Sustainable infrastructure
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Sustainability, enabling complex collaboration across boundaries, and Agile Planning
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Sustainable infrastructure
- 1. Sustainable Infrastructure 21st Century Neighborhoods & Regions ⢠Sustainability ⢠Collaboration Across Boundaries ⢠Agile planning
- 6. Strap on your goggles... Itâs a whole new game
- 7. Silos talking to Silos is not Collaboration Water Buildings Power Generation Transportation & Conservation Fuel Supply Waste Data Communications Current Infrastructure Strategy â Disconnected Silos
- 8. We rank 18th in railroads, 19th in ports, 20th in roads, 30th in airports, and 33rd in the quality of our electrical system. Relative to our economic competitors, we have no national infrastructure planning, we systematically underfund infrastructure investments, and we fail to use rigorous measures of evaluation and accountability for the projects we do manage to fund. This makes for a drag on our economy. William A. Galston | January 23, 2013; Crumbling Infrastructure Has Real and Enduring Costs
- 9. One example: in 2010, Americans spent a total of 4.8 billion hours stuck in traffic, wasting 1.9 billion gallons of fuel, at a total cost of $101 billion.
- 10. Residential C0² Emissions From Development
- 11. âŚaggregate investment continues to fall far short of needsâ by an estimated $1.1 trillion between now and 2020, according to ASCE projections. âŚ.Unless the US invests an additional $1.57 billion per year in infrastructureâ drinking water and waste water, electricity, airports, seaports and waterways, and surface transportationâbetween now and 2020, the nation will lose $3.1 trillion in GNP (gross national product), $1.1 trillion in trade, a $3,100 per year drop in personal disposable income, $2.4 trillion in lost consumer spending, and a little over 3.1 million jobs. ASCE
- 12. Confrontation Doesnât Work Threats Donât Work Whining Doesnât Work This Doesnât Work Either What are our Infrastructure Investment Strategies for the future?
- 13. During the 20th Century â our relational context is an unintended consequence of the infrastructure we built. ⢠Prior to 20th Century Countryside to Cities â better quality of life ⢠Industrial Age rapid growth of cities â overcrowding & underinvestment ⢠Post WW2 back to countryside â cheap energy, abundant resources & unprecedented public infrastructure investment ⢠Problems emerge early in spreading out approach â congestion, pollution & concentrated poverty ⢠Problems treated separately â widen roads, malls, unleaded gas, urban renewal to disperse poverty ⢠Increasing level of problems â higher cost of services, environment degraded, less open space access, suburb decline, suburbanization of poverty, increasing congestion ⢠Future piecemeal solutions â complex infrastructure approvals, gated communities, private security, prop 13 tax revolt, traffic calming, car pooling, solutions interfere with other solutions ⢠Meanwhile â houses & lots increase in size, urban land increased twice as fast as population, personal satisfaction stagnate Our Challenge for the 21th Century is fundamentally different â Build infrastructure that intentionally supports Relational Environments of Ever-Renewing Communities.
- 14. We need a different Strategy
- 15. Itâs up to us! We must be the solution! The blame game ties us to the past.
