CAF Consensus Workshop at ReSPA: Common Understanding of Improvement Areas and Prioritized Actions on Our Way to Excellence
The last two days ReSPA CAF Self-assessment team discussed inputs from the CAF Questionnaire and reflected on our assets and strengths and which areas should be further enhanced.
In this important but demanding journey, with the strong support of Philip Parzer and Alexandra Schantl from the Austrian Centre for Public Administration Research (KDZ), the ReSPA team reflected on which work areas are doing well and which should be improved systematically.
Reaching a common understanding on various topics was also a challenging task that the ReSPA CAF Self-assessment team faced, like all other teams introducing CAF in the Western Balkans. That is why we all agreed that CAF is an excellent tool for provoking better communication and building mutual trust while listening to each other to detect areas that need improvement. ReSPA can progress on its way to excellence only if team members progress as individuals and in teamwork. And today, ReSPA team has witnessed how CAF is an efficient tool for changes that should start with changing mindset to realise actions for further improvements.
“As a regional institution that introduces CAF across public institutions and CAF believers, we highly value and appreciate this QM tool. We already knew that Consensus Workshop is crucial but challenging, and today we witnessed it. This Workshop was a helpful exercise for us to open up and do some kind of “medical check-up” of our institution and what we as a team should improve to reach excellence once again. Although challenging, it is beneficial because today, we face the fact that we all need to contribute to further ReSPA’s improvement. Each team member counts, and we will work on better understanding and communicating while improving internal processes to reach excellence,” said Gentian Xhaxhiu, ReSPA Programme Coordinator.
“Impressive to see how after two days of intensive discussion ReSPA team set a solid basis to continue its path towards excellence with the CAF. Very much looking forward to the next steps in fine-tuning the roadmap for further development,” said Philip Parzer, Senior CAF Expert, Head of the CAF Centre at KDZ
ReSPA will develop an Action Plan in the upcoming month based on prioritized actions for improvement to raise the level of performance and overall organizational development.
Upon the approval of the Action Plan, over the next 2-3 years, we will go through the implementation of activities envisaged within the Action Plan, with strong support from KDZ team.
The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is the common European quality management instrument for the public sector. It is a tool to assist public sector organizations to improve their performance. The CAF helps organizations to perform a self-assessment with the involvement of all staff, to develop an improvement plan based on the results of the self-assessment and implement the improvement actions. The model is based on the premise that excellent results in organisational performance, citizens/customers, people and society are achieved through leadership driving strategy and planning, people, partnerships and resources, and processes. It looks at the organisation from different angles at the same time, the holistic approach of organisation performance analysis.
