Rock Harbor Consulting

Mary Blake

Certifications

  • Institute of Asset Management (IAM) Certificate
  • Certified Professional Technical Communicator (CPTC)
  • GlobeSmart Certified Coach

Affiliations

  • Institute of Asset Management
  • Society for Technical Communication

About Rock Harbor

Mary Blake, owner of Rock Harbor Consulting, brings 26 years of experience in communications, change management, and organizational process improvement in the Federal and DoD space, with subject matter expertise in asset management and federal real property.

Philosophy
Rock Harbor implements a top-down/bottom-up approach to process improvement and project initiatives. For long-term success, change must be directed and supported from the top, but the nitty-gritty details to implement change must be gathered from staff who actually perform the work.

Rock Harbor facilitates conversation and gathers information from all levels of your organization: from executive staff to boots-on-the-ground staff--and all the levels in between. This ensures your organization achieves its goals with improvements that are desirable and executable by everyone.

We “multiply value through excellence” by providing your staff with the policies, procedures, tools, training, and communications they need to make your project a success. When Rock Harbor completes a contract, we leave behind the resources your people need to continuously improve and strengthen your organization.

Expertise
Mary has helped the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Amtrak, and other entities develop asset management policies, implementation strategies, strategic plans, mission-support business models, and assessment processes.

Mary worked with the U.S. Coast Guard to develop their real property policy, which included documenting all the varied and complex processes surrounding the acquisition, management, sustainment, and disposal of federal real property.

Services

  • Communications consulting
  • Process improvement
  • Asset management
  • Real property management
  • Technical writing and editing
  • Change management
  • Project management
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Lean/Six Sigma implementation
  • ISO 55000 series of Asset Management Standards

Recent Projects

United States Coast Guard, Asset Management Support Services, 2014 – 2023
This project developed and implemented a comprehensive mission-support business model, asset management system, and real property program to manage the Coast Guard’s shore infrastructure portfolio. This portfolio contains more than 40,000 facilities, structures, and aids to navigation, which are collectively valued at over $20 billion.

At the beginning of this project, Mary developed change management products to drive implementation of the Coast Guard’s new Shore Infrastructure Mission Support Business Model. These products included a graphical representation of the model, Microsoft Word templates for Shore Infrastructure Logistics Center (SILC) technical orders, info-graphics explaining the SILC’s structure and responsibilities, and an inaugural SILC Annual Report. These products are still being used every day at the SILC.

Mary worked with stakeholders at Coast Guard headquarters to rewrite their Real Property Management Manual. This manual establishes the Coast Guard’s policy in compliance with multiple federal and DHS mandates for real property and required considerable coordination with stakeholders at all levels of the organization to ensure this compliance fit within established real property management procedures.

Mary also worked with stakeholders at the SILC Real Property Branch to write Process Guide Technical Orders to instruct personnel in how to acquire, manage, and dispose of Coast Guard real property.

Amtrak – National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Stations & Facilities State of Good Repair Assessment, 2017 – 2022
This project provided facility condition assessment services for hundreds of Amtrak station and yard sites across the nation to assess the integrity and state of repair of Amtrak’s building and systems.

Mary implemented extensive process improvements for report development. At the beginning of this project, reports were developed by manually creating info-graphics and by copying and pasting data from Excel to a Word template. Mary started by implementing a process to track each report’s completion status. Over time, Mary developed and implemented more and more automated functions, until by the time Mary left the project, the tasks of populating the report and creating the info-graphics were almost completely automated.

US Army Corps of Engineers, Civil Works Asset Management, 2015 – 2019
This project established and implemented a new budget development process defining how USACE Civil Works analyzes and prioritizes their operations and maintenance (O&M) budget.

Mary served as the client-facing project manager and created numerous deliverables to transition USACE Civil Works to the new process, including:

  • Training videos
  • Communications materials in a variety of media
  • Communications plans
  • Data analysis reports

United States Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center, Mission Dependency Index Re-baselining, 2017 –2018
The USAF reassessed the Mission Dependency Index (MDI) scores at all bases across their worldwide portfolio. MDI is an indicator of how important an asset is to the mission of those who use the asset. MDI is one of the indices used by the Air Force to calculate and prioritize capital planning and O&M expenses.

At the beginning of this project, Mary developed training materials for Air Force leaders and participants in the re-baselining project. Training materials included handouts, presentations, and informational videos. Mary also developed the template and initial reports for the project and worked with stakeholders to create the Air Force’s MDI Playbook.

City of Billings Public Works Department, Asset Management Program, 2020 – 2021
This project performed an asset management maturity assessment and developed a Strategic Asset Management Plan for the City of Billings Public Works Department. The project identified improvement initiatives, developed an implementation strategy, implemented a change management communications plan, and trained staff.

Mary worked with stakeholders to develop the Strategic Asset Management Plan and created training material for a series of interactive workshops with client stakeholders, covering:

  • Asset management drivers, stakeholders, and objectives
  • Service levels and performance management
  • Risk management
  • Staff asset management training
  • The asset lifecycle
  • Financial strategies
  • Asset data and technologies

Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), Asset Management Planning, 2019 – 2020
This project assessed GLWA’s asset management maturity, including industry benchmarking and a gap assessment, and delivered a Strategic Asset Management Plan, Asset Management Roadmap, and Implementation Plan.

Mary developed training materials to help GLWA’s employees understand and utilize asset management principles. Mary also developed the template for GLWA’s Strategic Asset Management Plan, which established the foundational strategy for GLWA to manage its infrastructure over the next 10 years.

Los Angeles World Airports, Strategic Asset Management and Total Cost of Ownership Initiative, March 2017 – Sept. 2019
Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) wanted a strategic approach to asset management that integrated industry best practices. LAWA desired to be a proactive organization that achieved high system reliability at the lowest total cost of ownership.

Mary helped stakeholders develop a Strategic Asset Management Plan to guide the daily activities of the Asset Management Program in alignment with LAWA’s strategic goals. Mary developed training materials and other change management communications materials that helped LAWA successfully integrate the Asset Management Program into the culture.