1

American Planning Association National Conference

April 2012

Moderator:

• Richard Barth Executive Director, NYC Department of City Planning

Panelists:

• David Parish Standards Coordinator, NYC Department of City Planning

• Laurel Prevetti Assistant Director, City of San Jose, CA

• Carol Samol BluePRint Director/Bronx Director, NYC Department of City Planning

2

TM

1

NYC Growth and Development

115 REZONINGS

10,400+ Blocks 1/3 of the City’s land

For the last nine years, City Planning has helped to significantly reshape New York City, creating conditions for the long-term sustainable growth of the city and its economy.

2

Impetus for Change

3

DCP is re-examining its business practices

• Continued reduction in resources

• Criticism of DCP’s land use and environmental review processes, particularly in application review which is the agency’s initial contact point with applicants

• Citywide agenda:

o Improve the efficiency and transparency of government

o Improve the ease of doing business in the City

• Declining staff morale in a difficult working environment

NYC DCP faced pressure to change

Improve DCP’s ability to work with all stakeholders and deliver its mission to strategically plan and develop New York City

• Reduce time in the application review process lifecycle

• Increase clarity and reliability of the process

• Improve the ease of doing business with DCP, and within DCP

• Reallocate time for DCP personnel to focus on other aspects of the Agency’s mission

• Focus on pre-certification will reveal opportunities and mobilize change elsewhere in DCP

Champions, Advocates and Stakeholders

4

• Champions at City Hall (funding, support of Deputy Mayor)

• Advocates in executive leadership

• Buy-in of senior managers

• Staff led effort – very important stakeholders

• Outside help

• Consultants from Accenture

• Leveraging assistance from other city agencies and the private sector

• Outreach

• Practitioner Community

• Staff

Project BluePRint Timeline

Diagnosis Recommendations Develop Plans Implementation

5

Jan-Feb 2011 March 2011 April 2011 May 2011 – 2013

Feedback from Practitioners and Staff

6

BluePRint began with an anonymous survey of applicants and applicant representatives and a survey of DCP staff members.

• Consultants conducted anonymous interviews with practitioners

• Practitioner Results included:

• The Good – “A talented workforce that moves projects quickly when they

are a priority.”

• The Bad – “Unpredictable processes and reviews from project to project.”

• And the Ugly – “It’s like dealing with 3 different agencies.”

• Staff identified key issues across divisions

• Confirmed that there was tremendous pride of work

• Identified pressures of staff turnover, falling budgets

“Negative feedback is better than none.” – Hugh Prather

Workshops

7

BluePRint began in earnest with a series of day-long workshops that would help us to define the issues and solutions that we would focus on. • Current process map creation

• Determined “Value Added”

• Identified Issues

• Finding the “Root Causes”

• Tailored solutions to the root causes

• Prioritized solutions

• Low to high effort

• Low to high time to implement

• Created a new process map

• Grouped other solutions into groups

• Created multiple implementation plans

As Is To Be

Workshops - Process Solution

One key solution was a new application review process with clear roles, discrete steps and an organized process flow.

8

Key Concepts

9

These concepts helped to push us in the right directions

• Facilitation – impartial and experienced with process reform

• Understanding the “customer(s)”

• Honesty with ourselves and each other

• Focusing on a specific task – DCP Application Review

• Staff leadership and guidance

• Mix of staff from all levels and all departments

• Open Minds

• Respect for everyone’s opinions

• No rank, but leaders emerged

• Solving for the “Root Cause” – Not math, but harder

Solutions and Implementation

Fast and Efficient Process

Clear and Managed Pipeline

Standards

Skills, Organization and Culture

Quick Hits Mid-term Long-term

10

11

City Hall

Management and Budget

Applicants/ Applicant Reps

DOITT

Standards Forum (Applicant

professionals)

Executive Committee

Implementation Management

Work Teams Process ; Standards; Metrics; Skills, Organization, Culture

Progress review

DCP

External Stakeholders

Oversight

Implementation Structure

Keys

Top 5 reasons for Project Failure

• Undisciplined Project Management Methods and Practices

• Poorly Functioning Governance

• Too Little Executive Support/Sponsorship

• Inexperienced Project Management Experience and Skills

• Inability to Articulate or Measure Business Needs and Value - Gartner, Sept. 2007 From the CIO Trenches: Why Some Projects Fail and Others Succeed

BluePRint’s overall project management needs

• Defined implementation and reporting structure with a dedicated lead and support staff

