Center for Government Innovation

It's an understatement to say that COVID-19 has presented significant challenges this year. We have witnessed its devastating effects physically, prompting us to take extra health precautions and increase virus testing. At the same time, it's important to take precautions fiscally to ensure local governments maintain financial health. With decreased revenue and increased costs, local governments must be especially vigilant and use reputable resources and tools to inform them when making difficult financial decisions.

As a manager, are you using the disruption of the pandemic to just get by or to thrive? That's right … we said thrive!

Virtual everything is the name of the game now. And the Center for Government Innovation is right there with you.

There are a number of things managers would rather not hear from a team member. High on that list must be:

“Oops. That one seems to have fallen through the cracks.”

What does it actually mean for something to “fall through the cracks”? And how can we manage the work our teams do so this happens less often?

Are you finding that you have a few stressors in your life these days? Your dining room table is also a home office and school desk; your cat interrupts important virtual meetings with your boss; so much togetherness! Connecting to a strong sense of purpose might just help you deal more effectively with stress whatever your situation might be.

A new reporting feature in the Financial Intelligence Tool makes it simple for a local government to project its data into the future. Governments, with their often limited or restricted resources, have a responsibility to plan for the future. That management responsibility is often required by state law through the budgeting process. Although a local government won't hear from us about how to budget or plan for the future, it can still take advantage of our statutory requirement to publish each government's financial data, which we do using FIT.

Look forward

The Center for Government Innovation of the Washington State Auditor's Office is hosting virtual get-togethers to discuss resources, guidance and more that we have developed this past year.

Registration is now open for these no-cost sessions, and are open to all Washington state local government staff and elected officials.

Follow these links to register for your preferred timeslot:

Six months ago, few local governments had telework policies in place. In response to the statewide COVID-19 shutdown, remote work very quickly became the norm.

Today, Washington's local governments are facing different challenges. Some teams have become a hybrid of in-office and remote workers, to accommodate individual needs and duties. Or maybe, based on your experience, you are now considering remote work as a possibility for the future, a great perk that can help you recruit from a wider pool of candidates.

During the statewide COVID-19 shutdown, government managers had to shift rapidly from having their team in an office setting to leading a team remotely. Some employees may now be returning to their offices, but some continue to work in a virtual environment. Even face-to-face team meetings have a new challenge because of social distancing rules.

Managing remote teams

By Debra Hentz, Center for Government Innovation

“It had to get done quickly.”

“It was hard to explain it to others.”

“My team is inexperienced.”

“It was just easier to do it myself.”

“I wanted it done my way.”

These are some of the excuses I made in the past for why I was doing great work rather than leading my team to reach our goals. Then I realized that to become a better leader and build a high-performing team, I needed to admit that I was doing the work rather than leading the organization.