are set, the work of implementation takes center stage. a service leader puts the work of improving services first, similar to the instructional leader (principal) who puts the work of improving instruction in the classroom at the highest priority. Strategies and tools to help leaders pay attention to what matters, develop the capacity of their staff and communicate progress and learning are all actions a service area leader performs to lead the work of continuous improvement every day.

REflECT

PlAN

lEAD

the reflect Phase - Before goals and plans can be set, a thorough review of performance data that provides a picture of a department’s current state – both strengths and areas of concern - is essential. in addition, an accurate assessment of the causes of the current state is critical in order to address the underlying issues that continuously prevent high standards of service performance. We must learn from the results of the previous year’s efforts in order to make informed decisions. reviewing results, and determining what caused results (good or bad) are essential for learning. dr. doug reeves, founder of the leadership and learning center, classifies leaders into two types – those that learn, and those that get results without understanding the causes. in the latter case, leaders are either lucky (for getting good results) or “losers.” lucky leaders may celebrate successes, but are unable to replicate their success because they don’t fully understand the reason behind them. not only are “losing” leaders unable to identify the reasons for bad results, they are no better off at preventing the same results from recurring. learning leaders may get undesirable results, but understand the causes. Successful leaders not only attain great results, they understand what contributed to the great success.


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the Reflect Phase actions:1. gathering performance data from various sources to prepare for a thorough reflection of results.2. analyzing data to determine the key areas of strength and areas of concern. 3. forming hypotheses regarding the professional practices that led to the results through root-cause analysis.4. determining implications for improvement efforts going forward.

the Reflect Phase deliverables and events due in July - August of each year:• Year-endScoreCardpopulatedwithfinalperformanceresults.(examplefoundinappendix)• TheYearEndServiceAreaNarrativecapturingthekeyfindingsafteranalyses.(Guidelinesandexample

can be found in the appendix)• ResourceManagementPanelReviewconductedbytheChiefServicesOfficer,ChiefFinancialOfficer

and other chiefs as required. • TheAugustServiceLeadershipTeamRetreatandPresentationofResults

the Plan Phase actions:1. review the performance data and implications determined in the reflect phase.2. develop service performance improvement goals and strategies for the following year.3. develop professional development goals for YoU and your staff to support the achievement of

department goals.4. develop a detailed project plan with milestones and behaviors to monitor to ensure implementation of

your performance improvement initiatives.5. document your work, including the collection of data throughout the year.

the Plan Phase deliverables due in September:• ServiceImprovementPlan• NewScoreCardwithservicestandardsandtargetsforthefollowingyear.• Adatacollectionplanforcollectingongoingservicedeliverydata,suchaspointofservicesurveydata.

the Lead Phase actions:1. attending to implementation – displaying daily action and focused presence as a leader in

monitoring the implementation of service improvement efforts.2. Building the capacity of your staff through aligned training, coaching and mentoring to meet the

needs of each staff’s development needs.3. communicating the progress of your work to leaders, customers and colleagues to share progress

and learning throughout the year.

the Lead Phase deliverables and events:• Presentationonprogresstodateatmonthlyserviceculturemeetings(ifselectedtopresent)• Mid-YearReviewpresentation(dueinJanuary)• Employeeevaluationswithindividualgoalslinkedtoteamanddepartmentlevelgoals.(Ongoing)• Leaderevaluationslinkedtoscorecardresults.(Ongoing)


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ThE 3 PhASES of DATA-DRIVEn ConTInuouS ImPRoVEmEnT CyClE

The reflect Phase:

1. gather performance data and prepare to reflect on results.

2. analyze data to determine strengths and areas of concern

3. form hypotheses regarding the professional practices that yielded results (causes).

4. determine implications for improvement efforts going forward.

The Plan Phase:

1. review the performance data and implications.

2. develop goals and strategies for the following year.

3. develop professional development goals for YoU and your staff.

4. develop a detailed project plan and monitoring plan to ensure implementation.

5. document your work and collect data in an ongoing manner.

The lead Phase:

1. attend to implementation of service improvement efforts.

2. Build the capacity of you and your staff.3. communicate progress and the insights

of your work.

Continuous serviCe ProCess imProvement model

1.Pay Attention

2. Build capacity

3. Communicate Progress

September - June

Lead

Reflect


17

The Reflection Phase (June – August):

•Year-endScoreCardpopulatedwithfinalperformance results.

•TheYearEndServiceAreaNarrativecapturing the key findings after analyses.

•ResourceManagementPanelReviewconducted by the chief Services officer, chief financial officer and other chiefs as required.

•TheAugustServiceLeadershipTeamretreat and Presentation of results

The Plan Phase (August – September):

•ServiceImprovementPlan(SIP)•ScoreCardwithnewservicestandards

and targets.•Adatacollectionplanforcollecting

ongoing service delivery data, such as point of service survey data.

The lead Phase (September – June):

•Miniprogressreviewsandconsultanciesat monthly service culture meetings

•Mid-YearReview•Employeeevaluations•Leaderevaluationslinkedtoscorecard

results

1. Review Data and Implications

2. Set goals and Srategies

3. Develop Professional learning Plan

4. Develop Project Plan

5. Document Your Work

1. gather Data

2. Analyze Data

3. Determine Causes

4.Determine implications

Plan

June - august

august - S

eptem

ber

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Reflect

Although “reflection” is an ongoing process and behavior that can occur

daily, it is also a critical phase of a continuous improvement cycle. The

four deliberate and specific steps that comprise this phase determine the service improvement efforts for the following year. During this phase,

service leadership teams assess their current state by examining data and

reflecting on service performance results and the professional practices that yielded those results. Then, they

identify key implications that will drive their efforts the following year.

The Service Leadership Team Year-End Narrative is organized to capture and

document the insights of this phase, and the results and key findings are

presented to executive leadership and peers during the August Service

Leadership Team Retreat and the District Leadership Team August

Kick Off prior to the beginning of the school year.

ThE fouR STEPS To ThIS PhASE ARE SummARIzED BEloW:

Step1: Gathering your Performance Data

In June, as the school year comes to a close, department teams should begin gathering their year-end performance data in preparation for reflection. Though this may seem like a mundane task, it is important to gather all the available data so that a complete picture of performance can be painted. Key data is reported on the Service Area Scorecard developed by each service area leader at the beginning of each year during the Planning Phase. The Scorecard is organized into four sections: Service Standards, RATER, Resource management and Investing in People. Details about the organization and components of this scorecard can be found in the “Planning” section of this document.

Some of the data included on the Scorecard are reported by other district departments. other data are self-reported by each department after gathering performance data throughout the year. In addition to data reported on the Scorecard, departments should bring all other relevant evidence about their service performance to the “reflection table.”

Below is a list of data a department should begin gathering in June and the party responsible for reporting these results to each department.

• Service Standard results collected by individual departments (and not collected through the Use Your Voice Survey): By June, service area departments begin pulling together the results of their service standards. Although departments are not required to show “proof” of their results, they should be prepared to show the evidence they have collected throughout the year and to explain how they arrived at the final results. final service standard results which are not collected through the use Your Voice survey are reported using a service standard score card worksheet provided to departments by the end of June.

• Use Your Voice Survey (UYV Survey) data: To The ouSD uYV Survey gathers perceptual data and is administered by the Research and Assessment (R&A) department every spring.

STEP-BY-STEPPlan

lead

19

It includes a comprehensive set of survey questions given to a wide range of ouSD stakeholders: students, parents, teachers, site administrators, central office leaders and staff. R&A gathers and reports the relevant results to each service area leader. The first three areas below are reported by mid-July on the Service Area Scorecard for each department. The last item is provided directly to department leaders by R&A.

o Perception data on the 5 key customer service RATER areas: Reliability, Assurances, Tangibles, Empathy and Responsiveness.

o Results from a standard question regarding how well the department supports student achievement.

o Custom survey questions designed by each service area department for inclusion in the annual uYV survey.

o open-ended question responses.

• Investing in People results: Data regarding the health and development of your staff is also relevant to gather and analyze. Without healthy and capable staff, your department can not deliver high quality services to your customers. The Investing in People area of the Service Area scorecard outlines the five areas included in your score card:

o Evaluations – This data is currently self-reported and measures the extent to which a department leader completed all required staff evaluations for the year. Evaluations are considered completed after they have been delivered to staff in person. We are currently working on automating this reporting process, but as of the June 2009, it is a self-reported component. Results for the year are reported on the score card worksheet provided at the end of June.

o Sick leave / Attendance – This is a measure of the percentage of sick days taken by department staff. This is reported by XXX through the data warehouse and is placed on score cards by mid-July.

o Retention – This is a measure of the percentage of staff retained within the ouSD system. This is reported by XXX through the data warehouse and is place on score cards by mid-July.

o Staff Satisfaction with Job – This is a use Your Voice survey question to which your staff responds regarding the level to which they are satisfied with their job. This is reported by R&A and placed on score cards by mid-July.

o Staff Satisfaction with Development/Training – This is also a use Your Voice survey question to which your staff responds regarding the level to which they feel they are properly trained to do their job. This is reported by R&A and placed on score cards by mid-July.

