Flying with pilots: 50 pilots in 50 minutes

By Nick Kittle

Government Performance and Innovation Coach

Twitter: @kittlent

#50pilots

Alley arts project, “Art in the lobby”, “Art of Recycling”, banner bags, Better Block Pikes Peak, bike corrals, bike share for

employees, large-scale biodiesel, boneyard program for reusing demo’d PD cars, “brown grease” biodiesel, BuildingEye

compression, City Hall community garden, community recycling with GreenerCorners, community solar garden energy

locks, crushed toilets for road base, performance dashboards for departments, economic development zones, electric

vehicle charging stations, “FitBitters” wearable fitness tracking program, free roving parking meters, free veterans day bus

services, free "training to all" program, fuel locking to stabilize pricing, fuel storage for emergencies and physical hedging,

“Greenfiti” environmentally-friendly graffiti-removal program, GPS implementation in two communities, “hard-to-recycle”

drop-off centers, hydration stations to reduce plastic water bottle use, iDevice piloting in operational workgroups,

innovation fund, LED streetlights, local preference at 1% in RFP, reused slag from a steel mill in roads, outsource fleet

operations, refurbish PD vehicles, Rock Island rail sale to fund trail improvements, sharrows, snowplow by private

contractors, Snow Angels program, social media and photo contest for citizen engagement, solar "Soofa" bench

installation, “Steal the Styrofoam” recycling event, “Supply O Grab” office supply exchange program, terminal-blend tire

rubber asphalt (reusing tires in road base), thermal camera rental program, “TryLingual” multi-lingualism training program

and vehicle pooling. Tahama Springs, murals on Parking Garage, Chalk wall, curbside cuisine, Skate in the Park ice rink,

Adams Hollow disc golf, Invest in the Springs survey, @CutePetsAdamsCo, 385-ROAD

Goals

What is a pilot and why is it important?

10 Themes of successful pilots

Key lessons from unsuccessful pilots

Specific pilots in detail

10 County BONUS slides 100% FREE

Call to action

10 Themes of Successful Pilots

1. Creative Funding2. Repurpose and Reuse3. Persistence4. Flip It5. Iterate 6. Keep it Fun, Play and Get Dirty7. Play with Passion8. Beautiful or Free9. Stories that Sell10.Challenge Assumptions

Creative Funding

Creative Funding: Ink to Gardens

Recycled Ink Cartridges ($3-$12 revenue)

Free Banners from downtown

Local startup sews bags ($8 cost per bag)

Banner Bags

Sell Bags in downtown ($20-$25 per bag)

City Hall Garden

Demonstration Garden ($480 per season)

Partnered with Colorado College

Donate food to Care N Share

Creative Funding: Innovation Fund

$50,000 Annual Fund for employee ideas

Approved by Commissioners

Simple form with 6 clear criteria

22 ideas funded over 3 years

26 ideas submitted

CASH Closet

Animal Photo Shoot Booth

Treadmill Desk

Repurposing & Reusing

• Banner Bags

• Boneyard for police vehicles

• Compost

• Crushed toilets

• Greenfiti

• Police vehicle refurb program

• Steel slag for roads

• Supply-O-Grab

• Reused Tire Pikes Peak

• VIPER

Persistence

• Bike Corrals

• "No Need"

• Bikes parked on street throughout downtown

• Pilot corral for USA Pro Cycling Challenge

• Renewed focus

• Cannibalized one parking spot for 12 bikes

• Decluttered streets

• Paid with parking funds

Flip it:turn

disadvantages into advantages

• Old Fleet and Biodiesel (less to lose)

• Trash to Treasure-Reuse and repurpose

• Gray Areas = Opportunities (sustainability)

• Not enough people = more flexibility and less oversight

• No money for office supplies = supplies are in high demand

• Morale is low = opportunity for someone to lead and inspire

• Crisis = people paying attention

*BEWARE: opposite is also true

Well-funded means no to reason to change

Iterate

• Fuel

• Fleet

• Public Works

• Sustainability

• Innovation

Fuel

• Fuel Locks (total $2.8 M in savings)

• Storage

• Biodiesel (largest municipal fleet)

