1. Reality of Organizational Improvement
OIG
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Office of Inspector General
Reality of
Organizational Improvement
Catalyst for improving the environment what does it mean
Then and now

2. OIG Challenges Office of Inspector General
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Office of Inspector General
Challenges
An organization that had a reputation of hard hitting audits and investigations
Audit recommendations were not always implemented
Audit recommendations did not help customers improve program results
Compliance audits—identified instances where the agency or grantees were not following the rules…in response agency agreed or did not agree, either way, it did not often fix the problems
Congress praised our work…questioned millions in construction grant funds and we were measured on what we questioned…..not what the agency collected
Appropriations story…..around 40% of budget for SF work
Why change? As we looked at what we were accomplishing, it was very little and we were not informing our clients

3. OIG Our Change Model Office of Inspector General
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Office of Inspector General
Our Change Model
Learning
Leadership= doing the right things at all levels and we believe that in our day to day work leadership is situational, not based on where you sit on the org chart
Systems and processes= our support systems did not support what we think about people
Products
New Products
Systems

4. OIG Instructed staff in high performance models- Baldrige and HPO
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Office of Inspector General
Learning
Added continuous learning to our strategy
Instructed staff in high performance models- Baldrige and HPO
Instructed staff in values philosophy- Covey
Instructed staff in personal leadership
Did a lot of corporate wide training in an effort to get folks at all levels to share an understanding.
Started with senior managers who attended management training annually but never on similar subjects and never together and with no shared goal except to meet administrative requirement.
Then shared with staff because in our business of reviewing programs it appeared that the models would be useful not only for improving our own performance, but also that of our clients
Then we worked the spirals and finally we incorporated what we had learned into our audits and evaluations of agency programs and operations

5. OIG Systems Office of Inspector General
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Office of Inspector General
Systems
Improved our Management Systems
Developed Strategic Planning Process linked to Budget
Initiated multi-year assignment planning
Linked planning and staffing to better inform our hiring decisions
Developing integrated management information system
We did the standard strategic planning steps, met with our customers and learned a lot: agency thought we were useless, congress didn’t know what we did…..progress
Last year we developed a multiyear plan to link annual and strategic plans, worked closely with the agency to answer its questions about program performance………mapped the programs using logic model
Moving to a paperless environment, in audit have folks sharing info across the country as they work together on projects…especially effective on FS audit where we met the goal of audited statements by 11/15 last year, one year ahead of schedule
Done initial work on cost accounting

6. OIG Systems Office of Inspector General
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Office of Inspector General
Systems
Built New Human Resources Systems and Processes
Developed a Career Management Framework
Designed a New Performance Appraisal Process
Implemented a Training Information System
Implemented a Skills Inventory System
Conducted Workforce Planning
Established a New Awards Program

7. OIG Created New Products Office of Inspector General
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Office of Inspector General
Created New Products
Program Evaluation– beyond compliance to effectiveness
Cyber-crime Investigations
Lab Fraud Investigations
To address both agency and congressional needs and most important to inform the public we are becoming positioned to answer the question of is the environment better and how would you know
New products, new People
Old staff with new skills and new staff with entirely different backgrounds than in the past
Statisticians, economists, program analysts, scientists, engineers, environmental specialists, toxicologists, chemists

8. OIG
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Office of Inspector General
Lessons Learned
Staff need to agree upon “customer” and “ customer satisfaction” definitions
Staff need to clearly understand High Performance Concepts such as “empowerment”
You can’t wait on everyone to agree on everything
We still have trouble getting the senior people to stop doing the technical work and focus on the leadership work

9. OIG Lessons Learned (cont.)
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Office of Inspector General
Lessons Learned (cont.)
Sending staff to training does not change their behavior or organizational results
New staff adapt to change more quickly than “seasoned” staff
Changing an organization is a full time job

10. OIG Lessons Learned (cont.) The journey is one without a finish line.
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Office of Inspector General
Lessons Learned (cont.)
The journey is one without a finish line.
Keep a sense of humor and be willing admit mistakes.
Unless you have a personal commitment, the change will not happen. If only there were some magic.