• Resource Review Assessment Results – After your mid-July Resource Panel Review meeting with the Chief Services Officer and Chief Financial Officer

• Principal Surveys and Focus Groups Results: During the year, mid-year principal surveys and focus groups may occur and informative data about mid-year performance can be gathered.

• Perception Results from Point of Service Feedback Tools: It is recommended that all departments collect ongoing and “just in time” service performance feedback through the strategic use of point of service surveys.

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Step 2: Analyzing your data

During this step, departments examine all available data and make several statements regarding the results they achieved. Collectively, these statements can paint a picture of the areas of strength and concern regarding service performance.

for example, a department may discover that they:

• Increased Reliability and Empathy scores by 12% and 6% respectively, but the Tangibles score decreased by 18%.

• Increased from 46% to 72% the rate of response to service calls within 48 hours.

• Had significant impact on attendance of staff because 38% of the available sick leave in the department was used during the year.

There are two very important tips to remember during this step. first, it is very important that these statements be neutral and free of attribution to possible causes. Jumping to conclusions prematurely, without some systematic analyses of causes, can lead a department to “fix” the wrong things! later, in Step 3, a simple framework for analyzing root causes is provided to help you systematically consider professional practices that may have led to the results you achieved. Second, it is vital that you identify areas of strength as well as areas of concern. Actions and behaviors that have led to positive results should be continued, so identifying areas of strength and their causes are just as important as identifying areas of concern.

Step 3: Forming Hypotheses Regarding the Professional Practices that Yielded your Results

In this step, departments should determine the root causes contributing to the results for both areas of strength and concern. In this way, we “make meaning” of our data, and form hypotheses about the professional practices that led or deterred from desired results. If these root causes are correct, implications about how to address them can easily be determined.

one framework that can used to discover the causes of results is to assess the extent to which your department implemented a number of high impact practices. Below is a list of some high impact professional practices that are implied by our customer service model and our professional values. for your most important results (both strengths and areas of concern), determine the extent to which your department implemented these practices. A simple likert-scale worksheet using this list of high impact practices is included in the appendix. Through dialogue with your colleagues, you may determine that a handful of root causes are significantly impacting your results. Results may improve by focusing on improved implementation of these practices next year.

High Impact Professional Practices:

Reliability – Staff members perform dependably and accurately.

Assurances – Staff members convey trust and confidence through knowledge of products and services.

ReflectPlan

lead

STEP-BY-STEP

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Tangibles – Department initiatives and staff behaviors create positive impressions about services through appearance (people, facilities, written communication) and equipment (efficient and user-friendly systems).

Empathy – Staff members’ behavior communicates caring and individualized attention.

Responsiveness – Staff members help customers willingly, promptly and speedily.

Data-driven, Continuous Improvement Culture and Systems – Staff members use frequent and timely “assessments” to monitor and adjust service delivery.

Targeted Intervention – Improvement efforts are targeted toward improving services that are consistently not meeting client expectations and / or for targeted groups / schools.

Collegial Collaboration and Accountability – Staff members engage in year-round, short cycle improvement plans with clear standards of professional practice and accountability.

Results-focused Professional Learning – Professional development and training are linked to service priorities, are of high quality, and have clear goals that meet individual staff needs.

High Expectations for All – Beliefs and behaviors reflect commonly held high expectations and shared responsibility for all.

Equitable Delivery of Service – Staffing assignments and resource allocations ensure equitable distribution of staff and resources to meet the specific and differentiated needs of schools.

High Quality Supports for Staff – Staff members receive timely and focused support and intervention (coaching, mentoring, peer support, targeted training) to meet their needs.

Service Leadership – The service area department leader articulates a clear department vision and is actively involved in planning, guiding and assessing service delivery quality to school staff.

Step 4: Identifying implications for next year’s plan

In this final step of the Reflect phase, implications for the following year’s service performance efforts are determined. As a result of the insights gained through a thoughtful analysis of root causes, strategies to improve next year’s results are identified by answering three guiding questions:

• What will you start doing?

• What will you stop doing?

• What will you continue doing to ensure successful outcomes are maintained or strengthend?

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r&A’s double digit Growth in rATer Scores

the research and assessment (r&a) team provides the tools and training necessary to support data-driven decision making across the organization. in october of 2008, the r&a team, led by amy Malen, won the expect Success award for highest rater growth. When interviewed about the story behind this success, amy credits r&a’s investment in reflecting upon rater scores during the summer of 2007 and the decisions her team made regarding a more focused approach as the causes behind the double-digit increases in all rater standards and an average customer satisfaction rating of over 80%.

When amy and her team received the results of the annual Use Your Voice Survey in June of 2007, they were extremely disappointed. the metrics they had been using to “measure” success (like numbers of reports they developed) never exposed the low opinions and perceptions of school-based customers regarding the quality of their services. through the survey, principals and other site based leaders revealed their true perceptions – r&a performed at about “50%” compared to the expectations they held. the “success” they felt by taking stock of their productivity level and hard work dwindled against the harsh reality of these numbers. the feedback provided no comfort in the weary, hard-working minds of the r&a staff who were working at the top of their capacity both in time and effort. the message principals sent led amy and her team to realize that something had to change dramatically. they could not imagine working with more effort, but they began to imagine a “working smarter” future that would address their dilemma:

interview with Amy Malen, former director of research and assessment

“We were known as a department that tried to deliver everything everyone wanted. We saw our RATER scores and were disappointed. We knew we needed to focus on a few things and do them well…not at 50% on everything. We were all working so hard. We always knew (we had to do) this, but we never quite did it.” (Amy Malen)

the team stepped back and reflected upon the mission and goals of r&a, and the root causes to the results. What, in the eyes of the customers, were not meeting expectations? the team came up with a few clear answers on their own: their products were often riddled with errors, they were in constant “response mode” which led them to react to every request from every source with the same level of priority as those of their primary customers, and they had no time to build relationships with their customers. furthermore, with no time left to communicate their efforts, significant numbers of products they developed or services they offered went unnoticed by the broader, school-based community of oUSd. in addition to surfacing their own opinions, the r&a team also sought the advice of the district leaders and school-based customers.

use your Voice Survey Results for RATER:

2006-2007 2007-2008reliability 50% 81%assurances 55% 78%tangibles 55% 82%empathy 61% 82%responsiveness 61% 80%overall 56% 80.55%

Thanks again for all your support. I have literally never seen an office in OUSD be so responsive and produce such useful reports as RA and A is doing now. It is an exemplar of service and support resources to improve instruction at the site level.

david Silver, Principal, Think college now

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“It was important for us to take a step back. We asked ourselves, “Where are the district priorities going and how do we fit into that?” The R&A department already had a lot of things going on – almost like it was an (independent) organization. We talked to as many customers as possible to help us figure out what was “priority.” We had a lot of talk about all this (internally). Also, I feel like I am very practical, so when we decided, I was comfortable pushing back on anything that detracted us from executing our plan.”

as a result of listening to and acting upon their and their school-based customers’ opinions, r&a first focused on and successfully rolled out a comprehensive assessment system.

“Ideas about a developing a high quality benchmark assessment system were already around, and we knew it was a high leverage action that we could immediately focus on that also touched every unit in the dept. We could not continue to send out assessments with errors and send them out late. We worked extraordinarily long hours to provide the “basics” – assessments going out on time without errors.”

r&a also introduced an online report management website, and began to build a model for district-wide evaluation. a one page list of priorities, grouped into four key functions (curriculum-Based assessments, research, data Support and State testing) was developed that defined the focus areas for their work. r&a staff made a commitment to execute “the few” well. agreements about the priorities on the list were not hard to develop. the issue of prioritization had more to do with the difficulty r&a had with declining other requests. another issue was communication:

“Because we were working so hard, we didn’t have the time to tell people what we were producing. A portion of time is now allocated to communication where we let customers know up front when and what will be available from R&A. We now regularly attend Network meetings where we can communicate directly with our main customers and we can hear and answer their questions directly. We hear now more often that we are more responsive –because we are more proactive about the communication piece.”

in this process of focus and prioritization, not only did r&a meet the expectations of their customers more often, they also discovered another benefit they did not expect. as a result of doing less, staff began to work on projects in depth and felt more successful doing less very well. in short, staff began to feel more effective because they could see the impact their work was having.

the results speak for themselves. the quality of their products improved dramatically. rater scores jumped, especially in “reliability.” r&a learned to communicate the consequences of decisions to shift their time away from priorities as a strategy to manage requests that would stretch their resources outside of priority projects. as a result, customers ultimately helped to make decisions that affected the services they received. r&a staff also went out into the field, attended network meetings, built relationships and learned about principal needs over lunch. in this way, they could respond with a more personal touch and be informed by first hand knowledge ways to improve their services to meet the needs of their customers. By reducing the number of ad-hoc requests, they were more proactive – working collaboratively with other departments to anticipate needs as well as work on a communication strategy to inform the oUSd community of available resources within r&a.

amy’s practical, no-nonsense leadership style, combined with a smart, collaborative and extremely capable team, had only one outcome in mind – to be what their customers expected them to be and to provide the much needed, critical service schools needed to be data-based in their professional practice.

