A Partnership for Community-Centric Management
In the vibrant city of Coral Springs, a strong commitment to community and strategic planning drives progress. Having recently celebrated its 60th anniversary, the city is known for its family-friendly atmosphere, dedication to maintaining a sustainable community, and a rich array of cultural and recreational activities that cater to a diverse population.
As a testament to its to excellence, Coral Springs has been recognized with several awards, including the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, reflecting its dedication to quality and performance management. The city's strategic approach to governance, with a strong emphasis on transparency and accountability, has set a standard for municipal operations across the nation. The city's strategic plan, developed with community input, focuses on fostering a place where residents can not only live and work, but thrive and find a sense of belonging.
In this community-centric backdrop, ClearPoint Strategy has found a partner equally passionate about progress and innovation. The partnership is an operational choice, but also a reflection of the city's dedication to bringing the best community management under the Floridian sun.
Nicole Giordano, Performance Management Manager, delves into the city's strategies with ClearPoint co-founder Ted Jackson in our customer interview.
Watch the full interview here!
Fostering Community and Transparency
Coral Springs' strategic plan is deeply rooted in the community, crafted "for the community, by the community." The city's plan is a living document, reflecting a shared vision of growth and development. The city prioritizes transparency, frequently conducting workshops to engage citizens.
With ClearPoint's platform, the city takes transparency to new heights. The city’s budget workshops have been described as the backbone of participatory democracy; these interactive sessions allow residents have a direct voice in the fiscal stewardship of the city. The Baldrige framework, known for promoting excellence in organizations, is perfectly echoed in the city’s operations, enabling a synergy between the community's needs and the city's objectives. This approach ensures the city's mission, vision, and core values are not just aligned, but lived daily.
Additionally, the city has taken a progressive step toward civic engagement by publishing a Community Dashboard through ClearPoint, made available for public view. This dashboard acts as a window into the city's operations, allowing residents to track progress on key initiatives, understand budget allocations, and monitor performance metrics in real-time. It embodies the city’s commitment to an open government, where information is accessible to all. This initiative fosters a sense of shared accountability and trust between the city officials and the community, ensuring that everyone has a stake in Coral Springs’ journey toward a brighter future.
Integration and Alignment with ClearPoint
The city has found a strong ally in ClearPoint for integrating operations between departments. The strategic plan, regarded as the city's "guidebook" and "operational DNA," is closely linked to the budget and aligned directly with the city's mission and vision. ClearPoint's role in ensuring that the strategic plan remains an actionable and funded blueprint for the city cannot be overstated. The synergy enabled by ClearPoint's collaborative environment allows for a more holistic view of performance, ensuring that all departments move in concert toward shared objectives. This adherence to a strategy-centric approach makes sure every budgetary decision and policy initiative is tightly coupled with long-term objectives, a testament to municipal efficiency.
A strategic plan not linked to budget is an unfunded dream. But, resource allocation without big-picture thinking is unresponsive to future conditions.
Keys to Success: Automation and Customization
According to Giordano, there are two primary contributors to strategic success with ClearPoint: automation and customization. These elements have significantly reduced workload and allow for a more dynamic approach to strategic management.
Automation has streamlined processes that once consumed valuable time and resources. This efficiency gain has been transformative, allowing staff to focus on strategic rather than administrative tasks, a change that has had a ripple effect throughout the city’s operations.
Customization has allowed the city to tailor ClearPoint’s functionality to its unique needs. The platform is not only serving generic functions — the flexibility to customize and test within has encouraged innovation and bold decisions. The ability to customize dashboards, reports, and performance metrics ensures that city leadership has a clear and current view of progress against goals.
The software has become an indispensable part of the city’s infrastructure, propelling it towards its vision of becoming a beacon of excellence in municipal management.
Giordano shares an inside look at the city's ClearPoint account (17:00). Watch now!
Stories of Impact and Support
The narrative of impact and support woven through the City of Coral Springs is a tapestry of individual stories that, together, illustrate a broader saga of municipal excellence. Each department within the city has its unique account of how ClearPoint has enhanced its operations. The platform is both a repository of data and a dynamic storyboard that conveys the city's journey, challenges overcome, and milestones achieved.
These success stories have been a cornerstone for the City of Coral Springs in achieving the prestigious Sterling Award. This accolade is a testament to the city’s commitment to excellence and is a direct result of having a robust strategic framework in place. ClearPoint has enabled the city to incorporate the rigorous standards of the Sterling criteria into its operations, thus supporting the city's ongoing quest for continuous improvement.
Continuous Improvement and Support
ClearPoint’s commitment to ongoing improvement and following best practices allows the city to stay at the forefront of performance management. The "support net" within ClearPoint has been acknowledged as a significant factor in the city's success. With a dedicated team that assists in navigating challenges and leveraging the full potential of the platform, this support extends beyond troubleshooting, proactively ensuring the city's staff are properly leveraging the latest features. Moreover, the application is not static; it is a living system, continuously refined through feedback and the latest in performance management methodologies, keeping the city ready to adapt to new challenges and opportunities.
Conclusion
The partnership between Coral Springs and ClearPoint is one that goes beyond mere planning and reporting. It is one that brings to life a shared goal of an empowered, informed, and involved community. Through ClearPoint, the city has found a powerful ally in its quest to cultivate a transparent, accountable, and strategically focused governance model. By harnessing the power of automation and customization, the city has fostered an environment that resonates with the aspirations of its residents.
Explore how ClearPoint empowers other local governments, and see how your own community could thrive by scheduling a demo today!