• Brown Grease Biodiesel

Fleet

• GPS Fuel Reduction Program

• Vehicle pooling

• Electric vehicle retrofits

Public Works

• Tire Rubber Asphalt on Pikes Peak Highway

• Rock Island Sale and Trail Improvements

• LED Streetlights

• Snow Angels

• 385-ROAD

Sustainability

• Hydration Station

• Bike share for employees

• Electric vehicle charging station

• “Hard to recycle” stations

Keep it Fun, Play & Get Dirty

Play with Passion

Beautiful or Free

Stories that Sell

Challenge Assumptions

• Solar Hot Water Heater

• iFun program

• Bike to Work Challenge

• READ EVERYTHING

• Law, Policies, Codes, Regulations

• ASK QUESTIONS

• DO IT YOURSELF

10 themes of successful pilots

1. Creative Funding

2. Repurpose and Reuse

3. Persistence

4. Flip It

5. Iterate

6. Keep it Fun, Play and Get Dirty

7. Play with Passion

8. Beautiful or Free

9. Stories that Sell

10. Challenge Assumptions

Unsuccessful pilot themes

• Location

• OWG syndrome

• Need for control

• Lack of vision

• Fear of change

• Personal passion vs market research

• Awareness

• No data

• Politics

Biggest Failures

• Bike Corrals

• Fleet Outsourcing

• Greener Corners

• Reused Slag

• Sharrows

• Snowplow by Private Contractors

• Soofa Bench

• Steal the Styrofoam

• Tahama Springs

• Treadmill Desk

• TryLingual

Project Highlights

• Art of Recycling

• Community Solar Gardens x 2

• Impact Adams

• Sharrows and “the Shareway”

• VIPER

Art of Recycling

• What: Recycling program with no budget

• Cost: $229 (+staff time)

• Impact: City-wide single-stream recycling

• Benefits:

• Increased city facility diversion rate from 0% to 28% in 4 yrs

• Partnered with local artists

• Created team building for employees

• Adopted by Siemens nationally

• Positive community perception

Community Solar Gardens (x2)

• What: Solar Gardens in Colorado

• Cost: Free

• Access to solar energy for all residents

• First iteration: relationship building, regulatory and zoning for first solar garden in Colorado

• Second iteration: locking energy costs projected to avoid $2.2 M in costs over the next 20 years at $0 up front cost

*Impact Adams*2017 Winner of Outstanding Achievement in Local Government Award from the Alliance for Innovation

• What: Complete Redesign of Training and Development Program

• Savings: $38,000 per year

• 65% increase in employees choosing to be trained in year one

• Over 400 hours of donated employee volunteer time

• Over 85 hours of lean process improvement and Strengthsfinder coaching

• 60 people in the county’s first mentoring program

• Free training to any government, school or non-profit

• Elective-style course offerings like mindfulness

• Teach employees to be teachers

• Credit to Heather McDermott and Jeff Newsome

Sharrows and “The Shareway”

• What? A bike route linked with Sharrows to connect bike infrastructure

• Cost: $39,500 ($20,000 to be privately fundraised by council member

• Opportunity: Connect critical tourist infrastructure, the Olympic Training Center, Downtown and Garden of the Gods, with bicycle-friendly shared lane markings

• Public backlash and lack of regulatory support

• Misinformation campaign

• You can’t beat politics

Vehicle Improvement Program and Equipment Replacement (aka VIPER)

• What: Modernize the fleet using existing resources

• Revenue: $550,000

• Cost: $495,000

• Savings: $150,000 per year in reduced O&M

• Newer fleet more “ready” for current challenges

• Reduced “ghost fleet”

• Eliminated liability

• Reduced maintenance costs

10 COUNTY BONUS: 2 ideas you can steal right now

• “Supply O Grab”-collect unused office supplies from every office and bring them to one central location for exchange. Collect them one day. Have people come shop them the next day. Get an Office Supply catalog and track the value. Give out an award for the weirdest office supplies. Donate the remaining office supplies to local schools and non-profits. Average savings over seven years roughly $9,500 per year in reused office supplies.

• Hard To Recycle Center-establish a “hard to recycle” center that collects CDs, eyeglasses, alkaline batteries, bike inner tubes, light bulbs, etc. Whatever is appropriate for your area…just use google. Repurpose an old trash can or two, partition them off and put them in an accessible location. Remove items once a week.

10 COUNTY BONUS: Establish YOUR Innovation Fund• Establish urgency and compelling "why"

• Select fund size

• What's the right size?

• Sell the concept

• Prep elevator pitch and exec summary docs

• “most creative, most effective employee you have"

• Pitch to leadership-have a senior sponsor

• Reasonable controls

• Fund oversight, project selection

• Application process

• Easy ONE PAGE Form

• Clear Scoring Criteria

• Pilots only

Take Action

• Establish an innovation fund for your organization

• Implement a “right now” idea

• Identify your innovation team

• Start innovation training for your organization, including creativity and implementation training

• Find your organization’s “gray areas”

• Identify the goal of your innovation program

Thank you for flying with me today…

Nick Kittlekittlent@msn.com

Government Performance and Innovation Coach

Twitter: @kittlent