The N.C. Commerce Park in Alamance County, North Carolina is an economic development success story that underscores how vital interlocal and regional collaboration is for community and economic development. It also highlights the power of partnerships and collaboration, and the importance of local leaders that share a collaborative mindset.

The N.C. Commerce Park is an 1,100-acre economic development zone located in the Hawfields area of eastern Alamance County. The area includes parcels owned by dozens of private land-owners who have voluntarily become partners with the N.C. Commerce Park in agreeing to easements and (very importantly) providing options on their properties. The 1,100 acres includes parts of Graham, Mebane, and unincorporated Alamance County. Site development involved $12 million for infrastructure, jointly funded by the three local governments and the N.C. Department of Transportation. Later the three local governments also each contributed $100,000 to the Alamance County Chamber of Commerce to oversee the site certification process.

Triad Business Journal, 3/2/2015

But what is perhaps the most innovative aspect of this partnership—and what demonstrates how substantial it actually is—is that the three local governments also have created an interlocal agreement to share the financial benefits. Tax revenues from within the Park are aggregated and split equally among the three entities. The cities of Graham and Mebane also have agreements in place regarding water and sewer service to the site.

Thus, what we have here is a really remarkable and complex partnership. A county, two cities, the Chamber of Commerce, several state agencies (including Departments of Commerce and Transportation), and, perhaps most importantly, dozens of local landowners. Graham City Manager Frankie Maness points out that “the greatest partnership in the [Park] is not between the local governments and the Chamber of Commerce, it’s with the landowners.” Securing easements, options on parcels, developing zoning overlays, making land purchases, et cetera required a great deal of communication and collaborative work with the private landowners.

So how did this partnership come to be? First, prior to a catalyzing opportunity in 2012, there was a long history of collaboration among the local governments and also between the local governments and the Chamber of Commerce. There was a history of working well together and thus a certain amount of relationship capital accrued between and among the entities involved. Maness, noting the positive working relationships, says the “partnership was not difficult.” Graham and Mebane have worked together on utilities and land use agreements for many years, and also have worked with the County and Chamber for years. “Our cities have long understood the value of partnership and have established seamless operations to ensure continued cooperation.” And all the entities have a shared goal of creating economic opportunity.

So when Wal-Mart was interested in locating a distribution center in the Hawfields area in 2012, a prospect of 450 quality jobs, it was quite natural for the partners to turn to each other. County Manager Craig Honeycutt noted that no one entity had the resources or clout to put together the total package needed to secure the Wal-Mart facility. They needed to work together, and they did. And landing the Wal-Mart facility was a significant win that became the catalyst for envisioning the development of the N.C. Commerce Park.

A committee was put together with representation from each of the local governments, and out of that committee came the vision, agreements, and financial commitments necessary to create the Park. The Park is directed by the oversight committee that works with the Chamber and also Samet Corporation to promote the site.

Stephanie Shaw, Triad Business Journal, August 29, 2016

That collaborative infrastructure has been leveraged to enable the partners to work together productively to offer not only an attractive site for business development, but also to put together incentive packages that make them very competitive regionally. Prescient Corporation, a high-tech construction firm out of Denver, Colorado, recently selected the site and will bring 205 quality jobs with them. Their CEO noted that of all the offers different sites made, the N.C. Commerce Park was the best. In addition to a terrific location, the three local governments put together an incentive package worth over $1 million that was combined with additional incentives offered through the state’s Economic Investment Committee. Governor Pat McCrory praised the high degree of collaboration among the local governments, noting that “businesses don’t care about political boundaries.”

