Delivering Great Results from Your Vision and Strategic Plan



Organizational excellence requires that managers focus both on delivering results from their vision and strategic plan and on developing the culture of their organizations. This session will focus on creating results from your vision by focusing on work to understand and delight your customers, cascading your vision and strategic plan throughout the organization, maximizing individual and team performance, and utilizing transformational performance measures to lead your organization toward excellence. Practice Groups: 4, 6

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Jeff Parks, President, Performance Breakthroughs, Woodbridge, VA

False Precision: Why 73% of the Data You Use to Make Decisions Is Misleading and Misinterpreted … and How You Can Detect It and Fight Back



We are deluged with data; even simple decisions require mountains of information. Much of it is helpful, providing needed context for complex issues, and 94.7% is accurate. But we too rarely step back and ask if the data is truly relevant and responds to the questions being asked, even if we sense that something isn’t quite right. And so we are regularly and unknowingly misled and misdirected by our misunderstanding and misuse of data. Using numerous examples from communities like yours, we’ll try to find insights into how to better question, detect, and challenge “bad data” and provide policymakers with the information they really need to formulate policy choices. Topics may include census data, budgeting, revenue calculation, transportation analyses, income distribution, homelessness and poverty, development fees, housing prices, performance metrics, false precision, how polling works and when it doesn’t, how data graphs can be accidentally or purposely misleading, the endless collection of “best of” lists and why they’re almost always meaningless, a bit of fun with probability and statistics (no math needed here, just some curiosity), and a look at a wide variety of news articles that rely on seemingly precise numbers. Attendees are encouraged to bring examples from their communities to this very interactive session, where together we’ll puzzle out the ways that seemingly accurate data can still be so misleading. Oh … and if you didn’t immediately recognize the two percentages noted above as examples of our problem, this class is for you. Practice Groups: 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Matt Appelbaum, Former Council Member and Mayor, City of Boulder, CO; current member of the ICLEI, Boulder, CO

From Sleepy to Chic: Making Main Street Cool



This workshop is a case study of how Berlin, Maryland, transitioned from a sleepy community to a tourist destination using partnerships with local businesses, government agencies, and civic leaders. The town leveraged its successful Main Street program and partnered with Worcester County’s Department of Tourism to be voted America’s Coolest Small Town in 2014, becoming an overnight success that was 30 years in the making. Berlin used the key elements of placemaking to transform its community. The audience will develop a checklist of steps to take to create a strong sense of place, so you can too. Practice Group: 2

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Laura Allen, Budget Analyst 3, Department of Budget and Management, Baltimore , MD

How Many Police Officers and Fire Fighters Do You Really Need?



Building upon their highly successful past workshops on "Asking Your Police and Fire Chiefs the Right Questions" the Center for Public Safety Management team will discuss data driven ways to determine staffing as well as alternative strategies to meet needs staffing needs, especially in light of the current difficulties in finding quality candidates.

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Leonard Matarese, Managing Partner, Center For Public Safety Management, LLC, Washington,DC, Buffalo, NY

Local Government Run Social Media and Online Technologies: Tools for Proactively Building Strategic and Creative Citizen Engagement



Negativity, rumor, fake news, misrepresented real news, personal attacks, and viral messaging spread what feels like a virus around the goodwill that local governments are trying to show through their communications. The dangers of unmanaged electronic conversations can be mitigated. Embracing effective communication strategies for social media and creating online engagement platforms can effectively promote transparency, collaboration, interaction, and broader participation. In this session, participants will learn about and experience effective use of words, images, and videos for both social media communications and online engagement. These new strategies will aid organizations in moving toward the positive outcomes many yearn for, such as broadening reach and increasing diversity of participation while mitigating the legal, ethical, professional, and personal vulnerability associated with extreme openness. Practice Groups: 6, 14

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Thomas Bryer, Professor, University of Central Florida, Davenport, FL
Facilitator: Sarah Stoeckel, City Council Member , City of Titusville, Orlando, FL

Six Ways to Engineer Employee Engagement



According to the latest Gallup report on government workers' engagement, a median of only 29 percent of them are engaged at work. Disengaged employees stay for what they get from the organization. Engaged workers stay for what they can give. While high employee engagement doesn’t guarantee high organizational performance, there is a strong linkage: an engaged workforce increases innovation, productivity and overall effectiveness. In this session, six actions are shared that organizational leaders can implement immediately to improve employee engagement.  

