Milwaukee and the new demands of civic leadership Saturday, June 18, 2005 Civic leaders in the Milwaukee area have come together to support a comprehensive strategy for promoting the seven county region. In announcing an update on the initiative, one of the leaders had an interesting comment: "Now is the time for strong, cooperative, regional leadership on the issue. This will take time. It will also take trust." Read more. The issue of trust in economic development is never really been addressed fully. Howard Gardner, a noted education professor at Harvard, has written an interesting article in the Boston Globe this week on the subject of trust. Read more. Economic development takes place in the civic space outside the four walls of any one organization. No command-and-control structures work here. Effective leaders must be able to develop trusting relationships in order to align various different organizations. So, the issue of building trust becomes central to effective economic development. Trust is not the only leadership dimension along which we need improvement. In another interesting commentary, former Congressman Lee Hamilton talks about the need for leadership to develop a longer time horizon. We cannot simply focus on the immediate problems, we need to do assess long-term challenges. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison |		This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. links Some Background on EDPro Weblog The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it. One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information. So, spread the word...Share the knowledge. Tell a friend about EDPro Weblog. If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site: Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber: Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking. Background on Ed Morrison Download some background information on me here.

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