Civic Strategies Project on
Community Decision Making :::

In 2007, Civic Strategies began a long-term effort to understand how important decisions are made in communities and how they can be made better. This is hardly new ground for us. We've consulted with communities and organizations for years about decision making and change and written widely about these topics. But we've also become aware of how unsystematic and poorly documented this knowledge is. In short, there's a need for clear, systematic thinking, and we'd like to fill it.
 
Our plan is to look at decision making from a number of perspectives, puzzle out a set of rules or lessons for community leaders, then look for examples of good and bad decision making in communities. We're aware, of course, that not all decisions are equal in scope or difficulty. The ones we're interested in are the most difficult ones: those that ask communities to pay dearly for the promise of a better tomorrow or undergo some change in character or structure.
 
Does this really happen? We believe so. If you'd like to read about a city that changed itself in sweeping ways, you may want to look at our Delray Beach, Fla., article, elsewhere on this web site. (This article was written in 1995; you can find 2005 update on Delray Beach here as well.)
 
How will our research proceed? We're not sure. But we are sure that we'd like others to join us in this effort to understand how cities, towns and regions make important decisions. As we get underway with our work, we'll notify people interested in this project about our plans and solicit their ideas. As we write about our findings, we'll post a version on this web site or others and ask for comments and critiques.
 
If you'd like to join us in this search for good decision making, please click here to sign up for our free e-mail updates.