Thank you to you and your team for being so responsive to my requests. geri isaacson

network 2 executive officer

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Plan

getting a clear, data-supported picture of the current state of service and its underlying causes are important

precursors to the planning phase, but in order to develop a comprehensive plan, compelling goals and objectives (What future state do you want to achieve?)

are just as important. That is the starting point of our next phase, Planning. A service area leader involves

their staff in defining realistic stretch goals and agreeing on the strategies to reach the goals. Staff should feel confident that by reaching these goals,

operational service would dramatically improve for our school-based clients. Developing a project plan that identifies milestones of progress, needed professional development for staff as well as actions to monitor is

also part of this phase.

ouSD Service Area leaders develop a Service Improvement Plan to organize and document

our plan for the year.

In addition, a Service Score Card summarizes the most important service standards we plan to hold ourselves

accountable for and sets annual targets for each standard. Each department should take time to develop

a data collection plan for the year. Without thoughtful consideration of the actions required to collect

implementation data throughout the year, departments may discover there are unable to report on results at the

end of the year.

STEP-BY-STEP

the five steps to this phase are summarized below:Step 1: Review the performance data and implications determined in the Reflect phase.

this step is fairly self-explanatory. Prior to setting your plans, review the data and insights you developed as part of your year-end reflection. conducting and/or reviewing the Year-end narrative with your staff is a good way to begin.

Step 2: Develop service performance improvement goals, objectives and strategies for the following year.

during the month of august, each department updates or creates a new Service improvement Plan (SiP). the SiP is organized to capture and document staff agreements regarding the vision, mission, goals/targets and strategies to improve a department’s services. in addition, the SiP includes progress milestones, resources needed – including a plan for professional development, to support your staff for the year. a template and example of a SiP is included in the appendix.

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Step 3: Develop professional development goals for you and your staff.

at this point, your have goals and objectives for the year, targets to achieve, and strategies to implement to improve service performance and meet your goals. Some of your strategies may require building the knowledge and capacity of your staff. Specific and deliberate planning for developing yourself and staff is an important step toward meeting your goals. Without capable staff, you can not get the work done effectively. a service leader should determine what relevant developmental needs his or her staff has.

Step 4: Develop a project plan.

high level milestones you develop as part of your SiP are not enough. they are effective as leading indicators of your progress, but every major stream of work benefits from a detailed breakdown of tasks. each department uses customized project management tools, such as excel spreadsheets or Microsoft Project, to help clarify and monitor project plan implementation.

Step 5: Document your work, including the collection of data throughout the year.

Your Service Score card is an important document that sets your service standard goals for the year. in addition, it will serve as the framework for results we publicly share as part of our tiered accountability System.

there are no formal documentation requirements or tools to help you capture ongoing evidence and artifacts of your work and progress, though we highly recommend you create your own informal methods. having a process to collect and store your data during the year will enable you to gather your results at the end of the year as you return to the first phase of this cycle: the reflect Phase.

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nutrition Service Staff’s Focus on empathy raises customer Service Quality Perception

nutrition Services has a dilemma and is caught between a rock and a hard spot. on the one side, they have customers with high demands for the kinds of services nutrition Services should provide: meals made from scratch, fresh salad bars at every site, free lunches for students whom principals suspect are in need. on the other hand, they are bound by countless government regulations and guidelines to which they are obligated to follow – by law. and in both cases, they must meet these often conflicting expectations within a very tight budget.

When Jennifer leBarre, director of nutrition Services, got the rater results from the Use Your Voice survey from the 06-07 school year, she was disappointed but not completely surprised. She was used to saying “no” to the many requests asked of her by her primary direct customer, school principals. She also knew that saying “no” made her customers feel like they were not being acknowledged. With little flexibility in her budget, and with stringent government regulations shackling her creativity, there was little she felt she could do to change the situation.

improving the quality of food, both objectively and perceptively, is their highest priority goal, but resource constraints make this a strategic, long term endeavor. however, with an open mind, and exposure to a fresh new perspective on customer service through the aSe training, Jennifer began to deliberate on what she could do improve her customer service results in the short term.

this thoughtful reflection of opportunities led Jennifer to an insight: You can be empathetic even if short staffed, with no money, and even if food is not good in the opinion of a customer.

interview with Jennifer LeBarre , former director of research and assessment

“I’ve changed the way I personally react to requests (we can not fulfill) and deal with people. We have also done this as a department. We have changed how we say “no” to “no, but…” and provide alternative solutions. For example, we might say “No, we can not provide a salad bar, but here’s (information about) a parent volunteer program.” Or, “No we can’t install a salad bar this year, but I can put in on the list for next year.” ‘No’ makes people feel we are discounting their opinions. People always felt our department was simply uncooperative.”

Jennifer took this insight and discussed this with her field supervisors, and they agreed. they would focus on “empathy.”

“At the opening meeting in fall of 2007, I discussed the RATER results, introduced the staff to RATER and broke down customer service in a way that related to our staff. We agreed to focus on Empathy.”

after making this decision, about 70% of the 250 staff attended aSe training the following year as a way to obtain professional development on customer service. this



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training included the rater model, and enabled staff to discuss the deeper meaning of providing service with empathy. the training was looked upon positively by staff because they felt they were part of a whole district initiative. aSe provided a common framework for staff and provided a safe place to talk about challenges from their perspective.

in addition to professional development, Jennifer kept the staff focused on empathy by creating simple, but powerful opportunities for “daily professional development”:

• Brainstorming“no, but….” statements atmonthlymeetings as a team.

• Sharing stories and examples of using empathywith customers at monthly meetings. Peer to peer sharing is a powerful learning tool.

• Strategically and physically placing visualreminders that empathy was a focus throughout the department. these visuals could be seen by both staff and customers.

• Recognizing staff through the “Employeerecognition Program,” a monthly recognition for customer service for which staff receive prizes in addition to peer acknowledgement. although nominations were internally generated, word has gotten out and teachers and principals have been nominating their school nutrition services staff!

• Creatingamonthlynewsletterinwhichdepartmentnews, employees of month and results of their “Walk to denver” competition – a staff wellness program in which personal walking distance is measured and reported – is shared.

nutrition Services has really taken “empathy” to a new level. not only have they been successful at communicating and servicing with empathy toward their customers, they have learned to turn empathetic energy inward, taking care of each other as a strategy to put even more energy toward servicing the kids of oakland.

“When staff feel recognized for what they do, not only from their peers but from teachers and principals too, they feel even more committed to their work.”

When asked for some leadership words of wisdom regarding this work, Jennifer decisively shared the importance of involving the staff in decision-making from the start. the first year, Jennifer reflected upon the Use Your Voice data and persuaded her staff to select empathy as the focus. there was significant buy in, and they were successful with their efforts, but she feels a different energy this year when staff shared in the decision to continue with empathy as a focus area for the second year.

“It’s important to let the staff pick the focus area. I didn’t do this the first year, and I think we could have gone further, faster with more complete staff buy in.”

I want to thank everyone who has responded to our community’s call for improved nutrition for our children. The more students who eat nutritious food, served with care, the greater our attendance and academic outcomes will be as well. Thank you for your support with this to create a world class school for scholars.carol Johnson, Principal, Santa Fe elementary School

I deeply appreciated your presentation to the parent and student volunteers - the vision of the salad bar was compelling, the training held a warm and respectful tone, while also communicating clear expectations and firm commitment to the guidelines. Kimi Kean, Principal - Acorn Woodland elementary School

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LeadThough this is the shortest section of the data-driven continuous improvement cycle big idea, it is by no means the least important nor the quickest to implement. once a goal-driven plan is written, the work of implementation takes center stage, and a service leader must be disciplined in his or her behavior or the possibilities for improving service quality will remain just that – possibilities.

STEP-BY-STEP

the lead Phase requires disciplined implementation which involves an ongoing process of reviewing implementation progress. effective leadership and management practices and behaviors that focus on execution and ongoing monitoring of progress include:

• PayingattentiontoImplementation• Ongoingcoachingandmentoringofstaff

to build capacity and meet individual professional development needs

• Communicatingprogresstoleadership,colleagues, customers and staff

• Conducingemployeeevaluationswithindividual goals linked to team and department level goals.

• EnsuringLeaderevaluationsarelinkedtoscore card results.

leaders “do” a lot of things, but only a critical few tasks demonstrate that he or she is paying attention to implementation. for example, Principals, who are instructional leaders, place at a high priority the tasks of frequent observation of teaching practices and providing timely feedback to teachers. Similarly, direct and frequent observation of service delivery, and giving relevant and timely feedback that relates to your departments goals and values of customer service, are critical service leadership actions.

have you ever heard the phrase, “What gets measured gets done”? a service area leader who measures and facilitates discussion about ongoing progress keeps the attention of their department staff on implementation and as a result has a higher rate of achieving their goals.

leading implementation also includes communicating the progress of your department’s efforts. Sharing specific metrics that show growth toward targets enables other leaders to acknowledge your success, enables colleagues to ask and learn from you, and provides your staff with important feedback about progress made. tools, such as project plans, record charts and newsletters are helpful tools for leaders to employ during this phase.

in addition to what a service area leaders can do within their department, the Service leadership team promotes disciplined implementation through two types of events: the Mid-Year review of Progress (described in more detail later in the guidebook) and monthly Service culture meeting “consultancies” helps us collectively pay attention to implementation, build collective learning and capacity, and communicate progress in a more public forum.

finally, a leader needs to hold his/her staff accountable for results through timely and aligned employee evaluations. oUSd’s evaluations require alignment between a staff member’s goals and the department’s goals. and, a leader is held accountable for results by linking score card results to his/her evaluation as a leader.

