Scope of Work:

The North Dakota Information Technology Department (ITD) became an official state department in August of 1999.  ITD is responsible for providing network planning services, computer support services, software development, statewide communication services, Internet standards and other forms of technology planning and quality assurance to all North Dakota state agencies.

Shortly after ITD was formed, a new Director was hired and a strategic planning effort was begun to proactively adapt to change.  One of the first steps taken as part of the strategic planning process was to assess the current organizational culture and management practices of the top supervisors and managers.  Sterling Institute worked closely with ITD to develop a survey that would measure its current leadership and management strengths and improvement opportunities.  The survey was distributed to all employees.  Results were organized by Department, Division and individual managers and delivered during a leadership retreat and workshop, “Culture and Performance Improvement.”

Accomplishments:

Internal communication improved, individual leadership plans were established and are being followed, customer assessments were modified, several workshops were conducted to build a performance measurement system, and plans to improve the processes and individual performance measures of all the individuals in the department were put into place.

The survey was readministered a year later to assess improvement areas.  The results showed statistically significant improvements in the areas targeted as priorities.