Rightsizing in Charlotte, North Carolina.

• Author: White, O. Wendell
• Position: Cover Story

Principles guiding Charlotte's successful rightsizing were accountability, quality and excellence, productivity, teamwork and openness.

The March 1993 meeting where months of hard and often painful work were laid before the city council marked a significant moment for Charlotte, North Carolina. Detailed for the city council were the following accomplishments of the city organization in response to rightsizing:

* reduction of 272 positions from the city's work force with no layoffs,

* innovations from city employees resulting in $2.8 million in cost savings,

* reductions in layers of management in 12 city departments,

* employees working in teams to accommodate a smaller work force and improve service delivery,

* establishment of the Customer Service Center,

* a planned city-wide reorganization focusing on nine "key businesses" and

* prioritization of city services resulting from a services assessment process.

Rightsizing vs. Downsizing

The City of Charlotte clearly delineates the difference between rightsizing and downsizing, as an analysis of the above accomplishments reveals. Critics of rightsizing had argued that significant change could not occur in the city organization without across-the-board reductions or layoffs. The city demonstrated, however, that through rightsizing--the reallocation of resources and positions from lower to higher priority areas--the government could be run more efficiently.

As the total general fund-supported work force declined by approximately 8 percent from July 1991 to March 1993, the changes by departments and composition of the work force were more dramatic. As shown in Exhibit 1, six departments reduced total positions bymore than 20 percent, 11 departments realized reductions ranging from 10 percent to 19 percent, and seven departments increased in size. Some employee groups were affected more than others: proportionally more management, clerical, administrative and other exempt (professional) positions were eliminated than were labor/trade and public safety positions. The resultant composition of the work force is shown in Exhibit 2. These are the results of rightsizing, not downsizing.

How did the city accomplish these things? The story begins in January 1992 when the city manager, faced with the financial realities of the 1990s and the need to embark on a long-term organizational change process, presented the concept of rightsizing at the city council's annual retreat. This article presents a case study of how the leadership and management efforts to rightsize Charlotte's government paid off in a leaner, more effective government. The case study does not detail why the City of Charlotte had to rightsize government, except that the city's revenues could not and would not keep pace with expenditures and Charlotte's city council stands fast against property tax increases.

The premise of rightsizing was to ask the city organization, "If we were to design city services anew today, what would they look like?" The city's approach was to seek answers to four basic questions:

* What services should city government provide?

* How should these services be financed?

* How should resources be organized to deliver services effectively?

* What is the most efficient method of providing city services?

The city's philosophy and intent for rightsizing and the principles and guidelines that would govern the rightsizing process were spelled out in a document called Rightsizing Public Service: A Process for Managing Change in the '90s. The principles and guidelines were built around the city's mission statement, Public Service is Our Business, and six core values: quality and excellence, accountability, openness, productivity, teamwork and people development. The sidebar on page 9 lists some of the principles and guidelines that governed the rightsizing process. City council approved the rightsizing plan and instructed the city manager to bring results back to council within 12 months.

Blueprint for Rightsizing

With city council's approval of right-sizing, the city manager had to prepare and mobilize the 5,000-member work force to adopt rightsizing as an organizationwide effort and move the city toward achieving the goals of rightsizing. How does one get 5,000 employees to understand what rightsizing means? How should the effort be organized and started? What would departments and employees be expected to do?

To answer some of those questions, the city manager prepared an internal document titled Blueprint for Rightsizing, which described what the organization should look like one year hence, the strategies that would be put into practice to begin the effort, how the strategies would be implemented, and how the progress and achievements of rightsizing would be monitored. The blueprint also outlined the key characteristics and principles the city manager wanted the organization to strive for throughout the...