Steven J. Golightly, ACF Region IV Hub Director

Head Start Management Retreat

Calloway Gardens — July 13, 1998

I would like to thank Colleen Mendel and the staff of the HSQIC for organizing this very important Management Training Retreat. I would also like to thank the presenters, including Mr. Timothy Nolan, a Head Start Director visiting us all the way from Wisconsin, Mr. William Welsh, DHS Director of Prince Georges County in Maryland, and Mr. Clennie Murphy, former National Director of Head Start. I especially appreciate the Head Start and grantee staff, Board and Policy Council members from around our eight-state Region who have made time in your busy schedules to participate with us this week.

It is no accident that modern corporate executives have adopted outcome-based management practices. This is because the two groups on which corporate executives depend for their very survival are only interested in outcomes. Those two groups: Stockholders and Customers.

Stockholders are the Owners of the company. The corporate Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer serve at their pleasure and are charged with representing them and their interests. What is the outcome demanded by stockholders? — Profit.

Head Start also has stockholders: the people of America. Just as corporate stockholders invest funds in corporations and own those corporations, so also the people of America invest their tax dollars in Head Start and that, ladies and gentlemen, makes the American people the owners of Head Start. Analogous to the corporate board of directors, the Congress of the United States represents Head Start’s stockholders, the American people; and to carry the analogy to its conclusion—the President of the United States, my boss, is Head Start’s chief executive officer.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Head Start community, you are in the Business of Head Start. You have stockholders to whom you are accountable for certain outcomes. The American people expect and deserve a return on their investment and we will either give them the outcomes they demand; or we will go out of business. What outcomes do our stockholders expect of Head Start? The big picture is this: They want to see at-risk children in this country succeeding in their education, employment and life, becoming socially competent and productive members of society. They want to see families moving out of dependency and into lives characterized by employment, self-sufficiency and fulfillment. They want to see strong healthy communities where families and individuals are empowered to increase their economic and social well being and productivity.

This is the outcome out stockholders expect in return for their investment in Head Start. This is quite a tall order, but our stockholders have a right to expect a tall order in return for an investment of 4-plus billion dollars per year. Back in 1965, when our annual appropriation was only 96 million dollars, Head Start attracted little attention. Now, at 4-plus billion dollars, we are under a microscope of scrutiny. This is as it should be, for to whom much is given, much is required in return. So, expect an increase in the probing research, the congressional debates, and the national discussion on Head Start. Expect our stockholders to increasingly hold Head Start accountable for outcomes.

It is against this background of increasing scrutiny and accountability for outcomes that we approach the theme of this conference: "Management for the New Millenium." If we are honest with ourselves, and I believe we must be—Head Start Boards, Policy Councils and managers have adopted a double standard for management. Certainly, there are notable and admirable exceptions, but generally speaking, we have higher expectations for management efficiency in Business than we have for Head Start and other human service programs. A complacency creeps into the management of government grants that would not be tolerated in a business. Issues which are of supreme efficiency for business—customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, achieving outcomes expected by stockholders—seem less urgent for the managers of Head Start and other human service programs.

My hope for this conference; my hope for Head Start Management for the Next Millenium, is that Head Start will abandon this double standard; that we will esteem the dollars invested by the American people into Head Start as much as corporate managers and boards esteem the dollars invested into their corporations by private stockholders; that we will become just as committed to customer satisfaction and excellence in management as private corporations; that Head Start program managers and policy boards will become just as dedicated to achieving expected outcomes as is the case among our business counterparts.

Some may think it unrealistic to expect government-funded human service programs such as Head Start to operate at the same level of energy and management efficiency as private businesses driven by the profit motive. I disagree. In fact, I believe Head Start managers, Boards and Policy Councils should be more motivated, more dedicated, more energetic, and more compelled to achieve even higher levels of management efficiency than their business counterparts. Reflect on this for a moment: The outcome which drives business is profit. The outcome which drives Head Start is making a positive difference in the lives of America’s most vulnerable children and families. As one who believes strongly in our free enterprise system let me say that I am certainly not criticizing corporate culture or the profit motive. In fact I applaud and endorse them. My point is that we in the Head Start community have dedicated our professional lives to a much higher calling. The outcome to which we are committed is so noble, so compelling and of such overwhelming value to our society—that we should accept management standards that not only equal but exceed all others.

As I have said on other occasions and will repeat now, We must combine the best of human services and business. The caring and compassion on which we in human services pride ourselves are not enough in and of themselves to produce the outcomes required of Head Start programs. Our caring and compassion must be combined with the efficiency and management effectiveness usually associated with private business if we as a Head Start community are to produce the outcomes which our stockholders require and our customers deserve.

I know Colleen has arranged a rich array of workshops to assist programs in developing effective outcome-based management strategies. Let me discuss one strategy which I believe is central to the success of any organization: Development of a compelling and motivating vision statement.

The power of a vision statement lies in its ability to give an organization the direction and motivation it requires to achieve expected outcomes. Our nation came into being under the banner of a famous vision statement called the Declaration of Independence. This document became the sacred writ which defined our nation, our beliefs as a people, and stipulated specific outcomes toward which this new country would strive: independence and freedom.

Head Start grantees should develop a vision statement to define your purpose and the outcomes toward which you are striving on behalf of children and families. For Policy Council and Board members, and managers within the grantee agency and Head Start program, this vision statement is your measuring rod against which to assess and develop program strategies, your primary tool for marketing a positive image of Head Start in the community, your best strategy for motivating your staff to achieve defined outcomes. The vision statement, more than anything else, begins to instill in the program leadership and employees a commitment to outcomes rather than process, ensuring that staff efforts are securely focused on defined future targets.

