Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Why Great Government Is Possible: Teresa Roche’s Blueprint for Talent, Trust, and Transformation

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Why Great Government Is Possible: Teresa Roche’s Blueprint for Talent, Trust, and Transformation · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi,
0:16
and today's guest is Teresa Roche, chief human resources
0:20
officer at the City of Fort Collins.
0:23
They are known for their innovative public services and
0:26
strong focus on sustainability, highlighted by its 2017 US
0:31
Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award.
0:35
Teresa works with a dynamic team to transform the city's
0:38
workforce through programs that promote inclusion, resilience
0:42
and future oriented thinking. She navigated the challenges of
0:46
the pandemic and LED the Future of Work initiative, always
0:49
striving to Co create environments where employees can
0:52
thrive. Teresa's background includes
0:54
time in both private and public sectors and in the city, she
0:58
implemented talent management systems, launched employee
1:02
resource groups, and increased senior leadership hires from
1:06
within. Now before we get into all that
1:08
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AD back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
1:49
today, the Chief Human Resources Officer of the City of Fort
1:52
Collins, Teresa Roche. Thanks for making the time to
1:56
Share your story today. Of course, I'm honored and
1:58
humbled to be here, Anthony. Thank you.
2:00
So, Teresa, what first drew you in the human resources?
2:03
Why were you attracted to it? Well, the truth is I wasn't.
2:08
I had no idea what it was. I didn't have any supposedly
2:14
academic, educational or work experience.
2:17
And I was an intern during my master's and I had a wonderful
2:21
mentor, Dick Stewart, who headed up the placement services at
2:26
Purdue. He came to me one day and he
2:28
said, Teresa, I really think you should consider the private
2:31
sector. And I planned either be a
2:33
therapist, going to higher education, never thought about
2:37
the private sector. In fact, I had an aversion
2:41
towards it, which is interesting.
2:42
That's a long story which we don't need to talk about, but I
2:46
had a black and white view of the world back then.
2:49
And he said in the only company I think you should work for is
2:52
Hewlett Packard because they have a set of values and their
2:56
environment. As such, you will fall in love.
3:00
In fact, I have an interview set up for you tomorrow and I met
3:03
Jerry Carroll and Anthony. Thank God there was no videos,
3:07
social media back then because my interview was pathetic, man.
3:11
I didn't know what I was talking about, but I spoke from my
3:13
heart. Jerry so trusted Dick, I must
3:17
have made some of an impression on him.
3:19
And next I know I flew out to HP in the Bay Area and interviewed
3:24
with people. And this was 1981.
3:26
The world was so different then. And I walked into the division.
3:31
I read all I could, but none of it made sense to me.
3:34
And there was 10 men and one woman.
3:37
And that division had never done interviews for HR people.
3:42
They mostly interviewed engineers.
3:44
So they gave me a technical grill.
3:47
And Anthea, I'll stop with this story.
3:50
They asked me, what do you want to do in five years, Teresa?
3:55
And because I didn't know any better, I just spoke my truth,
3:59
which was, well, when you want to save the world, it's really
4:03
hard to put it in five year increments and nobody.
4:08
You're a rosy idealist. I, Oh my God, now I'm 69.
4:13
So lots changed since then. I hold both joy and sorrow,
4:16
Anthony. But many of the people
4:18
afterwards in my one-on-one detailed interviews said I knew
4:22
exactly what you meant. They took a chance on me and I
4:27
naturally gravitated. And again, there are multiple
4:32
stories I could share, but I fell into it and it was so long
4:36
ago. Anthony was called personnel,
4:38
which is what it was called originally in the Army.
4:41
So my friend, let me pause there because that's how I got into
4:45
human resources. Serendipitous.
4:48
Accidental. Yeah.
4:49
What? What kept you in it?
4:51
Why did you feel once you understood what it was and you
4:54
got your feet wet with it, You were doing it for years.
4:56
Like what? What kept you there?
4:59
So, Anthony, I have the benefit of looking back, I wouldn't have
5:04
said this during my early years, but I look back and a deep
5:09
purpose for me is fulfilled because I so love helping people
5:15
interpret patterns and signals to make meaning and take
5:19
effective action. And that happens every day,
5:23
every moment in the field of human resources.
5:27
So whether it was compensation, benefits, development OD
5:32
staffing, I mean, there are ways to move and make progress with
5:37
people. And I think that just was soul
5:40
work for me. In fact, I would tell people it
5:43
was spiritual for me. When you talk about interpreting
5:49
patterns and signals when it pertains to HR, what does that
5:53
look like? Well, I have a innate ability
5:59
that I notice things both physically and the emotional
6:04
energies. Like I feel things, but I also
6:08
notice things and I'm a big reader, so I scan.
6:13
So I take all these data points, emotional, mental, physical, and
6:19
I make meaning and I'm able to put it in words to offer it to
6:23
others. And so how it's applied in human
6:25
resources. I'll give you a very specific
6:29
example. When I moved into a corporate
6:31
role shortly after I joined Hewlett Packard, a phenomenal
6:35
colleague of mine, Denise Smith Hams, was doing workforce
6:38
planning, which had never been done before.
6:41
And she invited me to part of that.
6:44
And we were able to see that the changes of outsourcing to Asia
6:51
and just the changes in the world and in the Bay Area that
6:56
we needed to identify, there was going to be more workers in a
7:00
certain function than the company was going to need, given
7:04
the pattern and signal of moving to Malaysia and Singapore.
7:09
That became a glorious opportunity to identify
7:12
alternatives because back then in 1985, Hewlett Packard was
7:18
unwilling, unless it absolutely had to, to lay people off
7:22
through no fault of their own. So we came up with some stunning
7:27
programs with the executives of HP and other HR colleagues.
7:32
So that's an example I would share of being attuned, make
7:37
meaning with others and then figure out how do you respond to
7:40
that. Can you tell us about one of
7:42
those programs? Were you able to?
