Web posted Sunday, October 1, 2006

Rising to the occasion: Riding the roller

coaster of change to a positive outcome

By Barbara Brown
For the Journal Katherine Gottlieb, president and chief executive officer of Southcentral Foundation and Alaska's only recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "genius" award, explains her version of rising to the occasion: "Life," she says, "turns on a dime." For Gottlieb, the abrupt change occurred when she was 12 years old. Playing and swimming with friends one moment, she discovered her mother had died the next.

"From that moment on, as the eldest child, I became the mother of my seven siblings that were still living at home. I was the cook. I had to do the purchasing for our home. I had to get the kids up from school. I had to help with their homework while I was doing my own. "There was a lot of weeping and crying and gnashing of teeth. What I did learn was how to organize. You have to get something organizational happening when you have seven little siblings ... You have to learn it or they'll never get to school on time," she said. In 1987, Gottlieb left Old Harbor for Anchorage, where she began at Southcentral Foundation as the receptionist. "People came in the door, and I was their first greeter. I felt like I needed to make it the best welcoming atmosphere. So I just began to change my little, tiny world. One of the first things I did was ask to get rid of the metal desk. "After a while, boy did I get tired of answering the phone ... I asked my supervisor, 'Wouldn't they like to hire a receptionist so I could do all these other things they needed?' So the second action I took as a receptionist was to promote myself. I wrote a job description ... and I promoted myself and became an administrative assistant." Meanwhile, Southcentral Foundation was growing. In 1987, there were 24 employees. As Gottlieb rose through the ranks, the organization grew to 1,300 employees. Change is scary, Gottlieb says. "When you get on a roller coaster, your faith is in this track ... Me, I'm praying all the way, screaming, but knowing that hopefully, it's going to stay on the track because somebody did something to make sure that this thing's going to work. When we dive into a new creative idea, we try to put that track in place. We ... know it's a risk. We know it's a challenge ... When we go through the roller coaster ride, maybe we'll find kinks or something that's going ding-ding-ding and we're going to have to go back and fix it, but usually by the time we do it, we know that roller coaster is not going to sail off the tracks." Now, as CEO, how does Gottlieb choose the occasions to which the organization will rise? What gets placed on the agenda? The answer lies in "constant, constant feedback. Our people that we serve (and our employees) are probably sick of surveys. It's the feedback that drives the change. Whatever winds up at the top is the thing that gets addressed." It doesn't take a genius to pay attention to the mission, to her environment, to the needs of clients, customers and staff; but in this case, one "certified" genius and her team built it into the fabric of the organization. If you surveyed your customers and employees, are you sure what they would say?

On Oct. 3 at 7 p.m., KSKA FM 91.1 will air the conversation with Gottlieb at the Z.J. Loussac Public Library. The broadcasts continue every Tuesday evening through Oct. 10. Programs can also be accessed at www.kska.org.