INSIDE OKDHS FEATURE STORY, APRIL 2013 - ADULT AND FAMILY SERVICES: INNOVATION IN ACTION

(MUSIC PLAYS) 

No Audio: Jim Struby - Adult and Family Services, Director

Jim Struby: Because of the Pinnacle Plan and some of the requirements that Child Welfare had as a result of the legislation that was passed last year I guess, we reorganized the field elements of Child Welfare and what used to be called Family Support and it was a division called Field Operations. So, we took Field Operations and Family Support and merged them together and created Adult and Family Services out of that. 

It's really been a very successful transition. One of the things that Director Lake has actually pointed out is how quickly we were able to do this in this large an agency. It is quite an accomplishment to make that transition in a short period of time. 

In less than a year, we took three divisions and broke them apart and put two divisions together, and then found all the leadership across the state even, not to mention my Deputies, but all the County Directors that had to be chosen and selected for that. It happened very quickly, and so in some ways it was very successful. It's also very painful because that's a pretty dramatic change to have happen very quickly. 

No Audio: Jeff Zachary - Adult and Family Services, Deputy Director Region II

Jeff Zachary: Prior to being selected as a Deputy Director, I was a County Director over two small counties in Southwest Oklahoma. I think coming to this job the thing that I see as just the potential for improvement when I look at the way things were done in the counties before, you know, every program we administer is important but the urgency of Child Welfare would sometimes pull a County Director into that world. 

That would leave you delegating the leadership responsibilities to the Supervisors, the Family Support Supervisors at that time - which is a very good thing. It shows the quality of staff that we have in the field. The problem, I guess, we saw is that there was some inconsistency of the way programs were administered around the state. So, one of the opportunities that we have now through vertical integration is that we have focused leadership. 

No Audio: James Conway - Adult and Family Services, Deputy Director Business Process

James Conway: My focus prior to the reorganization was with Information Services, but very often that moved over to the realm of business process - how we do things. Everything we do involves people, process, policy and technology. We had people, policy and technology in place, but process was often left to kind of be under those, and an afterthought of people from different areas. With this reorganization we were able to bring business process to the forefront. 

Jim Struby: I've worked here for almost 36 years, and in that time we have done a lot of things well, and we did a lot of things well a year ago even before Adult and Family Services. But we have these opportunities to really inject a lot of excitement and hope into what we do, not only with our staff but with our clients. 

I think my responsibility really is to deliver on the things that we promised because I think trust is really key to a good organization, and it's also key to customer service and building some trust in the community, in what we do, so that people feel that when we say we're going to do something, we do it. 

And that when, even on the smallest scale, when we say to a client, "We will get you these benefits as soon as possible," we actually do that. So, I think, you know, for me the goal is to model that kind of behavior so that when things happen, they happen for a very good reason. We've analyzed them. We know they're going to be effective and they deliver on what we promise. 

James Conway: In my 19 years at DHS the one thing that's been remarkable I've felt like I've always been a member of a good team. Jim and I have worked together on a lot of these initiatives that we're working on right now for 10 years. However, the focus has changed. 

Although I'm the IT guy or the numbers guy, I came to DHS to address what poverty looks like in the state of Oklahoma. I think for the first time in my 19 years not only can we talk about that in offices and back rooms, but we're talking about that out loud, and we're talking about how that is the focus of Adult and Family Services. We're able to make some big strategic plans and to talk about what it looks like to provide client-centric services that revolve around the client instead of around a program or a building or an office. 

Jeff Zachary: When I was selected to this position and after the first couple of meetings, you know, I knew that just the team on this level that I'm with, that they're all highly intelligent and committed to trying to help our customers move out of poverty. That's really the focus of what we're trying to do. We have this group of people out there that depend on us for a helping hand to help them up to move them from where they are to where they can be independent. I see a group of people that's committed to doing that, and I feel honored to be a part of that. 

James Conway: We're working with the Office of Planning and Research and Office of Communications and others to gather employee engagement feedback and customer service feedback. So, we're in the very early stages of that survey, and we've got some initial results that have allowed us to baseline and see some good things and some areas for improvement, and we're going to continue that going forward. 

