By Mike Conduff, ICMA-CM

The Alliance for Innovation held its annual BIG Ideas Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, late last year. Featuring keynotes and facilitation by author Peter Kageyama and Alliance Resident Futurist Rebecca Ryan, the gathering provided topic-specific talks that were right on point for managers.

The theme of the conference was resiliency and the gathering looked at that topic from myriad perspectives—organizational, community, and personal. Since I filter so much of my world through the lens of good governance, I managed to hear repeatedly how important the relationship is between the parties of citizen owners, elected representatives, and professional administrators.

Whether it is preparing for, surviving, and recovering from a natural disaster, economic upheaval, or organizational misstep, one thing was clear: If you wait until the issue is upon you to hone and polish your governance relationships and risk tolerance, it is way too late. The opportunity to be resilient is gone and survival is at stake.

A Prime Example

Former president of the National League of Cities Jim Hunt, a 28-year elected official and friend and colleague of mine, put it this way in his talk: “In order for me to rely on you in the midst of difficult times, I must have already been able to rely on you in the day-to-day times. In order for our relationship to be resilient enough to survive and thrive in recovery and reemergence, we must have already faced challenges together.”

Jack Seiler, mayor of Fort Lauderdale, set the stage for attendees by going beyond the usual “welcome and spend money” talk that mayors can give to speak about the critical nature of his relationship with City Manager Lee Feldman. Hugely accomplished in his own right by having served as a mayor of a neighboring community and in the state legislature before becoming mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Seiler said, “As elected officials and as a community, we absolutely have to rely on the professionalism, skills, and training of our city staff—fortunately we have one of the best in Lee.”

Having had the opportunity to observe Jack and Lee in action, it is clear that their partnership is based on mutual respect and a clear understanding of the strengths each brings to the table. By tackling the daily tasks and performing at an exemplary level—each in their own sphere—they are well positioned to face and overcome the future challenges that most certainly will come.

Only One Step Away

The group also talked about the need to invest in oneself in order to nurture personal resiliency. One thing is clear in our fast-paced, 24-hour news cycle world: We are only an organizational misstep—or perceived misstep—away from being the lead story on all the cable news and the online viral story of the day.

Charlotte, North Carolina, City Manager Ron Carlee’s writing on this topic titled The Emotional Resilience of Managers: Surviving the Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune, which can be found at icma.org, is absolutely on point. Regularly taking care of themselves both physically and emotionally, and developing strong relationships, managers build the capacity to face the future more confidently. When we know internally that we can deal with adversity, we are less likely to panic and certainly more able to recover.

Everyone agreed that having built a reputation of being fair, open, and honest before the crisis at least buys the moment to allow cooler heads to prevail. With the right reputation, we earn the opportunity to share our side of the story, and after the frenzy is over, can rebuild frayed feelings.

Just as resilience capacity is cumulative and takes time to build, so it is with governance capacity:

• Do you have a list of people you would call in the event of a community incident or emergency? Have you already called them in quiet times in order to establish the trust necessary for them to take your call when it truly matters?
• Does your council know what to expect from you personally during an incident?
• Are the details of who will speak for the community part of your written governance process and is everyone supportive of them?
• Have you engaged in training with your councilmembers to help them build their governing resilience to being in the spotlight in a potentially challenging way?
• Do you have a personal support network of folks you can rely on to not only help you get through the crisis but normalize afterwards?

Remember: The time to prepare for recovery is before the need arises.