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Monthly Update is the email newsletter of the Alliance for Regional Development. For more information or to inquire about submitting content, please contact Kelly O'Brien at (312) 602-5148 or kobrien@allianceRD.org.
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| A NOTE FROM PRESIDENT & CEO KELLY O'BRIEN
At the conclusion of the kick off last month, the Alliance Working Team members made commitments to move forward on new collaborations across the region. Most members pledged to taking the small, practical steps necessary to meet each team’s goals, and each team agreed to meet again within about 30 days. Three of the four teams have held a follow up meeting and the fourth team is meetingtomorrow. It is exciting to be engaged with professionals that are passionate about regional economic development and determined to be a part of something transformative.
The Alliance depends on mobilizing new networks of volunteers. The key is to balance our view of long term transformation with short term, practical steps. When we achieve that balance, our volunteers are focused and energized.
Strategic Doing, a new strategy discipline to build collaboration in networks, guides the work of the Alliance. Strategic Doing is a simple process that enables civic leaders to form collaborations quickly, guide them toward measurable outcomes, and make adjustments along the way. The process focuses on four key questions: - What could we do together? By linking and leveraging assets within the network, we define new opportunities.
- What should we do together? By focusing on “low hanging fruit”, we convert our leading opportunities into measurable outcomes.
- What will we do together? By focusing even more intensively on “pathfinder projects”, we align ourselves across the network and relentlessly take practical steps toward our shared outcomes.
- What’s our 30/30? By agreeing to revise our strategies regularly, we figure out what’s working and make adjustments along the way.
These may seem like easy questions, but let me assure you, as someone that attended Strategic Doing training, and as someone now employing the process…it is anything but easy…but it does drive outcomes.
Leadership at the Purdue Center for Regional Development founded this process and founder Ed Morrison travels the world educating groups on its implementation. The Alliance is very fortunate to have this expertise leading our efforts and it is now available to our sponsors.
The Alliance is offering a customized Strategic Doing training for Platinum Sponsors ($25,000) and an “invite only” Strategic Doing workshop for our Gold ($10,000) and Silver ($5,000) sponsors. Companies can use this training to develop their internal capacity to design and guide complex collaborations. Understanding how to guide collaborations – both within the company and with external partners – is a critical skill in today’s economy. Strategic Doing has been designed and tested in the past decade to meet these complex strategic challenges.
Strategic Doing is powerful knowledge, homegrown in our region. I hope that you will learn Strategic Doing firsthand by serving on an Alliance Working team. In addition, I hope you will consider being an Alliance sponsor and gaining access to custom training for your company.
This new strategy discipline will help us adapt to the fast moving world of open networks that now characterize our economies and is now one of the main ways that the Alliance delivers new value to its members and the region.
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| THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS!
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WORKING TEAMS MAKING FORWARD STRIDES SINCE KICKOFF
The Alliance for Regional Development Working Teams have made great strides forward since our kickoff event at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on March 25. At the kickoff, Working Teams in the key areas of Green Growth, Human Capital, Innovation, and Transportation and Logistics engaged in a strategic-doing process to identify strategic priorities and commit to near-term activity plans to move those priorities forward. Those initial strategic priorities include: - Green Growth: Promoting the water sector and expanding the footprint of the Water Council.
- Human Capital: Collaborative branding of the region's workforce capabilities and resources.
- Innovation: Developing a common understanding of the region's innovation ecosystem, its key challenges, and common goals for action through the creation of an Internet portal.
- Transportation and Logistics: Working together to drive interstate collaboration that integrates the various state-level plans into a comprehensive tri-state plan.
By the end of this week, all Working Teams will have convened for their one-month follow-up meetings and all Teams are well underway with regional asset-mapping tasks. Of particular interest, the Purdue University Regional Decision Maker GIS is now available to the Working Teams as an asset-mapping tool. Introductory webinars have been provided by the Purdue Center for Regional Development's Idraneel Kumar. More dates will follow and a hands on training session is being planned. If you have questions about the Purdue RDM, please Kelly O'Brien at 312-602-5148 or kobrien@alliancerd.org.
In addition, the Human Capital and Transportation and Logistics Working Teams have adopted Basecamp as a cloud-based collaboration tool to assist in document and information sharing. For questions about Basecamp, please contact Michael Benami Doyle at 312-602-5069 or mdoyle@alliancerd.org.
As efforts proceed, Working Team members should keep in mind the importance of building towards the Summit on Regional Competitiveness on December 19 to be able to present concrete evidence of regional collaboration. Working Team members will have an opportunity to share their initial progress at our first quarterly meeting at Purdue University Calumet on June 3. For more information on these two important events, please see below.
