How many times have you gone into a store and seen a familiar product with “New Formula” or “Improved” splashed on the label? How many times did you buy the product thinking that the only thing “new” or “improved” was the label?
Well, the Legislative Staff Management Institute (LSMI), which the authors attended in the summer of 2005, has a new “California Style” that really takes the program to new heights. The new program builds on the foundation established by its former sponsor, the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. The Humphrey Institute set a high standard and established LSMI as NCSL’s premier legislative staff training program in the nation.
The University of Southern California and California State University, Sacramento, have teamed up to provide an eight-day program that provides staff with a wide range of effective management tools for facing and addressing the complex issues found in state legislatures. These include interpersonal and organizational communication, team building, coaching, negotiation, networking, and managing organizational culture. The program uses a series of high-energy trainers who build on each other’s work to provide a highly integrated but broad-spanning curriculum.
Everyone has been through excruciatingly dull team building and communication seminars. However, the fast-paced, hands-on sessions offered at LSMI don’t give participants a chance to get bored. For example, the very first session brought team building to a new level with a “Bio-Hazard” exercise in which teams had to learn quickly to perform together or “die.” Another session introduced the class to new concepts in organizational communication with a “Meta-4” exercise in which participants had to form teams quickly and then negotiate how these various teams could work together toward a common goal. Other hands-on exercises taught key negotiation skills applied to a variety of settings (we’ll never buy cars or houses in the same way again!).
LSMI participants also got a chance to put these team building, communication, and listening concepts to practice in rafting down the south fork of the American River. Nothing enhances team building like being in a rubber raft with five or six other people and hurtling down Class IV whitewater rapids--breakdowns in communication and strategy can produce immediate (and wet) results!
The program also provided personalized feedback through a session on effective leadership. As part of this session, participants received a Leadership Effectiveness Assessment based on a survey that participants and the people who work for them completed prior to attending LSMI. These assessments were always helpful, sometimes painful, in highlighting the areas of strengths and weaknesses of each participant’s leadership skills.
Two caveats that alumni of previous LSMI programs always seem to mention were living in a college dormitory at the University of Minnesota and “dorm food.” Mention no more! The California program, which takes place at the University of Southern California's Capital Center in Sacramento, houses participants at a four-star hotel located about six blocks from the training center. Breakfast and lunch were catered from some of the excellent local eateries, and the group dined each night at one of the superb downtown restaurants. Other highlights were an afternoon trip into San Francisco and dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf, and attending a local minor league game (we rooted, rooted, rooted for the home team, but they didn’t win, which was a shame).
One thing that hasn’t changed about LSMI is the opportunity to meet other legislative staff from around the country and make new friends. Because the LSMI participants come from a wide variety of states and positions (including partisan and nonpartisan offices, leadership, information systems, administration, evaluation/audit, fiscal, legal, and research), we learned much from each other. We also created a network of friends that we can call upon in the future.
Overall, the ‘new and improved’ LSMI was a wonderful and highly valuable experience. We encourage all offices to consider sending middle- and upper-level staff to the 2006 program. If demand allows (the 2005 program received 39 applications for 30 available slots), the sponsors may be able to provide two sessions per year in future years. It is an opportunity not to be missed!
