7. Silos talking to Silos is not Collaboration
Water
Buildings
Power
Generation
Transportation & Conservation
Fuel Supply
Waste
Data
Communications
Current Infrastructure Strategy – Disconnected Silos
8. We rank 18th in railroads, 19th in ports, 20th in roads, 30th in airports, and
33rd in the quality of our electrical system.
Relative to our economic competitors,
we have no national infrastructure planning, we systematically underfund
infrastructure investments, and we fail to use rigorous measures of evaluation and
accountability for the projects we do manage to fund. This makes for a drag on our
economy.
William A. Galston | January 23, 2013; Crumbling Infrastructure Has Real and Enduring Costs
9. One example: in 2010,
Americans spent a total of 4.8 billion hours stuck in traffic,
wasting 1.9 billion gallons of fuel, at a total cost of $101 billion.
11. …aggregate investment continues to fall far short of needs—
by an estimated $1.1 trillion between now and 2020, according to ASCE projections.
….Unless the US invests an additional $1.57 billion per year in infrastructure—
drinking water and waste water, electricity, airports, seaports and waterways,
and surface transportation—between now and 2020,
the nation will lose $3.1 trillion in GNP (gross national product), $1.1 trillion in trade, a
$3,100 per year drop in personal disposable income, $2.4 trillion in lost consumer spending,
and a little over 3.1 million jobs. ASCE
12. Confrontation
Doesn’t Work
Threats Don’t Work
Whining Doesn’t Work
This Doesn’t Work Either
What are our Infrastructure
Investment Strategies for the future?
13. During the 20th Century –
our relational context is an unintended consequence of the infrastructure we built.
• Prior to 20th Century Countryside to Cities – better quality of life
• Industrial Age rapid growth of cities – overcrowding & underinvestment
• Post WW2 back to countryside – cheap energy, abundant resources & unprecedented public
infrastructure investment
• Problems emerge early in spreading out approach – congestion, pollution & concentrated
poverty
• Problems treated separately – widen roads, malls, unleaded gas, urban renewal to disperse poverty
• Increasing level of problems – higher cost of services, environment degraded, less open space access,
suburb decline, suburbanization of poverty, increasing congestion
• Future piecemeal solutions – complex infrastructure approvals, gated communities, private security,
prop 13 tax revolt, traffic calming, car pooling, solutions interfere with other solutions
• Meanwhile – houses & lots increase in size, urban land increased twice as fast as population, personal
satisfaction stagnate
Our Challenge for the 21th Century is fundamentally different –
Build infrastructure that intentionally supports
Relational Environments of Ever-Renewing Communities.
15. It’s up to us!
We must be the solution!
The blame game ties us to the past.
16. Agile Planning Effect
Innovating Networks
Increased collaboration outcomes
Capacity & Resilience growth
Increasing opportunities
Adapt to complexities
Link & Leverage gains
Increasing prosperity
Resource Alignment
New thinking, behaving & doing
Shared outcomes & resources
Co-created value
Trust grows
Do
Agile Planning
Plan Strategic Doing Discipline
Relational Methodology
Connected Plan & Implement
Where we are today
Good work not aligned
Unproductive duplication
Unproductive conflict
Perceived resource shortages
Problems getting bigger
6.29.12
Purdue Center for Regional Development &
17.
18. …Focus 21st Century neighborhood…
Academic Institutions Green
Broadband
Demo
Demo Private Sector
Utility District
2ndstage R&DDD PRATT
Bus. support Recycl’g
Grow local LONI Data/Com real-estate
capacity companies Lease
CCDM Arts bus. incentives
multi-developer
Edu. SWEPCO Green
Arts Edu. Green & Creative collaboration Local
CenterPoint Operations Story / Song
CERT Workforce Training Green Contractors food Writers
Arts Institutions Infrastructure Non-profit & subs
internships Caddo Pub. Investment developer Green Local artist
Opportunities Business
P,A & E Products
Schools LEED Local
New & Green Green
Private Collaborative Real-estate Creative & Venues SMG Joel Katz
Narratives Processes
Schools Investment Green E. Atty.
