Ed Morrison’s Garage

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

Introducing Maine to open innovation and strategic doing

Toward the end of last week, I traveled to Maine for a workshop with the Department of Labor and a presentation to the Economic Development Council of Maine (EDCM). At the Department of Labor, we focused on developing a transformative initiative for fast growing occupations in allied health, health information technology, and nursing.

Working through a strategy with the disciplines of strategic doing helps people understand how leading focused conversations can generate the components of s strategic action plan for loosely joined networks.

On Friday, my presentation to EDCM focused on the broader strategy challenges we face in moving toward open innovation. We need to transform how we meet the challenges of the 21st century. One thing is certain: reforming old systems -- everything from education to workforce and economic development -- is largely a wasted effort. We need to launch dozens of new experiments in order to identify initiatives that can produce step-changes in our productivity. The old industrial systems are not well-suited for the challenges we face today. They are too slow, costly, and unresponsive.

The slides I presented to the EDCM frame this narrative.

(download)

Comments [0]

Measuring regional innovation

A friend recently posed a question: How do we integrate views of traditional regional economists and the new thinking on open innovation. 

 
My reply: 
 
There's no secret beyond continuously pushing toward sensible integration. 
 
We can start with quant screens. That's fine. But they only show some clusters (based largely on co-location and some inferences about innovation). The problem here is that none of  the quantifiable output indicators (patents, etc) are very helpful in isolation -- which is why you need to construct innoation indexes. And when you construct indexes, we defeat some of the critical dimensions of a metric for practitioners: they must be both understandable and actionable. 
 
If we could figure out some sensible quantitative indicators around value added per employee or exports per employee or new product revenue as a percent of total, we might get a bit closer. We used this approach in an analysis we did of the competitiveness of the Rhode Island economy, but it is relatively hard to do.  (I like some of the work being done in New Zealand, and I'd like to explore it more, and, as we mentioned, folks in the EU have been working on these issues for some time.)
 
At the end of the day, innovation is more than geographic co-location. We need measures of information flows and contacts (links and nodes). We need innovation indicators that are based on structured, dynamic data sets that help us understand, for example, the structure of these networks and their performance in terms of the pattern of investment in a regional economy. We want higher levels of investment in higher value activities. 
 
This orientation pushes the economists away from their data sets, and many are not comfortable. But so be it. If we really want to accelerate innovation in this country, we need to move toward a different level of measurement, replication and scale. The university collaboration we are building is a critical platform to move us in this direction. 
 
Open innovation is about four factors: 1) compelling, shared opportunities arising from linking and leveraging assets; 2) the discipline to guide strategic conversations in open networks to translate ideas into action (strategic doing);  3) fast cycle experiments on the edge of these networks to figure out what works; and 4) heuristics for identifying initiatives that are scalable, replicable and sustainable, so we can quickly push investment in that direction. (As one of my venture capitalist friends puts it, "If you find you have started a fire, throw gasoline on it.") 
 
We showed in Indiana that this approach of "linking and leveraging" assets can generate huge productivity gains when it comes to federal workforce programs (exceeding already ambitious goals by 2.5X). The same is true elsewhere. It's the power of open networks. Regions with stronger open networks will spot opportunities faster, align their assets faster, make decisions faster, and learn faster. 
 
Innovation clusters are really open innovation networks, and we are at the early stage of understanding how to form them, guide them strategically, and measure their strength and performance.
 
None of this is easily captured by the massive, static datasets and the regressions tools that traditional economists use to understand the world. 
 
Measuring the soft stuff is the hard stuff. 
 
Ed

Comments [0]

The Wind of Change: Innovation in Cleveland’s schools

As a country, we urgently need to accelerate innovation in our early child care, primary and secondary schools. In today's economy, it's all about brainpower.

After twenty plus years of slow-walk reform efforts, we are now seeing innovations that are making step-change improvements. We are moving from education reform to education transformation. 

Earlier today, I wrote a post for a local Cleveland blog on The Wind of Change: Innovation in Cleveland’s schools

In the post I refer to some of the work we have been doing to support in rural school innovation at Purdue. 

Comments [0]

Meeting the challenges of our auto communities

(download)

My Purdue colleague Scott Hutcheson made a great presentation to the White House Auto Communities Summit this week. He did an excellent job of summarizing some of our key lessons learned. Scott refers to our video on how we used re-engagement networks to respond a major contraction of Delphi Electronics in Kokomo.


Comments [0]

Department of Labor Webinar on Strategic Doing: A Tool for Effective Partnerships

Here's an announcement that went out from the Department of Labor today:

Strategic Doing: A Tool for Effective Partnerships

Do you have a bias for action as you navigate the alignment of economic and community development strategies among stakeholders, funders, contributors and policy makers?  Are you looking for a more effective way to support your community’s economic recovery through effective collaboration?  More and more local areas and states are using a process called Strategic Doing to plan, implement, manage, and evaluate for maximum results - whether the end goal is a career pathways initiative, a recovery act green jobs project, or the development of a regional industry sector strategy. 

Join Ed Morrison, the developer of Strategic Doing, and Mike Mortell from Southeastern Wisconsin, a region that is using Strategic Doing to execute its own strategy, plus regional strategy expert Linda Fowler, to learn how this innovative approach can make your planning processes fast, flexible and (surprisingly) fun!

