Consultant-led planning session aims at goal-setting and improved collaboration on council 

When Springfield City Council met for a priority-setting strategy session Sept. 5 at the Springfield-Branson National Airport, one of its targets was for the body to learn to work together effectively, according to Mayor Jeff Schrag. 

While the purpose of the meeting was to begin pinning down the body’s main strategic initiatives, the meeting had the add-on effect of helping members understand where their eight colleagues were coming from, according to City Manager David Cameron. 

“I was very impressed with what I saw them coming together around – watching that dynamic come about,” Cameron said. 

The event began with a personality quiz, which offered a glimpse into different ways of thinking among the members, Cameron said. 

“It was a great exercise for them, outside the chamber, where it’s not so much one topic, one heated issue,” he said. “That’s what always gets captured, because it’s what you see.” 

Cameron said the session boils the overarching agenda down to four or five chief priorities, which is good for staff to see. 

Asked about the perception that friction exists on council, Cameron said that’s naturally true. 

“Look at my own onboarding as an example,” he said. 

Cameron was approved for his position by a narrow 5-4 majority.  

Cameron said he felt heartened by the interactions he witnessed among council members. 

“It was very collaborative,” he said. “These team-building exercises together are very, very helpful, and it’s something I’m actually thankful for. I’m encouraged by what I saw.” 

The workshop was led by Lauren Palmer, a founder of Kansas City-based EverStrive Solutions LLC. City spokesperson Cora Scott said the not-to-exceed value of EverStrive’s contract was set at $13,475. 

Palmer had participants take a quiz from the book “The Four Tendencies” by Gretchen Rubin to determine their own tendency – the answer to the question, “How do I respond to expectations?” according to the online book description. 

Council members learned which of the four tendencies they adhere to. Cameron said Bruce Adib-Yazdi, Callie Carroll, Craig Hosmer and Brandon Jenson are obligers – they meet outer expectations and resist inner expectations. Schrag, Heather Hardinger and Abe McGull were labeled questioners, resisting outer expectations and meeting inner ones. 

Monica Horton and Derek Lee were pegged as upholders, meeting outer expectations and meeting inner ones. There are no members of council classified as rebels, resisting both outer and inner expectations. 

Cameron said the quiz helps to uncover how people arrive at decisions. 

“If you have an appreciation for that person’s personality versus not knowing what it is or even their way of making decisions, it’s very difficult,” he said. 

Hiring the consultant was Schrag’s idea, according to Scott. 

Schrag said the session went well. 

“It was the best way I could think to rally us around a few things,” he said. 

He said Palmer, who specializes in helping elected bodies, began by saying together, the group could do anything, but it can’t do everything. 

“It’s that notion of what could we move forward? How do we rally around it?” Schrag said. 

Schrag said he had lived through business and not-for-profit leadership, and elected leadership is not the same. 

“That is such a different dynamic,” he said. “It is so different when everybody is elected. You have an individual adherence to your voters and to what you hear from the community.” 

The collaborative session allows council to marshal the strength of all of those perspectives, he said. 

“I do believe that the voters want us to do something and do something good,” he said.  

Springfield is changing, Schrag said, and that creates its own challenges. 

“There are some suburban communities where voters just want maintenance – things are great. But we’re not that,” he said. “We’re a rising, growing metro that is going through all the growing pains of going from a town to a city to metropolitan area, and that’s just reality. Everything has new opportunities and new challenges, and we’ve got to navigate that.” 

The session allows council members to know and understand one another better, according to Schrag, and that lets them forge policies and avoid friction. 

“The goal is to disagree without being disagreeable,” he said. 

The list of priorities is a work in progress to be refined by Palmer and submitted to council for its consideration. It was arrived at through intensive small-group breakout sessions that were then reported to the full group. 

Broad goals arrived at during the meeting included development, considering the values of both developers and neighborhoods; public safety; housing and jobs; and economic development.