• Strong participation from DCP subject matter experts

• Strategic Change Management approach

• Templates that provide consistency and clarity

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Q1 Q2 Q 3 Q 4 Q 1 Q 2

FY 2012FY 2011Q0* Q 3 Q 4

FY 2013

Workforce planning

DCP personnel skills survey results

Survey results distributed in reporting format

Reallocate DCP resources

Professional Development & Training

Develop training objectives for skills needed to support BluePRint initiative (i.e.,

standards and pilot two track system)

Develop BluePRint support training curriculum

Develop BluePRint support training material

Deploy training to DCP staf f critical to supporting BluePRint

Incentive program opportunities research results

Implement incentive program

Career development

Develop career path milestones

Establish mentoring program

Ongoing career path milestone evaluations

Establish leadership development program

Reproduce training development lifecycle for additional BluePRint related

projects (i.e., IT, project management, management skills and administrative)

Develop long-term in-house DCP training capability

Q 1 Q 2 Q 3 Q 4

FY 2013

Hire full-time Pre-Certif ication Coordinator

Evaluate Metrics: Compile existing metrics and def ine potential metrics

Pre-certification Coordinator

Determine metrics for intermediate implementation

Institute reporting f ramework for metrics accountability

Metrics

Determine metrics for intermediate IT, standards and two track

Ongoing metrics evaluation

IT

Develop priority list; Implement Excel tracking sheet and centralized document repository (for

applications and work f iles as well as for internal policies, standards, training materials)

Decision on Interim IT product

Accelerated Requirements Gathering

Design and build

Deploy Interim IT solution (does not replace LUMIS)

RFP developed

RFP releasedContract registered / services

started

Long Term IT

Interim IT

Q1 Q2 Q 3 Q 4Q0*

FY 2012FY 2011

Continuing evaluation of process ownership

Decision for in house or external solution build

∞

∞

Maintenance

Implementation plans

Fast and efficient

processes

Clear enforced standards

Transparent managed pipeline

Skills, organization and culture

Draf t two track structure and pilot scope

Pilot 2-track system with modif ied process

Pilot 2-track system w/ standardsExpand from pilot to other

application types

Existing apps transitioned to 2-track system

Initial

standards

process and

policy

Implement initial set of standards

Implement second phase of standards

Implement pilot Service Level targets w/ pipeline

Hire full-time Pre-Certif ication Manager

Initial set of metrics for two track pilot

Deploy intermediate IT solution Deploy long-term

IT solution

Staf f allocation tracking & prioritization

Mentoring and career pilots

Updated metrics and reports

DCP in-house staf f

dev. capabilities

Implementation management

Resources, &

governanceExternal comms

+ Quarterly reviews

Monthly progress/resource checks

Success metrics

Q1 Q2 Q 3 Q 4 Q 1 Q 2

FY 2012FY 2011Q0* Q 3 Q 4

FY 2013

Initial BluePRint

training

Hire Standards Unit Lead

Skills inventory

Application standards forum

Expand standards & service levels

Enhance metrics and reporting

Hire staf f development lead

Employee survey

FY13 budgetRecalibrate plan

Interim

document

repository

0

5

10

15

20

25

Avg to date

Q0 FY12Q1 FY12Q2 FY12Q3 FY12Q4 FY13

Other

EDC

consultants

DCP temp backfills

DCP - staff reallocation

DCP new ops resources

TBD

FTE

Integrated Milestones

Activities per work stream

Detailed work plans

Resource estimates and skills gaps

Identify Standards Unit scope and participants

Def ine, develop and prioritize standards process and policy: decision making f ramework,

standards collection, verif ication and institution. Pilot decision making process with Letter of intent

Standards and Service Level Targets

Formalize internal and external (customer) forums for standards review

Implement the f irst set of internal standards for

application types for the Two Track process

Draf t & implement the next phase of application type

standards (checklists, templates & samples)

Draf t & implement external facing standards

and SOPs, to be determined

Q1 Q2 Q 3 Q 4Q0*

Planning

Phase 1 Implementation

Phase 2 Implementation

Phase 3 Implementation

Def ine division and project manager roles

Q 1 Q 2 Q 3 Q 4

FY 2013FY 2012FY 2011

Draf t & implement the next phase of internal SOPs

Implement f irst set of internal standard operating procedures (SOPs)

