 Coming up on Court to Court. To manage the Generation Xers, I would say my biggest challenge is going to be keeping them. If you look at all the theory and overlook the people component, I think you've done an injustice to the term leadership. Colonial Conferencing is a unique method of training. I found it to be very beneficial. This is Court to Court, your connection to what's happening in the federal courts around the country, providing information and ideas that will enhance your job and how the courts function. Now with today's program, Michael Burney. Welcome to the second edition of Court to Court. This is one of two educational magazine programs from the Federal Judicial Center to keep you up to date on innovations and changes that will affect how you do your job. On today's program, we'll address some of the challenges of managing across generations, take a look at a leadership development program, see how courts are reaching out to help other courts increase efficiency, highlight online conferencing, and of course introduce more words to know. And finally, we'll hear from some of your colleagues in our segment called It's Your Turn. Let's get started. Organizational psychologist Dr. Neal Stroll says that there are about three generations in the workforce at any given time. He notes that people who have grown up in different generations have had different experiences that affect how they view the workplace and their place in it. How do you effectively motivate and manage your staff when members of your staff cut across these generational lines? Our first segment helps answer that question. I am motivated by challenges and new things. You know, I certainly don't want to spend another five years doing this job. You know, so if something came along that interested me more, I would certainly pursue it. Usually you need to change environments to continue to grow. I definitely have a fear of being stagnant. If any of these comments sound familiar, you're not alone. To manage the generation Xers, I would say my biggest challenge is going to be keeping them. In the 1980s, a novelist coined the term generation X, referring to people in their 20s and early 30s who felt they didn't fit in. The term has since found its way into popular jargon. It sometimes comes with negative connotations, which are unfounded, says organizational psychologist Neil Stroll. For a while, a lot of the popular press was trying to hoist off this slacker stereotype about members of generation X. They were doing us all a big disservice. Members of generation X are every bit as strong a work ethic as baby boomers do. And yet some issues seem to have some relation to generational values and styles. Turnover is one of them. It takes six weeks to train a docket clerk, and it takes a good year before they're expert at what they do. And so it's quite hard when we've gone through that and somebody leaves in six, eight months or even the year. Westall attended Stroll's session on intergenerational issues at a recent clerk's conference sponsored by the Federal Judicial Center. Stroll says that it was quite different to come of age in the 1970s and 80s. One of the things the Xers saw that the boomers didn't was layoffs and downsizing. What that said to them is you can put in 30 years of good service and have given your life's blood to a company, but when push comes to shove you're a disposable commodity and I am not going to let myself be put in that position. That certainly has hit home for me because I never wanted to be laid off like my father was. Gardner understands that work today is more complex and that everyone must deal with technology. We have to constantly train our people, whether they're new people coming in or whether they're current people on the job we've been there for 10 years, they're going to have to go through some type of training or retraining because their job is constantly changing. These lessons will be done with electronic case fallings. Monette Warren began with the court at an entry-level job and now is a trainer. When I see something new that's going to challenge me, that's what I need to keep myself content. And I think younger people are more inclined to believe that they can keep up with the technology, with the things that change. I think people in their 20s are more inclined to want things bigger, better, quicker, faster. They figure you're only as marketable as what you did yesterday and if your skills aren't current, you're in deep trouble. And you know what? They're right. They're right. That is the new career paradigm. Stroll says that older workers may value experience and seniority more, but today's younger staff have a different perspective on security. That's why when they consider employers, they're going to consider which employment opportunity is going to give me the best opportunity to build my skills and continue to be marketable. Upgrading skills can work for both employees and the court. We try and train people into other jobs so that we can keep them within the organization, cross-train them, that type of thing. Docketing supervisor Joni McCauley manages a staff ranging in age from their early 20s to mid-50s. This is the first step in our progression towards the automated magistrate-minute orders. Different things motivate different people and so you have to be able to identify what motivates people at different stages in their life and then offer them those kind of opportunities to keep them interested. Neil Stroll believes that attitudes such as that will foster loyalty. I also think that members of Generation X are loyal to people. If they think that the manager is a good manager, it's an authentic person who genuinely cares about them and is interested in their welfare and their success. I think those people will be loyal to that