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July 2017 Newsletter

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DMPS Lean Leadership 
Continuous improvement tools are important but will have minimal impact if a culture of respect and empowerment of      employees is not fostered. Organizational leaders must begin the transformation to becoming Lean Leaders. Des Moines   Public Schools is utilizing Lean Leadership to build coaching skills in leaders and create teams that collaboratively problem   solve, improve and perform. We want to recognize our recent graduates of Lean Leadership.

Note: Not all leaders are pictured.

Business and Finance
Nick Lenhardt
Jessica Buchheit
Emily Truitt
Judi Martens
Denise Roorda
Emma Knapp
Human Resources
Anne Sullivan
Sheila Mason
Tiffany O'hara
Cathy McKay
Operations
Jamie Wilkerson
Mel Green
Darrell Gierstorf
Amanda Miller
Dan Warren
Connie Broich
Todd Liston
Mark Mattiussi
Office of Schools
Jake Troja
Allyson Vukovich
Jason Allen
Eleanor Shirley
Superintendent's Office
Mary Grinstead
Brooke Jacobson
Change is Hard, Lead Change Anyway
Leading change is not an easy thing to do. However, the world needs change agents. Ken Miller, author of We Don't Make Widgets and Extreme Government Makeover, provided the following reasons why changing is hard and why you should do it anyway.
The Paradoxical Commandments
1. The reward for doing good work is more work. Do good work anyway.
2. All the money you save being more efficient will get removed from your budget. Find efficiencies anyway.
3. There is no time to think about improving what we do. Make time anyway.
4. Employees may fight the change every step of the way. Involve them anyway.
5. The future is unpredictable and largely out of your hands. Plan anyway.
6. The press only cares when something goes wrong. Share your success stories anyway.
7. If you develop your people they will move on to better jobs. Train them anyway.
8. Your ideas will at best make someone else look good and at worst get you ostracized by your co-workers. Share your ideas anyway.

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Just Getting Started?
Continuous improvement is a simple four step process.

PLAN: Set a target for improvement
DO: Implement that plan
CHECK: Ensure the implementation is going well
ACT: Make this the new standard

Need help? Contact Emma Knapp.

Shout Outs!

Excellent work Christi Donald, Connie Sievers, Joel Etienne, Vicky Bennett and Jeremy Schwennen in streamlining the concurrent funding process! Teachers of concurrent courses will now have budgets available the first day of school.
Chris Holm and Joel Etienne are at it again! A 20-minute meeting to improve the Certified Annual Report (CAR) upload process has lead to 68 hours (at least) of time savings.

Past Newsletters

March 2016
April 2016
May 2016
June 2016
July 2016
August 2016
September 2016
October 2016
November 2016
December 2016
January 2017
February 2017
March 2017
April 2017
May 2017
June 2017
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Des Moines Public Schools
Continuous Improvement
2100 Fleur Drive
Des Moines, IA 50321