This summer I have run across a few books and articles on leadership that have been enlightening and there have been other phone conferences and blogs that have continued to underline LEADERSHIP as a crucial element to community building.
The first-year anniversary of the GoodLiving Marketplace will be celebrated in Hartsville in the next few weeks. Nancy Myers was looking for a way to make a difference and combined her thoughts with Judi Elvington, who is director of Hartsville Downtown Development, and the Saturday morning, monthly marketplace has been a great success. Nancy's leadership and an individual effort, motivated from her desire to make a difference and her willingness to take on the job. When you talk with her she will mention others who were instrumental but without her vision and willingness to take on the project it would still be, at best, a dream.
As this is written the people who have organized HARTSVILLEIDOL are doing auditions at Black Creek Arts Council. Believe this is the third week and the finalists from this afternoon will compete tonight for the chance to be among the finalists for the HartsvilleIdol designation. The word is the competition is stiff with lots of talent coming out to be part of this event. Again, individuals had an idea, they shared the idea and got the right push and this is another event making Hartsville a special place. Leadership is the crucial ingredient.
One of the authors I have read this summer is Ken Blanchard, who has made a career of leadership study and training. He has a book, written with Mark Miller, that he calls THE SECRET - WHAT GREAT LEADERS KNOW -- AND DO. A major element of that secret is summed up in the acronym - SERVE. If interested you will find it a quick nugget-filled read. SERVE stands for 'See the future;' 'Engage and Develop Others;' 'Reinvent Continuously;'Value Results and Relationships; 'Embody the Values.'
The leadership needed to help build community is most often of the "Servant Leadership" variety.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Know what to starve and what to feed
The Current edition of NON PROFIT QUARTERLY contains an interesting article about leading in community building environments by a person named Bill Traynor, executive director of the Lawrence(MA) Community Works.
As I read this article I was struck by a core message of effectiveness and efficiency that discussed knowing how to feed those activities that help your organization and community move forward and starve those activities that gobble up your time, talent and treasure but leave you where you were when you started. Traynor is discussing techniques of what he called network leadership and the framing he uses for the discussion is a superior lesson on leadership in today's community building environments. I am hoping that I will be able to link to this article, "Vertigo" so that those interested will be able to gather the wisdom he is sharing. If not, you should get the current issue of NON-PROFIT QUARTERLY because the article is important for community builders.
As he ended the article, the author talked about the importance of having a supportive network who can congratulate you when you succeed and who can help you back on track when things go awry. "Increasingly we struggle together and are intentional about supporting one another—through forgiveness and truth telling—so that we can continue to build connected environments that feed the world by feeding the best of what it is to be human," is the way Traynor concludes the article.
It is worth the read!
As I read this article I was struck by a core message of effectiveness and efficiency that discussed knowing how to feed those activities that help your organization and community move forward and starve those activities that gobble up your time, talent and treasure but leave you where you were when you started. Traynor is discussing techniques of what he called network leadership and the framing he uses for the discussion is a superior lesson on leadership in today's community building environments. I am hoping that I will be able to link to this article, "Vertigo" so that those interested will be able to gather the wisdom he is sharing. If not, you should get the current issue of NON-PROFIT QUARTERLY because the article is important for community builders.
As he ended the article, the author talked about the importance of having a supportive network who can congratulate you when you succeed and who can help you back on track when things go awry. "Increasingly we struggle together and are intentional about supporting one another—through forgiveness and truth telling—so that we can continue to build connected environments that feed the world by feeding the best of what it is to be human," is the way Traynor concludes the article.
It is worth the read!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Resources for Community Building Thinking
The non-profit often gets overlooked when discussions of the economy, the future and the well-being of the communities of our country is discussed. No one should ignore this industry, which continues to be the "doing good" sector even as resources get more and more strapped in our current fiscal woes. One of the resources that many people in the non-profit world look too is the NON PROFIT QUARTERLY, a forum for very high level discussions of all facets of this non-profit field. Ruth McCambridge, editor, does a nice job of covering what is in the new issue. This issue has a story on one of the major questions facing both for profit and nonprofit, is bigger better? Here is what the editor says about this lead story:
Paul Light has suggested that there are four possible scenarios for the future of our sector -- one of these being an "arbitrary winnowing" which would "result in a rebalancing [of] the sector towards larger, richer and fewer [nonprofit] organizations." Dr. Light said nothing in his NPQ article about the private sector but I have noticed a disturbing macro trend worth paying attention to if you are at all interested in retaining a modicum of local ownership and control over the organizations that so richly populate our communities.
In yesterday's New York Times was an article about how small businesses are faring in this downturn. Here is a shocking statistic: from the second quarter of 2007 through the third quarter of 2008, businesses with fewer than 20 employees have accounted for 53% of all job losses in the private sector -- even though those companies employ only 20% of the employees.
One observer comments that this is just the market "being cleansed of unneeded goods and services." Though far from an economist, I might suggest that this phenomenon may be more a question of available capital and a function of a further monopolization of our markets by large business concerns. Slate.com runs a story about CIT Group, the number one lender to these very small firms under the Small Business Administration's 7(a) program. The 7(a) program typically makes loans to small businesses that have exhausted other options. Close to bankruptcy itself, it is under consideration for a bailout -- a step supported by Lloyd Chapman of the American Small Business League, who has traditionally opposed providing bailout funds for large financial institutions. "If my tax dollars are going to be used to rescue banks and other financial institutions," says Chapman, "CIT is the kind of firm I want to see saved." But Slate reports that the "thinking within the administration . . . is that because its collapse would have little or no effect on the larger financial system, bailing out CIT may not be worth the time or the money."
Chapman is concerned that small business is largely overlooked in the federal government's credit programs, pointing out that America's Recovery Capital Loan program (part of the ARRA) will make only $225 million in loans to small business, where CIT made more than three times that in 2008 alone.
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I worry that there is an insufficient understanding within this administration about the value of small, locally controlled organizations to civic life and I, for one object, as much on behalf of local owned business as locally controlled nonprofits. We are in danger of losing the essential character of the nation in this trend.
So when the administration proposes working hand in hand with large philanthropic institutions to craft collaborative approaches to "social innovation," and if that conversation remains less than fully transparent to date, excuse us if we wince a little at the more downside potential of that, particularly when the groups mentioned as models are very large, well connected and well funded.
If you are not familiar with this publication and you find the above relevant to some of your thinking in community building and non profits, you will find this publication a treasure trove of discussion over the long term.
