July 2015

Many city staff members have benefited from the Leadership Lake Oswego program sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. My own experience was that it provided an excellent introduction to the community and to the organizations and institutions that make up the fabric of our city. The time commitment (one day per month) seemed reasonable. Registration is open for the 2015-16 year. If you're interested, see the program brochure for more information. (In the interest of full disclosure, Superintendent Heather Beck and I are listed in the brochure as instructors for the leadership sessions. This amounts to about an hour and a half at the beginning of each day's session on a leadership topic, similar to the areas we've been covering in LOU. We're doing it gratis as a way to "pay it forward" and support future community leaders, and we'll alternate months for a manageable time commitment.)

Lean Oswego
A byproduct of continuous process improvement is often increased efficiency, but the focus is on improving the customer experience. As another step in this direction, Councilor Joe Buck suggested creation of an automatic reply to citizens who send an e-mail to "council distribution." IT responded quickly by setting up a message that acknowledges receipt and thanks the writer for taking the time to communicate with the City Council. And it provides a quick link to our Citizen Request tracking system, so that if the writer has a complaint or service request that needs a staff follow-up, we can monitor it and make sure that action is taken.

And to help save costs for our water customers, new solar panels at our Water Treatment Plant are hooked up and producing power (June was a good month for this!).

Chuck's Coffee
Internal customers are important, too. Chuck Sciarotta offered to keep coffee supplies stocked for the various departments that share city hall. This has been previously done separately by each department. This may seem a small thing, but the important thing about Lean Oswego is that it's a continuous process of improvement, and many small things add up over time. Jim Collins uses the metaphor of a flywheel, spinning slowly at first but building momentum. He writes, "Tremendous power exists in the fact of continued improvement and the delivery of results."


Employee Picnic
Be sure to register for the employee BBQ on August 28 (4:30-7:30 at Foothills Park). If you didn't see a recent e-mail invitation, contact Gail Hoddevik in Human Resources.

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