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Moving a mental health team from sinking to soaring

When Tim DeWeese took over as director of a large county mental health department, he inherited an organization in shambles.

“Broken,” he said. “That’s the one word I’d use to describe us.”

The department was operating without a common mission, which, no surprise, lead to a disengaged workforce. What’s more, the department’s balance sheet was bleeding so badly the county had to bail them out.

To turn the department around, DeWeese knew he would have to align teams around a common vision – a clear and purposeful direction. He’d have to do it quickly. He’d need everyone to have buy-in. And he’d have to be practical about changes.

“I didn’t want some big strategic plan weighted down with theory,” he said. “I wanted a plan that was actionable. And I wanted someone to help me see it through through to the end. It was such a mess, I knew I needed someone to hold us accountable.”

A colleague recommended TeamTech because of the group’s bias for action, its practical approach to strategy – and its relentless emphasis on accountability.

Now, after two years of working with TeamTech, the department is hardly recognizable. For the first time in a decade, its revenue stream is in the black – and there’s a growing reserve. They’re recording the highest levels of productivity they’ve ever had. And, according to the recent county-wide employee engagement survey, their employees are among the most passionate and happy with their work.

“I couldn’t have done it without TeamTech,” he says. “None of us could have.”

The key? Empower everyone

Kathleen Harnish McKune, CEO of TeamTech, knew that to move the mental health department forward, buy-in would need to be widespread. The solution: TeamTech’s “Everyone A Leader” workshops. The workshops pivot on the idea that leadership is a decision not a title. The hands-on sessions are driven by the idea that if an organization isn’t empowering everyone to lead from where they sit, they’re not using their resources wisely.

For DeWeese, the real turnaround came after adopting the Everyone A Leader mindset. From the front lines to the board room, employees felt empowered to lead from their positions.

“We had engaged staff and so we then had engaged clients,” he said. “In fact, our client ‘no show’ rate dropped from 35 percent to 12 percent. That’s unheard of.”

The department now works with a unified clinical philosophy and approach. The entire organization knows the strategic direction they’re headed. And everyone comes to work ready to lead.

“I figured it would take us five or six years to turn the place around,” DeWeese said. “But we’re in an incredible place in half that time.

“The most important part of this though is that we’re better serving our clients. And that’s the reason we’re all in this field in the first place.”

A different approach to winning

DeWeese had worked with consultants in the past. Government agencies are no stranger to seeking guidance from outside sources. But, honestly, he’d never had much luck.

“We’d build a plan—a good plan—and it would sit on a shelf. It was never built to be acted on,” he says.

Out of the gate, DeWeese saw differences between TeamTech and previous consultants he’d hired. For one, TeamTech outlined expectations up front. They wouldn’t just build a strategic plan. They’d build it and launch it. Second, they helped the group identify – and remove – the barriers preventing them from succeeding.

“It was a huge difference,” he says. “It forced us to think strategically about how we remove, mitigate or work around barriers.”

The most impactful by-product of that approach, says DeWeese, is that it forced them to identify their strengths. Most outside consultants start with “What’s wrong?” and assume goals haven’t been met because of a deficiency – or two or three. Instead, TeamTech helped them focus on their strong points – and then harness that energy to break down barriers.

“It was very ‘meta’ for us,” says DeWeese. “We’re in the business of helping people with mental illnesses remove barriers. That’s what we do.”

How to get a group unstuck – and moving forward together

An unhealthy board. A budget in the red. And absolutely no plan past putting out the fire-of-the-day.

That’s how Melissa Reed describes the state of Prairie Paws Animal Shelter (PPAS) when she took over as Executive Director in 2014. The rural animal shelter, based in Ottawa, Kansas, had outgrown its mom-and-pop style of leadership and needed to regroup on multiple levels. New board. New strategy. New programming.

“We needed to build a common vision out of diverse perspectives. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but I knew exactly who to call,” said Reed, who had worked with TeamTech throughout her non-profit career.

 

Building consensus

For PPAS, the tipping point came after construction of its new facility. A generous donor had agreed to fund the building, but the final cost far exceeded the original pledge. Reed inherited the problem and turned to Kathleen Harnish McKune and her cadre of TeamTech coaches to put the shelter back on track.

Kathleen helped the new Prairie Paws Board of Directors look beyond the daily, tactical issues and build a three-year strategic plan. It was no easy feat, said Reed, since the organization was operating at a loss.