7:44
Pull this off. Yeah, I'll tell you one that I
7:47
ended up personally leading just because of what my role in the
7:51
company was at that time. We had a number of material
7:56
handlers. In fact, I don't think people
7:58
today know what a material handler was, but we have
8:00
material handlers and we knew that there was a time coming
8:04
soon when their employment was no longer going to be in that
8:08
field back anywhere in the Bay Area.
8:11
And I worked with the local Community College, California
8:14
and the Bay Area has some amazing ones.
8:17
And with faculty and a couple of HP leaders, we designed a
8:21
curriculum to help people that were material handlers go
8:26
through a Community College curriculum in a very intense
8:30
focus way to develop skills to be administrative support.
8:36
And it was amazing. And people were challenged by
8:43
it. And yet we knew we had need for
8:46
administrative support. And so the people went through
8:50
this development program and they were successfully placed in
8:54
other positions in the Bay Area. Yeah, it was a big wow.
8:59
Specifically within H. Emotion about that because it
9:01
was so beautiful to see people struggle and then find new
9:05
meaning and then know that they could be employed still.
9:09
Interesting. I wonder how you view what's
9:13
going on with AI now. Is there an, is there a similar
9:18
opportunity there 'cause it's, you know, when, when we have
9:21
these new technologies come about, people get displaced and
9:27
people are like, oh, well, it's going to create new jobs.
9:29
Well, you know, but is that new job going to be for the 57 year
9:33
old person who is, you know, almost at the end of their
9:38
career? Are they going to step into, you
9:40
know, for us now this new, you know, AI function, like how do
9:44
you view that? How do you wrap your head around
9:47
it? Anthony Bloomberg just did this
9:49
quiz that I had executives and people on my team take what AI
9:55
identity do you have? And it just really was a
9:58
delightful quiz. And I will tell you I am a both
10:02
and AI is definitely disrupting, upending, disorienting.
10:10
And I read this morning in my scanning, Amazon's going to lay
10:14
off. I think it's a 30,000 people and
10:17
I is. Those are 30,000 office workers,
10:22
which is about 10% of that that side of the workforce.
10:25
Sorry, go ahead. You read that too then.
10:26
So for me to say oh AI is wonderful, which I do have part
10:31
of me saying that it would be foolish for me not to
10:35
acknowledge there is pain and difficulty in it.
10:39
So it's a both end now think about it, HP in 198485, it had
10:46
the wherewithal, the capacity to say we see this happening, let's
10:52
prepare them now. It wasn't 30,000 people that we
10:55
had. It was 1500 in the Bay Area and
10:59
it is a different world now. I mean, Anthony, just a couple
11:02
things I'm going to say. 1 is there was a great book, I think
11:10
it was Thomas Friedman who said thank you for being late.
11:13
I think that was the one. And he said in 2016, I think the
11:18
book came out then there are three things happening
11:22
simultaneously, the three Ms. simultaneously and
11:25
exponentially, Mother Nature, Moore's Law and markets.
11:32
So Internet and the whole way we could sell B to B, you know,
11:37
person to person through eBay and others.
11:40
That's like totally upended any building structure, middle
11:45
people to do the selling. Mother Nature.
11:49
I mean, I don't know how you feel about the climate change
11:52
that's happening, but I think anyone that tries to deny it may
11:56
not have their eyes open. And then, of course, Moore's Law
12:00
was going even faster, which is that technology, you know, will
12:04
be, oh, what was the word will shift or be disrupted.
12:10
It becomes obsolete. All three were happening
12:13
simultaneously. I think people cannot even keep
12:17
up mentally with all that's happening.
12:22
And I deeply understand, as frustrating as it is that CE OS
12:29
have to think about their shareholders who put demands on
12:32
them for stock price. Customers want the lowest price,
12:37
employees want the highest pay. I mean, it is a Tri polarity
12:42
that they're facing. And I wish we were a world today
12:46
that we could have more time to say, what would be the dignified
12:50
loving response here? What could we do to help people?
12:54
Now? The, the thing I want to know is
12:56
I love AI. I mean, I, I have three
13:00
different personal chat apps that I use.
13:04
And so I see, and I just learned this from a professor at
13:08
University of North Carolina. I think that's where he's from
13:11
through the Harvard Lila cohort that I'm with.
13:15
And he said we should focus on the hyphen, human AI symbiosis,
13:21
not see the divide. So AI for me is augmenting me.
13:27
I still need to be human for the prompt that I put in.
13:31
AI does all the stuff and then I still need to review it.
13:35
But Anthony, I'm blessed that I'm at a place where I can do
13:40
that. And I'm not in production or
13:43
manufacturing or some of these office workers.
13:47
So it's a both and for me. And I'm going to pause because
13:51
you've obviously poked at something that I care deeply
13:54
about. So I'm going to put you on the
13:56
spot. Let's spit all this for a
13:57
second. OK.
13:59
Let's like how how would you solve this?
14:02
Like think back to to the your experience with with HP back in
14:07
81 and they took this, you know, I don't know what you want to
14:11
call this very forward thinking approach of hey, we know that
14:14
these folks are you know, their skills are not going to be
14:17
needed in this area here very soon.
14:20
Let's come up with some training so we can repurpose them if and
14:23
we'll pick on Amazon for a second because they're easy to
14:26
pick on. If Amazon were going to take
14:28
that same mindset, what should they do instead of laying off
14:33
those 30,000 workers? What might be some ways that
14:35
they could train them and repurpose them?
14:41
Anthony, what I'm about to say is so idealistic, people
14:45
listening will say, Oh my God, the woman's a fool.
14:48
And I don't mind being a fool. I really don't.
14:52
I wish people could pause, take a beat and say how could we
14:58
start to implement some things? Because we know we're displacing
15:02
people, which Anthony effects everybody.
15:06
I mean, when people are unemployed, the economy suffers,
15:10
schools suffer, I mean, it it. So people have to take a bigger
15:14
view of the world and know they're in an ecosystem.
15:19
And so could people say, hey, shareholders, we're going to
15:23
have our stock go down for a little bit because we're not
15:26
going to have the high prices because we're going to take some
15:29
of that and invest in our people and make ways for people who
15:34
want to be employed to find it. Can you live with that?