Q1 Q2 Q 3 Q 4 Q 1 Q 2

FY 2012FY 2011Q0* Q 3 Q 4

FY 2013

Implementation Plan

Reconciliation plan

Gather data and information for actions to be in the Two Track system

Draf t Two Track system structure based on process workshop & prioritize application

types based on extent of required standards (checklists, templates, &/or samples)

Pilot Two Track system with routine application types that require

limited standards (integrate Letter of Intent to capture initial

metrics of Pre-cert process)

Implement / Roll-out application types and process

modif ications to be included in Two Track system

2 Track System

Analyze current applications in back log for transition to Two Track system

Initial transition of existing applications to the Two Track system

Complete transition of existing

applications into the Two Track system

Phase 1 Implementation

Phase 2 Implementation

Phase 3 Implementation

Pilot Two Track system with application types that

require standards & additional process modif ications

Implement / Roll-out application

types to be included in Two Track

system and process modif ications

Implement / Roll-out additional application

types and process modif ications

Pilot broader process modifications

Pilot Two Track system with additional application types

& process modif ications

Implementation & communications mgmt

Fast and efficient processes

Clear enforced standards

Transparent managed pipeline

Skills, organization, and culture

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Tools

Resources

DCP

Consultant Other

Agency

Private Sector pro

bono

We identified skill sets not in the agency and targeted other sources to fill them.

Accenture

MetLife

Economic Development

Corporation

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BLUEPRINT IMPLEMENTATION STRUCTURE Director: Carol Samol

Deputy: Nicole Campo; Communication: Cecilia Kushner Pre-Certification Manager: Sarah Whitham; Standards Coordinator: David Parish

Accenture: Barbi Orlando and Steve Burden

Process and Standards Pipeline: Metrics Pipeline: imPACT Skills, Org, Culture

Co-Lead Process: Sarah Whitham Co-Lead Standards: David Parish Accenture – Standards: Justin Rucker Olga Abinader (EARD) Dominick Answini (Manhattan) Basha Estroff (TRD) Claudia Herasme (Zoning) Steven Lenard (Bklyn) Adam Meagher (Manhattan) Alison McCabe (Counsel) Justin Moore (Brooklyn) Kevin Olinger (Transportation) Thaddeus Pawlowski (UD) Paul Philps (Bronx) Carol Segarra (Graphics) Tom Smith (Queens) Fara Surrey (EARD) Tina Vultaggio (SI) Barak Wrobel (Counsel) Standards Partners: Barry Dinerstein (HEIP) Bob Dobruskin (EARD) Celeste Evans (EARD) Maryann Nizzico (Planning Coord) Len Garcia-Duran (SI) David Karnovsky (Counsel) Purnima Kapur (Bklyn) Adam Meagher (Manhattan) Diane McCarthy (EARD) Kenny Ramnarine (TRD) Ryan Singer (Bronx) Winston Von Engel (Brooklyn) Adam Wolff (Manhattan) John Young (Queens)

Lead: Sarah Goldwyn (Planning Coord) Accenture: Monisha Saran Parul Agarwala (Zoning) Celeste Evans (EARD) Eric Kober (HEIP) James Merani (LUR) Michele McInnes (Geog Sys) Maryann Nizzico (Plan Coord) Lauren Siciliano (EDC) Erik Seims (Transportation) Laura Smith (HEIP) Sarah Whitham (Pre-cert Mgr)

Sponsors: Carol Samol and Mike Miller Accenture: Sherry Motta and Alessandra Valenti Advisor: David Parish PM Support: Lauren Siciliano (EDC) Training: Sarah Whitham Data Conversion: Matt Croswell Build/Test/Support: Heidi Berman Deployment: Brian Owens Celeste Evans (EARD) Glenn Friedman (Counsel) Sarah Goldwyn (Planning Coord) Edwin Marshall (Manhattan) James Miraglia (Staten Island) Wendy Smyth (DAD) Sam Voyages (TRD) Adam Wolff (Manhattan) DAD Build and Test Staff: Ivy Chim Carol Friedman Eliezer Grumet Judith Klass Ella Liskovich Jean Metzger-Rayfield Raisa Volnyansky

Lead: Cecilia Kushner (Exec) MetLife: Kristin Michelfelder and Dana Saraga Chengying He (ITD) Chris Holme (Zoning) Chris Rado (Technical Review) Edwin Marshall (Manhattan) (EEO) Erica Alario (Transportation) Evelyne Pierre (ITD) Julie Lubin (Counsel) Kevin Olinger (Transportation) Mychele Gayle (Human Resources) Sarah Whitham (Pre-Cert Mgr (EEO) Sean Hennessy (Human Resources) Shaheen Ulon (Operations)

