Local Officials Take Part In Leadership Matters Program

From The City of Dedham: Four employees and a member of the Board of Selectmen are taking part part in a leadership training program that began last fall. The program, Leadership Matters, is being offered through the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy by the Public Sector Consortium (http://www.public- sector.org/). The goal of the program is to improve the performance of leaders at the local and state level through intensive and targeted training followed by practice through the design and execution of an innovation project. The program has been offered for several years to communities in Rhode Island through the Pell Center at Salve Regina University.

This is the first year the program has been offered to Massachusetts leaders. The five individuals from Dedham attended eight days of training in areas that were designed to create better leaders and better organizational performance. The training was phase one of the process. Phase two is to design an innovation project that utilizes the skills taught in the program and accomplishes an particular objective. The Dedham team chose as its objective to increase civic engagement.

The innovation project consists of five parts: 1) A survey that asked the residents of Dedham about the things they value in Dedham. 2) An all-day training of 24 employees on facilitative leadership. 3) A meeting designed from the survey with specifically invited attendees that represent the diversity of the town followed by specific action items from that feedback 4) after the summer, interviews with employees regarding their work and 5) an all-day training in customer service based partly on those interviews. The first two parts have been completed. The meeting, by invitation, will be next Wednesday, June 27 at 4:30 at Dedham Middle School.
The participants for this year are Jessica Tracy (Public Health Nurse), Ed Paris (Riverdale Principal), John Sisson (Econ Development Director), Mike Butler (Selectman) and Jim Kern (Town Manager), The town has committed to year two of the program for which four different employees will participate in the training and plan and carry out a new innovation project.

Image Via The City of Deadham