15:38
Because these might be your neighbors and your family
15:40
members? Yeah, I, I have found when
15:44
people, I'm going to get emotional.
15:45
I said when people choose choose to Co create a response, I mean
15:53
think about when hurricanes, which Melissa right now is
15:57
unbelievable. Communities get devastated, but
16:00
people come together and they find something new.
16:02
It's an emergent strategy. So I don't have a magic answer
16:07
except to wish that we could remember we're all connected and
16:13
so short term thinking is just not good.
16:18
So if we were to put on our realist hats, you don't really
16:21
have a specific idea on what could we repurpose these people,
16:25
retrain them to do repurpose sounds cold.
16:28
And you know, like like, how do I take an old plastic bag and do
16:32
something else? Like, how do we, how do we train
16:34
these folks to be part of something that's coming?
16:39
Well, Anthony, I know I'm. Putting a lot of weight on your
16:43
shoulders here. I've got rose colored glasses
16:45
on. Zach Mercurio, who actually
16:47
lives here in Fort Collins, has written a book called Mattering
16:52
Beautiful Book. So where I might first start is
16:55
to get these 30,000 people and say, let's discover who you are,
17:00
what fulfills you, what gives you joy, Help them identify
17:06
purpose and then have some paths that people could pursue.
17:11
Anthony, I fundamentally believe people are creative, resourceful
17:16
and whole. And when we call them up and
17:18
invite them, so, you know, I'm not saying that there would
17:23
automatically be in the region that these facilities are 30,000
17:27
available opportunities, but AI is creating new businesses.
17:34
I mean, it's not like AI is the end and nothing else is
17:39
happening. So I do think by invitation and
17:44
giving people some opportunity to do some self discovery and
17:48
then have paths, you know, who knows what could be possible?
17:54
Our humanity has continually reinvented itself multiple
17:58
times. So let's head back into your
18:03
career track because one of the things you said.
18:05
Go back to reality. Yeah, back let's that that was
18:09
that was a fun tangent. Maybe we'll come back to it, but
18:12
I want to make sure that we get to what you're doing today.
18:15
And so it's interesting to me that you said, you know,
18:19
initially you had an aversion of the private sector, but that's
18:21
where you ended up, and that's where you spent, you know, a
18:24
good part of your career. And then at some point, you
18:27
ended up in the public sector city of Fort Collins.
18:30
How did that opportunity come about?
18:35
I'm Anthony Wei. Once You Know is in preparation
18:38
for my interview for the city. They asked me to answer
18:41
questions. And one of the things I wrote
18:44
about is that I think there was Adna Strand within me, probably
18:49
intergenerational. And if I told you stories of my
18:52
family, you'd be like, oh, I think I see that genetic strand.
18:57
And the way I talked about it was 3 CS.
18:59
My family of origin was curious. I watched my brothers, and I'm
19:05
the youngest of seven. I mean, my parents and my
19:07
siblings, I had five brothers and one sister's youngest do
19:12
things of service to others. So we were curious.
19:16
We cared about community and within our household, making a
19:21
contribution to family harmony mattered.
19:24
My mother went back to work when I was 5 as the last child.
19:29
And so we had to do things around the house to ensure that
19:33
the family's harmony, you know, happened well.
19:37
So I say that because I think it was in me, but how it happened
19:42
practically is I left the private sector after a rich,
19:48
mature, wondrous chapter at Agilent went into what I called
19:54
liminal space, and I did some consulting to scare myself.
19:57
And that's a whole nother story. And then I said someday I hope
20:01
to work for the city because years before I was in a program
20:06
that happens across the nation called leadership, whatever your
20:10
city is. So I was in leadership Palo Alto
20:13
in the 80s. And there was a leadership Fort
20:15
Collins and it was a program for a year that exposed you to
20:19
different aspects of your community with the intention
20:22
that you would find ways to contribute.
20:26
I was in the program in 2008 and there was 5 city people and I
20:31
watched them and I was like, oh, I really like them.
20:34
And Anthony Peter Yak Yak, yeah. Oh, I'm not going to say his
20:40
name, but he's written a book called For the Love of Cities.
20:43
I Love Fort Collins. I mean, I, I couldn't explain it
20:48
to people. I said if I die before my
20:51
husband and daughter, I or if they die before me, I want to
20:54
stay here. So I had such a deep affection
20:57
and I could tell you story after story of that.
21:01
So I said someday I hope to work there and then the CHRO position
21:06
to open up. I expressed interest in they
21:11
didn't want to interview me. I had no public service and I
21:15
was in Albany, NY at a PEMA showrun retreat at the Omega
21:21
Institute. I was on the tarmac, little
21:24
plane to get back to New York City after the retreat and the
21:28
recruiter called and said they do want to meet you.
21:31
I'm like, huh, what changed? He said, well, it was a failed
21:36
search person they made the offer to didn't accept because
21:40
his wife didn't want to leave Atlanta.
21:42
And so before they started all over again, I told them, there's
21:45
five of you from the private sector they should meet.
21:49
And I think they were exhausted, and that's why they chose me.
21:53
I don't think they had any idea who they were getting.
21:57
And I just felt it was the universe opening a door that I
22:01
was keenly interested in. And here I am, nine years later.
22:06
So explain for our listeners a little bit about what the city
22:10
government of Fort Collins provides to its residents and
22:14
how that difference from county government.
22:19
Well, there's some similarities. The difference is in the elected
22:23
body. So our county, you elect 3
22:25
commissioners, they're full time.
22:28
So it's their full time position to be a county commissioner.
22:32
We're home rule as a city, and so we have what's called a weak
22:39
mayor form of government, which is a strange word 'cause we have
22:42
a brilliant, phenomenal mayor, Jenny Arndt.
22:45
But what it means is that our city manager is the CEO, if you
22:49
will, of the organization that supports the community.
22:53
We are guided by the council and they are guided by the
22:58
community. And so Kelly Dimartino, an
23:01
exceptional person, reports into the council.
23:05
So there's the difference. And what I will tell you as far
23:09
as the portfolio of services, right?
