Pat Esslinger

Technology-Enabled Meeting Facilitation
Chevy Chase, MD
301-657-8013

Experience
Pat Esslinger is an independent groupware facilitator and technographer whose client list features Federal executives and managers. She combines expertise in meeting facilitation and use of GroupSystems collaborative technology with a background in executive level Federal management, including twenty-five years with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, where she served in policy development, management analysis, human resources management, and management of the Civil Service Retirement System. She has worked as a GroupSystems facilitator and technographer since 1995. She holds a security clearance at the Secret level.

Company Information
Pat specializes in facilitating technology-enabled meetings, where each participant is provided with a laptop computer. One-at-a-time oral comments and facilitators’ flip charts are largely replaced by simultaneous keyed-in comments and electronic big screen displays.

Education
Although Pat’s clients are pleased with the results she gets in meetings on any topic, she does have special expertise in public personnel management. With the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Pat had assignments in various Federal human resources management specialties, beginning as a Management Intern with particular focus on staffing. She held positions in operations, policy development, supervision, and management. Her highest level position was Deputy Assistant Director for Retirement Programs--unless you count a three month temporary appointment in Senior Executive Service as Assistant Director. Policy development work included Governmentwide job evaluation, compensation, performance management, labor and employee relations, and work/family programs.

The technology-enabled sessions:

let participants collaborate with each other or work alone, submitting ideas anonymously and then share ideas with the entire group.
accelerate and improve brainstorming and organizing ideas, leaving more time for members to discuss, develop, and assess the ideas.
provide structure for evaluating ideas systematically, allowing participants to rate alternatives against a list of criteria and/or to allocate resources among the alternatives
instantly analyze the evaluations statistically and display the results graphically create a real-time permanent record of all input.

During her Federal career, Pat's achievements were recognized a number of times. She received the William A. Jump Memorial Foundation certificate of recognition for noteworthy service in Public Administration in 1983. She received performance cash awards every year from when they were originally authorized by CSRA (1980) until her 1994 retirement. She attended the Federal Executive Institute program in Executive Leadership and Management and holds a degree in political science and English (cum laude) from Vassar College.

Industry Experience
Examples of what Pat’s groups have accomplished include:

Unit managers collectively planned for downsizing and restructuring, including identifying functions to cut or to reengineer to improve effectiveness.
Staff offices, including HR offices, collected and assessed customer input and used that input to plan service improvements.
Headquarters and regional managers developed mission, vision, and values statements, strategic plans, and tactical plans complete with tasks, measures, and milestones.
Supervisors and line employees collectively developed competency models for key occupations in the agency.
Cross-functional and inter-agency teams developed business plans for multi-year reinvention labs.
Focus groups of employees at various levels collaboratively developed information on the knowledges and skills required by the main line occupations in the agency.
Scientists used an iterative Delphi process, gathering and analyzing expert opinions with groupware and web-based surveys, as a foresight method.
Law enforcement staff developed an inventory of both best practices used by district offices and innovative ideas from field participants.
Through mutual learning about new corporate biotech capabilities and technical/business needs, scientists and managers developed a first cut of a vision for what the new technology could mean for the corporation--a list of new capabilities, with some description, explanation of value, and indication of priority.
Representatives of 12 partnerships between local governments and non-profits learned from sharing experiences and produced a partnership model that can be replicated in other communities
An agency-wide management group developed and built acceptance for a 5-year corporate recruitment strategy for key occupations to address major workforce gaps in critical skills and diversity as well as diminished success in recruiting from universities that were most prominent in the relevant fields of study