For The Record

Host Dustin Haisler speaks with Kristi Wyatt, Director of Communications and Intergovernmental Relations for the City of San Marcos, about audience development as part of an overall engagement strategy.

In this special episode of For The Record, Maia Jachimowicz, Vice President of Evidence-Based Policy at Results for America, speaks with Brian Elms and J.B.Wogan about their new book, Peak Performance: How Denver's Peak Academy is saving millions of dollars, boosting morale and just maybe changing the world. (And how you can too!)

Elms is the Director of the Peak Academy and Analytics for the City and County of Denver. Wogan is a staff writer for Governing magazine. The book tells the story of a four-year old municipal program that equips frontline government workers with problem-solving skills that they take back to a wide range of agencies, from Animal Protection to Human Services. The result? About 5,000 employees have received Peak Academy training and used their new skills to save Denver more than $15 million. 

In the conversation, Jachimowicz, Elms and Wogan discuss: 

• the origin story of the Peak Academy
• why innovation isn't government's default setting
• the need to measure impacts beyond cost savings
• the importance of empathy in innovation  
• how Peak might outlast its founders and perpetuate innovation, and
• why Peak only brings process improvement to offices where it's wanted

The book is available on Governing.com and through Amazon.

Glenn Harris, Center for Social Inclusion and GARE, says the City of Seattle learned a lot from changing light bulbs.

Yiaway Yeh, Nashville Metro's co-chief innovation officer, on the city's key learnings through the City Accelerator, including the intersection of data and the hard work of doing the public's business - all served with a side of whimsy.

Nashville's serendipity practice creates space for listening well, harvesting new (even seemingly random) ideas, nurture and incubate them, and then provides a structure to reflect and improve.

Through the City Accelerator, Louisville is bringing a new level rigor and discipline to urban innovation. The city is focused on beginning to institutionalize a new urban practice and weaving a rhythm of accountability into the fabric of city government

The success of an experiment with big brown envelopes came from the Philadelphia’s work as part of the first cohort in the City Accelerator, which gave it the capacity to find new ways to reach and connect with its low income residents. The City took a Marshall McLuhan-inspired approach to getting above the noise of poverty – experimenting with both the message and the medium. The city shaped the messages around social norming and loss avoidance – and tried multiple media, including FedEx-style envelopes with hand-written addresses.  Episode features Maia Jachimowicz, Director of Policy for the City of Philadelphia.

Eric Gordon, an associate professor in the Department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College and a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Technology at Harvard University, was selected to lead the next phase of the City Accelerator, a multi-year, multi-community undertaking in civic improvement. Gordon will provide support to participating cities, along with technical assistance and targeted implementation resources.

TechWire Editor Bill Maile met West Sacramento Christopher Cabaldon at the Hacker Lab to talk about reclaiming the city's technology roots and innovating into the future.

In a wide ranging conversation with TechWire Editor Bill Maile, author Bill Eggers discusses the prospects and preconditions for government transformation, including future-leaning vision, strategy, leadership, workforce, and community engagement.