23:12
First, think of us as an ecosystem that supports the
23:16
people that live here, drive in to shop, the students that go to
23:20
school at CSU, visitors, people come to work at local
23:25
businesses. We're an enabler, but we provide
23:28
all the way from bus services. So I have bus operators,
23:32
Protective Services, so we have police agency, utilities.
23:37
We have one of the best waters in the nation, electricity.
23:42
Our community voted years ago for us to start our own
23:45
broadband. So we haven't connect connection
23:49
that we provide and it's a remarkable service.
23:52
And mind you, we don't do these things for profit.
23:55
I mean like the budget that funds my department is what we
23:59
call the general fund. It's sales use and taxes.
24:03
You know, utilities is paid for through rates.
24:07
We have policy analysts. We have traffic that watches the
24:12
patterns in the street. We have streets operators that
24:16
take care of the streets. I mean, you name it, we have it.
24:21
I tell people, and this is the last thing I'll say, Anthony, I
24:25
thought my role was complex working in the private sector
24:28
because I was in global roles. I had a team that was
24:32
distributed around the world. So Agilent also at HP and other
24:37
companies that were was at, they had to figure out local laws and
24:42
the customer base in those areas keeping the depth of purpose and
24:48
values of those companies. I thought my life was
24:51
complicated. I tell people I'm Co located
24:55
here with all of the employees and the diversity of what we
24:59
provide and the talent segments makes my previous life look like
25:04
a piece of cake. So two things you said.
25:09
I want to make sure that I understood them.
25:11
Yeah, please. You provide utilities and
25:13
broadband. Yeah, which is a type of
25:16
utility. So we provide wastewater, storm
25:19
water, water, electricity and then we have a broadband service
25:24
that we pulled up. And it's an interesting
25:28
proposition because think about it, there are big players that
25:32
are in the private sector in an installed base, but we just
25:36
reached our 25,000 customer who is.
25:41
And so those private sector companies are also in Fort
25:44
Collins. Oh yeah.
25:46
Competing with you and you said you don't.
25:49
We have fiber underground, yeah, and that is hard to beat.
25:53
Yeah. OK, I'm so sorry.
25:55
And and so are you priced competitive with these other
25:58
services? I think you're saying that
26:00
you're not doing it for profit, but, you know, you're obviously
26:03
having to cover costs and. Absolutely.
26:05
And whatever we have, we reinvest in, you know other
26:09
parts of the broadband service, but we are able to provide and I
26:14
wish I can remember the price the same level of service.
26:18
So we have digital equity as a city goal.
26:23
So we actually provide a service that is a high volume at a
26:29
really remarkable price so that every community member that has
26:34
our, our fiber either already there or still being installed
26:39
able to have access. I mean, think about it, our, our
26:42
mission is to serve our community.
26:47
And it's not just price that's causing us to do better than
26:51
some of the, you know, private sector competitors.
26:54
We are remarkable at customer service and technology with
26:59
fiber has been pretty stunning. That's incredible.
27:04
I don't know that I've heard of that before.
27:06
I've I've heard of some cities that provide from electric and
27:10
certainly water is is common, but broadband.
27:14
Have you heard of another municipality in the country?
27:16
OK, so this is. Not first.
27:18
Of its kind. Chattanooga, TN is often one of
27:21
the first that people refer to that they had set it up OK, but
27:26
our community voted for it and it was years in the making.
27:30
That's the other thing, Anthony, I'll tell you this, you have to
27:33
really take the Longview in the public sector.
27:37
Things don't happen in 1/4. Yeah, tell us about the Malcolm
27:42
Baldrige National Quality Award. What is this?
27:45
How do you earn it for that at all?
27:47
And I say that with deep integrity.
27:51
The city was on a performance excellence journey, like it
27:56
mattered how we did things because effectiveness and
27:59
efficiency is just a healthy way to run an organization.
28:05
And our previous city manager, Darren Atterbury, another
28:08
remarkable person, he was mentored by people that had done
28:14
the Malcolm Baldridge, our local health system, which back then
28:18
was Pooter Valley Hospital. Now it's part of the UC health
28:23
system. They won the Baldridge Award and
28:27
our local credit union won the Baldridge Award.
28:29
So we're kind of swimming in a environment where people say
28:33
getting better matters. And so the city was on this
28:38
journey for quite a while. The first year I came, 2016, we
28:43
were chosen for a site interview, which meant a group
28:47
of Malcolm Baldrid's evaluators came and interviewed based on
28:52
the application that have been turned in.
28:55
And we did not get the award that year, but man, do you learn
28:59
a lot by the questions they ask and they give you feedback
29:03
called opportunities for improvements, nickname O fees.
29:07
And then the next year we applied and we received it.
29:11
And the Malcolm Baldridge, they've actually updated their
29:15
questions to be very contemporary.
29:18
It was came out of the Secretary of Commerce years ago and
29:23
certainly private sectors companies have applied for it.
29:27
But you see some like health systems, our city, we're not the
29:32
first city and not the last that won this.
29:36
But it's a way to have an external body, say if these
29:40
things, almost like an OD model, are done well and they're
29:44
congruent to turn something out that's of merit.
29:50
So what does that scorecard look like?
29:51
Give us like maybe the top three things that they're looking for.
29:55
Well, first they want to know like what is the purpose of
29:59
mission of your organization? So you do an organizational
30:01
profile, but I'll tell you three things.
30:04
Out of the many that they look at, they want to know how are
30:08
you connecting to your customers?
30:11
And in our case, it's our community.
30:13
How do you know that you're listening to them?
30:16
What evidence do you have? And so it's very data-driven,
30:21
evidence based. Another question had to do with
30:25
how are you ensuring that your talent is capable to meet the
30:32
needs and what are you doing to constantly prepare them?
30:35
That's a brilliant component to have.
30:39
Another one that they have on there is leadership.
30:43
And of course, one of my favorite quotes, Anthony, is
30:46
organizations only grow to the level of consciousness of their
30:49
leaders. And so for them to focus on
30:53
leadership was quite beautiful. Just to show you a parallel, for
30:59
years there was a group of people that were working on
31:02
having the SEC include human components in their scorecards
31:09
for stock. And so you've seen over the
31:13
years where the quality of leadership matters, the
31:17
investment in the people matters.
