The day started early with a discussion with the ICMA Executive Director and others who are in their first positions as City Manager's. All found the conference helpful and ICMA as an organization. It is helpful to build a network of fellow City Managers encountering similar circumstances in their first CM post.
Next, I participated in a session entitled Moving from Color Blind to Color Rich. We all need to be aware of the "primal reactions" and "cognitive shortcuts" that cause unintentional bias because "even if one's explicit beliefs change, the cultural residue may persist in memory and continue to influence behaviour." I picked up a number of tools and training materials we can use in Oberlin.
The conference ended with remarks by organizational health expert Linda Duxbury and installing the new ICMA President Darnell Earley of Saginaw, MI (the second African American ICMA president ... the first was Sy Murray). Darnell gave an inspiring address on the importance of supporting the City Management profession, continuing our professional development, participating in ICMA on committees, mentoring others and caring and supporting our families.
Ms. Duxbury addressed City Managers on the trends in human resources and increased demands on employees and managers due to recessions, cutbacks, etc. She reminded us that our competitive advantage is our people and we need to support them and avoid burnout from doing more with less.
I return to Oberlin tomorrow evening.
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