Last night I was invited to attend a presentation by the Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce at which they shared the results from the recently completed community survey. Hats off to the Chamber for taking this on. It was executed in an extremely professional manner.
Details of the survey will be forthcoming, but my reaction was similar to that of the firm who conducted the highly scientific survey. Grosse Pointe residents are very, very happy with the services they receive – in fact in far greater proportion than peer communities (in size, geographic area, and economic characteristics).
Much of the emphasis was on traditional municipal services such as police, fire, EMS, waste collection, snow removal, and the like. Public schools were also part of the analysis, but to a lesser extent. But in areas where residents were polled on their satisfaction with the public schools of Grosse Pointe residents again expressed their high degree of satisfaction.
I say again because we did our own poll last fall and saw a similar response. By and large, residents are indeed VERY happy with the GPPSS. There is always room for improvement, but we should approach these as opportunities to leverage our strengths. That is one of my primary goals moving forward – helping us truly recognize and leverage the unique skills and strengths and attributes we possess and doing everything we can to enhance, harness, parlay and leverage those to greater success.
No organization ever got any better solely by identifying weaknesses. They get better by improving. Identifying strengths and assets is fundamental to that approach and therefore fundamental to success.
Thank you, Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce. Well done.