Support Services- Department Leadership Teams

Setting and Communicating Direction

·        Who:  To empower support service department stakeholders (who will form the Department Leadership Team or DLT) to set and communicate direction within their department.

o       Teams should include representation from each level/layer of the department including; supervisors, managers, and front-line employees.  Larger departments may have larger teams while smaller departments may have smaller teams.  Team size should be no larger than 8 individuals per department team.

·        What:  To have each department create a “Plan on a Page” for their department that is aligned to the District plan

·        How:  Through the utilization of continuous improvement processes and tools, DLTs will involve department employees in determining Department direction (the Department Plan on a Page)

·        Rationale:  Effective leaders set and communicate direction for their department.  To be effective, however, this direction cannot be set alone- but rather with input from stakeholders/employees within the department. When common direction is established with input from employees and there is consensus on the direction set, the next task is the process of alignment.  When resources, budgets and personnel are well aligned to the direction- productivity and efficiency increase. 

Employees within effective departments…

o       Know “what is most important” in the department

§         What is “most important” is often captured in the form of Department: Vision, Mission, Goals, Core Values & Measures.  (This will be referred to as the Department Plan on a Page)

o       Recognize how their work directly contributes to the Department Plan on a Page

§         Every department needs to align their work and goals to the Department Plan on a Page.  This means that each department (and sub-department) will have specific goals that directly align to the Plan.

§         In turn, every employee within the department needs to identify how their work is aligned to the department goals

o       Understand how progress will be measured toward the Department Plan on a Page.

§         Each department needs to identify measures that will show “in-process” progress toward their department goals

§         Every employee needs to understand how their individual contributions can be measured to determine their effectiveness as well