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What have we learned about governing during the pandemic era?

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    What have we learned about governing during the pandemic era?

    “We now have tools for county governments to continue to engage a larger constituency and improve service delivery to meet their needs, specifically considering using digital interface to engage with residents.”

    From executive leadership to frontline workers, public servants have battled a public health emergency and related challenges for over two years. As the world moves towards normalcy, the repercussions of this time, and its impact on the way we govern and engage in our communities, may be felt for years to come.

    From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, county governments have had to do so much more than iteratively innovate or thoughtfully evolve their processes. In many instances, your counties have had to find entirely new ways of working or approaching problems.

    At Guidehouse, we have worked with a range of government agencies and conducted hours of outreach throughout the pandemic. Based on this work, we have pulled out some key lessons learned. For example, we believe we now have tools for county governments to continue to engage a larger constituency and improve service delivery to meet their needs, specifically considering using digital interface to engage with residents. We also have seen governments focusing in on the importance of investing in broadband, as well as other local community infrastructure such as parks. The value of investing in people has also stood out as a huge area for growth and improvement – both as the government workforce is increasingly providing more essential services, as well as investments in attracting talent to our localities. Throughout this process inequities have been exposed, but strategic policy changes have proven to be part of the solution to build trust in governmental systems.

    We will continue to see both the challenges as well as opportunities over the next years of recovery. We must continue to leverage leading practices and share systems and tools across teams, so that all counties thrive moving forward. With this mindset we wanted to hear from you! What are the key lessons you have learned as a government leader over the last three years? What have you changed about the way you work as a result of the pandemic? What lessons do you think it is important that we hold on to as we move forward? Please let us know in this short survey: https://consulting.guidehouse.com/_NACo-Survey.

    2023-01-27
    Blog
    2023-01-27
What have we learned about governing during the pandemic era?
“We now have tools for county governments to continue to engage a larger constituency and improve service delivery to meet their needs, specifically considering using digital interface to engage with residents.”

From executive leadership to frontline workers, public servants have battled a public health emergency and related challenges for over two years. As the world moves towards normalcy, the repercussions of this time, and its impact on the way we govern and engage in our communities, may be felt for years to come.

From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, county governments have had to do so much more than iteratively innovate or thoughtfully evolve their processes. In many instances, your counties have had to find entirely new ways of working or approaching problems.

At Guidehouse, we have worked with a range of government agencies and conducted hours of outreach throughout the pandemic. Based on this work, we have pulled out some key lessons learned. For example, we believe we now have tools for county governments to continue to engage a larger constituency and improve service delivery to meet their needs, specifically considering using digital interface to engage with residents. We also have seen governments focusing in on the importance of investing in broadband, as well as other local community infrastructure such as parks. The value of investing in people has also stood out as a huge area for growth and improvement – both as the government workforce is increasingly providing more essential services, as well as investments in attracting talent to our localities. Throughout this process inequities have been exposed, but strategic policy changes have proven to be part of the solution to build trust in governmental systems.

We will continue to see both the challenges as well as opportunities over the next years of recovery. We must continue to leverage leading practices and share systems and tools across teams, so that all counties thrive moving forward. With this mindset we wanted to hear from you! What are the key lessons you have learned as a government leader over the last three years? What have you changed about the way you work as a result of the pandemic? What lessons do you think it is important that we hold on to as we move forward? Please let us know in this short survey: https://consulting.guidehouse.com/_NACo-Survey.

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