31:20
It's not anywhere near where it should be, but I have a distinct
31:25
bias. It all comes down to people and
31:30
how they work together. Yeah.
31:32
So tell us about your approach to people.
31:35
And I'm thinking from both the recruiting standpoint and a
31:39
retention standpoint, how do you find the right people?
31:42
What are you looking for? And then once you have them and
31:45
you're like, yes, this, this is, these are our people.
31:47
This is, you know, they fit in. How do you keep them?
31:52
Well, COVID taught us a lot, Anthony, because a lot of people
31:55
said this isn't what I want to keep doing.
32:00
And of course, we were strained. And so our salaries at that time
32:04
were not as competitive. But what what an opportunity.
32:09
And there's a famous Paul Romer's quote from Stanford.
32:13
A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.
32:16
We actually use COVID for as difficult and challenging as it
32:20
was, I told people it was a portal of transformation.
32:24
So we actually end up having a talent acquisition team.
32:27
We should just post positions and let the managers try to
32:31
figure it out. But we actually saw that
32:33
recruitment is an expertise. So we have recruiters assigned
32:37
to what we call service areas. That's our organizational unit.
32:41
And they spend time to listen to the hiring manager and what they
32:45
need and what they're looking for.
32:47
And is this what they're going to need in the future?
32:50
You know, helping somebody in dialogue really be clear.
32:53
A lot of Stripe really amazing postings.
32:57
So people knew what they were applying for Anthony.
33:01
I personally in hiring people to be on this team.
33:04
My first question is, do you want to work for a local
33:08
municipality? Because if you can't answer yes
33:12
in a full embodied yes to that this is not place to be.
33:17
Does anybody ever say no? I think there's people that opt
33:24
out or decide they don't want to work because people have a lot
33:27
of biases about the government. I mean, people thought when I
33:30
first came, I was interviewed all the time by people saying
33:34
why did you do that? And I was like, how could I not?
33:38
So the attraction matters. And we look at our sourcing
33:41
strategies. I have to tell you, Anthony, we
33:44
get high number of people who apply for our positions every
33:48
month. The city manager and I do a meet
33:50
and greet where we meet with our new employees in person for a
33:54
dialogue and they tell us stories about how they tried
33:57
three times to get hired to be a utility locator and they just
34:02
really wanted to be here. A lot of people love the
34:07
community, and this is a way to be connected to IT.
34:12
Retention. I can't say there's one way,
34:15
Anthony, because when you think about police officers, you know,
34:19
utility workers, policy analysts, we tried to look at
34:23
what do they need? So some things are one size fits
34:28
one, and a lot is 1 size fits. A lot's one-size-fits-all.
34:33
Excuse me. And then a lot is 1 size fits 1,
34:37
you know, because the nature of their work is so different.
34:40
And I'll just close with this. I was definitely influenced by
34:45
the brilliance of Gene Halloran and Bill Sullivan, the two
34:49
people I work closely with at Agilent Technologies.
34:53
And we said here's the metrics that we're going to measure by
34:58
acceptance rate. So we actually look at top
35:03
quartile benchmark and the norm out there is 80%, which means
35:07
you offer and 80% accept and we are over 90%.
35:13
We set the goal at 90. At Agilent or at Fort Collins?
35:17
No, at Fort Collins, it's a, a metric I learned at Agilent.
35:21
So it lets you know, are we a place people want to come to?
35:24
Do we have a competitive offer? The second is retention.
35:29
So if we hire them, that's great.
35:32
We have over 90% acceptance rate.
35:36
Are they staying? And so we study our retention
35:40
and look at where we have any particular gaps.
35:43
And we were seeing, for example, people not staying within the
35:47
zero to two year. So we got really curious about
35:51
that, like are we explaining what it means to work in the
35:54
city? And then the third one, which we
35:58
had to take off for a while just because we stopped doing our
36:02
survey, but we just resurrected it, is quality of leadership.
36:08
And we just literally implemented an employee
36:11
experience survey. And so we're looking at what is
36:15
the quality of the experience of employees and leaders have a lot
36:20
to do with that. And if I can look at those 3
36:23
organizational health metrics, are people wanting to come, are
36:28
they staying? And is their experience of
36:31
meaning then I can feel pretty confident that we're going to do
36:35
well. Yeah, this is a little bit of a
36:37
different stat, but also something impressive.
36:39
From your time at Agilent, you built a leadership bench that
36:44
filled 90% of senior openings from within the company.
36:49
Yep. How did you do that?
36:53
I was incredibly blessed to have ACEO, that was two in the box
36:57
with me when I was the chief learning officer.
37:00
He cared as much about development as I did and I cared
37:04
as much about business results as he did.
37:07
We were a great partnership and he was actually Anthony, the
37:10
first line leader I was assigned to in 1981.
37:15
And as a fun story, he didn't think I should be hired.
37:18
He was the only one that said, what is she going to do, spread
37:20
rose petals in the manufacturing floor?
37:23
I was scared of him. And I'll just see when I first
37:27
had to work with him, which they told me I wasn't going to have
37:29
to. But then two weeks in, they
37:31
said, oh, I'm sorry, you're going to have to.
37:33
I remember walking down with my high heels and Farrah Fawcett
37:36
hair, and I sat down and I literally was shaking.
37:41
And I said, Bill, I know that you think I don't know what I'm
37:44
doing. And you know what?
37:45
You're right. But I am such a curious learner
37:49
and I care deeply, and I'm afraid of you.
37:54
And that melted him, Anthony. And we just formed such a
37:58
partnership. So he's the one that brought me
37:59
back to Agilent because HP became Agilent and HP in 1989
38:05
when I wasn't there. And So what happened?
38:09
Just to be quick about this, Agilent missed 9 consecutive
38:16
quarters of commitments to the shareholders, 9 quarters.
