Hidden until May 23, 2013
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Cheryl Hilvert
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May 23, 2013
If you are a local government manager in these challenging times, the answer to that question should be yes! As a part of its work to support local governments, ICMA's Center for Management Strategies is co-sponsoring a " Summit of Leading Practices " in Arlington, Virginia on July 9 and 10, 2013. This program, which is also sponsored by the Alliance for Innovation and the Center for Priority Based Budgeting will feature presentations and case studies on Center leading practice offerings including civic engagement, High Performance Organization strategies, and Fiscal Health and Priority Based Budgeting. If you have
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Cheryl Hilvert
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May 22, 2013
Governing Magazine recently published the article "Shared Services: Where the Real Potential for Local Government Exists" . Whether through a public/private partnership, a public/public partnership or some other type of service-oriented relationship, these opportunities can be very good ways to deliver services in a challenging economic environment. They can also help to improve service delivery and in many cases are just the right thing to do. The topic of shared/collaborative service delivery will be the next research topic for the /ASU/ICMA research partnership and will focus on identifying those best and leading practices that can make the consideration
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Cheryl Hilvert
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May 17, 2013
Having just attended the 2013 Brownfields Conference, I am inspired to think about what we as local government professionals can do to revitalize and reenergize our communities. While much of the conference was dedicated to discussing best practices in redevelopment, environmental issues and problem remediation, we should never forget the opportunities that are created when people in communities simply come together and say "we are going to make a difference in this place." I had the opportunity to view a film documentary about Rutland, Vermont, a small town that had been devastated by the economic downturn and housing crisis, yet rallied to revitalize
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Hidden until May 14, 2013
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Cheryl Hilvert
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May 14, 2013
For those ICMA members out there who don't know (or don't know much) about ICMA's US Programs team, Bob O'Neill's recent article on " Creative Destruction " in Governing Magazine, offers some good insight into the work that the team does. In his article, Bob describes the environment in which managers are working today as well as the need for strong leadership, tough questions and creativity and innovation in our local governments. The process of “creative destruction” is a term coined by Joseph Schumpeter in his work entitled "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy" (1942) to denote a "process of
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Cheryl Hilvert
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May 10, 2013
The Center for Management Strategies will soon be adding educational programming and technical assistance in the field of civic engagement to its suite of services for local governments and is pleased to report that Pete Peterson, Executive Director of the Davenport Institute at Pepperdine University will be speaking at the Center for Priority Based Budgeting's "Summit of Leading Practices" July 9 and 10 in Arlington, Virginia. Pete and the Davenport Institute have provided funding and technical assistance to local governments in California to further their civic engagement work and will share great information on this topic for attendees at
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Hidden until May 9, 2013
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Cheryl Hilvert
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May 9, 2013
In a recent article, Government Technology describes Ted Gaebler as a "Government Transformer," adding that "when it comes to innovation in government, he literally "wrote the book." They are referring to the 1992 best-seller, Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit Is Transforming the Public Sector, written with co-author David Osborne, that influenced a generation of public policy experts and managers and continues to inspire us today toward its concepts of entrepreneuralism, customer focused management, market driven leadership, and anticipatory foresight. Ted continues to transform government as city manager of Rancho Cordova, California and will headline a program
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Cheryl Hilvert
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May 8, 2013
As managers, how many of us have said, "if I could only read our employees' minds? Sounds impossible, but the latest research in neuroscience can help us move closer to knowing what employees need to be happier —and therefore more productive —at work. Join ICMA's Center for Management Strategies and its partner, the Commonwealth Centers for High Performance Organizations, in a webinar on June 13th to learn how the concept of neuroscience can help to improve your employee's engagement and productivity. To learn more, click here.
