Nedlands continues with its business improvement journey
The City of Nedlands business improvement journey has resulted in many benefits for Council and its community. The foundation building block used to give unity of purpose across the City and identify the desired results is the corporate strategic plan. This plan is about strategic outcomes and the actions, which are necessary to achieve corporate goals.
A copy of Nedlands current strategic plan can be found on www.nedlands.wa.gov.au.
The plan covers all levels of the organisation and is linked to personal plans so that each employee has targets which strategically contribute to the business. At Divisional and Branch level the plans are operational in nature but include key linkages to the Corporate Strategic Plan.
A continuous improvement (CI) strategy supports the achievement of outcomes. The adjacent diagram outlines the methodology used at the City of Nedlands for its strategic change efforts to sustain the outcomes. The CI strategy incorporates a strategic performance measurement system, which monitors the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each Key Result Area (KRA) in the Strategic Plan.
But it must do more than this. It includes lead as well as lag indicators. The CI strategy also incorporates a management system that regularly compares the strategic outcomes required with the measured actual performance.
The objective of this part of the process is to identify strategic performance gaps. The gaps drive the definition of strategic projects.
This approach ensures that improvement efforts are strategically focused. The identified projects are usually team based; outcomes focused projects, which involve staff. The team members require creative and analytical tools, such as problem solving tools and techniques. Where possible identified change agents should be used in selected team projects.
Through the implementation of this strategy the City of Nedlands has been recognised with some 47 best practice awards over the last four years.
