Tag: NASPO webinars

Professional Development

Everything is NOT Awesome – Difficult Customer Situations

Imagine this – a state agency has come to you with frustrations about a lack of communication from the central procurement office. They have not heard back from the office in over three days, and they are frustrated that they do not know what is going on with their solicitation. This is just one example of a frustrated customer situation you might run into in your operations. When these unhappy customers arise, there are steps you can  take in order to recover from a bad customer service experience. Read more “Everything is NOT Awesome – Difficult Customer Situations”
NASPO Events & Education

A Day in the Life: Jessica Vieira

This week, we caught up with Wisconsin State Training Coordinator, Jessica Vieira. Jessica has a heart for service and a mind for training. Using her background in non-profit organizations, Jessica brings a refreshing view of training to the state employees of Wisconsin. Read below to find out more about this week’s featured Day in the Life interviewee!
Jessica Vieira has been Wisconsin’s State Training Coordinator since early 2017. Before this, she attended California Polytechnic State University on a full scholarship through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Gates Millennium Scholars Program and graduated in 2004 with a B.S. in Psychology. She later completed coursework toward a master’s in education with a focus in special education. She devoted the next decade of her life to working for a non-profit mental health organization, where she was responsible for providing mental health education, training, and recovery tools to those in her community. In addition, she partnered with various California agencies, such as the California Highway Patrol and local technical colleges, to provide mental health crisis trainings to all officers and many EMT-trainees along California’s central coast. In 2016, she decided to broaden her horizons and took an opportunity for a fresh start in Madison, Wisconsin.

Read more “A Day in the Life: Jessica Vieira”

Professional Development

Continuous Improvement Webinar – Find the Gap!

Recently, on a NASPO webinar aimed at helping state procurement officials determine what continuous improvement tools and methods might be able to do for them, presenters Jason Soza (CPO, Alaska) and Richard Pennington (NASPO Life Members and NASPO ValuePoint General Counsel) tried to solve a huge problem; the chickens keep getting run over by cars because they’re trying to cross the road…
Jason: “Why did the chicken cross the road?”
Richard: “To get to the other side.”
Jason: “Why did the chicken need to get to the other side?”
Richard: “To stretch its legs.”

Read more “Continuous Improvement Webinar – Find the Gap!”