- 16. Agile Planning Effect Innovating Networks ď§ Increased collaboration outcomes ď§ Capacity & Resilience growth ď§ Increasing opportunities ď§ Adapt to complexities ď§ Link & Leverage gains ď§ Increasing prosperity Resource Alignment ď§ New thinking, behaving & doing ď§ Shared outcomes & resources ď§ Co-created value ď§ Trust grows Do Agile Planning Plan ď§ Strategic Doing Discipline ď§ Relational Methodology ď§ Connected Plan & Implement Where we are today ď§ Good work not aligned ď§ Unproductive duplication ď§ Unproductive conflict ď§ Perceived resource shortages ď§ Problems getting bigger 6.29.12 Purdue Center for Regional Development &
- 18. âŚFocus 21st Century neighborhood⌠Academic Institutions Green Broadband Demo Demo Private Sector Utility District 2ndstage R&DDD PRATT Bus. support Recyclâg Grow local LONI Data/Com real-estate capacity companies Lease CCDM Arts bus. incentives multi-developer Edu. SWEPCO Green Arts Edu. Green & Creative collaboration Local CenterPoint Operations Story / Song CERT Workforce Training Green Contractors food Writers Arts Institutions Infrastructure Non-profit & subs internships Caddo Pub. Investment developer Green Local artist Opportunities Business P,A & E Products Schools LEED Local New & Green Green Private Collaborative Real-estate Creative & Venues SMG Joel Katz Narratives Processes Schools Investment Green E. Atty. Learning Center, Action Plan for Workforce Neigh. Music serving New Media Center, âGreenâ Alignment of Green Technologies Industry Hayride Companies Arts High School Community Schools Place Making Resources / Deployment Creative & âCreativeâ Investments Economy Entrepreneurs New Media COG Economy COS Repopulate DOS Mayor & City & Parish Council Government Federal Inner City Cluster Effect Resources MPC Government Neighborhoods Com. Dev. Resources State Caddo Government Spar & Advisory Commission HUD Resources Diverse & Private Tax credit Affordable investor Housing Investment DOE Individual SporTran Authority energy Governor Faith Based & Lifestyles Foundations Non-Profit Council of Private USDA EPA Founds. Founds. urb. ag. DOT LED Civic & CDC Quasi Public Knight Sec. of Loans Com. DOE TACA Grants Found. EDA state NLEDP Incentive edu. s Recdâg Arts Pub. Serv. FAME Loan & Music E. Lowe DOL DDA Choice NMTC ILMS LHFA Guarantees Tax exempt Com. SRAC ABS Neighboâhd Preservation Bonds Credit LSUS Promise Unions WIB SB/CTB CRI FHWA Credits TIF Ag Ext. O.Cem. FoMA SAC Challenge Community Museums, Lcâl. food Energy Banks Regional BâNai First Holy Cross Antioch Sustain. Brownfield Housing e.g.; SAMM network Zion Methodist Church Church Credits Credits Banks Com. EDA D.Media Entâmt Public, Quasi-Public & Non-Profit Sectors Infrastruct. Credits Prod. Cred. Funding Sources âŚAligning, Linking & Leveraging âŚ
- 19. Guided Relational Network Strategy Agile Planning Framework 4. Work 5. Health 3. Education 6. Safety 2. Housing 7. Narratives Culture of Caring 1. Leadership 8.Infrastructure Align & Focus a System of Relationships to Transform www.shreveport-cntp.posterous.com
- 20. Focus Initiatives & Groups / Forums Pathfinder Projects Tech. Funding Assist. Sources Programs 2. Housing Mixed Income Seed Investors 3. Education Cradle to Career Financial 4. Work Green & Creative Partners Mgt. Core Team Plan Local Food Systems Coordinator 5. Health Development Design Team Eyes on the Street 6. Safety 1. 7. Narratives Telling Our Stories Leadership Culture of Caring Team Green & Smart 8.Infrastructure Trust Environment - Relational Networks of the Civic Economy Organization. Governance. Balanced Investment Portfolio.
- 21. Principles of New Urbanism Melbourne Principles National Parks Service Principles of Sustainability Connecting Complexity â Lots of Similar Values, Principles & Systems
- 22. Sustainable Infrastructure balances natural systems & built environment. Investment objectives include rebuilding the infrastructure both âgreenâ and âsmartâ. Buildings (residential, commercial and public), utilities (energy / electricity, gas, water, sewer, storm drainage and data communications), transportation (public and private) & natural 8.Infrastructure systems (conservation, watershed, parks, recreationâŚ) that support a neighborhood of choice for the 21st century sustainable community. 1. What should 21st Century neighborhood infrastructure for 20,000 people look like? 2. How will we align our resources to design and invest in that infrastructure? 3. Who will collaborate to shape innovative infrastructure? 4. How will we sustain an infrastructure that is affordable for a mixed income population living in a mixed use environment? 5. What is the connection of infrastructure in establishing a trusted civic economy? Connecting Complexity - Balanced Co-Investment Portfolio22