38:23
Bill was chosen from within, which was pretty dicey because
38:27
the board's like, hey, is there anybody that knows how to do
38:30
this? And Bill was chosen and what he
38:34
did is he realigned the company to go back to its origin, which
38:37
was pureplay measurement. And there's such a story to
38:40
this. I'm trying to be quick to get to
38:42
your question. And in 2540% of people that were
38:48
general managers, P&L of various businesses either went to a
38:53
different role or left the company.
38:56
And where we started is we got very clear about what the role
38:59
was. We actually used an outside firm
39:03
to assess where the leaders in their seats, the best we
39:07
possibly could have in our industry.
39:11
And then Bill and the team I was blessed to lead with a partner
39:18
called Tricor, developed a program.
39:22
And so we thematically developed leaders starting with the
39:26
executives, senior middle all the way to individual
39:30
contributors in a thematic integrated way.
39:34
And so it was a game changer. And when Agilent split in 2014,
39:41
because we became so big in the life sciences market, we were
39:46
able to fill both CEO positions and their entire executive teams
39:50
from with them because Bill would ask me questions.
39:55
And so he said to me years before he knew he was going to
39:58
leave. Teresa, could you find out like,
40:01
is it better to hire CE OS from within or outside?
40:04
What's the track record? And Anthony, there was so much
40:07
data out there. So I wrote a paper and clearly
40:11
the conclusion I came to was the best hires that sustain your
40:15
company, customers, employees, shareholders.
40:19
Are those from within that have had outside experience?
40:23
So Bill and I were like, well, how are we going to do that?
40:25
We don't want some best leaders to leave.
40:29
And we embarked on this remarkable program of having
40:33
them meet with our board members, a number of our
40:35
candidates. We sent them to programs to
40:38
learn how do you work with the board?
40:40
So we acted as if. And so it was intentionality,
40:45
Anthony, and a deep commitment to our people.
40:48
And I love telling that story. And of course, a lot of people
40:51
would interview myself in the CHRO and say, how did you do
40:55
that? Really, it was with purpose,
40:58
intentionality and a deep commitment.
41:00
So when you're talking about that outside experience, you're
41:02
talking about they worked somewhere else before or you're
41:06
sending them some place to work. Well before they come back was
41:10
internal people who left their company at some point in time
41:15
and came back. And we actually had a couple of
41:18
executives that I was somebody who left.
41:21
I was an executive that left and came back.
41:25
And so we believe that outside experience and the evidence was
41:29
there in all the data that I reviewed.
41:32
And we said, well, we don't want people to leave, but we got
41:35
people on boards. There's ways to give people
41:39
outside experience with them still remaining as your
41:41
employee, and we found ways to do that.
41:46
You mentioned something a few minutes ago talking about sort
41:48
of the stigma of working in government, Like people who knew
41:53
you, that saw that you were going to the public sector,
41:55
Like, what are you doing? Like, why would you go there?
41:58
And I'm going to guess it was like, you know, governments were
42:01
lazy, people work, right? It's slow and it's not
42:04
innovative. And it's, you know, people just
42:08
standing around all day. Like, dispel that myth for us.
42:15
Jaron Atterbury, the previous city manager, was speaking in
42:19
front of a group, lots of people, hundreds of people, and
42:24
they were not government people. And he asked them, do you think
42:28
local government can be great? Not one person said yes,
42:33
Anthony, people should not let go of having high standards for
42:38
the people that provide for your community.
42:40
I mean, that's like bad thinking.
42:43
And so that's what helped him charge his whole orientation
42:47
towards performance excellence. And so I have given many
42:52
presentations to help people understand how government is
42:55
like the private sector. Anthony, you don't know until
43:02
you do it. I mean, what it takes is really
43:06
something because you're up close and personal with the
43:09
people you serve. I don't have all the ways I
43:14
could acknowledge people as I did in the private sector.
43:17
I don't have stock. I don't have bonuses.
43:20
I mean, so it's a challenge that man, it's a worthy 1 to take.
43:25
And I'll just say one last thing.
43:28
I'm very involved with Purdue because Purdue has been home.
43:33
Purdue has. Purdue University.
43:36
University in Indiana, Yeah. And I was involved in a program
43:41
called Executive in Residence. And they asked me because I came
43:46
back and I would talk about my love of public service and why
43:50
it mattered. So they they asked if Colorado
43:53
could be where they would take their spring break because they
43:57
really want to come to Fort Collins.
43:59
And then they went on to Montrose and some other places
44:01
with other Purdue alums. And so I had some of the the
44:05
best and brightest produce students that apply to come on
44:09
the spring break trip, and I designed a program to expose
44:13
them. And throughout the time, I would
44:15
say, I don't know if you'll ever choose to be a public servant,
44:20
but I'm going to ask you to care so deeply and demand that your
44:24
local government is great. There's also an interesting
44:28
Gallup report that I read recently that people's
44:30
impression of the state and federal government is formed by
44:33
their local experience. And I sent that to my colleagues
44:36
and I said it all rests on us people.
44:40
We we've got to do that. And the students at the end, I
44:45
had somebody who is a facilitator that did this pro
44:48
bono. I wanted her to ask them.
44:53
I used to think and now I think, which is a thinking routine
44:56
question I learned through Lila Anthony.
45:00
It was so funny. And I had a graphic facilitator
45:03
that was doing a whole picture of this, these students, and
45:07
they were from around the world. They said, I used to think that
45:12
government workers all wore Gray and just sat there doing nothing
45:17
at their computers. And now I realize local
45:20
government is innovative and there's all kinds of things you
45:23
can do. I used to think that local
45:26
government people didn't care. And so I was like, laughing
45:30
because they walked in with this impression.
45:33
And through meeting my colleagues and hearing what we
45:36
did, and I took them on some experiential things that they
45:42
were able to do, they were like, Oh my God, this is amazing.
45:47
And so one person at a time, Anthony, I try to help
45:51
understand, you should absolutely expect your local
45:55
government to be great. I love that.
45:58
Me too. I'm going to take a little bit
46:00
of a turn here and this is ends up being my favorite question in
46:03
the interview. Teresa, I'd like to hear about
46:06
maybe explore a big serious challenge that you've had to
46:09
overcome in your life. You might pick something
46:11
personal here. It might be professional.
