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Review new pandemic systems maps →

Leadership Tips During A Public Health Crisis

Tips for Facilitating
Conference Calls:

Send out a meeting design template which includes the purpose statement, length of call, pre-reading, desired outcomes, decision items, and methods of decision making. These should be carefully designed to achieve your purpose and sent out prior to the conference call.
Click to read more→

Workforce Sustainability Strategies for Public Leaders:

This page provides some practices and perspectives that may help you sustain continuity of services, work with unions and other leaders, and to effect innovative and sustainable policy changes to support you work during this Public Health crisis.
Click to read more→

We know that many of our Public Leaders are working around the clock to do everything they can to keep us safe while continuing to deliver the services we all depend on. We are very grateful for their service during this time of crisis.

Testimonials for Leadership Matters

Lynn Cristino,
Senior Administrator,
Pawtucket School Department

"One of the things the Leadership learning program does do—and if you don’t know it going in, you figure out within the first class—is reinforce the idea that you need to reflect on these questions and exercises and apply what you’re learning. At the next class, the conversation will be about how you are applying this learning. You know that you need to have thought about the material meaningfully and must be prepared to talk about how you’ve applied those tools."

Mike O'Brien,
Former Deputy Fire Chief,
Portsmouth, RI

"Other courses I’ve experienced were traditional education programs (I’m pursuing a master’s degree). This is about working with peers, and it’s more realistic and more practical. It’s not just theory. Working with other people in the public sector means that almost universally, we’re all dealing with departments that are understaffed. Everyone is wearing four or five hats and doing six or seven different jobs. "

Learn more about Leadership Matters →

Public Services Affect Almost Everything
in Our Daily Lives

We often only think about government when we pay taxes, attend jury duty, vote in an election or watch news about a new political conflict or something that has gone wrong. Government services are so much a part of our lives they often go unnoticed or unappreciated until they are not there. Let’s take a look at a day in the life of most Americans.

We wake up in our residence and we live where we do because of zoning laws that local governments establish for where residential and commercial buildings can be built and receive services (water, roads, trash removal, electricity, sewer and gas etc.).  Every act that we take throughout the day using; clean water to drink and bathe, electricity, eating the food in our cabinets, wearing clothes, using soap, riding in the car, train, ferries or bus, using the roads and sidewalks, are the result of laws which ensure the safety of the product or resource. Additionally, we have laws which protect the safety and well-being of the citizens who work in the production and delivery of these resources and products we depend on. 

The agencies like EPA, FDA, OSHA, Department of Transportation, and many more are mirrored at the state and local levels to ensure your safety and access to the resources  needed to thrive.  If they are doing their job you never think about them or notice that they are actively inspecting or regulating. 

All of these actions on the part of millions of public servants make it possible to safely go about our work, education and commerce. There are still more departments and agencies to think about when we consider the work of public education, public health, elections, crime and safety, banking, defense, health care the list grows larger. Without each department or agency doing its part the things that we take for granted would cease to exist. Unlike any time in recent history, it seems clear that our lives depend on a well-trained, capable public servants and their leadership.

Unfortunately, we tend not to notice these enabling services and protections unless  something goes wrong. There is also much more interest in the media and with political campaigns in highlighting all the failures and faults to attract viewers and interest. Over the last fifty years we have had many president’s and their administrations who undervalued public service and never met nor partnered with them. This loss of expertise and historical knowledge has greatly impacted each of us. Peggy Noonan in her recent WSJ editorial entitled “America Emerges Disunited but Intact” cautions Hollywood.

“Hollywood you would do us a great kindness if you would stop for awhile making movies and series that show how sick and corrupt politics is and how conniving and immoral our political leaders are.  Your cynicism has helped lower standards and reduce expectations.”

It is easy to see how our existence as citizens is tightly bound with the ecosystems of local and federal agencies and the thousands of civil servants behind each of the services. Most of us even if we are public servants ourselves don’t pause to think about how all these services happen. Almost everything we do in our daily lives happens because thousands of people we depend but will never meet do their jobs very well every day. 

Take some time to think about the public servants that make it possible for you to live your life.  Look at other successful western democracies who have no political appointees, nine political parties and have very different relationships with their public servants—you’ll be surprised.

What We're Reading and Watching This Month

Click here to visit the Public Leadership Transitions page of our website. On this page are two coaching articles that might be of interest to you as you await new leaders.

  • Preparing for the Arrival of a New Leader (PDF)
  • Managing Change in an Organization during a Transition in Leadership (PDF)

The Poison Squad

“At the end of nineteenth century, food was dangerous. "Milk" might contain formaldehyde, most often used to embalm corpses.  But even as protective measures were enacted in Europe, American corporations blocked even modest regulations. Then, in 1883, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, a chemistry professor from Purdue University, was named chief chemist of the agriculture department, and the agency began methodically investigating food and drink fraud, Over the next thirty years, a struggle for food safety and consumer protection. Dr. Wiley changed history. When the landmark 1906 Food and Drug Act was finally passed, it was known across the land, as "Dr. Wiley's Law." Click here to watch The Poison Squad on PBS.

We are looking ahead to more courses offered online; if you are interested in any of them please contact us info@public-sector.org and let us know how we can help your city, town, agency or school system with our courses in sustainable leadership, systems thinking in an era of contagious diseases, or other areas.

We are here to help and wish everyone success at this time of new beginnings.


Learn More About the Public Sector Consortium

Public Sector Consortium

The Public Sector Consortium provides public sector leaders with actionable tools that create and sustain high-performing public organizations. More than just a Band-Aid or interim consultancy, our work reshapes the way public leaders approach governance and the provision of public services.

With a faculty of renowned subject-matter experts and public sector practitioners, our programs are designed for cross-agency learning and communication, providing a more holistic learning environment and impactful outcomes. Working with public sector leaders at the federal, state, and local levels as well as in public education, we teach sustainable leadership practices that:

  • Balance operational demands with learning and innovation
  • Support integrative versus additive approaches to societal needs
  • Honor a systems approach
  • Promote interdependent leadership practices
  • Provide accountability and measurable results
  • Balance the complexity of the work with achieving outcomes

Democracies flourish only when nurtured by healthy and competent civil service. Strong public institutions that positively affect the quality of our daily lives depend on excellent leadership at all levels. To facilitate the development of great leaders, the Public Sector Consortium’s system of learning includes Formal Learning Programs, Onsite Consulting, and Coaching Services.

To learn more about our Board of Directors Click Here

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Phone: 617-547-8448 | Email: info@public-sector.org

We encourage all citizens to understand how their government works and to share their ideas. To contact your elected representatives in Congress go to www.senate.gov or www.house.gov. To contact the President or his team go to www.whitehouse.gov