- 23. Sustainable Infrastructure balances natural systems & built environment. Investment objectives include rebuilding the infrastructure both âgreenâ and âsmartâ. Buildings (residential, commercial and public), utilities (energy / electricity, gas, water, sewer, storm drainage and data communications), transportation (public and private) & natural 8.Infrastructure systems (conservation, watershed, parks, recreationâŚ) that support a neighborhood of choice for the 21st century sustainable community. Waste LEED Power Generation Data Conservation Transportation Stream Buildings & Fuel Supply Communications ďź Water Mgt. ďźSewer ďź Residential ďź Alternatives on-site ďź100 mbs+ broadband ďź Public ď§ Runoff ďźSolid Waste ďź Public ďź Renewables fiber ďź Private ď§ Gray Water ď§ Landfill ďź Commercial ďź Distributed Grid ďź Smart Grid ďź Service ď§ Detention ď§ Construction ď§ Retention ďź Smart Grid Note: ďź Roads & ď§ Recycle ď§ Aquifer recharge ď§ Compost ďź Fuel Cell Obtain Utility Data Bridges ďź Urban Forest ďź Natural Gas (bridge) ďź Bike / ďź Urban ďź Geothermal H.P. Pedestrian Agriculture ďź Combined Heat & ďź âComplete Power Streetsâ ďź Demonstration Utility District? Note: obtain utility data Connecting Complexity - Balanced Co-Investment Portfolio23
- 24. Health investments improve health outcomes for residents through 5. Health physical activity, nutrition, wellness, preventive medicine, disease management, caring & supportive relationships, & access to health care. Local food system Parks & Recreation Bike Ped system Health care delivery 1. What should the health profile look like for a 21st Century neighborhood of 20,000 mixed income people â nutrition, exercise, health careâŚ? 2. How will we align, link and leverage our resources to invest in that health system? 3. Who will collaborate to shape innovative health systems for this neighborhood? 4. How will we sustain an affordable health system for this mixed income population? 5. What is the connection of this health system in establishing a trusted civic economy? Connecting Complexity - Balanced Co-Investment Portfolio http://s-cntp-health.posterous.com/
- 25. 21st Century Healthy Neighborhoods ⢠Allendale scattered site ⢠Community System of farming in a food desert Wellness Delivery â ⢠Church owned vacant lots Local ⢠Adjudicated vacant land Caring Relational Wellness Food ⢠I-49 corridor Networks Platform(s) Systems System ⢠Farmer Training ⢠Churches ⢠CRI Friendship Houses ⢠Ag extension ⢠CRI Haven Houses ⢠Sankova ⢠Neighborhood Clinics ⢠CERT Institutions ⢠School Clinics ⢠Local Market Development Diagram for 12.5.11 ⢠Prevention ⢠Local restaurants Meeting Notes ⢠Hospitals Knowledge Networks ⢠Schools ⢠LSU Health ⢠Grocery Stores ⢠Service Providers ⢠Outcome Measures ⢠Processing Facilities ⢠CERT Institutions (Private /Public opportunity) ⢠Eco System of Health or ⢠Distribution System (Private /Public opportunity) Culture of Health ⢠Nutrition ⢠Value Added Initiatives ⢠Exercise ⢠Kitchen Incubator ⢠Community Caring ⢠Cooperative Store Networks ⢠Sustainable Regional ⢠Place Based Strategies Local Food system
- 26. âŚIt all starts with Food⌠21st Century Healthy Neighborhoods
- 27. New Fuller Center Homes Clay Street 4a 4 3 5a 5b 6 play structure & deck 5c 1 2 CRI Friendship House #2 North Allen Street CRI Friendship House #1 Community Garden Rear Clay Street (Alley) 1 Production station tent (welcome table) 2 Processing station tent (table & water hose) North 3 Distribution station tent (table could be shared with 4.) 4 Acquisition station tent (table) Allendale Food System Experiences New Fuller Center 4a Acquisition - cooking equipment 5a Consumption station tent â (tables for dining /education (Wendi & LaRhonda)/ storytelling) Concept B Site Plan 20â +/_ Homes 5b Consumption lawn dining â (tables and chairs on the lawn) 5.16.12 5c Consumption â porch health screenings & education (table and chairs) 6 Waste station tent â vermiculture bin and recycling (table) Children Healthy Food Health Information HUB Health screenings Events / Experiences Neighborhood Lessons / Classes Residents Designing a Healthy Neighborhood HUB