46:14
Whatever it is, walk us through how you got through it and what
46:18
what you learned in that process.
46:21
So let me give a little bit of context.
46:27
Do you know Noel Tishy? He was a professor, I think at
46:31
Michigan State. I actually got to hear him when
46:34
I worked at Agilent at West Point at a leadership
46:37
development program that was invited to do.
46:41
And he talked about the concept of TPOV, TPOV teachable point of
46:46
view. And it's what's your edge and
46:49
what's your energy? And I thought, well, I'm going
46:52
to, I want to explore mine. So Anthony, you need to
46:55
understand, I think all leadership at home, with your
47:00
friends, with your family, at work begins within my
47:05
leadership. T POV is self insight is
47:10
fundamental for leading one's life.
47:14
So I come to the city at the age of 60 and I thought I was pretty
47:19
mature, pretty conscious, pretty together.
47:23
You know, I'd gone through multiple challenges since I was
47:26
a child, and I've always been so grateful that I've had people
47:32
that have helped me through it. And Anthony, I'm a big believer
47:37
in having a partner that's either a therapist or a coach.
47:41
And I have been with a phenomenal person for 17 years
47:45
here in Fort Collins. And she is my person to make
47:50
meaning and for me to see like, oh, so that shadow part of me is
47:55
come again. But I will tell you at the city,
48:01
I could write a book that would say the city broke me and the
48:05
City made me whole. It's hard.
48:15
And I have had so many times where I would say to people, I
48:20
don't know who I've become. I'm out of integrity with
48:22
myself, you know, because I was like, like, I had a lot of like
48:29
passionate anger. I would get frustrated.
48:33
And these are things that can happen everywhere.
48:38
And So what I'm learning from seeing myself be derailed is the
48:43
same way that I could get derailed in home or with friends
48:46
or just in society. And because I, I care deeply
48:53
about living my intentions. And I felt there were days when
48:57
I didn't, you know, I went deep into that.
49:02
And I recently brought in the Hogan as another way for the
49:06
leaders to understand themselves.
49:08
And we were using it. We're using it in recruitment.
49:12
And I had not done it for years. And I saw my derailers.
49:16
It's called the dark side. It's the HDS where they look at
49:21
what are things that under stress show up.
49:27
And I was like, holy mother of God, I see exactly.
49:33
I was denying how stressed I was here.
49:37
I mean, I and I didn't want to give up because people have
49:41
asked me, why do I stay? Yes, I love serving my community
49:45
deeply, but I think the challenge is that I've seen my
49:50
cracks and I get a chance to keep filling them.
49:56
And so I love continuing to evolve, become a whole conscious
50:01
person. And I see all the times that I
50:04
haven't been and I know what's going to happen again.
50:07
And so that challenge of seeing the parts of myself that are not
50:14
very pretty, the shadow side, and being willing to look at
50:21
those and heal them and not get afraid of them, You know, that's
50:27
been my ongoing life challenge. But I've never felt it so
50:31
acutely as coming here and being a public servant.
50:37
What what is the hope and Chess actually said to me, you really
50:41
should not be in public service. And I was like I said, oh, I
50:44
knew that my first week. You know, I, there's part of me
50:47
that misses the private sector 'cause I have AI, have an engine
50:51
of activation. I like to get things done.
50:54
And it's different here. It's different here and I'm
50:59
great. That friction is kind of what
51:03
brought out more of what you call your shadow side.
51:06
You know that it's always been there, but coming to an
51:09
environment where maybe you can't affect change as quickly
51:14
as you want, you don't have sort of the same power and control as
51:17
you once did, that's created more friction.
51:19
It's allowed more of the unpretty sides of you to search.
51:24
You know, and Anthony, a funny story, the first mirror I got to
51:28
work with, I brought all of my orientation of you should be
51:31
acting like a board and you should look at your employees
51:34
and how do you blah, blah, blah. And I remember I said to the
51:38
mirror, well, and he's like, Teresa, I really love this.
51:41
I've never heard this kind of thinking before.
51:44
So I said, OK, so here's what you need to do.
51:46
I worked out the agenda. And he said, I can't do that.
51:49
And I said to him, well, what goods being the mayor if you
51:51
can't tell people what to do? Well, that was like a stupid
51:54
comment. And he laughed.
51:56
But I came from a world where ACEO could declare, this is
52:00
where we're going. You do not get to do that in the
52:03
city. You'll listen to the people you
52:06
serve. And they don't all agree.
52:08
And then there's another time where I was like, we should be
52:12
able to do this with our organization and not be so blah,
52:14
blah, blah and see manager. And at that time the deputy just
52:20
looked at me like, Teresa, it's in the charter.
52:23
And I'm like, well, who decides the charter?
52:26
And they said the people. And I was like, oh, the people.
52:30
Our community votes for things in our charter, you know, and so
52:34
I would kid, people might say, you know, I think I liked a kind
52:38
monarchy, you know, which a private sector can kind of be.
52:42
But gosh, Anthony, today's world.
52:49
Just watching my life with my family, being up close and
52:54
personal and when things get tough, not making it easy or
52:58
running away. I wouldn't trade it for anything
53:01
even though at times it is so sucked and it's been hard and I
53:06
don't like it and I want to run. I won't.
53:10
I won't. What's the project there that
53:15
you've spearheaded? What's your most proud, Teresa?
53:19
My most proud, did you say? Yeah.
53:23
I never did anything alone, but I do think the work we did
53:28
during COVID was we named and normalize what it meant to be
53:32
human. We named and normalize grief and
53:36
anxiety. And I think the whole body of
53:41
work that we did that we called Future of Work, we had five
53:44
different work streams and we did some brilliant work around
53:50
how to maintain the flexibility that was quite profound during
53:55
COVID. And a challenge that we had,
53:59
Anthony, is I have brilliant colleagues whose work does not
54:04
allow them to work from a place other than where they are.
54:08
Police officers can't do their work from home, utility
54:12
operators can't do their work from home.
54:15
And so the concept of fairness, like the people that could work
54:20
from home and how do we balance that from the people that can't.
