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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRESPONSE - RFP - 8456 NATURAL AREAS ORGANIZATIONAL ASSESSMENTRevolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 0 Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 1 Contents COVER LETTER .................................................................................................................................................... 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY & EXHIBIT A............................................................................................................. 3 Exhibit A .............................................................................................................................................................................. 4 METHODS & APPROACH ................................................................................................................................... 5 Project Approach ................................................................................................................................................................. 5 Scope of Services ................................................................................................................................................................. 5 Deliverables ....................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Sustainability ..................................................................................................................................................................... 10 CONSULTANT QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE ................................................................................... 11 Contact Information .......................................................................................................................................................... 11 Firm Qualifications ............................................................................................................................................................ 12 Project Team Resumes ...................................................................................................................................................... 13 Relevant Projects ............................................................................................................................................................... 15 References ......................................................................................................................................................................... 18 AVAILABILITY ................................................................................................................................................... 19 TEAM PROFILE .................................................................................................................................................. 19 FEES ...................................................................................................................................................................... 20 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................................... 21 Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 2 February 17, 2017 City of Fort Collins Purchasing Division 215 North Mason Street, 2nd Floor Fort Collins, CO 80524 Email submission: purchasing@fcgov.com RE: Proposal No. 8456 Dear Mr. Stokes and Proposal Selection Team Members: The Natural Areas Department has achieved remarkable success since the inception of the program 25 years ago. The community continues to support the growth, protection and management of natural areas in Fort Collins through its support of sales tax dedication to fund land protection, operations and administration and related activities of the Department. With this community endorsement comes a large responsibility for the Department to provide opportunities to recreate, connect, and play in these protected areas. Through its planning efforts the Natural Areas Department has obtained community guidance on its path forward for the future. This path provides direction for development of future protection, restoration and stewardship management efforts and strategies, educational and nature-based programming, and integration activities to achieve connectivity, sustainability, climate adaptation and community planning & development objectives. Critical to the success and sustainability of these efforts is the alignment of the Department’s structure, operations and capacity in order to deliver the services and activities promised to the community. Revolution Advisors is truly the ideal partner for the City of Fort Collins on this project. We have recently completed similar projects for two major open space / natural areas programs in the Front Range (City of Boulder and Jefferson County) and our success in those projects led to a presentation at the 2016 Colorado Open Space Alliance conference on preparing these programs for the future. In addition to these natural areas specific projects, Revolution Advisors is a nationally recognized expert in the areas of Organization Design and Workforce / Capacity Planning. Finally, Revolution Advisors has been a key consulting partner for the City of Fort Collins since 2014 on a number of Human Resources issues. We are currently working on the implementation of a new job architecture across the City, and that work is directly relevant to future organization structures for the City. Through that work, we have built an in-depth understanding of the City and its operations and we have built strong working relationships with nearly every Service Area and the Executive Leadership Team (ELT). This knowledge and experience will help us ensure that we can design an effective Natural Areas organization that has the resources and structure it needs for the future that is also in alignment with the future HR directions for the City. We look forward to the opportunity to discuss our qualifications with you further. Sincerely, Brian Wilkerson Cover Letter Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 3 Executive Summary & Exhibit A Revolution Advisors and our consultants bring over 20 years of experience in organizational assessment and design. The team of experts we have selected for the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Department Assessment project has core skills in human capital and workforce planning, municipal and conservation planning, service delivery and change management. We have designed a customized process that reflects our familiarity with the City of Fort Collins, and our understanding