Paul Light has suggested that there are four possible scenarios for the future of our sector -- one of these being an "arbitrary winnowing" which would "result in a rebalancing [of] the sector towards larger, richer and fewer [nonprofit] organizations." Dr. Light said nothing in his NPQ article about the private sector but I have noticed a disturbing macro trend worth paying attention to if you are at all interested in retaining a modicum of local ownership and control over the organizations that so richly populate our communities.
In yesterday's New York Times was an article about how small businesses are faring in this downturn. Here is a shocking statistic: from the second quarter of 2007 through the third quarter of 2008, businesses with fewer than 20 employees have accounted for 53% of all job losses in the private sector -- even though those companies employ only 20% of the employees.
One observer comments that this is just the market "being cleansed of unneeded goods and services." Though far from an economist, I might suggest that this phenomenon may be more a question of available capital and a function of a further monopolization of our markets by large business concerns. Slate.com runs a story about CIT Group, the number one lender to these very small firms under the Small Business Administration's 7(a) program. The 7(a) program typically makes loans to small businesses that have exhausted other options. Close to bankruptcy itself, it is under consideration for a bailout -- a step supported by Lloyd Chapman of the American Small Business League, who has traditionally opposed providing bailout funds for large financial institutions. "If my tax dollars are going to be used to rescue banks and other financial institutions," says Chapman, "CIT is the kind of firm I want to see saved." But Slate reports that the "thinking within the administration . . . is that because its collapse would have little or no effect on the larger financial system, bailing out CIT may not be worth the time or the money."
Chapman is concerned that small business is largely overlooked in the federal government's credit programs, pointing out that America's Recovery Capital Loan program (part of the ARRA) will make only $225 million in loans to small business, where CIT made more than three times that in 2008 alone.
banner
I worry that there is an insufficient understanding within this administration about the value of small, locally controlled organizations to civic life and I, for one object, as much on behalf of local owned business as locally controlled nonprofits. We are in danger of losing the essential character of the nation in this trend.
So when the administration proposes working hand in hand with large philanthropic institutions to craft collaborative approaches to "social innovation," and if that conversation remains less than fully transparent to date, excuse us if we wince a little at the more downside potential of that, particularly when the groups mentioned as models are very large, well connected and well funded.
If you are not familiar with this publication and you find the above relevant to some of your thinking in community building and non profits, you will find this publication a treasure trove of discussion over the long term.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Some quick observations of Hartsville in July
1 -- Great exhibit of photographs of Hartsville or by Hartsville area photographers at the Black Creek Arts Council. And there is lots of activity with the kids art camp this week.
2 -- Really good to see some dilapidated houses disappearing in the Washington Street area. I have noticed three new empty lots and they have been a long time coming but sure are welcome. City is taking down some of those dangerous, falling-down buildings.
3 -- Good number of people appeared to be giving blood this afternoon (7/13) at the Presbyterian Church and it appears there is another bloodmobile at Heritage Bank tomorrow.
4 -- Even when the temperatures are not in the 90s it feels hot and steam in July yet even in the heat volunteers come out to help build Habitat for Humanity homes.
2 -- Really good to see some dilapidated houses disappearing in the Washington Street area. I have noticed three new empty lots and they have been a long time coming but sure are welcome. City is taking down some of those dangerous, falling-down buildings.
3 -- Good number of people appeared to be giving blood this afternoon (7/13) at the Presbyterian Church and it appears there is another bloodmobile at Heritage Bank tomorrow.
4 -- Even when the temperatures are not in the 90s it feels hot and steam in July yet even in the heat volunteers come out to help build Habitat for Humanity homes.
Coordinating Council is important for collaboration, communication, cooperation
The Darlington County Coordinating Council is a loose organization of representatives from many of the social service type of agencies that serve the people of Darlington County. The Council meets monthly in Hartsville or Darlington. And, very importantly, the group has a web presence at darcocc.org.
Last week, July 9, the group had its meeting in Hartsville with about 17 people in attendance -- a relatively light crowd but some pretty heavy discussion. One of the key issues that arose was what appears to be an increasing incidence of teenage pregnancy in the Pee Dee. Kathy J. W. Smith of DHEC was doing the monthly organization presentation and she distributed some 2006 statistics on Teen Pregnancy. That handout started some intense discussion around the table and was one of the issues used as the reason for a need of more collaboration among agencies and service providers. The statistics on the page were provisional data for 2006 but they said that Darlington County has a 41.4 teen pregnancy rate, that is calculated per 1000 female population for the specific age group. For comparison, the overall South Carolina rate is 29.6.
SERVICES SUMMIT is September 10, 2009
One of the major announcements at this meeting was that the Services Summit for the county will be at Lakeview Baptist Church Fellowship Hall on September 10. This is an opportunity for service providers to get to know even more about each other's services and provide opportunities for people to meet one another to make coordination of service activities more realistic.
(Interest of full disclosure -- The Byerly Foundation has provided a multi-year grant for the Darlington County Coordinating Council to lay a solid foundation for improved communication among the various service providers. I am the executive director of The Foundation.)
REPRESENTATIVE JAY LUCAS TO COORDINATE
Representative Jay Lucas is going to be the Legislative Delegation's connection to the Coordinating Council. Many of the issues that arise from social service agencies are issues that are governed by state law and all of the issues affect people. In communities where a state legislative delegation takes an active interest in what is happening with social service providers it seems the social services are both more effective and more efficient. In fact, this group had a great deal of impetus a few years ago from State Senator Gerald Malloy, who gave one of the key notes at the first Summit.
NEXT MEETING
The next meeting of the Darlington County Coordinating Council is August 13, 2009 at the McLeod Medical Center - Resource Center in Darlington. Anyone wanting more information on this group can go to the web site, call Kathy Baxley, executive director of the Darlington County Free Medical Clinic, Dr. Nick Nicholson at the Darlington County Community Action Agency or Todd Shifflett at Care South.
Last week, July 9, the group had its meeting in Hartsville with about 17 people in attendance -- a relatively light crowd but some pretty heavy discussion. One of the key issues that arose was what appears to be an increasing incidence of teenage pregnancy in the Pee Dee. Kathy J. W. Smith of DHEC was doing the monthly organization presentation and she distributed some 2006 statistics on Teen Pregnancy. That handout started some intense discussion around the table and was one of the issues used as the reason for a need of more collaboration among agencies and service providers. The statistics on the page were provisional data for 2006 but they said that Darlington County has a 41.4 teen pregnancy rate, that is calculated per 1000 female population for the specific age group. For comparison, the overall South Carolina rate is 29.6.
SERVICES SUMMIT is September 10, 2009
One of the major announcements at this meeting was that the Services Summit for the county will be at Lakeview Baptist Church Fellowship Hall on September 10. This is an opportunity for service providers to get to know even more about each other's services and provide opportunities for people to meet one another to make coordination of service activities more realistic.
