The Blast Newsletter: Continuous Improvement Community of Practice

Office of the Governor / Office of Financial Management sent this bulletin at 03/30/2026 11:21 AM PDT

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Issue No. 37 | March 2026

Upcoming learning opportunity for state employees!

A man meditating among many work stressors, including a computer, emails, work phone, files, and more.

We just got word of another helpful and upcoming learning opportunity within our enterprise! Catch this lunch & learn on:

Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being in the Workplace: A Systems Perspective

April 22, 2026
12:00 – 1:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Mental health matters, and your workplace plays a bigger role than you might think. To dive deeper into how workplaces can proactively foster well-being, the Office of Financial Management (OFM) is offering a virtual session next month for state employees.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted just how critical mental health and well-being are, not only for individuals, but for workplaces as a whole. As attention shifts from reactive support to proactive promotion, organizations are asking: how can workplace systems actively foster employee well-being?

Join OFM for this engaging lunch & learn with Darrow Brown, Chief of Inclusion, Belonging and Well-being at the Washington State Department of Health as they explore the role of systems in supporting mental health. Designed for Human Resource practitioners, recruiters, hiring managers, and workplace leaders, this session will:

Review the US Surgeon General’s 2022 framework, Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being
Discuss the “Five Essentials for Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being”
Connect these essentials to everyday workplace practices
Brainstorm actionable approaches to promote well-being within your teams

Darrow brings a unique perspective, blending years in information technology with expertise in social work, behavioral health, employee assistance programs, and workplace inclusion. He is passionate about creating environments where employees thrive both personally and professionally.

Register today to join this practical, thought-provoking session and discover strategies to integrate mental health and well-being into your workplace systems.

About the community

Our community of practice meets on the third Tuesday of every odd month from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. via Zoom to share knowledge and expertise on improving customer experience through continuous improvement.

All are welcome — meetings are optional and open to everyone.

Visit our Community of Practice webpage for more information about our community, our upcoming schedule, and previous meeting materials and recordings.

Reflection series

From campsites to clicks, the Washington State Parks & Recreation Commission is elevating customer experience. In this Reflection Series interview, Darleen Simkins shares how her agency has used journey mapping and real-time feedback to transform how Parks serves the public.

Share your feedback

Did you attend our session? Let us know what you thought by taking our feedback survey!

Questions?

For questions on anything related to the community of practice, contact:

Talia Mazzara, Senior Performance Advisor

Theresa Dew, Senior Performance Advisor

Journey mapping (continued) with PARKS

This month, we welcomed back Darleen Simkins from the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (PARKS), who previously joined us in October 2025 to share how her agency gathers and uses customer feedback to improve the visitor experience. In this session, she took a deeper dive into their approach, highlighting how survey insights and journey mapping directly inform key improvement decisions.

Darleen walked through the foundational elements of assessing the customer experience, including defining the goal and scope of the assessment, understanding customer segments versus personas, and mapping the five key stages of the journey: Awareness, Consideration, Acquisition, Use, and Reflection. She also emphasized the importance of starting with existing data and using it to drive informed, actionable decisions.

To bring this to life, she shared an example of a PARKS customer journey map, broken into phases such as the decision to visit, making reservations, entering the park, the visit itself, exiting, and reflection. Aligning customer feedback to each of these steps allows the agency to clearly identify pain points and opportunities, creating a more focused and effective improvement process.

Serving communities across Washington, PARKS receives over 35,000 survey responses annually, a testament to their strong and consistent customer engagement. Just as importantly, they ensure these insights reach frontline staff, recognizing them as key leaders in shaping the customer experience. If you attended, we’d love to hear your feedback.

If you missed the session, you could watch the recording here! You can also explore our Reflection Series above, where Darleen and Talia sit down for a one-on-one conversation to dive deeper into this work.

Don't forget to register for our 2026 meeting series

As a reminder, our community will be meeting every odd month beginning January 2026, and registration is required to attend. Take a moment and register now for our 2026 series to save the dates!

You will be registered for all meetings in the series but can choose to attend the session(s) that work best with your schedule. We're looking forward to continuing our learning journey with you!

Passwords

For all of our 2026 community of practice meetings, the password for logging onto the Zoom meeting from your computer is “YWCOP”. If you're tuning into the meeting via audio-only, the password is "141313".

Coming up next!

Five old stars with blurry lighting in the background

May 19, 2026
10:30am - 12:00pm
Zoom Registration

Topic: Using Human-Centered Design in CX Improvements

Presenters: Camy Naasz, Anthro-Tech