The latest art in government maintenance

Welcome, Anoka County, to the world of Kaizen and the art of government maintenance.

In the midst of budget restraints and the state government shutdown, the northern metro county has become the state's first to embrace a Japanese business strategy derived from the words "kai," which means change, and "zen," which emphasizes improvement. Simply put, it's a movement for continuous changes for the better.

"It seems common sense to look for ways to do things better, but most organizations, unless they're intentional about doing it, don't actually function that way," said Cheryl Mayberry, who helped introduce the program in Anoka for Innovation Process Design, a St. Paul-based process management consulting firm.

"It's like your house. You live in a home, you keep it clean, you fix things that need to be fixed. You're not continually updating the decorations or the plumbing, but you should. People don't necessarily step back and ask, 'What's the right way to do that?'"

When members of the Anoka County attorney's office and the Economic Assistance Department combined forces, eliminated overlap and realized they could complete the processing of a paternity case in one-third the time it once took -- from 176 days to an average of 63 days -- suddenly the estimated $45,000 training process amid budget cuts seemed money well spent.

The key to Kaizen is to keep the process flowing, using the prospect of improvements-on-the-fly as enhancements, not interruptions, while streamlining whenever possible.

Minneapolis is believed to have been the first Minnesota city to employ the Kaizen philosophy, within its elections department in 2009, after the recount in the U.S. Senate race. Dakota County analysts have trained in Kaizen for 18 months and plan to begin using the philosophy known in the business world as Lean Six Sigma, in the next few weeks, said Heidi Welsch, Dakota County director of planning and analysis.

Of how things often are approached, she said: "People ask, 'Why do we do it this way?' And the answer is, 'Because we've always done it this way.'"

New leaders, new strategy

Anoka County, known for progressive ways and fiscal conservatism, provided the perfect storm for trying the strategy.

With a new county administrator, county attorney and Human Services director, the county's leaders seemed open to new ideas without worrying about looking over their shoulders. The County Board has a new look, too -- with four new members and a conservative majority. But Chairwoman Rhonda Sivarajah, a fiscal conservative, ran with the chance to streamline the government process and has been among the county's biggest Kaizen supporters.

"I told Sivarajah, this is going to cost some money," said Jerry Soma, the new county administrator and former Human Services manager. "But if it saves one staff position, it's worth it. Rhonda ran with it."

Becoming a team

They didn't just talk. They posted notes on a 15-foot-long wall, capturing their ideas as they blossomed. "There were stickies everywhere," said Human Services Division Manager Don Ilse.

"There was apprehension at first," said Brad Thiel, the county's child-support program manager. "But that disappeared by the second day, as the ideas flowed. We became a team."

While discussing ways to process a child-custody case, the players actually switched roles.

Typically, when an Economic Assistance team locates a non-custodial parent, a motion to serve the parent with legal papers is created in the legal department. The case is sent back to the child-support office for review and the supporting parent's signature. Then it goes back to the legal office.

"We're still separate offices, but each group has a better understanding of what the other does and how to streamline the process," said Tanya Berzat, the county's division chief for family law.

County Attorney Tony Palumbo and Human Services Manager Ilse got a sense of why Lee Kuntz, president of Innovation Process Design, whose clients have included Cargill and American Express, calls Kaizen "the visionary's tool to do government differently." Paternity-determination cases could be reduced from 94 steps and 12 hours of processing time to 70 steps and 10 hours, the combined county team concluded.

After weeks of preparation and then being a week in the windowless room, members of the two staffs emerged bursting with enthusiasm.

"By Friday, you could feel the energy in the room," Ilse said. "You could feel their satisfaction. It was obvious that they were on to something."