The Online Library :::

The Online Library is a unique collection of articles, information, analyses and presentations about regions, cities, leadership and community decision making. With a few exceptions, these articles were written by principals at Civic Strategies.

The articles range in length and theme. Some were published originally in magazines and newspapers, some in academic publications. Others are excerpts from the Civic Strategies Handbook for Civic Leaders, which we use in some of our leadership training courses. There are also presentations made at programs around the country.

Feel free to read and print out what you find in the Online Library for your personal use. All articles and presentations here are copyrighted by Civic Strategies. Reproduction, reprinting or reposting in other Internet sites is not permitted without permission from Civic Strategies, Inc.

From Vision to Reality: How City Administrations Succeed in the Long Haul How do new city administrations create and implement visionary programs? Civic Strategies looked at the records of three visionary mayors of the 1970s and 1980s — Neil Goldschmidt in Portland, Ore., William Hudnut in Indianapolis and Bill Frederick in Orlando, Fla. — and found the elements of success. 

Five Mayor Types What kind of mayor does your city have? Perhaps you'll recognize her in one of these five broad categories of mayors that we found in big cities. (Warning: You won't find "good" or "bad" as types.)

Seven Big Lessons for Local Governments In January 2007, Civic Strategies President Otis White summed up what he had learned in five years of writing a daily column about cities for Governing magazine.

Introducing the Left Hand to the Right Hand: The Benefits of Annual Leadership Summits Want to create more planning and collaboration in your city or region? One way: Begin an annual leadership summit meeting and invite all your region's leaders. Cities of all sizes have begun hosting summits, often with striking results. Civic Strategies can help your region get an annual summit off the ground.

From Pluribus to Unum: Now Task Forces Come Together When your city or region is facing a major problem, it may turn to task forces or committees to make recommendations. Problem is, members of these groups may be strangers to one another. How do you bring strangers together, turn many (the Latin word is "pluribus") into one ("unum"), create consensus, make good recommendations and build public support? In this paper, we explain how we turn pluribus into unum for our clients through research, process and connection. 

A Clearer Form of Visioning Everyone likes visioning as a basis for setting a community's direction, but many are disillusioned by the results. There is a better way, though, of managing a visioning initiative. Civic Strategies can help your city, county or region find a clearer vision — one that actually gets implemented.

A Good, Simple Theory for Change In this brief article, Civic Strategies President Otis White explains the elements of successful community change — and how the elements interact with one another. The process can be stated as a formula, Otis says: Change = D x M x P. 

Overcoming Barriers to Regionalism In late November 2006, Otis White led a workshop in Des Moines for Iowa county officials on overcoming common obstacles to regionalism. In this package of materials, you can find Otis' presentation and how the more than 100 officials said they would deal with obstacles. You can also find photos from the workshop.

How Leadership in Cities Is Changing, And Where It's Headed This article, from a University of Georgia leadership publication, analyzes how civic leadership has changed in recent years, particularly in business communities — and what those changes means for cities today.

How Delray Beach Saved Itself and Found Great Leadership Along the Way This is an article about the turnaround of a small city in South Florida. You'll find an analysis of how the city changed course: the growing discontent with the way things were; small, disconnected efforts to change things; the coming together of the new leadership and a decision to change; and the discovery of a new way of tackling tough problems. You'll also find here an article titled Delray Beach Revisited. Ten years after we published the original Delray Beach article, we checked in with officials there to see if the momentum had continued. Short answer: It had.