CITY BUDGETING FOR EQUITY AND RECOVERY: EFFECTIVE CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN EQUITY IMPLEMENTATION.

• Author: Buckshon, Joe

Changing practices to drive greater equity can be extremely intimidating for cities that aren't yet substantively educated or exposed to the relevant concepts, and for those within cities who perceive their status or authority as being threatened by the adoption of new principles. This is especially the case given today's turbulent environment.

Creating a sense of urgency about change canbe relatively easy as an executive, but significantly less so as a subordinate. Finding champions may seem impossible if cities are struggling to get stakeholders to even entertain a particular topic. Both proven and emerging change management practices can be simultaneously deployed to help overcome these challenges and dramatically improve the probability of success. If an individual who is seeking to make change lacks a traditional leadership position, or active supporters for their cause, or simply does not know where to begin, this article can help them model an approach to lead from their current position and effect sustainable, enduring organizational change.

As part of our ongoing work with the cohort of cities looking to make transformative change through the Bloomberg Philanthropies/What Works Cities/Results for America City Budgeting for Equity and Recovery [CBER] Initiative, this article represents a combination of lessons learned and promising change management practices that have emerged over the duration of the initiative.

What is change management?

Fundamentally, change management speaks to the process that ultimately drives a city's culture [and, to quote the renowned Peter Drucker, "culture eats strategy for breakfast"]. We are more specifically speaking to the process that drives a city's new program, initiative, or strategic focus to gain additional, necessary buy-in from stakeholders across the entire government. This can take place at any level within the organization--from one's mind to one's team--and from one-on-one relationships with global institutions. Many of the critical factors will remain very similar across the board. Some of the standard best practices include: (1)

* Creating a sense of urgency; action must be taken quickly.

* Finding champions to help spread the word, implement changes, and eliminate barriers.

* Establishing working groups, committees, or taskforce teams [composed of champions and subject matter experts] to lead change efforts across government.

* Focusing on short-term wins to build momentum on the way to long-term success.

* Reinforcing the established change at a systems level.

* Creating continual evaluation and feedback loops to better inform future refinements.

While these are tried-and-true tactics that can support your city's leading efforts to improve on the existing culture, and to achieve the brighter future your city envisions, it must be acknowledged that aligning a large organization can be challenging [particularly in the public sector]. To tackle this specific type of change management challenge as it relates to equity, PFM has curated a series of promising practices from across the United States that can be applied to your unique opportunity to refine your department's operations, municipal operating budget, or capital improvement plan.

Promising practices in change management for equitable principles

Traditional change management best practices assume: a certain level of power for decision-making and political capital committed by the initiative's champion, a certain level of responsibility vested in the person or team charged with leading the change, and a general level of awareness that the existing culture must be altered or disrupted to achieve desired outcomes. [See Exhibit 1.]

The goal for this review is to make sure you have a general understanding of how equity work has been conducted in the past and to what extent it was successful. This can include a...