On Saturday January 10, I had the opportunity to participate in a very worthwhile pilot program offered by the Charlestown Chamber of Commerce. The program is a four hour seminar designed to improve communications and trust between people who work together. The target audience of this and future seminars are the Town Council and town employees, citizen volunteers, and community and business leaders who work on public policy issues affecting Charlestown. The seminar is based on Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and was facilitated by a Dave Nichols of Quality Transitions Inc.

We reviewed chronic organizational problems that affect business and government, and shared leadership experiences that focused on building effective relationships. Time and time again, the participants highlighted how their respective organizations overcame problems. And with each leadership story there was a recurring theme, it was not always an increased budget, processes change, or technology that made the difference, it was improved working relationships that fostered teamwork and trust generating new ideas and solutions.

Jack Marshall, the Executive Director of the Charlestown Chamber of Commerce explained his goals for this seminar to the participants. As Charlestown moves forward with a new Council and many new citizen volunteers working with town employees in support of the town, it seems the perfect time to expand the level of communication and cooperation in our Town. I was not the only one who liked Jack’s idea, all 12 participants including a town councilor, town employee, and local business leaders echoed his enthusiasm for this type of seminar. Adding to the effectiveness of this seminar was having a skilled facilitator like Dave Nichols. He did an outstanding job of comparing Covey’s material for effectiveness with our own real life experiences.

It was evident to all of us who participated in this seminar that it was a valuable experience that could help us build more effective relationships at work and in our personal lives. But like Jack Marshall, I think this seminar has greater potential than just helping us as individuals. It has the potential to help us build better working relationships in our town and lead to improved communication and cooperation as we move forward together to accomplish Charlestown’s goals for 2009 and beyond.

Daniel Slattery, President
Charlestown Citizens Alliance