AWWA ACE54456

The reengineering of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply (HBWS) of Honolulu, Hawaii has been one of those life adventures that has gone in unexpected directions. The Board had become antiquated with old facilities, equipment, and work practices. The employees did not have state-of-the-art training, and the systems were in need of an overhaul. The trigger for the effort was the activity of privatizers in the State of Hawaii. One of the main things needed was to ensure that the Board would remain an autonomous public agency in perpetuity. The goal was to make improvements that would provide the public such a high-quality level of service and with such efficiency that there would be no room for a privatizer to make significant improvements. So a reengineering project was set forth. The difficult task of changing everything--technology, work practices, information technology systems, job classifications, compensation systems--was begun. This paper describes HBWS's experiences with changing its organizational culture.