The End in Mind
The unknowns of broad economic conditions, second wave of COVID19, social unrest, and political volatility all combine to add spice to local leaders’ otherwise dry and boring summer routines.

While local governments have responded with flexibility and compassion to the sudden impacts of the pandemic, local leaders may be leaving important tools unused.

As a business person who is not an expert in local government management, I am impressed with the diverse and critical activities local governments deliver. As an executive with experience in change management, I have ideas from outside the local government sector that may be helpful.  The heart of it is simple: Identify the processes that deliver the most value; eliminate those that do not.

Way back in the 1990s, there was an approach to business optimization from MIT called Business Process Reengineering: “The fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed.”

While originally designed for corporations, reengineering also applied to governmental entities. Here are the core concepts.
  1. Identify your core processes.  A process converts inputs into outputs and outcomes.  A core process is something of value to your stakeholders that your organization is designed to provide. For local governments, fire suppression may be one of the core processes. Others might include business development, physical security, and the delivery of social services.  Non-core processes may be important, but they can be provided elsewhere. Examples might be printing, park maintenance, IT, procurement, etc.
  2. With core processes identified, identify the key outcomes that each process is designed to produce.  Obviously, a safe community is one outcome. What are the other outcomes that your stakeholders value?  What are the outcome gaps you’re not meeting? What are the relative weights that each process has on delivering outcomes? Does tree trimming have as much impact as sidewalk repair?
  3. Here is where it gets tricky: what are the outputs of each process that do not directly drive those high-value outcomes?  Examples may be reports, inventory, and low-value services.  While there are reasons such outputs have been developed, ask if there is a high-probability that something bad will happen if you stop doing them? If something bad were to happen, is there a less expensive way to mitigate than continuing a low-value output?  Eliminate as many low-value outputs as possible. This is where you can identify additional service and program cuts.  If you can’t eliminate the output, then find ways to automate or outsource it.  Examples could include weekly meetings, detailed monthly reports, and detailed personnel annual reviews.
  4. Now look at your inputs. If you strip away the unnecessary outputs, then which inputs do you need for the process to run smoothly? Funding is obviously one of them, but so are staffing levels, specific skill sets, community data, and supplies.  Do you have gaps in how inputs are provided?  Brainstorm alternative ways to source these inputs.  Put the wet blankets away and consider possibilities; consider how to make the possibility real. Examples could be revenue enhancements, refinancing, regulatory change, contract negotiation, and development of new partnerships or resident-run services (such as recreational programs, community marketing, zoning enforcement).
  5. Finally, look at the process itself.  Is it efficient and effective at converting the inputs into outcomes?  If an outcome is a safe community, is a process designed around 24/7 personnel on the ground for fire protection the best approach? Can elements of public safety be partly handled virtually or by drone?  Can local governments create a more efficient process that works for 80 percent of its residents and use the less-efficient process for the more other 20 percent?

Leading these types of activities and changes isn’t easy.  Fortunately, these unusual times can open doors of opportunity that were much more firmly closed in the past.  Here are some suggestions to help push the door open further and lead people through:
  1. Show what the consequences are of choosing NOT to change. Make it real. Make not changing more painful than changing.
  2. Engage the community based on their values and perspective – not the values and perspectives of local government leaders.  They are often different in important ways.  Use the community’s language to frame changes in a way that supports their values and perspectives.
  3. Tell stories about how the new change is similar to something that was done successfully in the past.
  4. Get the data. Survey your community to see which services and programs are high priority and which are not.  For each major service and program, determine if the public supports eliminating service levels, reducing service levels, outsourcing, or providing funding to preserve or even improve service levels.  Having representative data that is broken down by demographic cohorts is a powerful tool to clarify direction and manage some of the louder voices in the community that can impair or propel the changes you need to make.

The year ahead will be a time of stress and frustration.  It also can be a time of hope and the development of better ways to achieve your mission.  
Further reading
For more information on how Cobalt can help you adapt and thrive in the changing demographic, economic and social environment, visit the Cobalt website or reach out to us by email. Let us know if you need anything at all for benchmarking or research data; we are here for you. 

Cobalt Community Research is a national 501c3 nonprofit, non-partisan coalition that helps local governments, schools and membership organizations measure, benchmark, and affordably engage communities through high-quality metrics, mobile geofencing data, surveys, and dynamic population segmentation. Cobalt combines big data with local insights to help organizations thrive as changes emerge in the economic, demographic and social landscape. Explore how we can help by calling 877.888.0209, or by emailing Information@CobaltCommunityResearch.org.