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Managing Change: Communication su

pp

ort

fo

r ch

ange

Awareness Understanding

Acceptance

Commitment

time

Change Commitment Curve

Maintain high level of employee engagement • Encourage active involvement in work stream forums

• Develop strategic communication events to engage employees and build understanding

• Facilitate one-on-one dialogues between staff and leadership

• Continuously seek employee feedback (surveys)

Challenges to overcome • Some employees not core to the pre-certification process are disengaged

• Some employees don’t recognize their role in the process

• Possible resistance to change in some quarters (individually and culturally)

Implementation of changes requires motivating and engaging the staff in that change.

16

Managing Change: Actually Changing

2nd All-Agency Meeting: March 30, 2012 Q and A to Executive Director and Director 17

Skills, Organization, & Culture

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• Workshops • Skills Survey • Cross Training • Team Ownership and Participation • Employee Surveys • All-agency Meeting • Training Curriculum • Cultural Values

Information Technology

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• Built tracking system in house

• Business and Technology together

• More robust system to be developed

Metrics

1. Have we helped the NYC community and economy?

2. Have we helped applicants save money and plan their projects?

3. Are we faster?

4. Are we more efficient and productive?

5. Are we getting a better view into the pipeline?

6. Are we moving towards an improved organization and culture?

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• Report

• Manage

• Business Case Metrics

• Implementation Metrics

• Operations Metrics

• Stories

Process: Pilot to Agency-Wide Use

Phase 1 Pilot Results:

Easier to do business with DCP (90% agree or strongly agree)

Clear, predictable, timely (70-80% agree)

New Process is catching issues earlier (75%)

Staff: Procedures are clear and easy to follow (92%)

Staff: Helping them do their jobs better (57%)

Pre-Application Statement Interdivisional Meeting

Draft applications filed (core application standards)

Assess April-May 2012

Roll out May-June 2012

Rules Nov 2012-Mar 2013

Coordinated Comments on Draft EAS and LU * Applicants file LU application and EAS

Assess July-August 2012

Roll out Sept-Oct 2012

Coordinated Comments on Filed EAS and LU*

Project Readiness Meeting*

Assess Nov 2012-Jan 2013

Roll out Jan-Feb 2013

* Internal standard operating procedures

Full New Review Process in use at DCP

Phase1 Phase 2 Phase 3

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External Stakeholders

•Launched process with surveys and interviews to get their honest feedback •Then we created purposeful venue to engage practitioner stakeholders to:

•Communicate about what we are doing •Solicit feedback on our plans •Solicit feedback on applications standards to ensure usability and clarity •Generate buy in and good will

•Incorporated their comments and engaged them in the work

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BluePRint Timeline

23

Q4 2011

O N D

Q1 2012

J F M

Q2 2012

A M J

Q3 2012

J A S

Process Phase 1

Metrics Reporting

imPACT

Skills, Org & Culture

Long-term IT

Voluntary Use

Q4 2012

O N D

Q1 2013

J F M

Process Phases

2-3

Standards 2

Communications

Pilot

Pilot Standards Core

Applications

Voluntary Use

C A P A

Pilot

C A P A

Pilot

Voluntary Use

C A P A

Enhancements

Requirements Build

Measures Operational/Data Collection & Evaluation

Outreach Web Page Notice/

Email blast Full Web Page and Standards

Q2 2013

A M J

Q3 2013

J A S

Q4 2013

O N D

Stable Data for reporting

Refine Create Operate

We are here

External Resources 1st phase Accenture ramp-down

EDC and MetLife ramp-down

2nd phase Accenture

ramp-down

Accenture completion

Long-term IT second phase: Engage external vendor

Long-term IT first phase: Engage external vendor

Summary Lessons Learned

• Engage staff across divisions and functions.

• Planning, structure, reporting….share the risks.

• It takes longer than you think it will.

• Push yourselves; this won’t be comfortable.

• Find the positive side for everyone.

• Identify your skill gaps and be creative in filling them.

• Manage the change.

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Changing the Business of

Planning

Laurel Prevetti, Assistant Director

Planning, Building, & Code Enforcement

•10th largest US City

•3rd largest CA City

•Almost 1 million people

•180 square miles

How do we think about our work:

What is the business of planning?