of local open space/land management agencies. Throughout this proposal we have detailed key steps and tasks associated with leading the Natural Areas Department to a desired future state that will enhance effectiveness, build organizational resilience and ensure capability to deliver community services. The key process steps associated with this effort allows for detailed assessment and evaluation of:  Structure, operations, program area design and function  Staffing, job skills, competencies, performance, workloads  Operating standards and processes  Guiding documents, metrics, budget  Communication We will summarize the results of our assessment and evaluation with a findings report to identify what is working well, preliminary focus areas, structural adjustments and recommendations for needed areas of improvement. The preliminary recommendations will be a result of ongoing communication between our project team and will be tested against our proprietary models we use to evaluate organizational impact and resilience to future change. The City’s feedback and review of the project findings and recommendations are essential to ensure proposed improvements meet project goals and objectives. Once we receive feedback on the recommendations, we will finalize the future state structure and organizational recommendations. A transition plan will be developed to help usher changes throughout the organization with key activities. A written report and PowerPoint presentation will be developed to provide your team with a written reference of the project, and summary for use in presenting the project to others. Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 4 Exhibit A PROPOSAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Consultant hereby acknowledges receipt of the City of Fort Collins Request for Proposal and acknowledges that it has read and agrees to be fully bound by all of the terms, conditions and other provisions set forth in the RFP. Additionally, the Consultant hereby makes the following representations: a. All of the statements and representations made in this proposal are true to the best of the Consultant’s knowledge and belief. b. The Consultant has obtained all necessary authorizations and approvals that will enable the Consultant to commit to the terms provided in this proposal. c. This proposal is a firm and binding offer, for a period of 60 days from the date hereof. d. I further agree that the method of award is acceptable to my company. e. I also agree to complete the proposed Agreements with the City of Fort Collins within 30 days of notice of award. f. If contract is not completed and signed within 30 days, City reserves the right to cancel and award to the next highest rated firm. g. I acknowledge receipt of ___X__ addenda. Consultant Firm Name: Revolution Advisors Physical Address: 10170 Church Ranch Way, Suite 100; Westminster, CO, 80021 Remit to Address: SAME AS ABOVE Phone: 720.406.5301 Authorized Agent of Firm Name: Brian Wilkerson Signature of Authorized Agent: Primary Contact for Project: Brian Wilkerson Title: Email Address: bwilkerson@revolution-advisors.com Phone: Cell Phone: 303.564.5686 Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 5 Methods & Approach Project Approach Revolution Advisors has helped dozens of organizations, companies and non-profits align their organizations so they are better able to deliver on the services identified by their customers and communities, and help them meet their mission. Recent projects with other Open Space / Natural Areas agencies in the Front Range have helped us apply this approach to your specific industry. Our project approach begins with understanding the context under which the Natural Areas Department operates within. To us, this begins with understanding the community and industry trends that drive the work of your Department. These external forces materialize themselves through service demands for your Department and should ultimately shape the structure, operations, staffing and processes of the organization to enable responsiveness. Revolution Advisors understands the importance of creating this alignment and in the following the sections of this proposal has outlined key steps to help the Natural Areas Department to achieve this goal. Scope of Services The scope of services defines what we see as the key elements associated with conducting the Natural Areas Organizational Assessment. The scope of services reflects our understanding of the items identified in the RFP and our expertise in undertaking organizational design and assessment projects. The breadth of services discussed with each task reflects our familiarity of working with local government land management/open space and natural area agencies. Figure 1. Organizational Design Considerations for Service Delivery Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 6 STEP 1 TASKS 1. Project Kick off & Partnership Launch We begin each of our projects with our clients by laying a foundation for success. The project kick off meeting marks the launch of our partnership together in undertaking the organizational assessment process. Key aspects of this task include:  Discussing & affirming project goals and objectives for the assessment  Establishing preferred format and frequency for communication  Reviewing and refining scope, schedule and budget  Project management approach  Submitting requests for information and materials to initiate process 1.1 Data Gathering & Assessment In order to obtain an in-depth understanding of the Natural Areas Department and the services it provides to the community and visitors, we undertake a series of data gathering and assessment activities that enable us to map the current state of the organization and its operations. To this end, our work for this task involves a variety of activities that provide information on the structural and operational components of the Natural Areas Department, but also involve us in a variety of communication activities with the leadership, staff and collaborating departments to understand the culture, morale and overall energy that drives people to perform in their jobs. We also explore local and regional trends, existing guidance and preferences from the community, Council identified priorities and management plans to provide context to the environment in which the Natural Lands Department operates within. Finally we match and compare your Department’s approach to industry trends and best management practices for similar Open Space and Natural Lands Management Departments. Key components of the data gathering and assessment tasks will include collection and evaluation of the following materials:  