December 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 39

vision about what is unique and transformational about what you do. If we
are serious about high performance,
we must put out a positive message.
And there is quite a bit of science that
backs this up - if staff members are
feeling downtrodden, beaten and lost,
they will not reach high levels of performance. If you hope to achieve such
high performance, you will never get
there through gloom and doom.
Tulipane: What about taking risks?
Why is it important we do so?
Gilbert: We should not shy away from
risk. Nothing risked, nothing gained.
We need to do a better job explaining
why we should try out new things, and
we especially need to do a better job explaining the risks of not taking action.
Tulipane: You don't get a pass on
risk. Everyone must take them and
at the end of the day, you will be
judged on how well you met the
challenges you faced.
Gilbert: If you are willing to take
risks to better your agency, you are
well on the way to creating an entrepreneurial organization.
Tulipane: Do you think most park
and recreation agencies follow an
enterprise approach?
Gilbert: I don't know that there is clear
evidence to support that. The average
agency gains about 30 percent of revenue from enterprise operations. This is
good, but you can't measure success on
cost recovery. It may seem counterintuitive, but your measure is taken in how
you react, change and reinvent yourself
- you build public support, taxpayer
support, by how you will achieve your
mission. The organization must constantly change and adapt.
Barbara Tulipane, CAE, is NRPA's President
and CEO (btulipane@nrpa.org). Richard J.
Dolesh is NRPA's Vice President of
Conservation and Parks (rdolesh@nrpa.org).

BOOK REVIEW
High Performance Agencies: The
Entrepreneurial Model for Public Parks,
Recreation and Tourism Agencies
By Paul A. Gilbert
Paul Gilbert, executive director of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority
(NOVA Parks), has written a book that speaks to the aspirations of professionals in the
field of parks, recreation and tourism. In the opening pages of " High Performance
Agencies: The Entrepreneurial Model for Public Parks,
Recreation and Tourism Agencies, " he states, " The passive manager...no longer will be a model of success. "
Gilbert goes on to lay out a thesis that park and recreation agencies will only remain successful and vibrant
if they continually reinvent themselves according to
an entrepreneurial organizational model.
The entrepreneurial organization is not solely about
raising revenue, although that is a large part of the measure of success. It is as much about managing successfully in a time of profound change. Those agencies that
are capable of creating a sustainable revenue model,
adopting the best practices of business and industry, repositioning to continuously create value for the public,
and advancing a mission and vision that is in tune with
community needs, will all lead to high performance and
providing top-quality service to the public .

The book will appeal to
experienced professionals in the
field, and it will be especially valuable
for those entering the field.
" High Performance Agencies " examines the enterprise approach, delves into how
to best manage human and financial resources, and ends with some very good content on positioning, leadership and creating a vision for the future. The book will
appeal to experienced professionals in the field, and it will be especially valuable
for those entering the field. It was also recently adopted as an official text of NRPA's
Revenue Development and Management School. There are a number of subsidiary
resources interspersed in the text, and numerous real-life examples of how agencies
are transforming into entrepreneurial organizations.
Gilbert's latest text is a good read for managers, entry-level professionals and students
alike. The examples are relevant to the challenges facing agencies today, and the prescriptions for managing in a time of change are valuable lessons grounded in reality.
" High Performance Agencies: The Entrepreneurial Model for Public Parks, Recreation and Tourism Agencies, " copyright Sagamore Publishing, 2014, is available for
purchase at www.sagamorepub.com.
- Richard J. Dolesh, NRPA's Vice President of Conservation and Parks

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