Learning Center, Action Plan for Workforce
Neigh.
Music
serving
New Media Center, “Green” Alignment of
Green
Technologies Industry Hayride
Companies
Arts High School
Community Schools Place Making Resources / Deployment Creative
& “Creative” Investments Economy
Entrepreneurs
New
Media
COG Economy
COS
Repopulate
DOS Mayor & City & Parish
Council Government
Federal
Inner City Cluster Effect
Resources
MPC Government Neighborhoods
Com. Dev. Resources State
Caddo Government
Spar
& Advisory Commission
HUD Resources Diverse & Private
Tax credit
Affordable investor
Housing Investment
DOE Individual
SporTran Authority energy Governor Faith Based & Lifestyles Foundations
Non-Profit Council of Private
USDA EPA Founds. Founds.
urb. ag. DOT LED Civic &
CDC Quasi Public Knight
Sec. of Loans Com.
DOE TACA Grants Found.
EDA state NLEDP Incentive
edu.
s Recd’g Arts
Pub. Serv. FAME Loan & Music E. Lowe
DOL DDA Choice NMTC
ILMS LHFA Guarantees Tax exempt
Com.
SRAC ABS Neighbo’hd
Preservation Bonds Credit
LSUS Promise Unions
WIB SB/CTB CRI FHWA Credits TIF
Ag Ext. O.Cem. FoMA SAC Challenge Community
Museums, Lc’l. food Energy Banks Regional
B’Nai First Holy Cross Antioch Sustain.
Brownfield Housing
e.g.; SAMM network Zion Methodist Church Church Credits Credits Banks
Com.
EDA D.Media Ent’mt
Public, Quasi-Public & Non-Profit Sectors Infrastruct. Credits Prod. Cred. Funding Sources
…Aligning, Linking & Leveraging …
19. Guided Relational Network Strategy
Agile Planning Framework
4. Work 5. Health
3. Education 6. Safety
2. Housing
7. Narratives
Culture of Caring
1.
Leadership
8.Infrastructure
Align & Focus a System of Relationships to Transform
www.shreveport-cntp.posterous.com
20. Focus Initiatives &
Groups / Forums Pathfinder Projects
Tech. Funding
Assist. Sources Programs
2. Housing Mixed Income
Seed
Investors 3. Education Cradle to Career
Financial 4. Work Green & Creative
Partners
Mgt.
Core Team Plan Local Food Systems
Coordinator 5. Health
Development
Design
Team Eyes on the Street
6. Safety
1. 7. Narratives Telling Our Stories
Leadership Culture of Caring
Team
Green & Smart
8.Infrastructure
Trust Environment - Relational Networks of the Civic Economy
Organization. Governance. Balanced Investment Portfolio.
21. Principles of New Urbanism
Melbourne Principles
National Parks Service Principles of Sustainability
Connecting Complexity – Lots of Similar Values, Principles & Systems
22. Sustainable Infrastructure balances natural systems & built environment.
Investment objectives include rebuilding the infrastructure both
“green” and “smart”. Buildings (residential, commercial and public),
utilities (energy / electricity, gas, water, sewer, storm drainage and
data communications), transportation (public and private) & natural
8.Infrastructure systems (conservation, watershed, parks, recreation…) that support
a neighborhood of choice for the 21st century sustainable community.
1. What should 21st Century neighborhood infrastructure for 20,000 people look like?
2. How will we align our resources to design and invest in that infrastructure?
3. Who will collaborate to shape innovative infrastructure?
4. How will we sustain an infrastructure that is affordable for a mixed income
population living in a mixed use environment?
5. What is the connection of infrastructure in establishing a trusted civic economy?
Connecting Complexity - Balanced Co-Investment Portfolio22
23. Sustainable Infrastructure balances natural systems & built environment.
Investment objectives include rebuilding the infrastructure both
“green” and “smart”. Buildings (residential, commercial and public),
utilities (energy / electricity, gas, water, sewer, storm drainage and
data communications), transportation (public and private) & natural
8.Infrastructure systems (conservation, watershed, parks, recreation…) that support
a neighborhood of choice for the 21st century sustainable community.
