Otis White

The skills and strategies of civic leadership

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A Reservoir for Civic Progress

August 7, 2019 By Otis White Leave a Comment

How can a community learn from its civic projects and build on them? Does it retain knowledge and build relationships, or does it watch good ideas make a splash and evaporate?

Seven Habits of Highly Successful Civic Projects

May 9, 2018 By Otis White Leave a Comment

Progress comes two ways to cities: by inches or in great leaps. Both are needed, but they follow different paths.

How Odd Couples, Complementary Needs, and Chance Can Change Cities

October 18, 2017 By Otis White Leave a Comment

Behind many great civic projects is a mixture of unlikely relationships and creativity. You can do some things to make the magic happen. But you also need a little luck.

Leadership as “a Kind of Genius”

May 14, 2015 By Otis White 1 Comment

Seeing the opportunity for change is the genius of leadership and often involves finding paths that are hidden to everyone else. Herding people through those passages is the practice of leadership. Here’s how to be better at the genius parts of leadership.

Lesson One: It’s All About Land Use

May 28, 2014 By Otis White 6 Comments

Forget about the NIMBYs vs. greedy developers showdowns. The real stories in local government are about efforts to create more interesting and attractive urban environments, and the people involved in these efforts. Some are elected officials or city workers, but many aren’t. They’re people in neighborhoods doing things that are slightly unusual, such as walking, biking, or taking buses to work . . . or restoring old homes.

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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

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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.

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

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