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The custodial Services home run Project: Visionary Leadership and Attention to What Matters Turns a Critical Service Around

Urban public school custodial Services leaders should be jealous of roland Broach and his team. how often do you hear of a story where their customers, principals of schools, reward them with a 23 percentage point increase in customer service over a one year period? that is what happened in oakland Unified School district.

during the 2007-2008 school year, custodial Services went through a complete reorganization. a formerly decentralized service managed by site leaders, custodial Services was centralized and placed under the leadership of roland Broach, the new director of custodial Services. Born and raised in oakland, and a product of oakland schools, roland is a visionary leader with natural “performance management” instincts. roland was asked to re-centralized a broken system at the same time his department was selected to be one of the first “home run” projects – a cross-departmental process improvement project aimed at relieving some of the most chronic and frustrating “pain points” in service quality within the district. after receiving customer feedback, the district leadership team selected five such projects in 2007: clean Schools, Sub-fill rate, Payroll accuracy, instructional tools and assessment System. With this increased public pressure to improve came a significant level of oversight and resources: a cabinet level sponsor, priority-level attention from all departments, a process improvement coach, a strategically chosen cross-functional team with members representing both service provider and customer stakeholders. this would have been a daunting set of circumstances for any new leader, but roland saw the “home run” project as a huge opportunity placed before him – which is exactly the word he used during an interview of him and his colleague, terri ellis, coordinator of custodial Services.

“Tim White selected me to be Director (in June 2007). I felt this was my opportunity to give back to my kids. Having been a custodian in the field, I saw what this field needed was better customer service and performance management.

interview with Roland Broach and Terri Ellis

I was excited because I knew when I was selected as a home run project, I would be getting support. It wasn’t at first all enthusiasm and being thrilled, because we weren’t sure exactly what that meant. But, we knew we were going to get extra support. We got a consultant, Dr. Kathy Hart, and Amanda von Moos (a coach) who helped us to define our roles and responsibilities and helped us to stay focused while the department was in turmoil. We had so much to “fix” with custodial services from a lack of performance management for years that we were literally occupied with this work every single day. We developed processes and procedures, and it took over our lives…it just didn’t stop. But, we felt a new sense of energy too.”

terri and roland shared how once the project got underway, they saw immediately how helpful the two external supports would be:

“Once we started, we realized the support would help us reach our goals. Light bulbs were going off all the time as we were being thrown ideas. Amanda brought to the table, as an Operations Support Coach to principals, the voices of site leaders. We learned what was really on their minds and what their real concerns were (about lack of custodial support). I’ve worked with principals over 20 years so I thought I knew a lot about what principals wanted.”

terri also adamantly shared that as great the process coaches for the home run project were, the real inspiration and energy for the work generated from the leader:

“Once July 1st came along and the district decided to decentralize, we were pretty beaten down. Amanda brought a fresh perspective, but Roland brought a fresh energy that everyone picked up on. Energy there was a buzz in the department again, and it just kept growing. He just drew out new ideas, got everyone involved in generating ideas, and we just talked about them and decided together as a team to try them out. He kept saying they may or may not work, but we had to try them! It created a willingness to work hard, and people started to lose track of time. And people were willing – we tapped into the knowledge of people we had…we have people here who have worked 20-30years in the district, and they know the ins and outs…we collaborated. Pretty soon, we started to get “thank you’s” from our customers!! And it just fueled the energy level even more.”

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as a leader, roland is infectiously “high energy.” You can feel it echoing throughout the department. You get the sense that nothing goes slowly within the department. he is also incredibly people and relationship oriented, understanding instinctively that the work – that improving custodial Services for the sake of the kids of oakland - happens through real people. With encouragement from tim White, the associate Superintendent of facilities, roland reached out in particular to the union leader:

“We got out there and re-established relationships with all our custodians, and collaborated with the union leader. We worked on decisions together, decided on trainings together, and collaborated on grievances and arbitrations. We have helped to save the district money by lowering the numbers of these (grievances) because of our collaboration with the union.”

roland and terri shared their ultimate vision – to be the cleanest school district in all of northern california, and put their successors in a position of “ease” as a result of the problems that have been solved and systems put in place to sustain the great results.

“We’ve brought back accountability – there are consequences if there is lack of performance. The word is out. (There is a) battle with those who don’t want to conform. For those who want to come along – we help them, we support everyone who wants to help us improve. We give staff a lot of support to rise to high expectations. But in the end, it’s for the kids. We’ve reduced from 18 months to 8 months the discipline process – so principals and kids don’t have to suffer for the length of time they’ve had to in the past.”

What do roland and terri feel was their true reason for success?

“We weren’t fearful, we had an open mind, and I believed I had the support and the energy and confidence that we could change things around. Don’t possess the fears associated with “all eyes on you.” No need to be fearful. Know your roles and ENJOY and relish the experience.”

Most departments who experience such success may slow down a bit over time, high on their feelings of success. But, improvement efforts are still a top priority in the department.

“We still feel like a home run project – still full throttle. it has not been easy to sustain the “full court press” – and my whole team has been able to sustain the high energy to keep going. as the director, i saw the energy behind my team that was wiling to come out – just needed to create the opportunity and it all came out.”

the results speak for themselves, and the custodial Services department and the home run Project team received an award for the incredible growth in rater scores at the 2008 expect Success awards ceremony:

“The 23% growth in R.A.T.E.R. scores reinforces what principals stated all year - Custodial Services was more responsive, better organized and demonstrated a commitment to improving the quality of their service. This success is a result of the leadership of Roland Broach, Amanda von Moos, Terri Ellis and Kechette Walls. Together, they had the courage to face the real challenges before them. Through their own willingness to grow, learn and do the hard work needed to improve the department, they challenged every team member to commit to improving the quality of their work. This leadership and drive led to the incredible growth and success of Custodial Services.”



The custodial Services home run Project: Visionary Leadership and Attention to What Matters Turns a Critical Service Around

Thanks for all your efforts and support. Your attention to detail has immensely paid-off. I am so proud of Oakland High’s public appearance and the collaborative efforts of the custodial staff.”Mary Scott, Principal, oakland high school

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Calendar

annual Calendar aT-a-GlanCe

MonThly servICe CulTure MeeTInGs

MId-year revIew of ProGress

resourCe/budGeT ManaGeMenT revIew

end of year servICe leadershIP reTreaT

exPeCT suCCess award CereMony

>> page 32

>> page 34

>> page 35

>> page 38

>> page 40

>> page 41

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June

december

october

augustJu

ly

november

September

SePTeMber – July: MonthlY SerVice cUltUre MeetingS

SePTeMber - June: leading continUoUS iMProVeMent

AuGuST: SerVice leaderShiP teaM retreat

after the results from all the score cards have been reported and the tiered accountability report is completed for all service departments, the Service leadership team holds a summer retreat to share and celebrate the results. details about this retreat can be found later in this booklet.

SePTeMber: SerVice iMProVeMent PlanS and neW Score cardS dUe

after reviewing and analyzing performance results from the previous year, plans for service improvement focus areas and goals for service standards are set in the Service improvement Plan update and new Score cards for the year.

July: reSoUrce ManageMent reVieW Panel30 minute presentation to the chief financial officer and chief Services officer to review portfolio of evidence to assess resource management performance for the year. details about this review can be found later in this booklet.

dePartMental reVieW and analYSiS of PerforMance datadepartments gather, review and analyze results and causes of performance data: self-collected service standard data, Use Your Voice results, Score card results, resource Management review assessment, Principal Survey results and other perception data from Point of Service surveys.

Year-end reflectiVe narratiVeS dUea Year-end reflective narrative articulates the link between each service standard and student achievement improvement, summarizes your analysis into key findings (areas of strength and concern) and draws out implications for performance management for planning for the following year. a template for the Year-end reflective narrative can be found in the appendix.

June:dePartMentS rePort Self-rePorted dataall departments complete data collection for service standards and other self-reported score card data. this data is submitted to the performance management coordinator for compilation into score cards.

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april

february

January

MayJu

neJu

lyMarch

ANNuAl CAlENDAR AT A glANCEonce a month, the Service leadership team gathers as a professional learning community. 2-4 departments conduct their Peer accountability “consultancies” during this time and receive valuable feedback regarding their performance management work.

the difficult work of disciplined implementation of plans takes place throughout the year.

APril/MAy: USe YoUr Voice SUrVeY adMiniStered to oUSd coMMUnitY

the oUSd Use Your Voice Survey gathers perceptual data and is administered by research and assessment every spring. it includes a comprehensive set of questions given to a wide range of oUSd stakeholders: students, parents, teachers, site administrators, central office leaders and staff.

