The environment, under Perpich, enabled reform-minded individuals to flourish, Armajani says. Other Perpich officials would sign on, including Zlonis, Lawrence Grant and Connie Nelson, and from the University of Minnesota, Richard Heydinger. Breakthroughs are still an Armajani goal. Armajani's philosophy is that increased spending on a dysfunctional bureaucratic system doesn't produce significantly better results, nor does cutting spending in such a system improve results either. Its 14 partners, including those like Osborne and Stone living in distant cities, meet collegially for basic decisions.
Office dress is very informal.
The partners do have areas of specialization, but there's also overlapping activity. And there's no office secretary. Among Public Strategies' successes has been reforming an Illinois state child-protection and placement program. The company ended seemingly entrenched divisions among affected parties. Meanwhile, Jeff Zlonis is in Nairobi this week working with a Kenya-based group on a strategy to find resources to plant trees in Africa as a tool against greenhouse warming caused by fossil fuels and as a tool against Third World poverty.