Mission, vision, values, guiding principles and other relevant elements from documents that guide organizational work efforts  Organizational structure, departmental budget, work plans, existing metrics, operating standards, key processes, project development and delivery processes  Existing management plans, citizen surveys, Council priorities  Industry trends and best management practices in Open Space/Natural Lands Management  Regional and local demographic trends 1.2 Interviews Personal interviews provide us with an important level of understanding about the organization from a variety of different perspectives in terms of culture and morale; leadership effectiveness; collaboration and communication; and workload, performance, decision-making and accountability. Our proposed list of Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 7 interviewees will provide us with both an internal and external perspective of the department, and includes the following types and format for interviewing:  Individual interviews with leadership including directors, managers and senior staff across each program area  Employee focus groups  External department collaborator interviews 1.3 Activity Analyses An important complement to personal interviews will be the performance of activity analysis of key positions across the Department’s program areas. Activity analyses allow us to understand the primary functions, skills sets and services associated with targeted positions at different levels of the department. It also helps us achieve a better understanding of the amount of time employees dedicate to different functions. The information obtained from the activity analysis allows us evaluate skills, capacity, workloads, allocation of responsibilities, and also point us to areas where improvements are needed and operational efficiencies can be achieved. STEP 2 2. Preliminary Assessment Findings Our project team will conduct an analysis of all the data and information collected as part of Task 1 to evaluate and compare internal structure, operations, programs, resources and budget against long term operations and stewardship needs and external service delivery needs and community demands for services, programs, facilities and amenities. We will evaluate factors that may influence efficiency and effectiveness, structural issues, span, scope and skills associated with positions, and work environment issues among others. We will evaluate if the organization is appropriately set up to achieve its goals, metrics and mission. From this assessment we will identify priority focus areas for the organization and review these finding with the project team, leadership and key stakeholders in the process. Once we obtain agreement on the focus areas, we will begin development of our preliminary recommendations. 2.1 Preliminary Recommendations Development of the preliminary recommendations will be organized by the priority focus areas agreed upon as a result of the assessment and include structure recommendations, skills development, process and work environment changes, and other potential changes that will improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the group and position the organization for future success. Our recommendations will be prioritized to specify areas/actions that should be implemented immediately, Figure 3: Example Priority Focus Areas from Organizational Assessment Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 8 those that could occur within the next six months and those that may need a longer term strategy and/or funding to appropriately implement. To validate the strength of our organizational structure and recommendations we will leverage two of our proprietary methodologies to analyze and test our proposed approach against typical to critical challenges organizations face. First we will “stress test” the recommended organizational design structure. The purpose of stress testing is to understand how well the organization design achieves its intended outcomes and stands up to changing conditions-how resilient will the Natural Areas Department be in the face of change? Our stress testing approach allows us to predict the resilience of the structure to potential changes in processes, workload fluctuations, and a host of other factors that we will uncover during our assessment and in our conversations with you. Figure 4 features typical stress factors we uncover during the assessment phase. The box on the right features capabilities we work to build and enhance in organizations so they increase their capacity to respond to and capitalize on change. The second propriety methodology we intend to use as a part of this project is our Perspectives Analysis in order to understand how change might impact various stakeholder groups. This approach allows us to examine the potential impact of the design to different stakeholder groups and possible perceptions of each including: leaders and managers, employees, the community, oversight / regulatory bodies and others. Through this analysis we can look at issues and develop mitigation strategies ranging from design changes to change management strategies. 2.2 Revised Recommendations We will present our recommendations and the results of our testing on the proposed model to the project team for review and feedback. Based on your comments, we will make any needed adjustments to the structure and organizational recommendations. Throughout the process, our team will coordinate closely with the Director and the management team on findings and recommendations to ensure alignment. In addition, our consultants will support the development of communications strategies and messaging for the project that will be focused on ensuring effective change management throughout the process. This component of our work will play a large role in development of the Transition Plan. Throughout these steps in the project, we will ensure that the recommendations for Natural Areas are aligned with the overall Job Architecture and Talent Management initiatives for the City of Fort Collins, which we are partnering closely with the City on. Figure 4. Building Organizational Resilience Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 9 Step 3 Tasks 3.1 Transition Planning Change within an organization is both an exciting and sometimes challenging endeavor. For some it catalyzes work efforts in anticipation of reaching goals with renewed support. For others there is skepticism associated with changing tried and true processes that seemed to work well already. Organizational change is as much about people as it is about operational and process improvement for service delivery. Effectively managing changes