“It was during the last lockdown, during the holidays. I felt that my staff were beginning to give up; they were struggling to keep their heads above water. Residents were also starting to give up – every little thing bothered them and as far as they were concerned, it was all our fault.
That’s when I decided that the way to deal with COVID-19 is through action. When we have no project or horizon to give meaning to our daily lives, we get lost in the uncertainty of it all. Our solution is to create hope and meaning – for employees and for residents. This is the only way we can be resilient enough to handle any crisis that comes our way. And with that decision, I went off looking for the great opportunities that COVID-19 had brought our way.
Ever since the day COVID-19 came into our lives, I had the profound sense that this was a big opportunity for both the Ganei Tikva Municipality and for our residents. I had been serving as General Manager for one year at that point, and I knew that the interfaces between our Municipality departments were weak. I knew that it was hard for us to rise above our draining routine activities.
And then suddenly, we found ourselves in an emergency situation full of uncertainty. Municipalities are ready for emergencies that require bomb shelters and emergency supplies. But what do you do when the threat is not a rocket but a virus?
The first thing I did was create a timetable for my employees. Sounds funny, right? I planned what they should do every day – from the moment they wake up until they close the computer at night. At 9:00 a.m., a daily report is sent to headquarters. At 10:00 I send them the latest instructions from government ministries, and at 11:00, we hold a situation assessment regarding the current state of the Municipality, during which we meet with the Mayor to check in and plan the new day.
The timetable has allowed us to create a framework of certainty for our employees in a world full of questions. No one was late and no one argued. These were their anchors during the day. They allowed them to push forward and give their all for the residents during the emergency.
But creating anchors isn’t enough – you also need to create meaning. So one morning MAOZ called me and asked: ‘Dalia, do you want to leverage opportunities during COVID-19 and look beyond the crisis?’
I signed my staff up immediately, not knowing what would happen. I knew that the important thing was the combination of mapping opportunities and intense work together with my staff. Most of our team participated: six meetings at 8:00 p.m. at the expense of their own free time. We mapped out the opportunities and problems we have as a municipality and we split into working groups.
We agreed to focus on three challenges: digitization of the municipality, flexible work for employees, and cultural and leisure activities during the crisis. It was like a breath of fresh air for my team. Suddenly, they weren’t only surviving. They were taking initiative, being creative and thinking how to make changes that would last for the day after.
Our flagship project is digitization. Right before COVID-19, I participated in a training course for digital leaders, but I wasn’t sure how to take what I had learned and implement it in the municipality. Before COVID-19, we barely had a single process that was fully digitized. Today, we are one of the leading municipalities in Israel in the field; our residents can do anything online, including even getting Land Registry permits.
Our biggest achievement is that we managed to create interfaces between departments, because every step of most processes is handled by a different department. For example, when a resident files a request, he or she has to receive permits from the welfare, finance and engineering departments, respectively. The resident isn’t even aware that this is the case: he or she go into his or her personal account and chooses what they want – municipal tax issues, community activities or general information.
When the offer came through to join MAOZ’s Changing Colors initiative, I knew I had to be a part of this too. After the previous experience, I felt there was a language gap between the managers who had been active participants and the employees who hadn’t been. This time, the focus was communication and law enforcement, but most of all, I knew it was an opportunity to expand the circle of influence in our organization and give the rest of the employees that same sense of meaning.
This same sense of meaning is what we pass on to our residents. We ask them to volunteer, keep their eyes open and notify us if any neighbors need assistance. As a result, our welfare department received the names of 3,000 elderly people, compared to only 1,300 who we had known about at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. A resident who calls the hotline to update us about a neighbor who needs assistance feels that they are not helpless. They are part of the solution; they take an active role in changing their circumstances.
COVID-19 taught me how meaningful hope is. When I think about how I’ll reflect on the way in which Ganei Tikva utilized the crisis, the last part of my presentation will be: ‘Because of hope’. The only way to stand firm during a long crisis period is when you have a sense that your actions really mean something. That’s equally true for residents as it is for department heads – everyone needs to feel that they have a reason to get up in the morning and strive to make it happen.”
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