Why Civic Engagement Matters

ICMA-10/8/07: “Why Civic Engagement Matters”.

Public Trust in government is dependent on a number of reasons. A preliminary analysis of survey results indicated some interesting results:

Measures of Civic Involvement:

-Voted?

-Volunteer?

-Public Meeting Attendance?

-Participation in Community Life? (Defined as utilization of libraries and parks & recreation)

Questions to determine public trust:

-Received good value for money?

-Pleased with overall job of jurisdiction?

-Is civic involvement welcome?

-Feel listened to?

-Quality of public services (on a 0-100 scale)

-Sense of Community (on a 0-100 scale)

-Community as a good place to live (on a 0-100 scale)

Preliminary results are that only participation in community life (use of libraries and parks etc.) has a positive relationship with Public Trust

Attendance at meetings and volunteerism both had negative relations (higher attendance and volunteerism actually had a negative relationship)

Voting was neutral.

Summary:

-Persons attending public meetings have different views from the general public. (obviously, for officials who want to listen to the citizens, they need to realize that persons who actually attend public meetings may not actually be “the public view”. For example, persons attending the public meetings even recycled less.

Parks, recreation and cultural events had more positive relationship to public trust.

I have the same feeling as the presenters-I felt the relationship between Public Trust and persons attending meetings and volunteers would have been a positive factor in Public Trust. There appears to be a number of factors that could account for this. While I will keep this in mind, (and I have passed this information on), I will remain attentive to this study as it has a lot of possible impact in determining public opinion and public trust.

Vision and performance

“The Vision to Performance Challenge”, ICMA Conference, October 8, 2007.

Citizen Surveys are a way for a citizen to “voice choice”.

I.Elements:

1. Planning
2. Budgeting
3. Measuring
4. Communicating
5. Evaluating

Planning: Develop clear objectives

Budgeting: Relate to Objectives

Measuring: Need tools to have effective measures. What Measures?

-Tell your story:?

-Help run operations?

-Does your boss want it?
Need right tools to measure

Communicating:

-Depends on whom you are telling/informing

-Broad range of reports to communicate

-“Diversified approach”

Evaluation:
-Data Verification

-Evaluation fuels planning process

II. Challenges to Change Management:

1. Executive-Provide vision and leadership
2. Structure (structure to support)
3. Resources (if don’t provide resources, isn’t a priority)
4. Training
5. Communication
III. How Make it Work

-Demonstrate value to employees
-Link performance to budget process
-Use information

Although I have heard and reviewed a lot about Performance Measurement, I still have some questions about it, at least for my city (other cities apparently find it valuable). For a City of the size I manage, I question using resources for detailed Performance Measurement. I’ll keep on reviewing it.

I was reminded during this session that I need to keep in mind that the Vision is supported by the Budget and other action plans.

A City Manager’s Perspective on the Benefits of Executive Coaching (Donna Zajonc, Jane Brautigam, Ted Staton, David Womeldorff, David Latshaw, Mary J

Executive Coaching is a way of assisting for Sustainable Behavioral Changes over a period of time. (Executive Coaching appears to be a logical extension of the Credentialing process)

Executive Coaching involves having the “difficult conversations” about your job style, especially the behavioral aspects, not usually the hard skills. (This seems to relate to the “Emotional Intelligence” that I attended the University Workshop on Saturday).

Some of the benefits of an Executive Coach are to find the “blind spots”, support at filling gaps. Again, in the EQ Workshop, the instructor suggested taking the EQ test and then attempting to strengthen your weak areas. An Executive Coach appears to be an excellent method of doing this.

As far as finding an Executive Coach, they mentioned you need to know what you want when you look for an Executive Coach. You should have your “end goal” in mind. Get referrals etc.