manager. You also will probably need to keep this under seal until the judge decides. Oh, okay. Do I pull that number from the civil deck or from the criminal deck? You're actually going to pull it from the habeas deck. Oh, from the habeas deck. That's right, exactly. She's one of the nicest supervisors I've ever worked with. She's very knowledgeable about her job. She's very professional at the same time. She can be very fair and fun. If my supervisor trusts me enough to give me new projects and trusts that my action on those projects will be worthwhile and gives me the liberty to move on those thoughts, actions, initiatives, then I find that rewarding. Stroll says that there's another way to create loyalty. Managers who can inspire members of Generation X with a really great idea that intrigues them, they'll find that those folks will be in fact loyal to that idea. Mark Garth was hired to create the bankruptcy court's websites by clerk Barry Lander. He's the kind of guy who likes to see high tech stuff at work and so I can deliver that. I said anything you can imagine I can do. But Garth isn't in Generation X. Well, Stroll is emphatic that successful managers don't stereotype. There are lots of people of any generations who totally contradict the stereotype. You don't want to get locked into it. You don't go around thinking to yourself, oh, I'm a boomer or I'm a member of this generation. That's way down on the list of identity statements we make about ourselves. Treat them as unique individuals and you're always going to be ahead of the curve. As we've just seen, the challenge of managing today requires an awareness of what motivates employees. In other words, managers today need both awareness and leadership skills. One way the federal judicial center helps develop such skills is through the federal court manager leadership program. The first group in the program met recently at the FJC in Washington for their final session. Let's take a look. The federal court manager leadership program brings together managers and staff from district bankruptcy and appeals courts. Fran Toller is the program's director. She says that decentralized control of courts has brought many changes. To give leaders in the court the kinds of decision-making skills, the kind of interpersonal skills and the kinds of challenges that will prepare them to lead in their court units. During a two-and-a-half-year period, the program includes two group meetings, independent study, and a self-directed problem-solving project in each participant's court unit. And I'm going to help myself and the organization grow with that knowledge. What we have learned is that people are actually saving money as a result of some of the things that they have implemented in their courts. They've improved processes. In the early stages of the program, each participant completed a rigorous self-evaluation that included honest feedback from the staff they manage. You have to be able to relate to other people. You need to have followers in order to be a leader. During this final week of the program, participants also reported on their temporary duty assignment projects. My project was on employee recognition. Tolar says the idea is to learn from someone with whom one isn't normally in contact. Take your experience and learn from it. You know, stretch your thinking. Talk to other people. Don't be limited by your own experience. Lisa Ball wanted to know how the United States Military Academy at West Point develops leadership abilities. What they feel is the first step on the path is to realize all that you don't know and then open yourself up to the possibility of learning what you can become. The most important thing that I've learned in the federal court manager leadership program is that leadership training is a lifelong commitment. John Brubaker's position as Chief Deputy Clerk gave him his first opportunity to lead an automation department. For his project, he surveyed how other courts deal with automation issues. Another thing that has helped me out on is I've really started to look at my world differently. Any time I go somewhere, I try to think of that as an opportunity for learning more and getting ideas for my court. We were struggling with the issues of priorities and organizational type issues, and this program has given me some good ideas which has helped put us right on track in those areas. Virginia Hare wanted to improve communication between automation departments and court libraries. Another one of my recommendations was that probation and bankruptcy and district court automation should be consolidated. We are in the process of that. I think the leadership program as a whole increases your self-confidence, your ability to do things, your responsibility to take actions. Probably the most important thing to leadership is the object of the leadership, and that's the people. People who are supposed to be led. Jerry Tarkowski examined how organizations deal with change and isolated the stages of change for his colleagues. There is something which is very insidious and it comes creeping in normally between the present state and the transition state, and that is known as pain. If you look at all the theory and overlook the people component, I think you've done an injustice to the term leadership. Gary McFarlane decided to stay in the leadership program, even though in the midst of it, he was appointed clerk of court. I then made a conscious decision that everything I had done in the program to date had improved me as a court manager and was something that I was committed to finishing, and I'm glad that I have. For all 57 participants, finishing meant a ceremony to reward their work. You are the muscles that hold the system together. If you don't function well, neither do the judges. And the class