Today’s Morning Buzz is by Nina Vetter, Pueblo West Metro District Manager. Connect with Nina on LinkedIn.
When I take a moment to reflect on what we do well in my team, in our organization, and in our region, one thing keeps showing up strong – we believe in and we live in the power of partnerships.
When I think about the successes we’ve had, the tough times and challenges we’ve worked through and the opportunities we have today, they are all based in great, truly collaborative partnerships where we put the egos aside, agree to work together on a shared goal and share resources the best we can.
The strong relationship between the County, City, Metro Districts and more have partnered to move all of our development review related processes online, in one technology platform to make the process more streamlined and easier for our customers.
During COVID-19 our local economic development organization launched a new initiative that brings together government, non-profit organizations, chambers of commerce and more than 20 other organizations across the region to work towards a shared economic development vision.
Our great non-profit sector has established a housing and homelessness commission that is action-oriented and already making progress on their work with 20 plus members to develop more affordable housing and provide needed resources to those experiencing homelessness.
Yes, I want to celebrate the amazing people in the Pueblo region doing great work every day, but I also to highlight the power of partnerships. At the end of the day, whether you are part of a library, a fire department, a health department or the all-important budget analyst, you and we all have something in common – we want to serve the public and help our communities.
So if that is our goal, partnerships are often the most efficient, collaborative, effective means to accomplish more with the few resources we all have. So why don’t we have more of them? Why aren’t partnerships the first thing we turn to and not the last resort when we can’t do it ourselves? I think there is room in local government to partner more, but it certainly requires a few things:
1) Putting aside the ego & the “need” to take credit
2) Be willing to admit that you don’t know it all, that someone else might have a better idea or at least be able to improve upon your idea; and
3) Being willing to compromise
The power in partnerships is limitless – where can you go?!