requires appropriate transition planning to lead staff towards your desired future state. While transition planning is focused on implementation, communication and stakeholder engagement begins early and continues throughout the process. The development of key messages and providing frequent communication with staff about the intent and expected outcomes associated with this project lays an important foundation for beginning the transition process. As mentioned earlier, our team will work with the Project Team to craft key messages to share with staff, as well as develop strategies for ensuring that those impacted by changes are supportive of the project and its objectives. Once we confirm support for the Natural Areas Department Organizational Design Recommendations we will detail a full transition plan. Depending on the outcomes of the assessment, a full spectrum of activities will be identified to ensure continuity of the work performed today. These activities often include skills development planning, job shadowing, communications, refinement of roles and resourcing considerations amongst others. This is done to ensure that staff clearly understand how to be successful with new or different responsibilities. It also ensures that the rest of the organization clearly understands how to be successful in working with the impacted functions and personnel. Essentially, an effective transition plan ensures a smooth conversion to the new structure and diminishes the natural dip in productivity teams often see with organizational design changes. We will align the transition plan with key implementation activities, highlighting shorter term and longer term actions to facilitate the change process and the adoption and integration of the new structural recommendations. 3.2 Final Report on Findings, Recommendations and Transition Planning The results of our work together for each step in the process will be compiled into a final written report as well as summarized for a PowerPoint presentation that can be used for presentation purposes. The written report and PowerPoint will include the following process elements:  Assessment process & findings  Key organizational themes  Recommendations  Implementation areas & timing  Transition planning 3.3 Project Administration Project Administration is a core component of our work that we build into the development of our projects that provides transparency to our clients on our internal operating and administration needs to meet your objectives Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 10 for success. It begins with our kick off meeting and partnership launch, and is detailed in the project plan we provide to you. It provides both parties with flexibility for ongoing communication, adaptability for changed direction and realistic expectations for the work involved in meeting the goals and objectives associated with the project. Deliverables The following table details the deliverables associated with each of the primary steps for the Natural Areas Assessment project. Step Activity/Tasks Deliverables Step 1 Project & Partnership Launch, Data Gathering, Evaluation & Assessment  Project Kick Off Meeting & Partnership Launch  Project Plan & Schedule  Individual Interviews  Employee Focus Groups  Activity Analyses Step 2 Findings, Recommendations & Feedback  Preliminary Assessment  Preliminary Recommendations  Revised Recommendations Step 3 Transition Planning/Change Management & Project Administration  Change Management Strategy  Transition Plan  Final Assessment, Recommendations & Transition Planning Report  PowerPoint Presentation Summarizing Assessment, Recommendations & Transition Planning Sustainability Revolution Advisors prides itself in the integration of sustainability into our workplace and through our operations, processes and procedures. We leverage the Triple Bottom Line methodology in our business strategies, client engagements, and day-to-day business operations. Our firm utilizes fundamental social, environmental and economic principles to guide the management of our company. We are about more than just improving the financial bottom line. Our number one priority is to provide our clients with the most value for the money spent. We want our clients to be enabled and more capable when we leave and a part of doing that is to look at every interaction and ensure that it is providing the most value. We spend the right amount of time on site to ensure that our assessments are thorough and that our change management approaches have taken hold. Sustainability is also built into the way we design processes. We take into account not only the time and resource efficiencies of tactical changes that need to occur, but the benefits for the workforce as improved processes create opportunities for people to tackle new challenges, new roles, and achieve a renewed sense of delivering value to the city and community. Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 11 As a small business, Revolution Advisors maintains a very small footprint. And yet we are always seeking out ways to further manage our impact on the environment and on the lives of our consultants. Given that we service a global client base, we are very adept at virtual collaboration. Our offices include complete video conference and virtual collaboration capabilities. Throughout the project, we seek to strike the right balance between onsite and virtual work with our priority on doing whatever it takes to get the right results for our clients. This awareness of our environmental impact further plays out in practices such as travel to the client site, where we take care to carpool as much as possible to limit individuals travel. We also support periodic work-from-home technology solutions for our consultants. We use recycled paper and all of our printers are set to dual‐sided printing by default. Because of our collaboration infrastructure, we encourage our consultants to print only what is necessary and work with our clients to be able to present electronically. In addition, we focus on using vendors who have similar track records in terms of sustainability and corporate responsibility. Embracing our broader social responsibilities, we pride ourselves on being good corporate citizens. From the extensive community service that our consultants undertake to the work that we do as a firm in indigenous communities helping them with resource management, economic development, and creating entrepreneurs, our firm is concerned about leaving the world in which we live a better place. As one example, our firm underwrote workshops for municipalities impacted by the massive floods in Colorado to help them work with DOLA