Otis White

The skills and strategies of civic leadership

  • About
  • Archives

About

These are essays about civic leadership in America (with a few comparisons to civic life in other countries). Cities are wonderfully complex environments, and I try never to think that local governments actually run them. Influence them, yes; but run them, no. So while you’ll find essays about government here, you’ll also find writings about the larger world of civic influence, which includes business leaders, nonprofits, philanthropists, special interests, neighborhood leaders, activists of all kinds, citizens . . . and crackpots (some of whom, it turns out, have something important to say.)

My hope is that these essays will help leaders in cities see problems and opportunities in more strategic ways, and show them how to use relationships, ideas, strategy, facilitation, and persuasion to resolve them.

I’ve written other articles and essays about cities over the years, sometimes for magazines and sometimes for newspapers like the New York Times.  If you’d like to see some of those articles, please visit my firm’s website at www.civic-strategies.com. You can also find more biographical detail about me there.

Recent Posts

  • The Next Urban Comeback
  • A Reservoir for Civic Progress
  • How a Leader Assembles a Winning Team
  • What Smart Mayors Can Learn from the Turnaround of Central Park
  • How Communities Can Thrive in a Post-Newspaper World
  • Seven Habits of Highly Successful Civic Projects
  • When Bad Things Happen to Good Governments
  • How Citizen Engagement Could Save State Politics
  • How Odd Couples, Complementary Needs, and Chance Can Change Cities
  • A Better Way to Teach Civic Leadership
  • The Worst Management Idea of the 20th Century
  • How to Deal with a Demagogue
  • What Government Is Good At
  • Return to Sender
  • The Loneliness of the Courageous Leader
  • A Better Way of Judging Candidates
  • How to Build an Army of Supporters
  • A Beginner’s Guide to Facilitation
  • The Temperament of Great Leaders
  • Units of Civic Progress
  • Leadership as “a Kind of Genius”
  • How to Read a Flawed Book About Cities
  • A Mayor’s Test for Good Decisions
  • How to Manage a Crisis Before It Happens
  • Lesson Seven: Process and Results

Categories

About Otis White

Otis White is president of Civic Strategies, Inc., a collaborative and strategic planning firm for local governments and civic organizations. He has written about cities and their leaders for more than 30 years. For more information about Otis and his work, please visit www.civic-strategies.com.

The Great Project

Otis White's multimedia book, "The Great Project," is available on Apple iTunes for reading on an iPad. The book is about how a single civic project changed a city and offers important lessons for civic leaders considering their own "great projects" . . . and for students in college planning and political science programs.

For more information about the book, please visit the iTunes Great Project page.

Follow Us on Twitter and Facebook

You can find Otis White's urban issues updates by searching for @OtisWhite. And you can "like" us on Facebook.