Learning Objectives:
•How to (re)create a healthy workplace culture of personal responsibility.
•How to modernize the approach to recruitment and selection and overall, improve the candidate experience.


MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Patrick Ibarra, Co-Founder and Partner, The Mejorando Group, Cumberland Center, ME

The Value of a Good Story



The presenter, a credentialed manager with more than forty years of city management experience, learned some of his most valuable career lessons from stories told and retold over the years by his mentors and colleagues in the municipal management profession—sometimes in conference sessions and as often as not during evening gatherings in the hotel lounge. Using as a prompt two case studies he has co-authored for ICMA texts and relying on interaction and feedback from workshop participants, the presenter leads participants in an exploration of ethical leadership principles and related management skills. Practice Groups: 1, 8, 14  

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: William Bridgeo, Augusta, ME

How to Lead Like a Coach



There are times when a few highly productive people know how to successfully complete projects on their own or with a few coworkers, and not include the rest of the team along the way. This type of leadership can leave other coworkers feeling left out, ignored, or even frustrated with their jobs. In this workshop we will motivate attendees to sharpen the existing leadership tools in their personal toolbox as well as look within themselves to find existing leadership traits they may not have known were in their “toolbox of life.” We will discuss real life examples of what has worked and what has not worked when operating as a team, and we will examine successful strategies and best practices of leadership, coaching team building, and coworker inclusion. Practice groups: 4, 5, 13 

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: LaTonya Pegues, CEO, BOAZ Enterprises, Austin, TX, Austin, TX

Leading Together: A New Model for Governing and Managing Your Community




Learn how an integrated strategic planning system, internationally recognized board governance model, and the innovative Budget Based Option System can improve community governance and management. Participants will learn how to use these tools to jointly set result-oriented management priorities and outcomes between the elected board and the manager. This is a “hands on” interactive session taught by a current elected official and former city manager who consult nationally with clients that have successfully implemented the integrated strategic management system and the tools that support its effectiveness. Participants will learn how these tools work and have opportunities to discuss in small groups how they might be used in their communities. Practice Group: 6 

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Michael Letcher, Senior Vice President, The Mercer Group, Tucson, AZ
Facilitator: Michael Letcher, Senior Vice President, The Mercer Group, Tucson, AZ
Facilitator: Bill Stipp, The Mercer Group, Inc., Tucson, AZ
Facilitator: Bill Stipp, The Mercer Group, Inc., Tucson, AZ

Moving from Success to Significance



We all know that happiness is not about money or fame. It is about living a purpose-driven life. Imagine a world in which we all lived out our purpose. Most of us do not realize that we are unique and can impact the world in a way no one else can. Learn to unleash this potential in you, your agency, and in others. Turn your career into a calling and inspire others to do the same. Practice Group: 5 

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Robert Dayton, Santa Barbara, CA

Organizational Culture: Is There a Secret Recipe?




Organization-wide collaboration, information sharing, and the development of shared goals require trust among employees at all levels. But how do we encourage and cultivate this trust in an environment where it is lacking? Are you struggling with organizational silos and poor communication between departments? Do you have a sense of your organization’s culture? This workshop will hone the ambiguous concept of organizational culture. Program participants will learn about culture assessment tools and engage in small-group discussions focused on moving your organization to higher performance through culture change. We assess our systems and processes, why not our culture? In this workshop, we will explore how to ignite and lead culture change in our organizations, creating an environment of trust, cooperation, and purpose. Practice Groups: 4, 6

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Brian Bosshardt, County Manager, County of Clear Creek, Georgetown, CO
Facilitator: Brian Bosshardt, County Manager, County of Clear Creek, Georgetown, CO

Tackling Wicked Problems in Local Communities: Building Capacity for Deliberative Engagement



This workshop is focused on building local capacity to engage difficult issues more collaboratively and productively through the use of deliberative engagement processes. Deliberative engagement involves interactive, often facilitated, small-group discussions utilizing materials and processes designed to spark collaborative learning rather than merely the collection of individual opinions. We will examine the concept of “wicked problems” as a framework to better understand difficult issues and then review recent research on social psychology to help explain why traditional engagement processes are often counterproductive to supporting the high-quality communication required by democracy and wicked problems. The workshop will then review the key components of deliberative engagement and explore a variety of tools and techniques drawn from several dialogue and deliberation traditions. Practice Group: 2 