(Interest of full disclosure -- The Byerly Foundation has provided a multi-year grant for the Darlington County Coordinating Council to lay a solid foundation for improved communication among the various service providers. I am the executive director of The Foundation.)
REPRESENTATIVE JAY LUCAS TO COORDINATE
Representative Jay Lucas is going to be the Legislative Delegation's connection to the Coordinating Council. Many of the issues that arise from social service agencies are issues that are governed by state law and all of the issues affect people. In communities where a state legislative delegation takes an active interest in what is happening with social service providers it seems the social services are both more effective and more efficient. In fact, this group had a great deal of impetus a few years ago from State Senator Gerald Malloy, who gave one of the key notes at the first Summit.
NEXT MEETING
The next meeting of the Darlington County Coordinating Council is August 13, 2009 at the McLeod Medical Center - Resource Center in Darlington. Anyone wanting more information on this group can go to the web site, call Kathy Baxley, executive director of the Darlington County Free Medical Clinic, Dr. Nick Nicholson at the Darlington County Community Action Agency or Todd Shifflett at Care South.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Why do people work to make a difference?
There have been studies done of what motivates people to become what The Harwood Institute calls public innovators. I am sure there are many organizations and colleges studying the motivations of volunteering and volunteerism. On the citizen journalism website called hartsvilletoday we have an interesting answer for ONE person on why she gives so much. I have provided the link but just in case you don't want to go there, here is a copy of what she said. It feels like there is a lot here that will be of interest to lots of people:
This is who I am
Submitted by NM on Sun, 07/12/2009 - 16:19. Arts, Entertainment, Reviews
My husband and I returned from church today and we finished our “Sunday Brunch”. But while I was eating I kept thinking of everyone’s comments about my energy, strength and drive for the Good Living Marketplace – and why is “she” driving herself so hard. Well, this is what I’ve decided. I would like to share my heart with you.
Do you have a friend, neighbor or acquaintance that needs help or just a smile? Do you offer your assistance? Do you bake a pie with your last ounce of flour and take it to your friend to make them feel better? When you see someone hurting do you reach out and give that person a hug? Do you say to people, if you need something or anything please call me and really mean it? Do you have friends that are suffering with some horrible disease and you wish that you could just reach in and pull that disease out and make them well again? Do you take a friend flowers or send a card just to say “Hi”?
You see, Hartsville is my friend and I want to do what I can to help her get through a very bad time. Hartsville is like so many other small towns in the United States - aching, throbbing, and hurting. But Hartsville is just not a name of a small town. It’s a small town overflowing with wonderful loving & caring people. Do you shun away, go somewhere else or do you bake that pie and stay in Hartsville. I’ve lived in several other states but I’m finally able to say that I’ve found “home”. So I’m baking those pies and staying in Hartsville “just because”.
I’ve saved the strongest statement for last. God gives me my energy and strength. We work very hard together and it is a beautiful relationship. God has given my family extra strength and energy during some very difficult years and I know He will continue. My drive for life and for the Good Living Marketplace comes from “doing” the questions in paragraph two.
Now you know what’s in my heart, and where I get my energy, strength and drive.
This is who I am.
I find it really cool that a person would share that personal motivation and I am hoping her personal motivations will also get more people to think about being involved.
This is who I am
Submitted by NM on Sun, 07/12/2009 - 16:19. Arts, Entertainment, Reviews
My husband and I returned from church today and we finished our “Sunday Brunch”. But while I was eating I kept thinking of everyone’s comments about my energy, strength and drive for the Good Living Marketplace – and why is “she” driving herself so hard. Well, this is what I’ve decided. I would like to share my heart with you.
Do you have a friend, neighbor or acquaintance that needs help or just a smile? Do you offer your assistance? Do you bake a pie with your last ounce of flour and take it to your friend to make them feel better? When you see someone hurting do you reach out and give that person a hug? Do you say to people, if you need something or anything please call me and really mean it? Do you have friends that are suffering with some horrible disease and you wish that you could just reach in and pull that disease out and make them well again? Do you take a friend flowers or send a card just to say “Hi”?
You see, Hartsville is my friend and I want to do what I can to help her get through a very bad time. Hartsville is like so many other small towns in the United States - aching, throbbing, and hurting. But Hartsville is just not a name of a small town. It’s a small town overflowing with wonderful loving & caring people. Do you shun away, go somewhere else or do you bake that pie and stay in Hartsville. I’ve lived in several other states but I’m finally able to say that I’ve found “home”. So I’m baking those pies and staying in Hartsville “just because”.
I’ve saved the strongest statement for last. God gives me my energy and strength. We work very hard together and it is a beautiful relationship. God has given my family extra strength and energy during some very difficult years and I know He will continue. My drive for life and for the Good Living Marketplace comes from “doing” the questions in paragraph two.
Now you know what’s in my heart, and where I get my energy, strength and drive.
This is who I am.
I find it really cool that a person would share that personal motivation and I am hoping her personal motivations will also get more people to think about being involved.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
People on the ground make the difference
Earlier today I was reading a "Facebook" post by Mark Hanenchen, executive director of the Darlington County Habitat for Humanity. He was observing how thankful he is for people who give up weekends in the heat to help others by working on Habitat homes. He also noted how the ethos of a caring community is one of the major attractions for others to come to live and be part of that community. Hartsville does have a lot of people who care and who put their caring into action. Our goal has to be to get even more people who care involved to ensure we can solve the problems, or what we have called in the Selling Hartsville discussions, "fix the holes."
Friday, July 03, 2009
Butler Heritage is Community Heritage
It was one of the largest crowds at a Butler Heritage Foundation dinner that graced the Thornwell Elementary cafeteria on Thursday evening.
This was a continuation of the week long Butler Heritage Foundation celebration that takes place the last days of June and first days of July every year. This is a celebration of the Butler High School impact on all who attended and the community of which the school was a major part. Butler was the all-Black high school in Hartsville until integration closed the doors back in the late 1970s. The Butler Heritage Foundation has a mission to keep those memories alive to remind everyone of the enormous contributions of the school to the life of Hartsville. There is a new community center under construction on the Butler campus and a secondary reason for the celebrations is to continue the important job of fund raising to make this project a reality for the community. The Byerly Foundation has contributed more than $350 for the reconstruction of the community center where the administration building used to be. Currently, the Boys and Girls Club is housed in the Gym wing of this school.
The Butler High Heritage Glee Club opened the dinner on Thursday night and that is the video that is part of this post.
Rufus Bess, an educator in Minnesota and graduate of Butler High, was the evening's keynote speaker. He spoke of the importance of recognizing and seizing opportunities and the foundation he was given at Butler that helped him to a nine-year National Football League career and so far 17 years of teaching students at the high school level.
