City staff detail 'Sustainovation' initiative aimed at improving customer service

Patty, a city staff member, described Sustainovation as an internal initiative to build high-performing teams and rework processes so the city better serves residents. "We launched Sustainovation," Patty said. "Sustainovation focuses on building high performing teams, with thinking out of the box and really looking at how we can improve processes and systems within the organization to better serve our residents in the community."

Patty said the program began about a year to 18 months ago and ran an initial cohort focused on upper management to set direction, followed by a second cohort for frontline staff across departments including public works, streets, urban forestry, library and community services. She said the two-cohort approach is intended to align leadership and 'boots on the ground' staff so improvements travel through the organization. "We make sure that we have representation from all the city departments," Patty said, "so we have people from our public works department, our street schools, urban forestry ..."

Patty emphasized the program's focus on incremental change and on giving staff an outside perspective to identify processes that are not working. She said a primary goal is to improve how staff interact with residents so community members understand city processes and feel their purpose in approaching city services was met even if the outcome was not the one requested. The presenters did not list a formal budget or specific performance metrics in the discussion.