PM magazine is introducing a series of forthcoming articles that will challenge the profession’s traditional thinking, assumptions, and practices. When I proposed this series to ICMA, they enthusiastically endorsed the concept. They saw this series as another way to push our profession forward and to help local government stay ahead of society’s ever-changing curve.

The purpose of this series is to learn from our past mistakes and to challenge our comfort with the status quo in order to enhance services, build more trust, and improve our communities. To the younger folks in our profession, I implore you to be less bureaucratic, less cautious, and less risk adverse than my generation. Our profession needs your passion, fire, and courage to try bold new approaches.

Our profession must stop “playing it safe” and take more risks. Local government has a real opportunity to capture the trust and imagination of the public. However, we will only do that if we are bold, creative, and willing to think differently about the status quo. The federal and state governments struggle with developing and maintaining trust, so it is incumbent upon local government to establish trust with our residents.

In order to be successful in our efforts to improve services and strengthen communities, I strongly recommend that local governments emulate a successful practice of startup private sector businesses. This practice is commonly referred to as a “beta test,” which is a small experiment to try out ideas in a safe, intelligent, and practical manner without causing havoc. Beta tests allow us to learn from the implementation of a new idea or approach without putting the organization or our elected officials in difficult situations. Beta tests allow us to question things we do and test better alternatives. (I will provide some additional guidance regarding beta tests in a later article.)

What to Expect

Let me give you a flavor of the type of articles that might appear under this series titled “Let’s Think Differently About…”

• Doing away with traditional performance appraisal systems, which usually don’t work well and are most often ignored.
• Whether cities or counties should be providing the various services and programs that we have traditionally provided.
• Local government’s failure to effectively discipline and/or fire employees who are not performing.

Here are two examples of what such articles might look like.

Opinion: Rethinking the Assistant/Deputy City Manager Position: Published in the January 2020 issue, this article examines the role of assistant and deputy city and county managers in certain size local governments. This article questions our traditional approach and suggests different options to organize, streamline, and manage local government.

Today’s Local Government Management Model: Published in the August 2015 issue, this article advances the argument that our local governmental model, which I labeled “bitch and fix,” is old, outdated, and broken. The old model does not allow us to utilize the full potential of our organization or our residents. Rather, we should consider a new model, which I describe as a “partnership,” which is an entirely new way of viewing, involving, and having higher expectations of our residents.

How to Contribute

I expect and encourage others, regardless of one’s title or position, to contribute to this series, either by suggesting ideas for topics or by authoring entire articles. Creativity and innovation are not the sole purview of top managers. This is an opportunity for anyone currently in or retired from the profession to challenge us in ways that will enhance the profession. Please distribute this article to your employees and colleagues, and encourage them to express their ideas. You can send your ideas or article submissions to pm@icma.org.

Ideas put forth in this series should motivate others to suggest modifications and changes to enhance the idea. ICMA will publish short follow-up comments so that we can learn how to improve on a suggested idea or approach. I look forward to the dialogue that this series will generate!

Let's Get Started

We know that not all ideas are ultimately worth pursuing and not all challenges to the status quo are helpful. However, our profession will only move forward if we are willing to experiment with ideas that are more innovative and creative. Neither I nor other contributors to this series will necessarily get it right. Disagreement is crucial in transforming an idea that has potential (but may appear unusual) into an exceptional idea.

Stay tuned to reshape our thinking, challenge assumptions, and struggle with new ideas and concepts. Let’s showcase local government as the institution that can and will continue to make a positive difference in people’s lives. That’s why we signed up to work in local government in the first place. Let’s eliminate forever the belittling phrase, “good enough for government work” and replace it with “striving for excellence.”

Let the different, new, unusual, and even weird ideas begin. Step out of your comfort zone or get out of the way of those who have the courage to do so. I stand ready to collaborate with anyone willing to try out a new idea.