42 Government Finance Review | June 2016

Small Things Add Up The Denver Peak Academy ApproachBy Melissa Field

solutioNs

Denver Peak Acdemy

guides employees at all

levels to improve the

way government works,

making improvements

that have saved city

taxpayers $15 million

since the program’s

2011 inception.

Denver Peak Academy is the

process improvement team

for the City and County of

Denver, Colorado, created under the

budget office and mayor’s office to

train and coach employees at all levels

to improve the way government works.

The team guides employees though

process improvements that have saved

city taxpayers $15 million since the

program’s inception in 2011.

The Peak team has trained 5,000

employees in the principles of con-

tinuous improvement techniques.

The tools that the team promotes are

simple, including process mapping,

cause-and-effect diagrams, the A3 tem-

plate, standard work, the 5S methodol-

ogy, and visual management. (See the

Terminology sidebar for definitions.)

Instead of implementing these changes

from the top down, Peak promotes

a decentralized approach. It trains

employees to apply the tools and tech-

niques to the small, simple things they

do every day — the things they are

personally responsible for. Ultimately,

the small things add up, leading to

large-scale change.

TAKING OWNERSHIP

Whether we realize it or not, most

of us go to work each day with a long

list of the things we believe the peo-

ple around us — our bosses, cowork-

ers, and partners agencies — should

change. We think, “If only someone else

did X differently, my workday would be

so much easier.” The problem is that

often, we don’t have the full story. The

only processes we can truly improve

are the ones we fully understand

and control.

Every employee controls something.

One person may not have the power to

bring about organizational change, but

she can, say, streamline a complicated

form, shorten wait times, or redesign

her desk space in a way that inspires

others to do the same. Applying pro-

cess improvement tools to person-

al productivity is the best first step

toward implementing a big change.

Governments are not transformed

overnight; change happens one step

at a time.

PEAK PARTNERSHIPS

Two of the greatest continuous

improvement success stories we’ve

seen at the City and County of Denver,

Colorado, came from the Denver

Animal Shelter and the Department

of Excise and Licenses. Both agen-

cies were part of what we call a Peak

Partnership, in which a Peak pro-

cess improvement employee is sent

to work in an agency for a period

of six months. The specialist works

with agency leadership to study data

sources including 311 calls, budget

documents, and performance metrics.

June 2016 | Government Finance Review 43

After shadowing employees and ana-

lyzing data sources, the Peak employee

works with the agency to narrow the

focus to one key metric. For Excise

and Licenses, that metric was custom-

er wait time. For the Animal Shelter,

that metric was the amount of time it

takes to process an animal from intake

to adoption.

Once a key metric has been clearly

identified, leadership works to rally

innovation around it. In both agen-

cies, the leaders asked frontline staff to

each come up with at least one small

change they could enact to make an

improvement on the chosen metric.

In Excise and Licenses, 30 employees

— focusing only on what they con-

trolled in their daily work — decreased

wait times from more than 1 hour to

15 minutes. At the animal shelter, 50

employees reduced the length of stay

for animals from 14 days to 8 days.

It wasn’t one big change that made

the difference in these agencies, but

the collection of many small, personal

changes to the way each person did his

or her own job.

PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

Production boards and standard-

ized work are two personal produc-

tivity tools that promote autonomy.

Autonomy makes workers feel respect-

ed, competent, and engaged — which

in turn creates an environment where

creativity, innovation, and change

can thrive.

Production Boards. Individual pro-

duction boards can be as simple as

a personal dashboard listing projects

and tasks as to do, pending, doing,

Two agencies made significant improvements. It wasn’t

one big change that made the difference in these

agencies, but the collection of many small, personal

changes to the way each person did his

or her own job.

Terminology

*All definitions from LeanHEHub.com.

Process Mapping

A visual representation of the sequen-

tial flow of a process. Used as a tool in

problem solving, this technique makes

opportunities for improvement apparent.

Cause-and-Effect Diagrams

Another name for a fishbone diagram,

where the “spine” denotes an effect and

the “bones” are cause factors. Used for

problem solving and quality improve-

ment.

