Collaborative Leadership in Tough Economic Times

COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP IN TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES

THE BROKEN SYSTEM OF IMMIGRATION G.

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HE A D LIV I G ES M OF P MI R LL O J ION E S P CT

UNDERMINING OUR ECONOMY, SLOWING OUR RECOVERY AND HURTING AMERICA PG.58

(L) RUPERT MURDOCH (R) MICHAEL BLOOMBERG

GT

OV

PR

SERVICE PG.74

TH

PARTNERSHIP PG.22

100 YEARS OF

IM

LEADING AN EDUCATION

EP IN A R

TOM

BOASBERG ROTARY IN COLORADO

We bring together private equity, donors, foundations and lenders around a common goal:

her.

Women and girls are often the most over-worked and under-represented groups in the developing world. And yet they represent the greatest hope for lifting impoverished families out of despair. Time and time again, they have proven to be the best possible investment we can make in improving the welfare of struggling households and communities.

Together with its partners, The Paradigm Project is changing lives by developing sustainable social enterprise that empowers women, improves health, reduces environmental degradation and spurs economic growth at the local level.

All while providing a competitive return on investment.

The Paradigm Project is creating no-compromise triple bottom line results through the power of collaboration. To learn more about how you can become a part of the change, visit www.theparadigmproject.org or call 801.608.2338.

The Paradigm Project: Innovating Social, Economic and Environmental Change.

table of contents

OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2010

In this Issue 4 Letter From The Editor 6 Letter From The Publisher 8 Inspirations 10-16 Advisory board 18-20 Opinion 96-98 collaboration close up 100 Thank You

» The income gap is widening. The richest 40 percent of people in the world take in 75 percent of the world’s total income, while the poorest 40 percent earn less than 10 percent of the income. «

Living The Mission In The MRebuilding idst Of The Rubble The World Trade Center Through Leadership And Collaboration

W

hen I was younger, about six I think, I asked my mother how she remembered things like what street to turn on to get somewhere, or when family birthdays were. The concept of long term memory was somewhat lost on me then. Something she said stuck with me, although I didn’t really understand what she meant. She tried to explain by telling me that she remembered exactly where she was when JFK was shot. Every detail was ingrained in her head—what she wore, where she was, the color of the wall, everything.

Fast forward to 2001. I was a young salesperson sitting at the airport waiting for a flight early one September morning. Every detail of that morning is clear in my mind.

I wore khaki pants and a companylogo’d polo shirt and brown shoes.

The sunrise was beautiful over the Rockies as I watched my plane taxi in to the gate where it would pick me up for my flight to Salt Lake City.

Then a stranger’s cell phone in the row of chairs across from me went off.

Continued on pg.42

Quote worthy pg.28

"We engaged in a

yearlong

collaboration with multiple teams and offices at UNICEF and

created three fully

Community

Matters Steering Change, Not Fearing Change pg. 92

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functioning devices

that were delivered to the

UNICEF Uganda

Country Office for use in

health clinics."

- Benedetta Piantella Simeonidis pg.50

ACADEMIC

COMMUNITY

22 Leading an Education Partnership

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg – A Case Study in Collaborative Leadership

26 Transforming America's Schools A New Model of Education

BUSINESS

68 Global Health Equity 42 Living The Mission In The

Midst Of The Rubble

Rebuilding The World Trade Center Through Leadership And Collaboration

Can Now Be Imagined

An Interview with Dr. William Foege, Senior Fellow for the Gates Foundation Global Health Program70

70 Green Jobs Pipeline for Women Coming of Age

74 100 Years of Service Rotary in Colorado

80 Sharing the Light

28 World Vision

Collaborative Leadership at The Denver Foundation

Working With Communities and Partners to Build a Future of Hope

32 Southwest Airlines Soars to New Heights

Employees and E xecutives Lead the C arrier to Record Profits and B olster Corporate Collaboration

34 A Burning Desire to

Change the Paradigm

One Organization’s Collaborative Journey to Improve the Lives of Millions

84 Venture Philanthropy Magic in the Rocky Mountains

46 The Construction Users

Roundtable

Studies in GREAT-ness

Social Venture Partners

88 Economic Building Blocks Denver ’s Approach to Prosperity

48 Charitable Giving Redesigned

50 Corporate Stability Creating “Scenius” Is Key

90 The Collaborative “Circle of Life” 38 “Getting It Right” During Turbulent Times

52 ARZU Studio Hope

Transforming Communities Through Commerce

92 Community matters

Steering Change, Not Fearing Change

GOVERNMENT

56 Socially

Progressive and Fiscally Pragmatic New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg Rejuvenated America’s City and Redefined the Term “Politician ”

58 The Broken System Of Immigration Undermining Our Economy, Slowing Our Recovery and Hurting America

62 The Best Is Yet To Come Leadership at the Peace Corps

66 Political Parties Align

A Coalition Government in the United Kingdom

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LETTER FROM the editor

The Cowboy Way

R

ecently I attended the 2010 Colorado Performance Excellence Quest for Excellence where I heard Baldrige Recipient Dr. Mike Sather, the Director of the VA Cooperative Studies Program present the “Code of the West: Ethics the Cowboy Way.” It made me draw parallels about the theme of this issue—Collaborative Leadership During Tough Times and I wondered what it takes to succeed in America, and what the definition of success really is.

As I listened, Sather discussed the requisite behaviors of ethical “cowboy” leadership—of doing the right thing, of being a good citizen, of putting in a good day’s work, of having a creed to live by. He reminded the audience that, “rules can be bent, but principles cannot.”

Sather highlighted the 10 principles of the “Code of the West” as drawn from the 2004 book Cowboy Ethics by James Owens.

He described how timeless, universal cowboy values are still relevant today and how his organization, the VA, incorporated the Code of the West to bring a workforce of largely disengaged employees to one that is considered world-class in leadership, teamwork, continuous learning, safety, and customer service.

The principles rang true when I thought of each of the stories in this issue. Code #1: Be tough, but fair is one of the fundamental messages of the Partnership for a New American Economy as they wade through the nuances of immigration reform in this country. Code #2: Talk less; say more is one of those mantras that resonate throughout the Economic Building Blocks story by Brendan Landry where he tells how a successful publicprivate partnership was formed to help citizens affected by the current economic downturn.

The Peace Corps is really the epitome of Code #3: Ride for the brand. Every day, the organization lives the mission by engaging the expertise of over 8,500 worldwide volunteers.

Code #4: Live each day with courage is seen in the story of ARZU Studio Hope where 700 Afghani women are developing self-sustaining economic activity in a country where their roles are relatively predefined.

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Code #5: Always finish what you start, Code #6: Do what has to be done and Code #7: When you make a promise, keep it are the foundational codes of the work that is being done with the redevelopment of the World Trade Center in New York. Plagued by uncertainties, the Port Authority committed itself to creating a sense of collaboration where the mission of reconstruction of the buildings and creating a fitting memorial to the lives lost, are central to every activity on the construction site.

The Paradigm Project’s work of reducing environmental degradation, improving the health of women and children, and increasing economic stability by offering families clean cook stove technologies embodies Code #8: Take pride in your work.

Code #9: Know where to draw the line is seen in the collaborative case study of Tom Boasberg and the Denver Public Schools.

Pushing hard for school reform, managing significant budget cuts, and still seeing strong and steady growth in student achievement is a theme throughout this story. Boasberg has drawn the line and has seen progress. But that isn’t enough—there is more to come—making sure that every graduating student is prepared for college or a career.

And finally, our story on Rotary International demonstrates the lesson of Code #10: Remember that some things aren’t for sale. For 100 years, Rotary in Colorado has accomplished great things by improving communities locally and around the world.

Motivated by good, and with determination, Colorado Rotarians recount the success of the 2010 Centennial Project that will bring high-speed Internet capabilities to every school district in the state.

Whether you can personally relate to a cowboy or not, perhaps there is a little cowboy in all of us. Whether we live our lives by one, five, or all ten of the “codes,” at the end of the day, character is all you have. Should we stand up for what is right, even if we are standing alone?

Perhaps.

That is what the organizations in this issue are doing.

Have you found your “cowboy?”

- Jan Mazotti

We won’t ask you to stuff envelopes.

But we will draw heavily on your professional expertise. That’s because Social Venture Partners Denver wants you to be a nonprofit partner, not an unpaid office assistant. Our unique model of engaged philanthropy allows you to do what you do best and have a positive impact on the community. You’ll also connect to a powerful network of professionals who are passionate about helping children and making the kind of difference you can get excited about.

Social Venture Partners Denver is a fund of The Denver Foundation

svpdenver.org

LETTER FROM the PUBLISHER

We Are Overdue

for “Do”

FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER Gayle Dendinger

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

I

n the inaugural issue of ICOSA back in September/October, 2008 I reminisced about a pastoral drawing that my daughter created for me when she was an optimistic teenager. On it read Margaret Mead’s famous quote, “Remember that a handful of people dedicated to a cause can change the world.” To my dismay this stationary was found on September 11, 2001.

I have dedicated my life to make a positive change in this world through connection and collaboration, not only for us but for our children and grandchildren.

As recent guests of the Partnership for New York City, both Jan Mazotti, ICOSA editor and myself were given the opportunity to interact with some of the country’s top leaders and witness "people dedicated to a cause" who are changing the world. Such leaders included

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York City, and Rupert Murdoch, the Founder, Chairman and CEO of News Corp. Another motivational leader was Lenny Mendonca from McKinsey & Company. During his data driven presentation, he discussed the monumental crisis that this country is facing and it made me start to ponder: How bad does it have to get before we can work together?

Concern can be an important catalyst to help us rise to the occasion to work collaboratively. I was inspired by these people who not only had great ideas, but who were acting upon them. I believe that by using the same methodology we too can work towards solving major issues. The Biennial of the Americas event made great strides in getting communications started between countries to work together more collaboratively.

There is real power in connection and collaboration. The success stories of the (6)

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Jan Mazotti

leaders in this issue and previous issues of this magazine prove it. With the recent momentum coming off the Partnership for New York City event and the energy of the Biennial of the Americas, we must not slow down or lose momentum; therefore, we are exploring the idea of a Do Tank.

The purpose of the Do Tank is to provide a neutral venue where motivated and collaborative leaders can meet to not only exchange ideas, but work on action plans and assignments that will literally make the world a better place. The Do Tank will focus on how to align vision, strategy, and resources in a collaborative manner, so that people can not only make a difference in the short run, but can actually make long term sustainable differences. I believe that many of the solutions are already out there. What is missing is the understanding of how to implement the solution strategies in a more universal way, creating economies of scale. And, because we live in a global and networked world, we must provide appropriate solutions.

By working together at the Do Tank, my dream is that we can take the best solutions to key issues and standardize, replicate, and scale them so that they apply uniformly to a multiple of sectors and geographies.

The famous author of How To Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie, once said, “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Get out and get busy.” We already have a network of some of the best ideas and people like you! So I challenge you to join me in being that “handful of people dedicated to a cause to change the world.”

If you are interested in becoming involved in the Do Tank and want to join in on the conversation, please sign up at www.ICOSAmag.com/events

- Gayle Dendinger

MANAGING EDITOR: Annette Perez senior editors: Michael Connors, Emily Haggstrom, Maria Luna CONTRIBUTING editors: Rebecca Arno, Patricia Brannan, Judith Brissette Taylor, Ben Bryan, Allison, Coulter-Redman, Kim DeCoste, Dr. Kacie Crisp, Sarah Dixon, Robert Edson, Angelle Fouther, Triche Guenin, Heidi A. Heltzel, Allan Jones, John Klug, Linda Lloyd da Silva, Richard Male, Brendan McNally Landry, Dafna Michaelson, Rebecca Saltman COPY EDITORs: Maria Luna, Laura Rothenfeld

ART DIRECTOR: Nick Heckman PHOTOGR APHY and design: Andrew Thompson

Social Media: Annette Perez, Eli Regalado Advertising inquires: Please contact Jan Mazotti at janm@icosamag.com ICOSA® welcomes editorial submissions from its readers. Whenever possible, submissions should be sent in electronic format. All unsolicited materials should be submitted to the publisher at the address below. Items not sent electronically will not be returned. The publisher reserves the right to decline use of materials at their discretion and assumes no liability for unsolicited materials.

ICOSA® (ISSN1938-2081) is published four times a year. No part of ICOSA® may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. ©2010

ICOSA® CORPOR ATE HEADQUARTERS 4100 Jackson Street Denver, CO 80216 Office: 303.333.3688 Fax: 303.333.4832 Email: janm@icosamag.com Website: www.icosamag.com All third-class postage paid at Denver, Colorado.

To view an electronic copy of ICOSA® (ISSN1938-209X) or to get your free subscription, go to www.icosamag.com.

The title ICOSA is an analogy for great connections and collaboration. An icosahedron, the strongest of the polygons, combines 20 equilateral triangular faces together. We use this analogy because we believe that if we all work together and collaborate, we too can become stronger – just like the triangles.

inspirations

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’ve always felt strongly

that the true measure of a leader comes not when they feel coerced or deprived of opportunities, but when they succeed because they wanted to, and not because they had to. People think of success as an achievement, something that comes about through positive action, but success can also be born out of loss, failure and even times of struggle.

With that said, it’s been a tough year. Actually, it’s been a tough two years. And while economists and forecasters alike say that the recession is over, it seems to hauntingly linger over a vast majority of the country. Capitalism, despite being battered and beaten, has once again persevered through the will and determination of entrepreneurs and leaders across the country who continue to thrive, despite the indelible economic conditions.

Author Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great, describes companies who overcome the stigma of average by instituting simple concepts and structures that lead to exceptional performance. Therefore, it seemed only appropriate to feature the stories of businesses and leaders who forged new paths of success and did so with the help and collaboration of their teams and organizations.

Recently, I was informed about the collective steadfast of a company called Nucor Corporation, a North Carolinabased steel manufacturer. Over the past year, while the steel industry lost over two million jobs, Nucor retained 93 percent of its 20,400 person staff; not one job was lost to production layoffs because of the company’s “pay-for-performance”

model. Because employees are paid out on performance, when times are good, the organization reaps in the rewards together and when times are bad, there are thousands of people who can empathize with the loss. So, while millions of people were out of a job, each person at Nucor was assured they would receive their benefits and a paycheck.

Even under the economic pressure and loss of production, Nucor managed to focus on other aspects of its company that could afford further improvements. Led by Dan DiMicco, Chairman, President and CEO, Nucor shifted its focus to improve the company’s health, safety and environmental footprint across the country. I was impressed that together, in spite of their loss, each and every employee responded by finding a new valuable way to affect the company.

Nucor not only serves as an example of the “great companies” Collins describes, but as the epitome of connection and collaboration through market enterprise. As a business owner, I have seen first-hand how the trials and tribulations of the economy can unnerve a person to their core. Giving up may seem easy, but pushing through is much more gratifying. I find comfort in knowing that the spirit and resolve of great American capitalists seek to shine and thrive each day, and thrive regardless of what is thrown their way.

I hope you enjoy reading about some of the businesses and leaders that, despite economic pressure, have shown resilience, character and more importantly collaborated to lead their teams through the storm and find themselves better for it on the other side.

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Advisory board

Kelly Brough

K

elly Brough is the President and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber represents more than 3,000 businesses with 300,000 employees in Colorado.

At the Chamber, Brough is responsible for connecting and building the business community across Colorado, acting as conduit between the business community and the public sector, educating public officials about how to build a strong economy for Coloradans.

Prior to joining the Chamber in 2009, Brough served as Chief of Staff for the City of Denver and Mayor John Hickenlooper overseeing a general fund of $857 million. She also served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of the Denver Office of Accountability and Reform. In this role, Brough’s key responsibilities were to implement the 3-1-1 customer service system – which allows residents and businesses to reach a live person who can answer their questions or route them inside the city organization for assistance.

This project has resulted in the reduction of non-emergency calls to 9-1-1 and has provided assistance and answers to more than 460,000 callers every year since its inception.

Further, Brough was tasked with creating an organizational culture which embraced performance management and continuous improvement. She continues to cultivate such an environment today at the Denver Metro Chamber.

Brough was the first female Director of Human Resources for the City of Denver.

She successfully moved the human resource department from an authoritarian culture

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K elly Brough Denver M etro Chamber of Commerce , President 1445 M arket St # 400 Denver, CO 80202-1790 T: 303.534.8500

www.DenverChamber .org

to one based on service delivery and focused on outcomes. During her two years in this role, she led significant reforms including moving the city to a full pay for performance system and establishing the city’s first bonus plan program.

Brough also directed an internationally recognized leadership program at the University of Colorado at Denver—the Rocky Mountain Program. She served as a consultant to many local governments facilitating decisions, managing large public processes and comprehensive planning efforts, mediating disputes, and providing strategies to build stronger public/private partnerships. This work took her to Hungary (working with 50 local mayors) and allowed her to work with a number of local governments throughout Colorado and the West.

Her travels have continued at the Denver Metro Chamber, taking her to Canada, Dubai, Japan, and Turkey as an ambassador of Colorado business.

A Montana native, Brough earned a Master’s of Business Administration degree from the University of Colorado at Denver in 1989 and a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Sociology, Criminal Justice from Montana State University in 1986. She currently serves on the Metro Denver Sports Commission, the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation, VisitDenver, the Denver Public Schools Foundation Board, and as a member of the Women’s Forum and The Chamber 100 with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

She was recently named one of Denver’s most influential people by 5280 magazine. Brough has attended a number of leadership programs including the JFK School of Government’s program at Harvard for state and local public officials.

She was also named an American Marshall Memorial Fellow in 2001.

In her spare time, Brough is an avid cyclist. She also can be found cheering on her two daughters at soccer games and debate tournaments.

the changing world —

one

child time

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. We serve all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.

To learn more about our work, visit us at

www.worldvision.org.

NMS102735_1010 Š 2010 World Vision, Inc.

at a

Advisory board

JD Chesloff

A

s Deputy Director, Chesloff is responsible for developing and implementing the strategic framework and direction for Massachusetts Business Roundtable (MBR) in partnership with the Chair, Executive Committee and Board of Directors. He works with MBR Task Forces and MBR leadership to develop its agenda on public policy matters – particularly in the areas of health care, education, transportation and infrastructure, corporate social responsibility, and fiscal policy – and to convey those ideas to opinion leaders and policy makers to help them take a stance on issues.

Chesloff has worked in and around Beacon Hill for more than 20 years. In the Legislature, he was the Chief of Staff to the House Committee on Commerce and Labor, and was the education issues analyst and Deputy Budget Director for the House Committee on Ways and Means. After working as both a budget analyst and assistant to the President at the University of Massachusetts, Chesloff worked as the Legislative Director for State Treasurer Shannon O’Brien and then as Issues Director for the O’Brien-Gabrieli gubernatorial campaign in 2002.

He joined MBR after serving as Legislative/Issues Director for the Early Education for All (EEA) Campaign, where he was responsible for developing and driving legislative support for EEA’s legislation and agenda which included the creation of

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the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care.

He currently serves on the Department’s Board of Directors as chairman.

In addition, Chesloff serves on the Boards of Teachers 21 where he serves as treasurer, the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, and the New England Healthcare EDI

The Massachusetts Business Roundtable is a statewide public affairs organization of chief executive officers and area executives of the state’s leading companies representing a full range of Massachusetts industry and business enterprise.

JD Chesloff M assachusetts Business Roundtable , Deputy Director 141 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02111 T: 617.728.0881

jdchesloff@maroundtable .com www.maroundtable .com

Network (NEHEN). He also is a member of the Governor’s STEM Advisory Committee, and serves on the Executive Committee of the state’s Health Care Quality and Cost Council Advisory Committee.

Chesloff holds a Masters in Public Affairs from the McCormack Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Law and Public Policy and Telecommunications Writing from Syracuse University. He lives in Arlington, MA with his wife Lori and his two daughters, Sadie and Tessa.

ARZU STUDIO HOPE CONFIDENCE

MILESTONE

INTRODUCES

RUG COLLECTION

PRAYER

SIMPLICITY

Affordable luxury starting at $250 ARZU STUDIO HOPE rugs are innovative works of “slow design” – hand-knotted by women weavers in Afghanistan.

ARZU STUDIO HOPE believes in a holistic approach to sustainable poverty alleviation through artisanbased employment that empowers women. ARZU, meaning “hope” in Dari, is an innovative model of social entrepreneurship that creates private sector jobs and funds education, healthcare and

RESOURCEFULNESS II

FORGIVENESS

sustainable community development programs.

ARZU, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization

CONFIDENCE

MILESTONE

Advisory board

Susan Kiely

A

rmed with a background in design and retail, public speaking and a willing heart, Susan Kiely has spent the last three years developing Women With A Cause. The organization is dedicated to providing economic development programs that focus on education and skills training for women, enabling them to be lifted out of poverty and to lead them to self-sufficiency while earning a sustainable income.

Through Women With A Cause, Kiely has been able to provide a living wage to women in India by teaching them how to sew. Once these women learn this trade and become employed, the change in their income enables them to move into a small apartment and even send their children to school. While Kiely spends much of her time trying to ensure a better living for these Indian women, she also works on similar projects in Thailand, Ethiopia, and Ghana.

Women With A Cause remains involved on a local level as well. Because the fastestgrowing group of homeless people in the U.S is composed of single women with children and because the number of homeless female veterans has doubled over the past 10 years, Women With A Cause will launch the WE Initiative in early 2011, which creates a path to self-sufficiency for homeless families headed by single mothers and returning female veterans through healthcare education and career opportunities. The WE Initiative will select, support, and educate eligible homeless females through a multi-year

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Susan K iely Women With A C ause 1620 Little R aven, #602 Denver, CO 80202 T: 303-675-0405 WomenWith AC ause@me .com http:// www.womenwithacause .com

commitment to their education and ultimate job placement.

The organization, through this program, will provide housing, counseling, and case management for selected women and their children.

Susan has raised funds for a myriad of charitable causes in the many cities where she and her family have resided. She has a heart for the disadvantaged.

Kiely’s gift of giving, her selfdeprecating sense of humor, creativity, willingness to roll up her shirt sleeves to work hard and an ability to share her vision with others to get them involved has transcended to this project.

She has mobilized American seamstresses to join her to teach the women of India how to read patterns, cut fabric, use sewing machines and carefully produce stylish apparel. Kiely’s ability to mobilize volunteers for causes is a life-long talent.

She has received many national awards for her charitable work including Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities, the National Charity League Lifetime Achievement Award, Volunteers of America American Spirit Award and the United Way International Leadership Award. In Denver, she has been honored with the Denver Broncos Quarterback Award, the Saavy Award, the Heart of Gold Award, and she has been named a Girl Scout Woman of Distinction. Kiely and her husband of 40 years share the distinction of being awarded the University of Denver’s International Bridge Builders Award from the Korbel International School.

BUSINESS SUCCESS

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

REFERRALS VISIBILITY DIVER SITY NETWO RKING

business. full spectrum www.cwcc.org

303.458.0220

Advisory board

Angel Tuccy

W

hen Angel Tuccy was in high school, she participated in a radio show vocal tryout.

Her public speaking teacher told her that she would never have a career in radio. For that matter, Tuccy never imagined that she would have a career speaking in public, period. But today this business-owning, best-selling author, professional public speaker, and yes, radio show host, is not only gaining attention for what she does, but also for how she brings business people together.

Tuccy is on a mission to start a revolution in the way people treat each other in business.

Her inspiration came as a result of what she perceived as an obvious gap in the way traditional business is accomplished, and how it could be done in an experience-based, relational manner.

For ten years she was the accommodations coordinator for the players and their families at the PGA’s International Golf Tournament at Castle Pines, where she learned “extreme customer service.” She believes that this kind of service is accomplished when parties work toward a common goal—doing what is best for the customer.

She is leading the extreme service revolution by bringing businesses from across the country together on her Denverbased call-in radio show. The Experience Pros Radio Show airs live every weekday morning on AM 560 KLZ Radio and offers listeners an opportunity to connect with industry leaders from every conceivable background. “The synergy that is created when we bring people together on a common topic is dynamic,” says Tuccy. “People connecting with other people is what we’re all about—and to see it happen in real time, with guests who come from coast to coast, is very exciting.”

By using radio, Tuccy has established a central location where experts of every discipline connect with each other, share insights and information, and offer advice

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A ngel Tuccy E xperience Pros T: 720.344.2446

www.E xperiencePros.com

to listeners. The common thread of every conversation—extreme customer service.

She says, “No matter what business you’re in, you’re in the relationship business. If you don’t learn to put your customers first and foremost, you don’t have a business; you have an expensive hobby.”

Business people from around the country agree. Microsoft Senior Vice President Toby Richards sought out The Experience Pros Radio Show to discuss how his company, despite mistakes made during the early phases of the social media revolution, has embraced a customer-led forum of service and support. “Like it or not, there’s a conversation going on about service, and

it’s being led by our customers. It wasn’t difficult for us to realize that in order for Microsoft to ever hope to affect the conversation, we had to join it and we had to listen,” said Richards.

Through her company’s yearlong business development course called Experience Pros University (EPU), Tuccy trains groups of business owners, managers and sales people, encouraging them to work together in the spirit of “coopetition.” Students enrolled in EPU learn right out of the gate that, as they help other students succeed, they too succeed because corporately they become greater than the sum of their parts.

Tuccy refers to this collaborative effort as “creating a grass fire” among participants.

“As we learn to leverage our FR ANC Circle (Friends, Relatives, Associates, Networks/Neighbors and Customers), we discover that – even better than the six degrees of separation – there are literally three degrees of connection,” says Tuccy. “Right now, I believe that you are connected to everyone you ever need to know in order to not only develop your own business to whatever level you desire, but to help others develop theirs as well.”

To further develop the concepts that she teaches her clients, Tuccy co-authored her second best-selling book, Lists That Saved My Business. In the book, she lauds the benefits of developing solid relationships with others in business, and discourages what she refers to as the “transaction mentality.” She encourages readers to develop their personal brand by connecting with like-minded people in business. In this manner, genuine relationships are developed and there is no pretense to the growth of commerce.

Furthermore, once those relationships are established, Tuccy argues that an exponential element enters into the equation as independent spheres of influence converge.

She is also the founder of Ladies Who Lunch, a group of over 250 professional women in Denver who gather once a month to encourage each other professionally as well as personally.

“Bringing people together, in this case women, is what truly energizes me,” says Tuccy. And she is obviously very good at doing just that.

Hogan Lovells’ pro bono practice draws on the experience of our professionals worldwide to improve the lives of those without access to justice or the means to hire lawyers, and to meet the legal needs of charities and nonprofit social enterprises. Providing high-quality legal services to those most in need and least able to pay is an integral part of being a lawyer. At Hogan Lovells we take that responsibility seriously.

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For more information, please visit www.hoganlovells.com

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opinion

So What If There Are

No Answers?

Lead By Asking, Not Telling By Rebecca Saltman and Dr. Kacie Crisp

I

magine living in a world that doesn’t demand you to have “the answer,” but instead nurtures your awareness of multiple opportunities - possibilities that can be greater than you previously imagined. This different world does not insist that you follow any one leader or doctrine - this world is about the questions that you can ask, creating possibilities which lead to greater choices in life. The contribution you produce is simultaneously for yourself and others.

What if successful leadership in work and in life was strictly concerned with thinking about, and asking yourself, questions first? This approach creates a life that works well in every aspect – a workable life that works for you. Interested?

Skeptical? As well you should be; the nomenclature used here isn’t necessarily intuitive. This isn’t some crazy new religion, advertisement for a commune, or a multilevel marketing scheme. It is simply a different view of the world as we know it.

Leadership, as a term and concept, is generally thought to be well understood. As with so many definitions in today’s world, it is bandied about with little or no concern as to an accurate portrayal of what effective leadership really is. That statement alone is surely telling: What person, group, or society operates without “leadership”? What does that mean or look like? You’ve read this far, so curiosity is serving you well; you're probably questioning what this article is all about.

Being a leader in the 21st century is going to mean dropping earlier preconceptions. The current business and social climate is so complex and rapidly changing that it is no longer possible for any one person to have fixed knowledge regarding the factors affecting their enterprise. The CEO or elected official doesn’t know, or have to know, everything.

Such a perspective traps the leader and those being led into limited possibilities.

How much easier is it to ask a question than to be pressured into producing the “right”

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• John F. Kennedy said, “The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were and ask "Why not?"

• Martin Luther King: “One day we must ask the question, ‘Why are there forty million poor people in America? ” • A lbert Einstein: “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”

• Gloria Steinem: “God may be in the details, but the goddess is in the questions. Once we begin to ask them, there's no turning back.”