The heritage that was on display in the faces of those in the audience is the foundation on which community is built. In a city like Hartsville, this type of heritage is one of our major strengths as it shows the SENSE OF PLACE of people for their home community. The sense of pride in Butler and in Hartsville was evidence in the remarks of all who spoke.
This was a continuation of the week long Butler Heritage Foundation celebration that takes place the last days of June and first days of July every year. This is a celebration of the Butler High School impact on all who attended and the community of which the school was a major part. Butler was the all-Black high school in Hartsville until integration closed the doors back in the late 1970s. The Butler Heritage Foundation has a mission to keep those memories alive to remind everyone of the enormous contributions of the school to the life of Hartsville. There is a new community center under construction on the Butler campus and a secondary reason for the celebrations is to continue the important job of fund raising to make this project a reality for the community. The Byerly Foundation has contributed more than $350 for the reconstruction of the community center where the administration building used to be. Currently, the Boys and Girls Club is housed in the Gym wing of this school.
The Butler High Heritage Glee Club opened the dinner on Thursday night and that is the video that is part of this post.
Rufus Bess, an educator in Minnesota and graduate of Butler High, was the evening's keynote speaker. He spoke of the importance of recognizing and seizing opportunities and the foundation he was given at Butler that helped him to a nine-year National Football League career and so far 17 years of teaching students at the high school level.
The heritage that was on display in the faces of those in the audience is the foundation on which community is built. In a city like Hartsville, this type of heritage is one of our major strengths as it shows the SENSE OF PLACE of people for their home community. The sense of pride in Butler and in Hartsville was evidence in the remarks of all who spoke.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Hartsville United Way -- A community builder
When it comes to building community, one of the interesting strategies is to find a way to get people within the community to commit physically to the improvement of the community -- voluntarily. The United Way provides this opportunity.
Today, the Hartsville Chamber of Commerce held an "All Member Breakfast" event at Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center to hear from the T. C. Sawyer, executive director of the Hartsville United Way. The update on the role of the United Way in this community was timely. Mr. Sawyer told the group the national United Way is hoping that local United Ways will help focus communities on the major problems identified within the community. He told the group that in Hartsville the three major areas his Board has identified include Education, Health and jobs.
In the past we have known the United Way as a community chest of resources but the strategies of the United Way are evolving around the country as these groups identify themselves more as those organizations that can bring disparate groups from the community together to focus on solutions. The funds they provide come from contributions of people in the community who like the idea of having one organization looking at the community and determining where donor dollars can most effectively be spent.
Expect to be hearing more from the Hartsville United Way!
Today, the Hartsville Chamber of Commerce held an "All Member Breakfast" event at Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center to hear from the T. C. Sawyer, executive director of the Hartsville United Way. The update on the role of the United Way in this community was timely. Mr. Sawyer told the group the national United Way is hoping that local United Ways will help focus communities on the major problems identified within the community. He told the group that in Hartsville the three major areas his Board has identified include Education, Health and jobs.
In the past we have known the United Way as a community chest of resources but the strategies of the United Way are evolving around the country as these groups identify themselves more as those organizations that can bring disparate groups from the community together to focus on solutions. The funds they provide come from contributions of people in the community who like the idea of having one organization looking at the community and determining where donor dollars can most effectively be spent.
Expect to be hearing more from the Hartsville United Way!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Tools for Community Building and Thinking
In these comments the Harwood Institute often gets mentioned because of the work they have accomplished in structuring tools for community building and community growth. The last Public Innovators' Lab they held had 60 participants. One participant from a United Way Metro group did a recap of his experience at the lab that the Harwood Institute had shared with their lists. If you are interested in community building, you will be interested in this person's observations from the Innovators Lab.
In Hartsville and the Hartsville area we have our work cut out for us as we try to find the "sweet spots" that can bring people together to build community. We have many people with strong interests and commitments and they work hard. The next step in the growth of our community is increased collaboration, cooperation and cohesion.
In Hartsville and the Hartsville area we have our work cut out for us as we try to find the "sweet spots" that can bring people together to build community. We have many people with strong interests and commitments and they work hard. The next step in the growth of our community is increased collaboration, cooperation and cohesion.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
New book by Jim Collins discusses how the mighty fall
HOW THE MIGHTY FALL AND WHY SOME COMPANIES NEVER GIVE IN, Jim Collins, 2009
First, this book is not directly about the crash of so many mighty companies over the past few months. The author, who is recognized for such books as GOOD TO GREAT and BUILT TO LAST has been doing research with his team for the past three years studying what causes some of the great companies to fall. Second, why discuss this book in a community thinking or community building blog? It is my belief that communities are organization not unlike some of those that are studied by the Collins team and that we can learn a great deal from the thinking there academics and researches develop. My thinking about the success of communities or the decline of communities has taken some forward steps with the Collins book.
As an aside, I knew I was going to enjoy this book when the author began with a quote from one of his mentors, Bill Lazier. Early in his career, Collins was told by Lazier one of the keys to effective teaching. Lazier said, "don't try to come up with the right answers; focus on coming up with good questions." One of my continuing goals in teaching is to figure out the 'good questions.'
This book is probably worth several blogs and for this first one, I am going to take the easy way out and give a synopsis of the overview of the material that is covered on the book jacket. It would be Collins' contention that decline can be avoided, that decline can be detected and that decline can be reversed.
According to this book, the Collins researchers came up with the following "five step-wise stages of decline."
1 -- Hubris Born of Success 2 -- Undisciplined pursuit of More
3 -- Denial of Risk and Peril 4 -- Grasping for Salvation
5 -- Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death (page 24)
A reason I am a fan of this book is a statement that Collins makes on page 25, which is very much a philosophy of leadership or management or the combination of both. It is a statement that we have more control of the destiny of our organizations than we often want to admit. It is a statement that says people within an organization can make a difference. "Great companies can stumble, badly, and recover. While you can't come back from Stage 5, you can tumble into the grim depths of Stage 4 and climb out. Most companies eventually fail and we cannot deny this fact. Yet our research indicates that organization decline is largely self-inflicted and recovery largely within our own control." Page 25
This is a relatively short book of 123 regular pages with seven extensive appendices and extensive notes.
First, this book is not directly about the crash of so many mighty companies over the past few months. The author, who is recognized for such books as GOOD TO GREAT and BUILT TO LAST has been doing research with his team for the past three years studying what causes some of the great companies to fall. Second, why discuss this book in a community thinking or community building blog? It is my belief that communities are organization not unlike some of those that are studied by the Collins team and that we can learn a great deal from the thinking there academics and researches develop. My thinking about the success of communities or the decline of communities has taken some forward steps with the Collins book.