FebruAry: Mid Year reVieW

Mid-year data findings and course correction strategies are discussed in small group settings. the Service leadership team, all chiefs and network officers, as well as principal representatives participate to examine mid-year performance and to ensure alignment between central office support and academic achievement goals, especially in the areas of red schools and new teachers.

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Monthly Service Culture Meeting

once a month, the Service leadership team gathers as a professional learning community. during the two hour meeting, service leadership related updates are discussed, and community input regarding performance management tools have been collected.

however, the most important, and perhaps most valuable element of these sessions are the score card peer accountability reviews, or “consultancies.” each month, 2-4 departments are scheduled for a score card consultancy. during this time, a service department’s score card containing the service standards for the year and results to date, are shared and reviewed using a structured protocol (see below).

after a short presentation by the department leader, three colleagues volunteer to serve as peer reviewers. they sit in a cluster, facing each other with the other service area leaders facing inward like a fishbowl. a central facilitator moderates the process and serves as a timekeeper for all the small groups “from the center.”

the “consultancy” protocol is as follows:

• Eachpresentersharesinformationandartifactsfrom their presentation. they should bring evidence of the progress of on their service standards. all other participants listen without speaking (no questions).

• Anexecutiveleaderasksone“edgy”questionthatpushes the presenter to reflect on work.

• Thepresenteranswers

• Thesmallgroupdiscusseswhattheyheard“fishbowl” style without participation from the presenter.

• Thepresenterreflectsupon(outloud)whathe/she heard.

• Groupandpresentercontinuediscussiontogether

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Mid-Year Review of Progress

in february, the individual departments that comprise the service leadership team present their mid-year data, findings and possible course correction strategies to cabinet members, including the superintendent, state administrator, chiefs, as well as network executive officers and colleagues. the objectives of the mid-year review include:

• Create clarity for Network Executiveofficers and cabinet regarding each central office team’s mid-year performance.

• Check for alignment between centraloffice support and academic achievement goals, especially in the areas of red schools and new teachers.

department leaders prepare a PowerPoint presentation that includes three slides, one of each for:

• ServiceScoreCardwithdata/progresstodate

• Description of how each departmentis providing targeted support to red schools, including specific examples of policies and procedures.

• Descriptionofanytargetedsupporteachdepartment provides to new teachers.

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Mid-Year Review of Progress

at the Mid-Year review, departments are pre-assigned to one of three review teams, each led by a member of the executive leadership team, and facilitated by a performance management staff member/consultant.

in teams, each service department leader reviews information contained in their PowerPoint in a round-robin format following a set protocol:

• Each department has five minutes topresent their mid-year data and highlight their efforts towards helping red schools and new teachers (using the PowerPoint template provided).

• Aftereachpresentation,theReviewTeamshave five minutes to ask questions, fill out a feedback form and provide verbal feedback on the presentation. the feedback form is collected by the facilitator and distributed to relevant leaders after the mid year review.

the role of the review team is to provide helpful, constructive feedback and ask meaningful, probing questions. Potential questions asked and areas probed included:

o is this department on track to meet their annual goals? if not, what can they do between now and the end of the year to meet their annual goals?

o do you feel that this department is measuring/tracking the appropriate things?

o What is the source of the data? how frequently is it gathered & analyzed?

at the end of all of the presentations, the smaller review teams share out and debrief with the larger group. during the debrief, each group report out on one exceptional presentation and one thing that they learned during the presentations.

Departments:• Family & Community Office• Research and Assessment• Operations Support• Technology Services• Complementary Learning• Human Resources

fEbRuARy 2009 REVIEw TEAm GRouPInG

Group #1 Group #2 Group #3

Vince Matthews Brad Stam roberta MayorVernon hal timothy White laura Moran allison Mcdonald Wendy gudalewicz gia truongJamie Marantz dahyana otero geri isaacsondenise Saddler Sharon casanares diana leetroy christmas david Montes troy flintedgar rakestraw danielle houck Sonya Lopes Callie Browning Ash Solar (moderator) (moderator) (moderator)

Departments:• Budgeting• Accounting• Accounts Payable• State and Federal• Procurement• Nutrition Services• Ombudsperson

Departments: • Programs for Exceptional Children• Instructional Services• Adult and Career Educa-tion• Buildings and Grounds• Custodial Services• Attend and Achieve

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In mid-July, the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Services

Officer conduct a Resource Management/Budget Review Panel

with each service area manager (with the Chief Academic Officer participating as appropriate) and review a portfolio of evidence to

assess a service area’s resource management performance for the

year. Their rating becomes the score for the Resource Management

area of the score card.

Resource ManagementBudget Review Guidelines

Each manager has 30 minutes to present a review and evaluation of their department’s management of resources throughout the year to the Chiefs. All managers should bring with them the following reports and information:

• Budget Summary 0018• Budget Summary 0001• PC201• Budget to Actual with Encumbrances• Site Expense Summary• Revenue to Actual data (if your department

generates revenue)• Service Improvement Plan

The following topics and guiding questions illustrate what each service area manager may want to review to help guide the discussion with the Chiefs and inform their assessment. In addition to these areas, there may be evidence that is unique to your department. for any analysis that you do, please bring supporting documents and/or evidence.

hiring for Vacancies• Did your department hire for vacancies in a

timely manner? The following questions should help you begin your analysis:

o how many vacancies did you have over the course of the year?

o What was the average time it took to fill a vacancy?

o What were the shortest time & longest time it took to fill a vacancy?

o Did you convert any vacancies to salary savings?

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Contract management• How effectively were contracts managed

and implemented? The following guiding questions should help you begin your analysis:

o how many contracts did your department have over the course of the year?

o how much money was spent on contracts (total and as a percentage of how much was originally budgeted for each contract)

o how timely were contract reviews conducted after the end of each contract?

o for what percent of contracts did you conduct a review?

Process Improvements• What results were achieved through

process improvements that contributed to cost savings & efficiencies?

• How has the use of staff time been improved or made more efficient due to improvements in internal processes?

green Initiatives• What green initiatives did the

department implement?• What results have you seen from these

initiatives?

The questions are intended as guidelines and suggestions. managers are not expected to complete a written report with detailed answers for each question. All questions are suggestions of possible topics to explore during the panel review, and some may not be applicable to a particular department. In addition, there may be resource management / budget review topics that managers may like to discuss with the Chiefs that are not listed in the guidelines. Each service area manager should use their discretion in bringing these topics and additional data to the review.

Each manager should also review their Service Improvement Plan. These will be provided to the Chiefs for prior review so they can also be prepared to discuss your progress on meeting goal 2. This goal is focused on each department’s plan at the beginning of the year to increase revenue or reduce costs through efficiency projects/ efforts.

The panel review is a discussion with the Chiefs of what worked or was difficult to manage regarding department resources. In addition to making the review more evidence-based in order to assign meaningful rating for the Resource management section of the score card, the Chiefs will be looking for insights on how to better support managers with financial/resource management in the future.

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Each summer, after the results from all the score cards have been reported and the Tiered Accountability report is completed, the Service leadership Team holds a summer retreat to share and celebrate the results. At this point, each department has also reflected on their year-end data, has gleaned insights regarding implications for the following year, and has reported these finding in the Year End Reflective Narrative. At the Summer leadership Retreat, the Tiered Accountability results, and each department’s key finding and insights, are reported out to the Superintendent and the Service leadership Team community through presentations led by each service area manager. In the summer of 2008, the Service leadership Team conducted their retreat at the Jack london Square Aquatic Center with the following set of objectives:

• To reflect on progress on individual service areas and on cross functional home run projects and to connect these results to our overall district goals for student achievement.

• To review and refine service area goals and homerun projects for 2008-2009 based on data/ progress.

• To review work in progress on rating/ tiering the service areas and reflect on key learnings and challenges to be addressed to fully implement robust scorecards and rating system.

• To reflect on the role of leadership in creating a service culture and commit to at least 2 things we will each do differently this year to move deepen the service culture.

End of Year Service Leadership Team Retreat

PresentAtion By serviCe AreA mAnAgers

ConsultAtions

home run ProjeCts

In 2008, service area managers presented a verbal summary of their score card results and their reflections in small group consisting of peers and special guests – other district leaders and funders. Each department’s score card and narrative were included in a binder given to every participant.

In 2008, the five cross-functional “home run” projects gave special presentations to the Service leadership Team summarizing the results of their year-long process improvement work. The five projects were: Clean Schools, Improving Substitute Teacher fill Rate, Payroll Accuracy, Instructional Tools and Assessment System. Two of these projects are highlighted in two of stories included in this guidebook on pages 29 and 56.

Small groups listening to the verbal summaries of results and insights by service area managers were structured and organized as small group “consultancies” which gave each manager feedback and questions to consider regarding their improvement efforts. many felt this type of peer sharing and learning was lacking during the year which resulted in the monthly consultancies at each of the Service Culture meetings during the 2008-2009 school year.

