In the business world, there is a huge focus on the concept of “BRAND”. A brand is not just the name of a company or organization, it’s the overall promise a business makes to customers. A “brand” is simply the overall perception by customers (or society) of a specific organization. In this context, everything has a brand, including organizations like KPEP.
Developing a strong brand identity begins with the process of formulating a specific mission statement, and then making sure staff, processes and procedures completely support that core statement. Bottom line: every person, every decision and every action needs to support the targeted mission. Anything less than complete adherence to the collective mission can result in confusion and ultimately failure.
At KPEP, staying committed to the core mission focuses on key daily operations and regularly scheduled strategic planning sessions. KPEP’s leadership and executive team is focused on a short and long-term vision. In the field of corrections, long-term strategic planning includes developing an understanding of the needs of society as well as cultivating relationships with community and political decision-makers.
Even though it may sound cliché, the bottom line in the operations of an organization is in making sure the right staff are hired and correctly trained. We invest a great deal of time in recruiting, testing, hiring and training of staff. As part of the intensive training program, each employee learns the mission statement. We have weekly structured staff meetings, and a monthly agency-wide staff meeting via tele-conferencing. In other words, we really work hard to make sure all of our staff understand our mission, our values and the ethical standards that are the core of our operation.
So we recently conducted a “pop quiz” of sorts. At a recent meeting, all staff members were handed a questionnaire which posed the following question: What are the top five core values of KPEP? (There was no forewarning so the responses were spontaneous. It was also an open ended question so no multiple choice) As you might guess by the fact that I am writing this article the responses were very consistent. The overwhelmingly most popular responses were:
- Honesty
- Integrity
- Accountability
- Responsibility
- Professionalism
- Treatment/Recovery
The next few responses were similar in tone:
- Respect
- Structure
- Life Skills
- Commitment to Excellence
- Consistency
In spite of all of that, we still sometimes have staff who make bad decisions and violate our standards. In many of these instances this means termination. So the question becomes do they know it is wrong and just decide to violate the rules anyway? Maybe they don’t buy in or don’t agree with our ethics or standards. We have seen that before. Or is there a culture that makes people think that they can do whatever they want. We’ve all read about that before in correctional settings. Sex between guards and inmates, drugs being smuggled into the prison by staff or simply abuse of power by the prison staff. You’re never going to be perfect as an organization, but you have to do your best to ensure that everyone in the organization, top to bottom, understands the mission, the values and the culture you are trying to uphold.
Delivering the brand promise at KPEP begins with setting key goals and strategies, and then making sure every decision and every action taken by every member of the team supports that promise.
-William DeBoer, President and CEO