A Different Type of School
Posted on: August 23, 2012
Posted by – Steve Cohen, Director of Community Development
Yesterday, the Community Development Department had the opportunity to spend the day with the 5th class of Auburn Hills University (AHU). We really enjoyed hanging with our colleagues and getting to know them better.
What is AHU? Well, it’s a unique idea first introduced by City Manager Pete Auger in 2008. Every year a small group of employees meet one day a month, for six months, to learn what each City Department does. This year, Denise Asker, Executive Director of the Auburn Hills Chamber of Commerce joined the class. Denise’s participation in the program is great as we are always looking for ways to collaborate with the Chamber to better the community.
The AHU program is facilitated by Stephanie Carroll, Coordinator of Community Relations and Legislative Affairs. I know, she has a very long title … we just call her Steph.
Our day was highlighted by exclusive tours of two iconic Auburn Hills landmarks: The Palace of Auburn Hills and Chrysler Group LLC Headquarters and Technology Center.
Throughout our time with the AHU class, we explained what the Community Development Department does ranging from ensuring that multi-million dollar buildings are constructed safely to how we address people who use their lawns for parking.
The beauty of AHU is the interaction between co-workers. In general, staff at the City of Auburn Hills operate in a variety of informal and formal teams that cross typical Department lines to provide services or solve challenges. Although creating teams may seem like common sense, we have found that this “platform” approach (similar to the auto industry) is highly unusual for a municipality.
By getting together in AHU, we build our organization by discussing what we do and learn from our co-workers how we all can collaborate and do things better. As a group, we understand that we can’t stand still and must always innovate. So, it was a good day of fellowship and learning for both the AHU class and our Department, which I am pretty sure was the intent of the program’s creator.
