04/17/2013

Fellow MTASers,

In the past few weeks, there’s been lots of chatter about teams – Baldrige teams and IPS strategy implementation teams. While there are a few common characteristics between them, they have different intended purposes and timelines for their work. Both are important to MTAS and I want you to be aware of them. I’m focusing on the strategy Implementation teams in this message. More to come on Baldrige teams soon.

As I understand it, strategy implementation teams are not new to IPS. In fact, I found myself being on two of them very soon after joining you folks. It was quickly apparent that the teams were topically focused…Environment and Energy…Public Safety and Worker Safety…Economic Development…and several more.

Recently, the teams have been reconstituted and refocused. Rather than having topical themes, the new teams fall into one of two major categories – Customer Focused and Organizational Excellence – with each category having three teams. The teams will have 2-3 people from each agency on them. Each team will be chaired by a member of the IPS leadership team and the IPS central office will be represented on each. The spreadsheet below illustrates the makeup of the teams.

IPS Strategy Implementation Teams
4/1/2013
TEAMS	Team Leader	Central Office	CIS	CTAS	LEIC	Naifeh Center	MTAS		IPS Strategic Goal	UT Strategic Goal	Baldrige Category
CUSTOMER FOCUSED
Promote Good Government	Thomas	Thompson	Miller, Idol	Hayes	Kelley	TBD	Cross, Neill		1	3	3
			Lane	Roberts			Wolf
Strengthen Economic Vitality	Jennings	Thompson	Phillips	Spears, M.		N/A	Nevad, Deem		2	3	3
			Ketelle	Phillips			Wibking
Build Individual/Organizational Capacity	Garland	Thompson	Kelly	Kinloch	Ungurait	TBD	Barton, Wyatt		3	3	3
			Ridley	Moon			Ely
ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Measurement/Results	Green	Shoopman	Cooper-Duru	Meyers	Miller	TBD	J. Jones, Major		4	4	4/7
				Moon			Shipley
Workforce Development	Martin	Shoopman	Eddy	McCroskey	Powell	N/A	B. Jones		4	4	5
			Ridley	Kinloch			Frederick
Operations	White	Shoopman	DePriest	Johnson	Miller	N/A	Whitehead,		4	4	6
			Eddy	Roberts			Wolfe, Smeltzer
Leadership/Strategic Planning	Jinks	Shoopman	Jennings	Garland	Green	TBD	Thomas		All	4	1/2
		Thompson

Each of the individual teams will be forward thinking in its work and be guided by the goals and objectives of the IPS (
http://www.ips.tennessee.edu/userfiles/file/Strategic%20Plan/IPS%20Strategic%20Plan%202012-17.pdf ) and University (
http://president.tennessee.edu/strategicplan/plan.html ) strategic plans. Initially, the teams will work to determine where IPS is now relative to the plan goals. Then, the team will work to determine what things IPS needs to do over the next 5-10 years and develop recommendations to achieve those goals.

The teams will begin their work soon and will meet quarterly. The meeting agenda and minutes will be posted on the Strategy Implementation Team SharePoint site
https://utworks.tennessee.edu/ips/SIT/SitePages/Home.aspx . I hope you’ll keep up with the activity of the teams.

An important point…Just because your name may not be listed on a team (see above), you may (and I hope you will) have interest in some or all of them. Nothing stands in your way to attend and participate in any of the team meetings when your schedule allows you to do so.

Questions? You’ll probably have some. I certainly do. After all, we’re plowing some new ground here. Let me know what they are and I’ll work to get us the right answer.

Lastly, and as always, know that the work you do every day for Tennessee towns and cities is appreciated.

Jim Thomas, Executive Director
The University of Tennessee Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS)
Office (615) 532-4950 Cell (615) 972-9219

jim.thomas@tennessee.edu

www.mtas.tennessee.edu