National Association for
Court Management
Moving Beyond the Fire Drill
Hitting the “Reset” Button on Priorities
for your Court
NACM National Conference
Minneapolis, Minnesota
February 2012
Robert M. Coyne, M.S., CEO
Agenda
 Introductory Comments
 Court Challenges - Transforming Crisis into
Opportunity
 The Priorities Challenge
 Strategies to Define Priorities
 “Turn Down the Noise” – How to Stop the
Fire Drills
Court Challenges
Transforming Crisis into
Opportunity
The Context of the Challenge - From the ABA Task Force on
Preservation of the Justice System
State judicial officers have attempted to cope with budget cuts and other
reductions in various ways -- all of which have a direct and negative effect
on the pace and quality of adjudications. Over the last two years:
 Twenty-six states have delayed filling judicial vacancies; thirtyone, judicial support positions; and thirty-four, vacancies in
clerks’ offices.
 Thirty-one states have either frozen or reduced the salaries of
judges or staff.
 Sixteen have furloughed clerical staff, with commensurate
reductions in pay; and nine have extended those furloughs to
judges as well.
 Fourteen states have simply laid off staff entirely.
Every State Court could add some bullet to this list!
Transforming Crisis into
Opportunity
None of this is news to you … you live it every day.
Real-life Impacts of the Crisis … who pays the price?
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Delayed / denied access to court services
Families and children
Business community
Public safety impact
An erosion of confidence in the capabilities of the
court to fulfill its most important social roles: being
the community’s arbiter of fairness
 A negative impact on all parts of society when our
courts cannot function efficiently
Transforming Crisis into
Opportunity
Seize the Opportunity
These issues are of vital importance to our communities
The role of Court Managers as the driving the response
to the challenges of our courts cannot be
underestimated. YOU ARE IMPORTANT … WHAT YOU
PAY ATTENTION TO IS IMPORTANT
As a result, increasing our abilities to avoid distraction
and maintain our focus on the “right things” is our role
each day … we need to be the Thought Leaders who
guide the transformations of our courts
Transforming Crisis into
Opportunity
Seize the Opportunity
The fun part - Leave behind the limitations imposed by
the status quo
You are free to discuss, consider, evaluate, redefine,
and redirect your court NOW in ways you couldn’t
before … the crisis opens the door to reframe your
thinking, your services, your operations, and your
management practice in ways that could not be “on
the table” for review if things were better!
Transforming Crisis into
Opportunity
Crisis can transform what previously was impossible
into the possible.
YOU are in the best position to lead organizational
transformation toward sustainable levels of service
BUT ….
Getting there won’t be achieved by accident .. It must
be a highly disciplined process to identify and choose
the priorities for our individual courts
The Priorities Challenge
Our Focus for Today:
 Articulate the critical role of Court Managers to define,
adopt, and act on the priorities of your court
 Discuss institutional and personal barriers that might
distract us from focusing on those priorities
 Suggest approaches to limit / reduce distractions that
divert our attention from our most important objectives
The Priorities Challenge
Focus: The Critical Role of the Court Manager as a
Leader and Decision-Maker
 Leadership
• Leader – responsible for planning, execution,
staffing, organizing , and setting the (cultural
boundaries ) and activities of the court
•
Figurehead - the symbolic head of the team /
organization
•
Liaison - is the communication link among a large
number of internal/external stakeholders as the
representative of the organization.
The Priorities Challenge
Focus: The Critical Role of the Court Manager as a
Leader and Decision-Maker
 Decision-Maker – (Adapted from
Henry Mintzberg’s The Nature of Managerial
Work)
•
Entrepreneurs - Actively seeking out opportunities to position our
courts positively, experiment with new approaches to old problems,
and assume reasonable risks that can advance our mission.
•
Negotiators - Represent the interests of the Court in a wide variety of
situations and negotiates for the most advantageous result.
•
Liaison - is the communication link among a large number of
internal/external stakeholders as the representative of the
organization.
•
Resource Manager – Decides on the optimal allocation of resources
within the resource constraints of the court
The Priorities Challenge
Institutional and Personal Barriers that Could
Distract us From Focusing on Our Priorities
The Priorities Challenge
How do I choose among the many
demands on my time?
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Budgets and Financial Management
Program and Service Management
Docket Management
Internal and External Meetings
Crisis Management
Change Management
HR Issues
Divisional Priorities / Demands
Judicial Priorities
Political Priorities
Fire Drill of the Day
Etc, etc, etc
The Priorities Challenge
Group Discussion:
When you think about your work day,
what drives your “to do” list for the
day?
What tends to get your attention:
That which is URGENT, or that which is
IMPORTANT?
The Priorities Challenge
Group Discussion:
More broadly and beyond the daily fire drill,
Do you have sufficient time to think about,
define, and EXECUTE on your:
•
Strategic Priorities
( Longer Term, Mission Driven)
•
Tactical Priorities
(Shorter Term)
These are fundamental “deliverables” for managers … are they
getting the proper level of attention?