» Creativity is the number one "leadership competency."Yet, scientific measures of creativity in America are declining. « answer? How much of a burden is that, and how effective can anyone be when trapped in having to know “the answer”?

Again, we arrive at questions. Many of the world’s greatest leaders utilized questions that were and are fundamental to their individual philosophies. They were not afraid to make the final decision but arriving there was ultimately the work of questioning or valuing a stance which emphasized “being in the question.”

Creativity is the number one “leadership competency” required today and for the future, according to 1,500 top CEOs surveyed by IBM and reported by Newsweek in the July 19, 2010 issue. Yet, scientific measures of creativity in America are declining, just as IQ scores are going up. What if giving your business and your life the creative edge it needs could be as easy as just asking questions? You know...the talent of a preschooler that was abandoned by middle school.

“Questions empower; answers disempower,” says Gary Douglas, founder of Access Consciousness. He has been advising his clients not only to ask questions but to “live as the question” for 20 years now.

Statements, judgments, declarations of “fact” or “that’s just the way it is” are the same as answers in Douglas’s view. “When you ask a question, you open yourself to receive what you’ve been asking for,” he says. “A statement, on the other hand—any decision, judgment, or conclusion—blocks anything that doesn’t match those judgments, decisions, or conclusions.”

Although we asked our parents 100 questions a day as small children, most of us lost the art of asking questions because “the right answer” was so emphasized in school.

Conformity at some level is of course necessary to the functioning of any organization, and

Rikka Zimmerman

Dr. Dain Heer

Gary Douglas

the rudiments are most often established in any modern society’s primary schooling. For teachers to convey concepts ranging from the basic (mathematics, the sciences) to the complicated (philosophy, religion, civics) there has to be a level of rote performance. Sadly, this very emphasis on “answer” is killing our ability to ask questions and our creative and leadership potential along with it.

By using questions, you can re-awaken your own creativity and bring back your own leadership and creative edge. “What are the possibilities of... (fill in your desired outcome)?” is an open-ended question that can be used in negotiations of all kinds, as well as in meetings with friends, staff and clients.

One of Douglas’s clients was involved in a three-year-long, highly political zoning dispute with the city where her office was located. She needed additional time to meet their demands, and her opponents were not especially disposed to grant her any favors. She risked asking a question. On a Friday afternoon she asked, “What are the possibilities I could have another four weeks to meet these requirements?” The city called back Monday with a three-week extension on her project.

Deceptively simple questions can yield remarkable results—perhaps because their use is so unusual it instantly sets anyone willing to use this powerful tool apart from the pack.

Might that be the leadership model you are looking for?

Dr. Dain Heer was consulting with a healthcare practitioner who was not really happy or successful in her practice. He suggested the question, “What would an ideal

practice that would be joyful and bring me lots of money be?” She ended up creating a multidisciplinary center which allowed her to focus on what she loved doing, while tripling the practice income within 12 months.

The open-ended quality of questions can sometimes produce surprising results. An acupuncturist Dr. Heer worked with asked, “What would it take to love coming to work and make lots of money doing it?” She is now selling real estate and happy doing it.

A coach whose business had been suffering during the current economic downturn went into a tailspin over what would happen to her finances when one of her clients wished to decrease the frequency of his consultations with her. After consulting with a practitioner of Douglas’s tools, she launched into a story full of theories about her client’s motivation. Her friend stopped her in her tracks with one simple question. “Have you asked him what he would like?” After she asked him the question, her coaching client suggested a schedule that met both their needs, without decreasing her income at all.

When working from a sales perspective in our occupations and lives, how often do people assume they know what their customer, friend, sibling or spouse wants and needs?

These assumptions can be made with the best interests of the other person at heart, based on the “salesperson's” more extensive product knowledge. Even these assumptions are judgments, however, and like all judgments, they can blind us from giving the other person what they really desire.

One of the greatest challenges of collaborative leadership is that there are so

many obstacles and the problems in the world which seem so intractable (war, pollution, poverty), that people don’t know how to take the first step. Rikka Zimmerman, Access Consciousness Facilitator, asks, “What would it take to have tools that actually work to change the world?” She employs interrogatives like, “What contribution can I make that would actually change the world?” and “What would it take for us to empower millions of people to be who they really are?” These questions are more open-ended than those quoted earlier and invite even greater possibilities to engage.

“What else is possible here?” is another question that invites previously unconsidered solutions to perplexing problems. Just asking that question invites new perspectives, creativity and true leadership. It’s an invitation to step "out of the box" and look at things in a new way.

If there’s something you perceive as a requirement for moving toward a given goal, you can ask a simple question that can invite that requirement to actualize, like “What’s it going to take for x to occur?” This approach essentially manufactures opportunities to create possibilities which are less linear and more creative than merely asking “How can I get this or do this?” As questions go, those that start with “how” tend to de-emphasize the creative possibilities around you, because they force you into linear thinking. “Step A, then Step B, then Step C” is not the “aha!” state that creativity is made of.

A question that can turbo-charge your business’ climb to the top and turn around what may appear to be adverse developments is,

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opinion

“What’s right about this that I’m not getting?”

Anyone who has ever suffered a business or personal setback of any kind, only to discover it was really a gift five or 10 years later, can see the value of this question. It has the effect of fast-forwarding through the waiting period to show you the benefit of the adverse development soon after it occurs.

Consider using “How does it get even better than this?” to identify colleagues, friends and potential employees who are unable or unwilling to be creative. The creative types will use, “How does it get even better than this?” as an opportunity for creativity, searching for how it could get even better.

One woman used this question when she was stopped for speeding by a Texas Ranger.

Clearly this was a question he hadn’t heard before. When she asked it, he dropped the speed at which he’d clocked her by 10 miles per hour and saved her $100.

The less creative types will not go into the question. They will declare, “This is as good as it gets!” Or, they will simply say, “It doesn’t exist.” There may be a place for these noncreative types in your organization, doing repetitive jobs that would bore you.

Putting them in sales, customer relations, or departments involved in innovation may not be in your best interest.

In this issue of ICOSA, I’d like for all of you collaborative leaders to consider using the concept of questions. Since it is the holiday season, and sometimes holidays can be stressful, use these tools to not only change your holiday for the better, but change the world. That’s the premise of this movement, and it is spreading globally. World peace one question at a time.

A project aimed at taking leadership and consciousness even further recently had its worldwide debut in Denver, spearheaded

by Dr. Heer and Zimmerman. Information, including downloadable lectures, on the latest developments can be found at the website, www.leadersforaconsciousworld.com. To get a free MP3 or learn more, please log on to www. accessconsciousness.com Rebecca Saltman is a social entrepreneur and the President and Founder of an independent collaboration building firm designed to bridge business, government, nonprofits and academia. www.foot-in-door.com.

Dr. Kacie Crisp is a relationship and business coach who has been facilitating the tools of Access Consciousness since 2002. Her website is www. howtostaymarriedandhappy.com.

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» One of the greatest challenges of collaborative leadership is that there are so many obstacles and the problems in the world that people don’t know how to take the first step. «

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ACADEMICS

DPS Foundation

Tom Boasberg

superintendent – a notoriously grueling role that has an average term nationally of less than two and a half years.

Yet Boasberg has met the challenges head on, pushing hard for (often controversial) school reform, managing district budget cuts, and still seeing strong and steady growth in student achievement that started in 2005 with the launch of 2005 Denver Plan—the district’s blueprint for reform.

The success of any school system hinges on collaboration among the many constituencies its schools serve: students,

» Boasberg has met the challenges head on, pushing hard for (often controversial) school reform, managing district budget cuts, and still seeing strong and steady growth in student achievement. «

Leading an Education

Partnership Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg – A Case Study in Collaborative Leadership By Sarah Dixon

T

om Boasberg is the leader of a $600 million organization. It’s not a Fortune 500 Company.

It’s not a startup.

It’s Denver Public Schools.

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The Superintendent oversees a district comprised of nearly 13,000 employees and 160 unique schools that serve more than 79,000 students.

Appointed in January 2009, Boasberg is nearly two years into his tenure as

parents, teachers, school board members, the business community, elected officials and the larger community. It’s undoubtedly a difficult challenge for Boasberg to balance their voices, while still pushing for the outcome that he feels will have the best impact on student achievement.

Another factor in his success is Boasberg’s ability to apply his business acumen from years in the private sector to his management of the school system.

There’s no question that education is one of the most pressing issues in our country today. It evokes more emotion and opinion than nearly any other topic. And it’s no wonder – the very future of every community lies in the education of its next generation.

We talked with Tom – not about the reform issues themselves, which most often make the headlines. But about how his leadership style has come to define his term as superintendent of a school system recently lauded by Time as a leader in the nation for school reform.

The Journey to 900 Grant Street Boasberg was appointed Superintendent in January, 2009 after serving as Chief Operating Officer since April, 2007 under Michael Bennet.

Before making the move to 900 Grant Street, Boasberg’s experience included eight years as Vice President for Corporate Development at Level 3 Communications. There he served as Group Vice President for Corporate Development, responsible for the company’s mergers and acquisitions and strategic partnerships. Boasberg spent his first three years at Level 3 in Hong Kong as Senior Vice President for Asia Corporate Development and Head of the Asian Lines of Business, establishing and running operations in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Prior to his tenure at Level 3, Boasberg served as legal advisor to Reed Hundt, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In that role, he was responsible for devising policies and rules to open up the U.S. and international telecommunications markets to competition. He also played a leading role in the establishment of the E-Rate program, which provides over $2 billion a year to high poverty schools across the country to pay for telecom and internet services.

Prior to the FCC, he served for three years as Chief of Staff to Lee Chu-Ming, Chairman of Hong Kong's largest political party, working on constitutional and political issues relating to Hong Kong’s change of sovereignty in 1997. He helped draft Hong Kong’s election law and Bill of Rights and successfully advocated for fairer treatment of the Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong. He also worked as a junior high school

» "This is partly due to the fact that our district, like school districts across the country, operated for generations as a monopoly and has suffered from a monopoly’s resistance to fundamental change.

A lack of urgency and an inflexibility has often put the interests of the system and its adults over and above the needs of our students." « - Tom Boasberg

English teacher in Hong Kong’s public schools.

Particularly given his past experience with the FCC and as an advocate for human rights in Hong Kong, Boasberg didn’t hesitate to make the transition from Level 3 back into the public sector. “I saw it as a tremendous opportunity to return to public service, a chance to bring about real change and create better opportunities for the kids of Denver,” he said. “There’s no more critical government service than education.”

Life Lessons Applied Boasberg regularly applies the business and leadership principles from his past to his current management of the district. Addressing the monopolistic culture that has been prevalent for decades in big government and replacing that with a customer-centered focus was at the top of Boasberg’s list of priorities. “The key is an intense focus on high expectations, service, and accountability,” he explained.

“We’re working hard to ensure that those core principals are driving everything we do in Denver Public Schools.”

In a letter to the community last spring, Boasberg acknowledged that DPS’ culture has not historically been consistently defined by the standards now in place. “This is partly due to the fact that our district, like school districts across the country, operated for generations as a monopoly and has suffered from a monopoly’s resistance to fundamental change,” he wrote.

“A lack of urgency and an inflexibility has often

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ACADEMICS

DPS Foundation

put the interests of the system and its adults over and above the needs of our students.”

In an effort to reshape this culture and reprioritize leadership qualities within the district, Boasberg has avidly pursued reform measures that address teacher and school effectiveness—measures which have come with their share of strong opposition. Last spring, for instance, Boasberg scrapped the former system of finding assignments for tenured teachers who had been displaced from their schools due to staffing reductions.

Those “forced placements”—which were previously required by state law and were done without the consent of the teacher or the school receiving the placement—had disproportionately affected the highest-needs schools, those that were underperforming and serving large numbers of students in poverty.

Boasberg worked with the state legislature on landmark legislation that did away with this practice of forced placement.

“I think the very definition of collaborative leadership is understanding the importance of listening to feedback and being thoughtful in making decisions, while also recognizing the need to challenge the status quo and push for impactful change, even in the face of strong opposition that may still remain,” said Boasberg.

Collaboration, in the Superintendent’s eyes, also means support from the community in making difficult decisions that will move public education forward.

He says that the private sector can most meaningfully engage in school reform by working with school systems as they push for fundamental change. “The decisions are tough, and at times, politically unpopular,” he said. “Community, business, and civic partnerships are essential to building the collaboration that school reform needs to be successful and long-lasting.”

As much as he values collaboration, Boasberg is also an individual who clearly leads by example. At no time was this more evident than when he donated more than $45,000 to the Denver Public Schools Foundation in June as a matching gift to launch the nonprofit organization’s DPS employee-giving campaign.

The gift, which includes all of the incentive pay and salary increases that Boasberg deferred during budget planning last year, will help provide a dollar-for-dollar match for all employee-giving through the end of the year. The Denver Public Schools Foundation raises money in support of various programs in DPS that drive student achievement, including after-school programs, tutoring, classroom grants, leadership development for all principals and more. ( 24 )

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» "The very definition of collaborative leadership is understanding the importance of listening to feedback and being thoughtful in making decisions, while also recognizing the need to challenge the status quo and push for impactful change, even in the face of strong opposition that may still remain." « - Tom Boasberg

“The Foundation funds extremely valuable programs in many of our highestneed schools,” Boasberg said. “I want to do what I can to highlight that important work in order to help encourage additional support for the Foundation, because it truly is an investment in our kids and in our city’s strength and future.”

Forward Motion Under Boasberg’s leadership and the guidance of the Denver Plan (which the district updated with its recently released 2010 Denver Plan), measurable gains are clear to see.

For the fifth consecutive year, DPS has outpaced the rest of the state in gains on the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP), measuring students’ knowledge of key content areas. Student achievement is also clearly demonstrated by 350 more students graduating from high school in 2010 than the year before, a 12 percent increase. Furthermore, DPS is seeing the largest increases ever in the number of students taking college-readiness courses. In the past two years, concurrent enrollment in college courses has

nearly tripled, and Advanced Placement enrollment has increased by nearly 50 percent.

“It’s clear that we’re making strides towards our ultimate goal of graduating every student in DPS prepared for college or a career,” said Boasberg.

Strides – but as Boasberg clearly acknowledges, still a long way to go. “We need to set high expectations for every student, and we absolutely must wipe out the achievement gap that exists between students of different races and ethnicities,” he said.

And with only two years behind him, Boasberg shows no sign of slowing down nor of taking partial success as victory. “The key benchmark of success will be dramatically improving student achievement,” he said.

“We must get more of our students to the commencement stage every year armed with all of the skills and confidence they need to be successful in college and careers.”

Read more about Denver Public Schools and sign up for regular updates from Superintendent Tom Boasberg at www.dpsk12.org.

Democracy Innovation Place Diversity Opportunity Design Change

www.communitymatters.org

CommunityMatters速 is an initiative of the Orton Family Foundation, working to build vibrant, enduring communities.

ACADEMICS

Tracy Learning Center

Transforming

America's Schools A New Model of Education By Allan Jones

I

n 1597, Sir Francis Bacon told the world that, “Knowledge is power.” Nations have risen and have tumbled drastically based on the cumulative knowledge of its people. America is no different. While we have spent many years at the top in innovation and the subsequent power that followed, our time may be ending if we do not address the problems of our K-12 public school system.

Collectively, three Discovery and Innovation schools at the Tracy Learning Center (TLC) in Tracy, California are doing exactly that.

What are Schools of Discovery and Innovation?

The TLC is a collection of three schools, elementary, middle and high school, with a combined enrollment of roughly 1,200 students. Children are encouraged to start at the elementary level to ensure that their natural curiosity and genetic need to learn are nurtured from an early age. TLC has implemented a comprehensive set of integrated bestpractices called the Discovery Learning System (DLS). The DLS program provides a subscription service to transform existing K-12 public schools into Discovery and Innovation schools. It is a transformation model using existing facilities and a retrained staff, not a takeover and manage model.

There are about 133,000 K-12 schools in America; over 100,000 of them are public schools. In the United States, public schools are part of the rich fabric of our culture, so replacing all public schools with charter schools is not an option. And while the DLS model can be implemented in either a public or a charter school, it is our existing public schools that we must transform. In the DLS model, the neighborhood school is ( 26 )

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restored to its historic central role in the community; it becomes the academic, athletic, social, healthcare, cultural, and economic hub.

Rather than select a few best practices, DLS designed a totally transformed system that integrates all of the student-centered and proven organizational researchbased best practices into a comprehensive subscription service. From its inception, a fundamental design criterion was that the system must be transformational and scalable.

The K-12 DLS model empowers teachers to run the school and customize learning for every child in a multidisciplinary project-based, small-group learning environment. As a result, the two major national teachers’ unions have indicated that they support the model for transforming schools.

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts are integrated into every project, beginning in elementary school. The three schools operate on a longer school day and school year allowing the high school to require 200 hours of community service for graduation. The longer schedule also enables students to take college courses while still in high school and to participate in internships.

Educational equity is a major national issue and the DLS solution addresses it in several ways. First is the Great Teacher Program which provides comprehensive professional development opportunities 24/7/365, while simultaneously changing the classroom learning environment.

The program includes online courses, peer mentoring, and social or “personal learning” networks using virtual telepresence, where highly qualified master teachers will provide mentoring to teachers in need in other neighborhoods.

Teachers in the initial 1,350 schools volunteered to be early adopters.

Successful Education Reform Models Being Implemented Across the Country The following are other “model” programs that are having a positive impact on children and should continue to be supported as we learn more about how they are impacting students. These programs have implemented a selected set of best practices with great rigor, strong leadership, and have achieved excellent results.

•G reen Dot - Green Dot transforms large public high schools into clusters of high-performing smaller schools with strong ties to the community. Green Dot also operates its schools with its own staff. Their graduation rate is not available on their website.

•K IPP – KIPP is a charter school program focused on college preparatory students and starts in the fifth grade with an average dropout rate of about 10% per year.

KIPP does not transform existing schools; they open new public charters. KIPP operates its schools with KIPP employees.

•H arlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) – HCZ is a remarkable island of learning and social stability located in a neighborhood that was neither of those. The combination of learning and social programs provided to the students is achieving excellent results, but it is also being heavily subsidized with foundation and federal grant money. This latter fact makes it hard to consider as a scalable model for transformation. On the other hand, it is a wonderful place to test and demonstrate what is possible.

extending the Tracy DLS program across the Technology infrastructure is also a key state of California to at least 100 schools. As component of the model. DLS is working with funding and other resources become available, AT&T to design, deliver, manage, maintain the Power of Us will continue to assist in and support a comprehensive district-wide growing support for transforming more schools technology infrastructure that connects to a with the goal of transforming 1,350 schools national broadband backbone. Home access will be provided to disadvantaged students, and across the country.

To be clear, DLS is not simply massas a result, the DLS program can provide a level producing widgets; they are transforming of digital equity long dreamed of, but never schools. So reaching the tipping point in this achieved. And finally, this access to resources model does not imply that they can greatly will be instrumental since school days and school years are now longer. It is critical that all reduce the cost or time it takes to lead a school district through the transformation process. In students have equal access to all of the learning this model the tipping point is a psychological resources, from teachers to technology. point, where the demand for transforming While this customized education model additional schools and/or districts rises allows all students to achieve at the peak of exponentially. The foundation is cooperating their ability, it also allows them to prepare for with the Commission to Transform K-12 college, other professions, or trades. Because Education to generate funding to cover the the students become empowered learners, they costs of these 1,350 transformations. are confident that they can learn whatever they TLC is operating the program within need in order to be successful. The school has the budget provided from federal, state, been in operation for over eight years with and local support. However, there is an In addition to demonstrating the a current total enrollment of about 1,200 incremental cost for the transformation. effectiveness of the educational program, students. Because the curriculum and learning Education Secretary Arnie Duncan transforming the initial 1,350 schools model are engaging, and because teachers do estimated that it would cost between $4 will enable DLS to refine and improve the not “teach to the test,” they have eliminated million and $6 million to transform a effectiveness of the implementation program student boredom and teacher burnout. As a school, but the DLS transformation can be and transformation process, as well as result, there have been zero dropouts and zero accomplished for $2 million. identify and correct any scalability issues. teacher defections so far.

The initial schools will be selected with Furthermore, the distribution of schools based DLS has developed a plan for transforming the cooperation and insight of leaders from on expectations ensures that the network of every school in the country. The goal is to the various participating local, state, and transformed schools has representation across provide the model for transformation, prove national agencies with encouragement from the country. that the transformation can occur, and that grassroots organizations like the Power of Us. The identification of schools will be the results will be remarkable. DLS hopes to In order to receive the $2 million to pay for made by the Commission to Transform K-12 transform 1,350 schools in the next five years; the transformation, every district that elects Education working in conjunction with the at that point, they believe the market will step to participate must sign a binding agreement DLS research center through letters of interest in and assist in transforming the rest of the obligating them to complete the activities submitted by school district superintendents. schools. They believe the remaining 100,000 essential to ensure sustainable transformation.

The Power of Us will provide resources to schools will be transformed over the following The number and location of schools comes local grassroots organizations to assist them ten years. In addition to preparing America’s from the following model. in their efforts. The final selection will be future workforce, the implementation of the made based on established criteria and program will create over a million new applied to all districts submitting a private-sector, non-exportable, skilled Allocation of Demonstration School Sites request for participation. jobs across the country, because the By implementing a comprehensive subscription service coordinates and Category/Selection Criteria for Quantity of system for transformation, DLS can help delivers a wide-range of outsourced Demo School Sites Schools retain critical creative knowledge with services from technology infrastructure to 2 for every senator 100 elementary school aged children, while primary healthcare services.

2 for every representative 870 re-engaging older children in a more Currently, DLS is working 1 in every state capitol including D.C. 51 imaginative way. DLS is a model that with a nonprofit called the Power 1 to every governor 50 50 to U.S. Secretary of Education 50 can and will change the way we prioritize of Us Foundation to achieve the 25 schools in Iowa 25 education across the United States. Once transformation. The foundation is All public schools in Delaware 175 parents, educators, and legislators see the dedicated to transforming K-12 education DoD dependent schools (400 total) 29 possibilities and the improvements being and has selected the DLS model as its Total 1,350 made in K-12 public schools, a shift can first effort. The program will begin by happen, once again, establishing the United States as a leader on the world stage through education, innovation, and discovery and by bringing to light the passion and the imagination that can be reignited in the youth of our country.

» It is a transformation model using existing facilities and a retrained staff, not a takeover and manage model. «

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BUSINESS

World Vision

Uganda: Lois Nyamunga (age 14, left) and her friends Yolesi Muhindo (age 14, sponsored) and Doris Chacimwa (sponsored) in a happy mood as they sit at their desk in Ibanda Primary School.

World Vision Working With Communities and Partners to Build a Future of Hope

By Patricia Brannan & Linda Lloyd Da Silva

A

pproximately 2.6 billion people—more than 40 percent of the world’s population—live on less than $2 a day. What’s worse, even though some countries have made progress towards economic equality for their citizens, more than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where the income gap is widening. The richest 40 percent of people in the world take in 75 percent of the world’s total income, while the poorest 40 percent earn less than 10 percent of the income. ( 28 )

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In this harsh setting, low to no income, hardworking parents in the poorest parts of the world cannot feed, educate, and provide health care for their children which causes decreased access to health care, fewer children attending school, and higher instances of malnourishment and stunting in children. These children face the life-long consequences of chronic poverty and prolonged malnutrition: increased susceptibility to disease, chronic fatigue and anemia and poor motor and cognitive skills.

This insidious poverty that affects individual families begets impoverished nations that are unable to create lasting solutions to the complex problems of development, social equality and justice.

Organizations like World Vision have been working with the marginalized poor for decades. Since its founding in 1950, World Vision has been partnered together with communities and governments to make a serious and sustainable impact on poverty and its causes, especially as they affect children.

World Vision began its international work as a child sponsorship organization responding to the needs of hundreds of thousands of orphans at the end of the Korean War. Over the next several decades, World Vision expanded its work throughout Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Resources from child sponsorship assisted poor children and their families with food, education, health care and vocational training. Today, 3.8 million children, their families and communities benefit from World Vision’s community development programs that focus on vital needs such as food, security, water, sanitation, education, health, leadership training and income generation.

In recent years, World Vision expanded its community development work to include advocacy efforts, focused particularly on issues related to child survival and poverty alleviation. It became more active in working PAKISTAN FLOODS of 2010: World Vision sets up various health services throughout the flood-affected areas, including primary health services, medicine, measuring newborns and children for malnutrition, and offering health tips and practices to the many displaced people.

with governments, businesses and other organizations in addressing issues such as child labor, children in armed conflict and the sexual exploitation of women and children.

In fact, World Vision and its microfinance subsidiary VisionFund International, has become a leading humanitarian and advocacy organization with some 40,000 global members, including part-time and temporary staff and employees of microfinance institutions, to implement these programs in nearly 100 countries.

Committed to long-term change, World Vision consciously connects people. Whether by enabling people through microfinance networks, or linking donors in rich countries to children and families in poorer countries through child sponsorship, or by matching communities with major private, foundation, or corporate donors wanting to invest in large scale initiatives in agriculture, water or health,

or by creating networks of caring individuals that campaign for changes to unjust economic and development policies, World Vision believes that getting people connected is the best way to make a difference.

World Vision’s relationship with Hogan Lovells, an international law firm, is one example of partnership that ultimately has positive effects on impoverished communities, and that is especially valuable during difficult economic times.

As with any complex global organization, World Vision faces a myriad of constant legal issues, notwithstanding its nonprofit and humanitarian status. To mitigate these issues, Hogan Lovells manages against the ever present threats and potential for legal complications that come from ongoing and routine employment law and contract review matters, its corporate governance and connections issues among the multiple legal

» The income gap is widening. The richest 40 percent of people in the world take in 75 percent of the world’s total income, while the poorest 40 percent earn less than 10 percent of the income. « entities which constitute the World Vision global structure, its registration and the protection of the trademarked name and logo, and its regulatory compliance.

Because quality legal advice and support can be very expensive, and because every dollar spent on legal services generally is considered “overhead,” World Vision began looking for law firms that were able to provide the necessary pro bono professional support, while supporting its mission to the poor and marginalized of the world. So, in late 2007, Hogan Lovells committed their expertise to the organization.

The General Counsel for World Vision International (WVI), Tim Burgett, reconnected with a fellow member of the University of Virginia School of Law, class of 1989, Kim Reed, who was then an attorney in Hogan & Hartson’s Moscow office. Their initial conversations led to more extensive discussions with the Hogan partner who

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World Vision

headed up the firm’s Community Services Department, Patricia Brannan. All agreed to a commitment to jointly pursue a significant partnership for pro bono legal services in numerous global jurisdictions for WVI. The relationship began on a somewhat limited basis with some employment law assistance from Hogan’s Moscow office, as well as intellectual property matters and discrete research projects from the firm’s Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. offices. As World Vision grew more adept at identifying issues where Hogan could assist, the connections between the two organizations continued to expand.

And as the economy floundered in late 2008 and 2009, the value of the pro bono support by Hogan to World Vision was keenly felt.

Over the last two years, Hogan has provided significant services to WVI, including extensive employment law support from the Los Angeles office, as well as corporate, tax, and regulatory compliance advice from Washington D.C. Recently, WVI decided to establish a new office in London for its president and senior executives, so lawyers in the Hogan London office stepped up to provide substantial advice and support in the areas of corporate registration, tax, and employment.

When World Vision decided to join with other partners in pursuing an innovative approach to develop key software for the humanitarian industry by forming a low-

profit limited liability company (L3C), Hogan’s Washington D.C. office supplied experienced lawyers to evaluate the corporate governance and ownership aspects. And when World Vision needed to analyze how it handled the personal data of some 3.8 million sponsored children, the Brussels office of Hogan coordinated a 70-country review of data privacy laws, often “twisting the arms” of correspondent law firms in countries without a Hogan presence to try and achieve pro bono or reduced cost services.

The relationship continues as Hogan & Hartson enters a new era. On May 1, 2010, Hogan & Hartson combined with Londonbased Lovells to form Hogan Lovells, which consists of an international legal practice including Hogan Lovells International LLP and Hogan Lovells U.S. LLP (referenced together as Hogan Lovells). Hogan Lovells now is comprised of 2,500 lawyers in more than 40 offices on four continents, making it an even stronger collaborative partner for World Vision’s global mission.