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2 n d A n n u a l

E x p e c t S u c c e s s

A W A R D S C E R E M O N Y

F r i d a y , O c t o b e r 1 0 , 2 0 0 8

O a k l a n d M a r r i o t t C i t y C e n t e r

The Expect Success Award Ceremony is an annual opportunity for the Oakland Unified School Board and the Superintendent to honor more than 70 employees, schools and central office departments who significantly contributed to our organization’s progress towards goals by getting results, raising the bar, and serving as models for the entire Oakland Unified community. held in october, the Expect Success Awards Ceremony is part of the larger Performance management strategy in which individuals and teams are recognized and honored for their performance results and exemplary leadership. We hope this event encourages all managers to understand and practice a culture of positive reinforcement, and to continue to look for ways to recognize and reward individuals and teams based on performance linked to results for kids.

Award recipients are chosen in categories such as Academic Excellence, Educational leadership, Teacher Quality, and Service Excellence. In the past, award recipients were chosen through a rigorous selection process. Recipients were first nominated by their manager, principal, or Executive Officer. Then, all applicable data was collected for each nominee: CST, API, AYP, Cohort growth, and Achievement gap for school site nominees and Tiered Accountability, Scorecard, and Attendance data for service area nominees. Nominations and data were passed on to the Executive Team and union representatives. A narrowed list of recommendations was then passed on to the Superintendent’s Cabinet who

Expect SuccessAward Ceremony

in october of 2008, Service area winners included: amy Malen

(reasearch & assessment), Brigitte Marshall (adult education), Jill Schiager

(operations Support), roland Broach (custodial Services), Mary Buttler

(instructional Services)

Noel Gallo, Board of Education President.

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AChIEVInG SERVICE ExCEllEnCE (ASE) Building A Performance Culture with Exemplary Customer Service

When this journey began, three things about the customer Service culture in oakland were true:

1. We had no common agreement regarding who the customers are for central office departments.

2. We had no common definition of high quality customer service.

3. We had no common framework, training, model or language to guide our customer service efforts.

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a central office that provides exceptional support services helps pave the way for high quality instruction in schools. Whether departments are ensuring schools are clean, recruiting highly qualified teachers, promoting wellness initiatives in cafeterias or ensuring teachers are paid accurately, it has always been clear that exemplary central office customer service can be a pivotal factor in a school’s success.

though there may have been agreement that high quality customer service was critical, there were diverse opinions regarding the identity of the primary customer and what specifically constituted high quality customer service. Many staff believed that their customers were everyone they interacted with – ranging from vendors and auditors to parents and other central office department staff, including their supervisors. Many believed that good customer service was “being nice” or simply meeting every customer demand.

in an effort to better understand customer service and develop a common model and language regarding customer service, oUSd selected a research-based customer service training program from forum® called “achieving Service excellence” (aSe). With the generous support of the Michael & Susan dell foundation, we have trained over 1700 oUSd staff in three years, providing a broad and common foundation for understanding service excellence. Staff trained included classified staff at schools and central office, central office leaders, principals and Superintendent and cabinet. the training is provided by a core group of internal oUSd trainers who are certified facilitators of the 8-hour workshop. aSe helps put a human face on the service culture and encourages employees to take responsibility for customer relationships and understand the links to customer loyalty.

aSe also met another critical need: for years, classified union leaders had requested customer service training for classified staff in order set them up for success.

forum describes their aSe workshop in the following ways:

“A key to ensuring the loyalty of customers lies in creating a predictably positive experience for them every time they call or visit you. By delivering on their service promise successfully at every opportunity, effective organizations go beyond “customer satisfaction” and ultimately earn customer loyalty.”

“Achieving Service Excellence teaches skills and practices that allow individual employees to intentionally and consistently provide impeccable service to internal and external customers. It is perfect as a core program for organizations focused on creating customer loyalty by defining, managing, and enhancing the customer experience.”

Using highly interactive skill practice and peer advice exchange (what does this mean?), achieving Service excellence focuses on the following content:

• Adiscussionofdifferentcustomertypes,bothinsideand outside the organization

• Three driving principles of customer service thathelp shape the mind-set for outstanding service

• Fivefactorsofservicequality,basedonresearchoncustomer expectation, that help service providers understand what their customers value most.

• Areliable,memorablecustomer-interactionprocessfeaturing skills that consistently leads to satisfying customers in routine and challenging situations, by phone or in person.

• An effective tool for avoiding making mistakenassumptions about customer requests.

• A service – recovery process that helps serviceproviders respond to angry or upset customers with empathy, skill and confidence.

• Tools and follow-up learning activities forreinforcement and skill application on the job.

this training is transformative at many levels. those who experience it often describe themselves as changed, inspired and re-motivated toward what they know they can contribute to our organization, to each other as colleagues and ultimately to our students. through trusting and open sharing, colleagues reconnect and are able to better align their head and heart in the work they do every day. in order to better convey this, we interviewed delano garner, the Performance Management coach who leads the aSe trainings for oUSd:

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i have had the pleasure of leading most of the aSe trainings in oUSd over the past 3 years as part of my role as Performance Management coach. i coordinated the performance management work within the Service leadership team prior to becoming a certified lead trainer. the remarkable thing i’ve learned through these projects is not so much about the “What” of customer service and performance management, although i’ve learned a lot about that too. it is the “hoW” of performance management that is the key – and it is a human key. When we as individuals are given the opportunity to align our passion with our work, we become inspired and we soar not only as “employees” but as human beings.

The yin yang of Professional development

BY DELANO GARNER

Professional development that encompasses the whole person, not just the employee drafted to do a task.

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What is work worth if it’s performed without passion or purpose? i suppose it’s worth something. i mean, somebody has to serve as “inspector number 761 on the toothpick assembly line.” like him or her, we all have a choice – we could settle with “doing a task” that pays the bills yet sadly underutilizes our potential or we could courageously show up with all our passions and talents and impact the world in a revolutionary way.

So what does any of this have to do with Professional development at oakland Unified School district?

about three years ago the district began rolling out an initiative designed to help the adults in our system work together more effectively to provide better customer service to stakeholders in oakland. it’s a customer service training program called achieving Service excellence (aSe). Surprisingly, it’s also provided our community with a forum for reconnecting every person’s passion and desire to excel at what they do. the aSe classroom has provided a safe space to express and probe ideas that are important not only to the individual employee, but the whole person with ideas that touch both the head and the heart. that is why the trainings are well received and meaningful.

aSe makes room for the whole person. topics such as active listening, giving and receiving, forms of effective communication and effectively giving feedback serve not only as good customer service topics, but effective skills that everyone finds meaningful.

although these ideas are presented in a formal training session during work hours, it’s always been emphasized that these skills are applicable to all areas of life. We discuss how working in an environment that respectfully acknowledges and supports your talents and passions encourages

individuals to seize on possibilities. i believe that within each individual is a revolution waiting to happen, that they have the ability to change the world, and that the organization should value that person’s unique contributions. i feel the aSe training and philosophy allows me to channel that personal belief with alignment and truth.

aSe has gotten us all to use and understand the same language when it comes to customer service and performance excellence. But perhaps more importantly, achieving Service excellence is spreading the idea that each individual can powerfully affect the whole. it is of paramount importance that top leaders serve as models for these ideals. aSe has laid a solid foundation for more meaningful dialogue around important ideas such as cultural competency, Sensitivity training and other forms of leadership. i believe there is a tipping point regarding these ideas, a point where enough mass and by-in exists to keep the momentum going on its own.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT THAT IS PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

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R A T E Rr A T e rThe 5 Key factors

in Customer Satisfaction

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R A T E Rr A T e r

forum’s achieving Service excellence training has given oUSd a memory tickler in the form of the acronym, rater. if you’ve attended achieving Service excellence training, you will have received a black rater t-shirt that embeds the r-a-t-e-r acronym into the oakland raiders football team logo. We received permission from the raider franchise to use this logo as a way to bring attention to and leverage the popularity of the hometown football team for our efforts.

again, rater identifies the five key factors in customer satisfaction as identified by the research on customer service expectations. it is a well-researched framework for measuring customer perceptions of service and is used in the achieving Service excellence training.

rater stands for:

rater is used as a common framework for describing the customer service standards we all strive for with our internal and external customers. research shows that of all areas, reliability accounts for 80% of customer’s perception about our services and is the single most important factor for customer loyalty – a customer who will advocate for a service and positively recommend a service to others. We include survey questions related to the rater factors for every service department in the annual Use Your Voice survey, and the ratings are reported on the score card, is included as 30% of a service area’s tiered accountability rating. our organizational goal is for each department to achieve 80% of their customers reporting they are satisfied with the level of each component.

ReliAbiliTy

ASSurAnce

TAnGibleS

EMPAThy

ReSPonSiveneSS

Performing dependably and accurately

conveying trust and confidence through knowledge of products and services

creating an impression through appearance and equipment

communicating caring and individualized attention

helping customers willingly, promptly, and speedily

•

•

•

•

•

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ThE TIERED ACCounTAbIlITy SySTEmHolding Ourselves Accountable for Results

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during the 2007 - 2008 school year, oakland Unified School district’s Service leadership team implemented a tiered accountability System in an effort to have a color-coded, public accountability reporting structure that paralleled the school accountability system. this new system allowed the service team

to measure and report on the effectiveness of its services to schools and the district. however, the first year of implementation only included rater

results from the annual, year-end Use Your Voice Survey.

for the 2008-2009 school year, we will consider a larger number of measures and integrate multiple data-based results into an overall “score.” the

proposed multiple measures are outlined in this document.

our tiered accountability System creates a performance management culture and framework that allows us to hold ourselves accountable for results. We publicly set goals, periodically monitor progress toward goals, and report both overall service effectiveness and service improvement results to clients. in this way, it supports a culture of service and continuous improvement.