Waste LEED Power Generation Data
Conservation Transportation
Stream Buildings & Fuel Supply Communications
Water Mgt. Sewer Residential Alternatives on-site 100 mbs+ broadband Public
Runoff Solid Waste Public Renewables fiber Private
Gray Water Landfill Commercial Distributed Grid Smart Grid Service
Detention Construction
Retention
Smart Grid Note: Roads &
Recycle
Aquifer recharge Compost
Fuel Cell Obtain Utility Data Bridges
Urban Forest Natural Gas (bridge) Bike /
Urban Geothermal H.P. Pedestrian
Agriculture Combined Heat & “Complete
Power Streets”
Demonstration Utility
District?
Note: obtain utility data
Connecting Complexity - Balanced Co-Investment Portfolio23
24. Health investments improve health outcomes for residents through
5. Health physical activity, nutrition, wellness, preventive medicine, disease
management, caring & supportive relationships, & access to health care.
Local food system Parks & Recreation Bike Ped system Health care delivery
1. What should the health profile look like for a 21st Century neighborhood of 20,000
mixed income people – nutrition, exercise, health care…?
2. How will we align, link and leverage our resources to invest in that health system?
3. Who will collaborate to shape innovative health systems for this neighborhood?
4. How will we sustain an affordable health system for this mixed income population?
5. What is the connection of this health system in establishing a trusted civic economy?
Connecting Complexity - Balanced Co-Investment Portfolio
http://s-cntp-health.posterous.com/
25. 21st Century Healthy Neighborhoods
• Allendale scattered site
• Community System of farming in a food desert
Wellness Delivery – • Church owned vacant lots
Local • Adjudicated vacant land
Caring Relational Wellness
Food • I-49 corridor
Networks Platform(s) Systems
System • Farmer Training
• Churches
• CRI Friendship Houses • Ag extension
• CRI Haven Houses • Sankova
• Neighborhood Clinics • CERT Institutions
• School Clinics • Local Market Development
Diagram for 12.5.11
• Prevention • Local restaurants
Meeting Notes • Hospitals
Knowledge Networks
• Schools
• LSU Health
• Grocery Stores
• Service Providers
• Outcome Measures • Processing Facilities
• CERT Institutions (Private /Public opportunity)
• Eco System of Health or • Distribution System
(Private /Public opportunity)
Culture of Health
• Nutrition • Value Added Initiatives
• Exercise • Kitchen Incubator
• Community Caring • Cooperative Store
Networks • Sustainable Regional
• Place Based Strategies Local Food system
26. …It all starts with Food…
21st Century Healthy Neighborhoods
27. New
Fuller Center
Homes
Clay Street 4a
4 3
5a 5b 6
play
structure
& deck
5c 1 2 CRI
Friendship House #2
North Allen Street
CRI
Friendship
House #1
Community
Garden
Rear Clay Street (Alley)