and FEMA to get the support they needed for rebuilding. At the individual level, the Individual Development Plan (IDP) we support for our consultants focuses on three key areas: the development of self, the development of the consulting practice, and the development of the community. We encourage and support our consultants to pursue community involvement activities for which they have a passion. Consultant Qualifications & Experience The following section provides an overview our firm, our project team and the specific project experience we bring directly related to the Fort Collins Natural Areas Organizational Assessment. We have included several recent project examples that demonstrate our success in this arena, our in-depth understanding of municipal planning and operations, as well as specific expertise in Natural Areas/Open Space organization, management and administration. Contact Information Brian E. Wilkerson Managing Director, Revolution Advisors 10170 Church Ranch Way, Suite 100 Westminster, CO 80021 720.409.5301 bwilkerson@revolution-advisors.com Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 12 Firm Qualifications Revolution Advisors is a planning and consulting firm based in Westminster, CO. Our firm is made up of a team of experts who specialize in the areas of municipal and regional planning, organizational effectiveness, workforce planning, change management and community engagement with expertise gained from working with local governments, tribal governments, and the non-profit and private sectors. Our work focuses on helping our clients plan for their future and align their organizations so they are effectively positioned to service their community and customers. We help create that often-absent bridge between internal operations and external responsiveness to community and customer needs for services and programs. We do this by helping organizations develop the right structures, operating models, capacity, processes and metrics to implement change and enhance and measure effectiveness. We work hand in hand with staff to understand their operations, core services and responsibilities, budgeting and challenges. We compare and evaluate this information against community desires and demands for programs and services to help organizations to determine the right mix that meets community, financial and leadership goals, along with the organization’s mission and charter. The results are organizations that can nimbly navigate change and better respond to their community’s needs. In response to community’s desire for change, Revolution Advisors also provides community, economic and environmental planning services that are grounded in engaging all community members in dialogues about their hopes, needs and desires in appealing, convenient, and equitable formats. We collect and evaluate this and technical information to help develop strategies to address issues and provide solutions that is focused on action and implementation. Our work leads us to a variety of culturally diverse communities, that range from work on Indian Reservations in Colorado, South Dakota, New Mexico, Washington and Alaska, to communities like Douglas County, Fort Collins, Jefferson County, Weld County, and transitioning communities like Boulder, CO, Broomfield, CO, Tucson, AZ, Santa Fe, NM and West Hollywood, CA. In each of these areas we have tailored our approach to suit the context of the community and towards creating revolutionary change within organizations. We excel in a number of key experiences and competencies including:  Track record of success working with a diverse range of jurisdictions on organizational change, workforce planning, process and performance improvement, leadership, budgeting, training and coaching.  Extensive experience working with diverse stakeholders from different cultural, economic and social backgrounds to develop community visions and associated plans.  Core skills in integrated master planning, environmental planning, land use and economic development and multi-modal transportation.  Extensive experience working with Public Officials, Commissions, Advisory Committees and Community members for change management, plan development and implementation.  Success in driving development and implementation of work programs, long-range projects, and effective budgeting and funding of capital improvements. Our work focuses on the integration of community values/needs into operations and work planning to ensure alignment with service delivery Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 13 Revolution Advisors is truly an ideal partner for the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Department. Our firm has a strong track record of success working with organizational design and process improvement for Open Space Management Departments in the City of Boulder and Jefferson County. For the past two years our work has focused on helping open space agencies evaluate their internal operations against trends and best management practices for natural lands management to identify opportunities to develop and improve processes, reconfigure operations to better respond to community needs for services, recruit and retain talent and better steward and manage existing system assets. In addition to these natural areas specific projects, Revolution Advisors is a nationally recognized expert in the areas of Organization Design and Workforce / Capacity Planning with a 20 year history of success in helping organizations create stronger, more resilient organizations for the future. Finally, Revolution Advisors has been a key consulting partner for the City of Fort Collins since 2014 on a number of Human Resources issues. Through this work we have built an in-depth understanding of the City, its culture and operations, and have developed strong working relationships with executive leadership and the service areas across the city. This knowledge and experience will help us design an effective Natural Areas organization that has the resources and structure it needs for the future that is also in alignment with the future HR directions for the City. Project Team Resumes Our firm is made up of a diverse group of individuals with distinct areas of expertise that come together to create a team focused on developing integrated solutions for the communities we work in. Brian E. Wilkerson, Co-founder and Managing Director PROPOSED ROLE: Principal Advisor & Subject Matter Expert Brian’s career over the past 25 years has focused on the intersection between Planning and People, and he has helped organizations secure their future through cutting-edge planning techniques and innovative Human Capital strategies. He has