Nearly every city at one time or another holds workshops for its mayor and council members. Some cities hold workshops every year. The workshops serve at least two purposes: Update or completely rewrite the city’s strategic plan. Build trust and common vision so mayors and council members can work better together as a team to further interests of their cities. Conbrio has designed and led such workshops in several Texas cities and other public sector organizations. For the City of College Station, Texas, Conbrio designed and led a workshop for the mayor, city council and senior staff to resolve issues of trust among council members and to write a bold strategic vision for the next ten years for the city. As part of dealing with the trust issues, the council unanimously agreed to a common purpose and high ground on council service; it acknowledged areas which could lead to hot debate; and wrote a charter to guide members’ behavior during such debate. The council synthesized past history, trends, strengths and over-the-top brainstorming before unanimously agreeing on long-term goals and objectives. A senior city staff member who called the session an overwhelming success said the output would guide the staff in formulating detailed programming.