- 28. âŚIt all starts with Food⌠http://s-cntp-health.posterous.com/
- 29. ⢠Local / Regional Food System ⢠Urban Agriculture ⢠Co-Operative Corner Stores ⢠Community Kitchen & Incubator ⢠Food Entrepreneurs ⢠Neighborhood Businesses ⢠Training Urban Farmers ⢠Stories of Food Experiences ⢠CRI after school connections ⢠Church, city & adjudicated properties ⢠Grow neighborhood capacity ⢠Link & Leverage Strategies ⢠Regional networks alignment ⢠Food Experiences ⢠Core Team Development 21st Century Healthy Neighborhoods
- 30. Southern Connection Campus David Raines Road MLK Drive Proposed Southern Connection Village Center KCS 21st Century Mixed-Use Neighborhood Development Shreveport, Louisiana 8.28.12
- 31. Southern Connection Campus David Raines Road MLK Drive KCS 21st Century Mixed-Use Neighborhood Development Shreveport, Louisiana 8.28.12
- 32. Mixed-use 2-3 floors. (ground floor business / apartments above) Single Family 2 story (zero lot line with side yards & alley access to garage) David Raines Road Townhomes â 2 story owner and rental occupied Education, Church & other public uses Campus 10 7 8 8 8 MLK Drive 1 5 11 11 11 11 200â North 1 2 6 KCS 9 3 4 3 3 4 3 4 3 4 11 12 12 Southern Connection â 21st Century Mixed-Use Neighborhood Development 1. Village Green 6. Complete Street Improvements on 9. Chapel 2. Market with Kitchen & Distribution Hilry Huckaby III Avenue 10. Proposed Lab or Charter School Incubator with apartments above 7. Proposed Traffic Circle & public art Transformation Partnership with 3. Community Farm (6 acres) 8. Complete street improvements Caddo Schools (consider preK-12 8.27.12 4. âHoop Housesâ (USDA along MLK Drive including concept) greenhouse program reducing lanes & on street parking 11. Shared parking 5. Existing SUSLa Incubator at SUSLa & Village Center 12. Existing Neighborhood Improvements
- 33. Mixed-use 2-3 floors. (ground floor business / apartments above) Single Family 2 story (zero lot line with side yards & alley access to garage) David Raines Road Townhomes â 2 story owner and rental occupied Education, Church & other public uses Campus 1 7 MLK Drive 2 1 200â North 1 2 KCS 1 2 Southern Connection â 21st Century Mixed-Use Neighborhood Development Proposed Development Sequence Development will start around the Market / Kitchen Incubator / Distribution Incubator with apartments above and begin a Community Garden as part of the Market. Initial development will also begin at the corner of David Raines & MLK 8.27.12 Drive. Development is planned to grow from the edges to the center until complete. The development concept includes a 21st century infrastructure that is âgreenâ & âsmartâ and will include alternative energy as part of a distributed power concept and waste composting for the community garden.
- 34. Thinking 21st Century Neighborhood 8.27.12
- 35. Thinking 21st Century Neighborhood 8.27.12
- 36. Southern Connection â Food First Project to start with a small scale fresh food market and urban farm
- 37. Southern Connection 21st Century Mixed-Use Neighborhood
- 38. Southern Connection 21st Century Mixed-Use Neighborhood Initial Proposed Mixed-Use Project Fresh Produce Market Community Kitchen & Incubator Multi-use meeting, training, packaging, distribution room 2 floors of apartments Outdoor gathering Phase One Urban Farm
- 39. A Healthy Regional Food System Strategic Doing Pack for the ArkďLaďTex 1 6 2 Local Neighborhood Hubs Connect Regional Food System 3 5 4 Outcomes by 2018 New Ways of Thinking: Trust and Mutual Respect , 1. Production. 10% of our food is grown in the region. Connection and Interdependence, Individual and Mutual Responsibility, Truth and Transparency. 2. Processing. Local Food processing center established. New Ways of Behaving: Promote the civility we need for complex thinking, 3. Distribution. Food miles and producer costs reduced. Look around for link & leverage opportunities to co-create shared value, Encourage project-based experimentation and continuous learning. 4. Acquisition. Regionally grown and branded food is 10% of New Ways of Doing: regional food market. Moving from traditional hierarchal models where a few people at the top do the thinking to New guided-open-network models that connect thinking & doing. 5. Consumption. 25% of what we eat is grown regionally. 6. Waste. 25% of food waste is returned to the food system. This Strategic Doing Pack is designed to guide discussions. It represents a set of exercises that can help keep your discussions focused. These exercises are tied to Strategic Doing, a practice of thinking and acting strategically in open networks. At the end of the workshop, you should have touched on all topics needed to compile a Strategic Action Plan. Materials provided by Purdue Center for Regional DevelopmentâŚâŚ3.23.13âŚâŚ. 1 of 5