As an aside, I knew I was going to enjoy this book when the author began with a quote from one of his mentors, Bill Lazier. Early in his career, Collins was told by Lazier one of the keys to effective teaching. Lazier said, "don't try to come up with the right answers; focus on coming up with good questions." One of my continuing goals in teaching is to figure out the 'good questions.'
This book is probably worth several blogs and for this first one, I am going to take the easy way out and give a synopsis of the overview of the material that is covered on the book jacket. It would be Collins' contention that decline can be avoided, that decline can be detected and that decline can be reversed.
According to this book, the Collins researchers came up with the following "five step-wise stages of decline."
1 -- Hubris Born of Success 2 -- Undisciplined pursuit of More
3 -- Denial of Risk and Peril 4 -- Grasping for Salvation
5 -- Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death (page 24)
A reason I am a fan of this book is a statement that Collins makes on page 25, which is very much a philosophy of leadership or management or the combination of both. It is a statement that we have more control of the destiny of our organizations than we often want to admit. It is a statement that says people within an organization can make a difference. "Great companies can stumble, badly, and recover. While you can't come back from Stage 5, you can tumble into the grim depths of Stage 4 and climb out. Most companies eventually fail and we cannot deny this fact. Yet our research indicates that organization decline is largely self-inflicted and recovery largely within our own control." Page 25
This is a relatively short book of 123 regular pages with seven extensive appendices and extensive notes.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Saturday Mornings in Hartsville
Last Saturday morning, June 5, there was the Good Living Marketplace in downtown Hartsville and the feature on that beautiful morning was a tribute to veterans at the site where the new Hartsville veterans memorial will be installed in a few months. This was the anniversary of D-Day and there were a good number of veterans at the ceremony along with others. In this video you will see Mayor Michael Holt and his children as Warner DeHart, Darlington County Veterans Affairs Officers, talks a little bit about the dangers of D Day.
And, then this morning, June 12, just seconds after 8 a.m. there was the start of the YMCA Lickety Split 5K. This quick video shows the start as the runner approach the first turn onto Fourth Street. Great of the YMCA to host these runs and amazing to see the numbers of people who put fitness high on their living list.
And, then this morning, June 12, just seconds after 8 a.m. there was the start of the YMCA Lickety Split 5K. This quick video shows the start as the runner approach the first turn onto Fourth Street. Great of the YMCA to host these runs and amazing to see the numbers of people who put fitness high on their living list.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Gas prices -- symptom or sin
(This is a stretch for a community thinking blog - but)
Walking this morning and happened to glance a sign at a station/store that said gas was now $2.47 a gallon for my type. Yesterday, same station, it was $2.39. Wonder how the supply/demand curve changed overnight for that increase to take place?
Anyway the current run up in gasoline prices, Again, is aggravating and I also believe it is dangerous. There are lots of trial balloons being launched to convince the American people we are beginning to see the end of the recession. I hope we are. But, the businesses that see an opportunity to cash in in the chaos of economic troubles may find ways to make the predictions of an end of the recession more fiction than fact. My problem here is that there is less money available to average American house holds. In fact, the headlines in this morning's paper indicate the American families have lost $1.3 trillion in wealth during this economic downturn. That is money that has disappeared -- it is not money that has been stored waiting for a change in circumstances -- it is money we no longer have. And, when certain staple items begin to not just creep up in price but soar in price (as gasoline has been doing the past three weeks)we are again faced with depleted resources. Faced with less available money how can we expect consumers to help spend the way out of this recession?
Big banks have been recognized for their greed, though they do seem to be getting off without much downside. Major car companies have been embarrassed for their lousy management, though that management has been rewarded with taxpayer funds. So, what is the profit picture of the major oil companies, most of which have no national allegiance whatsoever? They are making more money than ever with plans to continue making more than ever without a care as to ultimate effects. I know there are many who will say -- that is the capitalistic way and that is the way we want it -- free markets are self regulating. That may be -- but we know full well that the markets are not free. Every couple of days when the prices of gas go up by nearly the exact hundredth of a cent at stations around the country (supposedly supplied by competing companies)we have to understand we are not operating in a free market environment.
It seems to me that many companies have been using these times of economic uncertainty as an opportunity to raise prices, cut costs, decrease service and blame every entity but themselves for the economic mess. It seems to me that if we are going to build communities it is going to take all of our organizations, all of our sectors of community and all of us individually to identify a common good that is at least as important as our individual bottom lines. It appears to me that if some new kind of paradigm is not accepted, and implemented pretty quickly, the recovery for which we are hoping might be years instead of months in arriving.
Now, I wonder how I could get all that from gas prices up eight cents over night?
Walking this morning and happened to glance a sign at a station/store that said gas was now $2.47 a gallon for my type. Yesterday, same station, it was $2.39. Wonder how the supply/demand curve changed overnight for that increase to take place?
Anyway the current run up in gasoline prices, Again, is aggravating and I also believe it is dangerous. There are lots of trial balloons being launched to convince the American people we are beginning to see the end of the recession. I hope we are. But, the businesses that see an opportunity to cash in in the chaos of economic troubles may find ways to make the predictions of an end of the recession more fiction than fact. My problem here is that there is less money available to average American house holds. In fact, the headlines in this morning's paper indicate the American families have lost $1.3 trillion in wealth during this economic downturn. That is money that has disappeared -- it is not money that has been stored waiting for a change in circumstances -- it is money we no longer have. And, when certain staple items begin to not just creep up in price but soar in price (as gasoline has been doing the past three weeks)we are again faced with depleted resources. Faced with less available money how can we expect consumers to help spend the way out of this recession?
Big banks have been recognized for their greed, though they do seem to be getting off without much downside. Major car companies have been embarrassed for their lousy management, though that management has been rewarded with taxpayer funds. So, what is the profit picture of the major oil companies, most of which have no national allegiance whatsoever? They are making more money than ever with plans to continue making more than ever without a care as to ultimate effects. I know there are many who will say -- that is the capitalistic way and that is the way we want it -- free markets are self regulating. That may be -- but we know full well that the markets are not free. Every couple of days when the prices of gas go up by nearly the exact hundredth of a cent at stations around the country (supposedly supplied by competing companies)we have to understand we are not operating in a free market environment.
It seems to me that many companies have been using these times of economic uncertainty as an opportunity to raise prices, cut costs, decrease service and blame every entity but themselves for the economic mess. It seems to me that if we are going to build communities it is going to take all of our organizations, all of our sectors of community and all of us individually to identify a common good that is at least as important as our individual bottom lines. It appears to me that if some new kind of paradigm is not accepted, and implemented pretty quickly, the recovery for which we are hoping might be years instead of months in arriving.
