Exploring NSF Facility Management Culture

1. Exploring NSF Facility Management Culture

2. Facility Legacy • History of Managing “Projects or Programs” • Managers are technical and/or science trained • Lack of deliberate ”People Management Development” • Intuitive, rather than deliberate people management and development • Can be passive, or aggressive in the extreme

3. How did we get this culture? • Outcomes of “default culture” development • Weak organizational culture management • Failure to define competencies needed to support culture • Weak performance management culture & process • Lack of ability to tie technical and people management performance together • Continue to raise new generations of managers in same environment

4. Risks to organization • What will happen? • People management failures rob the facilities of future leaders • Inability to respond to changing recruiting environment (next generation) • Support/Business Systems lack organization-wide ownership and enculturation

5. Breaking the cycle Where to begin? Components of a deliberate culture • Competencies • Performance management • Culture Change/Change Management • Management skill assessment • Management skill training

6. But remember . . . . . • Culture takes years and cycles • Many involved do not see that it is broken – as it has always been • Change is not part of organizational culture • academic roots • reliance on “what we did before”

7. One facility’s experience • Performance issues identified by NSF • Turnover forced at the top – add leadership • BSR findings indicate deeper issues – add management • Change in funding model announced by NSF • Need to assess structure changes in response • External forces accentuate pressure for change

8. How to respond to the impetus . . . • Governance, Leadership and Management align • Establish baseline of desired management skills • Develop cultural values and competencies needed to succeed • Planned communication and training of “competencies” • Add competencies to goals for coming year • Add performance management measures at end of period • Deliberate activities to focus on competencies valued • Find ways to walk the walk – “how” as well as “what” • Make “how” count more with management responsibility • Use competency-based interviewing to recruit

9. Governance, Leadership and Management Barriers to implementation: • Not real work mentality • Doesn’t apply in science/NSF/Projects, etc. • Never mattered before • Difficult to accept new measurement criteria Help when you need it: • Recall those external forces • Lots of books, articles, training, experts available • All been done in corporations before • This is the new NFS environment

10. A word about competencies • Managing conflict • Motivating others • Openness to criticism • Peer relationships • Perseverance • Results orientation • Self-awareness • Taking risks • Teamwork • Using leadership power tactfully • Achievement • Approachability • Coping with pressure • Decision making • Establishing trust • Flexibility/Adaptability • Initiative • Instilling confidence • Integrity • Listening

11. Governance, Leadership and Management New Thinking is Needed: • Be deliberate about choosing employees to manage others • Groom them to be managers • It is not automatic that good technical people will be good people managers What will it take to make effective managers: • HR as coach • Outside coaches • Internal/external mentors • Web-based or class room training • Situational Training

12. Governance, Leadership and Management • Courage to appraise management skills • 360 surveys relative to management skills • Regular feedback from staff and peers on management interface • Performance goals and metrics re-management • Offer a way out – OK to apply for non-management positions

13. Why does this matter? • NSF expectations that we manage beyond pure program performance • Owning compliance and people management is NSF requirement • The next generation of leaders has to come from the staff or today

14. Statistics tell us why people leave their positions • Number one reason is manager dissatisfaction • Making better managers is the solution