As always, the Alliance is grateful to the hardworking volunteer members of the Working Teams. We look forward to continuing to work together throughout the year!
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PURDUE UNIVERSITY TO HOST WORKING TEAMS QUARTERLY MEETING ON JUNE 3
The Alliance Working Teams will meet onTuesday, June 3 for the first quarterly follow-up meeting at Purdue University Calumet in Hammond, Indiana. The all-day event will be an opportunity for the Teams to share progress and success stories, and will include a tour of Purdue's Center for Innovation through Visualization & Simulation (CIVS). The Alliance would like to thank Dr. Chenn Zhou, CIVS Director and member of the Innovation Working Team, for hosting the meeting. Full details including the day’s agenda and directions/parking information will follow as we approach closer to the date.
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| SECOND ANNUAL SUMMIT ON REGIONAL COMPETITIVENESS: DECEMBER 19, 2014
The Alliance in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago will host the second annual Summit on Regional Competitiveness on December 19, 2014. The Summit will serve as an opportunity to brief stakeholders about the progress of the Alliance Working Teams and regional economic development. This high-level event will serve as a showcase for the power of cross-jurisdictional cooperation to move regional strategies forward. Sponsorship opportunities are available. More information will be announced in the coming weeks.
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ALLIANCE PARTICIPATES IN APRIL 29 PANEL DISCUSSION, "STRENGTHENING MANUFACTURING FOR THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY"
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On April 29, the Alliance joined with Manufacturing Renaissance and the Chicago Federation of Labor to co-sponsor Strengthening Manufacturing for the Entire Community. The high-level panel discussion examined challenges and opportunities to creating a comprehensive manufacturing policy in the Chicago area and included a keynote presentation by Peter Marsh, former Financial Times Manufacturing Editor, and expert panels from the industry and policy sectors. Alliance President & CEO Kelly O'Brien and Scott E. Miller, Illinois Manufacturing Lab Interim Director and Innovation Working Team member, participated on the policy panel, which was moderated by Peter Cunningham, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education.
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(Left to right:) Haven Allen, Scott E. Miller, Kelly O'Brien, Peter Cunningham. | |
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Among the topics discussed was the importance of supporting niche activity, sharing new technology with small manufacturers, adopting virtual manufacturing processes, and coordinating workforce training across all sectors. The region was identified as a major production zone with a nationally prominent cluster of service and resource companies available to meet the needs of manufacturers. Strong competition among employers for technically skilled workers, often resulting in higher salaries, was noted.
However cross-jurisdictional fragmentation makes it difficult for stakeholders to conceive of the full scope of the region’s strengths in manufacturing. In her comments, O’Brien underscored the Alliance’s role as a regional convener, and noted the potential economic benefit of overcoming fragmentation through coordination and marketing the region with a unified voice.
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OPERATIONS TEAM TO CHECK IN WITH WORKING TEAM LEADERS
The Operations Committee met on April 29 in Chicago to discuss ways to enhance information sharing and support for the Working Teams. As a reminder, Operations Committee members are drawn from each of the Allliance's three founding states, and serve as important links between the Alliance and state-level officials.
Committee members were each assigned an individual Working Team, and moving forward will check in with that Team's leaders on a periodic basis. Operations Committee Working Team assignments are as follows: - Green Growth: Kelly O'Brien
- Human Capital: Carmel Ruffolo
- Innovation: Greg Hummel
- Transportation and Logistics:David Terrell
In addition, the Operations Committee will convene periodic state-specific meetings for all Working Team members from a given state to share their progress. The Alliance would like to thank David Terrell, Ball State University Director of Economic Development Policy, and Donald Babcock, NIPSCO Director of Economic Development, for organizing the initial state leader meeting in Indiana on April 28. If you have any questions, please contact Kelly O'Brien at 312-602-5148 or kobrien@alliancerd.org.
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| ALLIANCE STAFF FEATURED BY CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST
On April 20, Alliance Manager of Economic Development Initiatives Michael Benami Doyle was the daily featured Chicagoan in The Chicago Community Trust’s On the Table centennial campaign to engage locals in conversations about the future. The campaign aims to generate new ideas, spark partnerships, and shape a public agenda around community sustainability. A longtime local blogger on urban and faith-based issues, Michael was featured for building community among local Jews-by-choice and calling for greater recognition of the importance of individual talent and creativity in Chicago area workplaces. The campaign culminates with a region-wide discussion event on May 12.
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