CAO Message: New Year, New Vision

Message from Helen Robbins-Meyer, Chief Administrative Officer

We’re more than halfway through January, and it’s been so busy already, I’m just now extending a proper Happy New Year!

As a time for new beginnings, it’s the perfect opportunity to roll out reimagined versions of our fundamental guides for running the County.

One is our General Management System. It’s long served as our operating manual, and we’ve depicted it as a wheel to reflect the ongoing, cyclical nature of the process. It took us a lot of miles, but it needed changes for the new directions the County is traveling.

For starters, we’ve revamped the system’s five phases. Planning phases remain, but they’re now followed by Evaluation and Accountability, reflecting our emphasis on data and performance measures. Continuous Collaboration takes the place of Functional Threading. Then comes Employee Investment and Satisfaction, which broadens and better captures the ultimate goal we intended with Recognition.  

We’ve added a hub to that wheel: community engagement. That reflects the principle that everything we do to serve our residents has to be created in partnership with them. They are – literally, in the illustration – at the center of our efforts.

And we’ve added a layer around the circle of our six values: integrity, equity, access, belonging, excellence, and sustainability. They are infused throughout our operations.

The GMS is essentially the how. The Strategic Plan is more the what, and we’ve given that a top-to-bottom refresh. It lays out the overarching initiatives for the County. Even with the incredible variety of services we provide, they all feed up into these common themes: sustainability, equity, empower, community, justice. Each of those breaks down into more specific areas of activities where you may start to see your duties reflected. It’s important to see how your work supports these high-level efforts. The continuing work we do with Live Well San Diego is also woven into these themes.

Atop everything is an updated County vision: a just, sustainable, resilient future for all.

Perhaps it’s impossible to really sum up what guides us in one succinct line. But for where we are as we enter 2022, that captures it for me as neatly as anything could. Each of those three pillars encompasses so much. And capping it with “for all” attaches an essential check on our work.

As the GMS cycles forward, part of the process will be engaging with employees to help shape the goals that support the initiatives. We’ll need the benefit of your experience in identifying ways we can operate more efficiently and effectively.    

For now though, I encourage you to take a few minutes to check out the new GMS and Strategic Plan. They fit into two easy-to-read pages, but they say so much. They give us a context and stability that sometimes escapes us in our hectic day-to-day. They’ll be indispensable in keeping us all moving together as we tackle the challenges ahead.

Let’s go!