High Performing Governments, Transparency, and Benchmarking: ClearPoint’s take on the 103rd Annual ICMA Conference

Last week we had the pleasure of attending the 103rd Annual ICMA Conference in San Antonio, Texas. We talked all things local government and had the opportunity to meet several movers and shakers in the municipal space. Not only were we able to share our own expertise when it comes to strategy and performance management for the public-sector, but we also learned from leaders at various cities and counties about their approach to strategy. They told us what is important to them when it comes to managing a strategic plan and sharing progress with citizens. We enjoyed our fair share of world class BBQ and Tex-Mex too!

Throughout the conference, we felt a big emphasis, even more so than in past years, on one key buzz word (or phrase): “high performing government.” We saw this plastered everywhere throughout the exhibit hall. The phrase also acted as a key theme in several of our conversations with city and county managers that we spoke to throughout our three days in San Antonio.

What it means to be a high performing government has undoubtedly continued to change throughout the years, but it seems that now more than ever, local governments have an emphasis on transparency. What we were hearing from our clients, is that municipalities are not only having to meet their targets and perform to a certain standard, but are also needing to find new ways to share this progress with citizens and increase engagement within the community. Without this transparency and engagement, local government’s miss a large and important piece of the strategy puzzle.

To address this need, we shared the benefits of a Community Dashboard with the municipal leaders we spoke to: a customized public-facing website that allows local governments to pull their strategic information directly from ClearPoint, in order to share their performance and progress with citizens. Cities such as Fort Collins, CO, Olathe, KS, and Durham, NC, among others, have already implemented and achieved success from their Community Dashboards, and treat their dashboards as an integral component to their strategic success.

Another major focal point during our time at the ICMA Conference, was the buzz we felt surrounding our Municipal Measures Library, which was launched this past February. When we first launched the Measures Library in early 2017, our primary goal was to build a platform that allowed local governments from across the country to share the strategic measures they were tracking, in the hopes of fostering increased collaboration and performance among municipalities. At this year’s ICMA Conference, both current members of the Measures Library as well as prospective members were excited to learn that we have now integrated ICMA’s 2016 data into the tool. For the first time, we’re giving our 30+ members of the Measures Library exclusive access to benchmarking data collected through ICMA’s pilot jurisdictions as well as their Performance Management Advisory Committee, allowing them to view, download, and link to this new data to ultimately enhance overall performance.

Our municipal practice has grown rapidly in the last couple of years, and attending the ICMA Conference this year got us even more excited to continue to improve ClearPoint, and create new ways for local governments to gain a competitive edge and achieve long term strategic success. It’s always rewarding for us to attend these conferences and hear about the various ways in which our offerings are helping our current clients, just as it is motivating to hear the wants of perspective clients, and discuss how we can partner together to fit their needs. As mentioned in our recent feature in CIOReview as one of the ‘20 Most Promising Public-Sector Solutions of 2017’, ClearPoint will evolve with our public-sector clients to make performance management and reporting in the municipal space even more seamless.

If you were at ICMA this year (or even if you weren’t!) and are interested in learning more about ClearPoint, feel free to shoot me an email at jweaver@clearpointstrategy.com and I’d be happy to chat. Or, if you’re feeling antsy and are ready to get started today, try ClearPoint now for free and see for yourself how your city or county could benefit from strategy and performance management software.