What is Lanegenuity?
Lanegenuity is a program that recognizes the efforts made by employees to improve the efficiency and quality of services offered to County staff, partners and community members. It is based on the principles of kaizen, which promote continuous improvement.

Who can participate?
Individual Lane County employees or teams of Lane County employees who have delivered an innovative change are both eligible for recognition.

Changes that involve partnerships with outside agencies are eligible as long as Lane County took the lead and they resulted in improvements for Lane County employees, partners and residents.

What sort of changes can be submitted?
The changes submitted must already be fully implemented and have resulted in improved efficiency or delivered a tangible improvement. Improved efficiency can include measurable cost and/or time savings, safety improvements, increased value to the public, and more.
 

Changes must have been implemented within the twelve months prior to submission in order to be eligible for recognition
 

How can I or my team submit a change?
Changes should be submitted via the Lanegenuity application form. The application is brief and will require applicants to describe the problem solved by the change, the details of the change and the efficiencies gained.

Submissions also require contact details for a supervisor to confirm the change has been successfully implemented.

Once a project is submitted, applicants will receive a confirmation email.

Hard copy or fillable PDF application forms are also available and can be requested by calling Devon Ashbridge at 541-682-4526. The fillable PDF form must be saved to your computer before making changes; it does not automatically upload your information.
 

How are employees recognized?
There are three different opportunities to recognized Lanegenuity changes based on size and scope.

Changes may be recognized within departments and participants will receive certificates of recognition and a thank-you from their functional manager or head of department.

Larger changes will receive wider recognition from their departments and County administration.

Changes with the most considerable size and scope will be invited to a Board of County Commissioners meeting for a personal thank-you from the Board of Commissioners.

All recipients will be recognized in the employee newsletter, Our Lane, and Langenuity webpage.

How are changes reviewed?
Changes are reviewed by a volunteer committee of Lane County employees from multiple departments.

After a change is submitted, the applicant's supervisor will be asked to verify the details included in the application. Once verified, the application will be shared with the committee for discussion and decision.

The projects are evaluated and scored by the committee against a standard set of criteria to ensure each is reviewed fairly.

The committee meets no more than once per month to discuss applications.
 

When will I find out if my change has been recognized?
Once the details of the change have been confirmed, it will generally take no longer than a month to assess the recognition level for each change and inform submitters that their change has been recognized.
 

How can I find out the status of a submitted project?
You can check the status of a submitted project by contacting Devon Ashbridge at 541-682-4526 or emailing [email protected].
 

What is Kaizen?
Kaizen is the practice of continuous improvement and focuses on big results that may come from many smaller changes accumulated over time. It originated within Toyota and is now used by organizations all over the world to guide positive change. In Japanese, kaizen translates to "good change."