|
|
Leading Together - A New Model for Governing and Managing Your Community
Article provided by The Mercer Group, Inc.
William Stipp, MPA
City Councilmember, Goodyear, Arizona; Senior Vice President, The Mercer Group, Inc.
Mike Letcher, MPA, ICMA-CM
Assistant Professor, The University of Arizona; Senior Vice President, The Mercer Group, Inc.
What is driving your decision-making as a council? Does it feel like management is telling you what direction the city should be going in or are there
political forces at work in your community that seem to drive the direction you're headed in? Every city or town seems to have vision and mission statements
but often they are simply hanging on the wall like a piece of public art because they have lost their importance to the elected body and the staff. The Great
Recession caused most communities to switch into "survival mode" and that's where we've been the past few years. However today, communities can start to look
toward the future; are you prepared and do you have a plan?
A city or town's strategic plan lays the framework for moving the community from surviving to thriving. The strategic plan should develop an alignment of
priorities for the citizens, the mayor and city council, the city/town manager and the staff. The goals established by the plan, through its guiding
principles, should facilitate the successful execution of projects that are based on the priorities of the mayor and council, staff, collaborative
partners, the public and private entities.
In three hours, the session on Leading Together - A New Model for Governing and Managing Your Community provides proven tools and systems for the elected
board and appointed executive to work more effectively together in leading the organization. In this very interactive session participants will learn that strategic
planning can consist of more than your vision, mission, strategies, goals and projects. Leading together integrates your strategic plan into your budget and agenda
processes. In addition, it also provides a system for the governing board and appointed administrator to set annual work priorities for the organization. The
foundation that drives this shared approach to leadership is an innovative governance relations system that is modeled after the nationally recognized Carver
Governance Model and Baldrige Excellence Standards.
By integrating a strategic planning system that combines a Baldrige Award-based organizational effectiveness survey, with an internationally-recognized board
governance model, we have successfully developed strategic work plans that are focused on "getting things done." These strategic work plans use environmental
scans to determine the traditional strengths weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) and create strategic focus areas to help the community achieve its
vision and mission.
Strategic Focus Areas and Guiding Principles
Strategic Focus Areas are defined as the intersection of the community's mission, vision and values with the needs of its residents and the organization's
competency. Focus areas are designed to keep the organization's priorities from getting distracted by what may appear to be competing opportunities. This
strategic focus will drive policy decisions and priorities for the community.
Strategic focus is a "systems" view that is consistent with several similar concepts such as: Peter Drucker's theory of business, Gary Hamel and C.K.
Prahalad's strategic intent, Jim Collin's Hedgehog Concept, and Michael Porter's fit and position. The four "systems" views that
should drive every organization are: purpose, function, process, and structure.
The strategic focus areas will tie to three of these - The community's mission, vision and core values, are the foundation for creating strategic focus areas and tie
to purpose; the needs of the city, which are articulated in the focus areas are linked to function, and the organizational competency
expressed in the focus areas are aligned with process. Structure is not related to an element of the strategic focus areas because structure answers
the "how" question, while the purpose, function, and process elements are essentially "what" questions. In strategy development, the "what" questions drive the "how"
question. The "how" is represented by the guiding principles under the focus areas. Although an organization can operate without this type of strategic focus, there is
strong evidence to indicate that organizations that develop and have the discipline to adhere to a strategic focus have significant long-term sustainability.
In support of the strategic focus areas are the guiding principles that drive how the organization will execute the direction. By definition, guiding principles are the
strategies guiding the consistent execution of projects, policies and programs that continuously work toward achieving the goals expressed in the strategic focus areas. For
example, a strategic focus area may be fiscal sustainability and it may have four to five guiding principles to support it. For
example, one might be to "maximize city/town resources and address regional issues by creating and pursuing opportunities for collaboration and partnerships."
Integrated Planning Model
Once a strategic plan is completed, it should be integrated into the business practices of the community by linking the budget, staff work plans and current performance measures
into the plan. This allows the plan to be easily adjusted annually without constant consulting fees.
Integrated Strategic Plan Model
The Integrated Strategic Planning-approach creates a balance that aligns both your financial and human (employees) capital to focus on achieving your vision and strategic goals.
Governance Relations
An effective strategic plan requires good governance policies. Our consulting team has successfully implemented an innovative governance relations system with several clients. Senior
Vice President Mike Letcher has also published an article in the International City/County Management Association's Public Management (PM) on Board Governance.
In corporations today, the role of the governing board is often difficult to define. Many companies have trouble striking the correct balance between the functions of the CEO and those
of the Board of Directors, resulting in role confusion between the board members and the corporate leadership. This role confusion produces a disconnect or chasm between the governing
board and the chief executive. An elected public official can experience this same role confusion when residents are asking questions about operational issues (weeds, budgets, new businesses)
or about why the public official isn't doing more to… (fill in the blank) and the elected official feels as though they should know the answer or may want to take action.
All elected officials are "doers" and as such, they feel that they should be more involved in the processes that drive these types of questions. And when they do, city/town managers gently
remind them that elected officials don't function at that level in the organization. The elected official becomes frustrated and the chasm starts opening. Ideally, the role of an elected
public board is to develop policy. The implementation of those public policies and the responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the organization belong to the city/town manager.
How do we bridge the gap that opens between the board and the executive that have different perspectives and roles on determining the best interest of the community? And do so with a single
voice? The answer is often found in establishing expectations for these relationships that are based on serving the community. The Governance Relations System is designed to create a bridge
between the elected official's expectations of their manager for the day-to-day operations of the organization and the manager's execution of those expectations. In addition, Governance
Relations sets expectations for the Elected Officials to support the success of the manager in executing their expectations.
Governance Relations System focuses on FOUR areas:
- The expectations of the organization
- The performance expectation of the manager
- The expectations of the council
- The expectations of customer service/civic engagement
Governance Relations System can be viewed as a series of interconnected gears that drive the organization and its management and leadership priorities. The key to making a Governance Relations
System work is the commitment of the board and the manager to set clear expectations on how the organization will operate. In the session the tools to assist in developing this commitment will
be covered. These tools include a Caver Governance Model approach combined with a benchmarking tool for comparing the organization's achievement against the Baldridge Excellence Award Standards
for best practice organizations. These tools provide the foundation for developing a strategy to improved governance and relations between the council and the city/town manager.
To learn more about these innovative systems and how to strengthen your relationships and work with your community's staff, we are presenting the strategic planning system and the governance
relations model as a pre-conference workshop on August 18 at the 2015 League Annual Conference in Tucson in a "hands on" session. Participants will learn how these tools work and have
opportunities to discuss them in small groups. Does leading together work? Examples from organizations that have implemented these innovative approaches will be presented and discussed at
the sessions. Is the session worth my time? This session is focused on how this approach is developed and how it has benefited organizations that use it. If you decide to attend our session
your time will be well spent. |
|
League of Arizona Cities and Towns
1820 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Phone: 602-258-5786
Fax: 602-253-3874
http://www.azleague.org
|
|
|
