Clear Vision, Clear Benefit

Steve Purdy, Vice President of Identity and Verification Business, Thales Group

We always feel that there are ways jurisdictions can do things more efficiently. They’re all challenged with decreasing budgets and headcounts, yet the services just seem to pile on. There are things that they need to reinvent, but sometimes it’s difficult to step back and look at problems differently. That’s when you fall into a mindset of reactivity, as opposed to proactive problem-solving and thinking outside the box. It’s easy to say that—but it’s far more difficult to implement.

Any time you introduce change from somebody who is more of an innovator to someone who is hesitant to change, there has to be a clear vision and benefit. Certain people can see things more clearly than others, and they’re willing to take a chance. Whereas others might say, “My world is not broken. I really don’t need to make this move.” To me, this group requires more facts or statistics. I don’t see anything wrong with people who are comfortable in what they’re doing. I ask, how do you get them comfortable enough to believe that change is going to be beneficial?

The pandemic forced some jurisdictions to realize that they can’t wait for change anymore. It has to happen immediately to provide safety for staff and customers. That has made them react a lot faster than they normally would. It was a real wake-up call for everybody. If you follow the trends, AAMVA has been talking about reducing transaction and processing time and providing services to people in an efficient way for over 10 years. COVID has forced jurisdictions to get there.

We work with many jurisdictions providing driver’s license services. We capture photos and signatures, provide document scanning and facial recognition, and produce physical and mobile credentials. But we can also provide kiosks and other automation capabilities. I’ve had experience with a couple jurisdictions that are trying to trend in the direction of thinking outside the box. Some are embracing mobile driver’s licenses because the belief is, they can provide more efficient ways of dealing with their customers by providing more online or mobile services and minimize the need to come into an office to perform services.

There’s a lot of thought leadership going into what that future could look like in the next three to five years. Jurisdictions are also looking into kiosk services and ways to reach customers beyond traditional brick-and- mortar venues.

My advice for administrators managing change is to listen to the people who are working on the front lines, managing the processes and the IT. They’ll be the first to tell you what they think will work and what won’t. Have a mindset in your procurement that allows for flexibility in your technology. Many contracts are very lengthy, and if you don’t put flexibility into them, you’re limiting your ability to provide beneficial services and solutions.

A Lean Six Sigma Perspective on Change Management

Tom Ford, LSSMBB, Global Lead Training and Engagement, Lean Six Sigma Center of Excellence, Verisk, and Katie James, Government Relations Manager, IIX

Verisk sees change management as an important strategy in its role as a trusted business partner. Verisk is a leading source of information about risk. We provide industries with unique data assets, deep domain expertise, workflow integration and a steady stream of first-to-market innovations. Our core values of “serve, add value, innovate” are best supported by looking at processes from the perspective of the customer and asking: “Is there a better way of doing this?” Starting in 2016, Verisk embarked upon a journey with Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as a key strategy to answer that question.

LSS is a methodology that drives change through data-driven decision-making, breaking down processes into their logical steps, and conducting root-cause analyses to link critical inputs to customer needs. Once these connections have been isolated, proposed solutions are tested and implemented, leading to an improved process that is sustained by managing the change and using data to control the new process.

Verisk has taken a tiered approach to LSS deployment and the practitioners that it has developed. A “Yellow Belt” awareness initiative was rolled out to the entire enterprise, allowing all employees to learn the base level of knowledge regarding the methodology, structure, language and tools of LSS through self-guided training. Using these tools, Yellow Belts are empowered to make improvements to their own processes and document success.

For more complex or cross-functional process improvement, a “Green Belt”-level experiential training, coaching and mentoring system is used and managed by an enterprise-wide level of “Black Belts” and “Master Black Belts,” who operate out of a global center of excellence. Corporate leaders across Verisk serve as “Champions” and “Sponsors” of LSS efforts, providing executive support of projects and initiatives that help drive change.

The growth of the LSS deployment and enterprise-wide benefits have been remarkable. In four years, this global initiative has not only created an army of empowered change agents, but, in very tangible ways, Verisk has benefited from better products and services brought to market, as well as improved ways of supporting the partners and clients that use them. Ultimately, the Verisk LSS program is centered on improving processes to meet and exceed customer needs while improving the employee experience and instilling a continuous-improvement mindset enterprise-wide.

In the process, we have led the way in the creation of an ecosystem that facilitates compliance and the exchange of data-driven information and predictive analytics across a broad range of industries, including government, insurance, financial services and transportation.