Geographical Thinking: Season 4 Episode 20 – Management Perspectives

Get ready for a retrospective! It’s time for Management Perspectives, a special series of the Geographical Thinking podcast where we discuss how geospatial strategy is helping organizations achieve their business goals. On this episode of Management Perspectives, Esri Canada management consultant Kelsey Davis chats with Nigel Forster, GIS specialist with the City of Medicine Hat in Alberta, about three successful years of geospatial strategy at the City. They go over how a geospatial approach has transformed the City’s workflows, created GIS advocates among stakeholders and acted as a strong foundation for technological change at the City. You’ll discover how the City has used GIS to bring stakeholders together from different departments, develop citizen awareness and modernize processes of all kinds. 0:00 – Episode summary 0:58 – Intros 2:19 – The strategic journey 6:34 – Implementing the strategy 13:20 – Working through change 18:03 – Lessons learned 21:19 – Most valuable moments 23:16 – Outro We’re posting new episodes full of inspiring geography stories at least monthly. Subscribe to Esri Canada’s channel so you never miss a new episode of Geographical Thinking!  Additional resources Looking for resources on what we discussed in today’s podcast? Check them out below! City of Medicine Hat: https://www.medicinehat.ca/en/index.aspx Located in southeast Alberta, Medicine Hat has over 65,000 residents and is growing every year. Building a shared vision for your organization’s GIS strategy: https://resources.esri.ca/gis-strategy/building-a-shared-vision-for-your-organization-s-gis-strategy A successful GIS strategy starts with an inspiring shared vision. Use this guide to craft a geospatial vision statement for your own organization. Navigating executive and leadership engagement gaps: a primer for GIS workforces and their leaders: https://resources.esri.ca/gis-strategy/navigating-executive-and-leadership-engagement-gaps-a-primer-for-gis-workforces-and-their-leaders Want more executive support for GIS? Use these six tactics to foster increased engagement between business leaders and your geospatial program. Talking geospatial to executives: Tactics to connect and communicate: https://resources.esri.ca/gis-strategy/talking-geospatial-to-executives-tactics-to-connect-and-communicate Communicating effectively with executives about GIS isn’t easy, but you can make it easier using these seven conversation techniques. How to communicate the business value of your tech innovation: Getting more technology investment in your organization likely depends on you getting buy-in from decision makers. This blog post shows you how. The path to geospatial excellence: https://www.esri.com/en-us/path-to-geospatial-excellence/overview Achieving geospatial excellence requires skills in areas beyond just technology. Esri has assembled these resources to help your geospatial function become more well rounded. The Geospatial Edge: https://www.esri.ca/en-ca/landing-pages/geospatial-edge Gain a geographic advantage with The Geospatial Edge. Subscribe to get a quarterly delivery of geospatial strategy and management insights right to your inbox.