Engaging with civic leaders at the MMANC annual conference.
I just came back from the annual conference of the Municipal Management Association of Northern California (MMANC) -- PPI's a corporate partner this year. MMANC members are mostly small- to medium-size cities, counties, and special districts. I love these guys -- they're nimble, creative, and working damn hard to make a practical difference in their communities.
Lauren Dodge and I started asking conference attendees, "What's the most frustrating process in your city," and documenting what we heard. The most common answers (well, after "how many stickies do you have?") were all too familiar: time-to-hire, antiquated process, struggles with permitting, "we've always done it that way," and trouble with contracting, POs, and invoices.
I love cities, because as much as they're still struggling with similar red tape, they're small enough that a few dedicated public servants -- a visionary city manager here, a tenacious management analyst there -- can really transform how their communities experience public services. This August we taught Lean 101® (our foundational training for process improvement in the public sector) for the MMANC Summer Symposium, and I got to hear from folks who've been mapping processes with their teams, standardizing work, and implementing Just Do Its. There's nothing I love better than showing people there's a better way and then watching passionate public servants do their thing.
And to help public servants make even more of an impact, we've got something big on the horizon -- and we're letting MMANC members in on the ground floor. This winter, we're launching on-demand versions of Lean Leaders™ (our black-belt level certificate program for process improvement and change management in the public sector) and Lean 101®. We're cutting the price of Lean Leaders™ in half to give more people access, and MMANC members who register for on-demand Lean Leaders™ by Dec. 13 get a further $600 off registration.
It's easy to get discouraged about the state of our civic institutions. But our current and future city leaders make it easy to have hope.
Is your City struggling to ease development permitting, reduce time-to-hire, streamline procurement, clear work order backlogs, or otherwise provide better service? Let's talk! And if you're an MMANC member, jump on board our pilot!
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