Ed Morrison's Garage http://edmorrison.com All content licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license posterous.com Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:12:00 -0800 Purdue Certification in Strategic Doing launches http://edmorrison.com/purdue-certification-in-strategic-doing-launc http://edmorrison.com/purdue-certification-in-strategic-doing-launc

Sd1_class

This week, the Purdue Center for Regional Development launched our 1st professional certification class in Strategic Doing. The class included professionals and downtown development, entrepreneurship, nonprofit management, workforce development, healthcare, and regional economic development. All of these professionals see a need to build their skills in designing and managing complex collaborations across organizational and political boundaries. Strategic Doing is a simple discipline that enables professionals perform these collaborations quickly.

My colleagues at Purdue -- Peggy Hosea and Scott Hutcheson  -- as well as my colleague Kim Mitchell from Sutton, Mitchell, Babin and Beebe (SMBB) architects formed the teaching team. 

Purdue has become the anchor institution for building out a national network of colleges and universities teaching this new discipline.  SMBB has become the national leader in applying Strategic Doing to physical planning. Kim has joined with us at Purdue to design a new approach to physical planning that is more agile and responsive to citizen engagement. 

During the course of the class, we shared the stories of how we used these frameworks to guide the transformation of Oklahoma City and develop the Charleston Digital Corridor. Both economies proved these new network-based approaches to economic development are fast and agile. (Both Oklahoma City and Charleston are now ranked in the top three metros -- along with Austin -- in small business vitality rankings.) 

Building complex collaborations quickly...Guiding complex collaborations toward measurable outcomes

During the class, we explored how to deploy Strategic Doing to address complex challenges including building community health networks, revitalizing downtown districts, and forging a collaboration for regional economic development.

Each of these collaborations, to be successful, needs to build trust quickly in order for the members to undertake complex projects and see measurable results. Purdue is working with our partners at Indiana University and Ivy Tech to make our region a hotbed of these new approaches. That's why we concentrated our first class on working with professionals in our own backyard.

We have already used agile strategy disciplines to become a region with the highest concentration of Project Lead the Way high schools in the country, a region that launched the nation's first green collar certification in manufacturing (now in over 20 states), and a region that has become a leader in university commercialization through Purdue's Discovery Park and the Purdue Research Park. (And, of course, now, it's the region that has the highest concentration of economic and workforce development professionals skilled in Strategic Doing. Success builds on success. Because of our work focusing on pre-engineering education in our high schools, Project Lead the Way moved its national headquarters to Indianapolis.) 

Developing regional innovation clusters with Strategic Doing 

We are riding the growing excitement that has built around the country for Strategic Doing. Here's an example of how people react to a Strategic Doing workshop. We conducted this workshop in the wake of the NASA Shuttle Shutdown. Weeks later, we launched a new clean energy cluster on the Space Coast. With Strategic Doing, people don't wait around to get stuff done. They don't ask permission. They build off the strategic thinking they have already done to link and leverage their assets into new opportunities. In this way, they add new strategic insights and open new growth opportunities. 

We are working with our colleagues at Arizona State to build out their statewide solar cluster. Our next step here is a second Solar Summit to be held in late March. We are working to build collaborations to promote improved utility regulation, distributed generation policies and grid parity, and the build-out of regional transmission capacity. 

Our work in clusters started in July 2008, with our work with the Milwaukee Water Council. This workshop launched the cluster, so that now the Water Council is now recognized as a world water hub. We generated this energy and focus by linking, leveraging and aligning assets across organizational and political boundaries. Four months after our Strategic Doing workshop, our colleagues at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee drew this map to illustrate the linkages that had formed. 

Wcl

Building Strategic Doing out nationally through a national network of colleges and universities 

Over the coming year, we will roll out the Strategic Doing certification––a four-day course followed by fieldwork––across the country. We are working with our university partners, including Michigan State University, Arizona State University, Virginia Tech University, Northern Illinois University, the University of Missouri, and the University of Akron to launch a national network of colleges and universities teaching the skills to accelerate collaboration. 

Strategic Doing is a simple framework that takes practice to master. We developed it with insights from a variety of different sources: open source software development, complex adaptive systems, Appreciative Inquiry, agile product development, social network analysis, and strategic planning. 

We have incorporated these concepts into a powerful experience that leaves people focused and excited. Take a look at some of these reactions to Strategic Doing from Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, and North Carolina. 

The popularity of Strategic Doing is spreading. Here's a map of where I've been in the last two years or so. These speeches and workshops have developed by word of mouth. People call Purdue and are asking us about how to learn more.

Map

Stay tuned. We'll announce the first open enrollment of Strategic Doing certification in the coming weeks. Right now, we're headed back to the Garage to fine tune the curriculum based on the advice and guidance from our inaugural class. 

If you are interested in the next Strategic Doing certification class, please e-mail Peggy Hosea at Purdue: phosea@purdue.edu

Practical agile strategy workshops for your regional leadership

In addition to the four day certification class for professionals, Purdue is working with a number of regions to provide a two day workshop designed for civic leaders in your region. This workshop introduces you to the concepts of agile planning. At the same time, we use your existing strategy and show you how to get it moving through Strategic Doing. This workshop is particularly useful for regions that are stuck. To discuss this option, contact Peggy Hosea at Purdue: phosea@purdue.edu

Practical training for how you can engage your university
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We have incorporated Strategic Doing into another curriculum designed for regional leaders who want to develop a strategy for engaging their university in a regional strategy. Developed by our colleagues at TRE Networks and Virginia Tech University, this training is valuable for regional leaders who want to accelerate the engagement of their university. This training will be held at Virginia Tech on May 21-23. You can learn more here. 

The pathbreaking work of Edward Lowe Foundation 

Another shout-out goes to our colleagues at the Edward Lowe Foundation -- Mark Lange, Penny Lewandowsi, Dino Signore, Shannon Jennings -- who helped me start figuring out how to teach this stuff. 

For those who do not know, the Lowe Foundation has become a national incubator for new approaches to economic development. The foundation is the base camp for Economic Gardening and the focus on Second Stage Companies. Check out the Your Economy site to learn more about Second Stage Companies. 

The national launch of Strategic Doing is directly tied to my experience in a Lowe Foundation Entrepreneurial Support Organization retreat. It was during this retreat, that I started to design the outlines of a national network to support this new strategy discipline. Dino Signore led our group in a PeerSpectives roundtable that propelled the idea. 

One more thing: if you do not have a Companies to Watch program in your state, it's time to start one. 

Our workshops are pragmatic, focused and "hands-on". We use the "fishbowl" to observe and critique students, as they learn how to design and focus strategy in loosely joined networks. Below, students are learning some of the basics of managing complex adaptive systems. (Tip of the hat to Dino Signore, who taught this to me.) 

The Lowe Foundation has shown us how to make executive education engaging, reflective, powerful and fun. 
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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:52:44 -0800 Linking and leveraging university assets to strengthen regional economies http://edmorrison.com/linking-and-leveraging-university-assets-to-s http://edmorrison.com/linking-and-leveraging-university-assets-to-s On Sunday, we are launching our week-log Strategic Doing certification course at Purdue. The first class -- 23 economic and workforce development professionals -- draws from Indiana. We are focused on making our 14 county region around Purdue a hot spot for intensive collaboration using the new strategy disciplines for open networks. 

