13 February, 2019 0 Comments

Lessons Learned

February 13, 2019 By Leave a Comment

ULI is a global non-profit.

I’m a huge fan of the Urban Land Institute.

ULI is a global organization that promotes responsible development and the organization is often called on to provide expert advice on how to build great communities.

I’ve worked with the organization on a few special projects over the years including public leadership seminars and an in-depth dive into the future of Winter Park, Florida.

Recently, I had the pleasure of working with a talented panel seeking to help Tamarac, in West Broward County make sense of their potential.

It was a great experience and I got to meet some terrific elected officials and very dedicated staff. The ULI panel also consisted of some really smart people including economic development professionals, a real estate broker for a large firm, a cutting edge developer and a very talented urban designer from Miami. I thought I’d share a small portion of my session on public leadership.

 

Ten Lessons Learned

 (Some the hard way, but most by watching other leaders and learning from talented mayors).

  1. Focus on the Big Rocks (Don’t Major in the Minor)

Being an elected official is like drinking from a fire hose… you will get lost in the weeds if you’re not careful. Successful elected officials learn to lead and leave the management to staff. They also focus on large meaningful goals—“the big rocks.”

 

2. Trust But Verify

(Trust movement but outcomes are more important than words)

 

Even if you focus on the big picture, you will be blamed for the potholes. So empower staff to do their jobs but also hold them accountable for getting things done—both large and small. Outcomes are what you will be judged on. Process is important, but sometimes you can have process without outcomes. Make sure that doesn’t happen. You have to deliver. Have a sense of urgency.

 

3. Have a Vision-

The “Grassroots” (your constituents) depend on the “Grass Tops” (elected officials and senior staff) to get things done.

The most successful cities have a vision for what they want to be and how they’ll get there.

The best cities are aspirational, so dare to dream but also understand who you are as a community.

Visions Should Be Community Based—coming from the Grassroots.

Community Visions Should Be Sacred– Elected officials (Grass tops) are Stewards and have a responsibility to deliver.

Visions allow you to say no to projects that don’t fit and to say yes to projects that fit the vision.

 

4. Find Shared Goals

 The most successful councils/commission’s have shared goals.

Not having shared goals leads to:

Dysfunction

Staff Confusion

Inaction—whose ideas, projects should we pursue?

Creates Winners and Losers

End result—it’s hard to make sustained progress.

Once the other side gets in or the players change, policies, directions and progress are often reversed. One step up, two steps back syndrome.

 

5. Celebrate Success

(Blame is a given in public life, might as well celebrate when you succeed)

Let the community know when you fulfill a promise or achieve a goal.

It’s important to celebrate—it builds civic pride and confidence in City Hall. You need to build a reservoir of good will to take advantage of opportunities and to weather setbacks.

 

6. The Loudest Voices Aren’t Necessarily Representative of the Community

 

Be wary of people who claim to speak for “everyone”

Our jobs as elected officials is to leave the city better than we found it. Sometimes that means making tough decisions that may not always be popular at the time we are asked to vote.  But if  your votes are tied to a community vision or goals, you will survive and thrive.

 

7. Mayors and Commissioners are the architects of their city

 

We are responsible for holding developers to high standards…but we are also responsible for making sure there is “rule of law” and a predictable process. If we allow our cities to become nightmares, we will chase away investment and or attract the wrong investors. Mayors and commissioners set the tone for their cities. Are we nice? Are we civil? Are we professional? Or are we mean and petty? Mean and petty is a recipe for failure.

 

8. The Best Economic Development is a Clear Vision and Predictable Process

 

If you can develop a compelling vision for your city, it will serve as a great sales and marketing tool for your town. If you can get investors through your process without it becoming a clown show or worse you will see progress. It’s that simple. The best incentives are a compelling vision and a predictable process with high standards.

 

9. Once Votes Are Taken, It’s Our Responsibility to Make Sure We Get the Best Outcomes Possible


We won’t always get our way. We will lose tough votes. But once the roll is called and the votes are cast we must move on and not re-litigate over and over. If the decision is horrible, it will tend to reveal itself in time and you will have another chance to right the wrong. If it moves forward, we must move forward too.

 

10. Municipal Math

(Math can be cruel)

 

It takes 10-20 years to build something of value, 1-2 years to mess it up and there is no guarantee you will recover. So think about the future and leave your city better off than when you were entrusted with its welfare.

 

 

4 June, 2018 0 Comments

The Perils of Bickering

June 4, 2018 By Leave a Comment

I subscribe to Axios.com which is serving as my morning news fix because my newspaper carrier can’t seem to deliver before I leave for work these days. (Sigh)
Axios is a compilation of well written news “bites” and analysis that makes you feel somewhat “in the know.”

Last week, there was an item that caught my eye and made me think. And worry.
The writer opined that the era of American economic and technological dominance was coming to an end and that China was going to surpass the USA within a decade.

Whoa!
Why?

Because China has a vision to dominate trade and technology and to become the world’s indispensable nation.
But beyond having a vision, China is executing by making investments in infrastructure, artificial intelligence and robotics with a stated goal of dominance.

Of course, China is a one party dictatorship with a President who just made himself leader for life. What Xi says goes. Period.
It doesn’t exactly work that way in the United States. Good thing too.

But it does make one wonder how we stave off competition from a nation as large, as capable and as determined as China.
It also makes you wonder when the last time we had a national vision that went beyond the next election.

