Ed Morrison’s Garage

A site for early ideas on open innovation in economic and workforce development

Maine DOL proposes to build health care career pathways with strategic doing

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been working with the Department of Labor in Maine. The Commissioner, Laura Fortman, has jumped into learning strategic doing. This week, her department submitted a grant proposal to the feds on the health care workforce. If funded, we'll be using strategic doing to develop  new career pathways. 

Here's an excerpt from the proposal that explains the methodology: 

============

This project will employ a Project Coordinator (under the state job title of Labor Program Specialist) to manage the activities of the project.  The Coordinator, under the Supervision of the Director of the Maine Jobs Council, will provide logistical support and perform project management to carry out the project’s activities.

The project will be using a particular Strategic Planning method known as Strategic Doing. Developed by Ed Morrison of the Purdue University Center for Regional Development, Strategic Doing incorporates components that insure partners’ investments, collaboration, and leadership development. This planning approach was effectively applied by the Indiana Workforce Innovations for Regional Economic Development program funded by the US Department of Labor.  Brevard County, Florida is now using this approach to strategy to help manage the NASA shuttle shutdown. Strategic Doing will be employed with the intent of providing a successful, replicable model for workforce development planning in other sectors, but the priority is to accomplish the ten year health care workforce development plan first.

Strategic Doing uses a particular model, some of which is derived from traditional strategic planning methods but much of which uses a group development approach that is designed to bring together numerous and varied participants, many of whom have not previously collaborated.  Strategic Doing enables loosely joined networks of individuals and organizations to focus on clearly defined, measurable outcomes.

The Project Coordinator will use the structure of Strategic Doing to ensure that the required activities are accomplished within the desired time frame.  Strategic Doing is a discipline for developing a strategy in open networks while building productive collaborations. The process is fast and iterative. For example, Brevard Workforce developed a detailed strategic action plan after conducting two half day workshops. This strategic action plan will be continuously refined in subsequent workshops.

Strategic Doing asks participants to ask four questions and then build their planning steps around the answers to those questions (Figure 5):

 

Figure 5

According to Ed Morrison, Strategic Doing creates an environment in which networks can quickly form with focused outcomes. Through this process, participants align their resources with “link and leverage” strategies. The process guides civic leaders in new ways to think and act strategically. Unlike traditional approaches, strategic doing is fast, low cost, and focused on "learning by doing". The lessons of strategic doing evolved from open source software development. Specifically, people engaged in loosely joined networks can accomplish very complex projects by following some simple rules. As participants answer questions, they generate all the components they need for a strategic action plan. Strategic Doing is a process in which participants continuously refine and align their strategies as they learn “what works”.  The Strategic Doing platform also supports a “share point” site specifically for this project. Partners will be able to upload and download documents, data, and news articles. The site will also allow partners to schedule meetings and events on a shared calendar.

Comments [0]

Results of our webinar on Strategic Doing

Yesterday, I worked with Jim Torrens of the Insight Council on Community Economic Development and the National Network of Sector Partners on a webinar to introduce strategic doing.  At the end of the session, Jim included an opportunity for participants to evaluate the webinar and add suggestions. 

He sent me the results last night. 
------------------

Ed—

The votes are in, and the session was a fantastic success with our participants.  Below is a summary of their feedback.

Attended:  96
Registered:  193
This is not an unusual ratio.  Also, I told some people who expressed interest but could not attend to register so as to receive the recording and slideshow.

This webinar met my expectations.
·         Strongly agree – 34
·         Somewhat agree – 16
·         Somewhat disagree – 0
·         Strongly disagree – 0
This is exceptionally good.

This webinar improved my understanding of strategic doing as a method for collaborative planning and implementation.
·         Strongly agree – 41
·         Somewhat agree – 9
·         Somewhat disagree – 0
·         Strongly disagree – 0
This is off-the-charts good.

The webinar technology worked well.
·         Strongly agree – 44
·         Somewhat agree – 5
·         Somewhat disagree – 1
·         Strongly disagree – 0
Not bad at all, either.

What else would you like to tell us?
·         This was an excellent webinar. Thank you for continuing to hold these informational sessions.
·         I would like to further explore this model and the challenges Montana as a frontier state and very rural may face with this approach and sector initiatives.  I will be in touch.  Thank You!
·         Very good.  Very timely.
·         EXCELLENT presentation.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and see endless possibilities!
·         I really enjoyed what I heard, and I took a lot of notes on this strategy as well.  Great job!
·         Great webinar.
·         Thanks!
·         I will be searching for more information.
·         Ed Morrison is a rock star! Good job, Insight.
·         You might consider a companion session that focuses on techniques for arriving at consensus.  In the consensus building processes that I was trained to use, in addition to developing ground rules for interaction there was a time to brainstorm ideas and various collective processes used to combine and/or rank ideas.  Also providing tools for arriving at consensus decisions vs. relying on majority decisions.
·         Excellent webinar!  Thank you and please inform me of future offerings!
·         We are following this process in San Diego, but I learned a few ways to guide our career centers as they begin convening sector tables in the community.  I would love to know what everyone else out there is doing around sector work.
·         These webinars are extremely useful and helpful.  Thanks and keep them coming.