A3 Template

The A3 event report is a communica-

tion tool following a logical and standard

structure. The A3 document tells the

story of each event: Its purpose, baseline

measures, what it’s trying to achieve, what

was done and what tools were used,

what was achieved during the week, next

steps in the project, and lessons learned.

Standard Work

Detailed definition of the most efficient

method to produce a product (or per-

form a service) at a balanced flow to

achieve a desired output rate. It breaks

down the work into elements, which are

sequenced, organized, and repeatedly

followed.

5S Methodology

A technique that helps to keep work-

place clean and tidy by ensuring staff

keeps only the items that are needed to

perform their tasks. The 5S stands for:

1. Sort: clear out, clean up

2. Set in order: clean and check, arrange

3. Shine: configure, neatness

4. Standardize: conformity, discipline

5. Sustain: custom and practice, ongoing

improvement

Visual Management

Signals and other forms of visual infor-

mation used to simplify the workplace

and make it easy to recognize abnor-

malities.

44 Government Finance Review | June 2016

or done. This is an effective way to

generate clear communication, man-

age workflow, and meet team-oriented

deadlines. The Peak team uses sticky

notes for each assignment and moves

them along the board according to

their level of completion. Supervisors

and coworkers can use this informa-

tion to find out where an employee

stands regarding any given task, and it

helps individuals manage and prioritize

day-to-day activities.

A similar system can be used to

break down sections of a larger, shared

project. Many teams use a scoreboard

that shows individual performance or

team-based performance. These types

of production boards help team mem-

bers meet goals and see how they

are performing in relation to others.

When the Peak team helps agencies

implement production boards, employ-

ees often ask if these boards can be

electronic. In our experience, elec-

tronic boards are less effective than

physical boards and are updated less

frequently, especially if the board is

in a high-traffic location. As with any

tool, production boards are only as

effective as the team or individual

maintaining them.

Standard Work. Another effective

personal productivity tool is standard-

ized work (documenting the current

best practice and using that as a base-

line for further improvements). Often,

employees don’t think of standardiza-

tion as a personal tool, but if you are

the only one in your office who can

complete your specific job tasks, you’ve

created a big problem for yourself and

others. All of us wish we had more time.

The people who usually have the least

amount of time are those who struggle

the most with delegation. If I am the

only one who can do my job and I go

out on vacation, I am filled with stress

and anxiety the moment I return. It’s

also likely that I have angry customers

waiting for me. If I show others how do

to every aspect of my job, I can enjoy

the confidence of knowing that others

can easily step in.

In Excise and Licenses, to recall a

previous example, a licensing tech-

nician created pre-made application

packets complete with frequently

asked questions based on 311 call

data for those licenses. Instead of each

licensing technician putting togeth-

er the packets on the spot or asking

customers to figure out which forms

they needed, this employee created

easy, standardized work. His fellow

colleagues were so appreciative of his

innovation that they continue to update

and maintain the packets, even when

he’s not around.

Standardized work is especially effec-

tive when combined with some type

of production board. If an employee

is working on a project and his or her

colleagues can easily see where they

left off — and they’re trained to do

the task — they can easily jump in.

At the Denver Animal Shelter, employ-

ees created an internal data dashboard

so everyone could easily see where

an animal was in the intake process

and jump in as necessary to move

the process along.

CONCLUSIONS

A big mistake that many of us make

is thinking that what we do every day

doesn’t matter. In Denver, we know

that starting small and focusing on what

you can control is the first step toward

making a larger change. The best way

to inspire an entire team is to inspire

autonomy and creativity through your

own exceptional management of per-

sonal productivity. Treat yourself as if

what you do is exceptionally important

to your organization — because it is.

The results of this self-awareness can be

astounding. We know because we see

it every day. y

MELISSA FIELD is process improvement

manager for the Denver Peak Academy.

Peak Performance, a new book by

Brian Elms, director of Peak Academy

and analytics at City, and County of

Denver, Colorado, published by

Governing. (For more information, go

to http://www.governing.com/books/

Peak-Performance.html.)

Quantity discounts are available.To learn more about the books in the Elected Offi cial’s Series, visit www.gfoa.org.