Strategic Doing: Do more, Together

1. Strategic Doing: Do more, Together Geniphyr Ponce-Pore, MS, MEd Gen.Ponce-Pore@Colostate.Edu Workforce Specialist Colorado State University

2. What is Strategic Doing and why use it for Sectors? How does it work? Why does it work? Can it support Sector Initiatives and Workforce?

3. Quick background –the journey to Strategic Doing • Education • B.A. in Philosophy – Values and social policy • M.S. in System’s Theory – how the interdependencies of various social agencies and actors can be leveraged to create virtuous, not vicious cycles - how can communities thrive? • M.Ed. – Adult ed - how adults learn by doing • Professional background • Land Use Planner and Community Dev • Economic Development • Workforce Development • Higher Ed – Workforce Specialist

4. What are the nodes and networks that create an innovative workforce? Top notch training programs? (Workforce system) More businesses to provide more jobs? (Businesses) Strong P-20 educational system? (Education) Good broadband or fast internet infrastructure? (Community assets)

5. Innovation and positive changes did not originate in any one element or organization … The secret sauce was not in the nodes but in the network – the CONNECTIONS between the agencies and the people. The more they worked together, the more complex and dense the network became.

6. “A group can be defined by an attribute (for example, women, Democrats, lawyers, long-distance runners) or as a specific collection of individuals to whom we can literally point (“those people, right over there, waiting to get into the concert”). A social network is altogether different. While a network, like a group, is a collection of people, it includes something more: a specific set of connections between people in the group. These ties, and the particular pattern of these ties, are often more important than the individual people themselves. They allow groups to do things that a disconnected collection of individuals cannot. The ties explain why the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And the specific pattern of the ties is crucial to understanding how networks function.” ― Nicholas A. Christakis, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives

7. Creating a virtuous cycle of connections- The goal of Sectors Increases Conversations Increasing Connections Trust More Trust More Trust More Trust Expands Capacity Increases Collaborations Each cycle increases trust, cohesiveness, and capacity

8. Once we have everyone together, what next? Pleeeeeeze not another meeting! • How can we assure we have the diversity we need? • How do we avoid voluntelling people? • What if we don’t have the resources? • How can we measure progress? • How do we move groups from talking to doing?

9. “Strategic Doing is a discipline—a set of rules—to generate strategies for complex collaborations. The process enables people to form action-oriented collaborations quickly, move them toward measurable outcomes, and make adjustments along the way. Strategic doing yields replicable, scalable, and sustainable collaborations based on simple rules.” - Ed Morrison, Purdue

10. Why use Strategic Doing? • Because Sectors are networks that often using tools used to mange hierarchies. • Hierarchies vs. Network: Power, Communication, Agility and Responsiveness, Inclusivity, Assets, Learning/Adapting.

11. How do networks work?

12. How does Strategic Doing work? Active, trusted collaborations with measurable outcomes drive behavior and change. Source: Open.edu

13. The Questions… Strategy answers 2 questions: Where are we going, and How will we get there? SD breaks those into 4 questions:

14. Not a mission statement • Not a vision statement • Not a BHAG • Answering these questions results in practical, doable, measurable answers • As a cycle it allows us to learn and get better over time

15. Question 1: What could we do? • Asset Mapping – start with what you have • Then probe deeper – and find more • Many assets are hidden • The greater the diversity in the room • the more assets you can find • Look for new assets • and new ways to combine them • Get creative • Link, Leverage, Align

16. Question 2: What should we do? Based on the resources you already have. Focus on practical outcomes Focus on High impact, High ease Create concrete picture of how things will be different – what will people see change? Determine metrics – Must measure progress ruthlessly to keep the process in motion – holds people accountable, gives the process integrity, builds trust and this builds capacity to do more

17. Question 3: What will we do? • Develop Short-term Action Plan • Translate ideas into action • Make mutual commitments • Accept we will not have perfect • information, predictable results • Know we do not need to agree on • everything in order to begin the work • People will not move out of comfort zone and familiar ways of working without a clear, compelling strategic outcome.

18. Question 4: What is our 30/30? Determine when the group will reconvene, and what needs to be accomplished Determine how the group will communicate what is learned and determine how to integrate it into the plan. Determine the roles and how the group will work together

19. Managing the network Any network has a core or cores. These will create consistency and assure integrity and as the process moves forward. Determine who will be the core – the “Strategic Nudgers” Other shareholders will come and go as the process moves through phases. The glue that holds networks – communication. The lubricant? Trust.

20. Why does it work? • Strategic Doing works because it uses a process acknowledges the network and how it operates. It is also: • Decentralized and empowering • Adaptive – can pivot as you learn • Uses existing resources • Stimulates learning by doing – builds capacity across a community • Has concrete, measurable, visible outcomes

21. And… • Reinvigorates a democratic, inclusiveprocess (not a product) • IDs, Links and Leverages hidden assets empowering the community • Provide a process that built internal capacity to take on wicked problems and grand challenges • Method that withstands uncertainty, constrained budgets, and constant change.