The N.C. Commerce Park is still very new. It was officially created in March of 2015 and is still in the process of becoming a certified industrial site. Yet it is hard to call this project anything but a resounding success so far, with about $220 million in private investment and 750 new jobs between the three firms already secured (the Wal-Mart and Prescient facilities as well as a Lidl distribution facility). This successful partnership highlights many important lessons about interlocal collaboration specifically and collaborative leadership generally, including:

• The value of prior collaboration and trusting relationships.
• The value of a spark plug to help initiate collaborative investment. The City of Mebane invested over $150,000 upfront (easements and environmental costs) and contributed significant staff time prior to the partnership coming together.
• The value of equitably sharing in the costs as well as the benefits to the extent possible.
• The value of trusted third parties to work with and through (in this case, the local Chamber of Commerce).
• The value state government can add in supercharging interlocal collaboration through leveraging state resources (such as road construction and economic incentive funds).
• The value of having elected officials involved and on board throughout the process. The three boards unanimously supported this effort from day one.
• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the value of having community leaders with a collaborative mindset. County Manager Craig Honeycutt importantly points out that there were “no egos – everyone was looking at the larger picture and the possibilities that this park and development could do for the future of Alamance County as a whole.”

Another longstanding principle of collaborative leadership is building on small wins; success does indeed breed success. You could look at the various ways the partners worked together prior to the possibility of the Wal-Mart distribution center as building a history of wins. Then the Wal-Mart facility become a huge win. And that lead to developing the N.C. Commerce Park as an additional big win, which led to the “wins” of landing the Lidl and Prescient facilities. That sets up this partnership well for the future, and offers important lessons for local government leaders elsewhere.

This article is a modified version of one that appeared in the Community and Economic Development blog, also hosted by the UNC School of Government.

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Try an experiment. Grab three or four people and ask them to look at this painting for 30 seconds then close their eyes and describe what they saw. Don’t be surprised if each person sees the painting in ways others do not.

If we see things so differently, what might each of us missing? Leaders need to be continually aware of what they and others may be missing. Our brains are constantly painting a picture of the world around us. Leaders need to understand what others do and do not see in order to tap into and shape a common picture of the future—whether that means convincing people to launch a new business or take action to protect the environment. Effective leaders look for ways to bridge their own and others’ mental pictures so everyone shares a sense of why their work is important, how they will get things done, and what they will accomplish.

We start constructing an understanding how things work as soon as we are born. Early in life, we see the world as it is. Imagine a 2-year-old child’s jaw dropping as grandpa pulls a coin from behind her ear; children exist in the moment. As our brains develop, we learn things may not be as they first appear. When we aren’t looking the coin is hidden behind a finger. We become aware that words and actions are not the same—I’m not really going to “pull my hair out!” We build a mental model to explain why things are as they are and how the world works. Each of us believes our model is right. Uh oh. Now what?

As leaders we first need to accept that our own mental models may be wrong and incomplete. As Kathryn Schulz writes in Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, this is really hard—first, it’s hard to accept you’re wrong most of the time (trust me, I’m working on it) and, second,  it’s hard to help others recognize what they may be missing. That doesn’t mean it’s not important. In fact, it’s an essential leadership skill.

Every day we see leaders who are afraid of admitting their mistakes. Does anyone not make misteaks? Who has all the information they could possibly need before making an important decision? Still we decide things everyday. Should I be writing this blog post or doing something else? It’s always a choice and, if I miss something because I’m writing this, in retrospect, I may have made the wrong decision.

I admire leaders unafraid to make mistakes and curious to learn what they don’t know. I challenge you to be a leader who learns from others and the world around you. Going around having to be right all of the time is exhausting. Try asking yourself, “What am I missing?” I’ll bet you look at Renoir’s painting differently after hearing other people’s perspectives. Just imagine how asking what you’re missing might change your picture of the world.

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The term “project management” evokes images of highly specialized private sector project professionals working in project-based industries such as engineering, power, pharmaceuticals, and tech companies. Can a project manager at a local government or nonprofit agency employ “project management” principles, too? Absolutely!

Regardless of the organizational structure, project management has a place in all public organizations because management of projects has become a powerful way to integrate organizational functions and motivate groups to achieve higher levels of productivity and performance. This post describes the core principles for successful project management and why they are important to effective project management.

What is a project?

A project is simply a temporary effort, undertaken to create a unique service or result. It has a beginning and end. At its core, project management is about creating a structure to manage a process to achieve a project objective. A project manager is responsible and accountable for setting realistic and achievable goals for the project and for leading the project team to complete the project.