Strategic Doing Resources:

Access a comprehensive suite of resources on Strategic Doing here: 

  • View a dynamic 45-minute pre-recorded presentation
  • Access a white paper, templates and other introductory resources
  • Find complementary, in-depth participant and facilitator guides that further develop the themes in the pre-recorded presentation

Presenters:

Ed Morrison developed, uses and teaches the Strategic Doing model within economic development, workforce development and education communities.  He is on the staff of the Center for Regional Development at Purdue University and is the founder of I-Open, the Institute for Open Economic Networks.  Linda Fowler began her career in the auto industry and currently consults nationwide on regional collaboration and innovation.  Mike Mortell is currently coordinating talent development efforts to transform the regional economy of Milwaukee 7 in southeastern Wisconsin.  The region is focused on developing a wide range of water-related industries through a broad set of partners.
 
 

Comments [0]

Strategic doing webinar on Workforce3 One

The US Department of Labor has posted a strategic doing webinar on its Workforce3 One site. 

This is the site the DOL uses to collect resources on workforce development. 

Here's the blurb DOL sent out in a recent newsletter: 

A new suite of resources on Strategic  Doing - a planning and implementation process with a focus on action - is now available on Workforce3 One.  Local practitioner Mike Mortell of Southeastern Wisconsin joins Ed Morrison, the developer of this process, to discuss how this tool can add speed and flexibility to planning processes. Newly posted resources include a dynamic 45-minute presentation and complementary, in-depth participant and facilitator guides.

This webinar grew out of work that a colleague, Linda Fowler, and I completed for DOL We conducted a number of regional workshops around the country to introduce strategic doing disciplines to workforce development professionals. 

You might be interested in the practitioner and facilitator guides we prepared as part of this project. You can download them from the webinar page on Workforce3 One: http://www.workforce3one.org/view/3000932470693937558/info

(DOL asks you to register to gain access to content. Its a simple and free process.)

Comments [0]

The different pathways to a strategy

Strategic planning and strategic doing aim for the same thing: a practical strategy. But they go about it very differently.
To communicate the difference, I came up with the following graphic.
Of course, given the turbulence of the current economy and the move of organizations toward more networked forms, strategic planning does not deliver much anymore. That's why we need new models to think and act strategically...both within organizations and within the "civic space" outside individual organizations.
Strategic doing is inherently more flexible, adaptive and emergent. The process is also more ambiguous, though.
But ambiguity is just ambiguity. It does not translate to impracticality. Given the ambiguities we all confront, we can still define a rigorous process by using some simple rules.

(download)

Comments [0]

The turnaround in Youngstown

For a number of years, my brother, Hunter, has been working with the folks in Youngstown. Together, we -- and others -- have been adopting and applying open innovation approaches to stimulate new investment.
Inc. magazine is taking notice of the turnaround.

(download)

Comments [0]

Moving a citizens to support schools with strategic doing

We've been collecting powerful stories of strategic doing from across the country. 

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from Bruce Connolly, Director  of the Center for Education Innovation and Regional Economic Development in Milwaukee, WI:

I have been using strategic planning models and balance scorecard models for the past twenty years.  All with some degree of noted success.  When I switched to strategic doing model, I noticed an immediate change in the energy and enthusiasm of stakeholders.  It goes straight to the point without overwrought exercises and susceptibility to special interest groups in shaping the plan.

Perhaps the most poignant difference is the scope and speed of delivery with this model.  You can get from drawing board to results much quicker.  And isn't that the point: to move from Point A to B? Everybody wants to be at Point B.  

Here's an example of how we used strategic doing: 

Like many first-tier suburbs of Milwaukee, the St. Francis School District was faced with aging facilities and declining enrollments.  Severe budget shortfalls in the recent past had nearly led to bankruptcy.

The district had numerous facility needs that required urgent attention.  However, the lack of a strong community identity, coupled with strained community relations, created widespread negative perceptions about the school district.  The chances of passing a referendum to fund the facilities projects were extremely slim. 

Employing the Strategic Doing for Civic Good Model, a team of community members and business partners worked with experts at the Center for Education Innovation and Regional Economic Development to create a compelling case and coordinated outreach effort.  The result was the overwhelming passage of a multi-million dollar referendum to make much needed building repairs and replace of out-of-date district technology.

A referendum in this community had not been approved in the prior twenty years.  The district, through open enrollment, serves only 52% resident students, meaning that nearly half of the students do not live in the district nor their parents pay taxes in the district to support education.  The community was influenced by the “civic good” recognizing that the education of students is a regional community task not just limited to the artificial boundaries of a small urban school district.

Comments [0]

Open networks, strategic doing and rural innovation

As part of a national strategy to encourage regional collaborations in rural areas, the Obama Administration is supporting 4 regional gatherings across the country. Yesterday's gathering covered abut 100 rural leaders from 12 states in the Midwest.
Yesterday, I had the good fortune to work side by side with Jack Ricchuitto. I made a presentation on strategic doing and open innovation approaches to rural innovation. Jack then followed with a workshop, which continues today. The end products are new partnerships and initiatives in targeted areas, such as regional food systems, regional energy systems.

Despite the fact that we had not worked together for 3-4 years, our messages quickly meshed.
Jack is using a form of strategic doing he developed (Strategic Doing 365) that focuses on identifying quickly the characteristics of a 20 year outcome.
He then quickly moves the conversation to a 2 year horizon and then a 2 quarter horizon.
He moves quickly from "What could we do?" to "What will we do?"

Linda Fowler and I used a similar process last week to move 250 leaders in the Space Coast in Florida to define new "re-engagement networks" for the 9,000 workers losing their jobs from the NASA shutdown.
The key point about strategic doing: We need new disciplines for thinking and acting strategically in open networks.
As soon as I posted this material to a new web site: Rural Innovation, Rob Hindle, a leading thinker on rural innovation from the UK connected. His web site is here: http://ruralinnovation.co.uk/

Comments [0]