Organizational issues and Challenges in implementing second generation GIS

Organizational issues and Challenges in implementing 2^nd generation GIS
Lora J. Williams
JEA
21 West Church St.
Jacksonville, FL 32202

Changing the way we change
Not only is everything changing, but the rate of change is accelerating. The management of change has become another critical responsibility of leaders in today™s dynamic organizations.

Corporate priorities can change overnight, especially with new leadership. The role of company leaders is to manage people through these changes and transitions while maintaining productivity and avoiding chaos. This challenge of experiencing the instability of change and still performing at optimum levels is facing all leaders is dynamic organizations. The notion of steady or predictable sales, customers, forecasts, etc., is being replaced by responding to the unexpected. It will be your role as a leader to provide a stabilizing influence as changes occur.

Flexibility is a key in leading and participating in change cycles and providing support and direction for colleagues and employees. Leaders are continually moving toward the vision of the company business group or team as they respond to customer needs in a changing marketplace.

The need for change

Abstract:
This presentation discusses the organization™s struggle with the human factors around selecting a GIS environment that meets the overall needs or the user, the issues and challenges or user support and buy, management of the transition, integration planning, and data migration issues. The programs will be compared with a similar technology implementation programs at JEA that had a totally different outcome. The factors affecting the outcomes of each will be discussed to determine the critical issues affecting a successful technology implementation program involving competitive technologies.

The impact of change

Managing the transition:
Some of the earmarks of the transition period are:

High stress levels
Conflict increases
Decrease in productivity

Much of the negative effects of change is due to individual resistance to the change. This may be caused by a lack of understanding of the change or their comfort level with the status quo. Your job as a leader will be to overcome resistance and ensure a smooth transition to your vision or desired goal.

Rebuilding the team

How to function as a team:

Creating a team does not make a team. It must be remembered that a team is still a group of individuals, all with their own thoughts, perceptions and tastes. It is this individuality that brings about the solutions to organizational issues. To make a team function, the organization must help the members realize five key elements that will help form a collaborative unit. (Johnson, Johnson and Holubec 1994)

The first element, positive interdepedence, gears each team member to believe that the task cannot be complete without his/her efforts. A commitment must be established from everyone that not only must he/she be individually successful, but also the solution to the team™s task is dependent on everyone™s success. A collaborative team believes they ihsink or swim togetherlt. Each member should be committed to each other successes. There is no room for egos here-everyone succeeds or everyone fails.

The second element is individual and team accountability. Each member has to pull his/her own weight. Individual goals as well as team goals must be set and measured. An individual needs to know that it is imperative to return the completed task to the team in order for the team goal to be met. The team needs to know that the organization relies on them for possible interaction with other teams or the organization seniors and are thus accountable for their task. As leaders, we need to provide continued encouragement for participation, timeliness and resource development for individual and team goals to be met.

The third element is face-to-face promotive interaction. In our age of technology, when it is all too convenient to set up a conference call or Internet chat, real time face-to-face conversation will help open ideas by creating team and sharing of new resources. It is through this personal interaction that each member becomes personally committed to the task and thus gains ownership of the final solution.

The forth element is interpersonal and small group skills . We have been trained for many years, including our formal education years, to learn things on our own. When we join the work force, we are given a job and we do it; our job responsibilities are not our neighbor™s responsibilities. Many organizations do not cross- train or support other departments, and it is not uncommon for an organization to establish competition among departments. While competition can be healthy, an organization that is already suffering low moral, loss of profit and other indicators of a ifsick environmentls needs to earn trust, improve communications, establish conflict- management and provide effective leadership. The organization is a team in itself, comprise of other teams, and in that, social skills that will enhance the needs of the individual to become a team player must be developed.

The fifth element is group processing. Each team needs to assess what methods, resources and ideas work for the team and what does mot. The team needs to analyze the input of all the members and determine what best help them reach their goal. It is not one person™s decision, it is the group™s decision, and any ideas used or unused belong to the group, not the individual. It is imperative that the team maintains effective working relationships with each individual-no one has all the answers. Arguments should be academic, not personal. (Nelson 1999) It is important for us to pay attention to these tips:

Set an agenda and stick to it; make sure all participants are aware of the focus of the meeting.
Only invite those members who must be there for that particular topic.
Assign roles for each meeting-timekeeper, recorder, process monitor- and keep to the predetermined schedule.
Start on time, even if some one is late; they will get the message.
Go off-site if necessary.

To assist teams building, there are many games and visual organizers that can provide motivation, increase thing, building trust, increase participation and show concrete relationships between abstract ideas (1994). A common visual organizer is a timeline goal. To help motivate thinking, a team may also choose to develop a mind map-a web network that has the key idea (problem, task, etc.) in the center as a hub; circling the hub are the next level of subideas; feeding this are the spokes, made up of supporting ideas. Each person™s idea is input or deleted as the web builds. From this, team members have developed a visual aid that represents the tasks to resolved and a concrete display for senior management to review. Similar to this is a spider diagram focusing also on a central problem, and then layering the effects of the problem. For a team that is from diverse area of an organization, this tool can enlighten other departments about other areas of concern. (Johnson, Johnson and Holubec 1985)

There are many team-building exercises available to develop trust, increase communications, sharpen problem-solving skills and learn to become a contributing member of a team. An effective leader must also know how to translate these learned skills into practical applications for the organization. Continued reinforcement of skills, emphasized positive feedback and clear communication of expectations helps individuals focus on team qualities.

Summary
Team-building is collaborative exercise between the company and the employee. By using employee teams to help restructure the culture, management is able to accomplish two key problems: 1) stimulating employee moral, and 2) resolving immediate organizational problems. Employees are energized because they feel like they have made an important contribution to the success to the company and have become part of the solution. Employers can realize answers to problems more quickly.

When teams members know the common goals, their roles and responsibilities, agreed-upon methods for communication and have incentive to perform them, and management has created an environment in which the teams can develop, success is inevitable. Successful companies understand the importance of a team environment.