Most school districts create elaborate performance management systems for schools but weaker, less data-driven and less public systems for central office. as a result, central office departments often lack the ability to identify what they are doing right and how they can improve services to schools as well as link improved service performance to improved results at the organization level, including increases in student achievement.

our Theory of Action states:

If Central Office Services successfully deliver high quality service, especially to school sites, and generate high internal customer satisfaction, then school staff can increasingly focus time and energy on activities that directly improve student achievement.

continuous improvement processes require a system that has both pressure and support and our system provides public accountability pressure that leads to increased support in areas of highest priority.

like the tiered accountability system for schools in our district, our system enables district leaders to allocate resources to service team priorities that more directly align with district goals.

whaT Is The servICe CulTure TIered aCCounTabIlITy sysTeM?

whaT Is The PurPose of The TIered aCCounTabIlITy

sysTeM for The servICe CulTure?

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this current draft of the proposed Service culture tiered accountability System includes a description of the criteria for this year. there are five main components: Service Standards, rater results, client feedback on level of student achievement support, resource management and management of departmental staff. the relative weighting of each tiered accountability component is outlined below.

weighting of Service Culture Tiered Accountability Components:

Service Standards 30%rater 30%UYV Survey Question: Supports Student achievement 5%resource Management 10%investing in our People 25%total 100%

the overall score will be calculated using the weighted formula and the associated overall tier level will be determined by the following table:

whaT are The CrITerIa In The 2008-2009 servICe CulTure

TIered aCCounTabIlITy sysTeM?

overall sCore and assoCIaTed TIered aCCounTabIlITy levels:

each of the following pages breaks down the criteria for each accountability area (service standards, rater, UYV Survey Question: Supports Student achievement, resource Management and People).

50THE TIERED ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMholding ourselves accountable for results

Service Standards (30%)

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Perceptual data from uSe your voice: RATER (30%) and “Supports Student Achievement” Survey Questions (5%)

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The Resource Management portion of the Tiered Accountability rating will be awarded at meetings in July. A panel comprised of the Chiefs will meet with managers and review evidence of cost saving initiatives and / or program improvements that resulted in increased efficiency within each service department.

resource Management (Effective and Efficient Management of Resources): 10%

all managers will review their budget (budget to actual) and other common sets of documents or materials in addition to evidence unique to their department. a template or guide will be provided for managers to help prepare for their session. Questions/elements they might consider for guiding this discussion and the chiefs’ assessment include:

• Didactualexpendituresfallbeloworabovebudget?

• Towhatextentdidthisdepartmentmeetorexceed revenue targets?

• Howwelldidtheservicedepartmentmaximizethe uses of resources?

• Didthedepartmenthireforvacanciesinatimely manner?

• Whatresultswereachievedthroughprocessimprovements that contributed to cost savings and efficiencies?

o how have use of staff time been improved or made more efficient due to improvements in internal processes?

o What “green” initiatives did the department implement?

• ContractManagement:o how effectively were contracts managed

and implemented?o how timely were contract reviews

conducted after the end of each contract?

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Notes:

1. for an evaluation to be complete, it must be signed by both the employee and the manager and be placed in the staff member’s hr file. Special consideration may be given in cases where a staff member is undergoing extensive, unplanned leave which prevented in-person delivery of the evaluation prior to the leave taking place, or a manager is unable to deliver the evaluation within the appropriate timeframe. Please describe this situation in your narrative.

2. Substitutes are not included in attendance data. attendance does not include vacation or personal leave days.

investing in our People (25%)

3. retention data will include retirements. a high percentage of retirements in any department, especially a small one, will negatively impact performance and therefore should be highlighted in order for additional resources to be allocated or other strategies to be implemented in order to reduce the risk of poor customer service.

4. in all cases, small department size (5 or less) may be given special consideration in this area.

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founded under a district redesign effort called “Expect Success,” Operations Support is a unique fee-for-service central office initiative initially designed to facilitate the district’s transition to a “service economy.” Despite visionary leadership, the full service economy model failed to fully emerge at ouSD due to a wide range of constraints. however, a “service culture” emerged within central office that continues to fuel the performance management efforts on the “service side” to this day. One of the driving principles of the service culture is a push to create central services that schools find so valuable that they would choose to purchase them even if they had the option to choose other service providers.

operations Support has proven to be a “service of choice.” Operations Support Coaches have two goals: (1) supporting school leaders to

The Ops Support Coaching StoryBuilding capacity for operational Management While improving Service delivery

spend more time on instruction and (2) building the operational capacity and systems at schools. They lend a hand where needed, but focus their efforts on supporting school leaders and clerical staff to more effectively manage their school operations and navigate an improving but historically bureaucratic system. As a testament to their value, a majority of ouSD schools choose to pay for ops Support Coaches despite dwindling budgets. In addition, district leadership has chosen to prioritize dwindling grant funds to subsidize the service at schools with new principals, in recognition of the capacity-building value ops Support Coaches provide.

ops Support Coaches have also contributed in other ways to building improved systems for schools and staff. An intentional push for collaboration among team members, combined

interview with Jill Schiager, former Manager of operations Support, current executive officer for Strategic Projects

use your voice Survey results for rATer: 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-2008reliability 56% 94% 78%assurances 66% 96% 80%tangibles n/a 94% 70%empathy 43% 96% 90%responsiveness 56% 95% 75%overall 55.25% 94.90% 78.67%

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with an intuitive systems-thinking approach, enabled the ops Support team to optimize the sharing of knowledge about how to accomplish operational tasks within the district. As a result, in addition to supporting increased efficiency at schools, many central departments praise the ops Support Coaches for their communications link and their insights into what is broken and how to fix it. The Operations Support team also scaled the value of their knowledge:

“Not only did we become experts at breaking down barriers and getting things done, but we were able to develop better tools to share knowledge. Initially we developed quick tip “how to” guides and shared them with customer schools. Later we created new intranet sites and implemented new policies so that deliverable expectations, calendar events, forms and other operational tools could be readily accessible to all staff.”

In addition, the operations Support team redesigned the district registration process, created online training modules, designed and facilitated the annual Clerical Retreat, and trained ouSD staff in Achieving Service Excellence. A few ops Support Coaches also transitioned to special assignments to lead cross-departmental process improvement teams. These “home run projects” were chosen to address some of the most critical system challenges or “pain points,” including custodial services, substitute teacher fill rate, pay concerns and contracts. ops Support Coaches proved to be ideal process improvement facilitators, given their familiarity with the reality at schools, their natural systems thinking, their

tenacity at solving problems, and their relationships with staff across the district.

As a result of the high quality of services provided, operations Support earned the district’s top customer service (RATER) scores in 2007, with over 90% of customers rating the unit’s service as satisfactory or above. While scores went down in 2008 (due to extensive turnover caused by internal promotions), they remained among the highest of district service providers—thereby earning the team an award at the 2nd Annual Expect Success Awards in october 2008. The following is excerpted from that event’s brochure:

“The Operations Support team is the true embodiment of R.A.T.E.R. Jill Schiager and her team consistently went above and beyond as they strive to support academic achievement by improving operational capacity and systems at schools and in central services. They are relentless in their commitment to providing the training and tools staff need to be successful. Many principals have stated that they couldn’t imagine life without their Operations Support Coaches.”

Successful ops Support Coaches share some common attributes: Not only are they knowledgeable about how to “do things” operationally in a district, they are also strategic thinkers and problem solvers. They are skilled listeners who find common ground among stakeholders and who build trusting, peer-level relationships with leaders. They are passionate about achieving results and they actively seek opportunities to learn from others and to leverage the skills of their colleagues.

“In the 15 years I have been principal, this is the most effective support I’ve ever received.”

Moyra contreras, Principal, Melrose leadership Academy (middle)

“As a first-year leader of a first-year school with a first-year administrative assistant, I relied totally upon our Ops Coach to build our capacity in so many ways. We came into the year knowing little

to nothing and finished the year able to run a school.”

Phil cotty, Principal, united for Success Academy (middle school)

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Co-sponsored by laura moran and Delia Ruiz, the hR Director, the Substitute fill Rate home Run Project was led by lynnette Calvin-Epps, an hR generalist, and Amanda von moos, Project manager and process improvement coach. Their team included other human Resources staff, Technology Services staff, Instructional Services staff, principals, and substitute teachers.

As a process improvement coach and an ops Coach, Amanda brought critical skills in data analysis, root cause analysis, leveraging the expertise of the cross-functional team members (especially principals), and keeping projects on task. Technology Services helped to improve payment and tracking systems, Instructional Services provided professional development for substitutes, principals provided much needed customer voice and the oEA helped keep the experience of guest teachers.