Now, I wonder how I could get all that from gas prices up eight cents over night?
Friday, June 05, 2009
A day or two ago this blog mentioned the idea of social capital. Darlington County does have a lot of people working in various areas to help improve the quality of life at all levels. One of the often unknown resources that has been developed is called the Darlington County Coordinating Council, whose chair this year is Todd Shifflet. The council has a meeting coming up next week in Darlington and one of its major functions is to provide a continuing platform for organized communication among human service agencies and groups so that maximum use can be made of the resources available. The council's web site does a good job of pointing out the scope of services available in our community. It would be worth a visit!
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Public capital is a key building block to community
Public Capital
Public capital are those organizations within a community that can come together to help expand the riches of a community, help build community where it can do some good and help rebuild when opportunities have become challenges. One reason we are focused on the Selling Hartsville strategy for Hartsville is the need to continue expanding the public capital or what also might be called the social capital that will enable Hartsville to be an even better community tomorrow than it is today.
OPPORTUNITIES TO CHALLENGES
We have some opportunities that have become challenges. Hartsville has been home to one of the most successful publicly traded companies based in the southeastern United States for more than 109 years. That company is S-o-n-o-c-o. At one point in history this company brought in executives to help manage, run and lead the various operations. At that point in history, most of those people chose Hartsville for their home. That is no longer the case and the opportunity of being headquarters for a multi-billion dollar company has become the current challenge to find ways of again making Hartsville the community of choice. In Hartsville, we have been fortunate to have many people working on this challenge but we need many more to take up the cause or Hartsville could become a shell of the small city many of us enjoy calling home.
HARWOOD IN DETROIT
In this posting today is a video by Rich Harwood, whose Public Innovators' Laboratory is in Detroit the first three days of this week. I am including a short video he did today because while we are not yet where Detroit is, we have to act now so we don't get there before we understand that is where we are. I don't expect anyone to enjoy Rich's observations but I hope they will ignite some of your own thinking about how we might continue amassing public capital in Hartsville so we begin to look at more opportunities than challenges.
Public capital are those organizations within a community that can come together to help expand the riches of a community, help build community where it can do some good and help rebuild when opportunities have become challenges. One reason we are focused on the Selling Hartsville strategy for Hartsville is the need to continue expanding the public capital or what also might be called the social capital that will enable Hartsville to be an even better community tomorrow than it is today.
OPPORTUNITIES TO CHALLENGES
We have some opportunities that have become challenges. Hartsville has been home to one of the most successful publicly traded companies based in the southeastern United States for more than 109 years. That company is S-o-n-o-c-o. At one point in history this company brought in executives to help manage, run and lead the various operations. At that point in history, most of those people chose Hartsville for their home. That is no longer the case and the opportunity of being headquarters for a multi-billion dollar company has become the current challenge to find ways of again making Hartsville the community of choice. In Hartsville, we have been fortunate to have many people working on this challenge but we need many more to take up the cause or Hartsville could become a shell of the small city many of us enjoy calling home.
HARWOOD IN DETROIT
In this posting today is a video by Rich Harwood, whose Public Innovators' Laboratory is in Detroit the first three days of this week. I am including a short video he did today because while we are not yet where Detroit is, we have to act now so we don't get there before we understand that is where we are. I don't expect anyone to enjoy Rich's observations but I hope they will ignite some of your own thinking about how we might continue amassing public capital in Hartsville so we begin to look at more opportunities than challenges.
Authentic Hope is one of the foundations of building community
Rich Harwood talks a good deal about hope as a building block for communities. In fact,he has The Harwood Institute's Public Innovators' Laboratory in Detroit this week focusing on ways to build communities. Detroit, where the city's number one corporate citizen, declared bankruptcy on Monday. For The Harwood Institute, taking the Innovator Laboratory to a city on the brink is certainly taking lab work to the real world.
Rich Harwood was in Hartsville, and he evens mentions Hartsville in his newest essay, Redeeming Hope. But the reason for posting these thoughts on Harwood and Hope is Hartsville. You see in this blog continued talk about the Selling Hartsville initiative. I hope if you go to some of the links from this posting, you will quickly notice that the Selling Hartsville initiative is not an exercise taking place in a vaccuum. It is an effort to help those of us who live in this community sell hope to each other that our great place to live will become an even better place to live tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
Harwood talks about authentic HOPE and it is good to open conversation on what it means to have authentic HOPE for Hartsville and what proof we might have that our hope has turned into actions that have created results fulfilling our hopes, dreams and visions.
Rich Harwood was in Hartsville, and he evens mentions Hartsville in his newest essay, Redeeming Hope. But the reason for posting these thoughts on Harwood and Hope is Hartsville. You see in this blog continued talk about the Selling Hartsville initiative. I hope if you go to some of the links from this posting, you will quickly notice that the Selling Hartsville initiative is not an exercise taking place in a vaccuum. It is an effort to help those of us who live in this community sell hope to each other that our great place to live will become an even better place to live tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
Harwood talks about authentic HOPE and it is good to open conversation on what it means to have authentic HOPE for Hartsville and what proof we might have that our hope has turned into actions that have created results fulfilling our hopes, dreams and visions.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Task Force hears about things in Hartsville
Last Wednesday the Marketing Task Force of the Selling Hartsville initiative had about 14 people present for a meeting to discuss the things that are happening in Hartsville. While the tone of the meeting was somewhat dampened by the gloom of very tight city budgets, there was some pretty encouraging news coming out; some of which had been announced and some that happens when dots are connected.
The big news from the city manager was the approval of a new Hotel facility for downtown Hartsville. This new facility will anchor the downtown area with a four-story hotel on the corner of Carolina, Fourth and whatever name Railroad Avenue takes in its new environment.
Part of the other good news is that the street paving on that small new part of the road is complete and by the next day the road was open to through traffic. That is finally good news for the new owners of Gardners, who had been losing business because access from Fourth Street was cut off while the paving was completed.
One of the group's members who deals with real estate told another member that closings had picked up and that real estate was selling in the city. While that was an informal conversation, it was also among the good news.
Johnna Shirley is the chair of this task force and her continuing leadership is also good news. The task force met a couple of months ago at Hartsville High School to discuss potential plans for enhancing the looks of the school. Dr. Burry, the principal, told the group he was hoping that the architects who are working on the new gym will also be presenting some informal ideas about ways to enhance the looks of the exterior of the campus. Last summer there was a concerted effort to launch the Selling Hartsville initiative. That was the time the overall economy also decided to collapse. Some people questioned the timing but I continue to note the timing might not have been better. Why?
