[nfbmi-talk] how much of this has been facilitated/actualized?

Mary Ann Rojek brightsmile1953 at comcast.net
Wed Jun 23 22:42:28 UTC 2010


Wow!  That is some plan!  It sure looks good on paper.  Unfortunately, much 
of it seems to have gotten lost.

Mary Ann
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "joe harcz Comcast" <joeharcz at comcast.net>
To: <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 5:47 PM
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] how much of this has been facilitated/actualized?


June 23, 2010



Here is the Michigan Commission for the Blind Long Term Strategic Plan that 
I downloaded from MCB’s web site today. It was in the resources for staff 
section of MCB’s web site. How much of this “vision” has been facilitated? I 
certainly like the part about sharing information on demand here.



Joe Harcz



http://www.michigan.gov/dleg/0,1607,7-154-28077_28313_28319_28324_32052-145865--,00.html

DELEG - Long Term Strategic Plan FY2004-2007



Long Term Strategic Plan FY2004-2007



M E M O R A N D U M



TO:          MCB Staff



FROM:     The MCB Planning and Quality (PAQ) Team



DATE:       August 29, 2003



RE:           MCB Long Term Strategic Plan



Over the past year, MCB’s Planning and Quality (PAQ) Team has been involved 
in designing and developing the Michigan Commission for the Blind's Long 
Term

Strategic Plan which you will find attached to this memo. (Also attached are 
the notes from the PAQ Team’s last meeting, August 12.)  This team is 
comprised

of members of the original Vision 2020 Process Design Team, agency 
supervisors, consumers and other stakeholders.  As a result of numerous 
planning activities,

the PAQ Team has designed a pilot planning process for determining short 
term and long term objectives for the various programs within the 
Commission.



The Long Term Strategic Plan is still a work in progress.   Many of us have 
been invited and involved in designing and developing this plan over the 
last

year.   It is an outline of the excellence we expect of ourselves as we all 
strive to deliver quality services through the year 2007 and beyond.



We now ask you to do the following:



1.                 Every individual staff member needs to review the Long 
Term Strategic Plan and decide what goals you will implement personally 
toward

achieving the ideals outlined in the Plan.



2.                 Offices and program units should brainstorm a whole 
variety of ideas, suggestions and objectives in developing their local 
annual work

plan.



3.                 Managers and staff should work together with partners to 
design collaborative commitments to include in the local version of the 
annual

work plan.



4.                 Each office will produce a local annual work plan by the 
end of October to be used in achieving MCB’s long-term strategic goals.



This is an experimental system to create planning capacity, flexibility and 
adaptability in Commission offices around the state.  It is a pilot process

to encourage staff in experimenting with new ideas.



The PAQ team will work to combine all the local plans to produce an annual 
work plan for the whole agency by the end of the year.



Thanks to each of you for your active participation in this important 
process which will help set the course for MCB in designing customer 
responsive service

systems.



MICHIGAN COMMISSION FOR THE BLIND



LONG TERM STRATEGIC PLAN



Through 2007



August 29, 2003



FORWARD



The Michigan Commission for the Blind (MCB) began a quality systems design 
process to redefine how MCB serves the community.   Commission staff 
received

training through the Capital Quality Initiative (CQI) at Lansing Community 
College.  In January 2000, Director Patrick Cannon and the MCB Executive 
Management

Team directed a newly organized Vision 2020 Process Design Team with a 
charge to create new quality systems for MCB.



The Process Design Team worked for two years in an inclusive process to 
learn the priorities of customers, partners, stakeholders, and agency staff. 
The

Process Design Team held meetings around the state to provide Commission 
staff, customers, partners and stakeholders with opportunities to dialogue 
regarding

the quality process.  Recommendations were gathered and published on the MCB 
2020 listserv, which was created for the purpose of sharing information in

the MCB community.  The first set of recommendations was presented to the 
Executive Management Team in the summer of 2001.



