We’re nearing the end of board retreat season: the window of time between December, when elected officials are sworn in, and April, when budget deliberations start in earnest. All across North Carolina, local governing boards and managers hold retreats during this time to plan for their community’s future, strengthen working relationships, and make strategic choices about how to best allocate resources to achieve their goals.
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Anyone who manages volunteers (or staff) has likely had to balance the needs and interests of the individual against the needs and interests of the organization.
There are no indicators that challenge is going to get any easier or less frequent given the “seismic shifts” identified in The New Breed: Understanding and Equipping the 21st Century Volunteer. The authors are youth ministers who are adapting their strategies of engaging volunteers in response to the generational and technological shifts we are all seeing.
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As a subset of the American population, Baby Boomers focused on success in the workplace and were competitive there. They also made significant change happen in society. Does anyone wonder how that immense capacity for competition and implementing change might be manifesting in retirement processes?
After all, other rites of passage in life (pregnancy, marriages, parenting…) and rules of engagement in society (diversity and inclusion, sunshine laws, etc.) were re-evaluated and re-designed by the Boomers.
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Since becoming Chief of the Fayetteville Police Department in 2013, Harold Medlock has taken steps to address police-community relations. Over the past two years, his department explored several vendors of body-worn cameras (BWCs).
Policy on the use, storage, and access to the videos of various police encounters was completed in mid-January. All patrol officers are using BWCs.
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Recently, a team of individuals from various organizations within the public/government, non-profit, and education sectors convened with the goal of being a “think tank” regarding our growing homeless issue in Catawba County and its municipalities. We organized around a collective impact model.
This process has demonstrated that individuals who have passion, vision, and a desire for something greater are able to align interests to create a great team. This is what collective impact is all about!
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A familiar Biblical Proverb states: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” I would argue that this principle is true for communities and organizations as well. Perish may be too strong a word, but I do think we could say something like, “when a community or organization has no vision, they are prone to stagnate, go nowhere, or decay.” Does your organization have a strategic vision? What about your community?
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Imagine you’ve been asked to design a game. Your goals are to get everyone to play, to learn, and to have fun.
You might start with an overall goal. Get all the cards? Sink the other person’s battleship? Build the most hotels? You’ll devise actions that move the game forward, setbacks for the players to keep it interesting, and rules and constraints that challenge your groups as the game unfolds.
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Two years ago, international software giant SAP launched their Autism at Work initiative. I learned about this effort a few days ago during a book group discussion after reading NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman. His exhaustive history of autism is filled with stories of individuals and our historic understanding – and misunderstanding – of autism. In brief, he describes a world in which autism – and all of its variations – is recognized as part of the diversity of the human condition.
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The gift of the 360 degree review process is that the people who regularly see you in action offer anonymous suggestions on strengthening your effectiveness as a community leader. Perry Davis, the Director of Cleveland County Emergency Management, received and applied such feedback as a recent participant of the Public Executive Leadership Academy offered by the School of Government. Based on the feedback received, Perry set two goals: becoming more open to considering new ideas and to delegating responsibilities. He reports on his early successes here:
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Public sector projects are complex projects often involving staff across multiple departments and may require access to professionals that are external to the organization. Projects can range from creating an internal newsletter, revising policies, acquiring and redeveloping a property for economic development, or creating a new outreach project. These projects, with their variations in size, stakeholders, and complexity, all share in common that they must contend with issues of scope, time, and cost. Success will undoubtedly require “project management” skills.
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