Turbocharged Organizational Change through High-Octane Management Training

Abstract

In 2002, Florida Governor Jeb Bush directed his Department of Transportation to empower its toll facility agency, Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise (FTE), to pursue new ideas and best practices. Governor Bush challenged the Turnpike Enterprise to determine how quickly it was possible to transform the mindset of a 4,600-employee public-servant/civil-service organization to that of an entrepreneurial top performer. He asked the agency to serve as a prototype for change. At the center of the agency’s transformation is “Flight School.” The training curriculum provided the one hundred senior managers in each session with the knowledge and tools required to accomplish FTE’s operating basis: “public sector motives, private sector methods.” This article describes the first two years of FTE’s training for senior managers, paying particular attention to the goals and objectives of the learning program, curriculum design, first-year results, curriculum changes, second-year results, and significant lessons learned.