Mastodawn

Known and credible: Champions are important second-stage leaders in a change effort. Here’s why. http://otiswhite.com/enter-the-champion/ #civiclead #greatprojects

Enter the Champion

Champions are second-stage leaders who help move ideas from the fringe to the mainstream.

Otis White 5d ago

When you’re advancing a new idea for your city, think bigger than the idea. Think about the “frame.” http://otiswhite.com/framing-your-change-efforts/ #civiclead #greatprojects

Framing Your Change Efforts

Community change efforts don't live in a vacuum. They are part of an infrastructure of thought that includes things that are bigger than ideas—they are ways of seeing the world and making sense of it.

Otis White Mar 11

Change the way people think about issues with respectful criticism, facts … and a new, positive frame. http://otiswhite.com/reframing-your-communitys-mind/ #civiclead #greatprojects

Reframing Your Community’s Mind

Frames are helpful shortcuts to thinking about your community's issues. But what if the existing frames are barriers to new ideas instead of facilitators. This is when leaders have to reframe the community's familiar ways of thinking.

Otis White Dec 19

A map of community change: The final phase is getting a decision from others. This involves focused persuasion. And what persuades people to accept change? Need, vision and plan. Oh, and a little luck. http://otiswhite.com/decision-phase-focused-persuasion/ #civiclead #greatprojects Fifth of five lessons

Otis White Dec 18

A map of community change: The key to navigating from one phase to another in a change process is to have a “guiding coalition.” But be aware that this coalition will change along the way. And it should. http://otiswhite.com/connecting-the-phases-the-guiding-coalition/ #civiclead #greatprojects Fourth of five lessons

Otis White Dec 17

A map of community change: The planning phase is the necessary slog of civic progress. It’s where you begin with a workable solution and refine it slowly, as you answer objection after objection after objection. http://otiswhite.com/planning-phase-the-slog-of-civic-projects-and-why-its-critical/ #civiclead #greatprojects Third of five lessons

Otis White Dec 16

A map of community change: There are three phases. The first involves lots of people talking … in a structured way. And the key here is not to rush to answers. http://otiswhite.com/discussion-phase-how-need-relationships-and-ideas-begin-the-change-process/ #civiclead #greatprojects Second of five lessons

Otis White Dec 15

A map of community change: Can you draw a process as complicated as community change on a single sheet of paper? Let’s try. http://otiswhite.com/a-map-of-community-change/ #civiclead #greatprojects First of five lessons

Otis White Dec 8

How do you see what a city needs? And once you see its needs, how do you find good answers? Tampa’s downtown in the 1980s was dead after 5 p.m. and its waterfront was largely inaccessible. The answer, leaders figured out, was an attraction that tied the downtown to Tampa Bay, something like … well, an aquarium. https://www.businessobserverfl.com/news/2025/nov/06/opinion-florida-aquarium-changed-city/ #greatprojects

Otis White Nov 17

What a legendary public project shows us: Great ideas don’t sell themselves. They need patient advocacy. http://otiswhite.com/why-patience-is-a-virtue-in-civic-work/ #civiclead #greatprojects

Why Patience Is a Virtue in Civic Work

There's a predictable and frustrating time lag between good ideas being proposed and communities accepting them. Here's what you can do during that fallow period . . . and one thing that might speed things up.