Center for Public Service

Planning & Management Roundtable

Local government planners often face management and leadership challenges that go beyond the technical skills of design and land use planning. The Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies & Planning and Department of Public Administration, units in the PSU College of Urban and Public Affairs, are collaborating to host a series of four roundtable sessions on management and leadership skills, targeted to professional planners.

Details on the Next Roundtable (May)

2:30 to 4:00 on Thursday May 13 on Zoom

Megan Phelan, Assistant City Manager and Human Resources Director for the City of Lake Oswego will be our featured guest speaker for the May 13 Roundtable. Her topic will be How to Have Crucial Conversations.
Ms. Phelan, MBA, has had extensive experience in challenging personnel issues, ranging from union negotiations to workplace disputes. In her management roles in Wilsonville and Lake Oswego, she has worked closely with members of the planning staff. She has served on the board of directors of the Oregon City/County Management Association and is a founding member of the Northwest Women's Leadership Academy.

In addition to a stimulating conversation on a critical topic, participants of previous roundtable sessions have appreciated the opportunity to get together, informally, with planning colleagues around the state. 

If you haven't been able to attend the first two roundtables, no problem: jump in any time. Invite others by sharing the Zoom link. And colleagues can get on the email list by signing up.

Zoom Meeting about this content

Who Should Attend

Staff of city and county planning departments who are, or are interested in becoming, supervisors or managers, or who work with members of the public or staff from other departments. The roundtable will also benefit from the active participation of senior managers in the organization who work with planning staff; for example, city managers, deputy county administrators, HR directors. 

Time and Dates:

2:30-4:00 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month. The initial pilot program will run from March through June (3/11, 4/8, 5/13 and 6/10). It may be extended, depending on the interest and capacity of participants. 

Location:

Cyberspace (Zoom) 

Format:

The roundtables will be informal and highly interactive and will be moderated by a faculty member from the Toulan School of Urban Studies & Planning. Each session will begin with a brief presentation by a faculty member with expertise on the topic. It will be informed by theory and research in leadership and management, but the emphasis will be on a practical application. A motivation for initiating the roundtable program is to build the relationship between academics and professionals. 

Interested? Reserve your spot! about this content

Potential Topics

(to be selected based on the interests of the participants)

  • Motivation and performance management
  • Recruiting—hiring rock stars
  • Alternatives to annual performance reviews
  • Cultural competence
  • Agile project management
  • Writing simple and clear code language
  • Continuous process improvement
  • How to have difficult conversations
  • Better budget management
  • Negotiation
  • Conflict resolution
  • Emergency preparedness and planning
  • Lean management
  • Communicating technical information
  • Public engagement

Questions?

Please contact: (MPA) Scott Lazenby at slazenby@pdx.edu (503.894.1448) or (USP) Greg Schrock at gschrock@pdx.edu (503.725.8312).