Articles

Here are some thoughts on a string over at BFD:

Jack is exactly right. Cleveland does not have a monopoly on ineffective civic behavior. Communities and regions all over the country are struggling to define new patterns of civic conversation and action. (In this country, we use the term, “engagement”. Interestingly, in Mexico, they use the term “linkage”.)

Defining these new patterns is critically important for a simple reason. The challenges we face — from failing schools to a slipping international position in innovation to imagining new possibilities for shrinking cities to reducing the lead poisoning of our children — are all complex.

We must meet us these challenges outside the four walls of any one organization. In other words, we must think and act strategically on complex projects in an open space, a space in which no one can tell anyone else what to do.

Paradoxically, managing complexity in this way is simple. But it is not easy. It requires discipline and practice. But as Jack notes (and as many corporations have found), we can manage complexity with a set of simple rules, consistently applied.

When we do this, remarkable transformations are possible. Next week, I will be in Idaho, where the state is applying open-source economic development to transform its workforce development system.

Last week, I was in Mexico with 11 institutions ranging from technical high schools to universities. In the space of two days, we developed a strategic action plan for their aerospace cluster.

In March, I-Open will be convening a group with the Edward Lowe Foundation to work with civic leaders from Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois and Ohio. We will be building skills and sharing new tools on open-source approaches to economic development.

In short, this economic downturn is pushing people quickly to think of new ways of connecting and collaborating. The essential skill is the ability to conduct conversations that are both open and guided toward clear, concise, shared outcomes.

So, Anne, it’s not about strategic plans. Like other communities stuck on a traditional path, Cleveland probably has more strategic plans and more consulting reports than we need.

Nor is it about picking a relative handful of people “stakeholders” to participate in an event (a “conversation” — your term — to produce a strategy). That’s the approach that Voices and Choices took, with dismal results.

You are needlessly hampered by the way you are appraoching your task. You are thinking in terms of organizations and stakeholders. Think, instead about individuals, learning experiences, and networks.

My guess is that there are hundreds of people working, in their way, to transform Cleveland.

We do not need more plans. We want more coherence. We want leadership that can help Cleveland residents make sense of the future for a shrinking city.

This coherence does not come from experts, it comes from alignment. It does not come from plans, it comes from purposeful conversation. It does not come from either the top down or the bottom up (these are old ways of thinking that no longer apply.) It comes from people learning to link and leverage.

Cleveland needs a democratic process, guided by simple rules, that enable people to align, link and leverage their assets toward new opportunities.

Cleveland is missing a dedication to democratic leadership committed to creating strong, responsible, self-reliant individuals willing to work together on these complex challenges.

As John Polk has so correctly noted, Cleveland’s autocratic pattern of leadership is about preserving power, regardless of the consequences. This pattern is widely shared among the handful of people guiding Cleveland’s chamber of commerce, foundations, and government.

Cleveland needs a new approach to civic leadership dedicated to a simple proposition that the most effective way to direct people is simply to help them direct themselves. We already see this pattern emerging and Lorain, Akron and Youngstown. In time, we will see the emergence in Cleveland.

Holly Harlan, Jim Gilmore, Jack Ricchiuto, Valdis Krebs, David Cooperrider, George Nemeth have all achieved national recognition for developing the tools and practices of leading an open networks.

These skills require balancing open participation with leadership guidance. They require authenticity, transparency, humility, relentless optimism, sharing.

This leadership guidance in a networked world can, and does, come from anywhere. Leadership is not the function of a position but the product of a personality. Leadership roles are not concentrated. They are widely dispersed and shared as circumstances change.

In an economy that operates increasingly with open networks, civility is strategic.

Rather than try to snap together yet another strategic plan with the Lego blocks of existing organizations, Greater Ohio should focus on rebuilding the civic process in Cleveland, a widespread practice of strategic doing. We are following this process at Purdue with some remarkable results. The Milwaukee 7 region is adopting the same practices.

All this is possible in Cleveland.

The conversation about “what’s next” for Cleveland is already taking place on countless blogs and other spaces. Only recently have a few, just a few, of Cleveland’s titular leaders begun to listen.

The Cleveland comeback has stalled. Here's an article that explores why. Also, I have set up a forum to continue the discussion. I'm moving the comments below over to our forum.

Over at BFD, Rob Pitingolo raised an interesting issue about how to capture young graduates and make a city more sticky.

