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MRSC Insight Blog


Posts for Lynn Nordby

Lynn Nordby Says Goodbye to MRSC

Lynn Nordby Says Goodbye to MRSC

Public Policy and Management Consultant Lynn Nordby will be retiring from MRSC this month. 

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The Strong Roots of Community

The Strong Roots of Community

Real leadership is shown when someone can build a narrative of shared responsibility and values, argues Public Policy and Management Consultant Lynn Nordby.

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Some Muni Bonds Lose Tax Exemption

Some Muni Bonds Lose Tax Exemption

An obscure provision in the 2017 Tax Cut & Jobs Act all but eliminated an important municipal finance tool known as advance refunding. This blog post looks at the potential implications.

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No Magic Homelessness Bullet

No Magic Homelessness Bullet

Solutions for tackling homelessness need to be as varied as the people who experience it and the causes of homelessness itself. Policy Consultant Lynn Nordby looks at some innovative solutions, from 3-D printed houses to repurposed shipping containers. 

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Alternative Fuel Requirement Deadline Fast Approaching

Alternative Fuel Requirement Deadline Fast Approaching

Effective June 1, 2018, all local government subdivisions are required to satisfy 100% of their fuel usage for operating publicly owned vessels, vehicles, and construction equipment from electricity or biofuel. This blog post looks at the legislation, requirements, and options.

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Street Names: Where Policy and History Meet

Street Names: Where Policy and History Meet

Wherever you travel the names of the local streets can help you find your way, confuse you, or very often tell you a bit about the unique history of the community. Having a logical, local policy on street naming (or renaming) can provide help future generations understand and retain the original meaning.

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Mobile Home Parks: The Newest Front for Housing Affordability

Mobile Home Parks: The Newest Front for Housing Affordability

One under-recognized inventory of affordable housing is the mobile home park. Consultant Lynn Nordby looks at  how communities across the country are protecting this affordable housing resource.

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Employee Recognition Programs

Employee Recognition Programs

Acknowledging a job well done can be a powerful motivator for your employees. However, local governments must consider constitutional prohibitions against gifts to create employee recognition programs that won't run afoul of the law. 

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Emergency Planning 101

Emergency Planning 101

Does your community have an emergency plan? Is it strong enough and written in a way to serve as an organizing document during what is likely to be a tumultuous time? Consultant Lynn Nordby urges readers to follow the Scout motto and “Be Prepared”— for anything.

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New Options for Creating Fire and Metro Park Districts

New Options for Creating Fire and Metro Park Districts

The 2017 legislative session yielded new options for establishing a fire and/or metro park district. Consultant Lynn Nordby looks at these changes. 

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Don’t Get Hacked - Cybersecurity Basics

Don’t Get Hacked - Cybersecurity Basics

You don’t have to be an information technology (IT) professional to be a soldier in the cybersecurity war. This blog post looks at some basic steps that anyone, or any worksite, can implement. 

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Succession Planning: Navigating the Incoming Wave

Succession Planning: Navigating the Incoming Wave

The accelerating retirement of public sector workers born between 1946-64 is predicted to hit like a wave. This post looks as what some local governments in Washington are doing to plan for the expected leadership turnover. 

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Don’t Do That! Part Two

Don’t Do That! Part Two

Part 2 of this 2-part series on the “worst” leadership habits identifies at least one, agreed-upon bad habit that leaders everywhere should avoid at all costs.

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Don’t Do That! Part One

Don’t Do That! Part One

There's plenty of space devoted to what makes a good leader but the habits and characteristics of poor leaders are equally compelling.  This post, 1 of a 2-part series, summarizes what various observers identify as the habits and practices most leaders should take care to avoid.  

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Take Advantage of the End of the Year

Take Advantage of the End of the Year

The end of the year is typically a busy time for local governments, but it also offers opportunities to help orient newly elected officials and to review citywide emergency management plans.

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Local Leadership: When the Professional and the Personal Collide

Local Leadership: When the Professional and the Personal Collide

Government leaders who live and work in their community can enjoy a host of benefits, such as enhanced relationships with constituents, but what happens when the line between the public persona and the private one blurs? Using his own experiences as a city administrator, Lynn Norby discusses the lessons he learned in trying to balance the personal with the professional.

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Compass Crossing: New Homelessness Project Connects Efficiency with Responsiveness

Compass Crossing: New Homelessness Project Connects Efficiency with Responsiveness

A look at an innovative new homeless housing project in Seattle from Compass Housing Alliance and OneBuild.

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Better, Faster, Cheaper: Sometimes Front Line Workers Are the Best Problem Solvers

Better, Faster, Cheaper: Sometimes Front Line Workers Are the Best Problem Solvers

Problems that seem intractable at the management level, can often be fixed by those employees that understand the processes the best.

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The Christmas Storm Redux: 6 Lessons in Emergency Management

The Christmas Storm Redux: 6 Lessons in Emergency Management

With winter storm season soon upon us, here are six tips for responding to emergency situations.

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Getting Your Newly Elected Officials Ready to Hit the Ground Running

Getting Your Newly Elected Officials Ready to Hit the Ground Running

Every election cycle potentially introduces new members to your policy board or chief executive’s office. You have an opportunity to give the newly elected members of the team a “leg up” so that they can begin their term of office as ready as possible on day one.

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Is Leadership Overrated?