54:25
We did a lot of focus groups and I worked with some of our line
54:29
leaders in the utilities operation to understand the
54:35
workers that came in. They said to me, true, so we
54:39
don't want to work from home. We love what we do, but we don't
54:42
think the people working from home are working, you know,
54:45
because there's a perception. And so one of the things we did
54:50
is we said what can we do to have some way?
54:55
So there's the concept of fairness as a principal, but
54:58
through different practices. And what we came up with with
55:02
the employees was people that could not work from home were
55:07
given three days every year of flex time.
55:11
So they could go to a child soccer game, you know, they
55:15
could leave early and go volunteer.
55:17
And they of course, have to work it out with their manager.
55:20
And so the employees gave us this idea and we're in our, wow,
55:26
it's going to be 2026, we're in our fourth year.
55:28
And we've evaluated this. And I look at the utilization
55:32
and it may not be enough, you know, because it's a lot to
55:35
drive in every day and find a place to park.
55:39
But we really tried to see how to hold the polarity of those
55:47
that can work from home and those that can't and how to find
55:50
principles to make it feel more fair.
55:54
I didn't have to think about those things when I worked in
55:56
the private sector. And what happened, Anthony, at
56:00
the start of COVID, everybody talked about work from home.
56:03
And I would say to people, is anybody studying the people that
56:06
can't work from home? No, they weren't at first.
56:10
But the majority of people that serve the world are people that
56:15
are out there in the community, food service providers, you
56:18
know, your city government people, teachers it.
56:23
It was fascinating to work on that.
56:26
That's just one thing. And a lot of people worked on
56:30
that, Anthony. And we still have what we call
56:33
our flexible work policy. Even though aren't most people
56:36
now working in office or is there still some work from home?
56:40
No, I most of our people are hybrid.
56:43
Like I used to have this whole floor.
56:45
The team that I am honored to lead had this whole floor in the
56:49
city building and at first people are like, I don't want to
56:52
work from home. This is hard.
56:53
Teresa and I had worked globally and was a virtual executive for
56:57
15 years, so I knew how you connect with people.
57:01
So the minute COVID, I was like, oh, I know this.
57:04
Other people struggled. And then they're like, oh, I
57:09
save time because I'm not driving.
57:11
Oh, I'm not getting stressed being on the road.
57:14
And actually, isn't that better for the environment?
57:16
So my own team who went from now we hate this now, oh, I don't
57:22
want to give this up. No, I found a way so that
57:26
there's enough of us that are here that want to be.
57:29
And as the executive, I feel like it's incumbent for my role.
57:35
And yet we still serve our people.
57:36
So I have a hybrid workforce and I have shrunk what space I use.
57:42
And through ARPA dollars, we designed a collaborative
57:46
workspace so people come into what we call The Grove and they
57:51
either use a hot desk or hotel cube.
57:54
The big area that we made is where we do our meet and greet.
57:58
So it was a way to reimagine the space.
58:00
But no. And I track, we have a tracking
58:03
for how many people are essential on site, how many
58:06
people are hybrid. Very few people work full time
58:10
at home. Do you feel like you miss out on
58:13
anything but not having everybody together?
58:16
Well, I asked my whole team once a month to come together and
58:22
Anthony, you know, you, you have to ask yourself, well, why do
58:26
people get together? And so I think about times that
58:29
we need to collaborate and we'll come in, work together for that.
58:34
I started a chat on Teams the minute COVID started just for
58:38
fun things. So it's our channel as if you're
58:41
seeing people and saying, how was your vacation?
58:43
Oh, here's my pictures. How was your son's graduation?
58:46
I mean, it's a a personal like life channel that people come on
58:51
and tell stories, post pictures. So it makes you have to think of
58:56
new ways to form community and ask yourself, are there ways to
59:01
collaborate that don't always have to be in person.
59:04
Now I'm going to tell you there's still a loss there.
59:09
And so I feel like every day I live in a polarity, Anthony, joy
59:14
and sorrow. There's tension and everything.
59:18
And so is it perfect? No.
59:21
Are we missing some aspects of community?
59:23
You bet. But you hold that as a polarity.
59:27
So if you look at, you know, on site remote, you know, how do
59:32
you navigate that energy every every day and make good
59:36
decisions on that? Teresa, I've just got one more
59:41
question for you. But before I ask it, I want to
59:43
do three things. First of all, anybody who wants
59:46
to get in touch with Teresa, you can visit her LinkedIn page.
59:50
And her name is spelled Teresa and the last name Roche is
59:54
Roche. And we'll include a link to that
59:58
in the show notes. And you can also e-mail her
1:00:00
directly TROCHE at fcgov.com. Also, as a reminder, if you want
1:00:08
to get more employees access to benefits that won't hurt them
1:00:10
financially and carries a financial upside for the
1:00:13
company, reach out to us at Add back benefits.com.
1:00:16
Finally, if you would take just a moment to leave us a comment
1:00:19
or review on your favorite podcast app, you will hold a
1:00:22
special place in our hearts forever.
1:00:25
So last question for you, Teresa, you and I reconnect one
1:00:28
year from today and you're celebrating something big.
1:00:31
What is that? You and I connect one year from
1:00:34
day and we're celebrating something.
1:00:38
Big What is something big that you hope to be celebrating one
1:00:41
year from today? Well, I'm going to couple that I
1:00:52
continue to grow in being a loving, intentional human being.
1:01:00
You know that I continue to evolve in my consciousness and
1:01:04
that I continue to find ways to serve the community by creating
1:01:08
the most amazing, sustainable as good financial stewards employee
1:01:13
experience because I do believe that employee experience
1:01:17
directly correlates to customer experience.
1:01:21
And so I hope that I grow and I'm able to help the
1:01:23
organization grow because those are those are kind of a virtual
1:01:28
virtuous cycle for me. Teresa Roche from the City of
1:01:32
Fort Collins City government, I want to be the first to thank
1:01:35
you for sharing both your time and your story with us today.
1:01:38
I really appreciate it. You're welcome.
1:01:40
Thank you for the honor. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:01:43
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:01:45
Thanks for learning with us today.