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Welcome back to The Bend!
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The Bend follows a simple rhythm each week. The Eddy Line opens with a one-line thought or
observation, something short enough to remember but worth thinking
about. What the Current Pulled Toward dives a
little deeper into where the previous week’s energy went, whether that’s
a project, a partnership, or a personal lesson learned. Signal Fire highlights a person, place, or initiative
that deserves some attention. From the
Field, shares a small anecdote about the broader outdoor
recreation economy from Oxbow’s non-profit arm, the VA
MTNS Outdoor Collective. And One Thought Worth
Sitting With closes things out with a brief reflection or quote
that will hopefully help guide you through whatever you may be dealing
with.
It’s part journal, part field note, and hopefully
something that makes you pause for a moment before diving back into the
current.
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“If given the choice between being
right and being kind, choose kind.”
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What the Current Pulled Toward
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This week the current pulled toward
decorum.
There have
been several local moments lately that have been difficult to watch.
Public displays ranging from indifference and disrespect to something
closer to outright malice. The particulars are less important than the
pattern.
Like most people, there are individuals whose company I
don’t particularly enjoy. There are people with whom I disagree,
sometimes strongly. There are also people whose decisions have
significantly disappointed or frustrated me. None of that, though,
requires a public display of contempt.
I’m not suggesting I’ve always gotten this
right. Looking back, I can think of many conversations I’d handle
differently today. Over the last few years, I’ve become much more aware
that what I say and how I say it (and even what I choose not to say)
shape the experience of the people around me. I still have work to do,
but I’m trying to be more intentional about the example I set and the
impression I leave behind.
I’ve always believed in the old adage, “Praise in
public, criticize in private.” That doesn’t mean avoiding accountability
or pretending every decision is a good one. I believe public servants
have a responsibility to ask hard questions and challenge poor judgment
and speak plainly when circumstances demand it.
How we do those things still
counts, at least I feel that it does. Public service asks people with
different personalities, priorities, and perspectives to sit at the same
table, a table where tension is inevitable and disagreement is part of
the job. However, personal humiliation, dismissiveness, or calculated
disrespect don’t have to be.
That distinction appears to have blurred across every
level of government. Behavior that would once have been considered
embarrassing is now excused as candor, strength, or the resignation that
that’s just the way things are. I’m hopeful, though, that more public
servants will begin pushing in another direction. I would love to see a
shift toward meetings where disagreement can remain disagreement.
Perhaps a shift toward criticism that addresses the decision without
diminishing the person or the understanding that restraint is not
weakness and courtesy doesn’t require surrender.
The public takes its cues
from the people entrusted to serve it. The way officials treat one
another eventually becomes part of the culture surrounding the
institutions themselves.
We may not always get to choose who sits across the table
but we do get to choose how we conduct ourselves once they’re
there.
-
Mike.
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Local government is often judged by its outcomes.
Roads get paved. Budgets get balanced. Parks get built. But behind those
outcomes are professionals who spend their careers learning how to lead
organizations, navigate competing priorities and serve communities with
integrity.
Virginia
Local Government Management Association exists to strengthen the
quality of local government through professional management. The
association brings together city, town, and county managers, along with
members of their leadership teams, to share ideas, invest in
professional development and support one another in the work of building
stronger communities.
Its vision is
simple: supporting local government managers as they build great
communities through inclusion, innovation and leadership. Just as important, VLGMA’s members are guided by the
International City/County Management Association Code of Ethics, placing
integrity, professionalism and public trust at the center of local
government management.
Good government
rarely happens by accident. It grows from
people who continue learning, hold themselves to a high standard, and
never lose sight of who they’re there to serve.
To learn more about
VLGMA, click
here.
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“Nobody ever outsourced anything for
quality.”
Ric Cabot, CEO, of
Darn
Tough said that. The company has operated mills in Vermont for
decades and still designs, tests, knits, finishes and packages every
pair of its socks there. When much of the American textile industry
moved production elsewhere, the Cabot family chose to remain and build
its brand around durability, local skill and control over the finished
product.
Outdoor gear manufacturing is
easy to view only through the product hanging on a store wall.
Behind it, though, are machine operators,
designers, material suppliers, technicians, distribution workers, and
communities where those jobs remain rooted.
Keeping production close also keeps knowledge close.
Problems can be addressed on the floor. Feedback can reach the people
making the product. Skills are passed from one generation of workers to
another.
For Darn Tough, “Made in the
USA” describes a sock. It also describes the
network of people responsible for making it.
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One Thought Worth Sitting With
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This week’s theme: Decorum.
“Civility is what allows leaders to speak hard
truths,
set firm boundaries, and hold people
accountable without dehumanizing them.“
-Diane Kalen-Sukra
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Follow Oxbow on Social Media
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