Implementation

Most grand strategies flop. Most big "change programs" fizzle. Why? We worry too much about the plan -- and not enough about implementation.Looking back on 35 or so years of being managed, managing fTC and observing organizations, I offer a few of the top implementers' secrets:* Listening.You'll invariably find answers -- if your ears are open.The average boss is a better talker than listener; so, too, the average salesperson.On the other hand, peak performers in any role may be close to inarticulate -- but they absorb a million details of what's on other folks' minds.

Harford County Public Schools announced last Friday that it will implement a four-day work week schedule for an eight-week period – from mid-June to early August – to save money and to have its facilities open into the early evening for parents who need to meet with school personnel. As a result, all but a handful of school buildings and other facilities will be closed on Fridays this summer, and the school system's 12-month employees will work four 10-hour days from the week of June 17 to 21 through the week of Aug. 5 to 9. "This new cost-saving strategy will save the school system approximately $120,000 by closing buildings for one day each week during an eight-week period throughout the summer," Superintendent Dr. Robert M. Tomback said in a news release announcing the change.

WASHINGTON -- Attorneys for Maryland have asked a federal court to dismiss a civil rights group's suit charging that the state has failed to implement the "motor voter" law.In a motion filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, the state said claims by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. that Maryland is not upholding the National Voter Registration Act -- which requires voter registration at motor vehicle, social service and other...

The chemical and fertilizer plant in the town of West, Texas, where at least 15 were killed and more than 200 injured a few weeks ago hadn't been fully inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration since 1985. (A partial inspection by a different agency in 2011 resulted in $5,250 in fines.) OSHA and its state partners have a total of 2,200 inspectors charged with ensuring the safety of more than 8 million workplaces employing 130 million workers. That comes to about one inspector for every 59,000 American workers.

As a consultant, I've worked on any number of huge corporate reorganizations. Typically, a steering committee toils for three or four months creating an overall organization concept. It takes another three or four months to flesh out the details. Bickering with top management absorbs yet another few months. At the end of about a year, the top 25 to 100 managers have finally agreed on a scheme.Now it's time to "sell it to the troops." A slick, 30-minute slide presentation is put together, accompanied by a videotaped introduction by the chairman.

PHILADELPHIA -- Pennsylvania's abortion battle is crossing state lines.Just across the border in New Jersey, telephone lines are lighting up at the Cherry Hill Women's Center as clinic workers field calls from those seeking a way to bypass one of the nation's strictest anti-abortion laws."

ATLANTA -- Special mediator William J. Usery said yesterday that he has urged ownership to back away from the threat to implement a salary cap, but baseball's long-running labor dispute still appears to be moving in that direction.Usery, who addressed a crowd of about 90 players during the second day of a Major League Baseball Players Association executive board meeting, said that implementation would be counterproductive to his goal of forging a new relationship between the players and owners.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- For the third time in six months, Indonesia reached a new bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund yesterday, this time pledging to meet "to the letter" all commitments to reform its crisis-ridden economy.Disappointed by Indonesia's promises twice before, the IMF plans to monitor progress closely in the world's fourth most populous nation.Yesterday's compromise package came after three weeks of heavy bargaining. Indonesia showed new willingness to disband monopolies, while international lenders will allow Indonesia to cling to some subsidies to head off potential social unrest over rising prices.

More than three months after President Bush signed an amended international agreement that could halt a "frenzy" of adoptions of Marshall Islands children in Hawaii and Utah, no schedule to enforce the pact has been worked out between the State Department and the small country in the western Pacific. "The delay in implementation is jeopardizing the integrity of the adoption process and encouraging a frenzy of unethical adoptions," said Jini Roby, a Utah professor and attorney who has been serving as an unpaid consultant to the Marshall Islands government on the adoption issue and who helped write the country's adoption statute.

RYE BROOK, N.Y. -- The Major League Baseball Players Association will make one last attempt to dissuade ownership from implementing a salary cap. But the contract proposal that the union will place on the table when negotiations resume today is not expected to produce a breakthrough in the protracted labor dispute.The list of union givebacks does not include a salary cap or the kind of severe taxation plan that would have a direct impact on payrolls, so the owners are expected to go through with their plan to declare an impasse next week and impose a modified version of their original salary cap proposal.