The Hogan Lovells pro bono practice has an unmatched legacy of commitment to pro bono legal work. Forty years ago, Hogan & Hartson became the first law firm in the United States to form a separate practice dedicated to providing pro bono legal services for those in need. In 1997, Lovells became the first European law firm

» Today, 3.8 million children, their families and communities benefit from World Vision’s community development programs. «

Mexico: Diana (age 8) is a sponsored girl, and is moving to 3rd grade. She helps her father to cut tomatoes after school.

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Vietnam: Typhoon Ketsana blew off the roof of Huyens primary school at the beginning of the new school year.

World Vision helped to re-build the roof of the school so children could come back to school earlier.

to hire a full-time lawyer to spearhead its pro bono program. The combined firms support the efforts of seven full-time lawyers whose only mission is to identify, staff, and develop meaningful pro bono work for Hogan Lovells’ lawyers.

The goal of the practice is to involve Hogan Lovells’ lawyers worldwide in legal work that draws upon their experience in order to improve the lives of those without access to justice or the means to hire lawyers, and to meet the legal needs of charities and nonprofit social enterprises. That practice enjoys the full support of Hogan Lovells’ management team. The new management of the combined firms identified good citizenship as a core value: “We embrace our responsibility to give back to our communities through pro bono and community service work and we are committed to a diverse workforce that is inclusive and welcoming.”

The future promise of the relationship is great, and it builds upon a firm foundation in the work done to date. “Hogan Lovells has become an integral and vital part of the efforts of my Legal Department to address the legal requirements of our World Vision clients,” says WVI General Counsel Burgett. “I especially appreciate the central coordination efforts of Pat Brannan, as my team knows that whenever we identify a need that potentially could be met

by Hogan somewhere in the world, all we have to do is call Pat, and she runs it through the appropriate internal channels to see if a lawyer offering just the right practice background is available. Hogan lawyers are partnering with us to provide high-quality legal services at the lowest possible cost, so that World Vision can be as effective as possible in meeting the needs of the people it serves.”

rough h T d l i Every Ch g n i g a g En ation c u d E d ze Customi

DLS Program Elements Learning Environment Integrated, Proven System of Best Practices Diverse Small Group Settings Civilized Society Houses (or in our case – Nests) Student Peer-to-peer Teaching Multi-level Classrooms Ability-level Grouping Virtual Student Peer Tutoring Inclusion for Special Needs Students High Student Expectations Magnet Programs

• • • • • • • • • • •

Curriculum Customized Education for Every Child Student Centered Learning Multi-disciplinary Project-based Curriculum Curriculum Maps with Resource Links Authentic Learning STEM Integrated into Projects Standards-based Curriculum No Textbooks 21st Century High Performance Skills No Teaching to the Test!

Observational Assessment Rubrics Models, Simulations and Visualizations and Student Project /Game Software Development Tools Teams • Integration of STEM Crown Jewels Mind) • Innovation and Fabrication Labs (Factories of the

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

School Calendar Benefits • • • • • • •

Longer School Day Longer School Year College Courses Community Service Internships CIS Programs – and Community Empowerment Digital and Academic Equity

Staffing • • •

Program to Create Great Teachers Highly Qualified Teachers Teacher Mentoring

• Teacher Recruiting, Training, and Retention • Teacher Empowerment • Teacher Pay • Volunteer Early Adopters • Union Support

Technology AT&T Technology Integration Broadband Access in Every School Videoconferencing and Telepresence Refreshed Technology Every Three Years Student Technical Support DLS Administrative Software ting Online Real-time Data-gathering, Analysis, and Repor

• • • • • • •

Wellness and Primary Healthcare • Wellness and Prevention Projects • Wellness Simulations • Primary Healthcare • Telemedicine

Scalable and Transformational • • • • • • • • • • • •

Within Existing Budgets unity Scalable and Adaptable to Every School and Comm t Continuous Improvemen Research Center Curriculum Development National Leadership National Education Database Unique Student Identifier Accountability Agreements and Commitments Job Creation Engine Post-Secondary Activities

Additional Benefits • Unanimity Planning rk) • The Power of US Kids (Kid's Empowerment Netwo tion Preven ut Dropo • r • Transforming Public Schools – Not Creating Charte Schools • Attendance • Grassroots

www.thePowerofUs.org

BUSINESS

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines Soars

to New Heights Employees and Executives Lead the Carrier to Record Profits and Bolster Corporate Collaboration By Emily Haggstrom

B

etween strict Federal Aviation Administration regulations, necessary or unnecessary, flying has become a chore. If squeezing into an economy seat with no leg room wasn’t enough, fliers now have less room because in an effort to save a little cash passengers are hauling every possible piece of luggage and property onto the plane and cramming them under the seats and into overhead compartments.

Flying isn’t just about paying for a ticket anymore; passengers pay for everything short of boarding the plane. There’s a fee to book a reservation, to change that reservation, to board early, to get an economy seat, to upgrade that same economy seat, to another slightly larger economy seat and when your legs still don’t fit, the airline will then charge you to stow carry-on luggage, and don’t forget the receipts are an extra charge as well. By the time a flier sits down in the seat, the cost of the flight in some cases could almost double.

To add to the misery, the costs come at a time of economic instability when many people are nickel and diming; so it is no surprise why many Americans are aggravated by all of the added expenses associated with flying.

Passengers are not only wary; they’re just plain glum and grouchy.

In the second quarter of 2010, airlines reported $2.1 billion in ancillary revenue, which constitutes only six percent of the total reported industry revenue according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Baggage fees alone accounted for $893 million for airlines, who continually claim to be struggling. Yet, second quarter 2010 profits have been the highest reported since 2007.

And while most network and lowcost carriers battle with constant pricing fluctuations, Southwest Airlines stands out from the rest. In an effort to stay true to their business mission, Southwest highlights what they are doing for fliers rather than focusing on what other companies are not doing. “We

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» In an effort to stay true to their business mission, Southwest highlights what they are doing for fliers rather than focusing on what other companies are not doing. « offer exceptional service at a low fare to the places that our customers want to go,” said Southwest Communication Director Beth Harbin, “We’ve always had a very strict eye on costs and maintaining costs, which has allowed us to offer low fares while also making money.

Southwest has maintained its success for over 37 years by staying true to that mission.”

It is because of this mission that Southwest has continued to build its customer base, expand its market share and grow the brand through its September merger with AirTran.

The majority of the success has been largely due to the “Bags Fly Free” program that has continued to build the company's passenger base. Harbin emphasized, “We stand out in our customer’s minds by doing things more

than just low fares but doing what’s right. We focus on ourselves and what we can do in areas of controlling costs. This allows us to offer our same great service without having to go to our customer every couple of months because we need more.”

Southwest stands transparent, admitting that of course they raise fares occasionally, but Harbin emphasized that it is brand trust and preference that continues to draw consumers and prospective employees alike. And while other airlines continue to add fees and hike fares, Southwest knows that its ongoing sustainability is because consumers know what they are going to get when they fly with Southwest.

In addition to low fares, free bags, and new locations, friendly counter agents and

an amusing flight staff and serviceoriented ground personnel work to make the experience more enjoyable for fliers. Southwest’s leadership places substantial importance on hiring employees who genuinely enjoy customer service. Flight crews on Southwest are known to ease the tension of flying and the boring flight instructions through jokes, singing and even rapping, commanding the attention of flyers who wouldn’t have listened otherwise. “They are our biggest assets and are what keeps customers coming back,” said Harbin.

Each employee is encouraged to be themselves and “own it,” which is evident from Southwest’s internal statistics that show for every one complaint received, there are 11 more commendations that follow. “The culture is amazing and they treat their employees like no other place I’ve worked before. On my end of the job, every now and then you get some glitches but generally people are really happy with us, and that’s very rewarding,” said Heather Dejo in Customer Relations.

Employees at Southwest live the maxim of the Golden Rule which dictates, “treat others as you would like to be treated,” and “do the right thing.“ Southwest’s leadership realizes that by treating their employees fairly, they will in turn create a harmonious environment for their customers.

By demonstrating their appreciation for employees who “own it,” Southwest’s management gives them, through the various locations, a budget that they can contribute or invest into community programs and initiatives, further solidifying bonds of trust and brand recognition.

Recognizing that the competitive landscape is ever changing, Southwest continues to forge new relationships with customers in low-cost, meaningful ways. Aside from providing transportation to commercial fliers, Southwest also provides transportation for thousands of businesses through its cargo program, offering “Must Ride” tickets to loyal shippers. "Just like our customers ‘riding above the wing,’ our ‘below the wing’ cargo customers are very important to Southwest Airlines as well. Cargo has been a terrific source of revenue for Southwest Airlines for many years, and we feel that it's important

» For every one complaint received, there are 11 more commendations that follow. «

to recognize and reward our loyal cargo customers for their continued support of Southwest Airlines,” said Wally Devereaux, Director of Sales and Marketing, Southwest Airlines Cargo.

Southwest’s success also rests in its ability to strategically engage in businesses practices and to choose new markets. Just shy of 40 years this coming 2011, Southwest has quietly gained market presence with a solid acquisition of Salt Lake City-based Morris Air in 1994 and the build up to its 69 locations across the United States.

Through the most recent merger with AirTran, Southwest will now become a major player on the east coast with definite prominence in the Atlanta area.

“We’re accustomed to finding ourselves in new places. These new locations offer new changes and new chances to develop,” said Harbin.

And develop they will. Currently Southwest operates its low budget model by maintaining a fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft which all employees are trained to work with and on, providing obvious and immediate cost benefits.

With the addition of AirTran and its 717 Boeing fleet, Southwest will likely expand and accommodate smaller market locations while still managing its low-cost structure and powerful corporate culture.

One thing is for sure, Southwest’s strategic growth is proving profitable again with third quarter gains earning Southwest a net income of $205 million. This statistic could rise in the fourth quarter as business and leisure travelers experience the new corporate culture from the Southwest-AirTran merger. The low-cost carrier will certainly shake up locations where network carriers have been king, once again proving why passengers continue to buckle up and fly with Southwest.

DING! To learn more about Southwest Airlines, please visit www.southwest.com.

Emily Haggstrom has a B.A. in Journalism and Media from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is a member of the Level One Society in Denver, Colorado and sits in on various charity committees. In an effort to impact her local community she also volunteers for Whiz Kids Tutoring, Inc. as well as Denver Health Medical Center.

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BUSINESS

The Paradigm Project

A Burning Desire to Change

the Paradigm One Organization’s Collaborative Journey to Improve the Lives of Millions

By Emily Haggstrom

The Paradigm Project strives to reduce environmental degradation, improve the health of women and children, increase economic stability in poor households, produce a stream of verifiable carbon offsets that are monetized to drive competitive investor returns and scale community benefits. But to realize the magnitude of their impact, you must first understand the devastating circumstances driving their mission.

E

ach morning in tribes and rural communities across eastern Kenya, young girls and mothers wake and ready themselves in their traditional thin cotton robes to make a trek they’ve made before and will likely make hundreds of times again. Armed with an axe and a few feet of rope, they head out, most times together, but just as often alone, on a long desolate route that is often plagued with danger, in search of firewood to use for cooking fuel to feed their families.

These women leave their homes and will spend over 30 hours a week, walking on average six miles a day, through some of the most desolate terrain; crossing through preserves, rock beds and areas that have been clear cut to haul back their weight in wood. This painstaking process exposes them to risks such as rape, beatings, and pillaging along the way. But they are not alone; they are among the 2.5 billion people in the world with limited or no access to fuels for cooking.

Once they return home they are subjected, along with their children, to working hours over an open fire pit within their small huts, billowing smoke so thick and dense it burns

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their eyes and lungs. These open fire pits burn constantly throughout the day until the flickering embers lull the women to sleep at night. This endless chore ceases only when they are eight months pregnant or when they physically can no longer make the trek.

This year, the World Health Organization reported 1.6 million women and children are dying each year from steady smoke inhalation from cooking and heating their homes, which is the equivalent of smoking 40 cigarettes a day.

Most, if not all deaths are the consequence of acute lower respiratory disease that has gone untreated. The health risks alone are staggering, but consider the environmental waste and devastation from years of stripping the land.

In fact, each year, 2.5 billion people forage for firewood and other biomass sources to use as fuel for cooking fires. People across

the world are using their own forests and tree refuges as resources for their daily cooking needs. But, with the amount of people in search of wood each day, the amount of trees being cut down is staggering. As a result, in a few years, these native people will have depleted entire forests that they rely on for their livelihood and sustenance, without the means to replenish the earth with nutrients that stabilize the top soil, which needs to be tilled for farming or to feed their animals.

This type of extreme deforestation is what sets off a destructive series of cyclical events that affects these communities’ precious and invaluable ecosystems.

For example, farming is not even possible without insects to pollinate plants or without the trees to regulate rainfall and provide shelter to indigenous animals. Without the trees, natural

earth cycles are halted or transformed; slowly erosion and floods begin to decimate the landscape into a barren, arid and fruitless wasteland, plunging the poor even farther into poverty.

According to the 2010 Nature Conservancy Report, Saving Forests to Fight Climate Change, deforestation not only plunders the land that sets off a series of events, but it also assists in accelerating CO² emission levels that without the help of the trees, creates incredible amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. These gas emissions that are largely present in developing and underdeveloped nations, exceeding all global transportation related emissions combined.

And while many organizations already exist to mobilize relief efforts and aide in organizing economic and environmental improvements, many often don’t succeed or create a culture of long-term reliance from the people that they aimed to serve. “Over the past 50 years, Africa has received more than $1 trillion in foreign assistance, yet none of us really have much to show for it,” said Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, “Per capita income across the continent remains essentially where it was

find a way to use business as a tool to serve development,” said Bellefeuille.

With enterprise in mind, Bellefeuille and Spencer decided they would distribute clean-burning cook stoves.

The difference in their program versus others was that instead of giving away cook stoves, they would sell theirs, allowing families to have consumer choice. Their challenge was that they had to make the stoves affordable, so they had to look at subsidization programs.

Together, Bellefeuille and Spencer piloted a program model that would prove revolutionary to the world of relief aid. TPP is a low profit limited liability company (L3C) designed to act as both a nonprofit and for-profit entity. It was started by a group of individuals to create partnerships and develop a model that was not only feasible to generate social and environmental prosperity within rural communities, but to ensure that it could be sustainable. By establishing themselves as an L3C, TPP was able to generate successful investment capital from thoughtful donors, socially responsible corporations and private equity firms to form an ongoing revenue stream.

» "The cycle of aid and poverty is durable. As long as poor nations are focused on receiving aid, they will not work to improve their economies." « - Paul Kagame

in the 1960s. The cycle of aid and poverty is durable. As long as poor nations are focused on receiving aid, they will not work to improve their economies.”

Yet organizations across the world continue to mobilize without properly understanding the consequences that occur after they leave the given communities they were trying to help.

One company, however, The Paradigm Project (TPP), is trying to stop the bleeding and change the paradigm.

Neil Bellefeuille, Paradigm’s CEO, and Greg Spencer, Founder and Chairman, looked at Eastern Kenya’s foreign aid situation and realized much of what they wanted to do had already been instituted by other organizations and were already underway, “We wanted to

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BUSINESS

The Paradigm Project

Utilizing corporate and private funding proved to be successful in generating capital for TPP. But, to guarantee sustainability and support, the leadership team focused on delving into the complex dealings of the carbon markets to obtain carbon credits that could prove profitable to all involved. “It’s a complex process. Hopefully, as we move forward, the model will become a moniker for the way that you can access different pools of capital and utilize it for development, because that, to me, is the compelling thing about it,” said Bellefeuille.

This unique foundation was instrumental in establishing TPP as a major player, with a smart and sustainable business model for foreign development and aid projects. More importantly, the model showed immediate

a long-term solution. In an agrarian society, the trees affect everything for these people.

They’ve seen their crop yields go down and it’s getting harder to feed their kids. When they recognize that these stoves can save them time and money along with their farms, it then has personal benefits. They really understand the greater good, but it is because it affects them so directly,” said Bellefeuille. With increasing positive results, donor and capital alignment, in September TPP committed to distributing 400,000 stoves across Kenya.

Also in September, The Paradigm Project was honored by the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) as “an exemplary approach to addressing challenges in environment and energy.” It was during this annual forum that U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham

» "In an agrarian society, the trees affect everything for these people. They’ve seen their crop yields go down and it’s getting harder to feed their kids.

When they recognize that these stoves can save them time and money along with their farms, it then has personal benefits." « - Neil Bellefeuille

and significant results. TPP quickly garnered support from major players within the world of international giving. Organizations like World Vision, Compassion International, Food for the Hungry, and Envirofit had signed on to help with logistics, due diligence, and technical support.

TPP continues to refine their model, seeking new donors and contributors, while developing new business opportunities that align strategically with the mission. By establishing themselves as an L3C, they have the unique ability to be eligible to receive low interest program related investment (PRI) debt to further their activities. With several revenue streams purposed for each segment of the business, TPP is able to focus on what is important—making the communities they work with sustainable through the pool of cash from offsets in the voluntary carbon market.

“With the right philanthropic audience, there is tremendous value in having a donation create future monetary returns,” said Scott Hitt, TPP Chief Marketing Officer.

With the first round of stoves in Kenyan communities, TPP has begun to monitor families who have received stoves to track the health benefits as well as the savings, both financially and productively. “People recognize as do we, that what we are providing is not ( 36 )

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Clinton launched the Global Alliance for Clean Cook Stoves (GACC) and committed $50 million to fund the deployment of 100 million cook stoves by 2020. As a member organization within the CGI, TPP is now eligible, along with other members of the GACC, to develop the effort globally and strategically. Because the commitment is a government resource, it is still unclear how TPP will access the funds or how they will be allocated. Like any good business, TPP will continue to follow its model. And, if and when they gain access to the GACC funding, it will just be "gravy."

“I don’t think it’s a global perspective, ‘I’m helping the world’s climate.’ It is much more direct. It’s a personal level of impact,” said Hitt.

To become involved with The Paradigm Project or to find out more information please visit www. theparadigmproject.org.

Emily Haggstrom has a B.A. in Journalism and Media from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

She is a member of the Level One Society in Denver, Colorado and sits in on various charity committees.

In an effort to impact her local community she also volunteers for Whiz Kids Tutoring, Inc. as well as Denver Health Medical Center.

This is the story of 40 year-old, Ann, a K enyan Meru farmer who is HIV positive.

P

rior to purchasing a stove, I used an expensive cooking method of three stones and a lot of wood causing a smoke filled kitchen and health problems, especially in the children. I purchased a bundle of firewood for $1.90, which lasted only three days. Frequently, our family skipped lunch to pay for dinner’s firewood.

The expense and danger of the wood burning stove made frying a luxury we could not afford. For example, boiling Githeri, a mix of dry maize and beans, consumed half of our firewood. I heard about the stove during a community visit, and after seeing the demonstration, I immediately signed up to purchase one.

I’ve completely stopped using the firewood cooking method and have been using the stove for nine months.

It has entirely changed my family’s well-being—I no longer worry about the children’s safety and the smoke. Now I can eat meals before taking the medicine for my HIV. But now, the firewood I purchase lasts over a month and saves me $16.80.

With the savings, I use the money for my children’s secondary fees. I love the huge savings, smokeless cooking, safety, design and family elevation the stove has given me. My hope is for a better future, savings and enjoyment by using the stove.

This is the story of 40 year-old Mercy, a Kenyan Meru farmer

I

’ve used the stove for eight months to cook for a family of four. It saves on firewood, cooks fast, and is smokeless and safe for use around the children. We’ve seen health benefits by reduced hospital visits for colds and the flu. With the money saved, we are able to cook special meals like chapati, rice and even meat twice a week; previously these were luxuries. We only cooked twice a day before but manage three times now.

With the heat that remains on the liner after cooking, we boil water for bathing and washing dishes. My family hopes the stove will be durable and bring an economical and brighter future. My teenage children enjoy the stove and borrow mine frequently. They have now asked me to buy one for them.

Âť This year, the World Health Organization reported 1.6 million women and children are dying each year from steady smoke inhalation from cooking and heating their homes, which is the equivalent of smoking 40 cigarettes a day. ÂŤ

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BUSINESS

Denver Health

“Getting It Right” During Turbulent Times By Triche Guenin

T

ough economic times. As a leadership team, for Denver Health Medical Center, what options should be considered?

• Raise prices?

• Limit services?

• Change the mission?

• Sell more to current customers?

• Go after new customers?

• Cut costs?

• Focus on improving internal efficiencies?

But wait! New patients are swarming.

Unfortunately, many cannot pay for services provided. However, because of the corporate mission, these patients must be serviced. Those who can pay usually do not have to pay the full amount. Costs continue to go up, so raising

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prices won’t help. This is the current operating environment that the nonprofit healthcare system faces. And it’s getting worse.

As the population ages, an increased number and variety of services are required.

Concurrently, a higher percentage of people are trying to weather the economic downturn. Many, who may have previously had health insurance, either no longer do or are now eligible for Medicare or Medicaid, which pays only a portion of what is charged by the healthcare provider. Many times, conditions are more severe because patients wait too long to access care. For those hospital systems which are a city’s safety net, patients cannot be turned away. So, on an annual basis, the level of “charity” work

continues to climb. And looming in the background are the legislative changes that will impact the who, what, when, where, and how of healthcare delivery.

This is the scenario in which the CEO of Denver Health, Dr. Patricia A. Gabow, and her executive team recently found themselves.

Waiting and continuing on as usual was not an option. Instead, they chose to work on the organization’s infrastructure. By doing so, Denver Health has positioned itself to leverage its streamlined and innovative service offerings as well as its increased focus on the patient, as healthcare reform is figured out and the economy begins to turn around. Although the end is not yet in sight, the journey has begun and benefits are being realized.

“Getting It Right: Perfecting the Patient Experience,” a new healthcare initiative, was formally introduced to Denver Health in May, 2004.

Recognizing that healthcare delivery in hospitals had not changed substantially in decades, this new program was aimed at changing the culture by focusing on workforce development, customer service, patient safety and quality, the physical environment, and internal efficiencies by using information technology as the “glue” to support all of these initiatives.

“We have been doing things the same way in hospitals since I was in medical school many years ago,” Gabow said. “In this redesign process we remove redundancies, use technology wisely, and save money through increased efficiencies.” As a result, Denver Health has been able to create a culture that is committed to reducing waste in order to achieve a perfect patient experience and to be a model for the nation.

But, where does a leadership team start?

Changing the culture requires major changes in the strategy of its executive team. So, Denver Health, with its almost 5,000 employees, focused on the critical elements needed to impact the culture of its organization.

Fast forward to 2010, and Denver Health is one of the leading institutions in the country

» Looming in the background are the legislative changes that will impact the who, what, when, where, and how of healthcare delivery. « on several fronts. Ranked nationally, they are one of the leading hospitals in the country implementing lean thinking and health information technology to optimize the flow of services and products through the entire service chain. Besides that, Denver Health was ranked first in the country for its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in 2006 by the Pavilion for Women & Children. In 2007, the Wellington E. Webb Center for Primary Care ranked Denver Health as the #1 community health center immediately adjacent to an acute medical care center in the country. And, the organization received the first Leed Certified Green designation for a public safety net project, and was the first emergency department in the region to provide emergency and urgent care under the same roof with their Adult Urgent Care Clinic, Pediatric Urgent Care and Emergency Department, Adult Emergency Department and Level I Trauma Center.

So what did the Denver Health Executive Team do? They developed a five-pronged plan to focus on the “right” issues: people, process, communication, reward, and physical environment.

Right People The right people were needed to nurture a new culture, and current employees had to adjust their attitudes in order to accept, endorse, and thrive in a new work environment. To do this, expectations, incentives, and support were put in place.

For potential employees, a robust candidate selection process was established. Denver Health began using Talent Plus, a tool that identifies the key factors to enable top performers to reach success. It was implemented to screen potential employees for the innate characteristics that will help them function at their highest level. This program has also been used by the Ritz Carlton.

Right Process Most process improvement initiatives produce optimal results when coupled with a system improvement effort. Denver Health is no exception and has taken on a massive

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BUSINESS

Denver Health

technological overhaul resulting in improved patient care and cost avoidance by eliminating waste. In addition, its formalized Lean Initiative, which has received international recognition, has netted more than $60 million in savings by reducing costs and/or generating additional revenue, in just five years.

Right Communication To ensure that proper information is communicated in a timely manner, Denver Health instituted several forms of structured communications like departmental huddles; scripting; SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) which is a communication method used when discussing patient issues; bulletin boards focusing on departmental metrics; and intranet sites with access to current organizational endeavors.

Health has more than 200 employees trained in Lean principles, and more than 1,500 employees who have participated in 300 Rapid Improvement Events (RIE’s). These four-day intense sessions culminate in major and minor changes that are implemented in just one week!

Denver Health defines “Lean” as a systematic approach of continuous improvement. It is based on principles and tools that are used to identify and eliminate waste

Right Reward Recognizing individuals, as well as team accomplishments, is key. The STAR Award is given to an employee for going above and beyond his/her normal duties. A star employee's name is publicly posted and the recipient receives monetary compensation in his/her next paycheck.

STAR Award nominations are submitted by co-workers and patients alike. A Team Award is also provided to groups that implement a project with substantial savings or revenue generation. The team then shares in a portion of the organization’s financial benefit—up to $500 per team member per project.

Right Physical Environment Although not statistically proven, employees who have pride in, and enjoy, a safe physical environment have higher work force satisfaction, which in turn leads to increased customer satisfaction, proving that the right physical environment can make a difference.

For many years, Denver Health has continued to upgrade and remodel existing facilities, as well as add new facilities and associated services, with its newest building planned for completion in September, 2011. The Denver Health campus covers 28 acres in downtown Denver. There are also eight neighborhood clinics and 12 school-based clinics throughout the city. Each of its new facilities houses stateof-the-art technology and equipment which helps attract the best physicians and staff in the nation.

As a part of its culture change, and in alignment with its “Right Process,” Denver ( 40 )

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» "In this redesign process, we remove redundancies, use technology wisely, and save money through increased efficiencies."« -Dr. Patricia A. Gabow

throughout the organization and has become embedded in the culture and strategies of Denver Health. The organization is committed to deliver value, as defined by the customer, without waste and on demand; standardize and improve the delivery of services; require deep personal experience to achieve transformational learning; and expect mutual respect and shared responsibility to achieve higher performance.

Phil Goodman, manager of Lean Systems Improvement further explains, “Denver Health utilizes a two-pronged approach. One focuses on addressing complex cross-departmental issues (RIEs); the second focuses on leveraging a cadre of Lean Black Belts. These employees are dispersed throughout the organization and either individually or in small teams implement process improvements to address everyday issues.”

As part of their performance appraisals, supervisors and managers are evaluated on

their department’s improvement efforts, as well as their support in providing professional growth opportunities to their employees. Even the members of the executive team are expected to be champions throughout the organization and participate annually in at least two RIEs. Usually these events require a collaborative effort between stakeholders, both upstream and downstream, for the process being improved. In some cases this requires bringing in personnel from outside Denver Health. Recently, these activities have expanded to include entire organizations outside of Denver Health. For example, with new legislative guidelines for graduate medical schools set to take place in July, 2011, Denver Health collaborated with three other local teaching institutions—University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and The Children’s Hospital—to work on a common goal – zero work hour violations while meeting the new medical education requirements.

It’s been more than five years since Denver Health’s executive team made a commitment to “Perfecting the Patient Experience” and considerable progress has been made, with all indicators pointing in a favorable direction — improvements in finances, patient outcomes, quality of care, and patient/workforce satisfaction. In fact, Denver Health was recognized by the Colorado Performance Excellence award program as a Timberline level recipient in 2009, for its unwavering commitment to providing high quality, safe healthcare.

The foundation of the success that Denver Health is experiencing is based on a two-fold effort—a collaborative effort across the executive team members and a shared respect and mutual understanding of the organization’s direction throughout all types and levels of employees— to provide excellent care for all.

This new found culture shift will enable Denver Health to weather the economic conditions and continue to “Get it Right.” “As an industry, health care can no longer afford to do things the same old ways,” said Gabow. “We must overcome the inertia of the status quo in medicine and tackle the problems that stem from reliance on outdated methods.”

Triche Guenin is President of Denver-based Partners Through Change, Inc., a process improvement firm that facilitates organization in becoming more efficient/effective in everyday operations. To learn more, visit www. partnersthroughchange.com.

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2010 THE CABLE CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER 7:30 AM TO 9:00 AM

ACG DENVER LUNCHEON THE DENVER ATHLETIC CLUB 11:30 AM TO 1:15 PM

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PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS.