What questions, if any, do you still have about strategic doing?
·         I would like to see this process melded together with the skill panels process.
·         As an independent consultant working in communities, setting up partnerships, etc., I can see LOTS of benefit to strategic doing.  The challenge is, how to develop a revenue model that works for me if I am going to make a living at it.  Any suggestions?  This uses so much of what I know and do, but in a more highly focused and effective way than most, so I would love to adopt and spread the word... if it can be revenue-producing, I'll jump in with all 4 feet!  Thanks...
·         A good follow up (Session 2) might be more on how to interface strategic doing with an exisitng strategic plan - a more tactical approach.  This session was a really excellent overview and introduction.
·         It’s a new process for me.
·         Thank you for the info.  I am working on healthcare sector strategies and am trying to learn how to begin collaborating with others for the work.
·         The best part of the webinar is that it will inspire questions for a long time after.
·         More clarity regarding roles and responsibilities of serving in the capacity of workforce intermediary.
·         None now, but may have some in the future as the process moves forward.

What suggestions, if any, would you make to make this a more effective webinar?
·         None to add at this time.
·         Giving specific example where something worked and something that need to re-worked.
·         I felt that a lot of material was covered and could not really take notes to keep up with it.  I am hoping that the additional resources will help to fill in with what Ed was saying.
·         Maybe having the slides available for download prior to the call, so that notes can be taken on them either on paper or virtually?
·         Possibly video clips of watching portions of the strategy cycle in progress and participants thoughts of what they experienced.
·         Very effective webinar . . . very conversational and open to questions.  Excellent!
·         Examples were particularly helpful and made it more interesting.
·         Both moderator and speaker were very good.  This was the best webinar I have attended.  I felt as if the speaker was talking to a group of like-minded people in my living room.
·         Fine intro into the issue and approach.
·         I would just like more worksheets and tools to guide the focus of the conversations.
·         Follow up webinar.
·         More specific examples comparing and contrasting anticipated benefits and challenges of recommended strategy.
·         It might be nice to have a blog to go to to share ideas and ask questions.

Some good feedback is contained here – I may think about providing materials up-front and arranging a blog for follow-up conversations in planning future webinars.  I don’t know if you have video you can use to show what Strategic Doing looks like, but that’s one suggestion for you that caught my eye.

So – bravo!  If you want to do something like this again or to follow up in some way, let’s discuss in August.  Until then, thanks again!

--Jim

Comments [0]

Leveraging the Internet to combat corruption in China: http://www.lantiancorruption.net

In 1998,  three of my colleagues and I started on an ambitious journey. After a number of years of working in China, I decided to launch a small Chinese joint venture focused on providing mineral water to Xi'an, the ancient capital of China and the terminus of the famed Silk Road.

For five years, I had been providing guidance to a Chinese joint venture soybean factory in Lasntian County, one of the six counties surrounding Xi'an.  Local officials approached me about assembling an investor group to help exploit the county's mineral water resources. Our initial group was international, two Americans, one Japanese and one Chinese with investors in Japan and the U.S..

After eighteen months of drilling a well and testing its water,  we began operations. At that time, corruption in China, although evident, was minor. Occasionally, our trucks would be stopped and given bogus tickets. In perhaps the funniest incident, I had to fire off a letter to the mayor of Xi'an when a group of thugs invaded one of our nine retail shops and held our staff hostage demanding some money.

From the beginning, our investor group has refused to pay bribes. Beginning about five years ago, the environment in Lantian (the next county over from the terra-cotta warriors) began to shift. Organized crime began emerging.

In the past three years, we've been locked in a struggle with organized crime syndicate, headed by the former deputy police chief in the county. They have been using fraudulently issued documents to confiscate our factory property. The reason is simple. By converting industrial property to residential development, the gangsters can make a lot of money. In the county over the past two years, 17 factories have been torn down. By our reckoning, the criminal gang has netted between $6 million-$7 million. They want our factory because of its location. As one of the first industrial propoerties in Lantian, we sit on a prime piece of land with easy access to the highway into Xi'an. 

Beginning three years ago, the criminal gang approached our Chinese joint venture manager to try to negotiate their way into our Joint Venture. We have steadfastly refused even to meet with these gangsters.

