AF&F and its staff benefit from leadership training 'Turning Point'

By Sharon Tregaskis

Most companies focus their training efforts on top administrators, hoping for a trickle-down effect. Over the past eight years, Cornell's Division of Administration, Facilities and Finance (AF&F) has turned that notion on its head.

Participants in the Turning Point leadership development program share an activity on the program's final day. The Division of Administration, Facilities and Finance staff members are, from left, John Mendelis, Terry Rose, Bob Cornell, Karla Andrews and Bonnie Griffin. Greg Busby

AF&F supervisors attend a nine-day training session, known as the Cornell Leadership Development Program (CULDP), but all non-supervisory staff in the division -- custodians, fleet mechanics and couriers, engineers, administrative assistants, architects, environmental specialists and tradespeople -- take a separate, five-day workshop known as Turning Point, as part of their on-the-job training. The program encourages them to take responsibility for the quality of their workplace by relying and acting on a framework of values that build trust. Through short lectures, small and large group discussions and complicated, fast-paced problem-solving games, participants hone their communication skills, learn the basics of team building and come to understand the values at AF&F's core: truth, integrity, respect, excellence and teamwork.

The concept may seem too warm and fuzzy for a business unit, but administrators say the values-based training has had a significant effect on the division's budget. "If we're more effective in our work with each other and with customers, we save money," said Hal Craft, Cornell vice president for administration and CFO. "If we make the workplace more pleasant and the work more fun, turnover and absenteeism go down. This isn't all touchy-feely -- there's a bottom line."

The first Turning Point was offered in 1996 at the Rose Inn in Lansing. Since then, almost 1,000 AF&F employees have attended -- most recently during the last week of April. The program, now held at Highland Lodge conference center in Trumansburg, begins on a Monday at 8 a.m. By 7:45, most of the 24 participants have filled out name tags, helped themselves to coffee and pastries and settled into rustic chairs arranged in a large circle. Most of the 14 women and 10 men wear jeans and sweatshirts. They come from Building Care, Cornell Police, Financial Affairs, Transportation and Mail Services, Utilities and four union trade shops. A few introduce themselves to their neighbors, but mostly they sit quietly, waiting. The custodians who normally work nights haven't yet adjusted to the daytime schedule and seem a bit groggy; others resent the fact that they're required to attend.

At 8 a.m., sharp, facilitators Kathy Burkgren, Greg Busby and Grace Celeste introduce themselves and explain the goals for the sessions, then ask participants to develop their own ground rules for the week. The mood in the pine-paneled room lightens considerably when a muscular 20-something from the heating plant calls out "no group hugs" and the facilitators add it to the list, along with "confidentiality," "respect" and "fun." Then they turn the program over to AF&F human resources director Chris Halladay. "Leadership isn't just what the president and vice presidents do," he says. "Anytime you're noticing something that doesn't work and you're doing something to change it, that's leadership."

When he finishes, the facilitators ask for questions and a well-groomed executive assistant raises her hand. "I think it's atrocious to spend this much money on training when people are losing their jobs," she says. A few of the participants look nervous at her candor, and others seem to agree, but the facilitators just nod. Emboldened, a man comments that some people in his division don't practice what Turning Point preaches. Someone else asks -- why, if this is such a valuable program, other campus units haven't begun offering it?

When the questions die down, the facilitators respond. Halladay says employee development saves jobs in times of tight budgets, and he describes how Kmart eliminated its training programs to save costs in its competition with Wal-Mart and ultimately went into bankruptcy and had to lay off more employees because poor customer service had led directly to lower sales and lost income. Burkgren, manager of Organizational Learning and Development and a facilitator at AF&F who earned a Cornell Ph.D. in educational psychology this spring, tackles the question about other Cornell divisions. "It's a huge risk to ask employees what they think," she says. "Are supervisors ready to receive that kind of feedback?"

The discussion lasts close to an hour, and at the end of the day Burkgren comments that each Turning Point group has its own personality. This group, she says, stands out for its honesty -- and listening openly to their criticisms is crucial to the program's success. These kinds of questions are expected and normal for the first day of a new experience and contrast with the opinions of participants on the final day. "They are not discouraged from 'putting down' the program if they do not believe it has been effective for other individuals who have attended prior to them," she wrote in her 2001 master's thesis analyzing Turning Point's efficacy. "The organization wants them to realize the importance of openly, albeit respectfully, talking about the positives and negatives of what is happening around them so that they begin to understand that the organization appreciates open and honest communication and feedback."

Division administrators say such honesty and conflict resolution skills have been cost-effective for the university. They have tracked the return on investment for their training efforts and are more than satisfied that they have invested the university's resources very wisely. AF&F couldn't afford not to invest in Turning Point, Burkgren said. "Once people know what's expected of them," she said, "they can produce at a really high level."

To help staff know what's expected and assess how they're doing, the division uses 360-degree evaluations, performance surveys completed not only by the employee and his or her supervisors, but also by colleagues and customers. Each Turning Point participant receives a randomly numbered 360 packet in early March and is asked to select 15 co-workers to anonymously complete the surveys. The answers are tabulated -- using automated scanning equipment that tabulates the data and produces each individual's report. On Tuesday afternoon, the facilitators explain how to read and utilize the information, and then they distribute the results. The room is quiet as everyone rips open the sealed envelopes and flips through five pages of a personal skills assessment that includes 43 questions measuring an individual's perceived performance in each of the division's five values. Some participants say they're nervous to learn what their peers think. "I was humbled," a custodian said several times later in the week, as he recalled how highly his colleagues rated his performance. An electrician said employees in the shop have an unspoken agreement to use the 360 as an opportunity to give positive feedback.

Throughout the week, the group practices strategies for taking responsibility for and improving their performance and helping their co-workers do the same. On Friday, facilitators ask how participants will use what they've learned. A Transportation employee says he's realized that he could take the AF&F values home to his family and treat them with as much respect as he does colleagues and customers. A pipefitter says he plans to start mentoring the apprentices in his shop. A woman from the finance office says she wants to start the employee degree program. And the quietest member of the group not only speaks, but says perhaps she'll take the AF&F facilitator training someday.

While Turning Point is only offered to AF&F employees, this spring Cornell Information Technologies adapted the curriculum to its values and launched a pilot program for 240 CIT staff people. Polly McClure, vice president for information technologies, and the division's directors and department heads took the university-based leadership training earlier this year.

"This is a cultural change process," said Roxi Hewertson, AF&F director of administration, who helped create the AF&F Leadership Development Program, CULDP, Turning Point and the CIT program. "You have to have buy-in from the division vice president or it would be pointless to provide these programs. It requires commitment and involvement from the senior leaders of the organization. The skill sets Turning Point and LDP teach aren't unique, but the way they're taught and integrated into the organization is."

For more information on leadership training at Cornell, contact Chet Warzynski, Organizational Development Services director for University Human Resources, at 254-8308 or ccw7@cornell.edu. For information on Turning Point, contact Kathy Burkgren at 255-7867 or klb18@cornell.edu.

Sharon Tregaskis is an associate editor at Cornell Alumni Magazine and participated in the weeklong Turning Point training, honing her listening and conflict resolution skills.