BUSINESS

World Trade Center development

WTC memorial tree planting

Living The Mission In The Midst Of The Rubble Rebuilding The World Trade Center Through Leadership And Collaboration

By Robert Edson

W

hen I was younger, about six I think, I asked my mother how she remembered things like what street to turn on to get somewhere, or when family birthdays were. The concept of long term memory was somewhat lost on me then. Something she said stuck with me, although I didn’t really understand what she meant. She tried to explain by telling me that she remembered exactly where she was when JFK was shot. Every detail was ingrained in her ( 42 )

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head—what she wore, where she was, the color of the wall, everything.

Fast forward to 2001. I was a young salesperson sitting at the airport waiting for a flight early one September morning. Every detail of that morning is clear in my mind.

I wore khaki pants and a company-logo’d polo shirt and brown shoes. The sunrise was beautiful over the Rockies as I watched my plane taxi in to the gate where it would pick me up for my flight to Salt Lake City. Then a stranger’s cell phone in the row of chairs across

from me went off. He looked at the phone in disbelief. I asked what was wrong. He said his wife had just sent him a message about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center in New York. Then suddenly, a loud noise came from one of the sports bar across the concourse— people were packing in as fast as they could to watch the small screen over the bar, fixated on a smoking tower. desperately seeking answers. We listened to the news announcer, but little information was known about what had happened. Suddenly, a commercial airliner

crossed the screen and slammed into the second tower; had I really just seen that happen?

My father was a commercial pilot at the time; was he at home? Panic erupted. Flights began to be cancelled as the FAA closed the airports. People ran down the concourse trying to get out of the airport as fast as they could; I was one of them. I remember every detail of that moment in time, from the words of my father on that frantic call, “Son, get out of the airport now,” to the image of that airliner crashing into the tower. This day will forever be etched in my mind, and it still brings tears to my eyes.

Now, I understood what my mother meant.

September 11, 2001—the Pentagon, that Pennsylvania field, the World Trade Center—what images do these things conjure up in your mind? Obviously they all relate to the terrorist attacks on the United States that took place. Most of us watched in horror as events unfolded that day, and in the days after. I remember one particular moment vividly—watching President George Bush standing on a pile of rubble with a bullhorn and a message heard around the world about terrorism, “The people who brought these buildings down will hear us all very soon.”

The attacks of September 11th left families, businesses, and public agencies in ruin. One such agency was the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. “Our very future was in doubt in the days following the attack” says Executive Director of the Port Authority Christopher Ward. “We didn’t miss a beat with our responsibilities. We made payroll for almost 7,000 employees just days after the attack, and many facilities were back up and running within 24 hours,” Ward said.

However, one thing was clear—the landscape had changed, and not just in a horrific physical nature way. The very fabric of the agency and the landscape of its future had been radically altered as well.

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey was created in 1921 to administer common harbor interests of New York and New Jersey. It was the first interstate agency created under a clause of the Constitution that allows for compacts between states with congressional consent. The Port Authorities’ first charge was to construct critical interstate crossings, including the George Washington Bridge, the Bayonne Bridge, and in 1937, the first tube of the Lincoln Tunnel.

Currently the Port Authority operates under a roughly $1.7 billion dollar annual budget, with responsibility for major infrastructure and deep water ports all across

the area, including five airports, as well as a part of the subway system in the area. Now add to that list the rebuilding of downtown Manhattan after the worst terrorist attack in American history. Sound daunting?

In August of 2001, the World Trade Center was leased to a private investor whose insurance and net lease income from the towers was wholly inadequate to rebuild the area. No organization had the funding—not the city of New York, not the state, not New Jersey, and certainly not the Port Authority. Leave it to

Said Ward, "We had to remove the cultural and political debate from the process. And, out of a sense of mission came a sense of collaboration.

People struggle without a mission.”

Decisions about what was important plagued the efforts. Constantly in the back of everyone’s mind was, “Are we supposed to send a message to terrorists? Are we supposed to prove America’s strength and resilience? Are we supposed to prove New York is the greatest city on earth?” And, then how would such a decision be made?

The original slated completion date for the memorial was 2013, but that was unacceptable to some. Not having the most sacred part of the project completed by the 10th anniversary of the attacks was simply inconceivable.

Thus, a mission was born and failure was not an option. Collaboration became the tool to make all things possible. The question, "How does the memorial get done?” began to drive every decision, and it worked.

Ward said, "We literally turned the project upside down; we were going to build the roof of the house first and the floor last. But we had a mission, and that mission bred collaboration, which allowed all other agendas, political or otherwise, to fall by the wayside. Before, we had competing visions and priorities with no clear focus or mission. Now we had one—completion.” That sense of mission has kept the project on track ever since. Even something as controversial and divisive as the building of a mosque near Ground Zero, which garnered so much attention from all sides and captivated a worldwide audience earlier this year, didn’t faze Ward and his team. Ward added, "It could have derailed it.

But because the Port Authority had a mission embraced by the entire organization, we stayed focused. It wasn’t our agenda or role to get involved in that debate. We have to rebuild downtown, and we’re doing it.”

Already scraping pennies from every conceivable location with the worst recession in history in full swing, Ward admits there were concerns of how to rebuild the 10 million square feet of space. He wondered how the project would stay on course. Again, that sense of mission took over and prompted the negotiation of a whole new real-estate deal.

“That was almost harder than establishing the mission to begin with,” says Ward. “There were strains put on every aspect of the collaborative partnerships we had developed, but we have a strong history of cradle to grave leadership here at the Port Authority and that carried us through.” That engine of collaborative

» "We had a mission, and that mission bred collaboration, which allowed all other agendas, political or otherwise, to fall by the wayside.

Before we had competing visions and priorities with no clear focus or mission. Now we had one—completion." « - Christopher Ward

collaborative leaders like Ward and his team to find a way. Between 2001 and 2006, $11 billion dollars were committed and skillfully used to rebuild. The project is expected to be completed in late 2014. That’s American resolve at its best.

How was such an incredible feat accomplished? It was collaborative leadership during tough times.

“The site was fraught, no PARALYZED with so many questions. ‘What does it mean to rebuild? What did it mean for America?

Did it need to be a message? What was the message—the symbolism of what was lost, or its resurrection as a statement to terrorism?

That lack of mission and clear direction was one of the biggest hurdles this project has overcome,” says Ward.

It became the job of the Port Authority to manage the overwhelming complexity of the political and cultural nuances of the project, without allowing those complexities to overwhelm elected officials and dozens of other involved parties. And, to top it off, they had to physically build over 10 million square feet of class A office space, a transit hub, and a fitting memorial to the lives lost that day.

It was difficult at first, but the solution became clear says Ward. “We had to get it built first, and let the symbolism be decided later.

The complexity had the project stalled time and again. We needed a clear mission to assign a drop-dead timeline too. That mission became the completion of the memorial.

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BUSINESS

World Trade Center development

WTC now and future

leadership, even through the toughest of times, has become a hallmark of the agency.

It is one that will carry this project through to completion, and will serve as the foundation of other monumental projects going forward.

No, the completion of the World Trade Center is not the end of the road for the Port Authority, whose mission is simple, and collaborative, Keep the region moving forward.

So what’s next? Ward states, “Enormous challenges remain outside of the World Trade Center Project for the Port Authority. Roads, bridges, tunnels, and airports, just to name a few. We need to build a new airport, and we need to do it while keeping the five others up and running. Oh, and we have to do it on the same site as one of the busiest commercial airports in the world, during normal operations. That’s not going to happen without collaborative leadership.”

Ward went on to say, “The lessons we’ve learned from the World Trade Center project will be keenly important as we move ahead.

Working closely with the FAA, Federal Department of Transportation, private sector

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partners and others on the airport projects like La Guardia, will be critical to the success of those projects. Finding the mission, and using it to lead collaboratively will continue to make what we do a success.”

“In New York,” says Ward, “and really on a national scale, we have a crisis of leadership and funding for infrastructure. We’ve taken this for granted for a long time. That cycle of cynicism has to be addressed if we are going to move forward as a local community, state, or as a nation.”

According to the publisher of this magazine, my friend Gayle Dendinger, “Collaboration and collaborative leadership are the capital of the future.” I am one of the converted faithful to that idea, practicing it every day in my own business and community involvement. The really astounding thing is that it never ceases to amaze me how diverse collaboration can be in practice when “the rubber needs to be put to the road.”

The success of one of the most important public projects in American history has been a proving ground for this concept, right in downtown Manhattan. Ward and his team

have overcome unfathomable odds to find a path forward, and stay the course through some of the most divisive cultural and political roadblocks ever faced. It’s up to the rest of us to use that knowledge in our own communities and find a way to keep moving forward.

What’s your mission?

Robert Edson is the Vice President of Sales for MissionMode Solutions (www.MissionMode.com) and a self-described "Serial Collaborator". He leads a dedicated team of experts providing innovative, cutting edge software solutions for the corporate communications, business continuity and incident management needs for Intel, Federal Express, Alaska Airlines, and GAP among others. He also serves proudly as a board member and contributor for ICOSA and for REAL Colorado Soccer. His passion for the safety and resiliency of our communities and his corporate partners is surpassed only by the love for his wife and two children here in Colorado. He can be found at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/robertedson or Robert.Edson@MissionMode.com.

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BUSINESS

Construction Users Roundtable

The Construction Users

Roundtable Studies in GREAT-ness By Michael Connors

H

urricane Katrina was one of those game-changing events in our nation’s history that colored our understanding of everything that came after. This single hurricane exposed weaknesses in the depth and breadth of the professional networks in the Gulf Coast and their ability to handle large scale devastation. Yet, Katrina was a learning experience and an opportunity to create a better future, and that may prove to be invaluable.

One of the most glaring concerns was the limited number of workers in the construction trades. So together, private industries and associations like the Business Roundtable (BRT) and the Construction Users Roundtable (CURT), government, and nonprofit agencies, like FEMA, collaborated to address the need. The result of this unique partnership was the Gulf Coast Workforce Development Initiative (GCWDI). The brainchild of Riley Bechtel, CEO of Bechtel Corporation, and co-chaired by DuPont, the GCWDI was a public/ private partnership that had the goal of recruiting and training 20,000 people to work in the construction trades along the Gulf Coast. The result of the GCWDI is a new and lasting respect for construction as a career and the foundation for ongoing work that brings state and local governments together with industry to help expose a new generation to the value and rewards of working with your hands. But such strides forward would not be possible without the unifying force of organizations like CURT and their renewed commitment to restoring the Gulf Coast and its culture of independence.

The GCWDI was a resounding success. By the end of 2008, GCWDI brought roughly 22,700 newly trained ( 46 )

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» "We’re able to look far enough down the road so we can go into high schools and junior highs and say “There is an option—consider it.

When they understand there is a better career there, their attitude changes." « - Daniel Groves

workers to the region. The Initiative was funded with approximately $3.5 million in private funds and $25 million in federal funds that had been raised through the states—all for the purpose of continued education in the construction trades.

Riley Bechtel noted on the Bechtel website that, “This unique initiative is bringing together numerous government agencies, community and trade organizations, academic institutions and the business community to give up to 20,000 people the skills needed for rewarding, long-term careers in construction. ...The graduates

are already becoming strong contributors to the Gulf Coast's rebuilding efforts and infrastructure development projects."

Because the effort exceeded its goals, the program was recently transitioned to CURT. Under the CURT leadership, GCWDI became the Get Rewarded for Education and Advancement Training (or I’m GREAT) program, which subsequently became the Choose Construction Initiative (CCI). While the name changed, the objectives remained the same—alter the underlying the perception of the construction trades from solely homes and strip malls to one of prosperity, as well as manage national supply and demand needs.

Along with public relations challenges, there were other glaring obstacles to overcome.

Experts at CURT needed to accurately identify the areas where the need was greatest (i.e., are electricians in more demand than pipe fitters?) as well as the number of people needed in the trade. Then they would have to track and monitor the success of those enrolled in the program. Tracking the applicants after they had received their training and had moved on was severely lacking in the I’m GREAT program and would prove costly. Industry experts like Daniel Groves, Director of Operations for CURT, noted, “One of the frustrating parts of I’m GREAT is that with 22,700 people, many of them got lost in the process. After they got trained, if they were to get a job, we would lose track of them.” Consequently, CURT implemented strategies to fix those problems and ensure success as the CCI program progressed.

Groves encapsulated their current goals thusly, “This is what CCI is all about. We took lessons learned from I’m GREAT and applied them to a national model. Number one, you had to find a way to build a business case for who you needed to train, where they needed to be trained, when they needed to be trained, and how many needed to be trained. Second thing is that we needed to be sure we did a better job of tracking. Finally, I’m GREAT was geared towards a recovery and trying to get people on their feet after the recovery. So we’ve got to do something that starts attracting younger people. All of our empirical evidence points to the fact that if you don’t catch them pretty early, something happens and they lose interest.”

To move the program from a disaster recovery relief effort into a sustainable and ongoing educational program that encouraged and developed interest in the construction fields while providing essential and continuous support for the individuals who enrolled, helping to ensure success, the I’m GREAT program morphed into the Choose Construction Initiative which is designed to train and educate based on supply and demand.

» "This unique initiative is bringing together numerous government agencies, community and trade organizations, academic institutions and the business community to give up to 20,000 people the skills needed for rewarding, long-term careers in construction." « - Riley Bechtel

Mr. Groves elaborated, “For the first time ever, what we are doing is going to owners and getting project information and determining demand. By doing that we are now able to begin understanding how many of which craft, where and when workers are needed. Once we know that, we go in with the recruiting effort which is the second component of CCI. We’re able to look far enough down the road so we can go into high schools and junior highs and say, “There is an option—consider it.

When they understand there is a better career there, their attitude changes. The third thing is making sure they are trained—getting the dollars together and getting them through school, helping them get employed, and then tracking them. We want to help them move to the next level. Those are the three elements: forecasting, recruiting, training and retention.”

Of course, anytime you are trying to bring together such disparate elements of society (i. e., private industry, state and federal agencies, and local school boards) there are some impressive balancing acts that need to take place. Offering some collaborative solutions, Groves said that one of the problems in all of these efforts is that everybody has their own little silo network. What CCI is trying not to do is re-invent this wheel.

“We are reaching out to bring together all of the good resources that already exist... we don’t need to create more. We need to harness them all together in a way that helps us utilize the dollars and efforts that exist,” he said.

The one thing that is new is the forecasting model, which is the only one of

its kind, predicated on a successful effort in Canada. Furthermore, CCI is trying to create a consistent communication and marketing theme that everyone can use so that everyone is speaking the same language. “Whether you are talking to Dallas, New England or Washington State, it is important for everyone to be communicating the same message in the same way, but localized to make it relevant,” Groves said.

Ultimately it is about solutions, based on a replication of best practices that are simple and effective using a collaborative model as a base.

As the program takes hold and moves forward, the best is surely yet to come.

People in the construction trades, like the folks in the Gulf, are resilient, enduring and hopeful. Armed with the networking tools and skillsets that an organization like CURT can offer, great things can happen from the ground up. The organization understands that like politics, all community solutions are local.

Construction workers represent the American spirit of “Can Do.” No..., “Will Do!” And, they give us all hope for a better tomorrow.

So when this spirit can be encouraged, transferred and multiplied by groups like CURT and programs like CCI, great things will happen—just give them some time.

Michael Connors has an M.A. in literature and an extensive background in teaching. He is a Colorado native and spends his free time in the Rockies skiing and hiking.

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BUSINESS

Interview with global giving's Dennis Whittle

Charitable Giving

Redesigned An Interview with Dennis Whittle By Ben Bryan

T

ough times exist in the world of philanthropy and charitable giving. The New York Times reported a 5.7 percent decline in U.S. charitable giving in 2008, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently documented an 11 percent decline in giving to the 400 largest U.S. charities for 2009.

Nonetheless, GlobalGiving, an innovative online marketplace for philanthropy and charitable giving, saw a 9 percent increase in dollars channeled through them, to the more than 1,000 pre-screened social enterprise and charitable projects they present to donors.

Dennis Whittle, the CEO and a cofounder of GlobalGiving, attributes this success to collaborative leadership – not within his team, but rather collaboration between GlobalGiving and the leaders of progressive corporations that have turned to GlobalGiving to design “giving” programs for their companies and employees.

Leadership Gap Management experts like Peter Drucker have written about a paradigm shift in how people gauge personal satisfaction. In the past, Drucker and others argued, the gauge was the acquisition and accumulation of material goods, but increasingly it has shifted to finding meaning in one’s workplace and in every day choices. Whittle believes that it is the progressive corporate leaders who not only understand this, but are acting on it by integrating it into their corporate mission.

This paradigm shift plays out most directly, Whittle goes on to explain, with today’s high quality workers. With more choices, they increasingly prefer a workplace where their values concerning social good are aligned with the values demonstrated by an employer. When this alignment is present, the employee is five times more likely to promote their employer and its mission to others. Retention of quality employees at these companies is demonstrably higher. ( 48 )

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Dennis Whittle

» The gauge was the acquisition and accumulation of material goods; but increasingly it has shifted to finding meaning in one’s workplace and in every day choices. «

Consumers have more choices as well, and increasingly they are choosing products from companies that promote social enterprise.

Whittle cites PepsiCo Inc. as one such company. Through its high profile Pepsi Refresh Project, the company is contributing $20 million annually to small scale, community-based social enterprise efforts chosen by consumers.

Whittle sees a clear “leadership gap” between those corporate managers who have embraced this new “valueoriented” paradigm, and those who haven’t. Progressive corporate leaders know that engaging their companies and employees in social enterprise efforts pays off—internally by attracting and retaining high quality workers, and externally with positive impacts on their brand.

» Progressive corporate leaders know that engaging their companies and employees in social enterprise efforts pays off—internally by attracting and retaining high quality workers, and externally with positive impacts on their brand. «

GlobalGiving’s Business Model Whittle also credits the GlobalGiving business model as contributing to the company’s success. The company’s mission is to, “Build an efficient, open, thriving marketplace that connects people who have community and world-changing ideas with people who can support them.”

The company evaluates and prescreens social enterprises and charities around the world, many of which are entrepreneurial and innovative. Then, they are presented on the GlobalGiving website so that individuals can select ones that they wish to support. They make a “direct connect” donation online through GlobalGiving’s charitable foundation, a registered 501(c)3 organization. Donations given through GlobalGiving go straight to project execution, and the company provides transparency to both the donor and the recipient organization throughout the process.

Donors receive updates regularly on projects they support. GlobalGiving charges a 15 percent fee for its work.

Although individual donors remain a significant focus of GlobalGiving, increasingly, corporate leaders seeking social enterprise channels have turned to the company because of the same attributes that have made it attractive to individuals: confidence that recipient organizations have been thoroughly vetted, the “direct connect” donation concept, transparency and feedback.

e Origins of the Th Marketplace Concept The idea of a marketplace for donors to connect directly with social enterprises and

charities originated in work that Dennis Whittle and his GlobalGiving co-founder, Mari Kuraishi, undertook with the World Bank, where he spent 14 years. In 1997, they were asked to develop innovative ways to combat poverty. So to generate ideas and solutions, they conceived a contest for social innovators and entrepreneurs from around the world to compete for World Bank funds.

The two day contest, “changed my life” according to Whittle who was impressed by the energy, creativity and commitment of the contestants. Their solutions to seemingly intractable problems were not just somewhat better, but “were orders of magnitude” better.

What emerged was the concept of an ongoing, virtual marketplace for these social innovators and entrepreneurs so that they could access and compete for donor and charitable funds on an ongoing basis. Whittle and Kuraishi left the World Bank and became entrepreneurs themselves, launching GlobalGiving as a startup company with all the attendant challenges that entrepreneurs face. This experience has given Whittle a “visceral” appreciation for the work of entrepreneurs and is a key factor in GlobalGiving being a robust champion of social entrepreneurs.

As the name of Whittle’s company, GlobalGiving, implies, its scope and reach is worldwide and has attracted global companies such as Google to its platform. Through GlobalGiving’s platform, these companies can now easily access projects around the world.

But the changing landscape of philanthropy and charitable giving, empowered by technology and particularly the internet, means that a company no longer has to be big to have an impact on social issues. Small and medium companies can now be participants, and in the words of Dennis Whittle, “can really turn the dial on social, economic and environmental issues.”

GlobalGiving can work with small and mid-size companies to develop

custom programs with a local or national orientation, or that target specific areas of social, economic or environmental interests. Such programs can include simple features like gift cards for employees and customers or more complex and tailored giving programs with communication tools such as company-unique web pages.

The New Collaboration

The tough times that the philanthropic and charitable sector is experiencing have accelerated another and very important collaboration, Whittle points out. Traditional models for both receiving funds and delivering services have been supplemented in recent decades by the work of social entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs have been using business principles to solve social problems and deliver social services – business principals that oftentimes are investor driven and therefore can include a monetary profit for investors and management.

As a result, a continuum now exits in this sector, from the traditional charity based models such as United Way, to social entrepreneurship efforts, like those of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who pioneered the micro-finance movement through Grameen Bank. All along this continuum, organizations are now interacting to achieve common goals, and this collaboration is driven from both directions.

“This is the exciting future in the world of giving,” says Whittle.

While GlobalGiving brings a technology driven, market-oriented platform to the world of giving, Whittle himself brings an energetic, visionary and open approach to the management of the company. It is an approach that promotes collaboration while projecting the kind of leadership that creates success, particularly in tough times.

Dennis Whittle will be in Colorado on December 7 as the keynote speaker at two events, a breakfast and luncheon, which are part of the 4th Annual Business/Social Entrepreneurship Day co-sponsored by the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) and other business and academic organizations. He will be elaborating on many of the topics covered in this interview. For more information on Dennis Whittle’s visit to Colorado on December 7, 2010, please contact Capital Investment Management Company at 303.221.1000.

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BUSINESS

GROUND Lab

Corporate Stability Creating “Scenius” Is Key By Maria Luna

T

oday’s new leaders are struggling to get through these grueling economic times. It often compels them to find new ways to manage.

Strategies have shifted to focus on new priorities. Ignoring and/or covering up dangerous leadership practices have not worked and are rooted in some of the biggest business failures in recent history.

To some degree, “scenius” is an important catalyst in the development of a stable global economy. For this article, “scenius” is collaboration between passionate people. In general “scenius” is simply bringing together people to create a genius idea. To create long-term stability, leaders must recognize that “scenius” is imperative, as it supports an underlying frame of mind focused on an organization's most valuable resource—its people—and not just transaction quantity.

There is a new generation of leaders developing during this financial crisis that are focused on “scenius” in their management style. One such leader is Benedetta Piantella Simeonidis, co-founder of GROUND Lab. GROUND Lab is a Brooklyn-based firm specializing in software-hardware development, prototyping, specialty fabrication and interaction design.

Because most of the GROUND Lab client base consists of universities, research groups, NGOs, and government agencies, they have experienced significant client budget cuts. With funding limitations and their clients carefully reviewing development investments, now more than ever, GROUND Lab must lead the company with a positive, realistic, and sustainable vision and plan. ( 50 )

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Benedetta Piantella Simeonidis

» "It's 100 percent paperless, a renewable and sustainable material and the purchase went directly towards protecting elephants in Sri Lanka. It was all I was looking for and more!" « - Benedetta Piantella Simeonidis

Solar device in Kenya

Building ideal teams means finding and developing leaders with bona fide skills, who are motivated and have potential. It is also just as important to cast aside those who are unable or unwilling to integrate with the team.

There are four easy ways to enhance employee motivation including selfmotivation, communication, and understanding employee needs. Most important, however, is providing clear policies and procedures for positive performance rewards. Simeonidis challenges herself to keep her team motivated and says, “Making sure that the company and the team perform at their absolute best and constantly deliver is my number one priority.”

Sustainability and environmental consciousness are additional key factors for GROUND Lab. Trying to maintain a “green” corporate footprint, the company reaches out to find new ways to get what they need. Case in point, Simeonidis recently changed her business cards from recycled paper products to a similar material made from elephant dung. “It's 100 percent paperless, a renewable and sustainable material and the purchase went directly towards protecting elephants in Sri Lanka. It was all I was looking for and more!” she said.

Author Lee Ann Runy suggests that leaders need to possess meaningful financial management skills. Because Simeonidis and her business partner have complementary skill sets, GROUND Lab is able to keep overhead costs low. “Every employee can lead and work collaboratively by providing each other with the expertise to become a sustainable business. While one is a project manager the other manages finances and administration. I honestly

wasn’t expecting it to happen as soon as it did and especially not in a time of such economic crisis.” she says.

Simeonidis always wanted to start her own company and focus on projects that her “heart felt strongly about and solved real world problems.” GROUND Lab collaborated with UNICEF’s Innovation Unit at the New York headquarters in 2009 to test the idea of using a mobile, rugged, networked, battery powered device to collect accurate, high volume data from the research field rapidly and efficiently. She elaborates, “We engaged in a yearlong collaboration with multiple teams

has taken the “scenius” and implemented it to make a profit while helping the community.

One perk of co-founding a company is choosing interesting projects. Currently in the final stages of fundraising, this GROUND Lab project will use an open source GPS tracking system to track the last living lions in Kenya. The project originated from a previous collaboration by Justin Downs, co-founder of GROUND Lab, with two conservancy research groups in Kenya—the Living with Lions organization and Lion Guardians research group. While in Kenya, Downs observed the difficulties of using current technologies in the

Health devices in Uganda

» "We engaged in a yearlong collaboration with multiple teams and offices at UNICEF and created three fully functioning devices that were delivered to the UNICEF Uganda Country Office for use in health clinics." « - Benedetta Piantella Simeonidis

and offices at UNICEF and created three fully functioning devices that were delivered to the UNICEF Uganda Country Office for use in health clinics.” These cutting-edge devices were programmed to diagnose malnutrition and other medical conditions in children and instantaneously transmit the patients’ records to a centralized database that UNICEF monitors. The GROUND Lab device also sent patient information to nearby health clinics, hospitals, and directly to the nearest doctor’s cellular phone via SMS text message.

The GROUND Lab business model was developed with the assumption of, “positively impacting community, through the creation of sustainable technology solutions to humanitarian, environmental and social challenges, worldwide.” In fact, the business participates in many nonprofit activities and collaborates actively with global nonprofit organizations that pursue the same humanitarian and social goals. Simeonidis

Kenyan treehouse

field when he decided to create a more flexible and accessible GPS-based lion tracking collar.

“Because of the many inquires we have received from individuals, businesses and research institutions, we have widened the original scope of this project and are in the process of creating an open source platform that includes open software and hardware solutions that allow anyone to employ GPS tracking for any lawful application ranging from wildlife tracking to package and supply tracking.”

Obviously, the economy has taken a downturn and traditional management thinking has been reshuffled. There is a belief that this will result in upcoming leaders being more experienced in how to survive during tough times, but can also lead to a more stable future. Two factors in being a sustainable business are focusing on your employees' productivity and empowering them to create change effectively and intelligently while becoming leaders.

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BUSINESS

ARZU Studio Hope

ARZU Studio Hope Transforming Communities Through Commerce By Heidi A. Heltzel

W

here does hope lie? It lies in a rug, and more specifically, at ARZU Studio Hope. This “for benefit” organization provides sustainable incomes to Afghani women by sourcing and selling the rugs they weave. Aptly named, “arzu” is an inspirational Dari word that means “hope.” It is also a common Afghani woman’s name. ARZU, in this case, stands for much more than its name implies.

ARZU Studio Hope’s founder, Connie Duckworth, says she brings to the table “an understanding of business and a strong belief in the economic empowerment of women.” She adds, “Women are community builders, and the carpets are the vehicle for transforming lives by providing a means of financial support.”

A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the United States, and an international non-governmental organization (NGO) in Afghanistan, ARZU has developed “transformational commerce” through implementation of a social experiment. ARZU employs a socially responsible economic and business model by producing a product with a purpose, which creates sustainable solutions to intractable problems – like unemployment and poverty. It is one experiment that should serve as a model not only to the nonprofits of the world, but to the for-profit community as well.

Duckworth’s background is impressive.

She hails from the rough and tumble financial world in New York City. A retired Partner and Managing Director at Goldman, Sachs & Co., she was named the first female sales and trading partner in the firm’s history during her twenty-year career (1981-2001). She currently serves on several boards and is the recipient of numerous awards, including being named the 2008 Skoll Foundation honoree for Social Entrepreneurship for her work with ARZU. It all started in 2003 when Duckworth, an active member of the US-Afghanistan Women’s Council, took a trip with the group to Afghanistan. While there, she was appalled by the poverty and standard of living. She returned ( 52 )

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photo by Thomas Lee

» Developing self-sustaining economic activity at the grassroots level is the answer, and vibrant economies drive peaceful nations. « to the United States with the idea that she wanted to help the women of Afghanistan earn a living wage, and she identified three primary goals, each with the intent of playing a direct role in poverty alleviation. First, create jobs as a starting point so that families could put food on the table today. Second, create an investment in the future by requiring education. And third, deliver maternal health care that would decrease the maternal death rate.