Remember this—when you recruit Board members, when you recruit community representatives to serve on the Policy Council, and when you hire managers, you are recruiting and hiring Visionaries. Those who agree to serve as program leaders must be people of vision, people passionately dedicated to the outcomes to which your program is striving on behalf of children and families.

A vision statement, no matter how lofty or compelling, is useless without visionaries in positions of leadership who passionately promote it. Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence with this commitment; "We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor." These men proved that outcomes other than profit can succeed in motivating people to achieve great things. Of the fifty-six, five were captured by the British and tortured before they either died in captivity or were executed. Twelve, from Rhode Island to Charleston, had their home sacked, looted, occupied by the enemy, or burned. Two lost their sons in the army. One had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six died in the war either of hardships or combat wounds.

These men were committed to a vision; they paid the price to make that vision a reality; and the United States of America was born.

Ladies and gentlemen, think of the great outcomes we can achieve on behalf of children and families if we approach with the utmost seriousness these two issues: 1) Developing a compelling vision statement, and 2) taking care to recruit visionaries to serve on the Board, Policy Council and as managers.

Region IV has begun our Head Start 2002 initiative to promote long term planning in several priority areas. One key outcome as we move toward the new millenium is the expansion of the scope of Head Start to accommodate the needs of families striving for independence. Head Start must begin to serve the whole pre-school arena—pre-natal through age five. Head Start must begin to offer 12-hour days to families which require extended day care; and we must offer Head Start services for 12 months a year. In this era of welfare reform, we simply cannot meet the needs of our customers unless we serve ages zero to five in center operations which accommodate the schedules of those who are employed or are in training to become employed.

Again, Head Start is no different from a business when it comes to customer satisfaction. If we do not meet the needs of our customers, if we do not provide families with the services they require—we will not remain in business very long.

To satisfy our customers we must aggressively partner with other organizations to put together comprehensive service delivery networks. Our Social Service workers must have access to a wide range of services to develop self-sufficiency plans for parents leaving welfare. If parents are to ascend the ladder of self-sufficiency, we must make sure that all the rungs are in place: child care, transportation, counseling, nutrition, literacy classes, GED classes, continuing education classes, health care, mental health services, job training, a job, another job, and finally a meaningful career. No single agency can possibly provide such a wide range of services. Partnering and networking is absolutely essential for management in the new millenium.

Head Start programs must market a positive image of themselves to communities. This is more necessary now than ever, because a good reputation is your best asset when approaching potential partners and seeking participation in the human service delivery system in your community. Head Start programs must make themselves attractive to Public schools, private child care providers, local government, and other public or private service organizations with which you seek to be associated.

Study the various types of affiliation—formal merger, partnerships, informal association, collaboration on an as-need basis, contractor, grantor, grantee, etc. The goal is to secure the resources which your program requires to meet the needs of your customers. Put yourself in the position of your Social Service workers, and make sure these key people have the resources they need to construct self-sufficiency ladders for families.

Let Head Start model the comprehensive service delivery systems we are promoting, both internally within your grantee and externally within the human service community.

Let us tear down the stove pipes which isolate Head Start within Community Action Agencies and other Head Start sponsors. Let us move aggressively to coordinate our internal efforts on behalf of children and families. Let Head Start and our sponsoring agencies model the true meaning of service integration. Consider a few questions:

• Do you have parents or other grantee clients who need transportation to literacy classes, continuing education courses, job training sites, human service appointments, counseling, medical appointments, places of employment, etc., while at the same time your Head Start buses are locked up in garages? Consider this startling statistic: Only 6% of welfare recipients own cars; Head Start buses are used on average only, Three hours per day, Five days per week, Nine months per year!

• Are you coordinating efforts between CAA family case workers, Head Start social service workers, TANF and other human service case workers?

• Are your grantee sponsor’s Board and staff working harmoniously with your Head Start Policy Council and staff toward common customer-focused strategies; or does turf-guarding, resistance to change and the stovepipe mentality fragment your agency efforts and drain away your energy and resources?

I exhort each of you to become ambassadors for harmony between your in-house programs; ambassadors for networking among outside agencies; ambassadors for establishing the integrated service delivery systems so desperately required at this critical moment in our nation’s history. If Head Start is to be an effective advocate of comprehensive, integrated service delivery, then it is absolutely essential that you model service integration in your own house! Then, as a house united, you have the moral high ground from which to promote the integrated service delivery systems we need in every community in America to move families out of poverty and toward self-sufficiency. Then, as a house united, you have the blueprint for teaming up with the whole spectrum of partners required to make a positive difference in the lives of children and families. Then, as a house united, you display the credible leadership needed to advance the culture change and massive collaboration so desperately needed in today’s human service arena.

Let each of us pledge to become those visionaries openly committed to a New Head Start vision for the next millenium, a vision for truly making a difference in the lives of America’s most disadvantaged citizens. We owe this to ourselves as human service workers who take pride in our professional accomplishments; we owe this to our partners who will increasingly look to Head Start for leadership in establishing the service delivery networks of the new millenium; we owe this to our stockholders, the American people; and finally we owe this to our customers, America’s at-risk children and families who, because of us, will have the opportunity to climb that ladder which leads to independence and fulfillment.

Thank you.