helped dozens of organizations build the right plans, structures, processes, and capabilities to fulfill their missions and goals. Brian has worked directly with the City of Fort Collins over the past 3 years as well as a number of local and state governments across the Front Range and across the United States to provide innovation in organizational design and development, strategic planning and performance improvement. This has included working with City of Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks and Jefferson County Open Space. His efforts have resulted in dramatic performance improvements and organization designs that have helped organizations better deliver services and respond to community needs through alignment of organizational priorities with staffing, operations and processes. His guidance helps organizations identify, measure and better deliver the tools and capacity needed to provide public services in a responsive, effective and efficient manner. Brian is a frequent and invited speaker for local and national conferences on the topic of organization design and resilience, leadership and workforce planning. Most recently he spoke at the 2016 Colorado Open Space Alliance (COSA), conference as part of panel with Open Space Directors from Boulder, Broomfield and Colorado Springs discussing leadership and management of open space systems for the future. He has been honored to receive recognition for his planning work from organizations such as the American Planning Association and the National Science Foundation. Representative Past Roles:  Founder and CEO, WisdomNet  Global Practice Leader, Watson Wyatt Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 14  Vice President of Process & Planning, Level 3 Communications  Senior Manager on the Global Transition & Transformation Team, Andersen Consulting  Adjunct Faculty member, Daniel’s College of Business at the University of Denver Education:  Master Degree in Urban Regional Planning, University of Colorado at Denver  Bachelor Degree in Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati  Certificate in Urban Planning, University of Cincinnati Melissa Antol, Senior Consultant PROPOSED ROLE: Project Manager and Subject Matter Expert Melissa has more than 15 years of planning leadership experience in municipal governments such as Tucson, Santa Fe and West Hollywood, as well as through her work with national organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, the National Parks and Conservation Association and the Colorado Natural Areas Program. Her expertise includes local government management and administration, project and program management, process improvement, community engagement, strategic planning and integrated long-range planning. Melissa professional background in municipal government provides her with an intimate understanding of the political and community dynamics that local governments navigate in managing operations and delivering on the services identified by communities. She has an in-depth understanding of government operations, funding, programs and staffing, and the nuances of government culture. She is skilled at process assessment and improvement and in developing integrated and collaborative work styles across organizations. Melissa’s recent organizational design/change management projects have included working with City of Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks and Jefferson County Open Space. Representative Past Roles:  Long Range and Mobility Planning Manager, City of West Hollywood  Senior Project Manager, City of Tucson Department of Transportation  Community Planner, Santa Fe County Land Use Planning Department  Program Associate, The Nature Conservancy  Program Assistant, Colorado Natural Areas Program Education:  Master’s Degree in Urban & Regional Planning/Environmental Planning, University of Colorado at Denver  Bachelor of Arts in Political Science & Environmental Policy, University of Washington Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 15 Kristen Cooksley, Senior Consultant PROPOSED ROLE: Subject Matter Expert, Project Management Kristen brings more than 15 years of experience in leading successful organizational transformation efforts and has worked around the globe on major change initiatives. Her areas of expertise span across Human Capital Management with a particular focus on organizational design, change management and talent development. Kristen has deep organizational design experience, and has helped many organizations re- engineer their positions and structures. She led the design work for Sony Pictures Entertainment as they launched a new global service center, she successfully integrated multiple sales teams at Blue Shield of California, and managed multiple design efforts focused on specific departments, such as the City of Boulder Public Works Organizational Assessment project. She is skilled at applying the latest tools and techniques for best assessing and designing positions, teams and full organizations. She is certified in a number of Organizational Effectiveness tools and assessments, and holds an SPHR Certification. She is a member of the Organization Development Network, the Association for Talent Development, the Professionals in Human Resources Association, and served as President on the Board of Directors for a local school and 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Representative Past Roles:  Principal / Owner, Kacey Consulting  Director, Change Management Services, Sony Pictures Entertainment  Manager, Organizational Effectiveness, Blue Shield of California Education:  Master Degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte  Bachelor Degree in Psychology, Northern Illinois University Relevant Projects City of Ft. Collins – Total Rewards and Job Architecture Project (2014-present), Revolution Advisors engaged with the city for a multi-phase project to redefine and enhance the City’s total reward system. We initially conducted a comprehensive assessment of Talent Management processes across the City and identified a number of areas where improvements were needed to help the City better attract and retain talent. Since the initial assessment in 2014, we have implemented a number of changes and improvements including the Quarterly Performance Alignment (QPA) and a new Upward Feedback process that replaced the previous Pay for Performance program and enables employees to receive and provide timely and meaningful performance feedback with their respective direct manager. Building on this success, we shifted focus in 2016 toward compensation and completed the initial design of citywide job architecture with more than half