Creating a cool place

This strategy, of course, is the main foucs of Richard Florida's work. While Florida is a little vague when it comes to figuring out what to do to make a cool place, most economic development professionals have focused on developing a creative city. So, for example, Savannah you have the Creative Coast.

Some good resources include Partners for Livable Communities. They have published a background paper, which I am attaching.

If you want to learn more about this line of thinking, start by reading Creative City by Charles Landry.

On making a cool place for graduates, there are a number of resources to consult. Rebecca Ryan , who has consulted in Akron, has built an entire consulting practice on this strategy.

Connecting with college students

College 360, patterned after an initiative in Philadelphia, in NOCHE's effort to connect with college students. I'm not sure how well it's doing. The site looks pretty sleepy.

Internship initiatives

NOCHE runs an internship initiative.  I don't know much about it, though.

The site does not appear as dynamic as Indiana INTERNnet, with which I am more familiar. This initiative is directly connected to the state chamber of commerce. (I've attached a brief description.) Below is a description of an expansion of their internship initiative to high schools.

We are collecting information on the hidden connections that are distorting Cleveland's strategy over at Map the Mess. We are devoting this website to defining a new, more positive agenda for Cleveland.

One of first suggestions we have received involves mentoring. There's a good deal of activity taking place to redefine how mentoring and high school guidance takes place.  In Pennsylvania, they've launched an e-mentoring program. You can learn more about this program by visiting their website. I have included a brochure below.

In addition, I have been working with a collaboration of about 30 school districts in  Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin. One of their key initiatives through the Center for Education Innovation and Regional Economic Development involves improving guidance and mentoring within the region.

Here is what we mean by a new "brainpower" strategy. The Dayton region is taking a leadership role in improving STEM education (science, technology, engineering and math).  Below, you can thumb through a report that outlines their strategy.

In Cleveland, we have Fenn Academy, based at CSU's Fenn Academy and John Hay High School.

I'm not sure what other assets  we have on which to build a STEM strategy.

We woke this morning to yet another disappointment in the Plain Dealer. So, it's a new year and a new day. And we thought we'd launch this site to gather our thoughts. There will be some cross-posting to Brewed Fresh Daily and Real NEO. But this site is really foucsed on "What's next for Cleveland?" 

Here's the post I made over at Brewed Fresh Daily that tipped this whole thing off.

It's hard to imagine which is worse. On the one hand, we have a county commission that is having the worst time putting together a 30-year-old idea that is 10 years late: building a convention center.

The commission has gone ahead to finance the project with public money with no business plan: a process no businessman or banker in their right mind would follow. The result is one of the goofiest public investment projects to come down the pike in a long time. (Recall that since the Commission's decision to finance this project last summer, the financial markets have melted and the economy is heading for a prolonged recession. Not a peep from the Commission that they have evaluated these dramatically changed circumstances.)

On the other hand, we have the self-serious Plain Dealer editorial writers who insist that a medical mart is vitally important for the future of city, even though we don't even have a business plan that explains the concept. (Recall also that reporting by Jay Miller of Crain's raised serious -- and still unanswered -- questions about the economic viability of the medical mart months ago.)

Both are examples of failed leadership.

It turns out, as the Cleveland Federal Reserve economists have pointed out on numerous occasions, educational attainment is a key driver of economic development. Apparently, too few of of Cleveland's leaders have read the basics as set forth in the Cleveland Fed's 2005 annual report.

It appears none of our leaders have read the excellent work done by by Paul Gottlieb and Mike Fogarty at REI in 1999 on the role of educational attainment and metropolitan income growth. (Their nationally recognized work won the Milken Institute Award for Distinguished Economic Research.)

The County would be far better off investing its sales tax revenue to provide college tuitions to Cuyahoga County residents. Take a look at the Kalamazoo Promise. Or, the Davenport Promise. Or, the Pittsburgh Promise. Or, the Texas Tuition Promise Fund.

Just as important, we could invest in early childhood education as an economic development strategy, since, as this morning's paper outlines, we have one of the best programs in the country.

Cuyahoga County early childhood program is model for others

The Minneapolis Fed has outlined the economic case. The prestigious Committee for Economic Development in Washington has set the policy priority. Nobel laureate James Heckman underscores the opportunity to innovate in public education.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

It's our tax money, but it's not about us. It's about them. Who gets the deal. Who controls the contracts. Who gets bailed-out.

It's time to defend Cleveland against failed, burned-out, cynical leadership.