Duckworth freely admits that when she started ARZU she knew nothing about Afghanistan, rugs or international development through foreign aid. She also noted, a little tongue-in-cheek, that “ignorance is bliss,” and says that she has learned a lot on the job. Duckworth feels strongly that with regard to global poverty,

pure foreign aid won’t get the job done.

However, developing self-sustaining economic activity at the grassroots level is the answer, and vibrant economies drive peaceful nations.

She added that this is a big shift from the oldschool thinking that NGO’s typically utilize.

Through ARZU, Duckworth has set out to prove that it is possible to self-fund 100 percent of whatever the organization does. Her experiment is working, in large part through the incorporation of basic, old fashioned techniques, specifically, applying common sense rules while utilizing creativity, collaboration, respect and incentives.

Initially thinking that the garment industry would be a good source of income, by engaging in a field that would be considered appropriate for women’s work in the Afghani

culture, she began speaking with friends who knew the industry well.

To her frustration, she quickly became aware of serious limitations to this effort, such as security issues and the lack of electricity; in this gender segregated society, most women would not be allowed to leave their homes to work in a factory. So, Duckworth was forced to shed her preconceived ideas and start again. She renewed her efforts with extensive research that included studying export industries, while considering roles that would be socially acceptable for women.

That is when she hit upon the carpet industry. A rich and ancestral part of Afghanistan’s history, rugs are a centuries old artisan craft that provide both beauty and function. Woven in the home, these rugs were losing their place in the world, becoming lost under the dust and rubble of more than three decades of violence due to civil war. To achieve her goals, Duckworth quickly realized that

of domestic and foreign governments, businesses and local communities.

One of her first collaborative acts was asking Afghani locals for their help in naming the new venture, and her ongoing interaction with the locals has become primary to ARZU’s success.

New ideas are constantly being vetted, and her team carefully listens to local villagers’ needs. Through this effort, she is able to keep the goals and objectives of the organization grounded and realistic, and therefore achievable.

Despite the challenges in finding trustworthy and loyal employees in a wartorn nation that is fraught with corruption, applying respect and incentives has led to a faithful employee base. The rug operations are conducted in rural areas. While logistically more challenging, there is less corruption, and it is easier to find a positive reception and eager individuals who want to engage in a venture that will work toward

» Finding trustworthy and loyal employees in a war-torn nation that is fraught with corruption, applying respect and incentives has led to a faithful employee base. « collaboration would be essential for her success.

Collaboration. That single word seems to be the catch phrase of today, even though it’s far from a new concept. Collaboration has always made the economic engines of the world churn. When asked about the role of collaboration with regard to starting up a new venture, Duckworth’s response was simple, “partner or die,” stating that collaboration and partnership have been absolutely critical for ARZU to succeed and grow. However, she is taking the concept of collaboration to a whole new level, as her efforts are inclusive

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BUSINESS

ARZU Studio Hope

rebuilding their country, rather than tearing it down.

Once the seed money from USAID was received, she began reaching out to Afghanistan’s local councils and provincial leaders to implement the business opportunity. Duckworth requires the local leaders and heads of households to agree to a social contract that must be signed by each of the weavers. If the local leaders do not want ARZU in their community, she moves on to another village. Lack of interest, however, does not seem to be a problem. In fact, she now has a waiting list of weavers who want to become enrolled in the program.

These contracts enable Duckworth to realize her goal of supporting the communities today, while building a future for tomorrow’s generations.

The social contract provides a significant economic incentive, stipulating that the women will be paid a fair wage for the rugs, plus a 50 percent bonus for the highest quality work. As a result, the women earn an average annual income of about $1,200, or a wage three times that of the average household income in Afghanistan.

The first 30 weavers were contracted in June of 2004 in a small village outside of Kabul. Currently, ARZU has approximately 700 weavers working in seven different villages.

Additionally, there are 52 staff members in Afghanistan and 13 more (full-time and part-time) in various parts of the United States. In all, 95 percent of the jobs that have been created are held by women.

In an effort to invest in the future, the contract also provides a social incentive by requiring that all children under the age of 15 in the household (both girls and boys) must attend school fulltime, and that the women must attend literacy classes for about two hours a day. ARZU does not have the resources to build schools, so they collaborate with the Ministry of Education, which provides certification for ARZU’s educational programs and classes.

The program has been so successful that its availability has been expanded to women and ( 54 )

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» The women earn an average annual income of about 1,200, or a wage three times that of the average household income in Afghanistan. «

children outside of the ARZU program.

One of the most rewarding outcomes, for Duckworth and the women, is when they see thumbprints on the contracts transform into signatures as the women learn to write their own names.

Despite being in a country with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world (UNICEF, 2009), ARZU can also count among its successes that, of more than 300 women under their care, not one has died during childbirth.

This success is due in large part to their partnership with the Ministry of Health to provide community health worker training and basic midwifery training to local villagers. These trained villagers then return to their communities where they work on a family-by-family basis and provide nutrition, sanitation, antenatal and postnatal education. This program currently serves over 10,000 villagers across Bamyan Province.

In the U.S., corporate support for ARZU’s efforts has been received through grant funding, volunteers, support for primary or major distribution channels, and a large customer base through the placement of both standard and custom rug orders. The purchase of rugs provides working capital and is essential to seeding ARZU’s programs.

As ARZU continues to grow, so does its impact on the Afghani culture, society and economy. Well on its way to achieving its initial goals, ARZU is now expanding its reach to new objectives, including farming and environmental sustainability.

These efforts focus a lot of attention on water conservation and reclamation.

Water is not only a valuable commodity in Afghanistan, but is essential to both farming and the final processing of rugs to bring out the luster of the dyes. Even a new women’s community center and a community garden/greenhouse and sports/ wellness complex have been initiated.

For all of these achievements, and more, ARZU’s successes are being noticed by nonprofit, for-profit, and U.S. government organizations. Check out www.arzustudiohope.org to learn more about their operations and how they are expanding their programs, and to get information on how to purchase a rug for your home or business. Each rug comes with its own story and provides the purchaser with the satisfaction of knowing that the purchase is contributing to poverty alleviation and is transforming entire communities through commerce.

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GOVERNMENT

interview with Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Socially Progressive and

Fiscally Pragmatic

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg Rejuvenated America’s City and Redefined the Term “Politician”

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ith an estimated net worth of $17.5 billion, an extremely productive political career, and a heart for philanthropy, Michael Bloomberg is an all American hero. The entrepreneurial business mogul and three-term Democratic mayor turned Republican turned Independent, has single-handedly changed the face of New York City in the aftermath of 9/11 and during years of the most crippling economic times to hit the United States since the Great Depression. The iconic figure spoke with ICOSA about business, politics, philanthropy and why his “bullpen” approach to life helps foster collaboration.

ICOSA: Not without opposition, you balanced the budget and turned the New York City's deficit into a surplus. How was this possible and what motivated you to take on this endeavor?

With whom did you work with collaboratively to accomplish this huge feat?

Bloomberg: We’ve adopted an on-time and

balanced budget every year I’ve been in office. Last year, we closed a $5 billion budget gap with no tax increases, because we cut spending nine different times since the first signs of the national economic downturn in 2007, and because during the good years, we ran surpluses and saved them.

To me, this was just smart fiscal management. Too often governments forget that the good times don’t last forever, and so they don’t save for the future. We were determined not to make that mistake. John F. Kennedy said "The time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining," and that’s the approach we took.

ICOSA: It seems that governments across the country seem to cling to their fiefdoms. How has designing a decentralized management system within the mayoral office created collaboration and increased results with city managers?

Bloomberg: I’ve always thought you should hire creative, talented people and give them a long leash to ( 56 )

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By Emily Haggstrom

be innovative. Talented people want to be able to put their talents to use.

If you don’t give them that chance, why would they come work for you?

That doesn’t mean I agree with every idea my team comes up with, but by expecting them to challenge the conventional wisdom and holding them accountable for results, we’ve been able to accomplish far more than if I tried to micro-manage every initiative.

» "Knowing that so many more students

are getting a first-rate education and learning the skills they need to pursue their dreams is a reward that’s tough to beat." « - Mayor Michael Bloomberg

One important way that we’ve fostered collaboration and open communication has been by turning offices into conference rooms and having everyone sit in an open room—we call it the bullpen. No walls, no gatekeepers. Anyone can walk up to anyone at anytime and ask a question. That kind of openness not only promotes collaboration, it builds trust. No one is hiding behind closed doors.

percent. Knowing that so many more students are getting a first-rate education and learning the skills they need to pursue their dreams is a reward that’s tough to beat. We still have a long way to go, but we’re making real progress and we’re not letting up for a second.

ICOSA: You’re a well documented philanthropist, and you’ve

ICOSA: What is it that has made you successful in business and

been quoted as wanting to leave a legacy in public education and poverty reduction. How can education, government, and business work together to see your legacy through?

Bloomberg: Since government cannot always spend taxpayer dollars on experimental and unproven ideas, public-private partnerships are essential to driving innovation in government.

And in these tough times, public-private partnerships are especially critical, because government cannot do it alone.

In New York City, we’ve used public-private partnerships to help launch a principal training academy, anti-poverty initiatives, domestic violence services, public art installations, environmental programs – like our effort to plant one million trees by 2017. And the list goes on.

ICOSA: What made you become a devoted public servant rather

than solely continuing forward in Bloomberg, L.P. and other business ventures?

Bloomberg: The idea of serving your neighbors is something that I’ve carried with me since I was a kid in the Eagle Scouts. Years later, when I was starting out on Wall Street, a friend and I opened up a small after-school program where kids could get help with their homework. We’d head up there in the evening, tutoring any kid who walked through the door. At my company, we started a program to make it possible for each and every employee to volunteer in any way they chose. And I ran for mayor because I believed that I could make a difference and leave my daughters a better city.

ICOSA: You’ve made several significant changes during your time as mayor. What has been the most memorable or most rewarding change?

Bloomberg: It’s hard to name one. But I first ran for mayor, promising to dismantle the dysfunctional old board of education and turn around a broken school system. We’ve done that. Our students have made enormous progress—graduation rates are up 27

» "I believe very strongly that, no matter

what you do or how well you do it, there is always room for improvement." « - Mayor Michael Bloomberg

has continued to make you successful in politics?

Bloomberg: A lot of hard work – and even more luck. But also, a determination to make decisions based on data – because if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. In addition, there is a willingness to try new things and look for innovative new ways of approaching old problems. I believe very strongly that no matter what you do or how well you do it, there is always room for improvement.

ICOSA: As a symptom of the down economy, many nonprofits find it hard to continue to extend grants and programs. As one of the biggest individual donors in America, how important do you think it is that America’s nonprofits continue to succeed and benefit their communities? How do you propose giving throughout your community?

Bloomberg: Nonprofits provide enormously valuable services to local communities, and many of them rely on volunteers. We launched NYC Service to create more opportunities for New Yorkers to volunteer and to direct their energies to nonprofits serving highneed people and high-priority areas. Everybody has something to give – whether it’s their time, talents or financial support.

ICOSA: How has the development of the Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan helped the City of New York?

Bloomberg: We created the Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan in response to the national economic downturn, and we designed it to maximize job retention in the short-term and job growth in the long-term. New York, like everywhere else, has certainly felt the effects of the national recession. But the impact has been far less severe than in most other places. In fact, New York City has been responsible for one in 10 new jobs created throughout the entire country over the past year.

We’re recovering more quickly than other cities, in part, because we’ve made investments to attract and strengthen a diverse group of industries and, also, it’s important to note, because of continued immigration. Immigrants help create jobs; that’s why cities with the largest increase in immigrant workers have had the fastest economic growth. One of the best things that Congress could do to strengthen the national economy would be to fix our broken immigration system.

That means both securing our borders, while also ensuring that more of the world’s best and brightest and hardest-working can come here to start companies, create jobs, and expand our tax base.

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GOVERNMENT

THE BROKEN SYSTEM OF IMMIGRATION

THE BROKEN SYSTEM OF

IMMIGRATION

Undermining Our Economy, Slowing Our Recovery and Hurting America By Kim DeCoste & Jan Mazotti

I

MMIGRATION. Ok, now take a deep breath and keep reading.

Few topics inspire as much spirited debate as the topic of immigration reform and how to approach it. Most agree the system in place is not working, but consensus has yet to be found about how it can be approached and, ultimately, what successful immigration reform might look like. Enter Michael Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch, and other notable business and political leaders.

Immigration is one of those words that evoke great emotion in most people. It can automatically make you think of the long traditions of the building of the United States to the rhetoric-driven yelling matches about illegal immigrant workers crossing the southern borders of the country in the dead of night.

While discussion on both ends of the spectrum exists, it is the competitive 21st century global economy that is the foundation for the immigration discussion of the Partnership for a New American Economy (the Partnership). The Partnership recognizes that immigration is not a Republican or Democratic issue—but an economic one. “CEOs and mayors see immigration very clearly. To keep America innovating we have to keep competing for the best and the brightest. Immigration is central to the discussion on the economy and the creation of new jobs,” said John Feinblatt, the Mayor’s Chief Policy Advisor.

Led by a bipartisan who’s who board of CEOs from Microsoft, Marriott, Boeing, Disney, and News Corporation, to influential Mayors from New York, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Antonio, and Philadelphia, this group of committed leaders is pushing hard for immigration reform in this country. These leader’s direct companies that are extremely influential, and combined, employ nearly 600,000 people and generate approximately $210 billion in annual sales. The mayors represent some of the country’s largest cities—with a combined population of over 16 million residents.

Achieving consensus on what to do about immigration will be difficult since conservatives and liberals alike are living in the “sound-byte” of the moment creating a disconnect between reality and make believe. And, with the shift in Congress things may become even more heated. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg candidly argues that not addressing this issue now is “national suicide.”

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Murdoch and Bloomberg launch the Initiative.

So, instead of waiting for the Washington, D.C. elite to address the issue, the Partnership for a New American Economy is making the economic case for sensible immigration reform now. “We have given up on D.C. We are going to cities and employers to ask for help in building a legislative package that we will take to Washington,” said Kathryn Wylde, President & CEO of the Partnership for New York City, the city’s leading business organization. Feinblatt echoed Wylde’s thoughts and said success would be measured by this influential group through legislative outcomes.

“We have to get both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to act now. When you don’t see them acting, you see frustrated people.” And, says Wylde, “With the current political shift, it makes working from the ground up more important than ever because Congress may experience more gridlock and be more polarized.”

So act they are. Together, this unlikely collaborative of businessmen and politicians are hitting the streets and testifying in front of Congress presenting a fact-based assessment of the importance of immigration on the economy and the reform principles that they believe are necessary to make the topic a national priority, oftentimes shattering longheld myths about the subject.

Fact: Immigration has been found to lead

Kathryn Wylde

» Immigrant-founded

companies have created over 450,000 new jobs in just under a decade with estimated annual sales nearing $52 billion. «

With an economic downturn and high unemployment, many argue that sending immigrants back to their countries is the answer—end of story. The Partnership would argue it differently saying that this down economy should motivate us to want to solve this problem now. “It is not old established companies that create jobs; it is young companies that drive the engine of our economy.” Feinblatt explained that the way you keep the economy moving and expand new job creation is through private sector innovation. It is a fact that immigrants tend to be innovators and tend to have a tremendous work ethic. It is a fact that immigrants are often young and are twice as likely as others to start new businesses.

Immigrants have been founders of some of the most successful companies in this country in many of the most dynamic sectors. And, says Bloomberg, “from 1980 to 2005, nearly all net job creation in the United States occurred in companies that were less than five years old.”

When asked how such an unlikely coalition of executives and politicians were able to come together, Feinblatt said, “Mayors and businessmen know that cities with the largest number of immigrant workers have had the largest, best economic growth and the best recovery.” Bloomberg recently said in Congressional testimony, “Our broken system of immigration is undermining our economy, slowing our recovery and hurting millions of Americans.”

Rhetoric aside, there are many myths about immigration in the United States.

Myth #1: Immigrants Depress Wages and Cause Unemployment.

to higher wages for the majority of U.S.born workers. In fact, a 2010 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco found that from 1990 to 2007, immigration was associated with an increase of about $5,100 in annual income for the average U.S. worker. That same study found no evidence that immigrants hurt employment rates hours-per-worker for U.S.-born workers. [1] When arguing that immigrants are the root cause of unemployment, it is important to consider that America needs low-skilled workers as the workforce ages and/or becomes more educated. Media soundbites around this myth often drift to the negative view of immigrant agricultural workers. Here are the facts. Roughly 80 percent of seasonal agriculture workers are immigrants. However, it is important to note that according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for every on-farm job (many done by immigrants), they are supporting 3 additional jobs in better paying sectors like manufacturing and transportation.

Regarding high-skilled immigrant workers, data from the National Foundation for American Policy shows that for every H1B visa in a company, on average, 5 additional jobs are created. Think of the most common brands in U.S. business—Yahoo!, eBay, Google, and Intel, all were founded by immigrants, who in fact, are twice as likely as those born in the U.S. to start new businesses. In fact, immigrantfounded companies have created over 450,000 new jobs in just under a decade with estimated annual sales nearing $52 billion. And, almost 25 percent of U.S. Patents come from non-citizen immigrants.

What’s more, countries are competing to attract entrepreneurs and highly-skilled workers. Chile, for example, is offering AMERICAN entrepreneurs $40,000 and a one-year visa to come there and create innovative, entrepreneurial entities.

Myth #2: Immigrants Don’t Contribute Fully to the Economy and

Pay Taxes.

Fact: New immigrants mean economic growth because they spend on goods and services. In fact, studies from the Fiscal Policy Institute indicate that from 1990 to 2006, cities with the biggest increase in immigrant workers were the cities with the fastest economic growth.

Besides contributing to city-based stability and growth, immigrants pay billions of dollars in federal, state and local taxes—and not just the legal ones. Between half and three-quarters of illegal immigrants pay federal and state income tax and have contributed approximately $240 billion to the Social Security fund—a perk that they will never receive. And, because of this contribution of illegal immigrants, Social Security’s Chief Actuary has estimated that the fund has at least six more years of solvency.

[1] Giovanni Peri, “The Effect of Immigrants on U.S. Employment and Productivity” FRBSF Economic Letter August 30, 2010, available at http://www.frbsf.org/publications/ economics/letter/2010/el2010-26.html.

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GOVERNMENT

THE BROKEN SYSTEM OF IMMIGRATION

Myth #3: Immigrants Cost the Government More than They Contribute.

Fact: Not true. The National Research Council found that legal and

illegal immigrants pay almost $1,800 more in taxes than they receive in benefits. And, a recent RAND study found that only 1.25 percent of government healthcare spending is used to treat illegal immigrants.

Myth #4: Ridding the Country of Illegal Immigrants is the Answer.

Fact: Today

there are approximately 11.1 million undocumented immigrants scattered across the U.S. First to mind for many, is the Latin immigrant running through the desert in the dark of night or those folks working in a field picking tomatoes. But, what is important to note is that of those 11.1 million illegals—40 percent of them are here on expired visas. The Border Patrol is addressing the issue, and in 2009 deported almost 400,000 illegal immigrants.

What’s more, mass deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants will cost billions and will cause short to intermediate-term harm to the economy and many of the most trusted names in research agree. The Center for American Progress estimates that if a mass deportation happened today, that it would cost nearly $57 billion annually— or just over $900 in new federal taxing and spending for every U.S. man, woman, and child. According to the Cato Institute, deporting just 30 percent of illegal immigrants would cost nearly $80 billion. Or another way to look at it, mass deportation would cost the economy nearly $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the Center for American Progress.

To combat the myths with a focus on economic fact, the Partnership is pushing for an issue-based, interconnected immigration reform conversation and legislative package that includes key principles for an overall reform package. Securing our borders, by preventing illegal immigration through tougher enforcement and better use of technology, and developing a simple and secure system for employers to verify employment eligibility and hold them accountable if they are not compliant, or abuse visa programs, are two principles lauded by the Partnership. “We’ve created our own problems. Most employers feel that by failing to develop a market-driven approach to immigration we’ve created our own problem. That simply has to change.” said Wylde.

Increasing opportunities for immigrants to enter the United States workforce—and for foreign students to stay in the United States to work—so that we can attract and keep the best, the brightest and the hardest-working, who will strengthen our economy and creating a streamlined process by which employers can get the seasonal and permanent employees they need, when Americans aren't filling vacant jobs; are additional principles of the Partnerships platform. Feinblatt commented, “We believe in high fences with wide gates.” Bloomberg asserts that we make it much too difficult for foreign workers and students to come and stay here. This drives companies to move jobs elsewhere. And our current visa process is “torturous” such that “no one wants to endure it,” he said to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

The whole matter of “brain drain,” where we allow students to enter the country to be educated here in our system but do not allow them to stay, quite literally, takes the knowledge we give them and urges

Congressional testimony of The Partnership

» There are many high-skilled jobs that

are unfilled right now because we cannot find the workers for them. « them to return to their home country and directly compete with us.

Bloomberg said, “That just makes no sense whatsoever.”

“America is desperately in need of improving our country’s human capital,” said Rupert Murdoch, an Australian-born immigrant and Chairman, CEO, and Founder of News Corporation. He further argued that the U.S must, “bring an end to the arbitrary immigration and visa quotas that make it impossible to fill the labor and skills needs of our country.” Regardless of the public perception of jobs, the truth is that there are many high-skilled jobs that are unfilled right now because we cannot find the workers for them. Murdoch stressed, “In higher education, America needs to keep her door open to those who come here to get an advanced degree and then allow them to join the ranks of our most productive scientists, entrepreneurs, innovators, and educators. We need to make it easier for them to stay, so they can make their contributions to America.” On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are many low-wage jobs that according to Bloomberg, American workers will not fill “such as fruit pickers, groundskeepers and custodians.” And, if your personal argument is that immigrants are taking jobs that Americans don’t want, U.S. Department of Commerce analysis shows that even before the current recession, only four occupations—plaster/stucco masons, agricultural graders and sorters, personal appearance workers, and tailors—that are filled by a majority of immigrants and they account for only one percent of the total U.S. workforce.[2] "We need to have the best, the brightest, and the hardest working,” said Feinblatt.

Establishing a path to legal status for the undocumented currently living in the United States with requirements such as registering with the federal government, learning English, paying taxes and following all laws; and strengthen federal, state, local, and employer-sponsored programs that offer English language, civics, and educational classes

[2] “Jobs Americans Won’t Do? A Detailed Look at Immigrant Employment by Occupation” Center for Immigration Studies Memorandum. Steven Camarota, Karen Jensenius. August 2009 http://www.cis.org/illegalimmigration-employment.

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these problems. So, secure the borders, by all means. Build the “walls.” Build them as high as is needed, but make sure the gates are wide and that there is a reasonable process for immigrants to walk through them.

to immigrants is a must for the Partnership.

“Bringing immigrants out of the shadow economy would add to our tax base,” said Murdoch. According to one study, a path to legalization would contribute an estimated $1.5 trillion to GDP over 10 years.

Considering the facts, maybe we can look at the immigrant innovator to inspire us. We hear the phrase “nation of immigrants” but many people become “Americanized” by choice or by pressure and are far from their immigrant heritage. Language ties fade. Culture is muted in the melting pot. Eventually the second or third generation forgets where their predecessors came from and the magic of being an American and part of the American family wears away at the passion the first generation brought with it. On the day a new citizen says the Pledge of Allegiance for the first time, the pride and sense of newness is palpable. From that day forward, the new immigrant citizen has a chance not only to “live” the American dream, but also to “create” that dream for him or herself.

Maybe it’s a shop or a restaurant. Maybe it’s a textile company or an artist’s studio.

Perhaps it’s a musician or a language teacher or a computer programmer or a doctor – but whatever that new citizen sets forth to do, they will accomplish their goals with motivation and dedication. Too often others stand by the sidelines begrudging well-earned success and bemoaning “lost opportunity” when in fact they should admire the success and follow the example if what they see is something they also want for themselves. Immigrants can remind us of our potential.

Immigrant business leaders in many communities are gathering strength both in number and in spirit to direct the community debate. We see specialized Chambers of Commerce. We see business, education and leadership groups for like-minded immigrants to convene. They are still part of the American story; even if they sometimes tell the story in another language at home.

In the spirit of ICOSA we must collaborate and lead our communities and our legislators forward together to tackle the enormity of the immigration challenge. We must also look around for inspiration and look across the borders and over the seas to the competition.

The world has flattened. It really is a global economy. We can and we will find the right balance but we cannot continue the polarizing emotional rhetoric that so often surrounds the immigration debate. We cannot afford the time we are squandering by not solving

MEMBERSHIP CO-CHAIRS: Steven A. Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft Corporation; Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor, New York City; Julián Castro, Mayor, San Antonio; Phil Gordon, Mayor, Phoenix; Bob Iger, Chairman & CEO, Walt Disney Co.; Bill Marriott, Jr., Chairman & CEO, Marriott International; Jim McNerney, Chairman, CEO & President, Boeing; Rupert Murdoch, Chairman, CEO & Founder, News Corporation; Michael Nutter, Mayor, Philadelphia; Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor, Los Angeles

FOUNDING MEMBERS: Sam Adams, Mayor, Portland, Oregon; Richard Anderson, CEO, Delta Airlines; Cory Booker, Mayor, Newark, New Jersey; Ursula Burns, Chairman & CEO, Xerox Corporation; Carl Camden, President & CEO, Kelly Services Inc.; Ken Chenault, Chairman & CEO, American Express; John Cook, Mayor, El Paso, Texas; Francisco D’Souza, President & CEO, Cognizant Technology Solutions; Daniel S. Fulton, President and CEO, Weyerhaeuser; James P. Gorman, President & CEO, Morgan Stanley; Reid Hoffman, Executive Chairman and co-Founder, LinkedIn; Thomas Menino, Mayor, Boston, Massachusetts; Dennis Nixon, President & CEO, IBC Bank; Annise Parker, Mayor, Houston, Texas; Rob Speyer, President & Co-CEO, Tishman Speyer; Joe Uva, President & CEO, Univision Communications Inc.; Fred Wilpon, Chairman & Co-Founder, Sterling Equities; Deborah Wright, President & CEO, Carver Bank Jerry Yang, Cofounder and Chief Yahoo, Yahoo!

Inc.; Mark Zuckerberg, Founder & CEO, Facebook; Mort Zuckerman, Chairman & Publisher, US News & World Report; NY Daily News. Learn More at www.RenewOurEconomy.org

Since the beginning of this country, leaders and citizens have worried about the impact of immigrants on the vitality and security of the country. Founding father, Ben Franklin criticized German immigrants and called them “Palatine Boors.” Later, Americans worried about the influx of the Irish. Then it was the Europeans. Asians, too, have seen their fair share of exclusion over the last century. And today, it is a focus on Latin cultures that is under the spotlight with a loud call to update and modernize the archaic immigration laws and requirements of this country.

Whether it’s New York City or Ponca City—the immigration debate will rage on until we can have a civil debate that leads to thoughtful reform, and The Partnership for a New American Economy is leading the discussion. “The top issue in this country is ultimately, jobs, jobs, jobs—and that’s what this debate is about. We must embrace opportunities for job creation. I can guarantee that many high-tech companies are getting their expertise from foreign-born workers,” said Feinblatt. He went on, “The facts speak for themselves. We are committed to making sure this is not an issue argued at the extremes, but that it is one that is argued from the matter of dollars and cents.” “The ultimate goal is to get immigration and visa policy for this country that is driven by labor market needs, and that once implemented, includes an effective end to illegal immigration,” said Wylde.

No matter what your beliefs, it is important to remember that immigrants make major contributions to our economy and are good for our global competitiveness. Bloomberg says, “Our broken system of immigration is undermining our economy, slowing our recovery and hurting millions of Americans. …

We have to fix it. I believe this is an issue where Democrats, Republicans, and Independents can find common ground. Our economy has changed; our immigration policy needs to change with it.”

To learn more about the Partnership for a New American Economy visit www.RenewOurEconomy.org.

Kim DeCoste is the Director of Career Services for Colorado Technical University and President of DeCoste & Associates, LLC. She can be reached at: kdecoste@colroadotech.edu or 303.362.2948.