- 40. Traditional Planning ⢠Agile Planning Hierarchal process ⢠Collaborative process (guided open network) Public preference ⢠Balance (open participation / leadership direction) Plan, then what? ⢠Implement while planning Guide Book ⢠Capacity Growing Iterative Process Infrequent updates ⢠Continuous revisions / continuous learning (every 5 years) Periodic data analysis ⢠Continuous data analysis Individual Risks ⢠Shared Risks Individual Rewards ⢠Shared Reward (missed opportunities) High Opportunity Costs ⢠Co-created value (link & leverage: 1⼠2) Political stakeholders ⢠Civic Shareholders Political Connections as Drivers ⢠Design Quality as Value Driver Avoid complexities to obtain Consensus ⢠Engage Complexities and Connections âŚas we uncover new ways to guide and use our networks investable opportunities emerge when we connect planning and doingâŚ
Editor's Notes
- Where we are today: There is a tremendous level of good work going on today in all aspects of our lives. But somehow the problems keep getting bigger. There never seems to be enough resources for groups doing good work to âchange the worldâ. Itâs confusing. As we are more connected to a global world our sense of community is evolving faster and faster. Or depending on your point of view, devolving. We are torn in so many directions and have higher rates of loneliness and disconnectedness than ever. Ed Morrison has put it this way, âWe are all watching our own movie.â Or as Yogi Berra said, âWe donât know where weâre going but weâre making really good time.âI donât know about you, but I find it hard understand and even harder to know who is right when arrows in this chaos collide. This misaligned system costs us all in the form of inefficient use of resources and missed opportunities. Some may say we are witnessing symptoms of the end times. There are plenty of reasons to be fearful and overwhelmed. I would like to introduce you to a possible explanation for where we are. I would like you to leave with a new way to look at the world with greater hope and faith. I also want to introduce you to a discipline based at Purdue that we are growing nationally, âstrategic doingâ.Where we are going: We use strategic doing to guide loosely joined networks toward shared outcomes. As people continue their strategic conversations and update their strategies, they align. These strategies become opportunities to â link and leverageâ assets within the network. As that happens, the strategy becomes clearer, more focused, more coherent and more practical. This alignment takes time. It does not come from one workshop. It is a process that evolves over time. As trust builds within networks, members of the network are capable of doing more things, faster. They become more productive.  Thatâs why strategic doing is not really geared to a one-time session. It is simple, but not easy. It is fun!In its purest form, strategic planning within corporations involved only a handful of people doing the thinking. The rest of the organization did the doing.This traditional approach to strategic planning has never been very comfortable in building the collaborations we need in our civic economy.  The reason is simple. In our civic economy, no one can tell anyone else what to do. Where traditional approaches to strategic planning relied heavily on a hierarchical organization for implementation, we have no real hierarchies in our civic economy.  As a result, implementation of strategic plans is particularly difficult in our civic economy. Thatâs why a lot of strategies for communities and regions end up sitting on the shelf.A more effective approach to strategy in the loose, open networks of our civic economy will not separate thinking from doing. Everyone involved will be doing thinking. And everyone involved will have some responsibility for translating ideas into action.With strategic doing, a strategic action plan requires constant tending. In dynamic situations in which we are learning by doing, strategic doing sessions should take place regularly. The good news is that people can do their strategic thinking quickly. The process itself can be fun.
