Success Story

Back to index»

About the company
The City of Miami, known as the “Magic City,” is located in Southeast Florida in Miami-Dade County, on the Miami River between the Florida Everglades and the Atlantic Ocean. Miami, known for its diverse culture and ethnicities, is the largest municipality in the county. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 362,470. By the year 2010 the population is projected to rise to 390,191. Along with its adjacent cities and communities, Miami forms one of the largest urban areas in the United States. Since its incorporation in 1896, the city has grown into a renowned center where people can work, live and play while enjoying a high quality of life.

What was changing?
In 2002, the City of Miami was facing many converging changes. For years, Miami had been combating a budgetary crisis, including getting out from operating under a State of Florida Financial Oversight Committee. The city also faced high levels of attrition, due in part to the retirement of a large number of employees at one time, the loss of employees due to dissatisfaction with pay systems and employment criteria that were uneven from department to department, and competition with private sector employers.

At the same time, the city was in the process of moving its information systems from an in-house system to an Oracle platform. And, to add yet another layer of complexity to the changes in personnel and technology conversion, a new city manager had just come on board.

The City of Miami had implemented previous change management programs, but as Mary Leckband, Ph. D., Organization Development and Training Specialist, notes, “slogans and programs can only get you so far.” So, in 2002, under the leadership of a new mayor, the city began to develop not only a vision statement, but also an approach on how to achieve it. Live meetings and focus groups for city employees, along with management training, were held to gather input and begin scoping out a path towards achieving the vision.

As part of this process, in 2004 the city introduced the Kaplan and Norton balanced scorecard methodology, a strategic planning tool designed to help organizations better align their activities with their vision and strategy. The City of Miami used the methodology to come up with strategic objectives along the perspectives of Customer Service, Finances, Internal Processes, and Learning and Growth. In 2005, additional meetings were held with every municipal employee to share this new approach to strategic planning and management. These meetings, also attended by the City Mayor, the City Manager, top City Management and Employee Relations personnel, were intended to build understanding and acceptance of the change that was taking place. To help everyone work smarter and better, each department began to set their own strategic objectives and establish a departmental scorecard based on the City’s strategic objectives, as well as SMART goals. In 2006, the city took the process a step further by developing a change management team consisting of managers and thought leaders throughout the organization. These leaders were designated by the City of Miami as “change agents.”

Although good progress was made in driving all these efforts, there was still a feeling that something more was needed. As Mary puts it, “Everybody was pretty clear that we needed to change and that we knew change was needed, but the ‘how to do it’ was still out there.”

What did they do?
Mary’s supervisors had previously read the book Who Moved My Cheese? and recommended it for the change management challenges the city was now facing. The book was a good tool that could be used for employees to identify with change, and the Organization Development and Training team pursued use of the book and its change representation in the change agent training. Mary notes, “The book is fun, it’s a quick read, and it’s not threatening, because it deals with characters.” In fact, Mary continues, “The relationship between the characters is pivotal. We wanted to help our change agents identify where THEY stand with change, just like the characters in the book. If they don’t understand that, they can’t move forward and deliver, and the power of the change agents will be lost.”

Each designated change agent was given a copy of Who Moved My Cheese? and subsequently attended a workshop and viewed the accompanying DVD, which served as a good additional learning tool. Says Mary, “People at first were skeptical and wondered if this was just another management program. But when they saw it was real, they began to pay attention–they knew they’d have to be accountable.”

Reading the book started the ball rolling, and soon everyone wanted more. Shortly afterwards, the city arranged for Spencer Johnson Partners (SJP) to come out and deliver consulting services.

Mary recalls, “The live SJP training was so important because it helped people construct the actual action plan for leading and facilitating change.” The SJP trainer had interviewed several employees before arriving, so he was familiar with the specifics of the organization, and what he had to say was directly relevant to what people were facing.

Following the training, the group got to work on developing the plan. Mary adds, “That took the whole initiative from being merely reference materials, which might sit on the shelf and get dusty, and turned it into action.”

What results have they seen?
Mary believes that one of the most visible effects of the Who Moved My Cheese? training has been improved alignment, both between team members and between employees and management. “People out there doing the work know their managers are supporting and believing in them. We also know it’s catching on because now people will use phrases like ‘who moved my cheese?’ when they are talking about change.”

Mary explains that because the training contains principles that apply across the board, it has also helped them deal more effectively with other projects. One of the most notable of these is the city’s new information platform, iMiami.

The Change Management process is supported strongly by all levels of City management, and has been incorporated into the management training curriculum at the City. One program, a week long training for all managers and supervisors, specifically covers Change Management as well. Each manager is provided a copy of Who Moved My Cheese?, and over 500 managers and frontline supervisors have been trained on how to manage “the people side” of change.

What’s next?
The city has now purchased The One-Minute Manager book, another SJP publication, for all the managers and supervisors who have gone through the week long management training. In addition, they are working with SJP trainer Curt Garbett on additional in-house training to support the book’s principles, and will continue to develop tools to help them deal with new issues that arise.

Says Mary: “We’ve had a few false starts along the way with our journey, because we haven’t always focused closely enough on the people. The SJP training helped us realize that if you ignore the people side of change, there is no way you’re going to mobilize them and keep that team moving. And we’re determined to keep moving!”