Extending collaboration has been a focus at Purdue since former President Martin Jischke appointed Vic Lechtenberg to lead the effort. Purdue has launched Discovery Park, an expanded Purdue Technical Assistance Program, and the Purdue Center for Regional Development, among other initiatives. The process continues. Last week, Purdue announced a new Innovation and Commercialization Center. 

Strategic doing provides a disciplined framework for extending these collaborations, a kind of core technology to designing and managing complex collaborations in open, loosely connected networks. 

We are building a national network of universities committed to this new discipline. So, for example, Michigan State is using this discipline in its engagement activities and Arizona State has used strategic doing to design its initiatives to build a solar cluster in Arizona. Virginia Tech is collaborating with Purdue to incorporate strategic doing in a new executive education course on regional engagement, through its Engagement Academy. The Virginia Tech course -- scheduled for May -- is designed to help regional leaders link and leverage their university assets to strengthen competitiveness. 

The University of Akron is collaborating with Purdue, Michigan State, Arizona State and the University of Michigan, among others, to create a platform to explore federal policies to support extended collaboration among higher education, business, government, and non-profits. The discipline of strategic doing sits at the core of this new network focused on Transformative Regional Engagement. 

In the coming months, we'll be announcing details of a national initiative to bring the disciplines of strategic doing to national scale. Michigan  State, The University of Akron and Arizona State have been at the core of this effort.  

One of the important opportunities comes in transforming the Great Lakes economy, where we have the highest concentration of colleges and universities in the country. In an important paper, James Duderstadt, past president of the University of Michigan, has explored this core strength of the Great Lakes economy.  

In the most recent issue of Michigan State's Engaged Scholar magazine,  I explore the possibilities of the practical dimensions of how we can build collaborations across organizational and political boundaries with a common strategic framework and a simple discipline to manage this complexity. 

A Master Plan for Higher Education.pdf Download this file

Strategic Doing Engaged ScholarWEB 2011.pdf Download this file

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:15:48 -0800 Forming a new creative media cluster in Shreveport by following some simple lessons http://edmorrison.com/forming-a-new-creative-media-cluster-in-shrev http://edmorrison.com/forming-a-new-creative-media-cluster-in-shrev
Shreveport

We have been hearing a lot about regional innovation clusters lately. The Obama administration, bolstered with policy work by Brookings and the Center for American Progress, have been integrating federal programs in an effort to promote these clusters. The Economic Development Administration has launched a new website designed to connect clusters and create a new type of "infrastructure" to support this strategy. At Purdue, we have done a lot of work developing interactive tools to identify and analyze clusters. You can check them out on our regional innovation web site. 

Yet, when it comes to actually designing and launching regional innovation clusters -- "activating" clusters -- we are at a very early stages of developing a professional practice. We have just now started the work of developing protocols, disciplines and frameworks in order to make these practices replicable, scalable and sustainable.  

We should not be discouraged that our work in activation lags our advances in analysis. Activating regional innovation clusters -- designing and launching them -- represents a formidable challenge. We need to integrate insights from large group intervention practices (like Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space, the World Cafe and Asset-Based Community Development) with new strategy disciplines (Strategic Doing), lessons from open source software development, new tools (like social network analysis), and traditional financial, marketing and project management. While we're at it, we need to throw in a few insights from the rapidly evolving field of complex adaptive systems (one of my favorite books on the topic -- Managing the Unknowable -- describes the fog in which we must operate). Is it any wonder that there are cynics in the grandstand? In truth, as a recent analysis out of Europe demonstrates, most cluster initiatives do not work very well.  

This weak record of accomplishment does not mean that developing clusters is not a worthy policy. No, the path is just fraught with difficulties. 

For the past year, I have been working on the Space Coast in Florida promoting the development of a clean energy cluster. That experience has helped me understand how we can use the disciplines of Strategic Doing to accelerate the development of regional innovation clusters.

Here are some simple lessons. 

The most effective approach to designing and launching regional innovation clusters is privately-led and publicly-supported, not the other way around. (When the public sector tries to lead cluster development, the result is usually a mess.) This principle carries significant implications for how initial meetings are structured and how conversations are framed and guided. 

Company executives who initially engage in cluster development are impatient. We are dealing with tight time constraints, usually no more than 2 hours. Within that window of opportunity, we need to demonstrate the tangible value that can come from sharing non-proprietary information and building new collaborations from shared assets. 

We can illustrate this point with that example from creative media cluster that is beginning to form in Shreveport, Louisiana. My colleague, Kim Mitchell, led an initial meeting of a new creative media cluster yesterday. He saw how government representatives and staff from economic development organizations can, without some guidance, take over  the conversation. They can quickly move it in a largely irrelevant, confusing direction. 

By inserting himself into the conversation, Kim was able to steer the focus back to defining new market opportunities. In Florida, to deal with this problem, we adopted the practice of bi-furcating our meetings. In the first half, industry members sat around the table and support organizations observed. In the second half of the meeting, support organization representatives joined the conversation to address the agenda items outlined by the private sector representatives. 

Here's another lesson. Among the different collaborations that can arise, we want to select those that have a relatively large potential impact and that are relatively easy to do. As we demonstrated in the Arizona Solar Summit, we can use these two dimensions to select priorities quickly. 

Finally, we need to work with a thirty day time horizon. If we cannot accomplish tangible progress in the thirty days after a meeting, no one will come to the next one. The good news in Shreveport: the founding members of the cluster agreed to come back together again in two weeks. 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:01:30 -0800 The role of universities in promoting new strategies of transformation http://edmorrison.com/the-role-of-universities-in-promoting-new-str http://edmorrison.com/the-role-of-universities-in-promoting-new-str The folks at Michigan State have become big supporters of Strategic Doing. The Memorandum of Understanding between Purdue and Michigan State sets the groundwork for a national network of colleges and universities committed to teaching this discipline.
We are moving faster than we anticipated in establishing this network. Right now, over ten universities have expressed interest in anchoring this network. While we were initially focused on the Great Lakes, our network has grown nationally. We will be announcing more details in the coming months.

To set the stage for developing the network, Michigan State asked for an article on Strategic Doing for their Engaged Scholar magazine.

Morrison Engaged Scholar WEB 2011.pdf Download this file

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:15:00 -0800 Hoosier innovation: A brilliant, simple idea to support young entrepreneurs http://edmorrison.com/hoosier-innovation-a-brilliant-simple-idea-to http://edmorrison.com/hoosier-innovation-a-brilliant-simple-idea-to

Here is a simple idea for accelerating the development of networks needed to support young entrepreneurs.

With legislation recently passed by the Indiana legislature, Indiana communities can elect to offer incentive packages to attract young entrepreneurs. It's both a competition and a matchmaking. The young entrepreneurs will evaluate different bid packages before deciding where to locate their business

The initiative is targeted at entrepreneurs who are in an Indiana college or university pursuing a major, minor or certificate in an entrepreneurial program. The initiative also includes Indiana graduates with a major, minor or certificate on the turnaround program who completed their studies within the past 3 years.

The process starts with a business plan. So far, this isn't much different than most business plan competitions.

But here's the twist. Communities compete with incentive packages to attract the best entrepreneurs. The communities come up with the reward.

Instead of chasing the next company moving from Michigan the Mexico with incentive deals, participating communities design incentive packages to attract these promising young entrepreneurs.

