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On this episode, our guest is Ms. Barbara C. Morton, the Deputy Chief Veterans Experience Officer to talk about AdVAncing: Trust.
The Department of Veterans Affairs Human Capital Services Center proudly presents Are You Future Ready: AdVAncing Your Professional Development, a podcast about the skills you need to thrive at work and in life.
In each episode Amy Parker, VA’s Chief Learning Officer, and learning leaders from across VA will share strategies you can use to develop essential skills like emotional intelligence, problem solving, and critical thinking. Listen in as podcast guests share insights gained from leading their organizations through one of the most challenging eras in modern memory. While we cannot predict what the future holds, we can all become more future-ready by developing durable skills that empower us to confront complex problems with confidence.
Amy Parker
This is our you future ready advancing your professional development a podcast series for anyone who wants to grow and excel in their career or in life. I'm your host Amy Parker, the Department of Veterans Affairs chief learning officer. This week we are joined by the deputy chief veteran's experience officer Miss Barbara Morton. Barbara is no stranger to the VA and has worked here for 15 years. She's a native of Rockport, Massachusetts. And she started her career in New England after receiving her JD at Suffolk University, and then moved to the DC area to receive her master's in constitutional law at Georgetown. She started working at VA as a staff attorney at the board of veterans appeals, where she led the it modernization effort. Then in 2016, she joined the veterans experience office as the Deputy Chief, and has worked there ever since. between May and March, this past year, she served as the acting veterans experience officer. And so we're so lucky to have you join us here today. Barbara, welcome.
Barbara Morton
Amy, thanks so much for having me. So thrilled to be with you today.
Amy Parker
I'm so glad you're here and excited to talk to you about veteran experience and employee experience. And then we're gonna get to touch on both of those today. So the veteran experience office, which you'll hear us probably called v o for short, it supports the secretary. And then of course, the entire department, our veterans, and all of the other customers that the organization has spouses, family members, survivors, and it provides customer experience support. The E o applies all the best practices of data tools, technology, and engagement to support VA is delivery of services to our veterans and their families. And as the Deputy Chief, you're responsible for quite a lot that goes on in that office, I'm sure it must have been interesting to adjust from being an attorney to customer experience. And so how did your How did your experience from the board transfer over?
Unknown Speaker
So I love that question. And I if I can indulge in sharing a story because the connection is not necessary. Not necessarily a linear one for folks, I do get asked that question oftentimes. So it really all started with a phone call from a veteran. And this is when I was at the board of veterans appeals. He called him he was very kind of lost in the appeals process. And so I sort of listened and took his name and number and certainly wanted to track down how I could help it. And after the time came where we were actually able to get the appeal back on track, I was thrilled to call him and give him the great news that we had done so and he gave me the greatest compliment of my life really. And that was, he said, Thank you, Barbara, I trust you, because I knew you would take care of me. And so that, to me was such a impactful and profound moment. And that was such a gift to me, how could I pass up an opportunity to try to establish a program where we as a department would be able to sort of replicate that trust and building relationships over and over and over again, as an individual, veteran family member, caregiver and survivor level. And so that is how I bridged from being an attorney to coming over to this incredible office
Amy Parker
over the last five years. That is so cool. And what a great story. So we tell us a little bit more about the EEO and what types of skills are needed to work in customer experience.
Unknown Speaker
I would say for me, when you think about experience, I think the foundational component of experience that is most important is really simple. And it's very low tech, and it's empathy. And it's something that each one of us can bring to each other and to anyone we interact with. And it's just a matter of making sure that we're able to lead with empathy, balancing that, of course, against all the other demands that our jobs place on us, but really trying to lead with empathy and how we think about solving problems, and then how we bring those problem sets to execution. So I think having a design thinker and an empathetic thinker in the EEO are really, really kind of critical pieces of what we look for and stuff.