of the Service Areas. Ultimately, we found ways to differentiate skill sets to ensure that people were paid appropriately and competitively, as a mechanism to retain talent. Additionally, the full job architecture will align the city’s position structure, so that it is consistent from area to area, and sustainable over time. This greatly enhances career mobility, and further facilitates talent retention. Through this project, we not only successfully achieved the project objectives, but we were able to partner with Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 16 leaders throughout the organization, and build strong, productive relationships. We have an in-depth understanding have the culture and climate, and have the practical knowledge about how to get things done within the City of Ft. Collins. Specifically, by mapping the majority of the existing positions, we understand the roles, structure, service offerings, and have a built a strong partnership with the Human Resources team, as well as Community and Operations Services. We have a keen understanding of the key stakeholders and the future direction of the organization, providing Revolution Advisors with unique insights and a significant background knowledge that would be otherwise difficult to build. We have partnered with the following functional areas:  Executive Services - complete  Judicial Services - complete  Legal Services - complete  Planning, Development & Transportation - complete  Sustainability Services - complete  Utility Services - complete  Financial Services - complete  Information & Employee Services - complete  Community & Operations Services – in process  Police Services – in process City of Fort Collins, Finance Organization Assessment, (2015) Working directly with the CFO for the City of Ft. Collins, Mike Beckstead, we conducted an assessment and evaluation of the positions, skills, and talents of Finance staff both in Financial Services and deployed to the service areas. Based on the assessment, we helped develop new structures, job families and job descriptions for the finance positions to enhance alignment with public and private benchmarks, as well as the future direction of the City. We created consistency across the city in the hiring, management, deployment, and development of finance positions, and developed career paths that enabled both horizontal and vertical career development for finance positions. This ensured citywide alignment of incumbent qualifications, scope of responsibility, authority, position structures and compensations. This work further enhanced our working relationships with the Executive Leadership Team, as this work was seen as a pilot for advancing the job architecture for the rest of the City. It also helped provide an in-depth understanding of the employees, positions, levels, structures and anticipated future plans for the City in terms of organizational growth. We have direct experience performing organizational assessment and design work within the City, and know the how to successfully accomplish project objectives within the context of the City’s structure and work environment. Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 17 City of Boulder, Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP), (2014 – Present) Revolution Advisors has worked with OSMP for the past two years to help the organization enhance its operational effectiveness and capability to meet open space management and community demands for the future. Our team worked with Tracy Winfree, the OSMP Director to evaluate the overall structure, staffing and operations of the department to identify opportunities to enhance effectiveness and create efficiencies. Phase 1 of our work involved evaluation of existing structure, leadership positions and purpose and operations of each of the program areas in the department. We evaluated key operations and processes including, budgeting, work planning, project management and permitting. We also reviewed relevant guiding documents such as management plans and SOPs. Our work involved extensive interviews, employee focus groups and staff presentations and regular meetings with leadership. This regular interface with the department provided us with an in-depth understanding of the culture and morale of the department as wells as critical insight for areas of improvement. Based on our assessment and recommendations for improvement, we realigned the department to balance the demands for services identified by the community, and reconfigured the structure to encourage more collaboration across program areas, and externally with community groups and constituents. Based on our recommendations, Revolution Advisors was contracted to work on a Phase 2 effort to implement our primary recommendations. During Phase 2, we led implementation of specific activities that included: development of a leadership strategy, job description development, management training and coaching, and development of a trails capacity planning model to identify Trails Area Plan implementation capability and trails stewardship needs. Additionally, we updated the Ranger Services MOU and Operations Manual. Revolution Advisors is presently working with OSMP on a Phase 3 effort to identify and assess the core services of the different program areas (work groups) within the department. The objective is to identify how well services are aligned with community values that will be identified as part of their upcoming Master Planning development effort. Our project team has led a series of eleven workshops to obtain the primary services, actions and benefits of the work of these program areas. Jefferson County Open Space Department (JCOS), (2015-2016) Revolution Advisors worked with Tom Hoby, the Director of JCOS to lead an organizational assessment and design process for the Jefferson County Open Space Department to identify opportunities for enhanced effectiveness in response to shifting demands for open space management. Our assessment involved a review and evaluation of existing structure and operations, programs areas (purpose and functions), processes and guiding documents, as well as staff interviews and focus groups. Part of our assessment from management and staff revealed challenges with prioritization, work planning, decision-making and accountability. Many aspects of these challenges stemmed from culture, while some areas were a result of structure and processes. Our recommendations helped the organization better understand short-term actions to begin to address these and other challenges. Revolution Advisors was contracted to assist with implementation of some of our recommendations through a Phase 2 process. During