My Purdue colleague, Scott Hutchison, is in the middle of the team implementing this initiative statewide. He's promoting the program to communities by encouraging them to think broadly about the different incentive packages that they can put together.

So, for example, a local health system to provide low-cost or no-cost health insurance to employees of the new company. Real estate developers could offer real estate packages that include both live and work spaces. Local restaurants could provide vouchers for free or reduced price meals. The downtown association could provide "shopping cards".

Accounting and law firms could offer reduced rate or free services. Local governments could offer a concierge service to help the new company navigate government regulations and programs. Community banks could band together to provide attractive financing packages. Angel investors could come together to mentor the new company. The local YMCA could offer free memberships.

The list goes on.

This initiative doesn't cost the state government a dime. At the same time, it redirects local economic developers and civic leaders to the real source of future prosperity in their communities.

Brilliant.

Young Entrepreneur Program.pdf Download this file

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Sun, 18 Dec 2011 08:51:00 -0800 Why incivility destroys innovation and prosperity | Shreveport's Choice Neighborhood as a case study http://edmorrison.com/why-incivility-destroys-innovation-and-prospe http://edmorrison.com/why-incivility-destroys-innovation-and-prospe
Incivility destroys a community's capacity to generate wealth. 

Here's why. 

In a networked, knowledge-driven economy, collaboration drives wealth creation. And collaboration can only thrive in a stable environment of trust. The corrosion of our civil society –– the alarming growth of incivility and pervasive lying –– undercuts our economy's productivity and our capacity to innovate.

Incivility -- fraudulent concealment ("hiding the ball"), lying, manipulation, and associated behaviors -- can work well to redistribute wealth. We see almost endless examples from MF Global to the subprime mess. Yet, these behaviors do not generate wealth. Indeed, they erode capitalism's capacity to generate wealth. That's why corruption slows economic growth and why trust is associated with higher rates of economic growth. 

We have moved into a new economic era with new rules for prosperity. Increasingly, knowledge embedded in products and services creates the value leading to wealth. This knowledge is generated and managed through collaborative, loosely joined networks. 

Our capacity to prosper depends on our capacity to collaborate and innovate in these open networks. To innovate, we must learn how to design and manage complex projects without relying on "command and control" dictates, which don't work. Trust becomes a key element in the effectiveness of these networks. Ethical habits are crucial to innovation and the generation of wealth in open networks. (For those interested in diving deeper into this topic, you might read Francis Fukuyama's Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity.) 

This all sounds abstract. Let's get practical. 

Bringing innovation to inner city Shreveport

How do you transform the economy at a neighborhood level? That's the challenge that a colleague of mine, Kim Mitchell and his firm, took on with a HUD Choice Neighborhood grant in Shreveport, LA. Kim is a member of our Strategic Doing Design Team that meets twice a year to advance the disciplines of agile strategy with Strategic Doing. 

In this Choice Neighborhood grant, Kim and his team proposed a new approach to rebuilding the economies of devastated inner-city neighborhoods. The Purdue Center for Regional Development has been assisting the team. You can see some background work and documents on the project web site here.

We know this much: billions of dollars of federal money over the past four decades have not changed the dynamics within these neighborhoods. Each of these well intended federal programs has been designed to fix a specific problem. They do not change the underlying dynamics within the neighborhood. As a result, they fail. In the case of HUD, the agency's categorical programs have done little to change the dynamics of neighborhoods like Ledbetter and Allendale in Shreveport.

A promising strategy developed in Shreveport offers hope of a new approach. Community Renewal International views neighborhoods as a series of interconnected,  complex networks. As a shorthand, they refer to the “village structure” of the neighborhood. For a number of years Kim and I have been working with Mac McCarter and his team at CRI  to explore how we might integrate the CRI  strategy framework with  the new discipline of Strategic Doing, incubated at the Purdue Center for Regional Development.  

This video introduces CRI: 

Strategic Doing represents a fast way to design and manage complex collaborations by following simple rules. (For more background, see the article in the most recent issue of Michigan State's Engaged Scholar magazine, p. 33) This video introduces Strategic Doing with work we have been doing on the Space Coast in the wake of the NASA Shuttle shutdown: 

The CRI approach promises dramatic improvements in the productivity of federal investments in these devastated neighborhoods. So, for example, in Allendale, CRI has shown dramatic improvements by focusing on what matters: the core, intentional relationships that build the neighborhood.

Strategic Doing focuses on building these strategic relationships quickly. 

Our partners at Michigan State are now using this discipline to address opportunities and challenges in neighborhoods in mid-Michigan through the "Power of We". With Michigan State, Purdue is launching a national network of colleges and universities to teach this new discipline in order to accelerate our nation's civic innovation.  Arizona State, Indiana University, the University of Akron, the University of Alaska, and Northern Illinois University are just some of the campuses joining this effort. 

Accelerating civic innovation is vital to our economy's economic transformation. We have shown that with Strategic Doing, we can dramatically boost the productivity of federal investments by “linking and leveraging” these investments across organizational and political boundaries.

With the Choice Neighborhood grant, Kim and his team proposed to use the Ledbetter/Allendale neighborhoods as a testbed for new approaches to revitalizing inner-city neighborhoods by combining the insights of Community Renewal International and Strategic Doing.

This work is difficult, complex and exciting. Open innovation pushes us in new directions. At its base, however, it requires a commitment to civility among the members of the team. By “civility” I mean the capacity to treat each other with mutual respect and honesty. Civility means not withholding relevant information from one another, not lying to one another, and not personally attacking one another.

The Shreveport Choice Neighborhood innovation implodes

Unfortunately, the City of Shreveport and the local council of governments could not uphold their end of the bargain. A week ago, they issued a letter demanding that Kim and our team cease working on this project. 

This letter came from an attorney after local government officials undercut the project with a pattern of unacceptable civic behavior. Rather than confront any disagreements with our team openly, the City and the council of governments elected to first attack our work behind the scenes and then run to a lawyer.  

I'm disappointed, but not surprised. 

Civic innovations like the ones we were designing in Shreveport disrupt bureaucratic organizations. These innovations propose a new way of doing business that can be threatening to the established order. 

The incivility we encountered fits a pattern long established in Shreveport, where I have been working since 1984. When I first arrived in the city to work on an economic development strategy, I encountered a public debate touched off by a Methodist minister. He accused the city's leadership of being unable to collaborate to lift the city's sights. Rev. Hull called this civic pathology "Shreveportitis". Amplifying Rev. Hull's comments the same year, I wrote about the political challenges facing Shreveport in a strategy report that the American Economic Council awarded the first Arthur D. Little Award for Excellence in Economic Development. 

I pointed out in that report that Shreveport's evolution politically would ultimately define its economic horizon.  

Almost a decade later, on November 3, 1993, I gave a speech to the Shreveport Rotary, "The Politics of Personality: The Biggest Economic Challenge Facing Shreveport and What To Do About It." In the speech, I diagnosed Shreveport's problem bluntly: "The political dynamics of Shreveport...are mired in a ditch." I pointed out that as economies slow down, the focus of politics inevitably narrows. The game turns into zero sum, and local "leaders" focus too much on personalities and not enough on issues of common concern. They lose a sense of direction. Politics becomes a soap opera, an endless loop of shallow intrigue and innuendo. 

