The building blocks to governing for results.(The Bookshelf)(Results That Matter: Improving Communities by Engaging Citizens, Measuring Performance, and Getting Things Done)(Book review)

Results That Matter: Improving Communities by Engaging Citizens, Measuring Performance, and Getting Things Done

Paul D. Epstein, Paul M. Coates, and Lyle E. Wray with David Swain.

Publisher: Jossey-Bass 272 pp., 2005

Results That Matter sets out with an important goal: to provide a set of tools to individuals and organizations so that they can more effectively work toward improving their communities. Epstein, Coates, and Wray describe the many ways to increase citizen engagement and use the Effective Community Governance Model to demonstrate the interaction among various constituencies within a community They breathe life into the model using 25 examples of communities across the United States, illustrating the benefits of the model at work.

The Effective Community Governance Model blends the three"core community skills" referred to in the book's title: engaging citizens, measuring performance, and getting things done. The combination of these critical elements results in advanced governing practices of communities governing for results through community problem solving, organizations managing for results, citizens reaching for results. A system with the highest potential for success is one that is built around engagement, trust, and collaboration among all parties and that learns from its experiences, changes accordingly, and stays focused on the future.

The authors encourage broadening the potential roles of citizens in community affairs. They contend that increased options for citizens results in their integration as partners in community activity It is not sufficient to see citizens as passive service customers. Five main types of citizen engagement are described: citizens as stakeholders, advocates,issue framers, evaluators, and collaborators.

A careful assessment of citizen involvement can reveal ways to maximize citizen integration in community activities, ranging from a specific issue in one neighborhood to policy in a large region. Citizen interest groups are trending toward all-encompassing groups focused on overall community sustainability and well-being, as opposed to the narrowly focused advocacy groups.