1 Production station tent (welcome table)
2 Processing station tent (table & water hose) North
3 Distribution station tent (table could be shared with 4.)
4 Acquisition station tent (table)
Allendale Food System Experiences
New
Fuller Center
4a Acquisition - cooking equipment
5a Consumption station tent – (tables for dining /education (Wendi & LaRhonda)/ storytelling) Concept B Site Plan 20’ +/_
Homes 5b Consumption lawn dining – (tables and chairs on the lawn) 5.16.12
5c Consumption – porch health screenings & education (table and chairs)
6 Waste station tent – vermiculture bin and recycling (table)
Children Healthy
Food
Health
Information HUB
Health
screenings
Events /
Experiences
Neighborhood Lessons / Classes
Residents
Designing a Healthy Neighborhood HUB
28. …It all starts with Food… http://s-cntp-health.posterous.com/
29. • Local / Regional Food System
• Urban Agriculture
• Co-Operative Corner Stores
• Community Kitchen &
Incubator
• Food Entrepreneurs
• Neighborhood Businesses
• Training Urban Farmers
• Stories of Food Experiences
• CRI after school connections
• Church, city & adjudicated
properties
• Grow neighborhood capacity
• Link & Leverage Strategies
• Regional networks alignment
• Food Experiences
• Core Team Development
21st Century Healthy Neighborhoods
30. Southern Connection
Campus
David Raines Road
MLK Drive
Proposed Southern Connection
Village Center
KCS
21st Century Mixed-Use Neighborhood Development
Shreveport, Louisiana 8.28.12
31. Southern Connection
Campus
David Raines Road
MLK Drive
KCS
21st Century Mixed-Use Neighborhood Development
Shreveport, Louisiana 8.28.12
32. Mixed-use 2-3 floors. (ground floor business / apartments above)
Single Family 2 story (zero lot line with side yards & alley access to garage)
David Raines Road
Townhomes – 2 story owner and rental occupied
Education, Church & other public uses
Campus
10
7 8 8 8 MLK Drive
1
5 11 11 11
11
200’
North
1
2
6
KCS
9 3 4 3 3 4 3 4 3 4
11
12 12
Southern Connection – 21st Century Mixed-Use Neighborhood Development
1. Village Green 6. Complete Street Improvements on 9. Chapel
2. Market with Kitchen & Distribution Hilry Huckaby III Avenue 10. Proposed Lab or Charter School
Incubator with apartments above 7. Proposed Traffic Circle & public art Transformation Partnership with
3. Community Farm (6 acres) 8. Complete street improvements Caddo Schools (consider preK-12
8.27.12
4. “Hoop Houses” (USDA along MLK Drive including concept)
greenhouse program reducing lanes & on street parking 11. Shared parking
5. Existing SUSLa Incubator at SUSLa & Village Center 12. Existing Neighborhood Improvements
33. Mixed-use 2-3 floors. (ground floor business / apartments above)
Single Family 2 story (zero lot line with side yards & alley access to garage)
David Raines Road
Townhomes – 2 story owner and rental occupied
Education, Church & other public uses
Campus
1
7 MLK Drive
2 1
200’
North
1 2
KCS
1 2
Southern Connection – 21st Century Mixed-Use Neighborhood Development
Proposed Development Sequence
Development will start around the Market / Kitchen Incubator / Distribution Incubator with apartments above and begin
a Community Garden as part of the Market. Initial development will also begin at the corner of David Raines & MLK
8.27.12
Drive. Development is planned to grow from the edges to the center until complete. The development concept
includes a 21st century infrastructure that is “green” & “smart” and will include alternative energy as part of a
distributed power concept and waste composting for the community garden.
38. Southern Connection
21st Century Mixed-Use Neighborhood
Initial Proposed Mixed-Use Project
Fresh Produce Market
Community Kitchen & Incubator
Multi-use meeting, training, packaging, distribution room
2 floors of apartments
Outdoor gathering
Phase One Urban Farm
39. A Healthy Regional Food System Strategic Doing Pack
for the ArkLaTex
1
6
2
Local
Neighborhood Hubs
Connect
Regional
Food System
3
5
4
Outcomes by 2018 New Ways of Thinking:
Trust and Mutual Respect ,
1. Production. 10% of our food is grown in the region. Connection and Interdependence,
Individual and Mutual Responsibility,
Truth and Transparency.
2. Processing. Local Food processing center established. New Ways of Behaving:
Promote the civility we need for complex thinking,
3. Distribution. Food miles and producer costs reduced. Look around for link & leverage opportunities to co-create shared value,
Encourage project-based experimentation and continuous learning.
4. Acquisition. Regionally grown and branded food is 10% of New Ways of Doing:
regional food market. Moving from traditional hierarchal models where a few people at the top do the
thinking to New guided-open-network models that connect thinking & doing.
5. Consumption. 25% of what we eat is grown regionally.
6. Waste. 25% of food waste is returned to the food system.
This Strategic Doing Pack is designed to guide discussions. It represents a set of
exercises that can help keep your discussions focused.
These exercises are tied to Strategic Doing, a practice of
thinking and acting strategically in open networks.