It wasn’t always this way.

The Space Race, World War II and the war on terror are just a few examples of near universal national resolve.
It seems like everything else has been a struggle: civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, health care, immigration, gun safety etc., have been battles.

There is nothing wrong with struggling for what you believe in. In fact, it probably makes you more appreciative when you achieve your goal. Also, Democracy is inherently messy and loud. But if it is to remain viable and competitive it needs to lead to something. The process (struggle) should be Democratic, but there needs to be outcomes too–or you risk losing your edge as a nation. Today, we have too many problems left unsolved by national “leaders” focused solely on beating their enemies, getting re-elected, rewarding their friends and erasing the other team’s work. Partisanship reigns over patriotism. It’s not just sad, it’s tragic and fatal if not addressed.

This blog is a champion of local solutions (localism) but there are some things that only a competent and effective federal government can accomplish: a national defense for instance, immigration policy, rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure.

But…
These days we bicker. These days we dawdle.
All the while, the competition plans and executes.

Still, on this corner of the web, we focus on cities and hyper local topics and so here’s where there are parallels.
The cities that have visions; the cities that execute win.
The cities that bicker and dawdle miss out.
It’s that simple.
Really. It is that simple.
So make decisions.
Take risks.
Be civic entrepreneurs.
Invest.
Re-invest.
Reach out and involve the whole community.
Listen.
Learn.
Question.
Experiment.
Make the good stuff easy.
Turn down the bad stuff.
But don’t bicker.
Don’t dawdle.
We live in a competitive landscape and we can’t afford our communities to major in the minor.
Progress and prosperity flows to cities which create a culture that celebrate those who aspire.
Progress and prosperity will miss places that bicker and dawdle.

As Bruce Springsteen sings about Atlantic City: “Down here it’s just winners and losers and don’t get caught on the wrong side of that line.”

 

11 May, 2017 3 3 Comments

10 Signs: Houston We Have A Problem

May 11, 2017 By 3 Comments

Ten signs of electile dysfunction. (Or how to know if an elected official has jumped the shark).

 

  1. An inability to lose a vote. In an ideal world when the vote is called, you state your position yay or nay. Then you accept the decision and move on. If your elected official can’t accept that he or she may lose an occasional vote you’ve got a problem. Key signs of being a sore loser: endlessly litigating the same issue, looking for loopholes to reverse the decision, attacking opponents, whining, blocking and bloviating. Sadly, there is no known cure other than beating the offender at the polls the next election cycle.
  2. Above it All Syndrome– Symptoms include pretending to be separate from your staff. So when a citizen approaches the mic and complains about an issue or problem you immediately blame staff and take no ownership of said issue.
  3.  Rule of Law Disease-A deeply fatal condition in which elected officials pretend that ordinances, processes and policies are mere “guidelines” or “suggestions” to be applied only when convenient or relating to people they like or who back them. Leads to symptom four.
  4. Litigation fever–An expensive malady in which: armed with taxpayer (i.e. your) money elected officials hire attorneys to battle anyone who doesn’t bend to their will regardless of rules, laws, processes and policies.
  5. Narcissistic Personality Disease–Those afflicted suffer from multiple of the above symptoms. It’s about them and only them. Do not. We repeat. Do not dare feed this affliction lest you become its victim. Symptoms include: Repeated use of the word “I” , a strong belief that you were sent to right all past “wrongs” and only you can fix things. This disease is accompanied by a deep seated belief that every idea has to be yours in order to be worthy of consideration or valid. Those suffering from this serious malady believe time began when they took their seats. Hint: It didn’t.
  6. My Way or the Highway Disease—This refers to elected officials who believe their personal preferences should take precedence over community input which is treated as annoying or inconvenient. Symptoms: town halls become lecture series and presentations replace community input sessions.
  7. That Won’t Work Here Disease. Symptoms include a bedrock belief that their city, village, town, hamlet or burg is somehow immune from facts, best practices and what has been demonstrated to work elsewhere. Frequently used to reject policies related to development, parking, civic engagement and or anything innovative or new.
  8. The Precedent Test. Closely related to that won’t work here disease. Easily determined by how your elected officials treat new or novel ideas. If the word precedent is used this way you have problems: “We can’t do that. It will set a precedent.” If the official answers with: “let’s set a new precedent, that’s how we find progress.” He or she does not suffer from the malady.
  9. Seeking perfection disease. Symptoms include an inability to compromise, an inability to trust staff and an unwillingness to accept even 9/10ths of a loaf.
  10. Grandstanding Disease. Symptoms include grand speeches at public meetings, blindsiding colleagues, inflating minor issues into major imbroglios and calling the press every time you lose a vote to allege a taxpayer rip-off knowing that your blindsided opponents will either be unprepared, unavailable or afraid to refute you.

If you are an elected official with one or more of these symptoms you won’t seek help and your “service” (sigh) won’t amount to much.

If you serve alongside any of these characters and fail to stand up to them you will be swept up in their dysfunction and also fail to move the needle on behalf of the community.

And if you are a community that has to endure any one of these types you are out of luck–unless of course you ditch them. If you don’t….

It won’t be fun to volunteer. It won’t be fun or productive to work for such a city and it won’t be safe to invest.

The antidote is to organize and insist on better leadership and ultimately to have the courage to step forward and take them out at the ballot box.

Remember: you stand for what you tolerate.