Organizational Support
Consulting Services
Expertise when you need it. Capacity when you’re stretched. Project-based engagement with clear endpoints.
Think Tanks, coaching, and workshops build leadership capacity over time. Sometimes the challenge is more immediate. A vacancy that needs filling now. A transition that needs support this quarter. A project that exceeds current bandwidth. The underlying work is the same: helping local government leaders navigate changed conditions with clarity. These services apply that work to situations where timing, capacity, or scope call for a different kind of engagement.
Interim Management
Your city manager resigned unexpectedly. Your county administrator is on extended leave. Your department head position has been vacant for months and the search keeps stalling.
You need someone in the seat. Not a placeholder. Someone who can maintain momentum, handle the daily decisions, and set up the next leader for success.
Interim work isn’t about making yourself indispensable. It’s about creating stability and leaving the organization better positioned for permanent leadership.
Why an External Interim Manager?
When a leadership vacancy happens suddenly, urgency often drives the decision. The most available internal candidate gets appointed rather than the right transition person. That’s understandable, but it carries real organizational risk.
Promoting an internal candidate into an interim role can create a cascading leadership void. The position they vacated now needs filling. The positions below that shift. What started as one vacancy quietly becomes several, weakening the organization at a moment when stability matters most.
An experienced external interim manager brings a different set of advantages: familiarity with the demands of the position, the ability to communicate directly with staff and elected officials without pre-existing political dynamics, experience managing change in similar environments, and a focus on preparing the organization for the next permanent leader.
Common Questions About Interim Management
Will the Interim Manager be an employee of the municipality?
No. In our standard agreement, the interim manager functions as an independent contractor. The municipality has no obligation for payroll taxes, retirement contributions, life and health insurance, car allowance, professional development costs, or association dues.
When can the Interim Manager begin working?
While the desire is always “immediately,” a few variables impact timing, including the availability of the interim manager and the location of the municipality. Typically, our interim manager will begin working within 30 days.
How many potential Interim Managers are available?
We work with experienced local government professionals who have the skill sets and temperament for transitional interim leadership. Availability depends on timing and location. Contact us to discuss your situation and we’ll be direct about what’s realistic.
Will you recruit an interim manager for us?
We don’t compete in executive recruitment. We do regularly partner with experienced professionals who are vetted, methodology-aligned, and qualified for interim leadership. We also have a nationwide network through our City Manager and County Administrator Think Tanks that can help identify the right person. Sometimes we can move quickly. Other times, the right match takes longer. We’ll tell you which situation you’re in.
Leadership Transition Teams
When a new County Administrator or City Manager is hired, particularly from outside the organization, uncertainty is natural. Staff wonder what changes are coming. The elected body wants to see early results. Department heads wait to see how the new leader operates. Everyone is watching, and the clock is already running.
A Leadership Transition Team provides a short-term infusion of executive talent to increase the likelihood of a successful leadership transition. The team supports the new leader through the critical early months without pre-existing agendas or bias, and leaves when the job is done.
A new leader faces a line of people wanting, needing, and expecting to meet with them. It could take weeks or months for one person to hear from everyone and develop a strategy. The municipal calendar won’t stop. A Leadership Transition Team lets the new City Manager focus on what is urgent while having trusted executive capacity to drive what else is important.
What a Transition Team Does
Assess. Help the new manager evaluate departments, internal resources, and organizational dynamics in the early weeks when first impressions matter most.
Absorb. Handle incoming requests, projects, and demands that exceed the new manager’s capacity during the transition period.
Oversee. Provide direct oversight of specific projects, departments, or personnel situations as needed by the new leader.
Recommend. Deliver clear recommendations with action steps and accountability measures, then step away.
Leadership transitions don’t fail because the new hire isn’t capable. They fail because the conditions of the transition overwhelm even capable people. A Transition Team changes those conditions.
Part-Time Executive Support
Not every organization needs a full-time hire to solve a senior leadership gap. Budget constraints, hiring timelines, or the scope of the need may call for a different approach.
Through the same partner network, we can provide experienced part-time executive capacity for municipalities that need senior leadership support without a full-time commitment. This can mean a few days per week on-site, remote strategic support, or a hybrid arrangement tailored to what the organization actually needs right now.
The engagement is scoped to your situation and designed to end when the need is resolved, whether that’s a permanent hire, an internal promotion, or a restructured role.
Project-Based Consulting
Sometimes you need external expertise for a specific challenge. Not ongoing support, just focused help on a defined problem with clear deliverables.
Organizational assessments. Independent evaluation of culture, operations, or leadership dynamics.
Process improvement. Analyzing and redesigning operational workflows.
Executive search support. Defining requirements, evaluating candidates, and supporting transitions.
Custom challenges. Your situation may not fit a standard category. Let’s discuss.
AI Governance Consulting
AI is changing how organizations operate, but implementation without structure creates more problems than it solves. We help local governments navigate AI adoption by starting with the governance question: what are you protecting, and do your systems enforce that?
AI governance consulting. For organizations ready to move beyond conversation, we offer hands-on engagement grounded in The Shift That Sticks methodology. We start with where your organization actually is with AI, assess the governance gaps, and build the framework that ensures AI operates within the boundaries your leadership defines. You own the system when we leave. Learn more about our approach to AI governance →
How Consulting Engagements Work
Every consulting project starts with a conversation to understand what you’re facing. If we can help, we’ll scope the engagement together, with clear deliverables, a defined timeline, and a specific investment.
Engagements have endpoints. We solve the problem and deliver what we scoped.
Pricing: Project-based, scoped to your specific needs. We’ll provide a clear proposal with defined costs before work begins. No hourly billing surprises.
Confidential conversation. No obligation.
Tell Us What You’re Facing
Share a bit about your situation and which service area you’re considering. We’ll respond within one business day.
Schedule a Discovery Call
30 minutes to talk through what you’re dealing with and whether we can help.
Other Services to Consider
Consulting addresses specific projects. Other services support ongoing development, team alignment, or organizational culture.