22. Why Strategic Doing for Sectors? We need new tools: Genuine collaboration is simple but not easy, workforce is a complex system with complex issues. Sectors are regional: We know regional issues require collaboration as we cross lines (funding, geographic, political, etc) we need a safe space to maintain our identities while learning to work with others.

23. Leverage open networks and local assets in new ways. SD represents a cross-cutting, inclusive process that allows for a greater diversity of voices at the table. Partnering with business requires a more agile process that can keep pace with a fast-moving, constantly changing economies. Sectors mobilize everyone – distributing the work and the investment.

24. How has it been used? Charleston Digital Corridor designed its innovation ecosystem using the principles of Strategic Doing. SD is the process that a 14-county region in Indiana used to transform its workforce system with a WIRED grant Michigan State University used Strategic Doing to rebuild inner-city neighborhoods in Flint and Detroit, tackling community, economic, business and workforce issues. Lead in the water didn’t unravel the city. Trenton , NJ, Division of Economic Development 70 small businesses, identified over 200 assets, 32 strategic outcomes, and 8 measureable pathfinder projects in 2 days. This included discovering assets and creating action plans focused on building and arts and food ecosystems. 50 universities coming together to rework engineering curriculum, using SD

25. Workforce innovations in Indiana - WIRED In 2006, Purdue received a $15 million federal WIRED grant to design new workforce innovations in a 14-county region surrounding its flagship campus. With 8% of the money awarded nationwide, using SD, Purdue generated 40% of the national results. • In four strategic focus areas, using SD, they initiated over 60 new collaborations and 80 percent of these initiatives continued past the initial funding. • Outcomes of the SD Collaboration: • A guitar summer camp to teach manufacturing skills to high school students, which is now a national model • The nation’s first green collar manufacturing certification • The Energy Systems Network • The team also responded quickly to a deep and unexpected layoff of engineers in Kokomo, Indiana. • .

26. WIRED: The Guitar Project The National Science Foundation STEM Guitar Project provides innovative professional development to high school and community college faculty. Intense five day guitar design/build project. Each faculty member will build his/her own custom electric guitar and will engage in student centered learning activities that relate the guitar design to specific math, science and engineering topics. Participants will leave this week-long experience with their custom-made guitars, curriculum modules with short term assessments that can be immediately integrated into the faculty teams school curriculum, and much more.

27. Guitar Summer Camp now

28. WIRED: Strategic Doing and Energy “ESN was founded on the principle of cross-industry collaboration, understanding the answers to global energy challenges does not – and cannot – reside within one company or institution. It takes a collective approach across typical industry boundaries to develop realistic solutions. ESN is building an ‘energy ecosystem,’ in which all aspects of the energy landscape are included – energy generation and transmission, built environment, transportation applications, and the electrical grid itself.” Energy Producers Leading the Charge in Finding Workers (https://www.cicpindiana.com/rtv6-energy-producers-leading-the-charge-in-finding-workers/) Feb, 2019 Energy Systems Network – Operates much like a Sector

29. Who is using SD for Workforce or Sectors? The steering committee led to the formation of three separate groups, which have each worked to address issues in their respective areas over the past year. The three committees include a manufacturing and transportation group, non-profit group, and healthcare focused group. Throughout the year, each group continually met to find and address workforce needs within each sector. Members of the Strategic Doing Workforce Forum reconvened to lay out successful initiatives from the program's first year of workforce development in the Fremont (Nebraska) community. The forum includes a multitude of local organizations, non-profits, government agencies and businesses. May, 2019

30. Michon Hicks – DC Dept. of Employment Services Strategic Initiatives Program Lead for the Office of Information Technology (OIT) for the Department of Employment Services (DOES) Has been using Strategic Doing there for several years to tackle challenges that had stymied the organization. One of them: DC residents who needed to access multiple DOES programs (eg, job training, child care, veteran’s assistance) had to go through a separate intake process for each one. Within just a few 30/30s, Michon’s team had a pilot launched to align just two of the intake processes. Michon has used Strategic Doing to train over 700 local government employees and contractors which in turn helped the agency re-define its approach to navigating complex problems and designing a landscape for “attainable and doable” actions that met specific desired outcomes

31. Strategic Doing and Colorado: Began 2019 • Pueblo Workforce Center • Manufacturing Sector • Healthcare Sector • Staff development • Community engagement • Weld County Workforce Development Board • Increase WD Board Engagement • Colorado State University • Program planning • Staff Development • Colorado Workforce Development Council – 40 staff to facilitate Sector Initiatives across Colorado

32. Geniphyr Ponce-Pore, MS Workforce Specialist Gen.Ponce-Pore@ColoState.Edu 970.215.3741