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GOVERNMENT

The Peace Corps

T

he Peace Corps is more relevant today than ever in a globalizing world. They continue to address global needs in education, health and HIV/AIDS, business development, environment, agriculture, and youth development. Peace Corps provides services to regions in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Pacific Islands, and the Caribbean.

Deputy Director, Carrie Hessler-Radelet, who herself was a volunteer in Western Samoa from 1981-1983, and Kelly McCormack (Guatemala, 2007-2009), public affairs specialist for Peace Corps, took time to talk to ICOSA about the collaborative leadership models at the organization.

ICOSA: Discuss some of the collaborative relationships the Peace Corps has with others globally in academics, government, nonprofits, etc. What are the benefits and what are the drawbacks?

PEACE CORPS: Peace Corps has a variety of partnerships with a

range of different organizations. One of the primary organizations, with whom we’ve collaborated since the very beginning, is universities. The principal reason was for Peace Corps volunteer training. Today, training is fulfilled through Peace Corps and now our engagement with universities focuses around two separate programs, the Masters International Program (MIP) and Fellows/USA Program. The MIP is geared towards volunteers wanting to pursue graduate work and Peace Corps experience in one program, one year graduate work, one year Peace Corps experience. The Fellows/ USA Program offers scholarships or reduced tuition for graduate studies, after a student serves as a volunteer. It’s a way of enticing strong candidates who are returning Peace Corps volunteers, to the university. A majority of those who have participated in the MIP or fellowship program continue with international development and/or diplomacy work in, for example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the State Department, nonprofit organizations, or American private companies overseas. A return volunteer goal for Peace Corps is to have volunteers become part of organizations that support an international mission.

Peace Corps Volunteer, Adam Kohlrus walks down a street with his students in Guyana.

The Best Is

Yet To Come

Leadership at the Peace Corps By Maria Luna & Jan Mazotti photos provided by Peace Corps

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Other partnerships include the National Association of Community Health Centers, City Year, the Corps Network, America’s Service Commissions, and Teach for America. We also have partnerships with groups like the United Negro College Fund, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, American Indian High Education Consortium, the Asian and Pacific Islander Scholarship Fund, the Council of 1890 Universities, Phelps Stokes, and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. We have a lot of partnerships with government agencies such as Corporation for National Community Service, USAID, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Partnerships are important to Peace Corps. Partnerships enhance recruitment. They provide opportunities to interface with students and skilled Americans in scarce skill areas. They provide a general forum for Peace Corps—to acquaint them with our international work. Some of the big NGO’s help us with overseas training. We have a partnership in Mali with Michigan State University. Michigan State University has a grant with USAID that provides technical support to the group in Mali. They help us provide a training package and provide additional resources to our volunteers to assist communities like

ICOSA: How does the Peace Corps

providing food and security initiatives that are local and community-based.

We place volunteers in communities like Mozambique and in partnership with Columbia University to deliver antiretroviral drugs for people living with HIV. Our volunteers are outreach workers for Columbia University. They are based in the community and work closely with the health centers. They do prevention education around HIV and provide support for people living with HIV. They don’t work as employees of Columbia—they are volunteers attached to the community—but they benefit from the support that Columbia offers. The benefits that volunteers provide to Columbia are that they are the community legs on the ground to ensure the program is more sustainable and is actually implemented at the community level.

One of the most important contributions with any partnership is that Peace Corps volunteers are embedded in the community. They are members of the community— they live, work, eat, and ride public transportation. For example, the Millennium Challenge Corporation in Lesotho is building 123 health clinics. Peace Corps volunteers in the community help ensure there is a formation of a village health committee that will maintain the facility. In fact, all of the ancillary community support that is actually needed to maintain an investment of a health facility can be supported by a Peace Corps volunteer in the community.

Volunteers don’t do any work on their own; they work in collaboration with community members. Partnerships take time, and there has to be something in it for both partners.

It’s just a matter of trying to identify what the benefit for each partner is and it’s an equal partnership. It works best when both partners feel they have something to offer and receive.

Sometimes the process of negotiation takes a long time and there can be costs associated with partnerships, but in general, our partnerships have really enhanced both the volunteers' experience and also Peace Corps' ability to support volunteers in the field.

balance the needs of developing countries, the needs of 8,566 volunteers, and the “rules” of the government, both here and abroad?

Peace Corps Volunteer, Sabreen Dogar teaches her students about geography in Kazakhstan.

» Partnerships are important

to Peace Corps. Partnerships enhance recruitment. They provide opportunities to interface with students and skilled Americans in scarce skill areas. They provide a general forum for Peace Corps– to acquaint them with our international work. «

PEACE CORPS: Peace Corps only goes into countries in which it has been invited by the host government.

When we receive an invitation, there is an assessment process where we discuss their development needs. Our programs are specifically designed at the request of the host country.

Then, we identify whether or not it fits with the Peace Corps way of working.

If we agree on the terms of our engagement, a country agreement is drawn up that specifies the rules— often diplomatic in nature. And, there are discussions as to what the host country will contribute to the Peace Corps efforts like housing, visas, and agreements of taxation of staff and volunteers. It’s a complex process.

We also have a list of core expectations—10 things that we really expect of volunteers. We expect that they will learn the language, be culturally sensitive, value and respect the culture that they are entering, work hard because being a Peace Corps volunteer service is a job, and follow the law of both countries.

ICOSA: In a relatively tumultuous time politically, how does the Peace Corps work collaboratively to address the mission of promoting world peace and friendship both domestically and internationally?

Peace Corps Volunteer, Thomas Peng teaches math to high school students in the Philippines

Peace Corps Deputy Director, Carrie Hessler-Radelet

PEACE CORPS: Our mission is to

promote world peace and friendship and we have three goals that guide our work. Everything we do has to bind with these goals. First, we help the people of interested countries to meet their need for trained men and women. Secondly, we try to promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of peoples served. The main way to accomplish a more positive image of Americans overseas is by being there in the community.

It is about taking part and living in a community and establishing strong professional and social bonds—eating together with neighbors, having fun, playing music, dancing, talking about

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GOVERNMENT

The Peace Corps

Peace Corps Volunteer, Scott Fergus leads his students in an art project for Earth Day in Bulgaria.

relationships, and just getting to know people.

Finally, Peace Corps volunteers help promote a better understanding of other countries and peoples on the part of Americans. Through their volunteer services they write home, blog, and phone their friends, while in the process they are teaching others about the country in which they are serving. They are promoting better, more positive attitudes towards people of other countries. They bring forever with them their experiences as Peace Corps volunteers, the love they felt for their community, and the positive feeling about peoples in a very different part of the world.

These three goals frame everything we do.

ICOSA: Clearly the Peace Corps has

developed some very influential leaders in its history. How does the Peace Corps instill leadership with its volunteers? How has that leadership training changed and/or stayed the same over the years?

PEACE CORPS: We describe Peace Corps as a life-defining leadership opportunity. We provide leadership as a component of our training. Through the Peace Corps experience, ( 64 )

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» The main way to

accomplish a more positive image of Americans overseas is by being there in the community. It is about taking part and living in a community and establishing strong professional and social bonds—eating together with neighbors, having fun, playing music, dancing, talking about relationships, and just getting to know people. «

volunteers have the opportunity to grow and develop both professionally and personally.

Our training has three components. The first is a language component. We teach 250 different languages in Peace Corps.

The second is a cross-cultural component which is unique to a particular country or ethnic group. In any given country, there may be dozens of different languages, so the cross-cultural training teaches volunteers what they need to know about the places they will be serving. The third is technical training, and that focuses on skills that will be required in order to provide assistance to the communities that are served. Leadership is part of all of those areas. Having the crosscultural and the language training enables volunteers to develop leadership skills within their own community. When they become more familiar with language and culture, they are able to establish friendships in their communities and exert leadership more and more. One thing that is unique about Peace Corps is that in many cases, volunteers are the only Americans that community members ever know.

My situation was no different. When I was a Peace Corps volunteer I was 24 and I taught at a girl’s secondary school. I had no previous teaching experience, but I got excellent training from Peace Corps. Then I became a teacher for two years.

That experience has benefitted me throughout my career. It has helped me learn how to work effectively with youth, feel comfortable with public speaking, and develop organizational skills. As a volunteer, my secondary project was to develop a national public awareness campaign, something I had never done before. Oftentimes Peace Corps volunteers find they step into roles that they have never played before, that are professional or personal stretch goals.

ICOSA: How has the downturn

Carrie Hessler-Radelet served as a Peace Corps Volunteer with her husband, Steve in Western Samoa (1981-83). Here, Carrie and Steve eat a meal with their community.

» We have very solid plans for

the future with some wonderful opportunities that we are just starting to roll out. «

in the economy, domestically and internationally, impacted Peace Corps operations here and abroad?

ICOSA: What are the most critical/

compelling leadership issues you have at the Peace Corps? How are you addressing them?

PEACE CORPS: One would think it would increase applications, but it has not been long enough for us to monitor. We face constraints in our budgets like every other federal agency does. The biggest impact we have felt is some uncertainty about what the budget is going to bring. Peace Corps has bipartisan support and we have a lot of support on the Hill, from the White House, Democrats, and Republicans. Even in a time of economic crisis, Peace Corps has continued to have a budget growth every year.

PEACE CORPS: Peace Corps

last year conducted an agencywide assessment to help us do a better job of managing and supporting our volunteers in the field. Based on that, we have developed a new strategic plan to help us move forward. We are going to be improving training to volunteers, using our resources more effectively, and emphasizing some of the work around our third goal—educating Americans about the rest of the world. We have very solid plans for the future with some wonderful opportunities that we are just starting to roll out. It was approved by Congress in June.

ICOSA: How do you balance the needs and expectations of all of the various stakeholder groups within the organization?

PEACE CORPS: We are an independent U.S. government agency within the Executive Branch.

Last year our budget was $400 million, and is determined annually by the Congressional Budget and Appropriations process. Our budget is usually one percent of the foreign operations budget. We have been around since 1961 when President Kennedy signed an executive order to establish the Peace Corps. Next March is our 50th anniversary and

we have events going on throughout the country. Just this last October 14th was the anniversary of a speech President Kennedy gave while campaigning where he basically outlined what would become the Peace Corps. At the celebrations, we will be teaching the American public about what Peace Corps is and how we have been important over the past 50 years. Our notable volunteers always mention that they were Peace Corps volunteers. They include CEO and founder of Netflix, Reed Hastings; Samuel Gillespie, senior vice president of Exxon Mobil; Dan Carney, reporter for Business Week; Chris Mathews, host of NBC’s Hardball; and Christopher Dodd, former U.S. Senator from Connecticut.

Carrie Hessler-Radelet served as a Peace Corps Volunteer with her husband, Steve in Western Samoa (1981-83). Here, Carrie teaches a class of high school girls.

» Volunteers don’t do any work

on their own; they work in collaboration with community members. Partnerships take time, and there has to be something in it for both partners. «

There are so many benefits to Peace Corps service. It impacts volunteers, their families and host communities for the rest of their lives. It’s a lifedefining leadership experience. The benefits—you just really cannot list them all—include language, cultural, and personal awareness of volunteers and Americans; it’s really wonderful.

One of the most exciting things right now is our 50th anniversary. We have a new blueprint for the future. Our new strategy is very exciting. I fully expect that the Peace Corps’ best years are still to come.

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GOVERNMENT

Political Parties Align

Consul Lynch, who joined the Diplomatic Corps in 1978, has served in a variety of overseas posts including Brussels, 1981-1983; Dhaka (Bangladesh), 1984-1986; Dakar (Senegal), 1990-1993; Vilnius (Lithuania), 1994-1997; Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), 1997-2000; Accra (Ghana), 2001-2004; and Ekaterinburg (Russia), May–December 2006.

Lynch came to Denver as British Consul in March, 2007, and needless to say, his experience throughout the world has introduced him to the principles of many different governments.

Watching what is going on in the U.K., Lynch is proud of the collaborative leadership in the British government. He says, “Intuitively, if you are collaborating you are doing well. It’s part of this whole teamwork thing. I think we have moved away from the iconic leader who leads by directives; we had negotiations between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives—different opinions, different views, but for the betterment of the country—to resolve economic problems. They saw the light and said, ‘Let’s figure out a way we can come together and lead the U.K.’ ”

Political

Parties Align

Today, according to Lynch, the focus of the 2010 coalition government is the global recession and getting the U.K. out of it. “It is, in my opinion, working well.” Yet, joining together such differing opinions and platform is not without conflict. Foreseeing this conflict as parties veer outside of their comfort zones, a coalition committee was formed to meet if a conflict happens between the two parties. For Lynch, this feels like an ideal way to keep the U.K. moving forward.

A Coalition Government in the United Kingdom

A

By Dafna Michaelson

s the U.S. wraps up another historically combative and negative campaign season, it is hard to imagine what it takes to lead a coalition government like the one currently in power in the U.K. With the U.K. facing a steep recession, one that mirrors the majority of the world, its citizens were not ready to elect any of the major parties to government. As it turns out, British voters demonstrated their discontent with “business as usual” by electing Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, as well as Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Nicholas Clegg, in May, 2010—with the full expectation of a hung parliament.

Using constitutional innovation to create a fully inclusive coalition government to address the countries staggering economic issues, Cameron and Clegg have joined together to lead the U.K. out of the recession. These two, representing historically polar ends of the United Kingdom’s political sphere, joined forces and have begun the process of setting the U.K. back on course.

It is important to note, the last time there was a coalition government of significant proportion in the U.K. was in 1940—to fight the Nazi’s.

It too, was a time when the U.K. needed to blur party lines to defend the country.

I visited with Kevin Lynch, British Consul General in Denver, Colorado to ask him what challenges the coalition government faces and what lessons we in the U.S. might take away. ( 66 )

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» "That relationship includes one million jobs

in the U.S. dependent on U.K. businesses, and one million jobs in the U.K. depend on U.S. businesses. It has been an ‘invisible’ collaboration which has worked.” « - Kevin Lynch

Before the election, the parties had fundamental differences in thought as to how to resolve the country’s financial debt. Now, as a coalition government, they are beginning to understand that this coalition government could be the road to success. “Creating jobs is what we are all about at the moment. The government is very focused on the prosperity agenda, which will help us trade and invest our way out of this recession and this massive debt of £155 billion GBP,” says Lynch.

“I think the pragmatic side of saying we can do this, we are going to do this, we are able to do this—I think empathy is the word. To get to the common objective, we must understand where the opponent is coming from, who is not a natural bedfellow, where they are coming from and what their feelings are. We might have disagreements; we might not understand each other’s culture, but we must be collaborative and tolerant if we are to achieve the best possible objective. We must put aside our differences to get to what is good for one and all.”

Election reform was another pre-coalition agreement between both political parties. According to Lynch, if election reform indeed occurs, it could lead to a permanent, more collaborative government going forward—should voters so choose.

Lynch could not end our meeting without sharing his appreciation for the relationship between our countries. “The U.K. and U.S. have this wonderful, special relationship at the government level, science and industry level, and so much more. That relationship includes one million jobs in the U.S. dependent on U.K. businesses, and one million jobs in the U.K. depend on U.S. businesses. It has been an ‘invisible’ collaboration which has worked. We have been in five campaigns and two world wars standing side by side.”

What really struck Lynch through this process of collaborative leadership has been the empathy required from both sides of the coalition government to make success possible. “There were ideological differences, but collaborative working in difficult times or in good times is getting together to achieve the same objective,” said Lynch, “and the objective for the coalition government is getting us out of this recession. The lesson I would take away is this empathy thing.”

Going forward, the U.S. appears that they will stand side by side with the new coalition leadership in the U.K. With a shift in power imminently near in the U.S., perhaps we have much to learn from our British ally, with whom we have so much in common. With a jovial laugh Lynch adds, “...we even share the same language, to a point!”

» "We have moved away from the iconic

leader who leads by directives; we had negotiations between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives— different opinions, different views, but for the betterment of the country—to resolve economic problems. They saw the light and said, ‘Let’s figure out a way we can come together and lead the U.K.’ ” « - Kevin Lynch

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COMMUNITY

Gates Foundation Global Health Program

pursued in global health. He has served in a variety of executive positions at the Carter Center and is senior investigator on child development at the Task Force for Child Survival and Development as well as Presidential Distinguished Professor of International Health at the Rollins School of Public Health.

By writing and lecturing extensively, Foege works to broaden public awareness of the issues of child survival and development, population, preventive medicine, and public health leadership.

In 1997, he was named fellow of the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Foege helped form the Task Force for Child Survival in 1984 to accelerate childhood immunization. In the 1970s, he worked in the successful campaign to eradicate smallpox and served as director of the U.S. Center for Disease Control. He received his medical degree from the University of Washington and his M.P.H. from Harvard University.

Dr. Foege believes that collaborators must recognize the importance of respecting one another’s expertise and work together with a clear goal in mind. We had the distinct opportunity to visit with Dr. Foege to learn more about the successes and challenges of the foundation.

Dr. William Foege

Global Health

Equity Can Now

Be Imagined

An Interview with Dr. William Foege, Senior Fellow for the Gates Foundation Global Health Program By Jan Mazotti

If you want to go fast, go alone.

If you want to go far, go together. ~ African proverb

T

he progress that has been made over the last decade in global health was not possible a decade ago. Major health advances have occurred in wealthy countries, yet significant gaps in basic health tools and technologies still exist in the developing world. The approach at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is that, “all lives have equal value and that all people deserve the chance to have healthy, productive lives.”

Living the mission, the foundation has invested more than $13 billion in global health since 1994.

As a senior fellow for the Global Health Progam, Dr. William Foege, M.D., M.P.H. advises the foundation on strategies that could be usefully ( 68 )

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ICOSA As a senior fellow with the Global Health Program at the Gates Foundation, discuss some of the major issues facing the U.S. and other countries regarding global health issues.

FOEGE In both the U.S. and globally, there are a series of shared problems. First is the gap between the levels of unnecessary suffering and premature death experienced compared to what could be expected if we actually applied what we already know.

In the U.S., for example, about two-thirds of deaths occur earlier than they should, largely as the result of self-inflicted problems— like tobacco, diet, alcohol, and intended and unintended injuries.

Even poor countries are caught in this trap, but they also face other problems like under-nutrition and infectious diseases. A second problem in both the U.S. and other countries is the terrible health toll inflicted by social determinants, especially poverty. The poor die earlier and experience more suffering in their shortened lives. Third, for many, the idea of being "brothers' or sisters' keepers" stops at the border of a country. We are only, in recent years, seeing a slow turn around in attitude where there is a feeling of responsibility to use our capacity in research, management and health knowledge for the world as a whole.

ICOSA Does collaborative leadership play a role in addressing these issues? If so, how?

FOEGE Yes. Collaborative leadership certainly plays a role. There are two lessons from the smallpox program as an example. First, improvements in health never happen by chance—they are the result of deliberate action with a decision to achieve some objective and then the development of a plan to achieve that objective. Second, objectives can only be reached through coalitions. In general, coalitions around health objectives are easier than in other areas, but they are still difficult. Important however, is that coalitions are more likely to occur if countries feel at some risk—this was the case for both smallpox and polio. Increasingly, we are seeing coalitions form around disease problems that constitute no risk to rich countries like guinea worm eradication, river blindness programs and trachoma control as examples. Important to note, the best coalitions include multiple organizations, such as global agencies, governments, nongovernmental organizations and service agencies, bringing their strengths to bear.

ICOSA When going into new communities, how does the Gates Foundation balance the needs and expectations of various stakeholder groups, both here and abroad?

FOEGE The best collaborations form around the felt needs of communities and real needs that will improve health. All parents are interested in the well-being of their children, and this interest has no correlation with wealth. Vaccines are some of the best and most cost-effective tools available in global health as they often provide protection for a lifetime at a relatively small cost. An early program of the Gates Foundation involved the support of a global program for vaccines and immunization (GAVI). Over $1.5 billion have been provided by the foundation, which has encouraged others to provide support also. But the foundation does not try to actually deliver the vaccines. Instead, GAVI provides funding to countries with low to average incomes to support the country immunization programs—but the country must demonstrate that they are actually reaching children with the basic vaccine before they qualify for support for more recent and more expensive vaccines.

ICOSA In a relatively tumultuous political time, how does the Gates Foundation work collaboratively to ensure that “all lives have equal value”?

FOEGE This is more than a mantra. The foundation works with global and government agencies around the world. Research funds are aimed at disease problems that inflict the poor and that have not received sufficient attention through the usual programs. The Gates Global Health prize was awarded to Brazil when the government of Brazil pledged to treat all persons with HIV/AIDS, regardless of their ability to pay.

ICOSA What are the most critical/compelling leadership issues you have at the Gates Foundation-Health Program? How are you addressing them?

FOEGE Over the past 10 years, we have witnessed a true transformation in global health. Research into the problems of poor countries is funded and thriving. Global health educational tracks have become so popular that over 150 schools of higher education now have global health programs.

Global health is supported by politicians, service organizations, church groups and pharmaceutical companies. But two major barriers are still obvious. First, the delivery programs have not kept pace with the tools to be delivered. The world abounds with managerial talent, and we have to make

» "In the U.S., for

example, about twothirds of deaths occur earlier than they should, largely as the result of self-inflicted problems—like tobacco, diet, alcohol, and intended and unintended injuries." « - Dr. William Foege

» "We have to make the

solving of management and delivery problems in global health a higher priority for gifted individuals and for countries." « - Dr. William Foege

the solving of management and delivery problems in global health a higher priority for gifted individuals and for countries. Second, it is still difficult to get trained personnel to return to the countries from which they came.

It is no mystery why this is true. None of us would acquire skills and knowledge and then move back to a situation where we cannot use those skills or that knowledge. So the second major barrier is to find ways to level the playing field so that people can return to their own culture, where they know the language, the people, and the needs. This means going beyond training to supporting. I like to refer to this as providing a warranty with every global health degree—computer support, laboratory support, research support, income support—as part of the formula to correcting this barrier.

ICOSA How has the downturn in the

economy, domestically and internationally, impacted your operations here and abroad?

FOEGE No matter how many resources the Gates Foundation provides to global health, it is far too small to solve the problems directly.

The entire annual investment in global health by the Gates Foundation is spent on health in this country every four to five hours, and yet major health inequities persist in the U.S. Global health activities are directly affected by the economic downturn and the reduction of health activities. At the same time, the greatest determinant of illness, namely poverty, increases the numbers of people at risk. The Gates Foundation investments attempt to fund the highest leverage programs possible.

When asked about his general thoughts on global health, Dr. Foege said, “While it is easy to become discouraged over the size of the health problems in the world, the real story is that determined efforts by many people and groups have had a major impact on disease and death. Many specific problems have improved—polio is almost eliminated and smallpox has not been seen for over 30 years; measles deaths have declined by over 90 percent; infant mortality rates have declined throughout the world; guinea worm disease is approaching eradication; river blindness no longer leaves people blind and fertile farm land unusable; diarrhea deaths are declining as the result of vaccines; and malaria deaths are going down because of bed nets and new approaches to treatment. In this country, lung cancer deaths are declining, stroke and heart attack rates have fallen over the past 30 years, and we have some logical arguments against fatalism. While it is only a beginning, global health equity can now be imagined.

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COMMUNITY

Green Jobs Pipeline for Women

Green Jobs Pipeline

for Women Coming of Age By Judith Brissette Taylor

M

ost of us are familiar with the expression “it takes a village.” Certainly in a collaborative, contemporary sense, it takes a village to help a woman find a green job.

The New Energy Economy offers an exploding and broad array of new employment opportunities in Colorado. There will be millions of job openings over the next 20 years for people with specific training in the “green jobs” fields. Green jobs in energy efficiency, renewable energy, weatherization, waste diversion and other emerging sectors are growing rapidly across the state and represented the fastest growing job sector in Colorado in 2009.

The challenge, however, is the extent to which women are able to secure these new green jobs. A majority of new green jobs are in the fields of science, skilled trades (construction), and engineering.

Although women represent close to one half of the workforce in the U.S., women hold fewer than 5% of the jobs in many of the clean energy professions.

The U.S. economic future is green. For the good of the economy, society and the natural environment, the country cannot afford to leave women behind. Women need to be encouraged to pursue green careers.

Facing the challenges related to women seeking green jobs, the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau awarded a contract in late 2009 to the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado. The “Green Jobs Pipeline for Women in Colorado” project was designed to increase awareness among Colorado women about the nature of green jobs—to determine where opportunities exist and to specify what skills and training are needed to secure employment.

A major effort took place to build a statewide network of organizations committed to promoting green job employment opportunities for women and initiating an outreach program that increases the chances that a woman will secure employment in the green economy. This statewide coalition of organizations was formed to identify and promote a set of services and resources that enable women

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to secure green jobs. The pipeline of resources ranges from raising awareness of green jobs, to exploration of careers, training, job procurement and retention.

Women

The coalition set out to expand the awareness of workforce pipeline resources and services that support women in their search for training and employment opportunities.

“From interviews with coalition members, written assessments from 66 other organizations and other research, a comprehensive report of obstacles and best practices was compiled,“ said Janna Six, Education Program Director with the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado. “The first barrier is that women are often not aware of the opportunities in the green job sector and there is a basic education needed.”

One such green jobs opportunity in action is the expansion of the FasTracks Eagle P3 line and the community revitalization efforts along the development corridors. This RTD project comprises elements of design, construction, finance, operation and maintenance. Eagle P3 includes proposed lines connecting Denver International Airport with Union Station, the Gold Line light rail connecting Arvada and Wheat Ridge and part of the Northwest Rail line to Westminster.

Meredith Roach, Director of Career Development Programs at Mi Casa Resource Center, is one of the partners in the overall project for FasTracks Eagle P3 Line, whose main goal is providing diversity and skilled workers.

As for the training of the workers, Roach says that women with different backgrounds come into the program where new competencies are developed.

It could be training around weatherization or electronics or construction related.

While the project is massive in scope, Roach says the supply of skilled workers exceeds demands in this economy. In fact, over a period of six years, 5,000 jobs are expected to be created and a great deal of community redevelopment will be needed.

“The key is there is currently not enough demand around green jobs, “ Roach said. “We need to identify employers who are using green practices. We need to be strategic in what women are trained in. Training is needed for jobs that exist. Employable skills along with networking with employers are important components in the success of finding green jobs,” Roach said.

Numerous efforts are underway to assist job seekers to find and plug into the green jobs pipeline. Early research included the guide, Career for Colorado’s New Energy Economy. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) and the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) are coordinating green jobs statewide through a position titled Green Job Collaborative (the Collaborative). The Department of Labor Women’s Bureau has established a series of Green Jobs for Women teleconferences. Additional resources can be found in the Best Practices Report from the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado’s Jobs Pipeline for Women Project. (www.sustainablecolorado.org).

» Although

women represent close to one half of the workforce in the U.S., women hold fewer than 5% of the jobs in many of the clean energy professions. «

Other efforts have been designed to motivate and empower Coloradans to take energy-saving steps, large and small. One such effort is RechargeColorado. com, which advances energy efficiency and renewable, clean energy resources across the state.

The Colorado Workforce Centers offer free services to employers and job seekers alike.

The Green Jobs Pipeline for Women project offers hope and strategies for women seeking green jobs.

In spite of the unique challenges facing women, the project provides concrete steps and resources to clarify the jobs path. To maximize the job opportunities, the Pipeline researched comprehensive best practices for providing services geared towards supporting women in the quest to obtain careers in the green jobs sector.

And, the Green Jobs Pipeline for Women project continues to evolve and grow.

Originally at the Alliance, the Green Jobs Pipeline will now be housed at the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce. “It (the Women’s Chamber) is a place

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COMMUNITY

Green Jobs Pipeline for Women

with support of the Women’s Bureau, to pull the group together,” said Six.

to facilitate the training to help women prepare for green job openings,” said Donna Evans, President of the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce.

“Connecting people together is vital.”

The Green Jobs Pipeline for Women Project is already successful from the connection and collaboration standpoint. Women now have numerous resources available to them in their quest to find employment in the green jobs economy.

Janna Six, Education Director at the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado is optimistic that the future of green jobs will continue to boom and that the opportunities for women will continue to grow. She sees the local Green Jobs Pipeline for Women Project as a model program for others. “Looking at the green jobs barriers for women in a holistic way across business, education, government and nonprofit sectors is key. It simply took a catalyst such as the Alliance,

Judith Brissette Taylor is a journalist, speaker and speech writer. She has been a practitioner in the women's market for over twenty-five years as a writer, editor and publisher. She served for two years as president of the Women's Regional Publications of America. Contact Judy at jtaylor@leadingedgeadvisers.com.