Last July, I travel to the factory and recorded how the gangsters had physically cut off the factory from the road, all in an effort to squeeze us out of business. I even took a video of one of the thugs as he tried to push me off our Joint Venture property. To complain, I went to the police station around the corner from our factory. Again, I had the video in hand. The police, fearing exposure, scattered. 

My visit bought our factory some time to continue to try to negotiate and seek assistance from local government officials.

That time has now run out.

In the past two or three weeks, the pressure from the gangsters has increased. They threatened to tear down our factory. About a week ago, I recorded a video appeal to the mayor of Xi'an and posted on our website, where I'd been collecting documentation of what's been taking place.

We really have quite an extraordinary story. For the first time that I'm aware, we have detailed inside information about how a Chinese criminal gang works. We have this knowledge by virtue of the fact that over the past 12 years we've built up an extensive network of good and honest people and former officials. They are our eyes and ears on the ground.

We are posting what we learn to this web site: 

Three weeks ago, when it appeared that our battle was just about over and the gangsters would win by tearing down our factory, we moved into high gear and alerted everyone we knew about the challenges we faced.

I'm not sure how it happened yet, but the dynamic is shifted. Four days ago, the Xi'an mayor summoned the Lantian mayor (where our factory is located) to a meeting about our factory. Subsequently, the Lantian mayor convened an extraordinary evening meeting with his vice mayors and department heads to discuss our joint venture.

The next day, a deputy mayor called our factory manager and scolded him for taking our dispute to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

(Interestingly, we have not yet made a formal complaint to the Chinese Embassy, but we are preparing one.)

Our factory manager, a very smart and tough young man (who sleeps with an iron par under his bed in case he's attacked by the gangsters), did not waver. He blamed the local government for colluding with the gangsters. He told them that none of this would have happened if the local government had responded to our calls for help. 

On the next day, we learned that the barricade around one of our factory gates would finally be opened. We are waiting to see whether the other barricades are taken down.

On Monday, our lawyer will be going to the local Land Management Bureau to file a formal application to reestablish our property rights, which have been confiscated through the fraudulent documents issued by this office.

In preparation for these meetings I have prepared three letters. I will be posting them on our project website, but I include them here as well.

The only thing I can attribute our change in fortune to is the Internet. By publishing facts about our case, including video recordings, we are effectively combating corruption in China. We have not yet won our case, and we have suffered tremendous damages. Yet, we are shining in the light on the underbelly of the Chinese economy, and the picture is not pretty.

In practical terms, we are striking a blow for many of the good people that we know in this rural county. Over the past four years to criminal gang has severely beaten over 20 peasants who have protested the criminal gang's takeover of the county's economy. When I visit, my meetings with these good friends are held in safe places. My driver is a former police official from Xi'an. 

We will continue to push hard. Our China joint venture manager and our factory manager, as well see other people who work with us, are extraordinarily courageous and determined to save this county. 

We just did not know fully the power of the Internet in our hand.

P.S.: Pass this post on, if you think you can help.

(download)

 

(download)

 

(download)

Comments [0]

Building open networks to manage the Space Coast transitions


On Monday, I'm heading to Brevard, Florida, where we are using Strategic Doing to focus citizen involvement in a regional strategy. The Obama Administration wants a strategy by mid-August for submission to the President.
Linda Fowler, with whom I have worked across the country, and Laz Kozmon, who teamed with me to develop the Cuyahoga County Innovation Zones, are also helping on this project, as are my colleagues at Penn State.
You can view the project web site I built yesterday here. We use a platform developed by a Research Triangle-based company that is now supporting our work in Strategic Doing.
For some background on Strategic Doing, you can read this white paper.
Strategic Doing PCRD Staff Publication.final Draft

If you're curious, here's a map of where I haves given strategic doing presentations and workshops in the past year.


View Strategic Doing Presentations and Workshops in a larger map

Comments [0]

Developing Place-Based Solutions to Fight Poverty

Innovations are taking place in the strategies to build wealth in poor communities. The key obstacles right now include:

  1. Lack of political focus: Too few political leaders willing to commit to a sustained focus on innovating new solutions to reduce poverty by building wealth and re-imagining neighborhoods.
  2. Inaccurate mental maps: Too few business leaders see poverty as a business issue. The traditional view is that poverty is a social challenge that someone else takes addresses. ("That's why we pay taxes"). Even fewer see poor communities as a market opportunity. (See, for example the work of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, and the book, At the Bottom of the Pyramid.)
  3. Command and control mindsets: To few philanthropic leaders in community foundations are willing to give up their control mindsets and open themselves to deeper more open innovations.

In Savannah, a reframing is taking place that enables more transformational solutions to emerge.

