Volume 3 Issue 1.indd - Parsons Brinckerhoff

• Speed of procurement activities and Board
processes
• Attention to continuous improvement
Completing the Picture
In conclusion, PB’s OD services—working in tandem with
economic forecasting—can help a client make great
strides toward achieving sustainable performance. It can
be suggested that this combination results in:
• An impetus for demonstrated positive
performance, improvement and change is
created. A key to ensuring that economic/
financial performance remains positive is to
obviously have accurate and insightful financial
reports and forecasts. Equally as important
is to know the strengths and weaknesses of
the organization well enough to understand
what process, communications, structural, and
technology adjustments can be made to respond
to the story the numbers are telling.
• Agency operations and strategy are
meaningfully linked. A common failing
identified in an organization is the inability to
effectively connect its operations with its strategy,
or vision. A gap exists because multiple foci are
driving agency actions, thus greatly limiting
optimal overall organizational performance.
Economic and financial forecasts generally
provide the more operational data; the results of
organizational development efforts provide an indepth
understanding of the strategic side. When
the two are combined, agency leaders see the
extensive efficiencies of integrating the two.
• A context for understanding “the numbers”
is developed. Managing within government
today is characterized by growing pressure
for public accountability and by a demand for
specific, quantitatively measured results and
future plans. As a result, many agency leaders
have access to excellent data, including economic
and financial forecasts – but lack the equallydetailed,
qualitative assessment of their agency’s
performance that organizational development
services can provide. OCTA capitalized upon
the opportunity to build this context; the PB
organizational readiness and capacity assessment
offered agency leaders a detailed view of how
well OCTA was prepared to deliver the billions of
dollars in improvements to which it is committed.
Eric Roecks is a principal consultant with PB’s organizaitonal development practice. He has over 20 years of experience
providing organizational assessment and other OD-related services to government, private, and non-profit clients
throughout the United States and Canada.
M.P.A, University of Washington; B.A., Whitworth College
Alan Lubliner leads PB’s strategic planning and organizational development practice. His distinguished career includes
strategic consulting services and projects for several major cities, county and state agencies, the federal government,
agencies in other countries and a multi-lateral development banks. Mr. Lubliner served as organizational development
advisor for the OCTA Organizational Readiness and Capacity Assessment.
B.A., Political Science, University of Colorado
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