Jim Struby: I think one of the words that always seems to come up a lot in the last several months is "engagement." We often times talk about it about engagement with the community because that's a responsibility that all County Directors have, that program engagement is something that we really want to have more focus on as a result of this reorganization. Because, as Jeff said, there are opportunities now for them to focus on that one program and get truly engaged in it. 

Jeff Zachary: Leadership on every level is committed to making sure they have all the tools that they need to do their job, and that's not just lip service. I mean, there's actual projects to try to streamline what they do and to try to make it more efficient for them to be able to accomplish all that they're supposed to accomplish. I think that I would want them to know that the great work that they're doing is recognized. 

James Conway: Engagement is the key word because that's how I see technology. I didn't come from an IT background by training or job function, but I saw how technology effects the social work we do. So, that's always been where my interest is. When you work in my field you hear a lot about the tail wagging the dog, but what is a true fact is that technology does drive us as a society and as a government. Whether it was the telegraph or the telephone or the internet, those technologies always changed the way our government works or society works and the way people engage each other. 

Jim Struby: I think the most valuable thing that we can bring to this whole arrangement is open communication that invites problem-solving, creativity, energy, bringing some new ideas in and helping them flourish. It goes back to what we were talking about earlier; there needs to be a trust level that's strong enough that people can speak their mind and know that whatever they say will be taken in the spirit that it was intended and used to help make positive changes. 

Jeff Zachary: Something that I'm looking forward to is making sure that everyone feels connected to the fact that we are the safety net for a lot of people in society. You know, as I grew up I had family that was my safety net, and I fell back on it many, many times. I know that we have clients out there that don't have that. Their safety net is us. Making sure that our workers are connected to that, that that's what they live every day in their job - and trying to, as a leader, trying to instill that in the staff that work with me. 

James Conway: Nothing's holding us back from doing the initiatives that we know can benefit all of us, and so now we have to perform. That's the challenge part of it, but I love that challenge. We have a great team. We've made changes in the past two years that just totally turned structures that have existed for the last 20 and 30 years on their head. We made those quickly and successfully, and so things are happening in ways that they've never happened before. 

That's the other exciting piece. I've got some very good people that are working with me that are very excited. So you know, it doesn't matter sometimes when you're working 10 or 11 hours a day because you are excited about it. The things we're doing are making a difference. 

Jim Struby: I've had to do a lot of returning back to, "What is the outcome of the work I do?" Because I was a Food Stamps Supervisor, for example, for about eight years and spent a lot of time sitting hunkered over cases, reading for accuracy, and trying to push these cases through so that the clients got their services quickly. Well, it's easy to all of a sudden start feeling like I'm an accountant or somehow, you hear the expression "paper pusher?" 

Well, we're just as guilty of that as any other bureaucracy. So, I had to continually remind myself of what was going to happen at the end of all this paper pushing, that someone was going to get fed that evening, that a family was going to feel more food secure and that I would have that kind of effect in a very real, immediate way. 

Jeff Zachary: Every job that I've had with the department I've loved. The last job, being a County Director, and then I had some added responsibility where I had some programs that were area-wide was very challenging, very rewarding. I was tired at the end of the day, and that's a good thing. And transitioning to this job, I was very nervous at the beginning because it is such a big job. 

There's 21 counties that I'm responsible for, and I take that responsibility very seriously. I've got a great team of County Directors, a great team of Supervisors and workers and the clerical staff in all 21 counties that are committed to doing what they're doing. And so, very quickly after getting into this job, I found that it was going to be easy because of the people that I'm surrounded with make it easy. You know, everyone is committed to doing their job and I just really appreciate working with them. 

James Conway: In Adult and Family Services and in the old Family Support Services Division and Field Ops, the leadership always walked the walk, that it was about families, not just about our clients but about our staff and their families. And so we support staff when they need to take care of their kids, when they need to be part of their families, when they have all the issues that we all have that revolve around work and life is that we can't help clients improve outcomes and say our mission is about families and individuals in need, if we're not paying attention to our staff and their families and their needs also. 

Jim Struby: The vision really is to have things as simple and straightforward as possible so that then we can deliver on things and people can trust that we'll do what we say we'll do.