At the end of the workshop, you should have touched on all topics needed to compile a
Strategic Action Plan.
Materials provided by Purdue Center for Regional Development……3.23.13……. 1 of 5
40. Traditional Planning • Agile Planning
Hierarchal process • Collaborative process (guided open network)
Public preference • Balance (open participation / leadership direction)
Plan, then what? • Implement while planning
Guide Book • Capacity Growing Iterative Process
Infrequent updates • Continuous revisions / continuous learning
(every 5 years) Periodic data analysis • Continuous data analysis
Individual Risks • Shared Risks
Individual Rewards • Shared Reward
(missed opportunities) High Opportunity Costs • Co-created value (link & leverage: 1≥ 2)
Political stakeholders • Civic Shareholders
Political Connections as Drivers • Design Quality as Value Driver
Avoid complexities to obtain Consensus • Engage Complexities and Connections
…as we uncover new ways to guide and use our networks
investable opportunities emerge when we connect planning and doing…
Notas do Editor
Where we are today: There is a tremendous level of good work going on today in all aspects of our lives. But somehow the problems keep getting bigger. There never seems to be enough resources for groups doing good work to “change the world”. It’s confusing. As we are more connected to a global world our sense of community is evolving faster and faster. Or depending on your point of view, devolving. We are torn in so many directions and have higher rates of loneliness and disconnectedness than ever. Ed Morrison has put it this way, “We are all watching our own movie.” Or as Yogi Berra said, “We don’t know where we’re going but we’re making really good time.”I don’t know about you, but I find it hard understand and even harder to know who is right when arrows in this chaos collide. This misaligned system costs us all in the form of inefficient use of resources and missed opportunities. Some may say we are witnessing symptoms of the end times. There are plenty of reasons to be fearful and overwhelmed. I would like to introduce you to a possible explanation for where we are. I would like you to leave with a new way to look at the world with greater hope and faith. I also want to introduce you to a discipline based at Purdue that we are growing nationally, “strategic doing”.Where we are going: We use strategic doing to guide loosely joined networks toward shared outcomes. As people continue their strategic conversations and update their strategies, they align. These strategies become opportunities to “ link and leverage” assets within the network. As that happens, the strategy becomes clearer, more focused, more coherent and more practical. This alignment takes time. It does not come from one workshop. It is a process that evolves over time. As trust builds within networks, members of the network are capable of doing more things, faster. They become more productive. That’s why strategic doing is not really geared to a one-time session. It is simple, but not easy. It is fun!In its purest form, strategic planning within corporations involved only a handful of people doing the thinking. The rest of the organization did the doing.This traditional approach to strategic planning has never been very comfortable in building the collaborations we need in our civic economy. The reason is simple. In our civic economy, no one can tell anyone else what to do. Where traditional approaches to strategic planning relied heavily on a hierarchical organization for implementation, we have no real hierarchies in our civic economy. As a result, implementation of strategic plans is particularly difficult in our civic economy. That’s why a lot of strategies for communities and regions end up sitting on the shelf.A more effective approach to strategy in the loose, open networks of our civic economy will not separate thinking from doing. Everyone involved will be doing thinking. And everyone involved will have some responsibility for translating ideas into action.With strategic doing, a strategic action plan requires constant tending. In dynamic situations in which we are learning by doing, strategic doing sessions should take place regularly. The good news is that people can do their strategic thinking quickly. The process itself can be fun.