Daniel Dodd of Step Up Savannah, who pioneered a program to reduce poverty in the urban setting of Savannah, Georgia, also addressed the need for long-term, big-picture solutions to fight poverty in ways that involve the broader community. Dodd explained how he has made significant progress by framing poverty as an economic issue and thereby involving organizations, corporations, and business interests in anti-poverty efforts. In Dodd’s own words, “Poverty is a business issue as much as it is a human issue.” Especially in urban communities, doing what’s right may depend on making it clear to all members of the community that fighting poverty is in their own best interests.

Developing Place-Based Solutions to Fight Poverty

Here's a presentation on Savannah's initiative:
Step Up Savannah

For the past four years, I have been working with a pioneering group in Shreveport, LA that focuses on rebuilding neighborhoods through an explicit focus on rebuilding networks of relationships and strategic doing. Community Renewal International is now gaining national attention with a recent grant from the Hewlett Packard Foundation.

Also:

Comments [0]

Leading from behind

A close friend and colleague, Kim Mitchell, has worked with me over the years to refine the ideas behind strategic doing and how we can get some complex stuff done in the open networks that characterize our communities and regions.

Kim is now a grandfather and, as a gifted architect and artist, he is compelled to draw. So, some months ago, he started a coloring book for his grandson. This evening, Kim sent me along this drawing, which underscores one of the important lessons of strategic doing...

(download)

Comments [0]

A Strategic Doing Approach to Workforce Development Strategy

This short video outlines how a workforce investment board can design a six-month strategy process using the principles of open innovation and strategic doing.
Unlike strategic planning, this process is fast, flexible and fun. Strategic doing creates an environment in which networks can quickly form with focused outcomes. Through this process, participants align their resources with “link and leverage” strategies. The process encourages civic leaders to think faster, spot opportunities faster, and make decisions faster.

You can view the video more easily if you switch your view to the full screen. Click the button on the lower right of the screen. http://vimeo.com/13053217

Comments [0]

Senator Robert Byrd: A Remembrance

Twenty-five years ago, I had the opportunity to work with Senator Robert Byrd, who died yesterday. As minority leader, Senator Byrd chaired the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. I worked on the staff of the committee as counsel for tax and trade legislation.

It was a small staff, six or seven people as I remember. We convened every Friday afternoon in Senator Byrd’s ornate office, steps away from the Senate floor. Each week, our agenda was the same: outline the Democratic floor strategy for the legislative calendar. We needed these meetings to understand what Senator Byrd, a precise mind, expected of us on the Senate floor in the following week.

In these meetings, we got to see the complex personality of Senator Byrd at work. He could be demanding, distant and self-important. But he was also eloquent, knowledgeable and deeply committed to the common people of his state.

On rare occasions, he would pull out his fiddle, not really to play, but to admire it with a story, as if we were attending a “show and tell” day in elementary school. At these times, he could be playful and funny. He once told a story of how he took a telephone call from President Reagan while his pet bird was sitting on his shoulder and listening in, he was convinced. (Yes, Senator Byrd had a pet bird.)

His relentless focus on improving West Virginia could obstruct his vision of broader national policy issues. In one of our Friday meetings, I was briefing him on the importance of having the Democrats push legislation to cap the third year of the Reagan tax cut. In the middle of the briefing, he got up to take call from a member of the House. For 15 minutes we suspended our meeting while Senator Byrd deftly twisted the congressman’s arm into a pretzel to support an appropriation for a bridge in West Virginia. Then, quite satisfied he had done his best to secure another vote for his appropriation, we resumed.

Senator Byrd possessed a sharp mind with an encyclopedic knowledge of the complex rules governing the Senate. These rules -–  originally crafted by Thomas Jefferson when he was Vice President to John Adams -– are subtle, sophisticated and at times bewildering. They embody the history of the institution in a way that the House rules (which read more like Roberts Rules of Order) do not. The Senate rules capture the ghosts of the past –- Calhoun, Webster, Clay — and like a good playwright, Sen. Byrd could make these words come alive in your mind.

During one of those Friday meetings, he pulled out a Senate history in order to calculate how long he would have to live to achieve his goal of being the longest-serving U.S. Senator. Yesterday, he set the bar, and it’s difficult to see how anyone will surpass him.

Comments [3]

Strategic Doing in a Nutshell

To help people understand the simple -- but not easy -- discipline of strategic doing, I put together Strategic Doing in a Nutshell. This discipline takes time to learn and master. Like all disciplines, the experience becomes deeper and more valuable with practice.

(download)

Comments [1]

CICEP Innovates: Technology as a Tool for University Engagement and Outreach

This afternoon, I'll be participating in a working session with CICEP:  The Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Economic Prosperity. CICEP is organized under the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU).

The topic of the session today: Technology as a Tool for University Engagement and Outreach

To Illustrate some of the potential, I built my presentation into a new web site: 

For those of you interested, I also include the agenda for the meeting. 

 

(download)

Comments [0]