Some resources are noted on the handout and include:

http://www.coachfederation.org/

www.coaching consortium.org

Books such as “Co-Active Coaching”, “Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others”: Coaching that Counts”, MasteA City Manager’s Perspective on the Benefits of Executive Coaching (Donna Zajonc, Jane Brautigam, Ted Staton, David Womeldorff, David Latshaw, Mary Jo Asmus), ICMA Conference 2007 (Pittsburgh)

As far as finding an Executive Coach, they mentioned you need to know what you want when you look for an Executive Coach. You should have your “end goal” in mind. Get referrals etc.

I realized after attending this session that I have some “coaches” although not quite in the format reviewed at this session.

Bottom Line-I’d consider it if the appropriate Coach at a reasonable rate is available.

Probably even more important, I realized that some of our new Department Managers and Supervisors could benefit from a “Coach” and I will look into this.rful Coaching.

Bill Strickland, “Leadership”, ICMA Conference 2007, October 7, 2007

This was a presentation by a Leader who developed successful training facilities for low-income residents who had previously been considered untrainable. Some thoughts:

-“Environment drives behavior”

-“Life is about the small things”

-If you want people to behave in a certain way, you need to provide them with role models of how you want them to behave.

-Way you think about people drives behavior

-Peoples behavior is a function of expectations.

Besides being inspirational, I got some ideas on increasing expectations and developing examples of behavior I expect of City personnel. While it is not as nearly dramatic, it will help improve the performance of the City if we incorporate these thoughts.

EQ Skills for Elected Officials, Dr. Deborah Roberts, ICMA Conference, October 6, 2007

Basic Emotional Quotient skills are:

1. Self Awareness (Know yourself)

2. Social Awareness (Empathy is very important, Political awareness etc.)

3. Self Management (Self Control, flexible, initiative etc.)

4. Relationship Skills (leadership, influence, communication etc.0

These are all basic Behavioral skills that City Managers should develop, in addition to “hard” skills. This makes a lot of sense to me, since life (including organizational life) includes feelings/emotions etc. as well as hard facts.

I have seen too many Managers (City Manager and otherwise) be excellent at “hard skills”, but simply don’t have the “feeling” side developed. Unfortunately (in my opinion) for the residents and staff, they frequently are considered “successful” because the technique of hard skills with no feeling side can work in both the short and long term.

To me, the key to having to develop your emotional intelligence (or at least be aware of your strengths and weaknesses in this area) are that persons view the world through both emotions/feelings and “facts”. We simply must be aware and develop our emotional intelligence to do the best we can for our residents and governing body. It is becoming more flexible and considering the other side and changing accordingly if warranted.

-LISTEN

-Self Relationship is the # 1 relationship

Emotional Intelligence is demonstrated in:

-Understanding yourself

-Governing Yourself

-Understanding others

-Managing your relationships with others.

This says the same thing as before, but is defined in different terms.

The importance of Emotional Intelligence is demonstrated by studies showing that “as much as 90% of the difference between outstanding and average leaders is linked to their emotional intelligence”. Failure among leaders are most often the result of “poor relationships” and “rigidity” (being unable to adapt their style to changes in the organization or external world.

I realize “success” has to be defined also, but this seems to make sense based on what I learned in this session.

Our (City Manager) job relationship with the City Commission is our most important relationship, but it is only one of many relationships for the Council.

At the Local Government level, it is NOT ABSTRACT-it is MY ISSUE! (zoning, etc., very personal ) EMPATHY is the most important aspect.

Emotional Intelligence is braking old habits and creating new habits. Developing Emotional Intelligence includes:

-Determination-not easy

-Passion-Change w/dreams for the future

-Vision: Vision of self and how vision is defined.

Take the Self-Assessment-

-Choose something I’d like to change

-Improve it/correc weakness

-Ask, “what will help me get better?”

-Go back through assessment, give credit for good areas!

-Practice, and then check again and then practice again

-Relationships are everything. Board of Commissioners MUST TRUST you if you are to be an effective City Manager.

