Our approach is key.

CDI HS’s project management and organizational structure for the National Interim Management Contract (NIC) project is based on the philosophy and best practices described below. This high-performance approach to project management is so successful that ACF nominated CDI and the NIC project for an Innovations in American Government Award.

The philosophy underlying CDI HS’s work as an interim manager is a view that all people want to do good work. We believe they will be empowered to do so when:

• The work is structured around whole tasks of the project
• People are clear about what is expected of them
• Staff receive regular, frequent feedback about their performance
• Employees experience a measure of decision-making autonomy over their work
• Opportunities to develop new skills are available
• People experience a sense of contributing to the organization's goals
• Team members experience collaborative respectful relationships with co-workers

Throughout CDI HS’s six years of interim services, the foundation for making our accomplishments possible has been designing ourselves as a learning organization, committed not only to continuous improvement of the services provided to programs and regional and national offices, but also to repeatedly reinventing ourselves to embrace the enormous challenges of rapid expansion and increasingly complex programs and fiscal situations. The application of key learning organization principles continues to be essential to our development as a learning organization.

• There is Nothing Wrong Here - meeting every situation and staff where they are, identifying the positive core of what is working and moving forward.
• Personal Mastery - fostering development in the areas of leadership, communication, accountability and teamwork.
• High Performance Work System Principles and the Head Start Program Performance Standards from our Mental Model - creating a guiding framework for core staff decision making.
• Clarity of Vision, Mission and Values - focusing the direction, energy and commitment beyond everyday tasks, providing a framework for staff decision making.
• Structure for Team Development and Accountability - encouraging individual and team learning in the framework of joint accountability.
• Appreciative Inquiry - identifying and consolidating a foundation of strengths upon which to build, no matter how damaged the program.

It is this framework which allows us to achieve our success in responding to local needs while simultaneously holding fast to the Head Start Program Performance Standards and the principles of organizational excellence.

In addition to our management practices and philosophies, CDI HS has firmly in place many established methods, systems, procedures and materials necessary to serve effectively in carrying-out the interim grantee role with minimum disruption of services. These CDI HS resources may all be modified to address local needs and be as similar as possible to those previously in effect. The protocols include management systems, manuals, written policies and procedures, templates and resources captured in our 11 volume Systems Notebook — which is our central system for documenting our processes.

Partnering with other resources at the local, state and regional levels has characterized all our T/TA work. Building and supporting individual, staff and program-wide effectiveness toward self-sufficiency, first, and capacity for effectively sharing expertise with others, second, have always been the goals.