Well, in addition to tight budgets the city manager also said that both hospitality tax and accommodations tax revenue is off inside the city. We have had a great deal going on throughout Hartsville since last summer. Imagine what those revenue streams might have been like without the Selling Hartsville initiative!
Remember, Selling Hartsville is multi-audience initiative with one major audience those of us who live, work and enjoy or small city. We have to make a concerted effort to check Hartsville first when we are making purchases and deciding on a night on the town. We also need to encourage our neighbors to do the same.
As the task force continues to meet it is focusing attention on those areas of the city that need improving. The city manager mentioned the street scape of several years ago with bricks now coming out of the street. I had thought that about 18 months ago there were crews working nights in Hartsville repairing many of those areas. But, as the city manager noted, some improvements that were made 10 to 15 to 20 years ago might need attention as they get older. Heck, if you ride on some of our city streets you will notice needs. The point of the task force in its present configuration is to look out for what it is calling the "holes" in the product we call Hartsville and then making suggestions or calling for action plans to address those holes so that we have product people want to buy.
What happens when we stop getting better and stop growing?
-- We have fewer people paying the taxes need to run a great city
-- There are fewer people attending our churches
-- There are fewer people to attract other people
-- There are fewer people taking part in Habitat, in the Taste in buying Red Fox Club tickets, etc.
-- You can add your own ideas of what happens
If you are reading this, you are probably already one of the people who see Hartsville as a great place to live and play, raise a family, and/or retire. So, when the call goes out to stay involved or become involved you may feel it is preaching to the proverbial choir. Okay, maybe, but we ask that you continue to sing the praises of this small city and send on the call to others to stay involved.
FOR FUN -- June 6 will be the Good Living Marketplace on Cargill Way in downtown Hartsville with a special veterans recognition in line with the 60th anniversary of D-day -- the start of taking back the continent of Europe in World War II.
Hartsville, the art of good living where you can always "expect pleasant surprises."
The big news from the city manager was the approval of a new Hotel facility for downtown Hartsville. This new facility will anchor the downtown area with a four-story hotel on the corner of Carolina, Fourth and whatever name Railroad Avenue takes in its new environment.
Part of the other good news is that the street paving on that small new part of the road is complete and by the next day the road was open to through traffic. That is finally good news for the new owners of Gardners, who had been losing business because access from Fourth Street was cut off while the paving was completed.
One of the group's members who deals with real estate told another member that closings had picked up and that real estate was selling in the city. While that was an informal conversation, it was also among the good news.
Johnna Shirley is the chair of this task force and her continuing leadership is also good news. The task force met a couple of months ago at Hartsville High School to discuss potential plans for enhancing the looks of the school. Dr. Burry, the principal, told the group he was hoping that the architects who are working on the new gym will also be presenting some informal ideas about ways to enhance the looks of the exterior of the campus. Last summer there was a concerted effort to launch the Selling Hartsville initiative. That was the time the overall economy also decided to collapse. Some people questioned the timing but I continue to note the timing might not have been better. Why?
Well, in addition to tight budgets the city manager also said that both hospitality tax and accommodations tax revenue is off inside the city. We have had a great deal going on throughout Hartsville since last summer. Imagine what those revenue streams might have been like without the Selling Hartsville initiative!
Remember, Selling Hartsville is multi-audience initiative with one major audience those of us who live, work and enjoy or small city. We have to make a concerted effort to check Hartsville first when we are making purchases and deciding on a night on the town. We also need to encourage our neighbors to do the same.
As the task force continues to meet it is focusing attention on those areas of the city that need improving. The city manager mentioned the street scape of several years ago with bricks now coming out of the street. I had thought that about 18 months ago there were crews working nights in Hartsville repairing many of those areas. But, as the city manager noted, some improvements that were made 10 to 15 to 20 years ago might need attention as they get older. Heck, if you ride on some of our city streets you will notice needs. The point of the task force in its present configuration is to look out for what it is calling the "holes" in the product we call Hartsville and then making suggestions or calling for action plans to address those holes so that we have product people want to buy.
What happens when we stop getting better and stop growing?
-- We have fewer people paying the taxes need to run a great city
-- There are fewer people attending our churches
-- There are fewer people to attract other people
-- There are fewer people taking part in Habitat, in the Taste in buying Red Fox Club tickets, etc.
-- You can add your own ideas of what happens
If you are reading this, you are probably already one of the people who see Hartsville as a great place to live and play, raise a family, and/or retire. So, when the call goes out to stay involved or become involved you may feel it is preaching to the proverbial choir. Okay, maybe, but we ask that you continue to sing the praises of this small city and send on the call to others to stay involved.
FOR FUN -- June 6 will be the Good Living Marketplace on Cargill Way in downtown Hartsville with a special veterans recognition in line with the 60th anniversary of D-day -- the start of taking back the continent of Europe in World War II.
Hartsville, the art of good living where you can always "expect pleasant surprises."
Monday, June 01, 2009
It wasn't about white men or even Latina women;Judge Sotomayor was right in 2001
When thinking about building community is seems to me we need to be grasping to see the bigger picture, which seems to be a major goal in our current "got-ya" culture. First, if all the enemies can find is one word in a speech eight years ago for a judge who has been writing judicial opinions for a couple of decades the turmoil is less than a tempest in the proverbial teapot.
But, let's think about the bigger picture as related to the gripe that Judge Sottomayor said a decision that included a Latina woman would be better than a decision that just included white men. Where is the controversy? How is that racist?
In my community thinking and community building activities and in my professional life there have been several instances that stand out to me about the need for the diversity that the Judge really was discussing in her speech.
#1 -- On the school board we were often told the reason for so few minority teachers and so few minority administrators was that there were just none available and non applying for jobs in our district. It was amazing when a minority was hired as the assistant superintendent for human resources how quickly there was a pool of applicants that represented the diversity of the county.
#2 -- Working in corporate America is was often said the reason for no women at the top was there were not capable female executive candidates. What a difference it made when a female became head of human resources and a new perspective was involved
in searching for candidates.
#3 -- Have been wondering since the mid 1970s what difference it would have made if city council had invited some community members to the planning sessions that put a municipal swimming pool within a hundred yards of a cemetery. Council always wondered why the pool never got more use. Many members of the minority community who lived in that neighborhood did not feel it was respectful to have the cemetery and pool right next to each other.
People like to simple answers and people like to put others in instant classifications so they don't have to think. If you are going to build a community at what we call the local level or the national level, you have to get around to thinking instead of knee-jerk reacting, which destroys but never builds.
But, let's think about the bigger picture as related to the gripe that Judge Sottomayor said a decision that included a Latina woman would be better than a decision that just included white men. Where is the controversy? How is that racist?