- As we begin the process of âtransformingâ our Choice Neighborhoods we would like to share a perspective or understanding of the dramatic changes we are seeing in our society and the world. The last 130 years or so of economic transformation can be described with two simple curves. The first curve represents our Grandfatherâs economy. In this economy we generated wealth with large industrial corporations hierarchically organized to move a lot of resources and products efficiently. Beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, our Grandchildrenâs economy began to emerge. This is an economy based on networks. The initial networks were logistical: containerization afraid and improved telecommunications enable large manufacturers to establish global manufacturing networks. In the 1990s, with the explosion of the Internet these networks became virtual. The most important insight, however, is that in our Grandchildrenâs network wealth is generated through these open networks. Note that this transition is not the same as the common description of our economy moving from manufacturing to services. Manufacturing employment has declined, but manufacturing productivity has improved dramatically. We are continuing to build our manufacturing economy. However, manufacturers that do not move their business models toward open networksââby connecting with both their suppliers and their customersââare not agile enough to compete in the global economy where markets are shifting far more quickly than they have in the past.We can be even more precise. Our challenge involves connecting the assets of our Grandfatherâs economy to build new networks for our Grandchildrenâs economy. What are some of the assets we are talking about? It means connecting our libraries to our secondary schools and our public workforce system. It means connecting our universities and our community colleges. It means connecting our businesses to our community colleges and universities. The list goes on.Â
- While urban or suburban sprawl might be hard to quantify, we all know it when we see it. It is dominated by low-density land use, single-use zoning, and automobile dependency. With the rapid outward growth of most metropolitan areas, this kind of development has unfortunately become commonplace. There are many negative consequences, including: rapid loss of farmland, wildlife habitat, and other natural resources, reduced water quality and quantity, and public health problems resulting from a relying exclusively on cars for transportation and from environmental toxins. Â In the recent Urban Land Institute report âGrowing Cooler,â Reid Ewing et al write that âSince 1980, the number of miles Americans drive has grown three times faster than the U.S. population.â This can result in increased pollution, traffic, obesity, and infrastructure costs. LEED for Neighborhood Development is looking to encourage an alternative form of development.
- Increase our collective impact by building on the efforts of the good work currently being done by many groups and caring individualsUse existing resources or assets to transform neighborhoodsFacilitate more collaboration, communication, and partnerships across existing networks in Flint without creating another administrative structure that needs to be fundedCreate innovative solutions for eliminating inequities and disparitiesFacilitate doable action until all our neighborhoods are reclaimed.
- We can identify hubs in our networks that are trusted. Among the challenges in guiding our networks is to first look around for who should be involved? Who is interested? and how can I close triangles in our networks? How will we grow trust? How will we keep our networks open to learning and innovation? What will we do to guard the environment of trust that grows in our networks?
- Can we grow the population of our Choice Neighborhoods from 6,000 to 20,000 over the next 10 years? What will it look like if 10% of Shreveportâs population are living in 2 square miles â just under 2% of its land area? We will organize this transformation plan around 8 focus areas. This organization is based on a village structure framework that is part of a local transformational model that systematically and intentionally grows the relational foundation of caring communities. This organization, Community Renewal International (CRI), will assist us in aligning âMutually Enhancing Relationshipsâ of our community to focus on revitalization outcomes.Shreveport has great capacity and resources in all of these focus areas. It may seem that we have shortage of resources to meet the challenges in each of these sectors. Or is it a problem of alignment of resources? Could it be a lack of shared outcomes rather than a lack of resources? Can we agree on shared outcomes that allow all of these sectors of our community to work toward the same outcomes while doing new and different projects?
- Not surprisingly, the organization chart for a guided network looks different than the customary boxes and lines of a traditional organization chart.A core team has a guidance and training responsibility to support new ways of thinking, new ways of behaving and new ways of doing. The core team is responsible for setting aligning outcomes and convening working groups. The purpose is to find new innovations that move our networks to actions and pathways that will achieve those aligning outcomes. The responsibility of the core team is to provide training, information and guidance to grow capacity to engage complexities and grow community resilience.Focus groups provide the structure for capacity alignment and for transformation. This is the framework for the plan and is based on the village structure framework of the CRI model. Forums will utilize the discipline of âstrategic doingâ to guide conversations to action and uncover new opportunities.The new opportunities will include initiatives we call pathfinder projects. These projects are those that can be a catalyst for additional action or investment. We seek ideas and projects that are scalable, replicable, investable and that are collaborative. We also seek opportunities for co-investment. The planning team will assist these groups in designing strategies to connect pathfinder projects to investors.Pathfinder projects will emerge from forum discussions
- Note that infrastructure is in a supporting position in the focus area list of eight. Think of infrastructure as our physical environment, all built and natural systems, that shapes the place in our place based strategy. Our relationship to our environment is not an option in our daily lives. We can choose what we will do but we cannot escape being in a physical environment. Our physical environment is key in connecting our opportunities and in growing prosperity for all. We will shape the physical environment to support the innovations that emerge from connecting our networks.
