Change Optimization & Strategic Alignment — Workplace Safety North
Change Optimization | WSN
Sector: Provincial agency
Timeframe: 2012 to 2013
Affiliation: Stevenson Kellogg
Led change optimization program for the health and safety association Workplace Safety North, formed three years earlier from integration of three legacy associations operating primarily in Northern Ontario. Developed leadership alignment and vision for Service Excellence. Led staff working groups in development of initiatives to build service excellence. Provided the Board with a governance update, and facilitated Board generative discussion to develop strategic directions.
BACKGROUND
Three legacy health and safety associations from the mining, forestry, and pulp and paper industries amalgamated to form WSN, with a new CEO and a broader mandate.
Three years later WSN's Senior Leadership Team (SLT) needed to find better alignment, develop stronger group decision execution, and achieve significant service delivery improvements
PAIN POINTS
- Heavy workloads with pre- amalgamation silos impeding efficiency
- “Fire fighting” stalling action on strategic priorities
- Increasing internal dissatisfaction
- Constrained funding
- Competitive pressures
OUTCOMES
- Immediate improvements in morale, efficiency, and confidence in leadership directions
- Service Excellence Vision and Roadmap used at WSN to guide and implement priority changes
- Process improvement initiative actively supported and championed by the union
- Board engagement with Service Excellence Vision
CONSULTING RESPONSE
Working in collaboration with the CEO, her office, and a colleague from Stevenson Kellogg, Michael recommended establishing a service excellence road map as a collaborative endeavour amongst leadership, to (a) build alignment; (b) develop key priorities; and (c) model ways to collaborate across lines of the legacy organizations.
- Anchored in effective principles of mobilizing for change, facilitated a series of oversight and alignment workshops with the senior leadership team (SLT), and engagement sessions and focus groups with staff across WSN
- Led SLT through a collaborative process, identifying critical values and descriptors of excellent service — and agreeing priorities to improve services without adding costs
- Engaged union leadership in fact finding and updates
- Employed the Stevenson Kellogg CCE methodology to engage cross-functional teams of managers and staff to examine critical areas needing process and policy changes — creating immediate findings
- SLT supported the teams, became proactive with implementing the recommendations — generating an appetite for involvement to sustain improvement actions and resolve inefficiencies — and creating positive energy for improving customer and employee experiences
- Developed a 3 year roadmap for prioritized service excellence projects — and facilitated an all-staff engagement workshop to generate understanding, create dialogue and invite further solution designs for continuous improvement
- Provided the Board with a governance update and facilitated Board generative discussion to develop strategic directions