In my community thinking and community building activities and in my professional life there have been several instances that stand out to me about the need for the diversity that the Judge really was discussing in her speech.
#1 -- On the school board we were often told the reason for so few minority teachers and so few minority administrators was that there were just none available and non applying for jobs in our district. It was amazing when a minority was hired as the assistant superintendent for human resources how quickly there was a pool of applicants that represented the diversity of the county.
#2 -- Working in corporate America is was often said the reason for no women at the top was there were not capable female executive candidates. What a difference it made when a female became head of human resources and a new perspective was involved
in searching for candidates.
#3 -- Have been wondering since the mid 1970s what difference it would have made if city council had invited some community members to the planning sessions that put a municipal swimming pool within a hundred yards of a cemetery. Council always wondered why the pool never got more use. Many members of the minority community who lived in that neighborhood did not feel it was respectful to have the cemetery and pool right next to each other.
People like to simple answers and people like to put others in instant classifications so they don't have to think. If you are going to build a community at what we call the local level or the national level, you have to get around to thinking instead of knee-jerk reacting, which destroys but never builds.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Resistance to Change a Powerful Force
Often, I find myself thinking about change and how hard it is to make change happen personally and in the greater community. And, as I was doing some of that type of thinking today I happened on a blog by Jim Moulton from the Knowledge Works Foundation that was discussing the new technology for books and how change does not come easily. That led to another blog post in Fast Company that was written in 2007 called "Change or Die," that has some great thinking and writing on this subject of how to make change happen. Both of those blogs came immediately after reading an article in the STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW that was a Question and Answer interview piece with Judith Rodin, head of the Rockefeller Foundation. That interview did a lot of talking about the grants her Foundation is making to fund innovation (a fancy word for change) in all different kinds of settings.
To keep this posting short enough, I will only elaborate on a couple of ideas discussed in the Rodin interview because they seem like tools that many people could use at various levels to help move the discussion of change and innovation forward.
CROWDSOURCING
It turns out that a major funding focus for the Rockefeller Foundation is innovation. One of the areas in which they have been putting money is called crowdsourcing. They got into this with a for-profit company called InnoCentive. According to the article, Innocentive uses web-based platforms to bring bring together people who have never and will probably never meet to work on solving specific problems. According to the article, this process is used "to gather solutions to problems that have confounded people working in just one place, such as an R&D Department at a pharmaceutical company."
COLLABORATIVE COMPETITIONS
Collaborative Competitions are a subset of the Crowdsourcing idea and the example int he article comes from an organization called Changemakers. One of the major differences is that the web-based platforms Changemakers use have the capacity of showing everyone's thinking so that people are able to build on other people's ideas when they are thinking about big problems -- "looking for ways to help impoverished communities gain access to sanitation and drinking water," as one example. As I read these ideas I wonder how such a crowdsourcing application might be initiated to help our Pee Dee area work on the multi-county problem of dilapidated structures that are blighting so many neighborhoods in our small towns and cities.
User Driven Innovation
This is considered the second major innovation technique discussed in the article and the concept, as structured by a design firm called IDEO, is that those who are most successful with innovations are the ones who allow the people who are going to be implementing or using the product/service/idea to have "a real voice in the development process." I find this intriguing because I know it is an idea that has been discussed by my daughter as she is working on an HIV/Aids research project in Kenya.
There are a lot of ideas out there and there are tools that can be developed for using these tools in the problem solving process. But, as all of these articles touch, there has to be some real recognition of the need for change.
To keep this posting short enough, I will only elaborate on a couple of ideas discussed in the Rodin interview because they seem like tools that many people could use at various levels to help move the discussion of change and innovation forward.
CROWDSOURCING
It turns out that a major funding focus for the Rockefeller Foundation is innovation. One of the areas in which they have been putting money is called crowdsourcing. They got into this with a for-profit company called InnoCentive. According to the article, Innocentive uses web-based platforms to bring bring together people who have never and will probably never meet to work on solving specific problems. According to the article, this process is used "to gather solutions to problems that have confounded people working in just one place, such as an R&D Department at a pharmaceutical company."
COLLABORATIVE COMPETITIONS
Collaborative Competitions are a subset of the Crowdsourcing idea and the example int he article comes from an organization called Changemakers. One of the major differences is that the web-based platforms Changemakers use have the capacity of showing everyone's thinking so that people are able to build on other people's ideas when they are thinking about big problems -- "looking for ways to help impoverished communities gain access to sanitation and drinking water," as one example. As I read these ideas I wonder how such a crowdsourcing application might be initiated to help our Pee Dee area work on the multi-county problem of dilapidated structures that are blighting so many neighborhoods in our small towns and cities.
User Driven Innovation
This is considered the second major innovation technique discussed in the article and the concept, as structured by a design firm called IDEO, is that those who are most successful with innovations are the ones who allow the people who are going to be implementing or using the product/service/idea to have "a real voice in the development process." I find this intriguing because I know it is an idea that has been discussed by my daughter as she is working on an HIV/Aids research project in Kenya.
There are a lot of ideas out there and there are tools that can be developed for using these tools in the problem solving process. But, as all of these articles touch, there has to be some real recognition of the need for change.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
"We'll show them!"
The credit card companies may be using the above headline as their new marketing slogan. Pulled a flier from one of my credit card issuers from the mail box yesterday. Essentially the card said we are raising prices for your credit card in order to maintain profitability on your account. We are not offering you any more service. We have nothing additional to provide you for these additional charges, we just need to charge you more. This is one of those companies who got a piece of the bailout -- from taxpayer funds. The timing was not bad either, coming the same week as the President signed new legislation trying to reign in the multiple abuses these companies have foisted on their customers. One of the elements of this letter that is interesting is how similar the letter in my mail box was to another I saw earlier in the week from another irate credit card customer of another provider. He had even gotten through on the number and the person answering told him very nicely, just as the letter stated, 'Sir, you have a choice, you don't have to continue being our customer, we don't mind.' It is interesting how two completely separate companies can put out pretty much the same letter to customers in the same week saying 'continue with us or don't your choice we really don't care. Back in the civics classes from eighth grade there were these words they explained like monopoly and restraint of trade and price fixing that seem now to have very concrete meanings for what then might have been abstract concepts. Coincidence the wording is nearly the same from two different companies? Coincidence that the letters come the same week the government is trying to regulate surprise rate hikes and usurious penalties? How do you build community when the major motivation of many of the most important institutions appears to be, "We'll show you!?" This is not a free-market system with this much coincidence. Guess they are learning from the oil companies, who all appear to raise their prices by the exact same pennies or dimes or quarters at exactly the same time on exactly the same day all over this highly diverse country.
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