By Teresa Taylor

In September 2013, I began a local government management fellowship with the city of Decatur, Georgia. I was given a rigorous workplan of projects for various departments. My workstation was adjacent to the office manager who answered the main phone line for the city.

Throughout my fellowship, I listened to the office manager deal with calls from residents. I learned quickly that “Ms. Bertha,” as she was called, had a special way of calming a person down by relating to their issue and letting them know that “everything would work out just fine.” She always made sure callers felt better before transferring them to another department.

Sometimes people called with issues not even related to the city, but she would try to find them the best resources to deal with their problems. This experience taught me a lot about the success of Decatur. City staff members strive for everyone to always have a good experience when interacting with the city.

I found out that the city had considered switching to a more automated phone service but decided not to because it wanted to keep the “personal touch.” While there is a demand for technology that makes processes more efficient, so far we haven’t invented anything that can replace that feeling you get from human interaction.

Challenges Aplenty

The world is constantly changing, but for some reason things seem to be moving much faster now than ever before. Daily technological advancements are allowing people to seek out more innovative solutions in the search to live an easier life.

Information is the biggest commodity of the twenty-first century and technology has changed not only the way we receive information, but the number of people who have access to it. The demand for up-to-the-minute information is at an all-time high and local governments are not only putting information online for their residents, they are also soliciting feedback.

Economists say we are out of the recession; however, the country is still dealing with its aftermath. People do not feel the same sense of stability that we once did. Recent college graduates certainly are experiencing this unsettling uncertainty.

This has caused many new graduates to either take jobs they are not interested in or to take jobs for which they are overqualified. Or perhaps they go back to school for higher levels of education. This is creating an ever growing pool of highly educated and highly qualified candidates for local governments to recruit from; however, many local governments are also dealing with strained budgets.

The United States has also become far more diverse than it once was. African Americans and Latinos now make up 30 percent of the population, and the Latino demographic is growing every day. In my opinion, there still are major gaps in employment, educational achievement, and pay when compared to the white population in America.

With the world in its current state and changes happening so quickly, envisioning the future is an even more difficult task. I believe the key issues millennial managers will face in the future will be coping with the economy, leveraging technology, achieving high-level communication skills, and fostering partnerships.

A Cyclical Economy

Economies are described as cyclical by futurist Rebecca Ryan. She uses the seasons to describe periods of growth and prosperity, followed by periods of decline that end with a type of cleansing that will lead back to the periods of growth. Right now, we are still in what Ryan has coined as “winter.”

This period will not last forever and “spring” will return, bringing with it the growth that will lead our country back to the prosperity that had been the norm during the lives of baby boomers. Ryan predicts this spring to begin after 2020, when millennials will start dominating the managerial workforce.

Springtime growth will lead to periods of increased revenue for governments to have at their disposal. A manager in Ryan’s spring cycle will feel the obligation to spend the extra revenue on improvements to his or her community.

Good managers will not only think of their current residents, but we will also think across generations and build reserves for the future. Staying future-focused and cautiously optimistic in the spring and summer will help make winter easier when it returns again in the future.

Achieving Balanced Communication

Due to current technology, people have developed an expectation of having access to up-to-the-minute information. This trend is sure to continue and will likely lead to us having access to even more information. Through innovation, we will find ways other than surveys and e-mail blasts to better engage residents.

Social media has already begun a transformation that makes it easier for residents to share their demands and ideas with the powers that be. We will be able to quickly gain feedback or give information to residents without disrupting anyone’s regularly scheduled program.

Predicting what future transformations will look like is impossible, but millennials may be one of the most prepared generations of managers in terms of adapting to quickly changing models and processes. While the masses may crave efficiency and quickness, however, everyone may not like this model.

Some individuals will always appreciate good old-fashioned human interaction. The next generation of good managers must be able to engage with the community through technology, while not losing sight of the need to interact in a face-to-face manner. It is essential to find the balance that makes their community happy.

Leveraging Technology

It’s evident that new technologies will increase the ease of communication, but new technologies will also allow local governments to provide old services more efficiently and new services without necessarily needing to increase the size of the workforce. This is important since salaries and benefits often make up the largest percent of local government budgets and as long as we are in the winter period, budgets are not likely to rise dramatically.

Good millennial managers will be tasked with deciding which new technologies are right for their communities and to assure that their government can function without them, especially if a disaster were to strike.

Emphasis on Partnerships

It only takes a quick look on social media to realize that people are complaining about politicians who are not willing to work together. They also want as many quality services as possible without an increase in taxes. Local governments will need to be open to working in partnerships.

In the future, some services may be offered as self-service to residents. This will help keep residents engaged and committed while creating a feeling of shared responsibility for such programs as “adopt a fire hydrant,” for example, where Bostonians claim responsibility for shoveling out a fire hydrant after it snows. This would normally be a job for the public works department.

These types of partnerships with residents may become more prominent. In the future, people may sign up to help with more basic city functions. Communities with educated populations could partner with residents on jobs from translation services to Web design. Not only will residents work with the government and the private sector, but other forms of governments will also be expected to work together to create a more efficient output.

Since there is such a demand for advertising in nontraditional formats, governments may even start leveraging space on their websites or publicly owned equipment and vehicles. Governments also will start working together to provide higher-quality services. Local governments may begin sharing everything from whole departments to capital assets with their neighbors.

Millennials: Ready to Tackle Challenges

Millennials, like myself, are well suited to take on this future world, because we have dealt with great change, which will keep us cautiously optimistic in our decision making. Millennials have grown up seeing and embracing major innovations in technology and communication. Growing up in a more diverse America than has existed before will make it easier for my generation to foster partnerships.

While millennials may be a highly educated generation, scholars, have written that the challenge of retaining these professionals will be more difficult than with previous generations. Again, as a millennial, my observation is that this generation doesn’t believe that the stability other generations enjoyed is still possible.

We have seen so much economic uncertainty that job stability is attractive; however, we want a job that will allow us room for growth while keeping us stimulated, challenged, and fairly compensated. Millennials are dealing with more student loan debt than past generations, so financial compensation is an important issue for graduates.

Local governments, much leaner in these tough economic times, will find it challenging to keep millennials who want to advance or receive higher compensation faster than the employer can afford. Our ambition will make us great employees, but it may also make us more fluid.

I recently chased an opportunity and moved to the city of Chamblee, Georgia, where I can gain more experience as the assistant to the city manager. It was difficult leaving my first community, but my interest in taking on challenges has made this experience exciting.

Our ambition will make us unafraid to move to different communities and spread our knowledge. The lack of keepers of institutional knowledge, however, may become an issue for employers.

ICMA’s Adaptation to a New World

ICMA will have to make some changes in order to adapt to a new world. Communicating on new platforms will be expected, as well as using new ways to contact and engage its membership. It will have to help encourage and support partnerships and not just individual governments.

ICMA will have a more diverse membership and will have to figure out how it can support the changing needs of its new constituency. The association will need to continue encouraging the newest generations to enter the public service workforce through programming like its fellowship program.

In the future, virtual fellowships may take place to give entry-level leaders opportunities, but cut down the cost to local governments. Overall, ICMA will need to adapt and rise to the occasion to support whatever new challenges are sure to exist in the future, just as it has done with the millennials of today.

Teresa Taylor is assistant to the city manager, Chamblee, Georgia (ttaylor@chambleega.com).