In my 1993 remarks, I set out some simple rules to guide Shreveport toward a more healthy and productive civic process: Shreveport's leaders "must be willing to to exclude from the process those people who insist on promoting their own hidden agendas to the detriment of others. Those who insist on manipulating and withholding information to their own advantage. Those who refuse to respect others and the spirit of collaborative discussion."

Twenty-seven years after Rev. Hull and I pointed out the challenge of civic leadership in Shreveport, and 18 years after my speech to the Rotary, Shreveport's leadership has been unable to develop more healthy civic habits. Shreveportitis still infects the body politic. 

The challenge for HUD: Move beyond project management

Sadly, the agency staff at HUD has proven itself not much help to get the Choice Neighborhood project underway. One of the challenges in moving HUD toward new models of sustainable development involves training staff new ways of thinking and behaving, new approaches that foster collaboration. The HUD staff is well-versed in project-based management. Yet, these approaches are too rigid, too linear, too bureaucratic to support the agile, integrated and open strategies that provide the foundation for sustainable development. Sustainable development invites us to cross boundaries, not defend them. 

I am finding with my conversations with other development professionals across the country that the HUD staff has a very difficult time understanding how to manage promising new pathways to sustainable development. These approaches are inherently more agile and flexible. As HUD moves forward, they will need to examine how to retrain their field staff to promote more collaborative approaches to sustainable development. (The same is true for the staffs of the Employment and Training Administration, as well as the Economic Development Administration.)

Where do we go from here? We will continue to develop and deploy new approaches to agile strategy and sustainable neighborhood development. We will also explore how these models can be embedded, replicated and scaled across regions through our emerging university network.

In our last Strategic Doing Design Team meeting, we discussed the fact that not all communities or regions have the civic maturity to undertake these more sophisticated approaches to building wealth in a networked world. We will be writing up the case of Shreveport to gain some insight into the civic behaviors that must be in place to transform an economy through open innovation in loosely joined networks.

Shreveport's Choice Neighborhood initiative has provided us a valuable lesson in what to avoid. 

Where does Shrevport go from here? My guidance to my friends and colleagues in Shreveport was passed on to me by one of my mentors, Dick Pogue, former managing director of the Jones Day law firm.

In guiding me, Dick told me he was passing on advice he received years earlier from his mentor, the legendary Erwin Griswold, former Solicitor General of the United States. 

When I confronted opposition to deploying these new approaches in Cleveland, Dick told me, "Press on, regardless." 

Sage advice. 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:40:10 -0800 What happens when trust builds: Seeing inside a regional innovation cluster http://edmorrison.com/what-happens-when-trust-builds-seeing-inside http://edmorrison.com/what-happens-when-trust-builds-seeing-inside
Inside_an_ecosystem_for_an_inn

On the Space Coast this week, working on new development strategies for regional innovation clusters. Clusters that accelerate regional innovation are not simply agglomerations of like-situated firms. Instead, regional innovation clusters form around an ethic of open innovation. 

With open innovation, the presumptions on information sharing are reversed. In the old world of our grandfather's economy, regional actors presumed that information was confidential unless they took steps to release it (hence, the "press release"). In a world of open networks, we presume to share information unless we take affirmative steps to protect it (hence the proliferation of passwords). 

Shifting this presumption is important. It leads to collaborations that form more quickly, as well as collaborations that can evolve to higher levels of sophistication. At it's core, the shift involves changing patterns of behavior that are often deeply engrained in a region. In places where the old industrial mindset is still dominant -- Detroit, Cleveland and Shreveport, LA come to mind -- information is not widely shared. Trust levels among civic leaders are relatively low, and the adaptation process slows. 

In contrast, some older industrial cities are  moving along a new path. Milwaukee, WI; Rockford, IL; and Holland, MI come to mind. These are places where regional innovation clusters can more quickly form: the water cluster in Milwaukee; the aerospace cluster in Rockford; the electric battery cluster in Holland. 

To illustrate the complexity that can quickly arise in a regional innovation cluster, I developed this drawing. The challenge, of course, comes in moving a regional economy in this direction. We have found that old strategy constructs -- strategic planning -- do not work well in these open networks for a variety of reasons. That's why we have designed new strategy disciplines expressly for meeting the challenges of designing and managing open, loosely joined networks. 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Sun, 11 Dec 2011 08:08:06 -0800 STEM, loosely joined networks, and open innovation http://edmorrison.com/stem-loosely-joined-networks-and-open-innovat http://edmorrison.com/stem-loosely-joined-networks-and-open-innovat

Stem_slide

With the publication of the National Academy's Rising Above the Gathering Storm report, our attention has been increasingly focused on the connection of STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and our national competitiveness. 

Knowledge provides the new basis of wealth creation, and the STEM disciplines form that core of an economy's capacity to generate and apply new knowledge. U.S. leadership in these disciplines has begun to erode. The National Academy's report called for a "comprehensive and coordinated" federal effort to restore U.S. pre-eminence in these areas. 

As mandated under the America Competes Act, last week the Federal government released a report that provides an inventory of all federal STEM initiatives.  It is the most comprehensive inventory of federal STEM initiatives. 

  • The federal government invests about $3.4 billion in STEM initiatives. 
  • $1.1 billion of the total to focus on the needs of demographic groups that are under-represented in the STEM disciplines. 
  • $312 million goes directly to improve teacher effectiveness. (Other initiatives have a secondary goal of improving teacher effectiveness.
You can read more here. You can download the report here. 

To learn more about STEM disciplines and why they matter, visit the Change the Equation web site. 

A federal effort can only go so far. The real challenge of transforming STEM education lies elsewhere. 

Innovation in the STEM disciplines is grounded in regional economies. At the regional level, we have the concentration of assets -- K-12 education, higher education, business clusters, philanthropy -- needed to innovate and transform how teachers teach and students learn these disciplines. 

This innovation will be driven by "open source" disciplines, like Strategic Doing, to create new, innovating networks. These regional networks take time and discipline to form. The regions that focus their efforts on developing these new, innovating networks will be more competitive. They will learn faster, spot opportunities to innovate faster, and act faster. They will build the collaborations capable of tackling the complex challenges of education transformation. 

Innovatingnetwork

In our rapidly evolving global economy, wealth will concentrate in these new hubs of open innovation. (Tom Friedman has an interesting commentary that touches on the topic.) 

At Purdue, we are part of a broad STEM initiative in Indiana. Five years ago, we set out to increase the concentration of Project Lead the Way high high schools in our region. We now have the highest concentration of these high schools in the country. Our commitment was part of the decision to move the PLTW headquarters from New York to Indianapolis. A week-long series of events starts this coming week. 

PLTW is part of a broader network of innovation taking place in the STEM disciplines in Indiana. The I-STEM Network in Indiana represented an unprecedented collaboration to accelerate Indiana to national leadership in STEM innovation. The network is anchored by  regional lead institutions.

Istem

In the past year, I have been working on the Space Coast and Central Florida. We have been deploying "open source" models to accelerate regional collaboration and cluster activation. Florida has been also moving on statewide STEM initiatives. Here are two reports that are guiding their efforts. The challenge in Florida -- as in other states -- will be driving the statewide initiatives to a regional level. Modeling the Indiana network approach is a good place to start. 