Amy Parker
This is a great connection to one of our earlier episodes that we did about empathy and design thinking, there you go. And I knew that when we had you on the show, we were going to get this great encapsulation of customer experience. So to all of our listeners, you've just had a couple minutes of the download of the building blocks of exactly what they're doing and Bo, and where you're taking it leading really for employee experience, which is also really exciting to talk about.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, and we're super excited to partner Amy with with you and our HR and a OSP team. So the fascinating thing is I think as you are building a new organization like the eo and in the early days, it was a startup, it was it was a little conceptual at first. And we took a couple of the first few years, as you know, to really again ground our concepts that were beautiful concepts sort of in the lofty clouds and ground them down to earth into reality, and really making these kind of concrete tools for folks to utilize and apply to actually then deliver better outcomes and impacts for veterans. And so as we have applied that framework, using human centered design, again, as the foundation to the veteran experience, we are now at a maturity level in our organization to literally use the exact same framework, the exact same design methodology of sort of, you know, research, testing, prototyping, and then scaling, and then measuring performance on the back end, with the employee experience. And you know, you've been incredible partners along with a CEO to to perform and map out VA, his first ever employee experience journey map, which is really a corollary to the transformational veterans experience journey map, that video delivered back in 2015. So you can see this sort of build over time, and we're just thrilled to be able to offer the same sort of methodologies and suite of capabilities to help build a better employee experience across VA. Can we
Amy Parker
talk just a little bit more about exactly what a journey map is? Yeah, absolutely.
Unknown Speaker
So a journey map. It's, it's a way for us to visually capture sort of how veterans and others employees as well, you sort of walk through any relationships they have with the department. So for example, the veterans experience journey map that I mentioned, groundbreaking artifact, that vdeo, in partnership with others across the department back in 2015, had put together in the wake of the Phoenix VA Medical Center crisis. And this was really transformational and groundbreaking, because it changed the dialogue, in terms of understanding how VA fits into a veteran's life journey, rather than having a veteran to figure out how to fit into VA org structure. So it was really again, flipping ourselves inside out a little bit. And really mapping from, you know, the time a veteran joins the military, through getting out and transitioning through starting up a new job taking care of themselves. And so that's a kind of a starting point, a journey map is really a starting point to do that baseline understanding of kind of those particular moments that matter. And that helps us as an organization, then drill into those moments to make sure that we can provide and craft and prototype and test those tangible sort of tools that I talked about to address those pain points, and then measure our performance after we implement those solutions. So it's really a starting point. But it's a great way to strategically change the conversation way of thinking, and also help us get it get us focused on what we need to apply resources to.
Amy Parker
Yeah, it's so exciting to and for our listeners, if you want to have a little bit of fun one night, maybe map out your own journey, if you want to do your whole life's journey, it can be really telling, if you want to do just your professional journey, that too can be really telling. And it can relate exactly to using the leadership development framework in the department. And then part as we continue to work together on this employee journey map. And really delivering support to those you mentioned the moments that matter when employees need development support when they need specific training in their career. But you can do this kind of it's been done on the macro, but it can also be very powerful to the individual sort of the the power of a journey map is
Unknown Speaker
also the translation of that information into kind of concrete steps that help inform decision making with leadership. And if I can give a quick example, that is more of a high tech example, regarding human centered design and sort of application of insights to strategic decision making. So back in 2018, we've been hearing signals from veterans that you know, VA has tons of digital properties, right? We've got there's lots of different websites and veterans were sort of telling us Hey, where do I, where's the front door? Like how do I, you know, how do I enter this huge giant building of a VA virtual building at least? And so we thought to ourselves in partnership with Office of Information Technology, oh, IoT, we say, Well, why don't we go ask veterans if they want to transact with VA, which digital properties do they think of going to where what's there where it's a natural place for them to land came back from those those HCD interviews and that research, and veterans told us that va.gov is really kind of where they think to go when they want to transact with the department. So that really diffused the conversation and the debate internally because it allowed us to make a decision based on what veterans were telling us they wanted and that's how a huge decision was made to have va.gov as part of this digital modernization Strategy be the single front door for veterans to transact with VA. And over time, we've worked with Oh IMT to enhance that website. So now it looks much more user friendly. It's co designed with veterans based on their feedback. And when we measure our performance on the back end, you see a 25% increase in satisfaction over the last few years since launch. So yep, so proof positive. When you apply Human Centered Design and you design with and for and around your customers, you will always every time produce better results for them.
Amy Parker
Amazing. There's a difference, right? between what we're talking about here with customer experience versus customer service? Yes. Could you tell us a little bit more about maybe why that differentiation is important?
