One of the exciting things during the mayoralty and city council primaries this past spring was to see the coming together of so many organizations to form the Next Great City coalition.

The group was diverse, the interests varied but the goal was the same: To improve the quality of life in Philadelphia to make it a better place to work and live. The key ingredient to building the coalition was coalescing around a set agenda. And what made the agenda palatable to the candidates was its practicality. Let’s select issues than can be done by the city, within a finite time frame and won’t break the bank. In short, it took excuses away from those who would say we can’t afford it or it requires state or federal action.

But as we all know, there is a big difference between candidates nodding their heads in agreement or saying the politically correct thing and the then successful candidate turning rhetoric into reality once he or she becomes an elected official.

I don’t think the gap between rhetoric and reality is necessarily because the candidate was acting in bad faith or simply said what he or she thought the crowd wanted to hear. The real gap, I think, is between what the newly elected official thought the problems were going to be as a candidate and what they actually are when he or she shows up for work.

In less than six months, the next mayor will start to understand the difference. The financial challenges of the city and the school district will become his challenges as well as the problems of violence and upcoming labor negotiations and a host of other issues that will be stacked sky high on his desk come next January.

Now what does that mean for the Next Great City? How does the coalition make sure its agenda doesn’t get lost in the pile of issues in the mayor’s inbox?

It may require the coalition to undergo another round of goal and priority setting to determine which agenda items to advance and at what point in time. It will require a thoughtful and strategic approach with a mix of patience, diplomacy, understanding and, yes, a good dose of advocacy thrown in too.

Importantly, a solid collaborative effort among coalition members has already built a good foundation that is manifested in its agenda. It will be important to keep the coalition together and try to prevent folks from going their own way.

I am reminded that when I was managing director, I actually liked big snow storms to fight. The reason, quite simply, was the satisfaction I felt when I saw a host of departments working well together—Streets, Police, Water, Health, Fairmount Park, Recreation—you name it. The walls of the individual departmental silos melted away while the snow piled up.

The reason, I believe, is we had a clear mission: Get the snow off the streets.

By the same token, the coalition needs to keep in mind its clear mission: Make Philadelphia the next great city.