By Tommy Royston and Paul Danczyk
More than 40 senior-level legislative staff members representing 20 states nationwide learned leadership strategies that focused on highly intensive political environments, as part of the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Legislative Staff Management Institute (LSMI) in Sacramento.
The LSMI – co-directed by Paul Danczyk, director of executive education for the USC Price School of Public Policy in Sacramento, and Steve Boilard, executive director of the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento – was held Jul 12-19.
This year’s program celebrated the 10th anniversary of the partnership between NCSL, CSUS and USC, as well as the 25th year of the LSMI program.
Through engaging instructional techniques including simulations, case-studies and a white-water rafting team-building exercise, participants gained new insights on a variety of leadership topics. Core presentations emphasized organizational culture, collaboration, negotiation, ethics and customer service.
“Executive trainings are critically important to foster good governance in our rapidly changing society,” Danczyk noted.
Since USC Price and CSUS took over management of the program in 2005, 331 legislative staffers from across the United States have taken part in LSMI.
The program received very positive feedback from participants, with 100 percent indicating that they would recommend the training to other legislative staffers.
In addition to funding from the NCSL Foundation for State Legislatures and the Union Pacific Foundation, this program was made possible through the efforts of Tommy Royston, USC Price program administrator, as well as several nationally recognized instructors: