There was a nice article posted recently regarding the strides the City of Sioux Falls is making on innovation and engagement to improve how the city gets things done, and keeps a motivated workforce:
When you first hear the backgrounds of the eclectic group of people working on transportation solutions in Sioux Falls, S.D., it sounds like the setup to a joke: What do a librarian, a fire captain, and a business analyst have to do with transportation?
But when you see this cross-departmental group huddled in its “War Room” working jointly with residents to fill up poster-size sheets of paper with ideas by the dozens, it’s clear that this is no joke. In fact, it could be the future of how City Hall teams work across silos to better solve problems.
One recent afternoon, the Sioux Falls group discussed ideas that were pretty novel for a mid-sized city where bus service is spotty and used, primarily, by those who can’t afford a car. They talked about how dynamic routing might reach more riders and improve the bus-riding experience. They brainstormed ways to leverage Lyft, the ridesharing service that arrived for the first time in Sioux Falls 18 months ago. And they explored how the city might engage employers, nonprofits, and housing developers in new ways to help people get from home to work and back.
and…
That’s exactly what Mayor Paul TenHaken had in mind four months ago when he pulled this group together. TenHaken is an entrepreneur who started a successful digital marketing business in Sioux Falls. Since he became mayor last May, he’s made a top priority of building a more innovative culture inside City Hall. The transportation group — what everyone simply calls the “Core Team” — is a good example of how he’s doing it.
“No one has a monopoly on good ideas in the city,” TenHaken said, noting that teams full of subject-area experts can get too mired in what they already know to think freely. “Sometimes, when you get people out of their lane, they’re more apt to come up with new ideas and strategies that never would have bubbled up before.”
Interestingly, one of the big positive mentions in the article was the city’s creation of a Department of Innovation and Technology, which had previously been in the news for Councilwoman Theresa Stehly having had a Facebook hissy fit with the Mayor’s hire.
Several months later, as opposed to the Mayor’s vision for the department coming to fruition to make a better Sioux Falls, Stehly has moved in the other direction, and is trying to grab attention by focusing on minutia, including crazy-assed schemes such as her plan to have taxpayers pay people for pothole damage (a.k.a. “Cash for not paying attention to the road”).
It’s good to see the mayor building a culture of innovation and engagement at Sioux Falls City Hall. Even while others spend their energy grabbing for headlines.