As we begin the process of “transforming” our Choice Neighborhoods we would like to share a perspective or understanding of the dramatic changes we are seeing in our society and the world. The last 130 years or so of economic transformation can be described with two simple curves. The first curve represents our Grandfather’s economy. In this economy we generated wealth with large industrial corporations hierarchically organized to move a lot of resources and products efficiently. Beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, our Grandchildren’s economy began to emerge. This is an economy based on networks. The initial networks were logistical: containerization afraid and improved telecommunications enable large manufacturers to establish global manufacturing networks. In the 1990s, with the explosion of the Internet these networks became virtual. The most important insight, however, is that in our Grandchildren’s network wealth is generated through these open networks. Note that this transition is not the same as the common description of our economy moving from manufacturing to services. Manufacturing employment has declined, but manufacturing productivity has improved dramatically. We are continuing to build our manufacturing economy. However, manufacturers that do not move their business models toward open networks––by connecting with both their suppliers and their customers––are not agile enough to compete in the global economy where markets are shifting far more quickly than they have in the past.We can be even more precise. Our challenge involves connecting the assets of our Grandfather’s economy to build new networks for our Grandchildren’s economy. What are some of the assets we are talking about? It means connecting our libraries to our secondary schools and our public workforce system. It means connecting our universities and our community colleges. It means connecting our businesses to our community colleges and universities. The list goes on.
While urban or suburban sprawl might be hard to quantify, we all know it when we see it. It is dominated by low-density land use, single-use zoning, and automobile dependency. With the rapid outward growth of most metropolitan areas, this kind of development has unfortunately become commonplace. There are many negative consequences, including: rapid loss of farmland, wildlife habitat, and other natural resources, reduced water quality and quantity, and public health problems resulting from a relying exclusively on cars for transportation and from environmental toxins. In the recent Urban Land Institute report “Growing Cooler,” Reid Ewing et al write that “Since 1980, the number of miles Americans drive has grown three times faster than the U.S. population.” This can result in increased pollution, traffic, obesity, and infrastructure costs. LEED for Neighborhood Development is looking to encourage an alternative form of development.
Increase our collective impact by building on the efforts of the good work currently being done by many groups and caring individualsUse existing resources or assets to transform neighborhoodsFacilitate more collaboration, communication, and partnerships across existing networks in Flint without creating another administrative structure that needs to be fundedCreate innovative solutions for eliminating inequities and disparitiesFacilitate doable action until all our neighborhoods are reclaimed.
We can identify hubs in our networks that are trusted. Among the challenges in guiding our networks is to first look around for who should be involved? Who is interested? and how can I close triangles in our networks? How will we grow trust? How will we keep our networks open to learning and innovation? What will we do to guard the environment of trust that grows in our networks?
Can we grow the population of our Choice Neighborhoods from 6,000 to 20,000 over the next 10 years? What will it look like if 10% of Shreveport’s population are living in 2 square miles – just under 2% of its land area? We will organize this transformation plan around 8 focus areas. This organization is based on a village structure framework that is part of a local transformational model that systematically and intentionally grows the relational foundation of caring communities. This organization, Community Renewal International (CRI), will assist us in aligning “Mutually Enhancing Relationships” of our community to focus on revitalization outcomes.Shreveport has great capacity and resources in all of these focus areas. It may seem that we have shortage of resources to meet the challenges in each of these sectors. Or is it a problem of alignment of resources? Could it be a lack of shared outcomes rather than a lack of resources? Can we agree on shared outcomes that allow all of these sectors of our community to work toward the same outcomes while doing new and different projects?
Not surprisingly, the organization chart for a guided network looks different than the customary boxes and lines of a traditional organization chart.A core team has a guidance and training responsibility to support new ways of thinking, new ways of behaving and new ways of doing. The core team is responsible for setting aligning outcomes and convening working groups. The purpose is to find new innovations that move our networks to actions and pathways that will achieve those aligning outcomes. The responsibility of the core team is to provide training, information and guidance to grow capacity to engage complexities and grow community resilience.Focus groups provide the structure for capacity alignment and for transformation. This is the framework for the plan and is based on the village structure framework of the CRI model. Forums will utilize the discipline of “strategic doing” to guide conversations to action and uncover new opportunities.The new opportunities will include initiatives we call pathfinder projects. These projects are those that can be a catalyst for additional action or investment. We seek ideas and projects that are scalable, replicable, investable and that are collaborative. We also seek opportunities for co-investment. The planning team will assist these groups in designing strategies to connect pathfinder projects to investors.Pathfinder projects will emerge from forum discussions
Note that infrastructure is in a supporting position in the focus area list of eight. Think of infrastructure as our physical environment, all built and natural systems, that shapes the place in our place based strategy. Our relationship to our environment is not an option in our daily lives. We can choose what we will do but we cannot escape being in a physical environment. Our physical environment is key in connecting our opportunities and in growing prosperity for all. We will shape the physical environment to support the innovations that emerge from connecting our networks.