Green Jobs Resources Careers for Coloradans Guidebook • A tool for anyone interested in learning

more about careers in Colorado's New Energy Economy, the guidebook includes descriptions of dozens of different jobs in the energy efficiency, clean energy and climate solution sectors. (GEO and EDF) http:// rechargecolorado.com/images/uploads/ pdfs/careers_for_colorado_09.pdf

reen Job Education and Training G • Find the schooling you need with this

comprehensive list of Certifications, Community Colleges, Vocational, Training, Universities throughout Colorado. (GEO) http://rechargecolorado.com/index.php/ resources_overview/colorado_green_jobs/ green_job_resources

Other Training and Online Training • A merican Renewable Energy

Association (AREA) http:// americanrenewableenergyassoc.com • Career Readiness Certificate (CRC) http://www.coworkforce.com/emp/crc/ careerreadyfaqs.pdf • Crestone Solar School http://www. crestonesolarschool.com • Ecotech Institute http://www. ecotechinstitute.com • Green Guardians' online training videos http://greenguardians.ning.com • Habitat for Humanity- Women Build https://www.habitat.org/wb • iCAST - Classroom and online courses available http://training.icastusa.org • Mi Casa Resource Center http://www. micasaresourcecenter.org • Solar Energy International http://www.

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solarenergy.org/womens-programs

• Take the first step to becoming a

Journeyperson http://www.fresc.org/ article.php?id=296 • Veteran's Green Jobs - Women Veterans working on conservation issues www. veteransgreenjobs.org • Woodbine Ecology Center http://www. woodbinecenter.org

Job Search Websites • Colorado Cleantech Industry Association

http://www.jobtarget.com/home/ index.cfm?site_id=9471 Colorado based organization • Green Guardians http://greenguardians. ning.com/page/green-career-resources • Green Jobs Outsourcing Brokers http:// gjob.us.com Colorado based organization • Greenjobs.com http://www.greenjobs. com/public/index.aspx • iHire Environmental http://www. ihireenvironmental.com/Site_Map. asp?state=CO&type=jobs • Jobs in Horticulture http://jobboard. hortjobs.com/JobSeeker/Jobs.aspx • LOHAS http://www.lohas.comresources. html Colorado based organization • Tree Hugger.com http://jobs.treehugger. com/?campaign=th_nav_jobs • U.S. Green Building Council http:// careercenter.usgbc.org/home/index. cfm?site_id=2643

Networking • Women in Sustainable Energy

(WISE) Speaker Series http://wise. findsmithgroups.com/signin.do • Women of Wind Energy (WoWE) http://

www.womenofwindenergy.org

• For the Colorado Chapter email: boulderdenver@usa.womenofwindenergy.org

• Colorado Renewable Energy Society

(CRES) http://www.cres-energy.org

• Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce http://www.cwcc.org

• LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com (Many green, renewable energy, etc., groups to join)

Resource Articles • Women’s Role in the Clean Energy

Economy http://www.americanprogress. org/issues/2010/05/women_clean_ economy.html • 10 Networking Resources Women Pursuing Green Careers Should Know About http:// greeneconomypost.com/women-historymonth-networking-women-greencareers-1091.htm • The Green Economy offers a chance for women to excel! http:// greeneconomypost.com/greeneconomy%e2%80%93opportunitywomen-1045.htm • Small steps for women in a green economy http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/ washington/news.aspx?id=127177 • W hy the Most Productive Jobs of the Future Will Be Green Jobs http://www. americanprogress.org/issues/2009/04/ green_jobs_questions.html • A lternate ideas for Green Jobs http:// urbanhabitat.org/node/528

For more information or to contact the Green Jobs Pipeline for Women, please visit: www.sustainablecolorado.org/ programs/greenjobswomen.php.

The Construction Users Roundtable was founded by - and is driven by - many of the largest and most successful construction owners in the United States to provide the industry a strong, singular voice to help owners effect positive, meaningful change and improvements. CURT’s primary purpose is to create competitive advantage for construction owners by making the industry safer, promoting overall cost effectiveness and productivity, and improving the way construction is planned, managed, justified and In order to create competitive advantage executed. and provide aggressive leadership for conCURT accomplishes this objective by leveraging the value, capability and best practices of its members, providing aggressive leadership on those business issues that promote excellence in the creation of capital assets. CURT is constantly searching for and implementing ways to better the industry by helping its members achieve the best possible results; and the one unique, foundational CURT value identified by owners is the networking and connectivity that helps owners work together to solve problems, participate in critical initiatives and solutions, and share best practices.

Check us out.

We look forward to hearing from you.

struction users around the globe, CURT has working committees and task forces—led by CURT owner member leaders—to address core initiatives that affect the construction industry on a daily basis.

• • • • • • •

Education International CURT LEAN Project Delivery Nuclear Construction Effectiveness Process Transformation Safety Improvement Workforce Development

Find out how you can join one of these committees and get involved. This is where valuable networking occurs and solutions are developed to improve how projects are executed.

Take a minute to register on our website, where you will be able to access resources, events, training and industry networking in a whole new way. You’ll find solutions, best practices, implementation ideas and training, and connect with other industry leaders—all without stepping away from your office.

Register Today at www.CURT.org

Improving Construction Around the World.

COMMUNITY

Rotary in Colorado

100 Years of Service Rotary in Colorado By John Klug

W

hy is Rotary so Effective?

Rotary in Colorado has accomplished great things, working with the public and private sector as equal partners. But why is Rotary generally so successful at projects, both local and worldwide, that it tackles?

Where did the name “Rotary” come from and what does it mean? Paul Harris, a young attorney in Chicago founded Rotary International (RI) in 1905. From inception, it welcomed business executives and community leaders committed to ethical practices and was strictly non-religious and non-political. Meeting locations rotated amongst the homes and businesses of members, hence the name "Rotary."

Rotary quickly began to spread to other cities and countries with an underlying core commitment—improve communities and the world in general. This resulted in the Rotary motto, "Service Above Self," which is the creed that all Rotarians live by. ( 74 )

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Today, Rotary is trusted across the globe. The organization is active in 200+ countries, with more than 1.3 million members in over 33,000 Rotary clubs. Along with everyday citizens, Rotary clubs also generally include business and government leaders and the elite of the community. It is this remarkable mix of members and their diverse capabilities that gives Rotary its power to do good things, both in local communities as well as on a worldwide scale.

Rotary Comes to Colorado By 1911, just six years after its founding in Chicago, Rotary had spread to the Rocky Mountain west and the Denver Rotary Club was chartered as the 31st Rotary club in the world. At that time, Denver was growing rapidly and was the nation's 25th largest city. Although Denver had a number of social clubs, Rotary was different. Gratton Hancock, Denver Rotary’s first president, brought together a number of like-minded citizens around three major goals: the promotion of the business interests of its members; the promotion

1941

of good fellowship; and civic and commercial development of the city. At Hancock’s first meeting on December 11, 1911, 40 charter members joined the Rotary Club of Denver.

Although the 1941 Rotary International Conference was slated for Toronto, Canada, the Canadian government had taken over the exposition grounds for military purposes. So the 46 Rotary Clubs of Colorado were awarded the international convention in Denver.

By 1916, membership had grown to 165 active Denver Rotarians. One of the most dynamic early Denver Rotarians was Mayor Robert W. Speer, who transformed the dusty and uninviting mining and rail center into a modern “city beautiful.”

Coining the phrase, “Give while you live,” he convinced Denver businessmen and fellow Rotarians to contribute financially to the city that had brought them success.

Speer argued, “Denver has been kind to most of us by giving to some health, to some wealth, to some happiness, and to some a combination of all.”

Denver welcomed enthusiastic Rotarians from around the world and became only the fifth city in history to host Rotary International for a second time. The theme of the convention was “The Rotarian Amid World Conflict” and the tumultuous international situation was on everyone’s mind. Although attendance from outside North America had diminished due to the war, 30 countries, including England, would be represented.

Growing Beyond Denver Denver Rotary recognized the importance of growing beyond the greater Denver area.

So, in June 1, 1912 the Pueblo Rotary #43 was chartered, and within eight years three more Rotary organizations would be established: the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs, originally the Rotary Club of the Pikes Peak Region (May 1, 1916), the Boulder Rotary (April 1, 1919) and the Longmont Rotary (June 17, 1919). After this, the growth across the state was astounding, laying the foundation for 146 statewide clubs with over 7,000 current Colorado members. (add chart here)

International Rotary Conventions Held in Colorado

Today's Rotarians at work

» It is this remarkable

mix of members and their diverse capabilities that gives Rotary its power to do good things. «

1966

Centennial Project honorees

In 1966, Colorado prepared for the third Rotary International convention in 40 years.

Local newspapers noted that Denver had nearly doubled in size since the first gathering in 1926. Traffic now buzzed through on Interstate Highways 25 and I-70 and the region could boast skyscrapers, a blossoming ski industry, a team in the American Football League, and even a tropical conservatory at Denver Botanic Gardens.

1926 Rotary Convention

Billboards, bunting and balloons (150,000 courtesy of the May D&F department store) announced the imminent deluge of approximately 15,000 Rotarians from 67 countries into the city and region. And once again, on June 11, 1966, the conventioneers and their families congregated at Red Rocks Amphitheater to celebrate the park’s 25th anniversary.

The Rotary Clubs of Colorado have been host to three International Rotary Conventions.

1926 By 1926, Rotary International could proudly claim a presence in more than 2,000 cities worldwide. However, Rotary had been in Colorado only a short 15 years and stood nowhere near the top of any list in terms of population or prestige. Fortunately, Dr. John Andrew from Longmont, who just happened to be a member of the International Convention Committee, sold Colorado’s desirability as a convention destination and summer vacation spot. Denver was described as “a city of 300,000 in the midst of America’s Switzerland.” The Denver Post deemed the event a great success.

A particular highlight was a concert and dedication of Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater which Mayor Ben Stapleton had hurried along to completion for the convention. The amphitheater’s June 16th dedication, attended by more than 9,000 Rotarians, would be a spectacular event and a coup for both Rotary in Colorado and the Stapleton administration. The opening received national coverage on CBS and a spread in Time. Also associated with the convention was the dedication of a memorial sundial and time capsule containing written Rotary records from 1941 atop Mt. Evans, a Colorado fourteener.

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COMMUNITY

Rotary in Colorado

For months afterward, Colorado Rotarians received letters from around the world thanking their hosts for the hospitality.

Major Civic Achievements of Rotary in Colorado As one might imagine, with over 7,000 Colorado members in 146 Clubs, the civic projects at the local, regional, and international level number in the thousands.

Although there are many Rotary-led projects that are meaningful, there are a few that demonstrate the power and influence of Rotary in the Rockies and across the nation. In 1913, Colorado Rotarians appointed a committee to work with other local and state organizations, along with Congress and President Woodrow Wilson’s cabinet, to create Rocky Mountain National Park outside of Estes Park. Drafted by the legendary James Grafton Rogers, future assistant secretary of state and founder of the Denver Council of Boy Scouts and the Colorado Mountain Club, the Rocky Mountain National Park Act became law on January 26, 1915.

District 5440 The Rotary clubs to the north and west in Colorado have a long history of international and local projects that focus on youth. Friendship and cooperation between the Rotary Club of Loveland and the Rotary Club of Manantiales, Tehuacán, Mexico began 20 years ago when four semi-truck loads of medical supplies and equipment were shipped to hospitals in their area. Later, the club provided computer technology

and mapping software to the Water Forever Project in the Mexican states of Puebla and Oaxaca. Additional youth activities throughout the district include Youth Exchange, support for high school students in Interact and RYLA, Kid Packs, Student of the Month and Teacher of the Month recognitions, gifts of free dictionaries to third grade students in the city, and merit and art scholarships for college-bound students. The clubs in District 5440 also produce the prestigious Governor’s Art Show and a Duck Race on the Thompson River which provides financial support for youth activities.

In 2005, with leadership and support from the district Rotary, Smiles without Borders Foundation was created. This organization has matured and developed into an independent foundation that provides comprehensive dental care to Mexican children while they attend school. Today, thousands of children receive dental care by national dentists through a partnership of the foundation and the Manantiales club. In 2006, the club’s dentists, technicians, and engineers made full dentures for countless poor people in Ocotal, Nicaragua. Locally, the club organized a Third Chance Denture Clinic in 2009. In fact, over a two-week period, 52 sets of high-quality dentures were constructed for needy patients across the Loveland community. The free services provided were estimated to be worth $100,000.

District 5450 In the aftermath of World War II, when many boys were left without fathers, Denver Rotary put the motto “Service Above Self” into action when they announced the formation of Denver Boys, Inc.

1966 Rotary Convention

» After struggling to overcome the governmental paperwork mandates, the district club was pleased to help create the first Rotary club in the Palestinian Territories in more than three decades. « ( 76 )

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Leaders, Leading Together, Towards Better Commmunities To celebrate the 100 year anniversary of Rotary in Colorado, local Rotarians looked for a suitable centennial project.

Here are the facts...

• Colorado schools rank 42nd in the nation in terms of Internet speed and connectivity.

• Colorado schools are paying, on average, 10X what schools in Nebraska and Utah pay.

• Colorado schools need greater bandwidth immediately to keep up with the needs of students.

• Colorado schools have little or no budget to pay for skyrocketing high speed Internet prices.

• Public and private sector efforts to lay fiber optic cable are not working because of the expansive distances between cities and towns outside of the Front Range.

Business Journal, Longmont Times-Call, and other newspapers and media throughout the state. The Colorado congressional delegation was energized. Elder statesmen such as Senator Hank Brown and Governor Dick Lamm, both former Rotarians, representing both sides of the political “aisle,” were deputized to create a bipartisan YouTube presentation. Online petition forms were created to show broad statewide support. Countless PowerPoint presentations were made and Rotarians throughout the state beseeched school boards, local elected officials, and business groups to get involved.

Considering the facts, it simply was not practical or economically justifiable for the Colorado-based carriers, like Qwest or Comcast, to lay new fiber optic cable throughout Colorado without some financial assistance. It was a high-cost, low return investment. And, according to research, the situation probably would not change for decades. It begged the question, “Would most of Colorado’s children and businesses be consigned to the rubbish-heap of educational and technological advancement?”

The answer was, “Not without a fight.” So, an idea was hatched—to use federal stimulus funds to help bring Colorado up to the superior standards of our neighboring states.

Working with EagleNet, a Longmont, Colorado-based nonprofit, the Denver Rotary Club, along with all three Colorado District Governors, and on behalf of and with the help of all Rotary clubs in the state, embarked on a statewide quest to help obtain these federal stimulus dollars. EagleNet would provide the technical expertise and be the lead agency to apply for the grant. Rotary would tap its organizing expertise and collective political and community rolodexes to work at the grassroots level to help make the grant application a success.

Meetings with the Colorado Press Association soon resulted in interviews with over a dozen newspaper editors. Articles appeared in the Denver Post, the Denver

» The capacity and

speed will be so great that literally every hospital, every library, every museum, every business, every government entity, and virtually every residence in the state will also be able to connect and receive state-of-the-art Internet access. «

The result was a fully funded grant request of just over $100 million announced in September, 2010, and in-kind contributions of $35 million. EagleNet and the Rotary were going to bring Internet capabilities to every school district in the state of Colorado—at gigabit speed!

Soon Colorado school children will literally be able to operate an electron microscope located at a distant research facility from their schoolroom in Meeker, Colorado or control in real-time an astrophysical facility in Australia. The capacity and speed will be so great that literally every hospital, every library, every museum, every business, every government entity, and virtually every residence in the state will also be able to connect and receive state-of-the-art Internet access. It will literally transform Colorado and assure our place as a high-tech leader in the 21st Century.

Obtaining federal stimulus dollars is highly competitive. In fact, most applications from other states were denied or only partially funded, and an earlier petition from EagleNet had been denied before Rotary got involved. Yet, with the grassroots lobbying ability of Rotary working hand-in-hand with EagleNet and other constituencies throughout the state, the second try was fully funded. Everyone involved, including the Governor’s Office for Broadband Connectivity, elected officials, and EagleNet, acknowledge that it would never have happened without the push from Rotary.

During tough times, it is possible for collaborative leadership to yield extraordinary results. In fact, more than possible, it is essential. And it proves that a 100+ year old organization like Rotary International can still be fast on its feet, innovative, and facilitate social entrepreneurship!

Rotary, government at the national, state and local level, educators, EagleNet, and community groups all came together to achieve a result that no one group alone could have accomplished. The effort epitomizes the Rotary motto, “Service Above Self”, and truly represents leaders—leading together—towards better communities and world peace!

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Rotary in Colorado

The purpose of Denver Boys was to help them, “live healthful, normal lives in their own neighborhoods, schools and homes; to choose a suitable occupation; and to develop into good, self-sufficient citizens in their communities.” This Rotaryled initiative was unique because it combined the efforts of government and private agencies, including Denver Public Schools, Denver Rotary Club and the Colorado Division of Employment, becoming an early example of a highly successful public/private partnership.

» Almost 90 percent of Denver Kids graduates

go on to university or post-secondary education, many on full scholarships. «

Over the years, Denver Boys Inc. has morphed into Denver Kids which now serves nearly 1,000 underprivileged, largely minority, students in Denver Public Schools and helps to achieve a highschool graduation rate of 90 percent—almost 40 percentage points higher than the state average. Even more impressive, is that almost 90 percent of Denver Kids graduates go on to university or post-secondary education, many on full scholarships.

District 5470 Rotary District 5470 works actively, both locally and internationally. To be sure, when disaster strikes in their part of the state—flood, tornado or wild fire—District 5470 Rotarians are there with a helping hand. This district also provides college scholarships for high school seniors, opportunities to study abroad at the high school and college level, and other community-improvement projects.

Internationally, the district contributes to grants for international humanitarian projects especially focused on peace and conflict resolution and the eradication of polio. Recently, they sponsored a new Rotary club in Ramallah in the Palestinian Territories. District 5470 Rotarians have visited Ramallah and have established relationships with surrounding districts in the region. After struggling to overcome the governmental paperwork mandates, the district club was pleased to help create the first Rotary club in the Palestinian Territories in more than three decades.

In 1945, Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary was asked, “What is Rotary?”

His reply was, “Thousands have made an answer, each in his own way. It is easier to note what Rotary does than what it is. …If Rotary has encouraged us to take a more kindly outlook on life and men; if Rotary has taught us greater tolerance and the desire to see the best in others; if Rotary has brought us pleasant and helpful contacts with others who also are trying to capture and radiate the joy and beauty of life, then Rotary has brought us all that we can expect.”

Mt. Evans sundial

» "If Rotary has encouraged us to take a more

kindly outlook on life and men; if Rotary has taught us greater tolerance and the desire to see the best in others; if Rotary has brought us pleasant and helpful contacts with others who also are trying to capture and radiate the joy and beauty of life, then Rotary has brought us all that we can expect." « - Paul Harris

Every Rotarian in Colorado would agree.

Portions of this article were excerpted from a study of 100 Years of Rotary being researched and written by Rosemary Fetter.

John R. Klug is a writer, inventor and former newsletter and magazine publisher living in Colorado. He is also a committed Rotarian with 17 years of perfect meeting attendance.

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Rotary's 25th Birthday celebration

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Granby 1987

Boulder Valley 1985

eClub One 2002

Aurora Fitzsimons 2004

Parker 1993

Parker Cherry Creek Valley 2006

Longmont Twin Peaks 1985

Carbon Valley 2006

Mead 2007

Niwot 2008

Boulder Flatirons 1997

Broomfield Crossing 1999

Longmont St. Vrain 1998

Erie 2006

denver Stapleton 1985

Broomfield 1958

Coal Creek 1990

Longmont 1919

Grand Lake 1951

Boulder 1919

Aurora Gateway 1997

Aurora 1954

Castle Rock High Noon 2000

Breckenridge Mtn 2008

Brush 1947

Ft. Morgan 1936

Winter Park/ Fraser Valley 2006

Peak to Peak 2000

5 Points 2009

Denver Cherry Ck 1987

Summit County 1975

Clear Creek 2000

Denver West 2008

Golden 1986

Commerce City 1961

Castle Rock 1986

Brighton Early 2005

Brighton 1935

Arvada Sunrise 1991

Arvada 1959

Denver Rotary 1911

Kremling 1947

Wray 1937

Lakewood 1946

Conifer 1996

denver Mile High 1989

Evergreen 1985

Denver Sky High 2008

South Jeffco 1983

Denver Metro North 2007

Mountain Foothills 2001

Littleton 1922

Centennial 2001

Highlands Ranch 1985

Westminster 7:10 1994

Westminster 1960

Littleton Sunrise 2005

Northglenn Thornton 1968

Wheatridge 1975

Denver LoDo 1994

Lakewood Foothills 1967

Englewood 1937

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT 5450

Denver Tech Center 1997

Denver Southeast 1985

Smoky Hill 1983

University hills 1971

COMMUNITY

The Denver Foundation

Sharing the Light Collaborative Leadership at The Denver Foundation By Richard Male & Rebecca Arno

Governor Bill Ritter, Jeff Hirota, Vice President of Programs for The Denver Foundation, Senator Michael Bennett, David Miller, and Kathy Underhill, Executive Director of Hunger Free Colorado at the launch of the Governor's Campaign to End Childhood Hunger (Photo by Flor Blake)

I

t’s an autumn night in a classroom at Regis University. The lights are off. A match is lit, a candlewick ignited, and one student’s face appears. Everyone looks at her. She is beautiful in the pool of light. Then she turns to the person next to her and dips her candle forward, ignites another wick. Now two people are illuminated. The process continues until all 20 students' candles flicker. The whole room glows, as if the sun has risen.

This is a story of collaborative leadership.

In 1995, The Denver Foundation was celebrating its 70th anniversary. It was created in the 1920s – much like

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» Collaborative

leadership relies on selfreflection and sharing power; such leaders are rarely willing to elaborate their stories and strategies, certain that they personally are not the key. «

community foundations in other cities – by a group of bankers who pooled charitable trusts and recruited a committee of local leaders to distribute the proceeds. A similar committee served as the Foundation’s Board of Trustees seventy years later.

Through gifts from local residents, the Foundation had grown to steward around $50 million for to be used community good.

Concurrently, The Denver Foundation’s board saw an opportunity to set a transformed course for the future through the hiring of a new executive director. They had a unique challenge, as they wanted to find a leader who could foster both continued growth and deeper linkages with the people they served.

A report by the National Committee on Responsive Philanthropy had recently found

that The Denver Foundation suffered from a lack of connection to the region’s lowincome communities.

» A community of leaders is a community of strength. «

The leader they chose was a fifth generation Denverite named David Miller. Miller served as chief of staff for Mayor Federico Peña, helped run a strategic communications firm, and served as vice president for a private foundation. His mix of experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors outfitted him well for the task at hand. Because a board hungry for transformation had hired him, David could count on the board’s support to lead in fresh directions.

Today, The Denver Foundation stewards more than $500 million in charitable assets, including over 800 funds established by living donors. The Foundation has celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Strengthening Neighborhoods Program, which gives grants directly to residents in low-income communities for projects they conceive.

The national Council on Foundations recently gave the Foundation a Critical Impact Award for its Inclusiveness Project, which helps nonprofits expand their connections to communities of color. Even during the recent economic downturn, donations remained strong and staff was able to galvanize a million dollar grant program to help front-line food pantries.

And, in fact the transformation that the board sought in 1995 has successfully taken place. Miller is the first to tell you that he is not the sole reason for this. Miller develops and expects leadership at all levels. Today, a board of 19 leaders, 31 staff members, and a cadre of more than 100 volunteers put the assets of the Foundation

to work helping the community. To use the analogy shared in the Regis classroom, The Denver Foundation is an organization where new candles are continually lit.

Throughout the United States, organizations from all sectors struggle for sustainable success. Every day, we see the disastrous results when leaders do not foster such an environment – when there is only one candle, or perhaps a few candles in the room, while the rest of the organization orbits in darkness. Yet because collaborative leadership relies on self-reflection and sharing power, such leaders are rarely willing to elaborate their stories and strategies, certain that they personally are not the key. As we have examined the style of leadership at work in The Denver Foundation, it is clear that David Miller and the Board of Trustees foster several key practices.

These are the elements of collaborative leadership, and they can transform organizations when practiced with thoughtfulness and care.

Learning and listening Philosopher Eric Hoffer wrote, “In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” Miller is continually selfreflective, asking staff, board, and volunteers for input into decisionmaking. There is a pervasive culture of learning, with investments in professional development for every staff member.

The Denver Foundation helped residents of Northeast Denver to renew the site of the former Holly Shopping Center through the Strengthening Neighborhoods Program (Photo by Flor Blake)

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COMMUNITY

The Denver Foundation

Besides internal learning, the organization intentionally seeks input from the communities where it works. Back in 2003, a prominent businesswoman left The Foundation a $30 million unrestricted gift through her will. Rather than making decisions about the use of these funds in a vacuum, The Foundation convened over 100 key nonprofit leaders to listen to the needs and expectations within the community.

And, one of those community leaders recently said, “You asked for our advice, reported back to us, and then actually changed your practices.

That doesn’t happen too often.”

Courage Courageous leaders know when to take action and when to pause and learn. Courage requires foresight and fortitude and the trust of those who are moving forward with you. Despite significant investment losses in the recent economic downturn, The Denver Foundation’s board voted to make the same amount of dollars available through the Community Grants Program in 2009 and 2010, even if it meant dipping into the Foundation’s corpus. This was a risk, but well worth taking to meet increased community needs during the recession.

Balance

The Denver Foundation helped galvanize over $1 million for food programs, including the Aurora Interchurch Task Force

» Courageous leaders know when to take action and when to pause and learn. «

Two kinds of balance are essential in leadership: personal and organizational. While Miller works hard, he also spends a lot of time exercising and being with his family and friends. He encourages all staff to do the same.

On an organizational level, a community foundation in particular must practice balance between the needs of the past and future, between political extremes, between the wide range of community needs and various possible courses of action. Practicing balance means that you will never make everyone happy, and yet, when balance is practiced well and in concert with other collaborative leadership strategies, such as listening and courage, the course of action chosen will be the right one.

Lead with values: equity, inclusiveness, accountability In 2007, The Denver Foundation created a new strategic plan which solidified and communicated its values of leadership, equity, inclusiveness, and accountability. Equity focuses organizational efforts on those most in need. Inclusiveness requires that the voices of the people served are included, at all levels. Accountability means that the organization is transparent in explaining how decisions are made and funds are managed.

Develop leaders all around you Collaborative leaders know, through listening and instinct, where their weaknesses are, and they do their best to hire people who supply those strengths. A key to The Denver Foundation’s success has been its ability to recruit and retain staff who have been CEOs and have led other teams, even though staff members have frequent offers for other opportunities. The Foundation also invests in leadership development ( 82 )

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David Miller (c) with Former Board Chair Rich Lopez (l) and current Board Chair Kenzo Kawanabe (Photo by Flor Blake)

for neighborhood residents and nonprofit executives, understanding that a community of leaders is a community of strength.

As organizations grow and change in the tumultuous information age, they must seek ways to bring the light of collaborative leadership to their work. When they adhere to these key practices, not only will they find the outward signs of success – profits gathered, goals achieved – but they will create organizations that are stable, sustainable, and healthy for everyone involved.

About the authors: Richard Male is an internationally-recognized leader in the fields of leadership development, fundraising, and community organizing, and serves as an adjunct professor in the Master of Nonprofit Management Program at Regis University.

Rebecca Arno has served for eight years as the Vice President of Communications for The Denver Foundation and is a graduate of the Regis program.

COMMUNITY

Social Venture Partners

Venture Philanthropy Magic

in the Rocky Mountains Social Venture Partners By Rebecca Arno & Angelle Fouther

Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK) is a grantee of SVP-Denver.

S

eattle in 1997 was a pretty heady place. The dollars flowing into the tech sector were dizzying, and engineers and entrepreneurs found themselves with the resources to make choices about their futures. One such visionary was a man named Paul Brainerd, who had coined the term “desktop publishing” and created a program called Pagemaker. When his company, Aldus, merged with Adobe Systems, he was ready to step into a new life, one dedicated to the community.

Brainerd and his friends in the tech world had seen the power of venture capital in transforming businesses, growing them from promising start-ups to successful pubic companies. They wondered ( 84 )

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if that model could be applied in the nonprofit sector, where the goal wasn’t bringing a product to market, but helping address social issues like education and the environment. They brought together a group of business leaders to make highly engaged investments of money, resources, and expertise in local nonprofit organizations, with the aim of developing their capacity and sustainability. They called this group Social Venture Partners (SVP).