• Building the city of the future

• Helping people realize their dreams

• Promoting our communities

• Attracting and retaining companies

• Maintaining a long range perspective

Forces of Change:

Beyond plan making

• No longer “regulate” but “facilitate”

development

• Transparent

• Engagement

• Customer service

Forces of Change: Fiscal context

• Economic recession

• Government budgets are shrinking

• Reluctance to increase Planning fees to

cover rising costs in recovering economy

• Layoffs: “Do more with less”

Other Forces of change

• New leadership

• 24/7 expectation

• Stories

What is the core business?

How do we rethink our work?

• Creating a positive work environment

• Listening internally and externally

• Learning, testing, and adapting

What are approaches to address

these challenges?

• Creating a culture of

continuous improvement

• Using performance

measurement

• Trying new funding and

staffing models

• Mentoring our staff talent

Culture of continuous improvement

• Engage staff and stakeholders to identify

and prioritize improvements

• Partner with Chamber of Commerce and

development community

• Invest resources to implement

Culture shift: From issue-driven to

data and performance-driven

San Jose’s Development Services

Goal: Increase the City’s economic

vitality by using integrated performance

measures, managing data-driven and

customer-focused operations, and

achieving long-term sustainability.

Organizational foundation:

Clear objectives

• Improve communications with customers

• Improve accountability and consistency

• Improve timeliness by clarifying and

simplifying processes

• Build on our existing, strong staff

foundation

• Enhance customer satisfaction

Organizational foundation:

Performance measures

• Useful

• Meaningful

• Data available/Easy to measure

Link organizational objectives to

performance measures

% of Customers Who Agree the Comments/Corrections

Were Consistent (Discretionary)

63

69

79

77

62

61

71

77

69

40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Fire - Plan review

PW - Plan review

Planning - Plan review

2008 2009 2010

Overall Satisfaction & Service Improvement Data

(Discretionary Process: e.g. Zoning and Planning Approvals)

64

92

78

72

72

72

75

86

86

60

37

73

88

67

63

77

70

80

80

67

68

69

76

52

30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Service Improved Last 12

Months

Fire Department

Public Works

Plan Check

Public Hearing

Project Manager

Permit Application & Issuance

Overall Project Satisfaction

2008 2009 2010

Customer satisfaction

Positive stories

• Scientific customer survey

• Customer comment cards

• Customer testimonials

• Media relations

"The City of San Jose was able to meet our needs by working on

our expedited timetable to find an appropriate site & facilitate the

permit process."

-- Michael Klayko, CEO of Brocade

Customer engagement

• Chamber of Commerce (quarterly)

• Developer Round Table (monthly)

• Annual Customer Survey

• Individual Conversations

Staff engagement

• “Superior Customer Service” effort

• Chess clock

• Customer expectations

• Complete applications

Investing in the future

• Updating San Jose’s General plan

• Creating fiscal and organizational stability

• Promoting community quality of life

• Participating in economic development,

environmental sustainability, affordable

housing, etc.

Funding models:

Development review

• Strategic fee adjustments for cost recovery

• Focused General Fund investment

Funding Models:

Long range planning

• Focused General Fund investment

• Other Agency Grant Funding

• Foundation Money

• Non-Profit Dollars

Staffing models

• Staff to Core Business

– Meet performance targets

– Address customer service concerns

• Augment with Peak Staffing

– Contract consultant services

– Work in City Hall, part of the team

Organizing the staff for success

• Establish a single Planning Division

• Remove discipline “silos”

• Foster team work groups across

disciplines

– Coordinated review

Hiring the right people with

the right skills

• Not only technical abilities

• Key soft skills:

– Communication

– Empathy

– Solution oriented

Beyond the Pay Check:

Retaining the Talent

• How do we express an employee’s value?

• How are we investing in them with

training?

• How flexible is the work environment?

• How do we celebrate our

accomplishments and have fun?

Ingredients for Success

• Clear expectations

• Tools to get the job done

– Permitting System

• Leadership and Management

• Accountability

More ingredients for success

• Provide for risk taking

• Communicate early and often

• City Hall alignment

A learning organization

• Review performance measure data

• Establish forums for knowledge transfer

• Reward innovation

• Anticipate retirements and succession

Lessons learned

Genuine staff engagement

Follow through with the staff and

customers

Recognition/fun with the team

Next frontiers

• Changing the development dynamic from

adversaries to partners

• Enhancing the customer experience

• Linking to performance reviews

For more information www.sanjoseca.gov/planning

laurel.prevetti@sanjoseca.gov