Results

Civilian Agencies

NIH: Leadership Coaching

THE CHALLENGE
The NIH’s Clinical Center is facing pending retirements of senior-level staff and general needs for leadership development. In the Office of the CFO a major benchmarking study creates major change in the functions and role of the office moving forward.

New responsibilities create need for evaluation of team-wide performance, structure, and required skills.
Alignment of the leadership team on goals and priorities and the coaching and mentoring relationship between the senior leader and staff require strengthening.

THE SUNTIVA SOLUTION
Suntiva conducts ongoing one-on-one and 3D coaching with the COO and Acting CFO, with a strong focus on alignment on business strategy. Suntiva works with the entire team to assess organization structure and skill requirements. Suntiva designs and helps implement a structured succession planning process.

THE RESULTS

The leadership team is aligned on common goals and priorities
A structured succession planning process is developed to prepare the office for pending retirements
A collaborative decision on the to-be state (e.g., structure, functions, roles) is reached
Team-wide skill gaps are identified and an action plan to address gaps (e.g., cross training, hiring, transition planning) is developed

FDA: Management Team Effectiveness Training

THE CHALLENGE
A senior government leader is struggling to determine how to initiate and develop a new management team and for its members to develop and demonstrate key management and leadership skills. The organization is highly virtual in nature and its members are struggling with how to communicate effectively and build trust with one another. Team Leaders within the organization have several different types of challenges they are addressing, ranging from low morale to mediocre performance.

THE SUNTIVA SOLUTION
Suntiva provides the entire management team with broad leadership development and management consulting services. We have developed and continue to implement a comprehensive leadership coaching program that is supported by monthly management brown bags. In addition, Suntiva consultants facilitate the management team’s quarterly strategy meetings. Finally, Suntiva provides team effectiveness and general organizational consulting to several Team Leaders, management consulting support to the Deputy Director and HR Departments, and help to design and facilitate the organization’s annual retreat.

THE RESULTS

All management team members find they are far more effective in terms of executive alignment, communication, and general management skills, after one year of work with Suntiva’s coaches and consultants.
Best practices for working virtually have been developed and are being rolled out.
One virtual team has begun work in the identification of key issues and is actively working to address them.
New leaders are gaining insights more quickly and as a result are more effective in a shorter period of time.
Individual contributors report that they see a positive change in their management team. They experience far less micro-management and improved communication.

DHS: Contracts Audit & Review

THE CHALLENGE

On August 29, 2005, one of the worst hurricanes in United States history slammed into the gulf coast. Many coastal cities were devastated by the storm, and in particular, more than 50 levees in New Orleans were breeched and caused over 80% of the city to flood. In all, at least 1,800 people lost their lives. In response to the storm, the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mobilized support for survivors and evacuees in the area, eventually writing thousands of government contracts, purchase orders, and credit card transactions to provide temporary housing, food and water, and other essentials.

In the aftermath of the storm, reports surfaced and inquiries were made as to the performance of FEMA contracting efforts related to hurricane relief. In particular, DHS wanted to perform a contract compliance audit, assess FEMA performance under these high-stress conditions, and gain valuable lessons learned to improve possible future efforts of this nature.

THE SUNTIVA SOLUTION
Suntiva staff was selected by DHS to provide a thorough compliance review and audit of the FEMA contracts awarded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. A well-rounded team was assigned to this effort, bringing 100+ years of combined federal procurement expertise to the engagement. The team reviewed thousands of award actions across 63 different compliance factors, and used our web-based decision support tool to support this analysis. The results of this analysis formed the baseline for numerous process improvement initiatives.

THE RESULTS

DHS and FEMA were able to proactively identify contracting challenges and issues in advance of congressional inquiries and audit(s)
Trend analysis was successfully used to determine areas that required emphasis and training
Lessons Learned were developed and implemented to improve future operations and preparations for other major disasters
Automation was used to ensure consistent, standard ways of looking at the data so that it could be re-used and re-created as needed for further decision support regarding future FEMA contingency procurement operations