Results Driven Principle and Task Force

¶ … Driven (Principi & Task Force)

Application Essay: Results Driven

In the Department of Veterans Affairs where I work, getting results is highly valued. There are various examples that could be used to point out how important results are in this organization and how I go about ensuring that I get results when I am asked to do something. There are two examples that are important to discuss here. The first of these is the Farewell Ceremony that I took part in. In late 2004, I was directly asked by those high-up in my organization to plan and execute a Farewell Ceremony for the Honorable Anthony J. Principi, the 4th Secretary of Veterans Affairs. This particular event took place at the Veterans conference center at the VA headquarters located in Washington D.C. Many members of the President's Cabinet were leaving the administration at this time. The ceremony had a strong impact and reflected directly on the high stature of the Department of Veterans Affairs as a Cabinet level organization. It also reflected very strongly on the stature of the United States itself.

I had only three weeks to create a team of professionals that were capable of executing the ceremony as well as producing a video of Mr. Principi's life and tenure. A sequence of events needed to be created and the ceremony was designed to be a tribute to many of the major efforts that this gentleman had undertaken during his career. Not only was it important for me to think outside of the box for this event but it was also important to redefine some of the services and partner with various other organizations in order to ensure that the event was a success. The goal of this ceremony was to ensure that not only the Department of Veterans Affairs but a grateful nation indicated its respect for the efforts that this gentleman made during the time he served in this position.

A team was pulled together and I created a vision for the event. The ceremony was also divided into three parts which included a reception by the department of the guest of honor, the program, and the reception. Along with my staff, I coordinated the participation of those that were participating in the program, and there were many different individuals. By continuing the positive relationships that I had already worked to establish with many individuals throughout the organization and by building the confidence of the participants regarding the efforts that they were making toward contributing to this event I helped to foster good results and good feelings in everyone involved. Personally held meetings with each participant of the program were very important as I needed to convince them to participate and also show them how important their particular skill was to the overall program. I also wrote a script for the master of ceremonies, coordinated much of the content for the speeches that would take place, and coordinated the presentation items for the host.

The ceremony was designed to accommodate 500 guests and therefore 1500 invitations for 3000 guests that were in-house were created. Invitations were sent through e-mail, fax, U.S. mail, and telephone to more than 1000 guests within one week who were stakeholders of either the guest of honor or the event. I also assembled a team that would work on the content of the ceremony and the events and ended up selecting 12 professionals for this specific project. The video that was created was one of the most important parts of the ceremony and therefore the video team was asked to focus on five specific areas of the guest of honor's life. These included the generation of service he provided to the country, the service he gave to the country in the military, the service that he gave as the staff leader for the Senate armed services committee, the family legacy that he had created with two sons that were currently serving in the U.S. Air Force, and the impact that his tenure as secretary of Veterans Affairs had in five specific areas.

Team meetings were held three times per week, and site visits and walk-throughs were conducted with team members and higher-ups in the organization. The event was planned and executed successfully and was appropriate for the guest of honor. More than 350 people attended the ceremony and favorable comments are still coming in regarding those that worked on the event and how well received it was.

A second example of this results driven issue was my participation in the Secretary's task force for the employment and advancement of women in 2002. This was designed to develop a comprehensive plan that would help to correct some of the imbalances that were seen between men and women in their employment opportunities and the advancements that they were able to make. In December 2002 the task force met in Washington D.C. In order to begin work and identified that there were several major categories that the comprehensive plan would need in order to address the current situation. These included data collection and analysis, business case, and an implementation plan that was related to the Department's strategic plan. A great deal of data and feedback was collected and analyzed by the task force from many different sources regarding the task force efforts.

The task force met again in January 2003 to help develop a draft report and refine the efforts for data collection in order to ensure not only accuracy and validity but relevance to the VA as well. Focus groups were conducted in March 2003 in Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., and Little Rock. These cities were selected to ensure representation of both men and women from as many departmental organizational elements as was possible. These focus groups helped to validate the concerns that were raised during the first meeting that took place in 2002 with the Secretary and helped to assist the task force further in developing strategies that would succeed.