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~SB\lIbbE Request for Council Action February 13, 2006 Item: 11. Item Description: City Council Team Building I. BACKGROUND & CONCLUSION At your January 9th and 30th meetings, Council looked at improving their effectiveness through workstyle analysis and team-building. As part of that improvement effort, Council authorized us to solicit proposals for a consult- ant to help guide us through an assessment and training process. On Friday, February 10,2006, Councilmember Pust and the City Manager interviewed four consulting firms: in alphabetical order they are Brass Tacks Network, Inc. (William E. Hudson); Center for Policy, Planning, and Performance (Barbara Raye); Neu and Com- pany (Carl Neu); Don Salverda and Associates. This memo recommends the City retain Barbara Raye of the Center for Policy, Planning, and Performance. II. ANALYSIS Ms. Raye led the community outreach process for the HRA last year, for which there seemed to be nearly unanimous praise from all concerned. She is local. She interviews as a very respectful and intelligent person who is skilled at improving the effectiveness of groups. Her proposal is comprehensive but cost-effective. Specifically, Ms. Raye proposes individual interviews with each councilmember. That gives each of you a chance to share information, including opportunities for improvement or concerns. She would use four different assessment instruments, which should help us learn more about how we each gather and process information, communicate, and make decisions. Ms. Raye's proposal is sub-dividable, so the Council could engage her to handle, at this time, just workstyle analysis and team-building. Council could then proceed with goal- setting and community outreach and visioning in the future. The price for the team- building and workstyle components is $6,500. To put this amount in perspective, this is about the same amount of money the City spends each year on anti-virus protection or ballfield chalk and supplies. It is miniscule compared to our overall city budget of $33 mil- lion. Yet, any improvement in council and staff effectiveness would produce a large return on this small investment over the course of a year's work.