Phase 2 of our work, we worked closely with the director and management to develop an executive alignment framework for use in institutionalizing cultural norms and behaviors improved communications and decision-making protocols. We worked with managers across the organization to improve team effectiveness through coaching, and development of work planning templates. We led process mapping workshops with staff to develop a lifecycle project management and prioritization Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 18 process that identified key process steps for the planning, design, construction and stewardship of projects. Finally we provided a prioritization template to assist in managing shifting project priorities. The projects above illustrate our specific experience with organization assessment in the Open Space / Natural Areas field, as well as our specific relevant work within the City of Fort Collins. As mentioned above, this is just a sample of our organization assessment, organization design, and workforce planning experience. Additional examples of public sector clients that we have done similar work for over the past 5 years include:  City of Boulder (multiple departments)  City of Loveland  Jefferson County Emergency Communication Authority  City and County of Broomfield  City of Arvada  City of Lafayette  Douglas County  Denver Public Schools  State of Colorado In addition to our public sector work, we have done similar projects for a number of private sector organizations such as Pinnacol Assurance, Yamaha, CableLabs, Western Union, and a host of others. We would be happy to provide additional detailed examples as desired. References 1. Mike Beckstead Chief Financial Officer City of Fort Collins 215 N Mason Fort Collins, CO 80524 970.556.5739 mbeckstead@fcgov.com 2. Tracy Winfree Director Open Space & Mountain Parks City of Boulder 66 South Cherryvale Road Boulder, CO 80303 303.441.4164 winfreet@bouldercolorado.gov 3. Tom Hoby Director Jefferson County Open Space Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 19 Jefferson County 700 Jefferson County Parkway Golden, CO 80401 303.271.5930 thoby@co.jefferson.co.us 4. Jamie Heckman Manager of HR Technology & Compensation City of Fort Collins 215 N Mason Fort Collins, CO 80524 (970) 416-4221 JHeckman@fcgov.com Availability The proposed project team is committed to providing the highest caliber of service and time needed to ensure a successful work effort for the Natural Areas Assessment. To this end, our two Senior Consultants, Melissa Antol, the Project Manager, and Kristen Cooksley, the Subject Matter Expert and Project Team Lead, are able to dedicate 65% of their time to meet the goals associated with project. Brian Wilkerson, our Principal Advisor, is able to dedicate 20% of his time for this effort to deliver strategic insight and to attend project team meetings, leadership and official meetings. As such, we are able to dedicate our time accordingly to meet the hours scoped for the project. Our project team has flexibility during the weeks of February 27th and March 6th for scheduling on-site interviews. We do have some commitments already scheduled for some of those dates that we would need to work around. We are eager for this opportunity and are committed to working with your schedule for on-site interviews if we should be selected to proceed with the next step of the process. Team Profile For the Natural Areas Assessment project effort, we have assembled a highly skilled team to provide in depth expertise in the areas organizational design, change management, local government operations and open space Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 20 management. Our Project Team includes one of our owners and two of our senior consultant staff. The graphic below illustrates the roles for each of our project team members. Fees Our Not-to-Exceed proposal is $69,150.00 based on our understanding of the activities identified in the RFP. The following table describes the fees and hours associated with the different steps for the project. We understand that this fee is subject to final negotiation should we be selected. The rates proposed are aligned with our current rate structure in place in our contracts with the City of Fort Collins. Step Activity Estimated Hours Cost Step 1 Project & Partnership Launch, Data Gathering, Evaluation & Assessment 161.25 $ 32,050.00 Step 2 Findings, Recommendations & Feedback 134.5 $ 21,400.00 Step 3 Transition Planning/Change Management & Project Administration 51 $ 15,700.00 TOTALS 346.75 $69,150.00 Brian Wilkerson Managing Director Proposed Role: Principal Advisor Melissa Antol Senior Consultant Proposed Role: Project Manager / Subject Matter Expert Kristen Cooksley Senior Consultant Proposed Role: Project Team /Subject Matter Expert Revolution Advisors Proposal Response To RFP 8456: Fort Collins Natural Areas Assessment 21 Conclusion Revolution Advisors appreciates the opportunity to present this proposal to the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Department. As conveyed throughout the proposal, we bring a team with proven experience, the highest level of integrity and unique approaches to organizational design, conservation and municipal planning and change management which we believe position us to be a successful partner for Natural Areas Assessment. In reviewing your stated objectives for the project, we believe that we bring the following specific advantages:  In-depth familiarity with the City of Fort Collins leadership, culture and vision.  Success in delivering similar projects to other City of Fort Collins Departments.  More than 20 years’ experience working with government agencies, non-profits and private corporations on organizational design, capacity and work planning and change management.  Expertise in open space/land management agency operations, planning and management.  Proven track record of designing organizations for better alignment between community needs and service delivery and mission achievement.  Transition planning that transforms initiatives into reality based on effective support, fiscal analysis, and work planning.  Flexibility and responsiveness to meet our clients’ goals towards their desired future. In short, we believe we can provide more than an assessment of the Natural Areas Department. We believe that we can deliver an organizational design and plan that is grounded within a resilient framework that enables the organization to flex and respond with success to changes the Department may face over the next 25 years. We hope to be able to discuss this proposal with you further and look forward to the opportunity to serve you on this project.