For those ICMA members out there who don't know (or don't know much) about ICMA's US Programs team, Bob O'Neill's recent article on "Creative Destruction" in Governing Magazine, offers some good insight into the work that the team does.  In his article, Bob describes the environment in which managers are working today as well as the need for strong leadership, tough questions and creativity and innovation in our local governments.

The process of “creative destruction” is a term coined by Joseph Schumpeter in his work entitled "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy" (1942) to denote a "process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one."  An example often cited is the personal computer which lead to the death of mainframes but opened an entirely new frontier for creativity and market expansion.   With the new technology and the new capabilities came new industries, new jobs, new ways to pursue the American Dream.  

What Bob describes in this article is largely what we are all about in US Programs.  We are looking for those leading and emerging practices and providing those services that are aimed at making local government more effective, more efficient, that can provide more with less, while simultaneously creating new opportunities for better, more sustainable communities in which to thrive  and call home.  Creative destruction is about “what’s possible” and the US Programs team is about helping you to discover what's possible in your communities and organizations.

Hopefully, Bob's article inspires you to find the leadership, courage, creativity and inspiration to see our environment as an opportunity to work differently and to see the "possibility" of what you can accomplish!  If ICMA's US Programs team and its Center for Management Strategies, Center for Performance Measurement, Center for Public Safety Management, and Center for Sustainable Communities can assist you in any way, please let us know.  This is tough work, but our ICMA members have proven they are up to the task!