The Priorities Challenge
Group Discussion:
In your view, what are the barriers that block us from acting
on our priorities …
Why is it so easy to “get off track” and so hard
to “get back on track?
Which
One ???
Strategies to Define
Priorities
Define mission-driven priorities - your focus must support the
mission and goals of YOUR court, in YOUR community …
setting priorities drives you to focus on the issues that are
most critical to your court:
 Risk Assessment - Focus on the areas of highest risk to your mission and
operations
 Strategic Positioning - Be able to clearly articulate the value proposition
for court services … your distinctive competencies and your
contribution to the public good
 Service Modeling - Know and define your service levels from essential
(core services) to ancillary and support services (non-core services)
 Collaboration and Execution - Engage your entire court in the process
“Turn Down the Noise” How to Stop the Fire Drills
Reality: We have more control over what we pay
attention to than we realize. Two key concepts:
 Disciplined Thought
 Disciplined Action
What we pay attention to is a
CHOICE
“Turn Down the Noise” How to Stop the Fire Drills
Approaches to Limit / Reduce Distractions that
Divert our Attention from our Critical Roles as
Managers
“Turn Down the Noise” How to Stop the Fire Drills
My Calendar
8 hours … 15 meetings
3rd floor
bathroom has to
close
Day Care called
Office Line
Ringing
Gone 10 minutes 37
new emails
Cell Phone Ringing and
three texts with
attachments
Legislative
Report Due
NACM called
Criminal Division
Crisis
Budget is due
Quarterly
financial
assessment due
Chief Judge would
like to meet … NOW
6 people called
in sick
Court room
clerk is MIA
“Turn Down the Noise” How to Stop the Fire Drills
Transitioning from the Reactive to Active Control of your
Agenda:
 The Myth of Multi-Tasking
• Studies show that the brain can really
only focus on one thing at a time …
no matter what the business world thinks!
 Multi-tasking - diverts our attention and undermines
our capacity for disciplined thought and action
 Is a high risk factor for lowered performance …we can
do great work, but time constrains often determine the
quality of the product.
“Turn Down the Noise” How to Stop the Fire Drills
Transitioning from the Reactive to Active Control of your
Agenda:
Information and Stimulus Overload
 Reject the demands of technologies
and efficiencies that have imposed
false expectations for 24/7 attention
to work and “instant response.”
 The issue is still one of priorities … not
everything warrants our immediate
attention or response.
“Turn Down the Noise” How to Stop the Fire Drills
 Control the number of meetings you are invited to and
attend:
 Set defined parameters for meetings you MUST
attend v. those that can be handled in other ways
 Ask yourself if your presence really is required …
remember your role … if the discussions will not
lead to a management-level decision, leave the
meeting to others and get a summary report.
 Delegate where possible … learn to trust others to
represent you well
“Turn Down the Noise” How to Stop the Fire Drills
 Cell Phones and “Crack Berrys”
 Wonderful tools … but too often they distract our attention from
what we’re doing and constantly “ping” at us as unnecessary
background noise.
 They are addictive DEVICES … not PEOPLE. They do not deserve
more of our attention than our people do. If your stress level is up
during this presentation because your device is off, it is in control of
you.
 NO ONE DIES if you miss an email, text, attachment, or message.
 Do not allow them to substitute for human interaction … or to
increase your stress when they “scream at us for attention.”
 Put them in their place. They have “silencers”, turn-off buttons,
and alert controls … use them !!!!!
“Turn Down the Noise How to Stop the Fire Drills
 Email
 Define standards for what is sent to you and in what
format … ask your staff to direct your attention by
labeling the subject matter as:
 Urgent
 Action Required
 Decision
 Advisory (FYI)
 Turn off email notifications (ping!) and set aside
time to review bulk emails … the constant
interruptions from email delivery kills our ability to
focus and concentrate.
“Turn Down the Noise” How to Stop the Fire Drills
 “Open Door” Policies
• Evaluate based upon the extent
to which this practice interrupts your
thinking and the flow of your work !
 How often is your attention taken from the
task at hand by unscheduled interruptions?
 What is NOT getting done in a timely way
if you allow uncontrolled access to you?
 Experiment with a set time slot where you are available to
staff ... and then, BE available !
“Turn Down the Noise” How to Stop the Fire Drills
 Spend time making a list that identifies other areas of
distraction … those things that take your time and
attention out of proportion to their importance
 Adopt practices that control those distractions as
well.
 ???
 ???
 ???
“Turn Down the Noise” How to Stop the Fire Drills
 Practice Strategies to “Turn Down the Noise” … keep those that work,
discard those that don’t … but keep trying! Focus on what YOU can
control … and understand what you cannot control.
 Recognize that you are human … and that the more time and attention
you devote to the critical role you serve, the more your court will benefit
 Have open discussions with your team on how your work model might
change … and why that is critical for unit/team success.
 Communicate to your staff that it’s OK for them to adopt new practices
as well to gain more control over their daily activities … they may need
“permission” to begin to work in a different way.
 Commit to focusing attention on what is important .. . the urgent will
always be there but need not take control of our attention.