Otis White

The skills and strategies of civic leadership

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How to Read a Flawed Book About Cities

April 1, 2015 By Otis White Leave a Comment

A professor left an Ivy League university to work in city government. What he learned in city hall was important, but what he missed was even more important.

Lesson Five: Vision and Demographics

August 5, 2014 By Otis White Leave a Comment

By design or by chance, cities are headed somewhere. But where? And if there’s a vision for your city, how do you know if it can succeed? The answer lies in demographics.

Civic Work and the Importance of Relationships

June 21, 2012 By Otis White Leave a Comment

Civic work runs on relationships. But because communities are diverse and power so diffuse, it takes connections that are both broad and deep to be effective. This, in turn, requires we approach relationship building differently in civic work than in other activities. Here’s a key to success: Learning to ask people to do things for you.

Quality of Life as Community Glue

March 1, 2012 By Otis White Leave a Comment

Partnership

Quality of life is the glue that keeps people in communities, even when their life circumstances or the city itself changes. That’s why, in the end, every successful community is a sticky one.

What Glengarry Glen Ross Teaches Us about Change

October 21, 2011 By Otis White 1 Comment

The best leaders are connectors of people, ideas, and resources. And to be a connector, you have to be a relationship builder.

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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