Unknown Speaker
Yes, absolutely. So I remember in the early days of EEO, this was part of how the office was telling its story. And I think it's an important piece. And it's what we've hit on before in the conversation. And that's empathy. So when you think about customer service, a lot of times what it sort of relates to is sort of completing a transaction and making the transaction you know, getting it done or resolving a particular question to conclusion, what's missing in that is really that empathetic piece. And this is where customer experience is something that is much more sort of long lasting, it's not just a transaction, it's it's our entire relationship across the continuum organization to individual and vice versa. And so the fact that we have empathy and emotional resonance as sort of part and parcel of the definition of customer experience that the VA has actually codified, as part of our core values and characteristics. We talk about emotional resonance as a key way that we want to measure our performance, which leads to trust and building trust really is our North Star at VA. And also in terms of experience as well. There was a lot of discussion early on in the early days of vdeo. About Well, you know, why? Why Why does trust really even matter? Right? I mean, it Yes, of course, we think it matters, but like, you know, we have we have some, you know, we have services that we need to provide, you know, why is why is trust such an important driver. And I kind of go back to sort of our foundational core mission, right, and in our mission statement, is to care for right to care for those who shall have borne the battle. And I think having that connection of, again, inside the word care, to me is empathy. And with empathy, there has to be trust. So I think there's such a tie between trust and customer experience with vas mission, that it now is sort of an easy connection for people to make. And so the question then becomes, well, then how do you operationalize it, which I think is what the CEO has tried to work on, especially the last, you know, four or five years. But I think that the fact that we have such a strong mission, and such an empathetic thread in our mission, that actually is really front and center, I think is really allowed the environment to adopt and absorb the philosophies around experience in in ways that maybe other organizations with different mission sets may not have as easy time connecting.
Amy Parker
So are there some concrete ways that we can build trust for employees?
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, so I, this goes back to you. And I feel like all roads for me lead back to Human Centered Design. And as we become, as an organization at VA, more centered around applying Human Centered Design as a core business discipline, I think we're going to begin to see a long term improvement in overall trust and frankly, morale as well. People love the mission at VA, I love the mission of VA, sometimes we feel like you know, the the tactics of our day jobs can can be difficult. But adding that dimension of making sure that our employees are involved with discussions and their inputs involved in CO design upfront, I think is is going to take us a long way to just retaining folks and drawing even more people in who want to serve our great mission.
Amy Parker
So we've been talking about it, we've been creating it. And now how are we sure we're doing it? There are ways to measure trust, I believe, yes,
Unknown Speaker
yes, lots and lots of ways to measure trust. And one of the things that the CEO we did early early on was to make sure we had a measurement framework, right? What are the frameworks that you all use to measure experience and the one that came to us and that felt like it resonated the most was talking about the dimensions of experience, and those dimensions are ease, it must be an easy interaction, effectiveness, veterans and employees must effectively get what they needed and what they wanted. And that third component, which we've talked about, is the emotional resonance, the empathy, so ease, effectiveness, and emotion. And when we measure those, we actually have a number of surveys and they can all be mapped to those three dimensions and trust as well. But we also have surveys that are very simple that asked veterans for example, do you trust VA to fulfill this country's commitment to veterans and that is very sort of very simple. The hide trust measure that was instituted back in 2016. And the initial measurement of that was 55% of veteran surveyed yikes either agreed or strongly agreed with that statement. So that's, that's like not a great grade right now. 2016, we had a long way to go. So So fast forward to today, we asked that same question, we asked that same question repeatedly and reported quarterly, we have reached 79% agreement with that statement in 2021. That's a 24% increase over time. And as I say, that does not happen by accident, it does not happen by being passive about experience and sort of the weight and importance of trust. It happens through an organizational commitment of staff and leadership at the top deriving that as a key performance indicator and key performance measure. So we're very, very thrilled to be able to be the messenger with with that great improvement. And we set a very high target, we want to reach a 90% agreement with that statement. That's an A in my book, and my hope is that we are on our way there. And certainly the last few years, we as a department have been able to make those incredible tangible improvements.
Amy Parker
Yeah, that is that is so impactful, where we're we're talking on the employee journey map, when the very one of the very first moments that matter is the onboarding, yeah, getting the employee everything they might need, we're welcoming these new team members into our professional home. Yeah, let's treat them like we would treat a visitor to your home. And it's been such a heartwarming experience to change the visual there and do that for employees as well. Yeah. And that I
Unknown Speaker
totally agree with you. And again, sometimes the solutions are so simple, and they kind of stare us in the face. So so for example, this particular moment, the onboarding that you're talking about. So through the human centered design practice, that we're applying, one of the things that, that, you know, again, we're co designing with, with you all and other employees to sort of test as a tangible tool, right? to sort of make the experience better, is a simple kind of one pager checklist of like, Okay, you've got your piv badge, you've got your computer equipment, all these things that are separate and fractured to a new employee, in one place to really understand holistically. Okay, how do I predict what I need to be thinking about in my first, you know, month or two, puts it all in one place in a very easily digestible way. And it's sort of part and parcel to your point of a welcome package or welcome kit for all new VA team members. So just very excited for us to showcase what these types of tools might look like, test them with employees, and then you know, pilot it, and then roll it out and measure our performance and improvements on the back end. So that's a great example.
