As ICMA prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary as an association dedicated to enhancing the professionalism of local government managers, I couldn’t help but contemplate the 35th anniversary of the Alliance for Innovation (previously Innovation Groups) and to celebrate 20 years of the Alliance’s Transforming Local Government (TLG) conference.

The unique intersect of our respective organizations—ICMA’s broad individual membership and the Alliance’s discrete out-in-front organizations—has allowed us both, along with Arizona State University (ASU), to bring our special talents to the universe of local governments that work to better their communities.

In this article, let’s traverse memory lane to look at the innovations that have been pursued by local governments during the TLG’s 20-year journey and contemplate where we might be without the bold pioneers who shared their stories along the way.

THE TOPICS AND THE TIMES

1995: The first TLG, held in Long Beach, California, focused primarily on local governments and their vendors, which were using new products to enhance a community’s infrastructure or organizational capaities.

1996: There were two TLGs—one in Long Beach, California, and a second in Norfolk, Virginia. Long Beach featured author Peter Block as the keynoter, introducing the revolutionary strategy of encouraging conversation with residents, rather than public forums to gather formal input.

Norfolk was all about the emerging Internet. In-depth sessions on building a city/county homepage, introducing e-mail, and creating an Intranet were front and center for this conference. Remember in those days, there were more base-stationed radios than cell phones. Computers—if you had them—were hooked up to mainframes and IBM Selectric typewriters were the most common tool used to create letters, council packets, or community flyers.

2001: TLG, held in Dublin, Ohio, featured a definite team theme. Intensive team clinics helped attendees understand the benefits of cross-functional teams and improve team dynamics. (The start of breaking down silos had begun!) This theme lived on through 2002 in Tucson, Arizona, and 2003 in Plano, Texas, where more and more of the sessions were presented by local government staff teams rather than vendor experts promoting innovative products.

2004–2005: Washoe County, Nevada, in 2004, and Sarasota County, Florida, in 2005, took the early themes of the Internet and adapted them for new purposes: e-procurement, paperless agendas, and the benefits of geographic information systems were front and center. We also saw an increased emphasis on such new forms of resident engagement as development of neighborhood councils to advise staff and elected officials and being touted as a method for connecting. As the leadership in local government was aging, we also saw the first mention of the importance of succession planning for organizations.

2008: Fast forward to the incoming Great Recession, and the tone of the next few years focused on budgeting, new revenues, and innovative approaches to downsizing or outsourcing.

These themes continued through 2011 as local governments everywhere dealt with their local economic downturns and contemplated how they would impact a community’s ability to provide basic services. While budgets were the big news, there was also a serious look at local government’s role in green efforts, sustainability, and smart growth.

2012 and beyond: We see an increasing optimism in the case studies from local governments across North America, which used the bad fiscal times to get their house in order and now have systems in place to help them plan smarter, focus on core community services, and connect with residents in increasingly innovative manners.

THE TAKEAWAYS

The adoption of a key mission to accelerate the adoption of innovative practices in local government transformed the Alliance for Innovation and allowed it to target its energies on a new business model: Focus on what the most innovative Alliance local governments are doing, test and research the results they are getting through ASU, and disseminate and promote the most successful practices through the broad membership of ICMA.

What we have learned along the way is that there are few breakthrough innovations in government or business, but there are an infinite number of adaptations that take place as organizations view what others have done and modify those models to fit their own local situation. For instance:

• Has your local government embraced the Internet as a means to not just serve as an electronic newsletter but to become a tool that promotes transparency and multi-dimensional communication?
• Has your organization deployed cross-functional teams both internally and externally as a way to solve your community’s wicked problems?
• Have your budgeting practices moved to focusing on future trends rather than relying on information that is rooted in past performance?
• Does your organization encourage and embody an entrepreneurial spirit toward new ideas and new approaches to solving problems?
• Do your staff and elected officials understand the need for measured risk taking in order to move forward and provide better, cost-effective services for your community?

These are just a few examples of the type of changes progressive governments have made during the past two decades. Each has been highlighted early in their development at the annual TLG conferences.

If you have innovations to share we encourage your organization to submit them for consideration for presentation at an upcoming conference. If you haven’t undertaken some of the organizational improvements discussed above, there is plenty of evidence that you should.

Join us for our 20th TLG anniversary in Denver, April 23–25, 2014, by logging on to www.tlgconference.org. We look forward to celebrating the great ideas of the past as well as those awaiting us all in the years to come.