Success Stories

Partnering / Facilitation

We have facilitated over 300 partnering sessions during the past 20 years. Here’s one example of how SMITH collaborates through our partnering facilitation service:

SITUATION: Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota initiated a rebuild of their Centennial Housing Project in an effort to modernize and provide the best quality housing for their military members. This rebuild project was the culmination of a nine-year conflict finally settled by the Department of Justice with an order involving both damages and rebuild of an 800-unit project.

ACTION: The task required facilitation of ongoing interaction of participants at both production and executive levels. Maintaining cooperation and supporting production within an emotionally charged construction environment was a key task.

RESULT: The project was completed two years ahead of schedule and $8M under estimate.

PARTNERING FACILITATION is a facilitated business process designed to: enhance efficiency and improve effectiveness, reduce costs and process timelines, improve the quality of products and services, and cultivate positive, long-term working relationships both within and outside of an organization.

Management of Remote Personnel

The size and diversity of our firm has significantly increased in the years we’ve offered this service. Our success in this area stems from our values-based recruiting efforts. Detailed technical expertise coupled with our associates’ collaborative talent differentiates our consultants from others. Here’s an example of a success in this area:

SITUATION: An existing client in San Antonio, Texas, was having a difficult time finding a bioenvironmental engineer with Air Force and operational health experience who was willing to relocate to San Antonio. Of course, their timeframe was immediate.

ACTION: We tapped into our professional network, did some old-fashioned investigative research, and sourced eight candidates. We conducted initial interviews, coordinated final candidate interviews, and arranged all aspects of an immediate cross-country relocation for the candidate and his family.

RESULT: Our consultant was such a great fit for the position that he was retained when the project budget was cut and staffing was significantly reduced.

Public Outreach

SITUATION: The Environmental Protection Agency Region IX established a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to fund a munitions recognition and safety campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of unexploded ordnance from World War II battles and training activities in California, Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan.

ACTION: SMITH traveled to the Pacific to collaborate with local, territorial, and federal agencies. We developed a comprehensive public outreach campaign to warn public officials and National Park visitors of the dangers of unexploded munitions. We delivered targeted training sessions and produced risk communication brochures and signs in English and Japanese.

RESULT: We helped residents and visitors recognize safety threats and established processes for reporting dangerous munitions, such as mortars, bombs, and grenades.

Event Management

We have successfully managed over 100 events addressing topics ranging from construction and military housing privatization to environmental issues. Here’s one example of a biannual series of events that were so successful that we were retained to manage all follow-up iterations.

SITUATION: SMITH/Associates provided event management support for the 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 Air Force Environmental Restoration Summits, a total of twelve summits altogether. These conferences convene military personnel, state, and local environmental regulators, and other parties to exchange lessons learned and address complex multi-Service issues.

ACTION: Our event management team collaborated with leaders representing the U.S. Air Force, Environmental Protection Agency, and state environmental agencies to coordinate twelve summits of 100+ attendees with varying perspectives and competing objectives. Our team leveraged SMITH’s partnering talents to perform audience analyses for the Western, Central, and Eastern regions and delivered tailored messages addressing specific objectives for each region. Our event team provided turn-key meeting support to include site selection research, vendor negotiations, agenda development, pre and post event surveys, event marketing, graphic support, on-site event management and post-event action items.

RESULT: Feedback from the 2003 summit was so positive that SMITH/Associates was contracted to manage the 2005, 2007 and 2009 Environmental Restoration Summits.