Maryland tapped the nonprofit Seedco to help implement health care reform despite a $1.7 million settlement the agency agreed to in December to resolve a federal fraud suit. The U.S. government sued the agency, saying it defrauded a federal employment program by falsely saying it found jobs for hundreds of New Yorkers. As part of the agreement, Seedco admitted to the false reporting. Maryland health officials announced last week that Seedco, headquartered in New York but with operations in Maryland, was one of six agencies chosen to educate people about reform and help enroll them in health insurance plans.

With rampant abuses of automated speed enforcement camera systems across the state well-documented by the news media and AAA Mid-Atlantic, the House Environmental Matters Committee on Tuesday is poised to review a series of bills to fix a broken system. AAA Mid-Atlantic worked with the legislature in 2005 to launch Maryland's first automated speed enforcement program in residential areas and school zones in Montgomery County. Again in 2009, we were before the legislature supporting the expansion of automated speed enforcement camera systems statewide for use in work and school zones.

If any bureaucratic hurdles remain to implementing same-sex marriage, Gov. Martin O'Malley wants them identified and resolved quickly. The governor sent a directive to his cabinet Thursday requesting all state agencies "work expeditiously" to give equal marriage rights to same-sex couples in Maryland.  "Many areas of Maryland law address marital status - including insurance, taxes, governmental benefits, and property - and many State...

If there is a general theme that runs through The Sun's investigation of speed camera programs on the state and local level in the Baltimore area, it is this: Governments have found ways to follow the letter of the law that maximize the number of citations issued while flouting the spirit of the law that protects the public from erroneous tickets. The law is designed to prevent the camera operator from being paid on a per ticket basis, but Baltimore City, Baltimore County and, to an extent, Howard County found a way around that.

The Baltimore Fire Department has implemented a strict new social media policy outlining what firefighters can post on Twitter, Facebook and personal blogs — drawing criticism that the department is trampling on First Amendment rights. Under the policy, department personnel can be reprimanded for anything they write online about their jobs that doesn't adhere to conduct rules, which require "good judgment" and "courtesy and respect to the public and to fellow employees. " The policy also restricts them from sharing information about fire scenes.

Baltimore schools CEO Andres Alonso sent an email to the community this week promoting an "objective, third-party analysis" of his student funding model. But The Baltimore Sun found that the company that did the report helped him implement that program. On Monday, the schools chief promoted the five-page report that examined the success of Baltimore's per-pupil funding formula, called Fair Student Funding, which Alonso introduced in the district in 2008. The report, published Sept.

THE SUN published an editorial (Sept. 9) and before that several articles suggesting that $5.9 million of the Baltimore City public schools' $27 million deficit was the result of cuts by the state legislature. This is not true.Under the law, the legislature cannot cut education aid to any jurisdiction. However, it can withhold aid.The legislature has been concerned for some time about the ability of the city schools' leadership to properly manage state and local resources and the impact that has on students.

WASHINGTON -- The Major League Baseball Players Association is winning the paper chase, but it remains to be seen whether a couple of unfavorable government rulings will discourage the owners from declaring an impasse in baseball's prolonged labor dispute.The National Labor Relations Board notified management's Player Relations Committee on Friday that it would not pursue an unfair labor practice complaint against major-leaguers Bobby Bonilla and John Franco for allegedly threatening players with violence if they cross union picket lines.

Baltimore City has been chosen as the next school district to receive a comprehensive arts-education program from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the organization and city officials announced Monday. The program, "Any Given Child," will create a long-range arts education plan for Baltimore students in grades kindergarten through eight, and will be tailored specially for Baltimore city students by incorporating resources from city schools and other local arts organizations, according to a release.  The Kennedy Center will begin devising Baltimore's plan--which aims to have little administrative costs by partnering with renowned arts organizations and the local Arts Every Day program--with a comprehensive audit of arts education in city schools, which its consultants will conduct in the next six to nine months.

The U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division has not visited the Baltimore City Detention Center in nearly two years, despite an agreement with the state to oversee reforms at the facility. The jail's handling of juveniles has been a continuing concern for the Justice Department, and attorneys and youth advocates say changes made last year have exacerbated conditions. The Baltimore Sun has reported that youths describe regular attacks among detainees and lax supervision by correctional officers.