Florida STEM Strategic Plan 2011.pdf Download this file

State of STEM in Florida.pdf Download this file

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:02:00 -0800 Memories of Oklahoma City circa 1993 http://edmorrison.com/memories-of-oklahoma-city-circa-1993 http://edmorrison.com/memories-of-oklahoma-city-circa-1993

Years ago, when we started working on the transformation of Oklahoma City, I would come into town and stay at the one downtown hotel, The Medallion. There was one one Mexican restaurant that was open at night a couple of blocks away. When I would walk to it, I'd pass no one on the street.

Walking to Bricktown, to the one restaurant there, The Spaghetti Warehouse, was a bit dicier. You had to be willing to walk a bit farther and pass through an unlit tunnel under the railroad tracks.

Worse still, I suppose, when I would come down for breakfast in the morning, I would often be the only person there. Think of that for a minute: the only person in the only downtown hotel in the capital of Oklahoma.

We started the transformation of Oklahoma City with about 8 people, a few years before the bombing. When that tragedy struck, we shelved our plans for a number of months. But soon, we returned to the task of transformation.

Evidence of our work began appearing a few years later. By 2000, I had left Oklahoma City behind, but the job of transformation continues.

I just came across this video through my Twitter feed. The story of Oklahoma City is inspiring a new generation of leaders. Charles Van Rysselberge, the chamber president who spurred Oklahoma City's business community and I are now in the process of writing the story of the transformation. It's a story with plenty of lessons for leaders in cities and regions facing the challenge of a rapidly shifting global economy.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:12:00 -0800 New York: Strategic coherence at a regional scale http://edmorrison.com/new-york-strategic-coherence-at-a-regional-sc http://edmorrison.com/new-york-strategic-coherence-at-a-regional-sc

The major advantage of New York's focus on building regional strategies comes in fostering coherence at a regional scale. You can see this emerge in the presentations made last week. 

This discipline of preparing a regional plan has a few significant advantages: 
  • The leaders go beyond vision statements. In a world of complex networks, coherence is more important than vision. By their nature vision statements are grand and somewhat fanciful. They are idealistic. In putting them together, the tendency -- to build consensus -- is to get more vague with out language, not more precise. Irnically, in seeking consensus, we get washed out rhetoric that fails to move people. 
  • Leaders focus on building coherence through clear narratives. Coherent narratives -- story-telling -- provides meaning and guidance. In developing these narratives, regional leaders move toward their assets and draw links among them. The noted child psychologist Erik Erickson wrote in his classic Childhood and Society, that "We are who we are never not". The same is true for regions. Discovering who we are never not provides the basis for strategy, and good strategy, after all, is good story-telling. 
  • Leaders understand the importance of linking and leveraging. No one project will transform a region. It's only when projects link and leverage the assets within the regional economy that transformation becomes possible. Linking and leveraging is all about the discipline of co-creating value. Understanding how to design and manage networks that co-create value has become the essence of regional strategy. 
New York would do well to figure out a way to keep this regional process moving forward with continuous state support. State (and federal) policymakers often fall into the trap of thinking that progress will be made when regional leaders "get their act together". True enough, but the thought neglects the equally important job of redesigning state and federal policies to support regional innovation. 

Most of our economic and workforce development policies are 30, 40 or 50 years old. They are categorical programs designed to define (sometimes) carefully targeted problems. With few exceptions (SBIR comes to mind), they are not policies designed to stimulate us to pursue opportunities. 

Simply bundling old programs together (as the Obama administration did with is Jobs and Accelerator grants) is not the answer. These policies need to be redesigned to encourage and invest in the collaborations we need to innovate. That means tackling the underlying statutes. At the same time, we need to be training state and federal professionals in new, network-based models of regional development. Developing strategy in networks involves abandoning "top-down" or "bottom-up" thinking. (Networks have neither.) 

Rather, professionals within our regional development systems need to learn the skills of collaboration. How do you design complex collaborations quickly and manage them to generate learning by doing? The answer has more to do with understanding open source software development than with writing or following tight government regulations. 

In all the blather about what government can do to create jobs, this is an agenda that has been too long neglected. 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:51:00 -0800 Rockford moves to transform its schools http://edmorrison.com/rockford-moves-to-transform-its-schools http://edmorrison.com/rockford-moves-to-transform-its-schools
Yesterday, Rockford launched its Readiness Rocks: 5 initiatives designed to transform its school system. 

Rockford schools will be using Strategic Doing to forge the collaborations needed to implement these initiatives. They include: extending the school day; creating better learning environments; pre-school for all; a Rockford Promise to invest in college for high school graduates; and innovations for career and college readiness. You can read more about the proposals here. 

Robert Willis, the Superintendent, focused his comments on the need to collaborate to achieve these goals. In my presentation, I explored the meaning of Dr. Willis' phrase, "Together we can". 

Rockford Readiness Rocks.pdf Download this file

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:43:32 -0800 Lessons of regional leadership: An early look at Julia Taylor and the Greater Milwaukee Committee http://edmorrison.com/lessons-of-regional-leadership-an-early-look http://edmorrison.com/lessons-of-regional-leadership-an-early-look
Gmc

The lessons of regional leadership are somewhat different from the typical leadership lessons you might read in a management book. Not much has been written about regional leadership -- how civic leaders can develop and manage complex projects in the open, loosely joined networks of our civic economy. 

My Purdue colleague Scott Hutcheson has started an important conversation within the Purdue Center for Regional Development on the topic. He starts by looking closely at a valuable case study: How Julia Taylor and the Greater Milwaukee Committee has begun to change the development dynamics in Milwaukee and seven counties of Southeast Wisconsin -- the Milwaukee 7 region. Scott then applies insights from the academic literature on organizational change and leadership. 

Some important proof points on the power of the GMC approach to leadership: In only a few years, Milwaukee has vaulted to a global leadership position in fresh water technologies, a large and growing market, with the Milwaukee Water Council. 

As I read through Scott's analysis of Julia's work, here's how I would characterize the guidance Julia provides. 

1. Influence builds as leadership develops the habit of translating ideas into action quickly
2. Influence builds as members of the network share recognition for their accomplishments
3. Influence builds as members of the network gain a sense of alignment and connection
4. Influence builds as members gain an appreciation of the power of networks to move quickly in a strategic direction
5. The Metcalfe curve matters: As a network becomes larger, more sophisticated and more capable, new opportunities for co-creating shared value emerge
6. Influence builds as leaders make clear their personal agenda and what's in it for them
7. Lean into the sharp points of potential opposition: Invite potential opponents to appoint members to an advisory team
8. Use this advisory team to overcome political obstacles to regional collaboration; rely on them early and often
9. To build trust, start small and build off early gestures of good will 
10. Press on, regardless, to build leadership networks with strong cores and porous boundaries

More will follow as we distill what is going on in Milwaukee and how these lessons can be shared with other regions. It's a fascinating start to what is likely to be an important new field of study: Team leadership in regional economies. 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:49:07 -0800 Strategic Doing: An Update http://edmorrison.com/strategic-doing-an-update http://edmorrison.com/strategic-doing-an-update
Here's an update on our Strategic Doing activities over the past two weeks or so.

Tampa Bay Partnership

The Partnership, with the assistance of Stanford Research Institute, has completed a large strategy document that outlines options for the region. The Partnership is not developing an implementation plan, and they have turned to Strategic Doing as a framework to guide their next steps. On Friday, November 18, I conducted a workshop that introduced the concepts of strategy and open networks to about 20 civic leaders who have agreed to guide the 6 working teams. During the workshop, we explored how the disciplines of this Strategic Doing could be used to keep each working team on track, as well as define a common language across working teams.  

