As a continuing series about making effective community decisions, the book The Moment Of Oh! Will be posted a chapter at a time. This is the second post entitled: Continue reading
Public administrators and community leaders get a lot of things right. Because of their efforts, their communities enjoy services and benefits that the community rarely needs to consider. However, a few crucial decisions can become lightning rods for communities we know. Greg Ranstrom and myself wrote Moment of Oh to help public officials and community leaders to address high-voltage community.Philosopher Charles Bernard Renouvier said “There is no certainty, only people who are certain.” And when it comes to contested issues, people tend to project absolute certainty in their opposing beliefs.
Avoiding the risk of poor community decisions
Every week when we read our local paper, there is a story about some contentious community problem. It seems community leaders are often trying to explain themselves after the fact; when “solutions” are already underway. Projects are stopped, lawsuits filed, and the cost of the solution suddenly skyrockets. How can a community reduce its exposure to these very real, very expensive risks?