Major Factors Influencing Project Success

Several factors influence project management success, including:

• the composition of the project team (having the right people on the bus)
• the authority granted to the project manager (let the driver make the call on how to best get there)
• the broader enthusiasm around the project (we want to take this journey together)
• the scope of the project (where are we going and when do we need to be there)

Give the Project Manager Authority

The organization needs to explicitly give the authority over the project and its personnel to the project manager. This is increasingly important when those people serving on the project team have several lines of authority and the project is only one piece of their day-to-day responsibilities.

For example, a project aiming to produce a new comprehensive vehicle policy for a municipality may include team members from the police, fire, public works, and finance departments, as well as from the manager’s and the attorney’s office, all of whom directly report to different managers. In this situation, the project manager needs to have a strong communication plan in place with the functional managers of the project team and must ideally have final decision-making authority within the parameters of the project.

Apply a “project framework” to each project

Project management employs a ‘project framework’ that can be applied to any number of projects from creating a vehicle policy to a revitalization plan. The framework is built upon a set of key knowledge areas that address ‘facilitative functions’ and ‘core functions’. By outlining and considering these items in advance the project manager will start the project better equipped to move things forward.

Understand the difference between “facilitative” and “core” functions (you need them both). The facilitative functions are about coordination, support, and communication—keys to getting the right people, right funds, and right processes in place. For example, in the case of a new vehicle policy how will the right team be identified (should it be people from departments with the greatest use of public vehicles or people that monitor and budget for use- most likely it is both) and how will you ensure team members are engaged? Additionally, how will communication be coordinated so that all team members are getting and providing all the needed information in a timely and efficient manner (and if this is in the form of meetings how will employees like fire who work shifts be impacted by this decision)?

The core functions involve establishing the parameters to effectively control the project in terms of issues such as defining the scope, cost, and time. Both functions are important for project success but also involve different skills. For example, how the project is defined and how long is needed for completion? What will be the direct and indirect costs that need to be budgeted for the project and who is footing the bill? Finally, how will the team respond if the scope of the project changes?

To learn more see the Public Management Bulleting “Project Management Principles for Use in the Public Sector: Tools for Everyday Project Managers”. This bulletin provides additional discussion of the project framework as well as example pre-project checklists, a project charter template, and example tools for managing a project schedule. (http://sogpubs.unc.edu/electronicversions/pdfs/pmb09.pdf)

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There is the “What” of public work, and then there is also the “How” of it.  Success as any kind of public leader – as staff or as appointed or elected officials – requires mastery of both the art and science involved in the topics and processes of local government.

The Science of Managing Public Work:

• Legal boundaries and responsibilities clarify the expectations and scope of the work.
• Success requires that the necessary work be defined, planned, implemented, evaluated, then adjusted for improvement.

The Art of Managing Public Work:

• Collectively, each board or work group has its own culture, which will change as members come and go.
• Individually, each member of every board or work group has a unique personality, learning style, communication preferences, skill set, and interests.

Blurring Both Art and Science:

• Daily practices demonstrate how or whether espoused principles, such as “transparency” or “financial stewardship,” are being used in meaningful ways.
• Every decision is networked, touching other issues, plans, values, or processes.

Given that effective public leaders successfully manage both the art and the science of their work, they tend to stay on the look-out for legal, practical, and social resources to use. One comprehensive resource is County and Municipal Government in North Carolina.

To be user-friendly, the recently released second edition offers the option of purchasing any of the individual chapters or the whole publication. The content ranges from conceptual to legal to practical and covers forty-six topics.

On the “science” side of content, there are chapters that address particular areas of expertise ranging from open meetings law to the duties of particular departments.

• Do you want legal boundaries clarified for your next construction project? Check out page 415 for the “Dollar Thresholds in NC Public Contracting Statutes.”
• Contemplating exercising your county’s right of eminent domain to expand the airport? Chapter 24 explains how that process would work.
• Trying to understand the personnel implications for consolidated human service agencies? Chapters 13 and 38 provide key pieces to that complex puzzle.

Similarly, the “art” side of content addresses processes such as citizen involvement (Chapter 10) and functional relationships that cross organizations to address a wide range of shared interests (Chapter 11, 12, and 27.)

Whether you are seeking the details in one particular situation or an overview of how local governments work, County and Municipal Government in North Carolina is a resource worth checking out.

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