The Chattanooga Peak Academy is Online!

Chattanooga has just wrapped up it’s very first Peak Academy Online!  Due to COVID-19, the City of Chattanooga’s Office of Performance Management and Open Data has been unable to hold in-person Peak Academies at its usual intervals.  After it became apparent in the data that COVID-19 was here to stay longer than expected, OPMOD quickly began working on an online version of Peak Academy.  This new type of Peak training keeps many of the same aspects as the in-person (except the food unfortunately), but it also adds new exciting online elements.

The new online training relies heavily on Google Jamboards as virtual whiteboards to capture the many post-it note stickies that Peak graduates come to know and love.  Utilizing Zoom, the team is able to continue to break out groups where City employees get to intermingle and break down silos in government.  We’ve even found a way to continue Gemba walks in an online environment!  Though often being there in person helps significantly, we have found virtual Gemba walks to be fairly true to the processes they walk through. 

 Below are some key lessons we have learned just in this first round of Peak Online:

• Half-days work best.  It’s hard enough sitting in front of a computer all day, but doing it on a training can be excruciating.
• Most exercises and group work can still be done online.
• Google Jamboards are your friend.  
• City employees are a resilient bunch. 

Being in the middle of a global pandemic, innovative staff driven improvements are needed more than ever before! If you want to be part of the City of Chattanooga’s continuous improvement journey make sure you sign up on the Peak Academy website.