Highlights:
- This was second CPEC Assessment Pilot site visit for FY2008 conducted by CPEC Program Manager at CG-0931. Earlier site visit, which I did not participate in, was at Air Station San Francisco. Next site visit will be Sector Jacksonville in late June where I'm serving as the assistant team leader.
- During this CAP site visit, served as category lead for assessment of Category 2.0 (Strategic Planning), 7.1 (Product and Service Outcomes), and 7.3 (Financial and Market Outcomes. Also provided assisted team lead for Category 4 (Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management); this category lead individual had never participated in Baldrige-based assessment previously, so much time/effort was spent in coaching and guiding.
- Site visit process included fact finding to determine approach, deployment, learning, and integration of the Criteria at the unit. The second, and perhaps heavier lift, was in drafting notes and then "feedback quality" comments for the final report.
- Typical work day during site visit started at 0630 for team meeting over breakfast, and then going to the unit for individual and group interviews until close of the unit's work day. Returned to the hotel for individual and pairs work reviewing day's findings, drafting notes, and crafting feedback comments. Nightly had team meeting at 1900, which usually lasted between 1 and 2 hours. Returned to room for individual work in preparation for the next day. Total time dedicated to this effort, from Saturday to the following Friday, was 71 hours.
- I will be in contact with the unit's senior leadership to recommend several follow-on activities. Probably the most important of these recommendations is to conduct some sort of continuous improvement event at the industrial facility's carpenter/dayboard shop. Possible flavors of a CIE (or rapid improvement event) include AWO, LEAN, or LEAN/SixSigma.
My recommendation is likely to be a LEAN event with a focus on a Five-S event. The carpenter/dayboard shop is ripe for improvement, especially since the industrial program, enterprise-wide, is about to go through an A-76 study and there is talk of consolidating the last of the Coast Guard's disparate dayboard construction at Saint Louis. - Another finding from the week is that the unit is faced with several "tracking" needs for which they have created unit-based database or spreadsheet tools. The issue is that what they need to track is needed to be tracked by other units, also, making the best possible solution an enterprise-wide solution.
The first of these is the tracking of IDP completion for non-first term/mandatory personnel. TMT captures IDP completion, but when a unit adds non-COMDT-mandated personnel, their metrics hit the toilet. The unit asked CG-1 to add a field in TMT for tracking non-mandatory IDP users, but was evidently rebuffed. There is no way for the unit to use TMT to track IDP completion without either mixing first-termers and non-first-termers together or using the "miscellaneous" TMT pull-down option. The miscellaneous field does not allow for any description in TMT, so its use is worthless from a tracking perspective. I am going to work to get a pull-down field added to TMT.
The second tracking issue is for timeliness of PR completion. The unit has a database tool, FIRST, which they use to track dates, but it seems that this is also an enterprise-wide need and ought to be fulfilled by FPD. - The XO has invited me to return to the unit to conduct a meeting management and facilitation workshop for mid-level and junior personnel. I conducted such a 1/2 day training session 6-9 months ago for the unit with a focus on division officers and more senior personnel; they'd like to deploy this to a lower level within the organization. Looking at late-August, at the earliest, for this effort.
- In addition to the formal CAP site visit process, I met one-on-one with the XO, the CO, and CSC each for an hour or more to discuss unit strengths and opportunities for improvement. Also met for a substantial time with the ESD supervisor.
- One innovative approach the unit had in deploying a knowledge of the Criteria to all hands was an email-based Jeopardy game. The game included sending out email questions over the span of a day (or several days) and encouraging people to reply with answers. Correct answers were rewarded, in this case with candy.
TDY funding notes: The STL trip was fully funded by CG-0931. Next weeks Orlando trip was partially funded ($1k) by CG-0931; remaining cost from Amp annual budget, which is primarily funded through the budget model by CG-0931.
Weekly Summary
Hours Worked: 80.0
Travel outside work hours: 9.0
Billable hours/direct client work: 71.0
Leave: 0.0
Days away from home: 9
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