After the workshop, we adjourned to a much larger annual meeting of the Partnership. About 480 people filled the ballroom. During a 15 min. presentation I emphasized how a relatively small group of people, working together and in a disciplined way, can transform a regional economy. I used Oklahoma City as my example. I also used our work in the Charleston Digital Cord or to explain how a city can develop and “entrepreneurial ecosystem” by using our portfolio model of civic innovation. You can download a copy of my presentation slides here.

Lake County, Florida

Lake County is a rural county on the northwest edge of the Orlando Metro region. A new economic development director pull together the 1st economic development summit in the County. About 100 people participated who represented a wide range of leadership in the County from schools and universities to local government officials and private business. The format of the meeting was a bit stiff, as it consisted of a series of speakers providing the leadership with an overview of economic development in central Florida. My presentation on Strategic Doing represented the last session of the day. Nevertheless, we got a good response from the audience. Here are the slides. 

Linda Fowler and I have been working in the Space Coast––the eastern edge of the Central Florida region––and we have experienced the difficulties of establishing collaborations within the Central Florida region. I mentioned this problem in my presentation, and several people remarked afterwards that they appreciated my candor. It's always interesting to me how an outsider can point to such an obvious failing that no one in the region feels comfortable talking about.

Space Coast Clusters

Linda Fowler and I spent a day last week outlining the final report for our work with Space Florida and building clusters on the Space Coast. We are working with EMSI, who completed the data analysis of the Central Florida region. An interesting insight is emerging from this work. Analysis of existing clusters represents a look backward into an economy as its strengths have evolved. We are finding on the Space Coast that new opportunities are emerging as these established clusters overlap. So, for example, a new opportunity is emerging for defense firms in cyber security and health IT.  

We are now finishing up some workshops that we will conduct in mid December and early January. 

Our big success has been developing a new cluster in clean energy. The Space Coast Energy Consortium formed after a strategic doing workshop. You can watch a video to see how this cluster begin to form. You can download a presentation that Linda and I put together that explains how this cluster formed. It is another example of how we can use the disciplines of Strategic Doing activate new clusters.  

Arizona: Solar Cluster

Todd Hardy at Arizona State University provided an update on their Arizona Solar Summit. You can see their website, which includes some videos. The Solar Summit presented participants with both panel discussions and active conversation around strategic options. Coming out of the summit, Arizona State University's team organized 4 working groups: supply chain and workforce development; applied research collaborations and pilot projects; policy and finance; and building a stronger narrative.

We used a participant's workbook that was delivered to each registrant prior to the event. I think it's a good practice that we can develop.  I've used this workbook as a template to develop a similar workbook for the Wisconsin Rural Summit that will be held this Friday. 

Todd indicated that ASU is providing the backbone organization to keep these working groups focused. 2 or 3 volunteer leaders have assumed leadership of each focus group. In addition, a large number of the participants at the Summit volunteered to join a working group. The working group leaders are now organizing their activities. They hold regular check-in calls every 2 weeks to keep each other informed of their progress.  

Shreveport: Choice Neighborhoods

Kim Mitchell is continuing his work on the Choice Neighborhood grants into inner-city neighborhoods in Shreveport. The work is very difficult, primarily because the civic environment in Shreveport is so poor. He is facing continuous efforts to slow down or tear down the process that is building. Nevertheless, he's persevering. Last week, he conducted a successful training for civic leaders with our partner, Community Renewal International, who will help guide the process of defining and implementing collaborations within the neighborhoods. It is apparent to me that Kim is having some success. Otherwise, the established powers that control the city would not feel threatened by this work.

You can keep up with what is happening on his project web site here. 

Kim and I are continuing to develop concepts of agile planning that provide the next generation of strategy frameworks for physical planning. Traditional planning models, which are rooted in the 1920s, treat the planning process as linear and fixed. In contrast, we are defining a discipline of physical planning that is agile and adaptive. This new approach changes the traditional role of the planner from the “expert draftsman” to a person who actively participates in community strategy development and provides guidance and resources to the residents of the neighborhood as they plan their future. Kim and I hope to have the next draft of our agile planning document ready for review in the next week or so.

Rockford

Janyce Fadden has been spearheading three separate initiatives underway in Rockford. Some weeks ago, we began a strategy process with the board of the Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. In addition, Rockford is undertaking a major transformation in its education system based on 5 key strategies. Tomorrow, they will announce the launch of these efforts. I will be providing the context of why education transformation is so critical 21st-century competitiveness. 

Finally, the Mayor of Rockford has launched an impressive reform of how economic development and community development organizations in the city are financed. In the past, each organization received funding from separate line items that drew from different funding sources in the city budget. Now, the mayor and council have consolidated these funding sources into a centralized fund of about $3 million. He is asking the groups to come together and develop their own collaborative strategic action plan for the city. Funding decisions will then be presented to the mayor and the council in a unified fashion. This is a big challenge. Next week, in a 2 hour session, we will start the process of building these collaborations.

Wisconsin Rural Partners

Connie Lowden and her colleagues on the board of Wisconsin Rural Partners are designing a one day Summit event that focuses on applying strategic doing to build a stronger networks within Wisconsin. We will also be exploring how the Partnership can strengthen its voice by connecting to other rural networks nationally. You can download a draft of the agenda here.

We will be borrowing an idea that worked well with the Arizona Solar Summit. I have prepared a participant workbook that will introduce concepts that we will be using during our workshop. The participant workbook delivers a couple of important messages. We let participants know that the event they're about to attend is different from any summit they have attended in the past. We also want to use the workbook to capture information and insights. Like a strategic doing pack, the workbook becomes a “knowledge asset” to the network.

Alaska: Institute of the North and CTE

Laz Kozmon is continuing his work in Alaska. Last week he completed 2 milestones. He has been working with the Institute of the North to design a strategy for the Institute that strengthens its position in framing issues and building collaborations across Alaska.  In addition, he has been working with the Career and Technical Education system in Alaska to develop an implementation plan for the strategy that the CTE system has designed. Much like Tampa Bay, the leaders of the CTE system spent nearly 2 years in developing a strategy. Once completed, however, they face the daunting challenge of implementation. This is where strategic doing and the disciplines it fosters can help. Laz is outlining how to move forward.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Fri, 11 Nov 2011 07:18:00 -0800 Update from our Strategic Doing Design Team http://edmorrison.com/update-from-our-strategic-doing-design-team http://edmorrison.com/update-from-our-strategic-doing-design-team

Every six months, a group of practitioners from across the country convene in Indiana to advance the discipline and practice of Strategic Doing. This week, about 20 gathered to develop the "infrastructure" we need to advance this discipline nationally. 

This new civic infrastructure includes a variety of components: a new professional certification in the discipline; a national network of colleges, universities and others supporting the discipline; a research and evaluation framework to enable us to advance the knowledge of conducting strategy within open networks; the development of new tools to advance the practice; the design of a learning network to accelerate support among practitioners. 

Why do we have an expanding core of people committed to this work? 

