Leadership & Management
Coming Back Stronger
There’s nothing quite like a major crisis to force us out of our comfort zone. In some situations, we just need to step up and do things differently. We need to figure out what’s most important, where to focus our energy and resources, and what to just let go.
With COVID-19, there are justifiable concerns about health and safety risks that have changed the way we live our lives. That’s just the way it is. But I found that it was often too easy to get distracted by things that were inconvenient, and to completely miss the good things around us.
Our family experienced its own list of “inconveniences” like cancelling our vacation plans, being stuck at home, having to send just one person to run errands, seeing some shortages in food items – and let’s not even talk about the whole toilet paper fiasco. Every new inconvenience could cause frustration if we let it.
Working on the Summer/Fall 2020 edition of Exchange has been a great opportunity to revisit what happened and look at the positive outcomes – the changes that occurred as a result of COVID-19 that actually made life better. The lockdown on business travel has meant that my husband has been home for the longest stretch in more than 20 years, and my son (a university student) was suddenly spending all his time with us instead of work, school and his friends. We spent way more time together as a family than we have in years and have some great new memories. Being cut off from people meant that we learned how to use Zoom, including creative solutions like playing Yahtzee with friends, and now I’m modifying my media training and other courses to provide virtual training via Zoom instead – not something I would have done pre-pandemic. So there were challenges, but they resulted in some positive outcomes.
Likewise, local governments across B.C. have been hit with multiple challenges under extremely trying circumstances, and they have risen to the challenge with innovative solutions and quick action. When an Emergency Operations Centre is activated, assessing needs and creating viable solutions becomes a streamlined process, where decisions and actions can move forward within days, if not hours – compared to regular operating procedures that could involve weeks or months for the same outcome. It’s been great to see the responsible and responsive actions by local governments across the province as they took steps to keep their communities safe. Now they are looking ahead to see how to recover and support their communities as we deal with the new reality as COVID-19 continues to affect our communities.
In Coming Back Stronger: Transformative Change for a Post-Pandemic World, several local governments share examples of how they implemented changes and new initiatives as part of their COVID-19 response that they can now maintain to benefit their organization and their community. We also learn more about what the new reality will look like in our communities, both from an economic standpoint in No More “Business As Usual” and how data can be used to help plan for future needs in Big Data: Finding solutions among the facts and figures.
Just as we can look back and see the positive outcomes from a challenging situation, it’s clear that we can also look forward and focus on the opportunities ahead. We are in for more interesting days, and I am optimistic about our ability to adapt and create new ways to build a strong community and support each other.
Expect Responsible & Respectful Government
Part of me is a bit saddened by the fact that we need to have clearly-defined policies about what constitutes good conduct for elected officials. The other part of me thinks “It’s about time!” with a touch of amazement that it has taken so long.
And then we get hit with a pandemic, and there’s a whole new level of focus on elected officials and how they show leadership and good conduct in a crisis.
In BC, new standards and guides are being created to support codes of conduct for elected officials in local government, and a code of ethics for local government professionals. In the spring edition of Exchange, there is overview of the Model Code of Conduct and Companion Guide developed by a Working Group on Responsible Conduct that involved staff from the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), the LGMA and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. There are also two excellent examples of how local governments have successfully adopted a code of conduct for their elected officials, along with some tips and resources on how to establish these types of policies.
At the same time, it’s equally important to look toward the local government profession to see how we can elevate the bar for ethical standards. Towards this goal, the LGMA has developed a Code
of Ethics for local government professionals. In Keeping the Public Trust, we learn more about the context for why signing the Code of Ethics is now a requirement for LGMA members and how it will be implemented, including training and enforcement.
Policy decisions aside, this is really all about supporting good governance through responsible leadership and professional conduct. So when we suddenly found ourselves dealing with COVID-19 and a pandemic impacting countries around the globe, I began watching everything through this governance and leadership lens.
As well, as someone who specializes in crisis communication, I find myself assessing how elected officials and various subject matter experts comport themselves, and how their messaging and communication reflects on their leadership, authority and ability to instill trust.
The results out there are mixed, but I’m happy to note that in B.C., I think things have been handled quite well. In fact, in most of Canada, elected officials have been stepping aside to allow the health experts to deliver messages, and I have not seen many instances of politics interfering with communication. I have also, for the most part, noticed that local governments and businesses are being careful in their messaging and actions to flag that they are taking direction from health officials.
Flip to our neighbours in the south and we see a very different approach, where the most senior politician undermines health authorities based on a “hunch” and jumps randomly to multiple, conflicting messages leaving an escalated level of fear and an underlying lack of trust. The elected officials are out in front of cameras most of the time, rather than the health experts. While there have been some good examples, too much of the communication shows a lack of leadership and a serious breakdown in terms of local, state and national cooperation. It’s fascinating…for me anyway.
Overall, I think these crazy days we’re experiencing point to how important it is to have leaders who can be trusted, who demonstrate responsible conduct and who adhere to high standards of good governance. All of those attributes need to be established well before the crisis strikes, and then they become essential for guiding communities through to recovery.
My thanks and sincere appreciation go to all of the people who are working long days to keep our communities safe and our core services in place.
With the pandemic, there’s a whole new level of focus on elected officials and how they show leadership and good conduct in a crisis.
Practical Performance Management
Performance management – measuring success by tracking progress and reporting outcomes – makes sense for most organizations. In local government, it is becoming more of an imperative as communities demand increased accountability for spending, elected officials want a means to show they are delivering on promises, and other levels of government look for data and other tangible reports for grant applications. At the same time, like always, resources are limited and there need to be practical, realistic options in place to make it a reality.
When I was working with the City of Coquitlam (many years ago), we first started pushing for more measurement of our goals as part of our financial reporting in the City’s Annual Report. The Government Finance Officers Association of British Columbia (GFOA) included measurement on its checklist of requirements for excellence in annual reporting. We wanted to improve our Annual Report (and win their award!), and we began integrating questions in our annual public survey to track and report on our progress in some of our goal areas. (I’m happy to report we won the GFOA award and others.) Our next foray into performance measurement was less successful. We had developed a Corporate Strategic Plan and a Corporate Business Plan, and our goal was to apply a balanced scorecard approach to track and report on our progress. We had a very challenging time identifying viable – and sustainable – indicators that could be used to measure our goals and an even more challenging time implementing the measurement tactics.
As I worked on some articles for Exchange, I developed a better understanding of why we hit a wall and stumbled at the measurement stage. We were trying to apply tangible measurement to intangible goals. As well, while the management team was engaged throughout the process, from Strategic Plan to Business Plan to measurement planning, it wasn’t clear how this would benefit them in their work or bring value to the organization. In The Art of Performance Management, our missteps became clear. But at the same time, we were early through the gate in terms of local governments applying measurement to their Strategic Plan.
Today, about 15 years after this early work in Coquitlam, it’s evident that local governments across the province are implementing performance management programs tailored to the needs of their Board/Council and aligned with the operational requirements in their organization. When writing Practical Measurement. Tangible Benefits, it was interesting to hear from three different communities to learn about the approach they have applied, ranging from technical solutions to tactics integrated into existing processes. As always, we hope that the case studies shared through Exchange generate ideas for how local governments can create similar programs in their communities.
Ideally, we will continue to see performance management programs implemented in local governments across the province to improve the way we track progress, expand the ability of organizations to support sustainable services and communicate success stories to our communities and other key stakeholders.