acknowledged the value they received. It has not only enabled me to grow as a leader in that I've become a leader of vision, mission and integrity. I think on the whole it has broadened my perspective of the court system and allowed me to become more of a team player. For the members of this first class, their certificate is only one part of what they take from the experience. And I have been given the opportunity to focus on specific areas that I know that need improvement to help me advance my own self and my own career. Probably I am more sensitive to the people who have to materialize the program that you're trying to lead them to. I really feel that I am a better person. You know, now I'm thinking more leadership. Now I'm thinking what do I bring back to my court? If you would like more information about FJC leadership programs, you can find it in the purple booklet entitled Programs and Services for Federal Court Personnel. You can also get information on programs by visiting our internet website at www.fjc.gov or our JNET webpage at the address on the screen. I know it's a long one, so we'll show it to you again at the end of today's program. On our first show, we piloted a segment we call Words to Know. It highlights words that conserve to bridge understanding across generations and across work units. Some terms we present will be more technical. Others might be commonly used, but not universally understood. Here with Words to Know is my colleague, Bob Fagan. Welcome to Words to Know. Today we're looking at two words we frequently encounter, bandwidth and URL. Bandwidth may bring to mind the size of your watch, but actually it's the measure of the speed and capacity with which data can be moved over a computer network. Think of a water pipe and the quantity of water it can hold. The bigger the pipe, the more water that can quickly flow through to its destination. But data and text don't flow through pipes. They arrive to us by way of computer modems, T1 lines, cable modems and satellite connections. Each of these have different bandwidths, allowing different speeds of delivering information. Bandwidth is measured in bits per second. A bit is the smallest unit of computerized data. A full page of English text is about 16,000 bits. A 28.8 modem can move 28,800 bits in a second. Photos and video need greater bandwidth to make an image. For example, video conferencing typically uses a transmission rate of roughly 393,000 bits per second. So if a colleague says, we wanted to do some high-resolution graphic animation in a clerk's training session, but we had a bandwidth problem, you can smile and say, I understand your dilemma and this time really mean it. Now let's take a look at URL. Also referred to as URL. Both are correct and they mean Uniform Resource Locator on the World Wide Web. Our Uniform Resource Locator is simply the unique address of a file or resource that you're looking for on the web. The FJC's address for this program is an example of a URL. Let's break down this address into its component parts. It contains the name of the internet application protocol required to access the resource, hypertext, transfer protocol, or HTTP. A domain name that identifies a specific computer on the internet, in this case a computer named 156.132.47.230. The next two components describe the location of the directory in the file. The directory is named docs slash eduprog. The specific file is named court to see. Finally, there's HTML or hypertext markup language. That's the format of the documents found on the web. So much for the mystery of URLs. URLs save you lots of time, especially when you bookmark them, because in just a few seconds, you can go directly to where you want to go without having to search for a website. That's all our time for now, but we'll be back next time with more words to know. The autonomy of the federal court system allows courts to develop innovative practices and procedures that fit their particular locality. A side benefit is that effective and innovative practices can be identified and shared throughout the judiciary. Some of you are pairing up with courts of comparable size to share practices and procedures to increase the efficiency of court operations. In our next segment, we'll see how staff from the New Mexico Bankruptcy Court exchanged effective practices with their colleagues from Nebraska to a well-planned, targeted court visit. A small group of court personnel from the Bankruptcy Court in Nebraska visited colleagues in Albuquerque, New Mexico to examine case-processing procedures in action, which they might wish to implement. We had five visitors from the district of Nebraska, and one of them was in the systems area, but the other four were in the operations area. And we pretty much ran them through intake back here in the case administration area and told them how we operate and we inquired as to things that they do. And I also wanted to see all their networks set up and kind of bounce some ideas off their people in that area. They are using some equipment that I'm looking into to implementing in our network, so that was good to see. I was interested in their quality control procedures and also their telecommuting. Telecommuting is taking a portion of your 40-hour work week and working from your home. It takes a lot of cooperation, a lot of teamwork to be able to do this. And then we gradually just kept adding people and adjusting the schedule and accommodating each other. So, you know, we do what it takes to make it work because it's the best reward or the best incentive we could ask for. I do docketing at home. I audit files, proof work. They have standards they have to meet. It has to be done a certain time. I think they used to have more like a 12-hour turnover from the original time they were filed and on the docket