Most cities buy the dashboard first and think about people later. Savannah went the other way. Dr. Jennifer Blalock describes her city's performance work as a covenant with residents: here is what you've invested, and here is what you get back. In this conversation we get into why Savannah decided to put numbers in front of the public, what actually happens inside a government when a metric comes back disappointing, and why she treats data capacity like a muscle that hurts the first few times you use it. Jennifer is candid that no city gets it right every time, and that the real obligation is to say so out loud. We also trace how two Georgia cities ended up learning from each other, starting with a chance conversation at a conference.

Dr. Jennifer Blalock is a change leadership and organizational development practitioner who has served in the public sector for over three decades. She is the Organizational Excellence Officer for the City of Savannah, where she develops the City's leadership capacity, organizational effectiveness and performance, and data and strategic competencies. She holds a doctorate in Organizational Development and Higher Education Leadership and is a Certified Public Manager.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• What Works Cities: https://whatworkscities.bloomberg.org
• Results for America: https://results4america.org
• Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellowship: https://www.cityleadership.harvard.edu/bloomberg-harvard-city-hall-fellowships/
• UGA Carl Vinson Institute of Government: https://cviog.uga.edu
• ICMA Data-Driven Decision Making certificate, with Polco: https://icma.org/events/data-driven-decision-making-certificate-program
• Polco: https://polco.us
• Georgia Municipal Association: https://www.gacities.com

FIND JENNIFER
City of Savannah: https://savannahga.gov
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferb13/
Host: Dr. Joe Pennino
Website: https://www.drpennino.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrJoePennino
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjoepennino/

Chapters
00:09 Introduction
05:36 The Data Covenant
09:21 What Works Cities Origin Story
13:43 How We Connected
22:07 Building a Data Culture
33:54 Technology vs. Process
39:00 Advice for Cities and Closing

Most leaders treat relationships as the soft stuff, the part you get to after the real work is done. Annie Simpson makes the opposite case: the quality of your relationships is the quality of your results. In this conversation we get into why trust is what makes healthy conflict possible, how the conversations you avoid quietly stall a team, and why the hardest leadership work is inner work. Annie shares her trust bank-account exercise, the case for treating feedback as a gift, and a line worth sitting with: your inner state as a leader has more impact on your team than you realize.

Annie Simpson specializes in emotionally intelligent leadership and high-trust teams. She is a facilitator, trainer, and executive coach with twenty years in leadership development, and the founder of Annie Simpson Consulting.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Permission to Feel by Marc Brackett

Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg

The team-trust and healthy-conflict work of Patrick Lencioni

FIND ANNIE

Website: https://anniesimpsonconsulting.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-simpson-m-ed-7371119/

THE LEADERSHIP SHIFT

Host: Dr. Joe Pennino

Website: https://www.drpennino.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrJoePennino

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjoepennino/

Lucy Ellis, founder of The Calyx, joins Dr. Joe Pennino to talk about why leaders fail when facing volatility, the trap of over-planning vs. learned helplessness, and what it actually looks like to build adaptive organizations. Drawing from her time at the CDC during COVID and years advising public sector leaders, Lucy shares why "culture is read-only," why technical solutions are seductive but insufficient, and how tinkering with your organization's operating system is the real work of leadership.

Lucy’s profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucyoraellis/

Website: https://www.thecalyx.org/

Joe's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjoepennino/

Website: https://www.drpennino.com/

Chapters:

00:26 - What The Calyx Does
01:46 - Operating System Explained
04:03 - Beyond the Reorg
05:10 - Embracing Volatility
08:21 - Discipline and Rhythms
13:36 - Control vs Letting Go
17:20 - Modulating Risk
24:03 - Balcony and Sensemaking
27:23 - CDC COVID Lessons
33:28 - Cruise Ship Scaling
39:16 - Recovery and Resilience
46:27 - Essentialism and Strategy
48:33 - Closing and Where to Find Lucy