Case Study: Padre Dam achieves open, honest staff dialogue with Jostle Corporation

Padre Dam achieve open and honest dialogue with staff

Padre Dam Municipal Water District, a 139-employee utility with many staff working offsite, made communication a priority by implementing the Jostle intranet. Leadership noticed discussion after quarterly GM Dialogue Sessions was uniformly positive, which masked disagreement and limited constructive feedback — they wanted employees to feel empowered to ask questions and make suggestions.

To fix this, Padre Dam launched an ongoing “Ask Allen” article that followed each GM session, using a humorous image to spark interest; a brave employee posted thoughtful questions and the general manager replied candidly, which quickly encouraged wider, more honest participation. The initiative deepened two-way dialogue (on top of an already 98% monthly sign-in rate), became part of their branded “Pipeline” intranet strategy and won first place in the Jostle Awards 2016 Employee Engagement Initiative.

Padre Dam

Allen Carlisle

CEO/General Manager