[The following article appears in the March 1995 edition of _Public_Sector_Quality_Report_, pages 3 to, 5.] OREGON DOT PAVES WAY WITH SELF-DIRECTED TEAMS "Our maintenance team can out-think and outperform our previous supervisor and he was one of the best supervisors a crew could have." --An Oregon Department of Transportation highway maintenance employee With nearly five years of history under its belt, the Oregon Department of Transportation's use of self-directed highway maintenance teams is well beyond "pilot project" stage. It's now standard operating procedure in ODOT Region 4, which spans nearly 2,000 miles of highways and bridges, with an annual maintenance budget of about $30 million. By eliminating traditional maintenance supervisors, and by letting 21 teams (200 front-line employees) make and implement decisions about what needs to be done where, and how best to do the work, self-directed teams have played a major role in helping Region 4: * Reduce supervisory costs by more than $1.2 million annually, dollars "put back on the road" in the form of more front-line workers and materials. * Improve the "fair or better" quality rating of roads in the region from 78 percent to 88 percent, working toward a goal of at least 90 percent. * Expand the supervisor/maintenance employee ratio from 1:6 or 1:9 to something on the order of 1:27. * Slash overtime by 58 percent, saving another $135,000 annually. ODOT officials say now, rather than stay out on a snow plowing job and collect overtime for eight hours because "the supervisor said so," employees are more likely to evaluate a job, decide when it's done, and go home. * Trim equipment repair costs by $60,000 annually, in part by giving teams "ownership" of equipment, in part by decentralizing ODOT mechanics, so small repairs get made before they become big problems. * Boost satisfaction of Oregon residents who, when surveyed, say they receive "good value for their gas tax dollars." Affirmative responses to that survey question rose from 45 percent to 70 percent in a recent survey. In a broader sense, ODOT officials say self-directed teams have given front-line workers more ownership and pride in their patching and plowing work. Customer service and satisfaction thus are enhanced because self-directed crews are motivated to respond more quickly and proactively to customer needs. Meanwhile, budgets are held in check (the state's highway maintenance budget has remained level at about $150 million for four years) because team members understand and take into account how their actions and decisions influence spending. The self-directed team idea grew from an attempt by ODOT Director Donald Forbes to introduce more advanced management practices at ODOT. Two of Forbes' initial goals were decentralized decision-making and reduction in layers of management. In answer to those goals, Region 4 Manager Dale Allen came forth with a proposal in 1990 to eliminate all 22 work crew supervisors, and replace them with seven area maintenance managers, each of whom would "coach" three or four self-directed teams. The dramatic reduction in supervisory jobs, and the daring experiment in employee self-direction, began Oct. 1, 1990. That day, for the first time in ODOT history, there were no "bosses" on site when employees reported to work at maintenance stations spread throughout the region. Of course, implementing self-directed teams has been no simple task. A letter of agreement had to be negotiated with the Oregon Public Employees Union, allowing Region 4 to operate under different rules. Front-line workers also needed training in problem-solving and effective communication and skills. Region 4's training costs were $3,500 per employee in the first year of self-directed teams, $2,200 the following year, and $1,200 the third. Other obstacles included a persistent belief among many (both inside and outside the organization) that maintenance crew members could not be trusted to work without supervisors hovering nearby, and would not have the know-how to work within budgets. ODOT also pledged to find work for displaced crew supervisors, promising to keep them at current salary levels for two years. Eventually, all former supervisors either were trained and hired to be area managers, placed in other ODOT jobs, or retired. Sam Wilkins once worked as a crew supervisor, overseeing the work of a single, six-person team. With the advent of self-directed teams, Wilkins became an area manager coaching three teams. Today he's a district manager, one of only three management levels left on the region's organization chart. Wilkins admits the shift to self-directed teams was unsettling, but he adds it was made clear by senior-level managers that the region's narrow spans of control were no longer practical, affordable, or even optimally effective. "I knew if I wanted to stay and be an integral part of this department, I'd better expand my horizons," Wilkins says. "I thought we were doing a good job, but I also thought there was a better way. I felt our employees had a very good feel for maintenance-a lot of them knew more about maintenance than the supervisors over them. But how do you get that knowledge to do things for the department? This was a good way to do that." Today the region's maintenance teams operate without formal leaders or facilitators on a day-to-day basis. Team members take turns serving as "crew rep," the person responsible for carrying communication back and forth between the team and its area manager. On a specific project, a team might assign a temporary "task leader," who then gets extra pay for the duration of that project. ODOT officials say the greatest shortcoming in their effort has been difficulty in implementing a performance measurement system. Wilkins says slow but steady progress is being made refining and using such measures as: earned task hour (how long it takes to perform a specific task), equipment rental cost per earned task hour, vehicle accidents per 100,000 miles driven, and "time off" accident events per employees. Allen notes, too, that the region has been unable to devise a pay-for-performance plan which works within the state's overall compensation guidelines, and which fairly rewards teams for their work. Shortcomings aside, Region 4's results are impressive enough that it won a 1994 Innovations in State and Local Government award (including a $20,000 prize) from the Ford Foundation. Allen says some of that prize money will be used to write and print a description of Region 4's experience, so other organizations can learn and borrow from it. That report should be available later this year. Meanwhile, some of the money is going to buy plane tickets, as Region 4 employees are invited by other government agencies to share their experiences with self-directed teams. [For further information about PSQR or to subscribe, contact: Public Sector Quality Report 17733 Kingsway Path Lakeville, MN 55044-5209 Phone: (612) 898-5058 Fax: (612) 892-7710 e-mail: 74363.3644@compuserve.com]