Stacy Stoffregen

By Stacy Stoffregen, Ph.D., Innovation and Improvement Intern

April 4, 2022

Another project that I am proud of and have spent a lot of time working on is the Innovations Challenge. As project leader on this initiative, I lead a group in planning and designing what will hopefully become an annual competition to get CDOT’ers engaged in innovation and friendly competition. The Innovations Challenge is set to kick off soon, and while I will not be here to see the program in action I am confident that it is in good hands with Kourtnei Osborn leading the team.

I have also spent time working on the Better Together series, which is intended to communicate CDOT’s Wildly Important Goals (WIGs), values, and 10-year plan to all CDOT’ers. This has been a fun project to be a part of the planning process as we have had to consider making the series applicable to various work modalities. Also, as we move towards a more hybrid working environment, we are able to plan some of these filming events in person or on-site.

Gary has been a wonderful mentor throughout my internship and one of the things he strongly suggests is to do ‘sit-withs’ where you meet with someone who is in a position you would like to have one day. Through these informational interviews, I met Gabriele Bankers who works for the City and County of Denver as an Organizational Effectiveness and Development Professional. Gabriele allowed me to shadow her and join in leadership development workshops, a DiSC debriefing session, and a goal-setting workshop. I gained hands-on experience when she invited me to co-facilitate an emotional intelligence session. I was also able to use my knowledge of Industrial and Organizational Psychology to provide feedback on their proposed performance management system updates. I am very thankful to Gary for connecting me with Gabriele and for Gabriele inviting me in and mentoring me as well.

At the start of my internship, I set goals for myself. The first goal was to gain hands-on experience in change management. During my internship, I participated in the Change Management for Practitioners 3-day course, I worked on adjusting the new Prosci course material to better suit CDOT’s needs, and produced a few Change Management for Supervisors courses. I have also had the opportunity to apply my knowledge of change management in C2P and the Innovations Challenge. My second goal was to use data to help aid in decision making and I have achieved this by developing a few surveys to provide insight and feedback on change saturation and innovation engagement. Finally, I completed my Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology in December 2021. I have been able to use the knowledge I have in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and gain hands-on experience applying it in a real-world setting where things are not perfect and controlled as they are in a lab setting.

As my internship comes to an end, I’m grateful for this experience and to be a part of a wonderful team. I have been fortunate to work with some amazing people and Gary and Michelle have been wonderful mentors. As I move to the next phase in my career, I’m excited to continue in applied research and utilize the knowledge and experience I have gained in change management in my future position.