Governing Body has a tough job, defined by vague task definition, no hierarchy, no specialization, little feedback (especially positive) and open meetings. It takes a skilled manager (both factual and emotional) to help the governing body to be effective.

“Flight or Fight” reaction “hijacks” the decision process. (You immediately respond to the sudden threat-all others are secondary). THIS IS WHERE EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IS SO IMPORTANT.

“Emotional Hijacking” consequences are:

-Out of control emotions-suddenly “become dumb”

-Consequences are negative and lasting

-Ripple effects-affect the performance of everyone

This is an important behavioral skill level I need to review more and gradually try to improve my EQ. I plan on taking the EQ Test, noting my weak areas and trying to work on these areas. Also, I plan on taking some of the views on elected officials (not all noted here, but they are in the handout) and really try to consider that in working with elected officials.

Competencies of EQ:

Self-Awareness:

1. Emotional self-awareness (know thyself) Goal is to have guiding awareness of his values and goals that direct action

2. Accurate self-assessment-know strengths and limits

3. Self-confidence-Strong sense of self worth and capabilities

Self Governing

4. Self Control (grace under pressure)

5. Trustworthy

6. Conscientiousness-Responsibility in managing yourself

7. Adaptability

8. Achievement/Drive

9. Initiative and Optimism

Social Awareness

10. Empathy

11. Competency-leveraging diversity

12. Big Picture Awareness

13. Stewardship Orientation (recognize and meet citizens and customers needs)

14. Developing others

15. Leadership-inspiring and guiding groups and people

16. Influence

17. Communication-sending clear and convincing messages

18. Change Catalyst-initiating or managing change

19. Conflict Management-resolving disagreements

20. Networking and building bonds

21. Teamwork and Collaboration

It will talk some time to review and improve both my and the organizational EQ, but I think it will be well worth it. My first step is to take the self-assessment and then proceed off of that to improve EQ.

Books Read, Bob Woodward, State of Denial

This is a book about the invasion of Iraq and what went wrong. I was especially interested in the processes of how the decisions were made.

One major theme was the failure of the leaders to understand the importance of keeping the existing social and political infrastructure, in spite of warnings by U.S. officials actually in Iraq who understood the culture. For example, the army was disbanded “to the third level”, thus creating a lack of leadership as well as a large number of military personnel who then turned against the U.S. (The U.S. officials in charge recommended only the first level, which would have retained the fabric of the military.) The same thing happened with government workers etc.

In regard to City Management, I think this indicates the importance of not blindly coming into a City and making mass changes without really trying to understand the local social, culture and political environment. I have see City Managers attempt to make wholesale changes when a few key changes would have maintained a structure.

Another theme was the failure to give the leadership the “bad news”. Incidents are noted where the “bad news” was not given to the leadership, or questions about techniques and policies were not presented. One thing I tell everyone I hire is I like to hear the good news, but I have to hear the bad news, and one basic concept I have is I have to hear the bad news.

A related item was a situation describing that neither (in this case) Rumsfield or Powell would comment on the others presentation. The author noted that this deprived the President of the views of each on the other persons presentations. It was also noted that the President could have pressed the discussion, but didn’t. This is one area I really try to emphasize-getting personnel to comment on how they really feel-not just what they think I want to hear.

As noted in the title “denial” is a major theme running through this book and especially the consequences of denial and wishful thinking. I have seen the adverse consequences of denial and wishful thinking in my local government career, and I think it is one of the major problems in local government (and apparently all levels of government).

One section especially interesting to me was a description of how the persons providing the President with his Daily Briefings watched his reactions. If he appeared interested in an item, future briefings would emphasize those items. In at least one case, the President complained about why is briefings had so much information about a specific matter and he was advised he had asked a question to clarify a situation and the staff assumed he was interested. He replied “That’s why they keep telling me about the SOB in Mosambique”.

I think this emphasizes the point that a Manager has to get information from many places, and you need to continually caution staff to NOT assume what you want to know, but provide all the information.

