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Otis White

Contributor

Otis White is president of Civic Strategies Inc., an Atlanta-based firm that does collaborative and strategic planning for local governments and civic organizations. He also writes frequently about civic leadership and change, in his blog at otiswhite.com and in national publications such as the New York Times. He originated the Urban Notebook feature on Governing.com in 2002, posting daily for five years.

In 2012, White published a multimedia book, "The Great Project: How a Single Civic Project Changed a City," for reading on an iPad. He hosts podcasts about civic leadership and is helping to create an annual event called the Civic Exchange to explore urban successes and how they come about. You can learn more about him at the Civic Strategies website.

Big problems are solved by collaboration. Asking people to do things is a skill every leader needs.
Some of the changes we are seeing just make the old more efficient. But some will have a much deeper impact, and governments that apply old ways of thinking to them will be making a big mistake.
People who look at their cities and see extraordinary possibilities are a precious resource. Cultivating and handling them can be tricky.
Attacking a problem with a single masterstroke is appealing. But sometimes the best approach is swarming it from all directions.