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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

4 Contract Management / April 2005

Critical Issues in Organizational Development

Organizational developmentin todays environment is achallenging prospect in most

professionsincluding programmanagement, contracts, andacquisition.

To effectively manage anyacquisition and program organi-zation, you need to understandnumerous critical issues toinclude:

Developing and training yourworkforce,

Handling systems issues,

Motivating throughout theorganization,

Supporting a professionalwork environment, and

Providing a continuityof leadership.

Workforce DevelopmentMost organizations today in both industry and government

are in a constant state of flux, due in part to mergers/acquisitions in industry and the creation/deletion of newdepartments and organizations in government. Positivechange can be beneficial to organizations under certaincircumstances. Too much change, howeveror changenot properly planned and implementedcan lend itselfto a high degree of organizational instability.

Restructurings are a common answer to try and resolveidentified problems and issues within a company. Yet, inmany organizations, restructurings only result in re-shufflingexisting problems and issues and then creating new ones.Often, too, the winners of restructurings may exercise

their new power at the expenseof the losers. The losers maybe subject to undue criticism

and disenfranchisement, whichonly compounds existingmorale problems.

Then, there is the challengeof turnover. Bringing in talentfrom the outside when necessaryto complement your existingworkforce does have positivebenefits. However, high turnoveris not good for any organization.Industry-recognized humanresources surveys indicatethat calculations for hiring andbringing a new employee to fullproductivity can be 125 percentor more than a departingemployees salary, dependingupon the incoming personslevel of experience and exper-tise. These numbers are not tobe ignored.

A reasonable level of stabilityis important for program andacquisition organizations to

provide full operational capability to meet the agencys

mission. The challenge is providing a stable environment,while encouraging initiative and creativity in highly fluidorganizations.

Training & DevelopmentDevelopment and funding of training programs tailoredto each of your staff members at his/her relative levels isimportant. This training should consist of both in-houseand outside training. Individual training plansin whicheach staff member should have inputshould be developedfor each employee based upon his role, level, and needs.This is important to remember in both a governmental

BY JOHN DOBRIANSKY

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and industry environment, where it is often not uncommonto cut training funds from program and acquisition budgetsin tight circumstances. Adequate assistance for professionaldevelopment for your employeesboth in-house duringwork and outside trainingshould always be available.

Systems IssuesNothing can be more stressful and detrimental to moralein acquisition and program organizations than the continuedhigh-level operational support in the midst of a new systemsmodernization program. These programs are sweepingacross a large percentage of government and industryorganizations today.

Such programs typically involve the implementationof enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as financial,contracts and procurement, and human resources.Usually, your acquisition and program organization willhave to continue to provide a high level of operationalsupport while using two systemsboth the current

production system and the new one replacing it.

ImplementationIT system modernization program implementationsrepresent an opportunity for your acquisition and programorganization to use new capabilities to improve performance.The barriers to this are (1) poorly designed systems thatdo not meet requirements, and/or (2) a lack of training foryour acquisition staff members.

In addition to a lack of training on the new systems,the new system may still be under development or notyet meet end-user requirements, due to poor definition orfunctionality levels. Contracts and program organizationsmay be forced to accept under-performing systems due toproject cost and/or schedule overruns.

Too often, contracts and program organizations that faceheavy workloads and compressed schedules within whichto accomplish contract actions suffer the double-burdenof maintaining the existing contract management systemas well as learning, inputting data, and utilizing the newcontract management systemall at the same time. Thisis the wrong way to manage your human capital. The useof trained temporary support contractors is a must to easethe burden of data entry and the routine tasks required tosimultaneously support two contract management systems.

Contracts and program organization personnel needto be extensively involved in the requirements analysisand development process of the new system, as well asits implementationincluding extensive hands-on testingand quality assurance. This includes providing feedbacktoward the development of systems modifications, toensure that the new systems meet much more than justminimal functional requirements.

Business Process Re-engineeringThe key to successfully integrating new enterprise systemswithin the contracting and other affected functions is through

business process re-engineering (BPR). Use the technologicalcapabilities inherent in your new enterprise IT system.Processing steps that are now done with human intervention,or in particular, those that require extensive paperworkand manual intervention, may be modified or deleted.

Be careful: Extensive data entry into the new enterpriseIT systems may not improve the process. The replacementof manual paperwork intensive processes with data entrydrive system processes is not BPR, nor is it processimprovement. True BPR or process improvement meansthe deletion of or change in process steps that showsimprovement in results.

The capabilities of your new enterprise IT systemsimplementation need to be mapped directly to new,improved business processes. For example, if an ERPsystem directly takes funding out of an organization budgetonce a requisition for a contract acquisition package isinitiated and approved in the system, this may obviate theneed for a dual financial (budget) analyst approval.

Organizational MotivationControl in todays leanly staffed program and acquisitionorganizations requires balance and judgment. Personalitiescome in to playsome control decision-making too tightly,and others may prefer loose, decentralized control anddecision-making.

In any event, empowering line supervisors/contractingofficers is essential for a balanced workplace. Seniorcontract specialists and other contract specialists whoexercise good business acumen should be granted latitudein the cradle-to-grave acquisition life cycle tasks that are anormal part of contracting operations. This latitude comeswith the understanding that prior coordination with theirsupervisors and/or contracting officers on issues that maybe contentious or well out of normal business procedureswill be accomplished.

Professional Work EnvironmentNon-professional work environments negatively impactemployee retention, morale, and the degree of operationalsupport. Management should support and promoteemployees who focus on professional interchange andactivities in the program/acquisition organization thatmeet the agencys overall mission.

One key aspect of a respectful, professional work envi-ronment involves controlling rumors, which often arestarted and spread by a small percentagenormally, aclique groupof employees. These employees usuallywill use negative, unjustified, and false statements aboutco-workers (based on personal preference), attemptingto promote themselves and their inner circle of friends.The workplace, however, is not the appropriate environ-ment to re-enact television survival reality shows andthus should be led and managed in such a way that all aretreated with dignity and respect.

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Succession of Good LeadersContinuity of good leadership is important. How many ofyou have had good supervisors, only to see them tradedfor not-so-good ones as part of a reorg? Too often, theanswers to issues and cited system or personnel prob-lems are reorganizationsyet, how many of these timesare such shifts just the result of power plays?

Supervisors, managers, and contracting officers areimportant, as people who exercise sound business judgmentand discernment through experience, education, andexpertise. Contract writing tools such as Prism or SPS arejust thatonly tools. They do not provide the businessacumen and expertise that experienced people (employeesor consultants) do.

Finally, augment your organizations leadership teamwith good people from the inside, not just at the SESand political appointee levels. Also, try to bring in goodcontracting officers, line supervisors, and managementfrom the outside. They can bring in a whole fresh set of

problem-solving skills and best practices that are valuableto your contracts and acquisition organization, helping toachieve your agencys mission.

ConclusionTo develop and manage your programs, contracts, andorganizations well, you need to successfully carry out thefollowing:

(1) Train your staff (with in-house and outside resources);

(2) Handle systems issues;

(3) Motivate the organization (empower supervisors, grantlatitude to those who prove themselves);

(4) Support a professional work environment; and

(5) Provide and retain a continuity of good leadership.

Follow these steps, and youre sure to be on the right path! CM

A b o u t t h e A u t h o r

JOHN DOBRIANSKY, CPCM, Fellow, is a supervisory contract

specialist and contracting officer with an agency of the D.C. gov-

ernment. He has more than 22 years of experience in acquisition,

project management, and IT life cycles. Send comments on this

article to cm@ncmahq.org.