and it's reduced it to three hours basically because they can go in and dock at any time. But I know that we're very pleased with it because it's a win-win situation. In addition to network setup and telecommuting, the Nebraska team examined other procedures. We've been sitting with the case administrators, intake people. We're up visiting with one of the courtroom deputies. Just the ideas that they have in their court and the ideas that we have in ours and the procedures that we use and they use and that they would like to pick up from us and we would like to pick up from them. When I sat with one of the case administrators this morning, I learned a lot about their scanning procedure. With the courtroom, we're interested in the different calendaring procedures that the courtroom deputies use. And you can save time there also. There were a lot of procedures that I looked at that I think we can use to make our office more efficient. I'm a case administrator and there's thousands of case administrators out there and so many of them do things so differently and it's nice to see how they do it. This is the first time, for me, experienced sharing ideas and sharing the telecommuting idea, doing the presentation. I thought it was great because I learned a lot from these people by just telling them well, this is how we do it and you start seeing, gee, why can't we do it that way? If it works for them, why can't we do it? We came to observe the ACE, which is their electronic filing program. I think it'll be wonderful that the pleadings are available to the public immediately and that they can view the entire pleading instead of on the docket just getting a brief description or caption regarding that pleading. The program actually was developed here from one of their computer programmers. I think the whole development of the ACE system is a large challenge, electronic case filing. I think it's good and it's the next step. I know the AO is working on a system similar to the ACE system. Like I say, the last two days have been my first experience with the ACE system. It's really interesting to see what other people do and see if it's things that I can take home and start using their procedures myself to make my job more efficient and to give better customer service because of that. As courts continue to look for ways to help increase efficiency, many new technologies are being piloted and introduced across the judiciary. We hope to bring you educational segments on these tools just as we covered electronic case filing in our first program. Our next segment will give you a quick visual survey of some of these new tools and define and highlight the use of online conferencing. The facade has changed. Once courthouses looked like the Parthenon and now they are edifices of glass and chrome. Yes, the outside is different, but those changes are only part of the story. Just as dramatic are the changes within, especially those made possible by technology, waves of innovations that have swept over the judiciary. Remember when there were telephone operators to connect you and now you speak into voice messaging systems. If you know the extension of the person you are calling, dial it now. If you know the person's name, but not the extension, dial one. When documents were hand carried to the intake counter and now attorneys and litigants file documents using fax and other electronic methods. Now when the public comes to a courthouse looking for information, they may go first to a kiosk. This is the main menu. Touch the picture for the section you would like to search. And second to a human being. And now you don't even have to wait for a hard copy of the court transcript if there's real-time court reporting. In fact, witnesses often don't even have to show up in person for proceedings. And the changes aren't just in the way the court conducts its business. Telecommuting means more and more work can be done from home using a computer. And court employees can now receive training just by walking down the hall to link up with the FJTN. We're going to now look at a very important ingredient of any negotiation. Or link up with an online conference through the JNET right into the FJC conference center. Online conferencing technology allows geographically dispersed participants to meet together in a virtual meeting room from the convenience of their desktop computer anywhere that has access to the JNET at any time during the normal work day. Or at 7 a.m. during lunch or even late at night from home. Online conferencing is a unique method of training. I found it to be very beneficial because you had the opportunity to participate in the training at your leisure. And I say leisure lightly, knowing everyone's working in the court so hard. Just exactly what is online conferencing. Here's how it works. Court employees first log on to the JNET, then enter the address of the FJC's online conferencing home page. Once you arrive at the home page, you can gain access to any conference for which you have registered. Registered participants are provided with a user ID and a password. It's that simple. To add your comments, you type in your response and simply post it into the ongoing conversation. During 1998, a total of 16 online conferences were conducted for court employees. Participants totaled over a thousand. Some were standalone conferences. Others were follow-ups to workshops or as part of a program like the Federal Court Manager Leadership Program. As part of the case management online program, I learned and implemented a procedure from Magistrate Judge Judith Guthrie in Tyler, Texas. I now order initial disclosure in inmate cases and then limit the number of further discovery requests to 10 each. In that way, the inmate gets the information he needs without a lot of excess, and I don't