Are you fully confident in your ability to navigate successfully the political environments in which your agency operates? Do you know WHAT to do to be effective, as well as HOW to do it? If you answered “no” to one or both questions, I invite you to join me on July 24th for an IAFC [Continue Reading…]
Consolidation: Panacea or Pandora’s Box?
April 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
There’s a lot of talk about “consolidation” going on in the public safety arena these days, as well as some action. For example, municipalities such as Naples, FL are beginning to combine adjacent fire districts; others such as Long Beach, CA are consolidating their police and fire dispatch centers; and still others, such as Sunnyvale, [Continue Reading…]
Public Safety: Top Priority or Collateral Damage?
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Note: This post originally appeared on my Optimize Business Results blog on August 31, 2011. During the first few years of the economic downturn, police and fire departments across the country often were protected to the extent possible from budget cuts, layoffs, and furloughs. After all, isn’t public safety a core function of local governments? [Continue Reading…]
Budget Cuts: Why Fire Departments and Police Departments Need to Change the Question
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Note: This post originally appeared on my Optimize Business Results blog on May 29, 2011. As city, county, and state budgets are being discussed and finalized around the country, one thing is clear: those who allocate resources are asking the wrong questions. As a result, recipients of government services are being short-changed because resources are [Continue Reading…]
8 Obstacles to Public Sector Success
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Note: This post originally appeared on my Optimize Business Results blog on May 18, 2011. In my experience, public sector agencies and government entities (i.e., cities, counties, states) face eight common obstacles to their success. See how many of these issues you have experienced, either as a provider or a user of public services. 1. [Continue Reading…]
The Predictable Decline of the Public Sector
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Note: This post originally appeared on my Optimize Business Results blog on April 30, 2011. Organizations go through predictable stages or life cycles: start-up, growth, maturity, decline, and extinction. They can move backwards through these stages as well as forward (e.g., replacing a “mature” product or service with a more innovative one), and not all [Continue Reading…]
Why “Proportional Sharing” Is an Ineffective Resource Allocation Strategy
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Note: This post originally appeared as a guest column on Dr. Alan Weiss’s Contrarian Consulting blog on March 20, 2011. Times are tough. Government entities at all levels are scrambling to balance their budgets, which in most cases means making hard choices about how to allocate resources that are scarcer than ever. One strategy that [Continue Reading…]
Wanted: Courageous Leaders
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Note: This post originally appeared on my Optimize Business Results blog on February 19, 2011. Editorial changes have been made here. Organizations across the U.S., especially those in the public (government) sector, are struggling to overcome the obstacles and identify the opportunities presented in the aftermath of slashed budgets, plummeting revenues, and forced layoffs and [Continue Reading…]
Why City Governments are Floundering
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Note: This post originally appeared on my Optimize Business Results blog on January 23, 2011. Across the U.S., scores of municipalities technically are bankrupt, as their financial obligations far outstrip their ability to cover them. Some cities already have declared bankruptcy legally. Politicians nationwide desperately are seeking ways to stave off bankruptcy by stemming the [Continue Reading…]
SUSTAINABLE LABOR-MANAGEMENT COLLABORATION: THE “HONEYMOON” DOESN’T HAVE TO END
November 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Five months into his job, a newly appointed fire chief spoke enthusiastically about the forward momentum of his department, the support from his Board of Fire Commissioners, and the collaborative nature of labor-management relations. Yet during our conversation he twice raised a question that troubled him: is the current harmony between labor and management sustainable? [Continue Reading…]