Our infrastructure working groups will include subgroups to uncover the various opportunities for infrastructure serving a 21st century neighborhood with a mixed income population of 20,000 in a 2 square mile area. Technology is redefining our opportunities for prosperity and the physical environment of cities. What we do in Shreveport can be instructive to other communities. The connections are the key to improved outcomes and efficiencies with short term actions focused on the long term outcomes.
Our Choice Neighborhoods are currently in a food desert – a place where residents cannot buy nutritious food in their neighborhood. Can we begin a regional local food system to address this problem? Could an urban farming strategy also provide a pathway out of poverty for some of the current residents? What would that look like? Can we develop the neighborhood in a manner that residents could walk or bike to work? Can we delivery health services to the neighborhood using the CRI Friendship houses as a platform for delivery? How will we align all the health service resources to improve efficiency and outcomes?
Strategic doing involves guiding conversations with four questions: What could we do? What should we do? What will we do? and When will we get back together? Seemingly simple, these four questions are actually hard to answer in an open, loosely joined network. Conversations drift. We get off course. We forget to answer the question. We end up talking about topics that are not central to our strategy. All of these distractions keep us from designing and implementing an effective strategy for network. 1. What could we do? The first question of strategic doing involves exploring connections that could exist among the assets within our networks. The best way to approach this question is actually to break it into two parts. “What if…” And “ What would that look like?” The “What if…” question invites us to connect our assets in a new and different way. “What would it look like…” invites us to explore this opportunity and describe it. So, for example, when a group in Indiana asked, “What if we combined our expertise in sustainability and renewable energy with our expertise in manufacturing?” they came up with the idea of a certificate program in sustainable manufacturing.2. What should we do? To move the network, we need to convert at least one opportunity to an outcome with clear and measurable metrics. Visions are important to get people aligned, but people will tend to move into action if they can see an outcome in their own mind that is both compelling and real. That’s why we have to take special care in defining the outcome of our strategy. We need to be inspirational (visionary), practical and clear. The best way to take an opportunity and create an outcome is to define an outcome in terms of its characteristics. As we describe these characteristics in greater detail, they become concrete and measurable. When we reach that stage, we know that we have defined an outcome that most people can see in their own mind’s eye and decide whether they want to join us on our journey.3. What will we do? In addition to an initiative, we need an action plan. An action plan is critically important for a number of reasons. First, it encourages people in our network to commit to moving into action. Second, it reinforces the idea that in a network, responsibility for moving ideas and action needs to be widely distributed. If we all take small “next steps”, we end up taking a big step. Third, an action plan provides resilience. When circumstances change, we can make adjustments in our action plan and keep moving forward. Finally, an action plan provides transparency and accountability. An action plan helps us learn who is willing to commit time and effort to implement the strategy. You should be mindful that everyone in your network expresses a commitment strategy by putting their name on the action plan. Their next step can be very small, like making an e-mail introduction, but it is very significant to building relationships within the network._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. What’ our 30/30? As a continuous process, strategy in open networks requires a clear understanding of “next steps”. The work of strategic doing is never done. No strategy is complete. It is simply a work in process, a road marker on the path to transformation. People often come together and get excited about their conversation, but they neglect to take clear steps to continue their conversation and move it forward. At the end of every meeting, in addition to finding “next steps” for each member of the network, members should decide how they will convene again. They can meet virtually, through e-mail or a collaborative website, or with a telephone conference call, or, of course, a face-to-face meeting.
Outcomes of this approach grow community ability to collaboratively address complex issues; better align local resources and creativity; and begin implementation during the planning process. Two challenges in attracting private investment to disinvested areas are: where to begin? And how to equitably manage risks and rewards? The answer to these questions is in the complexity of connecting problems and solutions, not in simplistic single focused investments.