Executive Retreat With Dallas, TX Development Services

Matrix conducted a two-day executive retreat for the leadership team of the Sustainable Development Services Department, focusing on developing a strategic vision for the department and providing training to all senior executives on leadership and team building.  This followed our team’s completion of a comprehensive operational and staffing assessment for the department.

The Challenge

The Development Services Department was experiencing a period of significant challenges, public criticism, and customer dissatisfaction based upon community stakeholder perceptions that services provided were not timely, accurate, or meeting community needs and expectations.  The city hired our team to conduct a comprehensive operational and staffing assessment to provide them a plan for operational changes and staffing recommendations to meet service demands by the community. During the study, the department’s director was removed, and an interim director was appointed.  During the finalization of the draft report, a new director was hired for the department.

The new director realized that in order to implement the recommendation provided, it was going to be necessary to change the departmental culture – starting with executive leadership – that focused on teamwork, continuous improvement, and enhanced service delivery to customers.

The Solution

Matrix Consulting Group developed and facilitated a two-day retreat built around the book Five Dysfunctions of a Team, written by Patrick Lencioni. The retreat included facilitated discussions, training sessions, and group activities. The session was designed to create a new mission and vision for the department, align executive staff around a common service delivery approach, and provide the tools and training needed for senior executives to implement a culture of continuous improvement and focus on enhanced and improved service delivery.

Following the executive retreat, the senior leadership team developed a more robust action plan to fully implement the recommendations provided in our firm’s initial study. Just as importantly, they had developed a new working relationship centered around a common vision and enhanced teamwork that enabled them to implement significant operational changes to address service delivery.