Municipal Leaders: Develop Faster, Lead Stronger, Build Better
Every week, you’ll get insights and actionable steps to help you navigate personal growth and professional success.
Yusuf, a Palestinian, and Avi, an Israeli…each lost his father to the other side’s conflict. Instead of carrying that forward, they built a program together for resolving the kind of conflict that seems permanent: the kind where both sides are certain, with real evidence, that they’re the reasonable one.
That story sits at the center of The Anatomy of Peace, by the Arbinger Institute, this week’s book inside MLDC. The core idea is uncomfortable but hard to argue with: most of the conflicts you’re stuck in aren’t being caused by the other person nearly as much as they’re being sustained by how you’ve already decided to see them. The council member who blocks everything. The department that’s gone quiet. The resident who shows up furious before you’ve said a word. You’re usually not wrong about the facts; you’ve just stopped looking at the whole picture the moment you decided how the relationship goes.
This week, MLDC members are working through five specific ideas from this book, built for the job you actually have, not a generic version borrowed from the private sector.
If any of this sounds like a relationship you’re currently stuck in, now’s the time to go all in on your own development. Secure your 2027 MLDC membership and make next year the one where you stop out-strategizing conflict and start resolving it. And if you want to go deeper, we’re running a small number of Mastermind groups starting in January — a limited group of leaders working through their current challenges and opportunities. Applications close October 31st, so don’t wait on this one.
Join or apply at HaltingWinter.com/MLDC.
The Municipal Leadership Development Circle (MLDC), led by Seth Winterhalter, is a community for city and county managers, administrators, and local government leaders who believe leadership shouldn’t be carried alone. Through trusted peer relationships, candid conversations, and practical leadership development, the MLDC creates space for municipal leaders to think differently, grow intentionally, and navigate the challenges of leadership alongside people who understand the weight of the work. Learn more at HaltingWinter.com/MLDC.