Here's a summary of points that tie our Strategic Doing Design Team together:
  • With the problems we’re continuing to experience across our country, it has become apparent that traditional ways of solving complex problems in the civic space are no longer effective.
  • These traditional ways lack a disciplined approach that is firmly rooted in sound strategic thinking.
  • Strategic Doing brings the missing strategy and execution discipline to the civic space.
  • The Strategic Doing discipline requires a broader, deeper body of knowledge to support it and ensure that it has predictive value and proves to be both reliable and effective. 
We also come together as a team with some common beliefs: 
  • We believe we have a responsibility to build a prosperous, sustainable future for ourselves and future generations.
  • No individual, organization or place can build that future alone.
  • Open, honest, focused and caring collaboration among diverse participants is the path to accomplishing clear, valuable, shared outcomes.
  • We believe in doing, not just talking -– and in behaving in alignment with our beliefs.
We follow the discipline in these sessions to design an agile strategy with clear outcomes for the next 180 days. Not everyone in our design team can meet each time, but Strategic Doing enables us to advance our strategy each session without sliding backwards. 

Our design team includes people from the following states: Maine, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska, Louisiana, Maryland, Iowa, Missouri, California, South Carolina, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, and Alaska. Purdue and Michigan State are anchoring the initial network.  Representatives include private sector companies, economic and workforce development organizations, and college and university professionals involved in regional engagement. We have team members with the perspective of rural communities, multi-county regions, and inner cities. 

This week, we organized ourselves into the following teams: research and evaluation; the national network; tools and practices. Here is one group focused on improving the tools we use in Strategic Doing.  Janyce Fadden, a former manufacturing CEO and now head of Rockford's economic development organization, leads the discussion. 
Strategic_doing_design_team

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:40:42 -0700 Defining investment priorities for regional innovation clusters http://edmorrison.com/defining-investment-priorities-for-regional-i http://edmorrison.com/defining-investment-priorities-for-regional-i One of the major challenges in developing regional innovation clusters comes in defining and setting priorities for collaborative investments. 

Here's a simple solution. 

Have participants in the cluster rank investment options according to two dimensions: one on return, one on risk. 

For each investment option, ask participants two questions:
  • First, how big an impact is the co-imvestment likely to have. Rank on a five point scale (1= low; 5 = high)
  • Second, how difficult will this co-investment likely to be to implement. Rank on a five point scale (1= easy; 5 = hard)
Here's a simple graphic you can use to rank your alternatives. Remember, these investment rankings change over time. As you learn more about an investment alternative, your assessments of risk and return will shift. That's the essence of conducting an agile strategy in an open network: embedding new learning and insights into continuous strategic assessments. 

2setting_priorities 2setting_priorities
See the full gallery on Posterous

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:25:00 -0700 It's about time to measure the effectiveness of state and local tax expenditures to create jobs http://edmorrison.com/its-about-time-to-measure-the-effectiveness-o http://edmorrison.com/its-about-time-to-measure-the-effectiveness-o

My colleague and friend Valdis Krebs, an internationally recognized expert in social network analysis, has mapped taxpayer funding to corporations in Ohio. 

You can see a larger version here.

These types of maps can be useful as we focus on the existing pot of "incentives", which may not be all that effective. 

For years we have known that state tax incentives to corporations are not a very effective way to generate jobs. The reason is simple: State taxes represent a small percentage of the total cost structure to corporations. Reducing these rates has little impact on a company's long term competitive position, and, worse still, it puts state legislators in the business of "picking winners and losers". 

Most of the Ohio incentives mapped by Valdis represent tax expenditures -- largely unmonitored spending through the tax code. The concept of tax expenditures, first developed by Assistant Treasury Secretary Stanley Surrey in 1967, provides a useful lens through which to evaluate unwatched subsidies to corporations. 

Now, with fiscal austerity staring down state and local governments, people are starting to examine these "incentives" more carefully. In the end, they at most, are a tool to move companies from one state to another. From a national (global) point of view, these policies are don't do much (except create employment for accountants, tax lawyers, and site selection consultants). 

Here’s a report out of Florida this week:

Florida tax incentive programs creating 1 out of every 3 jobs promised

And a view from Missouri:

ANALYSIS: States rethinking tax credits as job creation tool

Here is a report from Connecticut: 

State Subsidies Costly, Blunt, and Poorly Monitored

The better approach: Eliminate these business tax expenditures, broaden the base, reduce rates, and simplify.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Sun, 02 Oct 2011 17:14:00 -0700 Measuring the economic value of higher education http://edmorrison.com/measuring-the-value-of-higher-education http://edmorrison.com/measuring-the-value-of-higher-education

In a week's time, I'll be in Indianapolis at the University Economic Development Association annual summit. Among the panels and presentations, I'll be collaborating with Hamilton Galloway of EMSI on new approaches to describe the value of higher education.

For years, colleges and universities have tried to explain their economic impact by simply following traditional methodologies for economic impact studies.

This approach ignores the core value of the higher education institution: the increased productivity of students that arises from their education. The earnings/education link is strong and getting stronger. EMSI has developed some new approaches to describe the value of higher education in today's global economy.

In this presentation, Hamilton and I will be introducing how we are connecting EMSI's work with the work of the Purdue Center for Regional Development and Strategy-Nets, a company that has spun out of Purdue to pursue Strategic Doing as a strategy discipline for open networks.

Here's the first draft of our presentation. We'll be refining it over the week.

Measuring the value of colleges and universities on Prezi

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:57:40 -0700 Managing the profound changes coming in the Alaskan economy http://edmorrison.com/managing-the-profound-changes-coming-in-the-a http://edmorrison.com/managing-the-profound-changes-coming-in-the-a
Last week, I was in Alaska working with civic leaders facing major changes in the state's economy. With oil production declining at a rate of 6% per year, the state government is facing some major shifts. Over 90% of the State's revenue comes from oil production. The issue: Can the state's civic leadership guide the state through this transformation? Scott Goldsmith, a wonderfully gifted economist with the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Alaska has clearly outlined the challenge facing the state.

ISER Alaskas Second Chance 2011.pdf Download this file

Some of the dimensions of Alaska's transformation

The economic transformation facing Alaska is predictable, and civic leaders in Alaska will be confronting the consequences of this major transformation in the state's economy over the next generation. The issues shaping Alaska's future economic prosperity in the near term (3 to 5 years); the midterm (6 to 10 years); and the long-term (over 10 years) are already apparent. The issues focus in the following areas:

Expanded investment into Alaska's oil and gas industry.-- This set of issues focuses on aligning Alaska's public policy with the interests of private investors to slow and potentially reverse the decline of petroleum production revenues; encouraging the State of Alaska to become a co-investor in petroleum development; developing a more appropriate tax structure for Alaska's future; and engaging the public in a stronger, continuous and more focused dialogue about the future of petroleum in the Alaska economy.

Responsible development of the Arctic.-- This set of issues touches on Alaska's role in the Arctic; the emerging economic landscape for Arctic development in light of climate change; the deep cultural issues involving Arctic development; Alaska's leadership in climate change research; and the importance of developing a new, continuing dialogue on “responsible development” of the Arctic.

Economic diversification through cluster development, expanded entrepreneurial opportunities, and strengthened village economies.-- This set of issues involves implementing a statewide strategy of cluster development; investing in expanded university research and development; improving the entrepreneurial support networks throughout the state; reducing the petroleum dependence in Alaska's villages by promoting renewable energy to reduce significantly the outflow of village income.