The Process Design Team learned that the Commission for the Blind should 
create a customer responsive service delivery system.  In order to provide 
such

a system, the team recommended a number of “tilting strategies” and values 
that place emphasis on building relationships.  The Team recommended four 
strategic

initiatives focused on developing customer responsive services:



1.  Visioning ideal systems and services



2.  Strategic thinking and planning



3.  Implementing quality systems



4.  Continuous learning approach



These initiatives were identified and proposed as an ongoing context for 
further development of the MCB strategic plan.



The Vision 2020 Process Design Team was expanded to include managers, 
supervisors and others to form the Planning and Quality (PAQ) Team.  In the 
fall of

2001, the PAQ Team formed six focus design teams.  These teams worked with 
customers and staff sorting through gathered information in order to 
identify

the vital priorities for a short-term plan.  Additionally, the PAQ Team used 
all customer and staff contributions to create a long-term strategic plan.



The Michigan Commission for the Blind community is grateful for the effort 
of so many who have given their best thinking to this process.



What follows is our long-term strategic plan.  What we have learned is that 
strategic planning is a continuous visioning and learning process that will

require the effort of everyone in our community in order to meet the 
challenges of the future.



“CHANGING LIVES, CHANGING ATTITUDES”



The MCB motto is “Changing lives, changing attitudes.”  The philosophy of 
MCB envisions a world where people achieve self-sufficiency and independence 
within

a society that understands and accepts blindness.  This reflects our intent 
to become a place where all of our actions model what we expect of society.



PRINCIPLES AND VALUES



There are seven principles and values that encourage customers, staff, 
partners and stakeholders to be mutually involved in the ongoing process of 
strategic

thinking, designing, and planning for the future.



The principles serve as roadside markers on the journey to full inclusion of 
people who are blind and otherwise disabled.  The goal is leaderful 
empowerment,

independence, accountability and full inclusion into the mainstream of a 
global society.  The MCB PAQ Team formally adopted the following “Tilting 
Principles

and Values,” as a reminder to keep people at the forefront of our thinking.



1.   CUSTOMER RESPONSIVE SERVICES:  Systems are the single most important 
result.  Everything implemented in MCB must be designed to achieve the goal 
of

creating a customer responsive service system.



2.    TRUST AND RELATIONSHIPS:  These values are at the core of everything 
we do.  Every action taken will build trust and enhance relationships among 
all

who participate.  We must ask ourselves: does the proposed activity build 
trust?



3.    INVOLVING AND INFORMING EVERYONE: This is the process of sharing all 
the information all of the time.  It creates a pool of new ideas and 
strategies

shared with all constituents and communities.  It fosters a world that fully 
includes people who are blind in all aspects of society.



4.   VISIONING AND TEAM LEARNING:  MCB stakeholders are focused on the 
future, creating new capacities to meet the ever-changing needs of people 
with vision

loss.  Team learning creates the energy and knowledge to keep customers and 
staff at the cutting edge of the latest information and technology.



5.   IMAGINING INNOVATIVE POSSIBILITIES: Creating a whole systems mindset 
helps us foster holistic thinking, collaboration, and team building.  We 
consciously

explore possibilities and develop strategies for customer responsive 
services.



6.   DIALOGUE CIRCLES: This is a process that encourages positive 
conversations in an open organization.   In dialogue circles, participants 
come to the

table as equals and listen, learn, share and ask questions.  This process 
helps us focus on increasing agency capacities to serve our customers.



7.    TILTING: This is a symbol that reminds us to tilt toward customer 
responsive services.  The stakeholders are shifting their perspectives from 
vertical

to horizontal, from exclusion to inclusion, from client to customer, and 
from customer to partner.



STRATEGIC DIRECTION: STRATEGIC GOALS



This list of six strategic goals provides the direction for all stakeholders 
to follow as we work together to create a seamless service system for our 
mutual

clients.



1.   LEADERSHIP RESULTS: Strengthen the values and mission to assure that 
all needed services are being provided either by the Commission or in 
collaboration

with other partners.



A.   Strengthen partnerships with the Department of Education, the School 
for the Blind, the Library for the Blind, and Camp Tuhsmeheta.  Enhance 
services

for blind children and adults consistent with Public Act 260.