have to rule on so many motions to compel. As a new jury administrator, I obtained a lot of information. Because of the suggestions from this online, we started a calling system for jurors. It saved me hours of telephone work and was a great change. Here in Maine, I've had to write to 535 towns, cities, and other entities in search of jury source lists. Using the online, I was able to get strategies that other districts use to get consolidated lists from their states and counties, and that's valuable information. Since we're heading toward electronic case filing, the information provided by faculty and other courtroom deputies was very valuable. It helped to define how courtroom deputies and others will be affected by the technology. I feel better prepared. I recently participated in the newsletter conference that was held in September. It was a wonderful conference. It had several different lesson plans that were broken down into a verological format. There are some interesting programs coming your way this year. Case flow management for district court courtroom deputies, deputies in charge online, district court chief deputies online, online conference for deputy and assistant circuit executives, and online conference for operation managers on quality issues. Currently running are the courtroom deputies conference on technology. Just give us a call and tell us which conference you'd like more information about. If you'd like more information about upcoming conferences, you can find it in the purple booklet, which will soon be mailed to your court. Or you can access our webpage through the JNET. That address is once again on the screen. Our internet address is www.fjc.gov. And of course you may also get program information from the FJT and Bulletin. And now it's your turn. As you may recall from our first broadcast, we said we'd like to give you a voice on our program. Many of you took advantage of the opportunity to comment on the program and to give us advice. Our first comment comes from Cheryl Loesch in the district of Kansas, who spoke of her staff's reaction to our first show. The staff feels that by seeing what's happening in other courts around the country, it gives local courts ideas for improvement of local practices and processes. It allows courts to utilize the concept that I referred to as case, which stands for copy and steal everything. Why reinvent the wheel? Sheila Boshane from North Dakota had this to say. At the time the first court to court was broadcast in June, we didn't have our satellite downlink installed in our Fargo divisional office, but our headquarters office did. And they were able to tape the program for us and then we viewed it the next day and it turned out really well. The format with the news broadcast just made it so easy to listen to, so easy to get the information from that way. And involving the local court people in the broadcast made it so real. Sheila also had advice for us. It would be very helpful to have a local attorney, a local member of the bar, who's actually using the system to come in and give comments and do a short segment on that. I know one thing I thought of too and just thinking too in the ECF portion of it would be to have some type of a frequently asked questions segment. Our next comment comes from training specialist, Louise Schwarber. First let me say that the exciting practices in the recent court to court is an excellent concept to encourage volunteerism in the community. The program gives judicial employees an opportunity to give to others, to learn from others, counters negative concepts of government workers and positively reinforces good work habits in order to participate. Our final comment comes from clerk of court, Richard Donovan. We wanted to show the electronic case filing segment to our staff. We are not one of those pilot courts so it's not in our power to bring 100 people to visit New York or California so this was a way to bring this into the staff meeting and to address some of the issues that the staff had about electronic case filing. We could see there was a noticeable decrease in their anxiety about this change on the horizon and there was some excitement because they saw that this change not only brought about a change in the way we did case administration but it meant that the change in the way they did their jobs. We are looking forward to the next broadcast of court to court. It's a wonderful augment to our quarterly staff meeting. It brings in all sorts of information from the judiciary on legislation, on innovations that you can't otherwise get. Those were some of the comments we received about the first broadcast. Let me thank those of you who sent in comments. You have a voice in our program. We're listening and we're looking forward to seeing more of you. Before we close today's program, here's the JNET address once again. You can access information about upcoming FJTN programs at this address and find out about other available seminars and educational programs. You can also evaluate today's program using this address. Simply click on court to court and fill out an evaluation online. You may also complete an evaluation at your site and fax or mail it into us. Our fax number is 4088. Your input is very important to developing future programming. So please, let us know of your innovative practices and provide us with topics you'd like us to consider for our show. Be sure to watch the next perspectives program for probation and pretrial services. It airs April 29th and will feature the FJC's upcoming National Sentencing Policy Institute, an on-location report of an innovative approach to expediting the sentencing process and much more. That's court to court for today. On behalf of our staff here at the Federal Judicial Center, I'm Michael Burney. Have a great day.