To Implement Change
Gotta Wanna
To make changes in your program you have to want to and then the possibilities open for an improved approach.
There are a million reasons rolling through my mind on why I can’t do something. I have perfectly good excuses. It could be lack of time, lack of money, or maybe I just don’t understand how to do what you’re asking. This same series of excuses blankets my life. I have my list at the ready for household chores, visiting friends, studying, or taking on new tasks at work.
The fact is I’ve got ready answers for not doing different things mostly because it breaks my routine, even if my routine needs to be broken. How many of us push back on exercise? There are good reasons to take that walk or go to the gym. Improving your health is a wise choice. In my own life I think I get stuck because I just don’t want to. I think back to my childhood when I had to clean my plate, do my chores, or do my homework. Today I call the shots and if I don’t want to, I don’t have to, right?
Then there are times in my life when a switch goes off in my brain that says, “what you’re doing isn’t working and you need to change.” It doesn’t change easily, and as fast as the switch turns on it can turn off. I have to repeat the thought of needing to change constantly to make it stick. When I do, a positive habit replaces the old behavior.
I have learned that making better food choices and exercise contributes to my better health. In my lifetime I have lost significant weight, felt better, looked better. That’s where consistency has to move in. I’ve found that lost weight many times pushing me back to where I started. It happens when I ignore my plan to make better choices. When I keep my focus on why I can do better, I do. When I lose sight of that I don’t achieve improved outcomes.
Our work in compliance and customer service is exactly like that. I’ve been focusing on compliance and collections over the past twenty years both as a Clerk Director, Project Manager, and now in my practice with CIS. Our focus is to improve relationships between clerk teams and their customers. I’ve heard challenges of all kinds from county operations across the state. Each are valid obstacles. It may be limited staffing, lack of technology, improper training, or resistance from the judicial community.
When I hear these stories, I always reflect on how we can make that different. What prevents us from rethinking our process, our staffing, or our technology? In many cases, minds are stuck on what won’t work rather than what will. While the challenges are unwelcome the change required to make it better feels difficult and unapproachable. Those that are caught in the can’t or won’t mindset find themselves with less of a solution that limits the organization’s ability to improve compliance service. This doesn’t necessarily make things bad. It just doesn’t make it better.
There are Clerk teams that visualize better and are making it happen. In Sarasota County, the Clerk committed their team to reinventing service by leveraging software to automate process and improve reporting. The Palm Beach Clerk saw difficulties in reaching customers from court. The courtroom is on the ninth floor. Customer service is located on the second floor. Customers were not coming in to begin payment planning. Palm Beach moved staffing outside of the courtroom and guided customers to a mobile service for compliance. The Palm Beach solution demonstrated that the Clerk was there to immediately help.
In Duval County, the Clerk wanted to revamp their compliance service approach. Service started with a five-person team devoted to improving compliance. Duval modeled the Palm Beach approach by setting up a mobile cart system outside of the courtroom. Being available at the start initialized a trust relationship with their customers.
In Martin County, the Clerk has initiated a compliance specific call center team. Instead of waiting until a payment becomes delinquent, the team at Martin creates call lists for upcoming payments and makes calls to their customers leading to lower default rates and improving collections.
Each of these Clerk solutions requires rethinking process to achieve better outcomes. It doesn’t mean that any of these teams were better funded, better staffed, or didn’t face communication obstacles to create a vision and a program. Instead, leadership saw the bigger picture and instilled in their teams a want to attitude about making the work, work better.
If you would like support to overcome your challenges or have made an improvement you’d like to share, catch up with us at www.complianceimprovement.com.
Don Murphy is the Chief Executive Officer for Compliance Improvement Services (CIS) which provides consulting and training for courts and local government. He is a Fellow with the National Center for State Courts and has over 25 years of court administration experience.