- Our infrastructure working groups will include subgroups to uncover the various opportunities for infrastructure serving a 21st century neighborhood with a mixed income population of 20,000 in a 2 square mile area. Technology is redefining our opportunities for prosperity and the physical environment of cities. What we do in Shreveport can be instructive to other communities. The connections are the key to improved outcomes and efficiencies with short term actions focused on the long term outcomes.
- Our Choice Neighborhoods are currently in a food desert â a place where residents cannot buy nutritious food in their neighborhood. Can we begin a regional local food system to address this problem? Could an urban farming strategy also provide a pathway out of poverty for some of the current residents? What would that look like? Can we develop the neighborhood in a manner that residents could walk or bike to work? Can we delivery health services to the neighborhood using the CRI Friendship houses as a platform for delivery? How will we align all the health service resources to improve efficiency and outcomes?
- Strategic doing involves guiding conversations with four questions: What could we do? What should we do? What will we do? and When will we get back together? Seemingly simple, these four questions are actually hard to answer in an open, loosely joined network. Conversations drift. We get off course. We forget to answer the question. We end up talking about topics that are not central to our strategy. All of these distractions keep us from designing and implementing an effective strategy for network. 1. What could we do? The first question of strategic doing involves exploring connections that could exist among the assets within our networks. The best way to approach this question is actually to break it into two parts. âWhat ifâŚâ  And â What would that look like?â The âWhat ifâŚâ question invites us to connect our assets in a new and different way. âWhat would it look likeâŚâ invites us to explore this opportunity and describe it. So, for example, when a group in Indiana asked, âWhat if we combined our expertise in sustainability and renewable energy with our expertise in manufacturing?â they came up with the idea of a certificate program in sustainable manufacturing.2. What should we do? To move the network, we need to convert at least one opportunity to an outcome with clear and measurable metrics. Visions are important to get people aligned, but people will tend to move into action if they can see an outcome in their own mind that is both compelling and real.  Thatâs why we have to take special care in defining the outcome of our strategy. We need to be inspirational (visionary), practical and clear. The best way to take an opportunity and create an outcome is to define an outcome in terms of its characteristics. As we describe these characteristics in greater detail, they become concrete and measurable. When we reach that stage, we know that we have defined an outcome that most people can see in their own mindâs eye and decide whether they want to join us on our journey.3. What will we do? In addition to an initiative, we need an action plan. An action plan is critically important for a number of reasons.  First, it encourages people in our network to commit to moving into action. Second, it reinforces the idea that in a network, responsibility for moving ideas and action needs to be widely distributed. If we all take small ânext stepsâ, we end up taking a big step.  Third, an action plan provides resilience. When circumstances change, we can make adjustments in our action plan and keep moving forward. Finally, an action plan provides transparency and accountability. An action plan helps us learn who is willing to commit time and effort to implement the strategy.  You should be mindful that everyone in your network expresses a commitment strategy by putting their name on the action plan. Their next step can be very small, like making an e-mail introduction, but it is very significant to building relationships within the network._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Whatâ our 30/30? As a continuous process, strategy in open networks requires a clear understanding of ânext stepsâ.  The work of strategic doing is never done. No strategy is complete. It is simply a work in process, a road marker on the path to transformation. People often come together and get excited about their conversation, but they neglect to take clear steps to continue their conversation and move it forward. At the end of every meeting, in addition to finding ânext stepsâ for each member of the network, members should decide how they will convene again. They can meet virtually, through e-mail or a collaborative website, or with a telephone conference call, or, of course, a face-to-face meeting.
- Outcomes of this approach grow community ability to collaboratively address complex issues; better align local resources and creativity; and begin implementation during the planning process. Two challenges in attracting private investment to disinvested areas are: where to begin? And how to equitably manage risks and rewards? The answer to these questions is in the complexity of connecting problems and solutions, not in simplistic single focused investments.