Amy Parker
So we're we're trying to create some of these opportunities for employees to to learn and improve their experience. But we're also driving the culture change. Yeah, happening, because we've been in this remote environment. And I would just hear one thing we've been doing is, we kind of do with a Kindle, like a showering of welcomes to our new people, because we onboard everyone virtually, yeah, my organization. So then, you know, the first day that the person is on board, their leader will send out a well helped me welcome so and so and give a little introduction, and then everybody starts just shining in, and nobody complains about the reply files, because it's just like, we just want you to just feel surrounded by welcoming. And that's something that people always talk about something so simple as a three or four word, email. Welcome to the team. hearing that from so many people in this remote environment has has real impact. Oh,
Unknown Speaker
it totally does. And I love that I you know, my mind goes to Oh, my gosh, Amy, that's a best practice, we need to capture that insert some sort of suite of tools, right to say, Hey, here's here's a way to do it. One of the things that we've done similarly, again, low tech, sort of solution is anytime a new video team member comes on board, and both myself and my chief of staff spend 30 minutes just to welcome them and say, you know, what's your background? What is your hobby, really just get to know them. Because video, interestingly enough, has largely been a remote workforce since day one, the original model of this office was sort of out in the field boots on the ground outreach. And so folks were hired in different geographical locations. So we only have a very small footprint in person here in DC about 25 or so folks and headquarters. And so that's been an interesting challenge for me, because I'm such an in person person, how do you bridge and kind of make that connectivity in a virtual world of virtual environment, and particularly onboarding new folks that way, and that's just one thing that that that I've been able to do with with other leadership and the CEO and their other other pieces of our employee, our internal employee experience team in vivo also really does a lot to sort of try to onboard and welcome folks and just be that bridge because otherwise you feel like you're flailing out there by yourself. But I love your example, Amy, I think I see that as a best practice, you know, talking about, you know, what, what is sort of one thing we all can do, and we all can practice. And I mean, I, I see you, Amy and our teams and our entire VA family, our extended family of 340,000 plus siblings. I mean, I really, I always want to do anything I can to help my brothers and sisters. And that goes for VA. And it goes for across government as well. And I think, for me, it's it's born and driven by empathy, because I know that if I'm in need of support, and I'm in need of somebody's expertise, anytime somebody can just freely give and generously Give that to me, I'm so appreciative. And so that's what I really tried to lead with in practice. I never, never, ever want to say no, to anybody asking for support. And if I personally can't offer it, I say, you know, I'm not able to, but let me point you to this person are connected with that person. So it's always sort of a Yes, in some way. No, however, is possible. But really being driven by the fact that I genuinely want to help my colleagues, my brothers and sisters, you know, partners in crime and government, because we all share this really incredible mission of serving the public. And I don't think there's anything greater in this world than being a public public servant, and being able to serve a cause greater than ourselves. And so that is my driver, always wanting to lead with empathy. Listen to folks who are coming to me asking for support, and always wanting to get to a yes. If not, again, individually from me from somebody I know or another sibling that I can connect somebody with
Amy Parker
inspiring and so we like to close with a quote, yeah. If you have one you'd like to share with us.
Unknown Speaker
I would love to so Okay, so I'm a huge fan of coach, john wooden. So he was a UCLA basketball coach, amazing, amazing leader. And one of my favorite quotes from him is something to the effect of the main ingredient of success is the rest of the team. And I truly, truly believe that we are all in this, whatever this is, together to drive towards this incredible mission and a cause greater greater than ourselves. And I think that's a really important distinction. So I really try to keep that in the front of my mind. There's no way to improve upon that. So I think I will just say thank you again, for your time today. This
Amy Parker
has been a lot of fun, and so informative, and I feel like I've learned a lot. Well, thank
Unknown Speaker
you for having me. It's been a true pleasure. Appreciate the opportunity.
Amy Parker
Thanks for joining us on are you future ready, advancing your professional development. To find the resources highlighted today, check out the blog linked in this episode's show notes. If you enjoyed listening, please share this episode with a colleague friend or on your LinkedIn network.