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Martin Carcasson, Professor, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

The Tools of Good Governance: What Every Manager Needs to Know



Every municipal manager wants to be judged as successful by his or her council and feel within themselves that their career has been one of effective service. This workshop will provide you with tools for effective management and better governance. The session will include some of George Cuff’s helpful suggestions and wisdom on the importance of effective council meetings, use of policies, use of protocols, proper agenda building, better use of management meetings, mayor-manager briefings, and other topics. The session will also draw a few examples from Cuff’s immensely popular sessions on “Fatal Flaws” in terms of what does not go well. The presenter has a well-deserved North American reputation as a governance and senior management expert on the principles that undergird an effective, healthy relationship. He has served as both a mayor and a municipal manager and has written extensively on topics relevant to both. Practice Groups: 1, 2, 5, 7, 6, 9 

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: George Cuff, Consultant, George B Cuff& Associates Ltd., Spruce Grove, AB, CANADA

We’ve Always Done It That Way Is Over: Transforming from the Status Quo to the Status Go



Government organizations are often encouraged to institutionalize best practices, freeze them into place, focus on execution, stick to their knitting, increase predictability, and get processes under control. However, today governments face a radically shifting context for the workforce, the workplace, and the world of community building. To move forward toward better government, leaders must be vigilant and disrupt the fossilized mental model of “we’ve always done it that way” and replace it with a forward-looking approach to continuous improvement and transform their workplace culture from the status quo to the Status Go!  Healthy cultures lift people up, expand the capacity of the workforce to execute new challenges, and, overall, enhance the organization’s performance.

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Patrick Ibarra, Co-Founder and Partner, The Mejorando Group, Cumberland Center, ME

Building Brands and Creating Cultures of Authentic Servant Leadership



Your investment in the culture and environment where your teams spend more waking hours than they do at home with their families is your most valuable contribution as a servant leader. If you don’t have the right brand, both externally and internally, you won’t attract the right people. If you don’t have the right people, or people with the right priorities, you can’t create or sustain a thriving culture. Branding and culture, particularly for public-serving organizations and people-serving leaders, are interdependent. In today’s highly competitive market for talent, your brand and your culture are critical to your organization’s ability to thrive. This is not a “should” session, it is a “how” session. Attendees will leave with concrete ways to use the talent within their organizations to pursue a grassroots brand transformation that will orient the culture toward servant leadership. Practice Groups: 4, 13

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Stacy Schweikhart, Director of Strategy & Engagement, Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, Dayton, OH

Design Thinking



How does design influence engagement, culture, and innovation? Design Thinking focuses on developing a deep understanding of the customer experience and of how customers interact with your service or product. Use Design Thinking principles to breathe life back into customer engagement. Learn how others have created innovative services using a Design Thinking process, and participate in a hands-on activity that demonstrates that process. Practice Groups: 4, 6

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Pamela Antil, City Manager, City of Encinitas, Encinitas, CA
Facilitator: Kathryn Lang, San Jose, CA

Shaping the Culture of Your Organization

Sunday, October 20 8:30 AM - 12:00 PMSold Out

This workshop will focus on shaping a positive culture in your organization by bringing your values to life (contributing to the health and overall culture) through enhancing the work of leadership by everyone in the organization, becoming an engaging organization, and strengthening the probability of successful implementation by applying the concepts of change management. Practice Groups: 4, 6

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Facilitator: Jeff Parks, President, Performance Breakthroughs, Woodbridge, VA

ICMA-RC Overview: Understanding Your Retirement Options

Sunday, October 20 10:00 AM - 12:00 PMSold Out

For ICMA-RC participants who want to examine the nuts and bolts of the investment options available in their retirement plan. Topics will include in-depth information about target date and target risk funds, managed accounts, the stable value fund, and the Retirement Income Advantage fund. In addition, the full suite of financial planning services offered to ICMA-RC participants will be covered. This workshop is offered through the generous support of ICMA’s Strategic Partner ICMA-RC. There is no fee. Practice Group 5

MODERATORS & SPEAKERS
Speaker: Kevin Monds, Director, Client Portfolio Manager, MissionSquare Retirement, Washington, DC
Speaker: Steven Taylor, Senior Financial Planner, Guided Pathways, MissionSquare Retirement, Washington, DC