When they began in the summer of 2007 by looking at data, they discovered the daily hard work of the hR staff dedicated to getting quality substitute teachers in front of oakland students yielded a 69% average rate for the year. As disappointing as this was, a deeper examination of their data, differentiated by school, told an even grimmer story. Some schools were experiencing a substitute fill rate as low as 22% and some as high as 98%. They found that the most “challenging” schools – schools characterized by low student achievement scores, lack of stability in leadership, higher needs for resources and support for student and families – were experiencing the deepest challenges in ensuring their students received quality instruction from a credentialed substitute when the permanent teacher was absent. fueled by a sense of urgency

and passion to correct this inequity, and a personal mission to “be the one” to advocate for the thousands of students who rely on her and her team to find a high quality teacher each and every day, lynnette accepted the challenge with a vision for only one outcome: A high quality teacher for every child in Oakland Unified School District. By the end of the 2007-2008 school year, the home run project efforts yielded a 78% substitute fill rate for the year, with the “equity” gap narrowing from 76 to 35 percentage points. This year, the results are even more startling: 91% overall substitute fill rate with an equity gap of 22 percentage points of ranging from 78% to 100%. This team is closing one measure of the equity gap from 78 percentage points to 22 percentage points.

In a classic problem solving method, the team carefully identified all the issues related to the system’s inability to fill the substitute needs of schools, and then examined the root causes to those problems before selecting and implementing solutions:

“We had to fix a bunch of things and we took a systems approach – from pay issues to issues subs experienced at the school site to how things were structured in the office to address issues guest teachers came in with. In the past, no one ever looked at the root cause. Do our issues exist because we don’t have a quality sub pool? Is it because subs don’t go to sites after being assigned?”

As a result of their problem solving work, the Sub fill Rate team identified some key issues and implemented a few strategic solutions.

• Created a robust and high quality substitute pool by cleaning the existing list of substitutes, verifying each name for accuracy

A Home Run Success Story Sub-fill rate rises Up to Meet the needs of Schools

interview with Lynnette Calvin-Epps

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and currency of contact information. • Increased the supply of substitutes by

conducting well-advertised hiring fairs and improving outreach efforts.

• Improved quality of substitute pool through pre-employment screening sessions, classroom management training and feedback from principals.

• Focused support to schools with low fill rate by attracting more substitutes through Substitute Site Tours. Tours dispelled myths about the low performing schools and inspired substitutes to choose to work there.

• Improved accuracy of information in “SmartFindExpress,” an online substitute finding system accessible through the intranet.

Pre-employment interviews were not required in the past. however, lynnette took a personal approach that both demonstrated her personal commitment to find the best substitutes the students of Oakland deserved and inspired potential candidates to work at ouSD.

“I’m both an employee and a parent here. The children of Oakland deserve a high quality education, even on days when their regular teacher is not there. When we started hiring, we decided to hire only high quality “guest teachers.” If a candidate was not good enough to be qualified as a teacher, they were not good enough to be a substitute.”

As lynnette shares her story, it is clear her commitment and passion is personal.

“Today broke down and refuted the misconceptions and stereotypes associated with certain parts of Oakland and the schools in those areas.”- Substitute Tour Participant

“I just wanted to appreciate your work coordinating the sub office! We have 4 people out today-one calling in less than 30 minutes before school. I figured there was no way we would have all classes covered so I had teachers lined up to work their preps. Instead, we ended up with an extra sub! The support and service this year has been amazing. Thanks so much for the effort. It is really making a difference!Aaron Townsend, Principalcoliseum college Prep Academy

“I want to thank you for again sending great subs to my sites at Lakeview CDC and Alice St. CDC. These ladies have been doing a wonderful job. I feel like my sites are being well taken care of because they certainly are clean!”lynne Martin, Site AdministratorAlice St. cdc, lakeview cdc, yuk yau Annex cdc

“I share with subs when they come to orientation that they are valuable and they can make a difference – if they can connect with one child, they can change a life. I experienced this with my own children and I share these stories. I make it clear we have high expectations because Oakland children deserve it. I weed out those that are here just to do a job. I am here to support subs, but more importantly, I’m here to help Oakland students succeed.”

When quality substitutes are recruited, the Sub Office wants to support them so that they remain in the pool or potentially transition to full-time teaching, thereby solving another systemic issue within the system. Some of these retention strategies include:

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• Monthly professional development for substitutes is held in conjunction with the Site Tours on topics such as open Court and classroom management.

• Substitute Teacher Professional Development Day is conducted once a year with workshops such as “Tips for Subs by Subs,” and “Pathways to becoming a full-time teacher.”

• Collaborated with school sites to create a welcoming environment for substitute teachers, including creating “Substitute Binders” at each school site. These informational binders, handed to substitutes when they arrive at the assigned school, are filled with information that helps the substitute familiarize him or her with the environment and culture of the school. They include maps, practical information about the school, a staff list, phone numbers, and even a school’s mission and vision.

• Recognize substitutes with a Substitute Appreciation luncheon each spring.

“I want to show that we appreciate their commitment. We go out of our way to create a venue that is welcoming and attractive – we have a nice meal with flowers on tables, and ribbons on the windows – with speakers, board members, and district leadership attending. We also have a substitute appreciation board (where notes of gratitude submitted by principals and staff are posted).”

As a result of all the process improvement efforts over the past two years, not only has the sub-fill rate increased, especially for historically challenging schools to staff, but the district has been able to reduce the staffing of the substitute office from 5 full-time sub clerks to currently 2 generalists and an administrative assistant.

A Home Run Success Story Sub-fill rate rises Up to Meet the needs of Schools

interview with Lynnette Calvin-Epps

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one of the best experiences i had this past year was being invited to share our performance management system with another local urban school district. Many different districts have come to visit oakland to learn about expect Success, and in particular, central services performance management, from around the country, but it was really exciting to consider forming a partnership with our colleagues across the Bay who share our same passion for excellence and student achievement. We shared our stories, tools, processes and scorecards in exchange for the consideration of forming a professional learning community where we could benchmark each other. i have found that benchmarking studies done in both business and education have primarily and almost singularly been focused on improving operational metrics. While this is important, it tends to ignore the need to improve efficiency through the lens of the needs of the schools and students. We have found that service standards are a more meaningful way to define our operational metrics and are now looking for other districts that are willing to do the same so that we can compare service standards across districts. Unlike schools that can learn from each other, forming professional learning communities for central office departments has also been a challenge as many of our departments perform unique functions.

While we encourage everyone to learn internally about how to improve the way we offer our services, it is harder to make meaningful comparisons on service standards across departments. how would one compare the efforts and results for improving substitute fill rates or network reliability, for example? What was most exciting about the afternoon we spent with central office colleagues from another district was the realization of how far we have come as an organization. as we explained and “taught” our peers what we had learned in service performance management, we realized how well we have internalized the culture, tools, structures and processes over time. after the session, many of the oakland leaders reflected on how proud they were of the work we have done. Sharing what we’ve learned was an incredibly validating and inspiring experience.

i believe creating a Bay area and ultimately a West coast learning community of central office leaders will challenge and inspire all of us and help us reach higher levels of performance over the next few years. i look forward to working with our new Superintendent and the dell foundation in brining a vision for this next phase of our reform to reality.

“oUSd Service leaders regarded as exemplars in Service Performance Management”

by laUra Moran

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Prologuenear the conclusion of printing this booklet we reviewed the results of the fourth year of Use Your Voice Survey results. We were disappointed that the results this year were mixed with fewer departments seeing significant gains this year al-though a number of departments did see increases. as we move into our annual inquiry cycle we will continue to use this data to help us analyze the root causes of this customer perception data and compare it to the service standards data which provide the objective measures of the delivery of core services. We have found that there are times when the per-ceptual data lags behind the core service delivery which may point to a need to better communicate with our customers (e.g. guest teacher fill rate at 91% but customer perception of teachers and principals at 70%). We also know that in a time of budget cuts and limited resources that we will be chal-lenged to find new ways to continue to provide outstand-ing service by redesigning our processes, continuing to build our skills and setting realistic expectations about core ser-vices. We also recognize that path to success is not always a straight line and that when you have a set back in some areas it can provide a powerful catalyst for increased performance the following year. one thing we do know that we will use this data thoughtfully in determining how to improve and keep on track to our ultimate goal of providing outstanding service to all of our schools. We will also reflect on and refine the Performance Management System with the feedback and support of all our service leaders.

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aPPendIx

servICe PerforManCe year-end refleCTIve narraTIve TeMPlaTe

servICe sCore Card exaMPles

servICe IMProveMenT Plan TeMPlaTe

MId-year revIew PowerPoInT TeMPlaTes

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Service Performance Management tools, guidelines and examples

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Service Performance Year-end reflective narrative template

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Service Scorecard examples

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Service improvement Plan template

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Mid-Year review PowerPoint templates

Service leadership TeamPerformance management guidebookCopyright 2009

Performance Management guidebook written and designed by Performance fact, inc., 333 hegenberger road, Suite 750, oakland, ca 94621/510.586.7944

service leadership team performance management guidebook...janet mountain, lory pilchik and virginia...

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