Building High Performance Local Governments

Don’t permit your organization to be lulled into complacency after recovering from a tough recession. Explore what’s necessary to improve the performance of your organization, including the development of leaders at all levels who will use their full capabilities to boost collective results. The High-Performance Organization Model identifies the steps needed to diagnose what will be required to achieve the strategic outcomes you define as success. It shows which levers will move the organization in the direction you decide is critical. This book contains more than just theory; here you’ll find case studies of local governments—demonstrating how Commonwealth Centers for High-Performance Organizations’ (CCHPO) model has been applied in the past to improve performance. You will learn how employees emerged as leaders to identify and tackle problems, developed the tools needed, and organized their thoughts to work through solutions which could be applied effectively without the traditional bureaucratic hassle. These examples show how a supportive, values-based work culture can be cultivated to expand thinking power by increasing discretionary effort from all levels of the organization. Engaged employees can be leaders who refocus your services, improve your processes, save money, and solve problems. Your organization can benefit from the full range of talents, skills, and abilities that often lie untapped, but become accessible through the principles of the High-Performance Organization model. This model will be an indispensable tool for any person looking to make significant improvements throughout their organization. The detailed case studies and easy-to-follow model created by the Commonwealth Center for High-Performance Organizations make for a pleasantly informative guide that will give a special advantage to readers who implement their standards.

The demand on local government to do more with less by improving operations, increasing productivity, and making better and more informed decisions increases constantly. On a departmental level Geographic Information Systems are helping meet this demand but the majority of local government organizations do not take the time to understand the GIS needs and opportunities of each and every department. This book: Discusses how towns, cities and counties and their specific departments should actually use GIS Explains the best ways to use GIS tools through many specific case studies and step by step instructions Emphasises local government needs first before offering solutions Gives readers a practical and understandable way of thinking about managing and making GIS successful This book is the guide that details best GIS applications and practices for the 34 departments in local government that can, and should, use GIS technology. It explains in details how, why, and what each department should implement, a clear and understandable explanation of departmental GIS.

The Local Government Development Framework (LGDF) is a local governance performance measurement and monitoring tool based on government-citizen collaboration. Developed by RTI International, the LGDF provides for the establishment of demand-driven benchmarks and participatory assessments for the improvement of local governance, service delivery in particular. The paper presents the development-project origins of the LGDF beginning in the 1980s, comparatively examines LGDF’s strengths and weaknesses, and provides a step-by-step discussion of its utilization. Four developing countries in which the LGDF has been applied serve as examples. The LGDF involves, first, the establishment of performance benchmarks for the priority functions of the local government. Second, local officials and community stakeholders come together to collaboratively assess and score progress toward achieving the benchmarks. Third, local officials working with stakeholders develop action plans for achieving priority objectives. Finally, the process is regularly repeated to identify areas of improvement and future capacity-building needs. Successful implementation of the LGDF, we conclude, requires leadership, well-aligned political incentives, proper design and implementation, and dedication to the process. Yet it has withstood the test of time and proven to be an effective tool for bringing government together with the community to achieve local development objectives.

Managing Local Government: An Essential Guide for Municipal and County Managers offers a practical introduction to the changing structure, forms, and functions of local governments. Taking a metropolitan management perspective, authors Kimberly Nelson and Carl W. Stenberg explain U.S. local government within historical context and provide strategies for effective local government management and problem solving. Real-life scenarios and contemporary issues illustrate the organization and networks of local governments; the roles, responsibilities, and relationships of city and county managers; and the dynamics of the intergovernmental system. Case studies and discussion questions in each chapter encourage critical analysis of the challenges of collaborative governance. Unlike other books on the market, this text’s combined approach of theory and practice encourages students to enter municipal and county management careers and equips them with tools to be successful from day one.

Perspectives on Management Capacity Building provides a lively spectrum of views on the problems and prospects of improving the management and performance of municipal governments in the United States. Leading specialists in public administration probe the management needs of local governments and explore ways in which they can improve their capacity to manage. Today, state and local governments are caught in the transition between the expansionism of the post-World War II years and the retrenchment era of the late seventies and eighties. Improved management capacity has emerged as the most effective way for local governments to ride out the economic and political pressures confronting them. This book first investigates the meaning of the term "management capacity." It then considers how management needs have changed in the post-war period and how these needs vary among large cities, suburbs, and rural communities. Two of the contributions explore the organizational politics of management improvement while others look at the functional areas of computers and financial management. The book also addresses human resource problems such as labor relations, management development, and training of municipal legislators, and concludes with several viewpoints on federal efforts to improve local management capacity.

Strategic Planning for Local Government, second edition, outlines the strategic planning process in local government and helps local government leaders anticipate and shape the future of their communities. It covers practical ways of obtaining information, analyzing that information, and developing a vision for the community that can be translated into programs and line items in a budget. This e-book offers many excerpts from local government plans and working documents that serve as examples you can build upon. These models can be customized for your local government. Videos highlight the role professional local government managers play in building communities we're proud to call home.