‘Kathleen helped the board see that financial sustainability required strategic planning,” said Reed. “Out of the gate, she built consensus around that as our common goal.”

For Reed, handing her board over to a consultant could have felt uncomfortable, but she’d already experienced TeamTech’s collaborative, inclusive approach to working with leadership.

“Kathleen really listens,” she said. “She recognizes that a board has to be healthy, passionate, excited and driven – not just focused on the day-to-day. TeamTech helped us balance the daily challenges while thinking about the future.”

 

Getting the group unstuck

In short, TeamTech helped Prairie Paws Animal Shelter break out of the rut of focusing only on the day ahead. Once they began moving forward, PPAS administrators realized they needed to broaden their vision even more by understanding the community’s needs.

TeamTech stepped in again; this time to facilitate community assessment focus groups aimed at starting new programs for PPAS.

“The community assessments gave us key insights that helped us really build out our strategic plan,” said Reed. “Once again, Kathleen was able to make everyone around the table feel heard – and get unstuck. They’re methods are amazing at getting people to see the vision ahead – and focus on what’s important.”

Today, Prairie Paws is no longer operating in the red. The Board is strong and thriving. And, most importantly, everyone’s aligned and moving forward together.

“Honestly,” said Reed, “we couldn’t have done it alone. I needed TeamTech’s help getting there.”

Teaching leaders how to talk with people, not at them 

Ann Howie, formerly with American Century Investments

 

The Challenge

Communication issues are on everyone’s top ten list. Why? Because managers have expanded their “communication loop” as involvement has grown. The new audience is more diverse and demanding. Managers and project leaders can spend up to 75 percent of their day listening, talking, reading and writing. As a result, the first challenge is realizing the most effective way to communicate so individuals and businesses can move forward.

What follows is a personal account of one project leader. She attended the custom-designed curriculum developed by Team Tech, and the Organizational Development Department of the large global asset management firm where she is employed.

 

The Solution

“After reading the “Talking with, not at, people” course description, I hoped the workshop would provide ideas on how to find information that I needed to make more informed decisions. As a project leader, I hoped to expand my skills so that our project teams improved their communication and our projects could then move forward more efficiently and effectively.”

I attended the two-day course. Here is my assessment:

• TeamTech provided common sense concepts using real life applications.
• Listening topics that I’d heard, or read, before were presented with innovation and creativity, in a plain language manner that makes these concepts different and relevant, yet simple.
• The diary we kept during class that included future planning and the one-on-one classmate discussions, allowed me to develop, critique, apply, and stick with what I had learned – not just for a week or two, but for several months now.
• The questioning and pre-planning techniques have now become habit for me.
• The most poignant “Ah Ha” moment for me during class was realizing that leaders/managers don’t have to know/have all the answers themselves. What leaders need is an understanding of how to use the resources and people that surround them. You can be a leader, facilitator and/or guide without being the official “manager” or “project leader.”
• The class also provided tools to draw out missing information and fill in the gaps. I was very excited to learn that I could also use these concepts to guide meetings and conversations from the side without seeming bossy or rude and taking over.

 

The Payoff

In my personal and professional life (work, home, church, etc.) this course and the concepts taught provided many positive effects.

• As an analyst, project lead, co-worker, peer, daughter, sister, wife, and mom; nearly every day, I find myself asking my personalized version of the questions Kathleen and Joel provided during class. And yes, I still keep my reference list in my planner (it goes everywhere I do.)
• I’ve found that this approach brings about more open and honest participation and a stronger commitment to projects because ideas and resolutions come from everyone involved. It is a way to guide and influence others [and myself], but I am not telling (talking AT), I am sharing (talking WITH). People realize the topics via their own experiences and learn for themselves. All of this fosters ownership, teamwork, better communication overall, and win-win results.
• Practicing this for several months, I’ve found that people around me are adopting these same techniques. We accomplish more in shorter amounts of time, we trust each other more than we did previously, and we are more open and close than we were before. We collaborate and celebrate in coming up with solutions that are much better than if we’d worked on things on our own.
• I think another real benefit of the course is that Joel and Kathleen, by example, use these techniques to facilitate the entire class. You walk away having experienced the difference of being ‘spoken WITH’ versus being ‘spoken TO.'”