Is Leadership Overrated?

Sometimes true leadership means being a good follower.

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Public Management Lessons From A Bond Issue Obstacle Course

Public Management Lessons From A Bond Issue Obstacle Course

During my time as a city administrator for Enumclaw, one of the projects I worked on was the development of a new library in the heart of town. With land secured, significant community support, and a bond issue ready for voters, I thought the project would be a cakewalk. However, I soon learned that things aren’t always as easy as they appear; getting the project done required maneuvering through an obstacle course of issues. The experience was challenging, but also taught me a number of important lessons about public management.

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Do Public Employees Lose Their Freedom of Speech?

Do Public Employees Lose Their Freedom of Speech?

I suspect every local government executive has experienced the situation where an employee unexpectedly steps to the microphone during a public comment period or gets a letter published about a government issue in a local newspaper. When this happens can, or should, the executive prevent an employee from speaking out on issues or take any action against an employee?

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Easy and Effective Common Sense Risk Management

Easy and Effective Common Sense Risk Management

Managing risk for your agency doesn’t always require sophisticated or expensive systems or extra staff resources. Sometimes a few simple, low cost, common sense procedures can be implemented that protect your organization from liability.
 

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Employee Satisfaction Pays

This report on the CBS Sunday Morning broadcast of August 31 offers more evidence in support of the proposition I made in a previous MRSC Insight blog post, Employee Satisfaction: What Goes Around Comes Around, that satisfied employees are good for your "brand". In that post I described how..

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The Ultimate Leadership Top Ten List

We’re good at making lists. Any time spent on one of the Internet search engine home pages will reveal at least one “Top Ten This”  or “15 Things That” of one kind or another, every day. Recently, looking...

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Off With His Head!

Off With His Head!

Should you fire a person who makes a mistake? Perhaps it depends, but this article argues that exposing and correcting the mistake fits right into the Lean management cycle and provides an opportunity to improve.

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T

With the Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl win this year, much has been written about the successful coaching style of Pete Carroll. Indeed, from a leadership perspective, there are few, if any, better examples of effective leadership than...

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The Paralysis of Analysis

“A good plan violently executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week." - George S. Patton
Clearly the General was talking about a battle plan, but I've heard this point paraphrased in regard to just about any activity. What makes this so?

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Flying Lessons for Leaders and Managers

I’ve always been fascinated by powered flight. From the earliest days of aviation to the heroes that pushed the boundaries of technology and braved combat high above the earth, it has been a lifelong interest. I think there are some “flying lessons” every manager can use on the ground or in the air.

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Speed Dating: It's Not Just for Your Social Life Anymore

"Speed mentoring" provides a creative opportunity to allow people to make contact with people in fields they might want to pursue. Lynn Nordby considers how this concept might be applied to other local government activities.

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A wall clock says 'too late' symbolizes a missed opportunity, a lost bargain, the chance of a lifetime... Other pics of the same set: 'too soon' and 'on time'. Computer generated image.

Missing a Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity

Historians are going to look back at this time in our nation’s history and shake their heads at the opportunities cities, counties, states, and school districts failed to capitalize on. With interest rates at the...

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Making a Difference

I've always held the opinion that most of my colleagues in public management and, indeed most public employees, are generally motivated by a call to service. To borrow from an old U.S. Army recruiting slogan, “It's...

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When One Budget Closes Another One Opens (But Where’s the Cash?)

It may seem too soon to be discussing budget questions on how to deal with your ending cash balance, or maybe too late; but, we’re still asked about the proper way to handle some of the uncertainty...

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Employee Satisfaction: What Goes Around Comes Around

Happy employees are goodwill ambassadors for your brand, whether it’s selling a product or delivering public service. In his book “Extreme Government Makeover," Ken Miller describes ...

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Be Sure You're Right, Then Go Ahead (Management Lessons from Davy Crockett)

Be Sure You're Right, Then Go Ahead (Management Lessons from Davy Crockett)

In a public policy debate, both sides are usually convinced they are "right." But much of public policy has more to do with the perspective of the policymakers than with right or wrong, which can create challenges for the staff and managers charged with implementing public policies. Lynn Norby provides some real-life examples.

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The Three Envelopes

Lynn Nordby tells a city manager joke and offers some words of wisdom for how to navigate the city manager position successfully.

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Close Enough for Government Work

There are always words or catch phrases that capture people’s imaginations and seem to be just the right shorthand to express a thought or make a point.  After a while though, they simply lose their impact through overuse and are no longer clever...

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Getting What You Want Through Foresight and Creativity

Sometimes foresight and creativity are needed to set up an opportunity; other times they are needed to use an opportunity that is presented to you. Either way, be the facilitator. Great satisfaction in public service comes from seeing what foresight and creativity can do for your community.

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Big Results with a Small Gesture

Sometimes only a small gesture of appreciation can generate lasting benefits. Extending a simple "good job!" to let a person know they and their work are valued is more important than ever.

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LED Streetlighting - Shedding Light on the Subject

At a recent meeting of city managers from King County and Snohomish County, representatives from Seattle City Light and the city of Shoreline presented information about the move to convert street lighting...

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A Conversation with Fred Jarrett Part 2: Lean Principles

Dow Constantine came into office as the King County Executive in 2010 with an ambitious reform agenda that was quickly set in motion through the county’s new strategic plan and some key...

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