Nineteen elected officials from counties large and small, and two state association executive directors, arrived in New York City recently to participate in the inaugural program of the County Leadership Institute (CLI).
The intensive four-day program (June 1-4), which drew officials from locales as diverse as Gem County, Idaho and Shelby County (Memphis), Tenn., focused on the challenges of forging broad-based collaborative efforts to address the complex challenges facing counties. Developed and launched by NACo and New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Services, the CLI combined different approaches to examine the issue of forging collaborations.
Participants heard from a number of prominent experts in public service leadership, including Wagner’s dean, Ellen Schall, who said, "This Institute helps county officials think creatively about how they could build coalitions in their region, in their state, and across the country to unleash innovative solutions."
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Participants in NACo’s first County Leadership Institute class discuss the problems and promise of collaboration with New York University Adjunct Professor Allen Zerkin (standing, rear). NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Services, along with NACo, sponsors the County Leadership Institute. |
Among other presenters were Paul Light, the Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service at NYU Wagner and author of Government’s Great Achievements: From Civil Rights to Homeland Security; and Marty Linsky, adjunt lecturer in public policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and author (with Ronald Heifetz) of Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading.
Participants also were asked to come to the institute with an issue they were currently facing that involved collaboration. Feedback during peer-to-peer group consultations helped participants better understand the challenge and develop strategies to advance the collaborative effort.
Camaraderie among the diverse group of participants developed quickly during the first session on the fundamental challenges of collaboration. NYU Adjunct Professor Allen Zerkin led the group through an exercise that replicated the built-in ambiguity and instability in collaborative efforts. The exercise also revealed the inherent tension between competition and collaboration.
"We are all naive about collaboration. We want it. We believe in it, but instinct takes over to produce counter-productive behavior," Zerkin noted.
In another session, Linsky’s observations about the real work of leaders produced much discussion and self-reflection among participants.
"Your real job is acting on your deepest passions and values when they’re not politically popular," Linsky said. "The irony is that our constituents want us to do what is comfortable - to keep things the way they are. People want the world to be orderly. Our job as leaders is to push the limits of what’s acceptable without getting voted out of office." Linsky further noted that "you don’t get killed by your enemies but by your own people."
Throughout the three-and-a-half- day institute, the interaction and discussions among attendees and presenters was lively and thought-provoking. The diversity of the group contributed greatly to the learning.
Participant Linda Langston from Linn County, Iowa, observed, "We came together from great diversity - small, large, rural, urban, part-time and full-time, of differing gender, race, and political party, to discover how much, in fact, we had in common. The friendships I made will benefit me in professional and personal ways for many years in the future."
Ron Aycock, executive director of the North Carolina Association of County Commissoners, said, "I was impressed with the quality of the young emerging leaders brought together by NACo. These relatively new leaders are committed to public service. The combination of established and emerging leaders resulted in a positive synergy for all.
Informal learning continued in the late afternoon and evenings thanks to the varied attractions of New York City. During a planned site visit to Ground Zero, participants toured the Wall Street area. NYU Wagner’s Mitchell Moss, the Henry Hart Rice Professor of Urban Planning, regaled the CLI participants with a short talk describing the rivalries and challenges of rebuilding lower Manhattan.
The group also learned to navigate New York’s subway system to travel to and from the hotel in the Midtown Theatre District to the Wagner School facilities in the Greenwich Village-Soho-Little Italy sections of Manhattan. One group of intrepid commissioners got on the right subway line only to discover several stops later Ð in Brooklyn Ð that they were going in the wrong direction.
"NACo and NYU Wagner congratulate and thank the first group of participants for their hard work and pioneering spirit," said Larry Naake, NACo executive director.
The County Leadership Institute was sponsored by NACo’s Financial Services Center, ESRI, Nationwide Retirement Solutions and FreddieMac.
Plans for the 2005 County Leadership Institute are underway. Dates and details will be finalized by late fall 2004. The participant-selection process will be conducted by NACo in partnership with state associations of counties.
