This bonus episode of the Strong Towns Podcast is cross-posted from our other podcast It's the Little Things.
Want to better your community but don’t know where to start? Enter It’s the Little Things: a new, weekly Strong Towns podcast that gives you the wisdom and encouragement you need to take the small yet powerful actions that can make your city or town stronger.
It’s the Little Things features Strong Towns Community Builder Jacob Moses in conversation with various guests who have taken action in their own places and in their own ways.
No matter your current role in your city—concerned citizen, elected official, city staff—you’ve likely had this thought about your local government organizations: they’re slow to create meaningful change.
You’re not wrong. Councils postpone important agenda items; city job openings remain vacant for months; and, golly, that sidewalk you were promised sure has taken a while, huh?
Why is that?
Bureaucracy—that term you hear everyone use to explain the pace of local government organizations—contributes, of course. But more so, it’s the inability to create, foster, and test out ideas from everybody in the organization.
It’s, as my guest describes it, lack of innovation.
In this episode, I chat with Nick Kittle. He’s the former Chief Innovation Officer in government, Government Performance and Innovation Coach at Cartegraph, and author of the recently released book Sustainovation: Building Sustainable Innovation in Government, One Wildly Creative Idea at a Time.
Having worked in government innovation for almost 10 years, Nick knows innovation can be a buzzword that’s easier said than done. However, as you’ll learn in this episode, innovation is not another buzzword; instead, it’s an attainable workplace culture that, when embraced, can create meaningful change in our cities, towns, and neighborhoods.
(And, yes, make your local government organizations a little less slow.)
Safe and Productive Streets
Mike McGinn: Making America More Walkable
This Vancouver-Based Artist Is Writing Music…About Building Strong Towns!
Chuck Marohn Answers Your Questions
Ryan Crane: Malpractice and Accountability in Engineering—A Surgeon’s Take
An Update and the Strong Towns Strategic Plan
“How Can My Town *Not* Be Wealthy When There’s Been So Much Growth?”
Annamarie Pluhar: Shared Housing Doesn’t Have to Be Scary
The Latest Update on the Strong Towns Lawsuit
Truth in Accounting: Making Cities’ Finances Transparent for All
Jeff Speck on Confessions of a Recovering Engineer
Chuck Marohn Answers Your Questions
Jarrett Walker: ”Prediction and Freedom Are Opposites”
Peter Norton: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving
Driving Went Down. Fatalities Went Up. Here’s Why.
Tim Soerens: Reconnecting Churches with Their Neighborhoods
Two Different Languages
Which Wins Out: An Engineer‘s Discretion or a Book of Standards?
Another Tragedy at Springfield
The Hidden Values Behind Our Unsafe Streets
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
City Manager Unfiltered
Potencial Americano
The ASIC Podcast
The Chris Plante Show
Red Eye Radio