Accelerated educational innovation and improved educational outcomes.-- This set of issues involves improvements to early childhood education; expanded innovation in distance education; improved career pathways and skill development; financial incentives for postsecondary education; and initiatives to reduce high school dropouts.

A valuable starting point: The Alaska Dialogue

The Alaska Dialogue, led by the Institute of the North, provides a forum to deepen civic engagement within the state. Based on a model of Deliberative Democracy, the Dialogue has clearly provided a valuable experience for these state's civic leadership. The Institute has built a strong brand for the Dialogue that is synonymous with impartiality, collective learning, and the values of citizen engagement. 


This accomplishment is both needed and rare. A growing chorus of commentators has described the declining state of civility in America. This deterioration carries a heavy price. Without civility, citizens and their elected leaders lose the capacity to engage in the complex thinking needed to adapt to the fundamental changes taking place in our economy and our environment. Few states have anything close to the Institute and its Alaska Dialogue to present an alternative to the widespread deterioration of our civic life. 

At the same time, the model of Deliberative Democracy––with its emphasis on conducting deeper civic dialogues around specific public policy issues––was not designed to translate ideas into collective action. Instead, Deliberative Democracy focuses on improving the insights and skills of individual citizens. The experience is designed to enable citizens to see complex issues from different perspectives through the presentation of balanced briefing materials. 

In this way, citizens learn to embrace the values of dialogue. Citizens learn to deliberate about public problems and solutions through reasoned reflection and deeper conversation. They gain a mutual understanding of the values, perspectives and interests of others. They also see the possibility of reframing their own interests and perspectives in ways that can lead to uncovering common interests and mutually acceptable solutions.

Prior to the Alaska Dialogue 2011, some members wanted to explore how to translate the experience of the Dialogue into action more effectively. Christi Bell of the University of Alaska recommended a different deliberation model: Strategic Doing. We integrated components of this new approach into the 2011 Dialogue.

Strategic Doing:  A new approach to civic engagement for Alaska

Deliberative Democracy measures its impacts on the changed attitudes and behavior of individual participants. James Fishkin, the leader in the field at Stanford University, has developed the tool of Deliberative Polling to capture these changes. (Interestingly, Jim was my older brother Hunter's college roommate.)

Strategic Doing starts with a different premise  Incubated at the Purdue Center for Regional Development, Strategic Doing represents a simple discipline for guiding complex civic networks.  The discipline focuses on improving our civic life by designing, activating and managing new collaborative civic networks. Through these networks, citizens can more effectively address the challenges facing our economy and democracy. In sum, the underlying theory of civic change for Strategic Doing differs from Deliberative Democracy. 

Strategic Doing starts with the proposition that we can divide our economy into two major components: a market economy and a civic economy. The market economy, composed of private sector firms, generates wealth. The civic economy––composed of government, education, and nonprofit organizations––supports the market economy, co-creates wealth with the market economy, and largely determines the quality of life within a community or region. Strategic Doing, by improving the collaborations in the civic economy, enhances the performance of the market economy and drive residents of the community to higher levels of prosperity.  

Next steps

We're moving ahead with the deployment of Strategic Doing in Alaska. The University is interested in joining our growing national network of universities that will be offering certifications in the skills needed to design, activate and manage open networks. I'll continue to report on our progress.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:55:45 -0700 Indiana University and Purdue host the University Economic Development Association http://edmorrison.com/indiana-university-and-purdue-host-the-univer-900 http://edmorrison.com/indiana-university-and-purdue-host-the-univer-900
The University Economic Development Association is coming to Indianapolis from October 9-11. It will be a remarkable event. 

Participants will be able to tap into the many innovative activities taking place through IU and Purdue. For example, this week, Purdue issued a press release marking the 50th anniversary of the Purdue Research Park (which is really a network of parks). 

IU and Purdue have accumulated a lot of experience in regional economic development strategies and a wonderful working relationship. We will be hearing from IU President McRobbie and IU-Kokomo Chancellor Harris. 

President McRobbie is a remarkably accomplished leader and he will be a big addition to our program. Among other things, President McRobbie now heads the Board of Internet2,the next generation Internet. Here's an interview of President McRobbie from Public Radio. You can also download his commentaries from iTunes here. 

Chancellor Harris recently testified before the state legislature on the Triple Helix approach to economic development, a framework developed in Europe.

The framework is also advanced by the TRE Network, which will present at our meeting. Purdue's Vice Provost for Engagement, Vic Lechtenberg, chairs the TRE Board. Vic, TIm Franklin and I will provide an overview of TRE. 

Vic also heads the Center for Regional Development, where I work, and he is an extraordinary talent when it comes to understanding how universities can shape regional economies. 

Finally, the Technical Assistance Program at Purdue will be well represented by Dave McGinnis and Dave Snow. If you are unfamiliar with Purdue TAP, you can spend a few minutes on the Purdue TAP web site to get a sense of the reach of their activities. I worked with Purdue TAP on our WIRED grant, where we used strategic doing to come up with the nation's first certification for "green manufacturing". 

This note just scratches the surface of resources and ideas we will be sharing with other professionals involved in university economic development. My Purdue and IU colleagues are very excited about holding our UEDA meeting in Indianapolis. There is still time to register. You can register here. 

UEDA Annual Meeting Brochure.pdf Download this file

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:53:07 -0700 Indiana University and Purdue host the University Economic Development Association http://edmorrison.com/indiana-university-and-purdue-host-the-univer http://edmorrison.com/indiana-university-and-purdue-host-the-univer
The University Economic Development Association is coming to Indianapolis from October 9-11. It will be a remarkable event. 

Participants will be able to tap into the many innovative activities taking place through IU and Purdue. For example, this week, Purdue issued a press release marking the 50th anniversary of the Purdue Research Park (which is really a network of parks). 

IU and Purdue have accumulated a lot of experience in regional economic development strategies and a wonderful working relationship. We will be hearing from IU President McRobbie and IU-Kokomo Chancellor Harris. 

President McRobbie is a remarkably accomplished leader and he will be a big addition to our program. Among other things, President McRobbie now heads the Board of Internet2,the next generation Internet. Here's an interview of President McRobbie from Public Radio. You can also download his commentaries from iTunes here. 

Chancellor Harris recently testified before the state legislature on the Triple Helix approach to economic development, a framework developed in Europe.

The framework is also advanced by the TRE Network, which will present at our meeting. Purdue's Vice Provost for Engagement, Vic Lechtenberg, chairs the TRE Board. Vic, TIm Franklin and I will provide an overview of TRE. 

Vic also heads the Center for Regional Development, where I work, and he is an extraordinary talent when it comes to understanding how universities can shape regional economies. 

Finally, the Technical Assistance Program at Purdue will be well represented by Dave McGinnis and Dave Snow. If you are unfamiliar with Purdue TAP, you can spend a few minutes on the Purdue TAP web site to get a sense of the reach of their activities. I worked with Purdue TAP on our WIRED grant, where we used strategic doing to come up with the nation's first certification for "green manufacturing". 

This note just scratches the surface of resources and ideas we will be sharing with other professionals involved in university economic development. My Purdue and IU colleagues are very excited about holding our UEDA meeting in Indianapolis. There is still time to register. You can register here. 

UEDA Annual Meeting Brochure.pdf Download this file

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1240568/Ed_bilde_5.png http://posterous.com/users/Q0cYx6l4Zz Ed Morrison edmorrison Ed Morrison