Queen of Heart: Valerie Herrera
Valerie Herrera serves her community with heart and tenacity, mastering the Peak tools to create equity for those most marginalized in our community.
Leveraging Shared Calendars in a Hybrid World
Last year, the Peak Team implemented a new shared calendaring system using standard event categories in the spirit of balancing our workload, improving our ability to provide coverage for each […]
DenPeakAcademy Brightspot: How Glen Batista “Kaizened” His Work Schedule Process
In 2020 the recreation centers closed for 13 months, and Glen Batista’s department redeployed him five times. This redeployment nudged Glen to work in new environments with other city agencies, […]
Prompt Pay Initiative: The Denver International Airport Team’s “Back to Basics” Approach
This is part three in our prompt payment blog series. You can read the overview post here and learn more about the citywide improvements that came out of that. Denver […]
Planning in the Midst of Chaos: CPD’s Work Prioritization Project
It’s no secret that last year was a difficult one. Safety precautions that were necessary to help contain the spread of COVID-19 had a negative impact on the economy, and […]
DenPeakAcademy Bright Spot: How the DSD Improved Their Policies to Increase Staff Efficiencies
To start, Carissa Mah is one of the most collaborative and dedicated Black Belts in the City & County of Denver (CCD) by way of the Denver Sheriff’s Department (DSD). […]
Diverting Debris and Saving Water: Innovation for the Environment
Joey Hernandez spent his DOTI Black Belt Fellowship with the street sweeping team, saving almost 26 million gallons of water and 668 staff hours in the process.
Walk the Walk to Talk the Talk
Introductory Note: In process improvement, we teach the importance of “going to the gemba”. Wade Blamer is a stand-out innovator in the City, and in particular, his innovation superpower is […]
Prompt Pay Initiative: Parks and Recreation’s Improvements
This is part two in our Prompt Payment blog series. You can read the overview post here, and learn more about the city-wide improvements that came out of that. In […]
Teamwork Makes The Dream Work: Denver’s Tax Compliance & Collection Process Project Highlights
Continuous Improvement requires continuous effort over time, patience, & empathy – teamwork.
Our First Public Service Superhero!
In July, Peak Academy launched our new Public Service Superhero training (PSSH). We ran two cohorts with a Black-Belt inspired curriculum that was modified for the online format and the […]
Front-Line Solutions: How One Employee’s Perspective Changed COVID Problem Solving
If you’ve been through process improvement training, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “go to the gemba”. Gemba comes from the Japanese term meaning “the actual place”. The idea behind this […]
Tasty Food to the Rescue!
Have you ever been hungry? I mean, really hungry? Where nothing else seems possible until you get some food in your belly? In America before the pandemic, 11 million children […]
How To Succeed During a Financial Crisis: Part 2 Review of The Healing Organization
In the first review I covered the story about how Jaipur Rugs employs disadvantaged “lower-caste” women in India, and their business philosophy of serving with love and compassion to restore […]
The Grittiest Generation
We have an opportunity to become The Grittiest Generation, will we take it? Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been reading the book Grit by Angela Duckworth. In it, she presents compelling research that it’s the pairing of passion and perseverance, what she calls grit, that makes a person successful.
How to Deliver on Lingering Action Items – 4 Tips for Success!
If you’ve spent much time with my team, you’ll know that we finish every facilitated workshop or event with a concise list of action items, owners and projected due dates. […]
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