Another area notes that Saddam didn’t have “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMD), but he wanted various groups in his country to think he did (not necessarily the U.S.) for his owner power. The U.S. acted on this false information. Again, I think it emphasizes the need to look for the “real” situation, not assume.

At one area the Chief of Staff is discussing the President appointing a new Chief of Staff. He notes that there are three different types of styles that a Chief of Staff can have, and they all may be best at any time.

-Micromanager who has tight control, absolutely controls access to the Presidnet

-Prime Minister Type who is a “deal cutter, negotiator and policy person who can handle Congress, the media and the world”.

-Facilitator who does what the President wants, keep the cabinet and staff focused on the Presidents agenda.

While it is not an exact comparison by any means, I think that City Manager styles cann somewhat be categorized into similar roles. However, sometimes, if the City Manager is comfortable with it, the Manager may need to change roles to fit the style of the Mayor and/or Commissioners.

Another area that caught my interest was the comment about how President Bush doesn’t necessarily make a decision, but there is a “series of big and little steps” that build up a momentum and suddenly converge into a major decision. I try (with varying success) to be aware of this trap of making the little decisions because they are easy and suddenly a big decision has been made.

After reading this, I am going to try to become more aware of how my incremental “small” decisions can suddenly become a major decision.

Articles: Henry Mintzbert, “The Manager’s Job”.

This article is from a Harvard Business Review collection on “Leadership Insights”. The Article was written in 1990 and contains some retrospectives on the impact of the article.

The author reviews the “traditional view” of “what Managers do” and then reviews some empirical studies to postulate on “what Managers actually do”.

I found the article fascinating and somewhat true, based on my experience.

Some of the highlights of the “folklore vs. fact” are:

-It is folklore that the manager is a reflective systemic planner. Instead a Managers activities are “characterized by brevity, variety and discontinuity and they are strongly oriented to action and to dislike reflective activities.”

-Managers pace is unrelenting and no time for reflection

-Plans exist only in their heads

-Managers respond to stimuli and are conditioned by their jobs to prefer live to delayed action.

-Folklore that the Manager has no regular duties to perform. In reality, the Managear performs many routine activities including ritual and ceremony, negotiations and processing of information.

-Folklore that the Manager needs aggregated information that a “formal management information system” provides. In fact, the Managers do not use MIS systems. Managers favor verbal media, telephone calls and meetings over documents.

Managers prefer “soft” information (especially gossip, hearsay and speculation) due to it’s timeliness. Gossip today, fact tomorrow! The Manager must reach out for all information in order to make timely decisions.

-The verbal information is stored in the brain (not written down)

-Managers don’t delegate because they have the information and have to “dump” it into other minds-usually too much trouble, so do it themselves.

TEN ROLES OF MANAGER

Interpersonal Roles

1. Figurehead role (ceremonial duties etc.)

-Study showed spent 12% of time on figurehead duties

2. Leader Role (both direct and indirect)

-Leader role is where influence of manager is strongest

3. Liaison Role

-Involves Manager making contact outside the vertical chain of command

Informational Roles

4. Monitor Role

-Solicits, receives and processes information

5. Disseminator Role

-Mgr passes information to subordinates.

6. Spokesperson Role

-Information sent outside the work unit

Decision Roles

7. Entrepreneur Role

-This involves using the information and committing the organization to an action

8. Disturbance Handler Role

-Involuntarily responding to pressures. Change is beyond control, and Manager must act

(Good Managers cannot possibly anticipate the consequences of all the actions they take)

9. Resource Allocator Role

-Mgr is responsible for who gets what.

-Most important resource Manager allocates is own time

10. Negotiator Role

Manager needs to turn “obligations” into “advantages”

I found this article interesting an informative. I plan on using the information to become more precise about how I manage. This is the type of information I wish I had had earlier, but it is also information where you have to have “lived it” (had experience) to fully understand the implications.