How USAID/Senegal Leveraged the Annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey for Reflection and Change

Without good facilitation, organizational culture can be a thorny topic. In this collaborating, learning and adapting case study, USAID/Senegal describes how they used their Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) results as a springboard for productive discussion about their organizational culture and processes.

Organizational Challenge: USAID/Senegal’s Program Office conducted an in-depth analysis of past FEVS results and found a need for improvement in six areas related to mission culture and performance management. They also found that Direct Hires held less positive views than Foreign Service Nationals (FSN).

CLA Approach:

• Pause & Reflect: The mission’s Senior Leadership Team and FSN Advisory Committee chose an outside facilitator to organize mini-retreats to explore the six areas of dissatisfaction, identify and address issues that may hinder the mission’s ability to achieve its development objectives, and give staff an opportunity to raise issues and propose ideas.
• Openness: The mini-retreats allowed staff to interact and collaborate in a non-hierarchical manner, and share knowledge in a way that would not have happened otherwise. The small group discussions created a common narrative that set the stage for future long-term action.

Outcomes: The mission has made several operational adaptations in response to the issues raised during the mini-retreats. The process also set the stage for ongoing reflection and long-term action within the mission.

Read the full case here.

If you're interested in reading more about the connection between the FEVS and CLA, see our recent analysis here.

This blog post is part of a series featuring the 10 winners of the 2017 Collaborating, Learning and Adapting Case Competition. A new case will be posted on USAID Learning Lab each Thursday: October 12 - December 14.