Lessons in Leadership and Collaboration
This post is written by current student Josh Davis.
Josh Davis is a current on-campus student in the UNC MPA program. From a military family, he lived mainly in Virginia before earning a bachelor’s degree in political science from Baylor University. Josh is currently completing his Professional Work Experience with the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management, where he supports the State Budget System Replacement Project and budget development initiatives.
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During my Professional Work Experience (PWE), I had the opportunity to work with staff from various divisions of the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM). One of my projects that required extensive collaboration was developing a prototype Budget Tool for North Carolina residents. When developing the tool with my project supervisor, we aimed to make it easy and engaging for residents to use while accurately depicting the complexity of state budgeting. I researched budget tools from other states to gain insight into potential features and designs we could incorporate. We wanted the tool to help residents better understand the trade-offs involved in state budget decisions, so we organized spending by major policy areas and designed it to allow users to adjust spending and revenue sources themselves.
To gain input from OSBM staff on the tool, my project supervisor and I held informal focus groups with staff from the Demographic and Economic Analysis, Budget Development, and Communications Divisions. The focus groups made me realize that collaboration is not always about reaching an immediate agreement. Each analyst evaluated the tool from a different point of view based on their role, and their views did not always point to the same solution. At times, this made it more difficult for me to decide how the tool should be designed, but it also made the final product stronger by forcing us to think through the needs of each person who would engage with the tool. What made the collaboration successful was our willingness to listen to each perspective and recognize that the goal was not to find a perfect solution, but to develop the best tool we could for its intended audience.
Communications staff also provided a valuable perspective by pointing out that the general public could not meaningfully engage with the tool without a basic understanding of key budget terms and concepts. They suggested using pop-up notes that users could click to learn more about key budget concepts and better understand the implications of their choices.
Collaborating with staff across OSBM’s divisions taught me that effective collaboration involves recognizing the value different perspectives bring to a project like this one. I saw firsthand how government must serve people with different needs and communicate information to people with varying levels of knowledge. I also learned that there is rarely one right or wrong answer when developing initiatives intended to benefit the public. Instead, public servants must use good judgment to determine what approach best serves the public.
This experience will influence how I approach collaboration throughout my career in public service. Effective collaboration can often be time consuming, but taking the time to consider different points of view is essential to understanding the full picture. It also showed me that leadership is not all about having the right answer or making the final decision. Sometimes, it means creating a space where people feel their ideas are being valued and can shape a stronger outcome. Most importantly, I learned how building relationships and learning from others can ultimately lead to better outcomes for the public.