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Cheryl Hilvert
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May 1, 2013
Leveraging service capacity, if done smartly, can be an effective way to improve service delivery and save money with little to no additional investment in resources. For the first time, under Section 331 of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act military installations and local governments have statutory authority allowing them to enter into agreements for “installation support services.” This act allows for a variety of intergovernmental support agreements including arrangements in which a local government provides municipal services to a neighboring defense installation. The best example of this type of collaboration is the longstanding partnership between the City of
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Cheryl Hilvert
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May 1, 2013
A BIG note of thanks is extended to CH2M HILL and their great representative, Susan Mays, for the inclusion of an article on the Center for Management Strategies in their recent newsletter, 2Gether. In addition to being an ICMA Strategic Partner, CH2M HILL is sponsoring CMS and its work in researching collaborative service delivery as well as sponsoring our three "Reinventing Government" programs. In case you didn't receive it, here is the article on CMS that appeared in 2Gether: Center for Management Strategies offers Valuable Resources. . . Did you know that the ICMA Center for Management Strategies
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Cheryl Hilvert
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April 25, 2013
The Center for Management Strategies is pleased to announce that it is a sponsor of the Center for Priority Based Budgeting's "Summit of Leading Practices" to be held in Arlington, Virginia on July 9 and 10. This summit will feature discussions, case studies, and presentations on Priority Based Budgeting, Fiscal Health, Civic Engagement and High Performance Organizations, all of which are topics on which CMS is bringing education and technical assistance to local governments. This is a great opportunity to learn more about each of these leading practice areas as well as to meet fellow local government managers who
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Cheryl Hilvert
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April 25, 2013
The Center for Management Strategies is pleased to announce the second in a series of programs on "Reinventing Government: The book's Continuing Impact after 20 Years and its Message for our Future" on Thursday, July 25 in Arlington, Virginia. The book, Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector" by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler , has been described as an "inspiring, well-organized exposition of ten principles that appear to offer hope for renewal in an era of government decline." The book serves as an inspiration to local government managers who believe that
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Cheryl Hilvert
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April 20, 2013
We watched this past week how our local government colleagues and the people of Boston worked together to overcome the fear and tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombing and its related events. The term "Boston Strong" was coined to show not only "what" the collective community did to respond, but "how" it approached its work and come out stronger on the other side. While tragedies of this nature are difficult to explain, they are opportunities for us to learn from one another how best to support our communities in a disaster, be it manmade or natural. A Harvard Business Review blog entitled " When we are
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Chris Fabian
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April 19, 2013
There has been a lot of (deserving) hype lately revolving around the success of priority based budgeting, citizen engagement, and how these two powerful and empowering "leading practices" are transforming local government budget processes and local governments themselves at the base level. Thanks to Peak Democracy, we now have yet another comprehensive case study that further proves how fundamentally effective and transformative priority based budgeting and citizen engagement can be, both independently and employed together. Citizens have been increasingly going online to engage with family, friends,
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Chris Fabian
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April 18, 2013
Strategic planning and fiscal scenario planning has been at the core of our work in ICMA's Leading Practice of "Fiscal Health." That is, scenario planning local governments financial forecast(s) for worst-case (and best-case) scenarios. In “Excelling in Times of Fiscal Distress,” an article Bob O'Neill wrote for Governing, in October 2008, he wrote “Most of us can articulate the early-warning signs that preceded the current economic downturn: Global forces that dramatically changed the local, state, and federal playing fields. Skyrocketing fuel costs. A failing housing
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Gerald Brokaw
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April 13, 2013
Recent research from the Harvard Business School confirms what we have often suspected and what Alfie Kohn told us in his book “Punished by Rewards” in 1999. Not only do most employee recognition programs provide us with less than stellar results, but poorly designed ones may in fact have the unintended consequence of demotivating the best employees. We have long known that programs with unclear objectives, which are subjectively awarded and that have more losers than winners are ultimately organizationally demotivating as individuals evaluate themselves against the winner and can find no good reason, because they
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Cheryl Hilvert
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April 12, 2013
The 2013 Transforming Local Government Conference just concluded and to quote one of its keynote speakers, Ms. Rebecca Ryan, we were truly "drinking from the firehose of awesome." TLG is a great group of innovative and creative local governments that come together to learn from one another, inspiring keynote speakers who challenge us to do more, and always-supportive and encouraging corporate partners--all held together through the wonderful Alliance for Innovation staff and board. The Center for Management Strategies is very happy to be an partner of the Alliance for Innovation in spreading innnovation and creativity to local governments around the world. Congratulations
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Cheryl Hilvert
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April 9, 2013
Peter Block, author, consultant and citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio writes about empowerment, stewardship, chosen accountability, and the reconciliation of community. Peter says there are six conversations that "matter" for managers who wish to engage their citizens and "build community." The topics of these conversations include invitation, possibilty, ownership, dissent, commitment, and gifts. All of these "conversations" are aimed at accountability and commitment of community members and can truly change the dialogue between local governments and their citizens. Change the "conversation" in your community using these effective tools!
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Cheryl Hilvert
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April 9, 2013
ICMA's Center for Management Strategies blog on the availability of a free high performance organization assessment tool tops the list of 2013 blogs on the Knowledge Network. If you haven't done so already, check out this free assessment tool from the CommonwealthCenters for High Performance Organizations! It just might help you improve the performance of your organization!
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Cheryl Hilvert
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April 8, 2013
As local government managers, we know that civic engagemment is an important aspect of our work today. There are many different approaches to civic engagement and it is critical that we recognize the approaches that work best for the various situations with which we deal. The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) has produced a comprehensive matrix that identifies the various opportunities we have as public managers to engage the public in the work that we do. The IAP2 Spectrum discusses various goals of public participation, ranging from "inform" to "consult" to "involve" to "collaborate" to "empower." It also discusses
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Cheryl Hilvert
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April 8, 2013
The Center for Management Strategies, through its research partnership with the Alliance for Innovation and Arizona State University will soon be bringing forward a new suite of education and technical assistance serivces to local governments. The initial findings of the research on leading practices in civic engagement, lead by Research Professor Kelly Rawlings of ASU, at the Transforming Local Government Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on April 9. Highlights of the research suggest that communities need to first plan for their work in civic engagement which includes the following: 1. Committing to Core Values for public
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