B.  Continuously improve and implement customer responsive services.



2.   PLANNING AND ORGANIZATION: Plan, organize, staff, and position the 
agency to deliver the best possible quality services.



A.   Use alternative human resources such as creative staffing methods, 
interns, volunteers, and service clubs, as ways to supplement and augment 
staff

to serve more people.



B.  Develop collaborative opportunities with partners to mutually improve 
service delivery.



3.    RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:  Secure adequate budget, staffing, and 
technology resources to deliver exemplary client services.



A.    Increase MCB’s share of Michigan'sfederal funds for rehabilitation.



B.     Increase state financial support.



C.   Secure foundation grants and substantial gifts to supplement state and 
federal funds.



4.    CUSTOMER RESPONSIVE SERVICE SYSTEMS: Establish an improved customer 
responsive service delivery system, which is user friendly and effective to 
staff

and customers.



A.    Continuously improve the processes for staff recognition, increased 
teamwork, pay equity, flextime, and meaningful work that will ultimately 
benefit

clients through improved morale and quality services.



B.   Improve accountability and timeliness of agency services.  Staff, 
customers, partners and stakeholders will increase communication and 
understanding

of mutual expectations and responsibilities.



C.   Continue staff, customer, partner and stakeholder involvement in the 
design, development and implementation of policies.



D.   Increase capacity of ALL programs to serve all customers who need 
independent living skills.



E.   Develop a formal tracking system for better data collection to evaluate 
all programs and improve customer responsive services.



F.    Develop improved methods of determining client satisfaction with 
agency and partner services.



5.   TECHNOLOGY AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT: Increase the application of 
appropriate innovative technology to improve the efficiency and 
effectiveness of people

and systems, and the full inclusion of people who are blind in the 
mainstream of society.



A.   Provide premier technology training and equipment that allows customers 
to develop competitive skills, to enter into employment, and to fully 
participate

in employer training and other job activities.



B.  Provide state-of-the-art hardware, software and training that allows 
each MCB employee to optimize productivity.



C.  Support collection, processing and dissemination of data and information 
that allows decisions to be made throughout the agency that will respond to

changes and developments inside and outside the organization.   Provide 
internal and external customers with information about blindness and the 
progress

of the Commission on demand.



6.  OUTREACH, INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS: To better serve the citizens 
of Michigan, strive to increase awareness of the agency statewide, improve 
outreach

efforts in the communities, and enhance communication between MCB, its 
customers, and community partners.



A.     Monitor increased visibility throughout the years as the state uses a 
variety of methods such as new brochures, videos, speaking events, and the

Agency’s 25th year anniversary celebrations to increase awareness.



B.  Increase MCB’s accessibility through a variety of methods, such as an 
easy-to-find phone number and continuous improvement of the MCB website and 
other

communication strategies.



C.  Share “success stories” to demonstrate the accomplishments of people who 
are blind so that employers and others will learn what a person who is blind

can achieve.



VISION AND VALUES



When this Strategic Plan is fully implemented, MCB customers, partners, 
stakeholders and staff may be closer to realizing a vision that is shared by 
many.

 This vision, first expressed by Director Patrick Cannon to the MCB staff in 
1998, states that:  “Someday it will be said that if a person is going to

be blind, she/he could not be in a better place than Michigan. Someday our 
state will be such a place because (1) Michigan's education and 
rehabilitation

systems believe fully in the capacity of blind persons to achieve 
independence and provides the finest array of education and rehabilitation 
services in

the country, (2) blind persons in Michigan believe in themselves, (3) the 
general public has a positive image of blind persons and their capabilities,

and (4) the state's employer community demonstrates its belief in the 
capabilities of blind persons.”  This is a corollary to Governor Granholm’s 
vision.



Governor Granholm’s vision is to create a Michigan that is:



·         A positive and healthy high-technology state that is good for 
people in jobs



·         A Michigan that is able to attract the most creative and energetic 
individuals



·         A state with cool cities that offer the most livable and diverse 
communities in America



The Governor challenges all leaders when she says:  “The



most important leaders in any organization are those who create



the culture of integrity, creativity, excellence, respect, inclusion,



and engagement.”



Michigan Business One Stop
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