What Tiny Islands Taught Me About Great Cities

1. Residents rarely see the systems.

They flip a light switch. They put out their trash. They turn on the faucet. Those everyday moments are invisible. Until they aren't.

The best customer experience often happens when nothing feels difficult at all.

2. Every city has an ensemble cast.

The mayor gets the headlines. But cities run because of engineers, planners, finance teams, public works crews, communications professionals, utilities, IT, customer service staff, and countless others.

Every one of them shapes the resident experience.

3. Communications gives invisible work a face.

One of the biggest challenges in government isn't that people dislike public services. It's that they don't always understand the work happening behind them.

That's why storytelling matters. When you explain why a road is closed, introduce the crew restoring power after a storm, or show how resident feedback changed a project, you're doing more than sharing information. You're building understanding. You're making government feel human.

And when you meet people where they are, on social media, in their inbox, at community events, through 311, or wherever they naturally engage, you make it easier for them to connect with the work happening around them instead of expecting them to come find it.

Trust grows when people understand not just what government does, but who is doing it, why it matters, and how it improves their everyday lives.

Working in local government completely changed how I see communities. I can't walk through an airport without thinking about transportation. I can't visit another city without noticing their social media. And apparently… I can't ride a boat around tiny islands without wondering who collects the recycling.

Residents don't experience departments. They experience moments.

The water works. The permit gets approved. The website answers their question. The power comes back on after a storm. The pothole gets fixed.

Each interaction is another scene in your city's story.

The role of communications isn't just to announce what happened after the fact. It's to connect those moments into a story residents can see themselves in. Because when people understand the "why" behind the work, and see that their voices are reflected in decisions, they're more likely to trust the people doing it.

Watching Widow's Bay reminded me that every mayor may be the public face of a community. But my trip around the Thimble Islands reminded me of something even more important. Every great community is built by people whose names most residents will never know. The challenge, and the opportunity, is making sure their work doesn't stay invisible.

Tell their stories.

Celebrate the people behind the services.

Meet residents where they are.

Because residents aren't judging departments. They're judging one experience.

This is basically the whole reason I started Oh, hi! Stories. Every episode is a conversation with someone who thinks about how we connect with and show up for the people around us: former mayors, public servants, storytellers, a former Sprint CEO, my old MTV mentor. People who, in their own way, make their corner of the world work a little better.

If this issue resonated, the podcast is the longer version of it.

Talk soon,

Dana

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