Paul Shoemaker, formerly a worldwide manager with Microsoft, came on staff to lead SVP Seattle in 1998. He recalls that Denver was one of the earliest cities to reach out to try and replicate the model.

“I still remember the first call I got from Denver, back in 1999, after

someone had read about SVP in Hemispheres magazine.” That person was Marlene Casini, then-Vice President of Advancement and Communications at The Denver Foundation. She saw the model’s promise for bringing new philanthropists into the work of nonprofits and for improving nonprofit business practices.

This year, SVP Denver celebrates its 10th anniversary, still operating as a program of The Denver Foundation, and Shoemaker marvels at their success. “Denver was the second or third city to contact us about making SVP happen in their community and here they are, 10-plus years later, going strong. Over those 10 years, we’ve added 23 cities and up to 2,000 members worldwide. Denver was one of our trailblazers.” Today, SVP International has chapters in the United States, Canada, and Japan. And Denver is still one of the stars.

SVP Denver: A model for direct involvement

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Engaged Philanthropists

Donor Education and Experience

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SOCIAL OU E TC V cap i t al , time a I t s e O v nd T s in

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So how, exactly, does SVP work? It starts with the partners. In Denver, each partner contributes a tax-deductible gift of at least $2,500. Together, they select grantee organizations to invest in each year. SVP Denver supports organizations whose missions include early childhood education, K-12 education, and youth development. Once an organization is selected, partners work with the staff and board members of the organization to increase its capacity—the key to the SVP model

Nonprofit Capacity Building

SVP Community Effective Nonprofits

pir

n a t i o Nonprofits provide p e r i e x n, con e n ectio n a n d

ce

» "Grantees drive the process, but we

are there to help and sometimes to push them past their comfort zones. This is what makes good organizations better." « - Lisa Fasolo Frishman

The first half of the SVP model is that the Partners make investments in their grantees that build the long-term capacity of the organizations, rather than short-term projects or programs.

Capacity-building investments include cash grants, skilled volunteers, professional consultants, leadership development, and management training opportunities.

The second half of the SVP model is the mobilization of a community of lifelong, informed, and inspired philanthropists. Through engagement with grantees, personal connections, and participation in education events, partners are inspired to reinvest and make new investments in organizations associated with SVP as well as more broadly. Partners also take part in running SVP Denver itself, which has only one full-time staff person.

“I got involved because I loved the idea of coming together with likeminded individuals to use our skills to help grow nonprofits,” says Bill Ryan, one of several founding partners of SVP Denver. He likes the leverage offered through the partnership model. “I recognized that if I gave $1,000, it would not be as impactful as a partnership like SVP Denver getting 20 people together to give an organization $20,000.”

Mark Berzins, another early partner and owner of the Little Pub Company, agrees. “If all of us wrote a check to our favorite charities, it would make less of a difference. Some of the best people I know in Denver I met through SVP because they are givers and do-gooders.

It’s sort of like the Justice League but we don’t wear capes or ride around in invisible airplanes.”

Over the past 10 years, SVP Denver has given $576,250 in grant awards, and offered the volunteer time and talents of 200 partners like Ryan, and Berzins, to seventeen local, innovative, youthfocused nonprofits. While Denver Foundation staff members have been instrumental in the development of the program, a full-time professional executive director oversees activities and helps the partners accomplish their work.

SVP Denver partners come from a wide range of backgrounds, representing nearly every aspect of the business community, from marketing to financial services to telecommunications. A number of partners are professional women who are now home with kids.

They have connected with SVP as a way of using their knowledge and capabilities for the greater good. All SVP partners know that they have more to give than money, and the executive director helps them connect their talents and skills with nonprofits that can benefit from their help.

“The role of SVP is not one of a traditional funder where you give a grant and ask the organization what it did with the money 12 months later,” says Lisa Fasolo Frishman, previous SVP Denver executive director. “Our partners make the grant and work with the boards and staff every step of the way. Grantees drive the process, but we are there to help and sometimes to push them past their comfort zones. This is what makes good organizations better.” Or, as Bill Ryan says, “We not only teach them to fish, but we teach them to catch bigger fish.”

Does venture philanthropy make a difference?

To find out the impact of SVP Denver, one has only to ask the nonprofits that have received support.

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COMMUNITY

Social Venture Partners

“We applied for a grant because we were in a growth stage and wanted help to build capacity to sustain that growth,” said Trish Thibodo, Executive Director of PlatteForum, a 2008-2009 SVP Denver grantee. Trish said that with the help of SVP partners, they developed their fundraising strategies, board, committee structures, and personnel, as well as establishing best practices. “The process matured us as an organization, and I really think that as we’ve gone through the recent downturn of the economy, our partnership with SVP has put us in a position to ride the storm and to be even more effective.”

Fasolo Frishman explains that SVPs are strong supporters of general operating grants. “We let the grantee decide how to spend the money we award, but then we hold them accountable for results.

Because we are making an investment not only of financial resources, but of expertise and business practices, we help the organization to assess their needs, address them, and use the power of the Partners network to effect real change.”

jumped at the opportunity, knowing it was a launching pad for getting involved in the community and for meeting some of Denver’s best.”

ReadyTalk, UMB Bank, Colorado Capital Bank, Occasions By Sandy, and Kaiser Permanente are among the businesses that also sponsor memberships for their executives.

SVP Partners Mike Field, Sara Jo Light, and Christopher Leach

» All SVP partners know that they have more to give than money. «

Other SVP Denver grantees have included Environmental Learning for Kids, Front Range Earth Force, YouthBiz, and the Young Philanthropists Foundation.

Worldwide, SVP as an organization prides itself on helping partners develop as leaders and philanthropists even beyond their SVP activities.

According to the most recent Report on Philanthropy Development Outcomes conducted by SVP International, 60% of SVP partners have increased their giving since joining, and 88% indicated that SVP significantly increased their community involvement.

This is certainly true in Denver.

Several SVP Denver partners have served on grantee boards and other nonprofit boards as a result of their SVP service. Three SVP Denver partners, Mark Berzins, Sarah Bock, and Bill Ryan, are now members of The Denver Foundation’s Board of Trustees. Berzins chairs the Arts and Culture Grantmaking Committee; Bock chairs the Philanthropic Services Committee, and Ryan is slated to be Board chair in 2012.

“SVP offers its partners the Colorado MESA (Mathmatics, opportunity to be part of a network, Engineering, Science, Achievement) locally and internationally, of people has profited tremendously from the who are trying to change the world,” involvement of SVP Denver. Grants says Fasolo Frishman. “These are helped MESA hire a grant writer to Betsy Hoaglund, SVP Partner with Lisa Fasolo Frishman, former SVP-Denver Executive Director the types of experiences that shape secure more funding, which resulted people’s lives, both personally and in over $700,000 of additional revenue being raised. These funds have allowed MESA to hire additional staff through the nonprofits we help. People don’t forget what they and expand their program. SVP Denver Partners then helped MESA learn in SVP; they make lifelong friends and have experiences develop a plan to expand their program to include the health sciences. they’d never have anywhere else.”

A model for growth and expansion SVP Denver continues to grow, even expanding partner levels, during the 2008-2010 economic downturn. One reason? Metro area businesses have chosen to sponsor SVP Denver as an excellent way to involve and train up-and-coming executives in community service.

“Community involvement is important to us as a firm and to the professional development of our staff members,” says Sarah Knight with Knight, Field & Fabry LLC, a Denver accounting firm. “We offered an SVP membership to our top managers as part of their compensation package. Both managers to whom we offered the membership ( 86 )

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As SVP Denver looks to its next 10 years, its volunteer leaders are more excited than ever about what lies ahead, and they invite new partners to join them. “As we hire a new executive director and consider the possibilities for the future, we know that nonprofits are hungry for what SVP can give, and volunteers are hungry for the training and involvement that only SVP can offer,” says Wes Butero, the current Chair of the SVP Denver board. “It’s our job to continue to bring the two together.”

Rebecca Arno is Vice President of Communications for The Denver Foundation.

Angelle Fouther, Communications Officer of The Denver Foundation, contributed to this article.

GENEROSITY MEET LEGACY.

Meet Mark Berzins, Lead Dog at the Little Pub Company, art lover, dad of four, fulltime do-gooder. And meet The Denver Foundation, which helps him keep track of all that good he’s doing through the Little Pub Fund.

Find out how The Denver Foundation can help you streamline your charitable giving through a Business Advised Fund. Call Barbara Berv at 303.300.1790.

denverfoundation.org

COMMUNITY

Economic Prosperity Center

Economic

Building Blocks Denver’s Approach to Prosperity By Brendan McNally Landry

R

aise your hand if you’ve been affected by our “current economic situation.”

Okay, I won’t bother counting all the hands. We know it’s a problem and they tell us it’s going to continue to be a problem.

And we can harp on that until we are blue in the face, if we are so inclined. But let’s not; let’s instead flip the script and talk about some solutions.

Allow me to throw a word out there to get us started…Prosperity. Refreshing, isn’t it?

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» Intentional

integration and bundling of services in a convenient location was central to the success of the project. «

Long before our slight economic lull turned into an out-and-out recession, community leaders in Denver were looking for long term solutions that would bolster the local economy by taking advantage of existing assets in the Denver community, and this idea of prosperity was exactly what they had in mind. City Councilman at-Large Doug Linkhart and Andre Pettigrew, then executive director of Denver’s Office of Economic Development, were the masterminds behind the Economic Prosperity Task Force, a group convened in March 2008 to tackle this issue and brainstorm innovative avenues to greater prosperity citywide. Linkhart and Pettigrew

brought together an impressive roundtable of policy makers, business representatives, nonprofit agencies, and community leaders and started the conversation about ways these different sectors should be collaborating to better support individuals and families moving toward economic prosperity.

» "This innovative,

neighborhood-based model provides the knowledge and the tools individuals and families need to navigate tough economic times and set themselves, and our entire community, up for success in self-sufficiency that goes far beyond the short-term." «

happen this way, but the possibility exists. True prosperity comes when support services offer options and stability to the clientele, and that is the aim of the center.

The core partners believe it is this service mix that really sets the Economic Prosperity Center at King M. Trimble apart from similar projects. While most projects do provide some level of support services, the focus is mostly around making public assistance systems more accessible. At the center, the focus is based more on increasing self-sufficiency of Denver residents. “The service mix the Center offers,” says Project Director, Ursla Null, “is an innovative approach to helping families build self-sufficiency, stabilize their finances, and move ahead.”

One of the most innovative solutions that arose from those conversations was the Economic Prosperity Center at King M. Trimble, a collaboration between local government agencies, banks and credit unions, and a handful of nonprofit organizations that centralized "building block" services and offered a one-stop shop for economic success. The goal of the project was to increase citizen access to a coordinated system of career advancement opportunities, The center serves as a pilot project for financial information and products, and asset this bundled approach to providing these developments services. “My vision for the economic support services, and the core Center,” offers Councilman Doug Linkhart, “is partners hope to eventually replicate the to have a place where someone who dropped - Christine Benero center in other Denver neighborhoods so in from outer space could go and find out that, in the long run, families and individuals everything there is to know about how to earn and manage money, a place for people to go, in which nonprofits and all across Denver have increased access to similar types of services. government work side-by-side to help people become financially While the model will remain true to the "centralized location" theory, the replication process will add in a new wrinkle, relying heavily on secure and prosperous.” web-based and social media resources to keep families and individuals The initial task force recognized that most of these services exist in connected to resources and opportunities that are important to their Denver, but the missing ingredient was a convenient central access economic situation. The web-based approach will provide a new level point. From research on similar projects going on in other cities, of connectivity for families at all stages of the economic strata, and it the core partners knew that the idea of "intentional integration and serves as a cost effective approach to scaling up the work that is already bundling of services" in a convenient location was central to the being done at the Economic Prosperity Center at King M. Trimble. success of the project. Therefore, the partners began eyeballing the King M. Trimble Center in Denver’s historic Five Points neighborhood Hopes are very high for the impact that the center will have on to be that convenient location. The Mile High United Way, Denver Denver’s economic prosperity, and the partners across all sectors are Asset Building Coalition, the Office of Economic Development, and fully committed to the model. “Mile High United Way is proud to be a Denver Housing Authority are the most prominent partners, but founding partner in the creation of the Economic Prosperity Center at several other service provider partners have pitched in to round out King M. Trimble,” says Christine Benero, president and chief executive the menu of services that can be accessed at the center on a weekly officer at Mile High United Way. “This innovative, neighborhoodbasis. These service provider partners include Wells Fargo Bank, based model provides the knowledge and the tools individuals and Denver Community Credit Union, College in Colorado, College Invest, families need to navigate tough economic times and set themselves, and the Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute, and on any given day, and our entire community, up for success in self-sufficiency that goes Denver residents can access a wide variety of services that includes far beyond the short-term.” résumé writing and job search support, basic computer classes, financial education workshops, business development support, and There is no doubt about the lingering and widespread effects of free tax help. The center also refers people to related services that are the economic downturn. It is a reality that must be dealt with in a manner that may render our once failsafe tools ineffective. But at least not offered directly at the center. in Denver, the conversation has changed and the building blocks to The beauty of the entire model is that typical users can gain immediate prosperity are beginning to fall into place. To learn more about the access to a huge amount of resources and opportunity simply by mission and the partners at the Economic Prosperity Center at King walking through the door. For example, job seekers would get help M. Trimble, visit www.denvergov.org/economicprosperitycenter or with their immediate needs, but also would get exposure to the call 720-865-2430. entire mix of services at the center. Instead of just getting one-time employment support, job seekers can access multiple forms of support Brendan is co-founder and Director of Programs for the Rocky Mountain and all of a sudden, their resume is improved and they are exploring the MicroFinance Institute (RMMFI), a Denver-based nonprofit that offers learning, possibility of business ownership, opening a bank account, or learning lending, and coaching to grow community entrepreneurs who build businesses about identify theft protection. And, before they leave, they set up to advance along the pathway to self-sufficiency and self-worth. To learn more appointments to get their taxes done, which will ensure that they about RMMFI, please visit www.rmmfi.org. receive a solid return later in the year. Okay, so it isn’t always going to

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COMMUNITY

The Collaborative “Circle of Life”

The Collaborative

“Circle of Life”

By Allison Coulter-Redman

Y

ears ago I was standing with a group of professional woman at the Governor’s Women’s Conference discussing various topics from the event. As I was talking, a gentle hand tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and I saw the face of a smiling woman who said, “Hi, I am Rebecca Saltman, president of A Foot-in-the Door Productions. I saw you from across the room; I have to meet you and I do not know why.” I smiled back and introduced myself to this beaming woman of energy. It was the beginning of a wonderful friendship and my introduction into her world of “collaboration.”

Saltman explained she connected nonprofit organizations with socially responsible corporate and public sector leaders. She went on to say, “Allison, it is all about collaboration.” As a business owner myself, I understood the importance of collaboration in business. In fact, our company’s model was and is heavily designed around collaborative strategies with partners and customers. What I had Bottom: Rebecca Saltman, President, A Foot in the Door Productions. Left: Kathy McAdoo, Director of Business Development, Arc not thought of however, was Saltman’s Thrift Retail Stores. Right: Jennifer Tiell, Co-Owner, Trendz Boutique, Inc. Top Left: Nancy Marquez, Co-Owner, Trendz Boutique, Inc. Top Right: Allison Coulter-Redman, CEO, Redman Consulting Services, Inc. collaborative world and how for-profit businesses could work with nonprofit organizations to build market share and solidify community ties. organization by reducing costs in the information technology (IT) side Saltman was passionate that these two business structures working of the business. together could create a “circle of life” that ultimately leads to the betterment of humanity and business. She said, “This concept The answer was, “Yes!” He asked our company, Redman Consulting works! It is nothing new and it would be fun to prove it with a Services, Inc., to review all IT and telecommunications activities with successful model.” a focus on reducing costs. Redman responded with significant cost savings for the organization. Redman also worked to ensure the The “circle of life” started with Saltman introducing me to Lloyd Lewis, savings covered its cost of services. Redman’s journey continued with who at the time was chief financial officer of a for-profit business. We Arc Thrift the following year by serving as the project manager for started working with a nonprofit organization that wanted to launch the company’s move from its 100,000 square foot facility to a 50,000 an energy institute—but the timing was not right. Although the square foot warehouse. Upon completion of the move, Lloyd asked institute did not succeed, the three of us continued to communicate. Redman to join Arc Thrift’s Board of Directors as its technology Shortly thereafter, I received a call from Lewis, who had just accepted representative and a member of its development committee. We the position as president of Arc Thrift Retail Stores (Arc Thrift), a happily obliged. nonprofit committed to improving the lives of and bringing a sense of fulfillment to persons, children and adults, with developmental and Redman continues to provide technology services to Arc Thrift and intellectual disabilities. He asked if I could bring my expertise to the expanded its community outreach to for-profit entities, like Trendz ( 90 )

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Boutique, Inc. (Trendz), as well. Trendz offers unique and fashionable women’s clothing with personal shopping services to their customers, but Redman thought there were more collaborative opportunities. So Redman connected Trendz co-owners, Nancy Marquez and Jennifer Tiell, to Kathy McAdoo, the Director of Business Development for Arc Thrift, and the ladies hit it off. After just a few meetings, Trendz committed to donating 10 percent of its trunk show net revenues to Arc Thrift to support its mission. In return, Arc Thrift agreed to support Trendz by advertising their trunk shows through their media and to participate in Trendz fashion shows.

The collaborative partnership has resulted in a two-way business collaboration where both organizations regularly work together at trade shows and other events. Just as Redman shared its passion for Arc Thrift with Trendz, Trendz now shares the same passion of Arc Thrift with its customers.

» It’s a profitable and

The Crazy Merchant is a donation to support Arc Thrift’s community initiatives.

Today, Redman continues to serve on Arc Thrift’s Board of Directors and as Trendz’s and Arc Thrift’s technology consultant. Saltman continues to provide consulting support to Redman and Arc Thrift for various events and projects. Trendz donates 10 percent of its net revenues to Arc Thrift, and the Crazy Merchant donates 10 percent of each retail transaction that is directed by a customer to Arc Thrift. It’s a profitable and meaningful win-win-win-win!

meaningful win-winwin-win! «

The “circle of life” continued when Trendz introduced Arc Thrift to a “trunk show” host, The Crazy Merchant, Inc., (The Crazy Merchant) - a retail store that provides its customers with a custom beading studio, unique gifts and finished jewelry. Upon learning of Arc Thrift’s mission from Trendz, The Crazy Merchant added Arc Thrift to its giving list.

Crazy Merchant customers choose an organization on the list with each transaction, such as Arc Thrift, to receive a donation from the store that is equal to 10 percent of their total purchase.

This three-way collaborative now supports for-profit retailers with an aligned community strategy where each has a role to play. At each trunk show event, Arc Thrift provides an onsite truck for Trendz, and The Crazy Merchant customers donate unwanted and or used personal items so that Arc Thrift can sell them in their retail stores. At the same time, customers learn that a purchase from Trendz and/or

And needless to say, the “circle of life” is successfully working. The forprofit businesses are working together with Arc Thrift to better the community by advocating for people with developmental disabilities and by exposing their customers and business partners to the Arc Thrift mission. But it is bigger than that. Each organization has experienced some sort of financial reward as well. Arc Thrift’s work with Redman has resulted in business process efficiencies that are driving down costs. Redman has gained long term clients with reoccurring revenues.

Trendz has expanded its customer base resulting in increased sales.

And The Crazy Merchant has gained new customer traffic.

I know the Saltman “circle of life” strategy works and we have all gained something—a collaborative business community. You should try it.

Allison Coulter-Redman is the CEO of Redman Consulting Services, Inc. based in Littleton, Colorado. To learn more about Redman visit http://www.redmancompanies. net/. To learn more about A Foot in the Door Productions visit http://www.foot-in-door. com. To learn more about Arc Thrift Retail Stores visit www.arcthrift.org/. To learn more about Trendz Boutique, Inc. visit http://trendzboutique.biz/. To learn more about The Crazy Merchant, Inc. visit www.thecrazymerchant.com.

Trendz fashion shows supporting Arc Thrift

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COMMUNITY

Community Matters

repeatedly turn challenge into opportunity. Communities, businesses and governments across the country are currently waking up to the fact that their old tool kits are no longer working. The individuals they govern have already “smelled the coffee” on this front and are driving to Starbucks!

CommunityMatters (CM), an initiative of the Orton Family Foundation, is ready to take the lead by providing the tools, models and inspiration to act. This coalition of community leaders, thinkers and doers forms a “commons,” wherein people can find resources, get and give advice, and share stories of community action. CM does not advocate for any specific actions or policy changes, but seeks to empower people to become community leaders, to find creative local solutions to community problems, and to break down the boundaries between disciplines and organizations to forge a collaborative approach to creating enduring change at the community level.

Community

matters Steering Change, Not Fearing Change

By Rebecca Saltman

“We believe in the power of the individual, and collaborative leadership in the community starts with local citizens. Elected officials typically follow more than they lead, so leadership needs to come from the grassroots,” says Bill Roper, President and CEO of the Orton Family Foundation. “As political gridlock and the economic downturn continue month after month, citizens are perhaps newly ready to find a different way forward – one that emphasizes community over consumerism, collaboration over individualism, responsibility over apathy, local action over national or state control.” The Foundation created the CommunityMatters Initiative to make a space for collaboration and sharing between varied organizations, and to facilitate local leadership that can address big problems. Still in its infancy, CommunityMatters is actively seeking input, partners, and ideas to help grow this vibrant network, which in turn will help grow dynamic communities across the country.

CommunityMatters held their third national conference (CM’10) recently in Denver, Colorado to highlight the importance of diverse

F

or most of human history, we’ve been on a singular quest to get bigger, better, richer, faster. We’ve developed tools and factories and products and cities that make our lives simultaneously easier and more efficient.

We’ve specialized our knowledge base into skill sets, and compartmentalized our skill sets into jobs, allowing people to achieve far-reaching results with limited resources. And as a people, we’ve been incredibly successful.

But all good things must come to an end. Despite the best efforts of everyone from the White House to your house, we are dealing with a host of new challenges: disappearing incomes, rising pollution levels, collapsing businesses, rampant unplanned development, and ultimately, a dramatic disconnect from families, friends, and neighbors. These concerns are all a shared burden, as is our desire to build healthier, more vibrant communities that can combat these seemingly intractable ills.

Fulfilling this desire will take a fundamental shift in leadership, civic engagement, governance, and planning – a shift that can survive the onslaught of 21st century economic realities. This shift needs to ensure that all community members are informed, connected, and ready to ( 92 )

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Keynote Speaker Chip Heath

voices and coalitions in pursuing the “heart and soul” of each attendee’s hometown. CM’10 gathered 250 people – a diverse interdisciplinary crowd from 35 states plus D.C. and Canada - to forge a collaborative approach to creating enduring change at the community level. The breakdown was as varied as the stories they told: 18 percent from city/town governments, 9 percent from community initiatives, 7 percent from the requisite state and federal agencies, 26 percent from NGOs, and another 10 percent from sundry universities and research affiliates. Maine resident Jane Lafleur said, “The conference did wonders for me. My brain feels nourished again after a long drought! It feels great to have met so many talented, inspiring people. Loved it all!”

Previous and ongoing projects were singled out and analyzed during CM’10, as both teaching tools and inspirational guides. A tour through the city of Golden, Colorado provided one such showcase opportunity. CommunityMatters, collaborating with the Orton Family Foundation’s Heart & Soul Community Planning and others, developed a supplemental code, policy and capital improvement plan to achieve a “Golden Vision 2030.” Golden Vision 2030 is using new tools that were emphasized at CM’10 and can help to make citizens’ interactions with government a two-way street such as: CommunityViz, a GIS-based visualization and modeling software; AnyWare Polling, a mobile phone-based polling platform that allows people to instantly respond to survey questions; Community Almanac, a website that allows people to map and share stories and multimedia about their communities; and other online engagement and social networking applications.

» "Collaborative

The four days of speakers, learning sessions and discussions included many events and demonstrations that proved how interdisciplinary thinking and tools help enhance community. Portland-based civic theater company Sojourn Theatre engaged attendees and synthesized their words and thoughts into a rousing closing performance.

Attendees listened to and helped select the winners of the Strong Communities Competition, a partnership between Ashoka’s

leadership in the community starts with local citizens. Elected officials typically follow more than they lead, so leadership needs to come from the grassroots." « - Bill Roper

Changemakers and CommunityMatters that sought to identify and recognize the most innovative community building projects in the U.S. and Canada. New York Times bestselling author Chip Heath (Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard), addressed the necessity of directing, motivating and “shaping the path.” Famed author of Diet for a Small Planet and closing keynote, Frances Moore Lappé, said it this way, “The challenge is increasing and deepening trust by engaging directly with others to create culture that works for all of us.”

The conference program was a microcosm of one of CommunityMatters’ guiding principles: address citizens’ growing hunger to go deeper in a shallow world. CM asserts that people are disenchanted with the cookiecutter towns of disconnected communities, placeless streets and ineffective governments. But communities have yet to engage a broad base of local citizens to help them define and shape their futures. Traditional quantitative approaches to planning and community development use critical data about demographic and economic shifts, traffic counts and infrastructure needs, but fail to account for the particular ways people relate to their physical surroundings and ignore or discount the intangibles—shared values, beliefs and quirky customs—that make a community. “Experts” often look on local participation as an albatross at best, or a protest movement at worst, rather than respecting the expertise of the people who know a community most thoroughly— its residents. In its mission, the Orton Family Foundation states, “Every town has authenticity, character, spirit—its own heart and soul. Onesize-fits-all development means that many towns in America are losing what makes them unique, those special qualities and distinctive characteristics that keep a place from becoming Anywhere, USA.” People are trying to address issues like poverty, education, growth and sprawl in silos, when in reality they are utterly intertwined.

This deliberative democracy, this collective wisdom, can have the most innocuous beginnings. In October, 2009, Victor, Idaho (population roughly 1,000) filled the historic theater, for a first-ever citywide “storytelling event.” Over 90 locals turned out to hear three

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Community Matters

longtime residents tell stories about what they found special about Victor. They came to enjoy digital stories made from interviews with residents (thanks to the diligent efforts of the local Boy Scout troop), young and old, from all points of the community compass. The event led to volunteers signing on to participate in Envision Victor’s Heart & Soul Initiative and the inception of the first Victor Wave Day, a practice recalled by one of the storytellers that used to be common years before. These small outcomes, focused as much on fun as future planning, boosted community spirit and energy for collective action.

That spirit action will be tested in the coming fiscal quarters. Rampant population growth (driven largely by national press transforming the nearby county seat of Driggs, Idaho into a tourist mecca) has led to subdivision developers and “big box” interests appearing overnight.

Victor approved a Traditional Neighborhood District overlay zone in 2008 with the intent of fostering elements that many Victor residents want: bikeable streets, affordable homes, cultural events and closeknit neighborhoods. Innovative development is already springing up in the form of Mountainside Village, a mixed-use residential community that is a registered pilot neighborhood for LEED certification. City officials hope that Envision Victor will help the entire city develop and realize a shared vision for a lively, livable community.

his house, attending the two-room school on the other, and being pretty much a free-range kid along with all his friends. His father and mother – literal pioneers in the mail order industry – started The Vermont County Store in 1946. He clearly had a knack for being a merchant; The Vermont County Store is now a major employer in Vermont and serves customers across America through its mail order catalogue, website, and two stores.

» "The challenge is increasing and

deepening trust by engaging directly with others to create culture that works for all of us." « - Frances Moore Lappé

In the 1980s, Vermont experienced a building boom fueled in part by a rapid rise in second-home ownership. Many towns throughout the state, including Weston, found themselves unprepared and lacking the information and tools needed to protect their character while continuing to grow and change in positive directions.

Orton remembers struggling with a proposal in Weston to build a wildlife theme park on the side of a local mountain, which the Planning Commission discovered was permitted under current zoning bylaws, and which the Commission was powerless to prevent. Again, it was a case of failing to engage a broad base of local citizens to help them define and shape the future of their communities.

While most places have never faced as much change and as many challenges as they do today, there has also never been a better opportunity for citizens to take charge of their future. Our communities are becoming more diverse by the day, which means an influx of new perspectives and new This unique approach is the types of knowledge. It is both more natural offshoot of Orton Family and less than the typical voting and Foundation’s founder, Lyman Orton.

- Orton Family Foundation volunteerism – we need every citizen Originally envisioned in 1995, the to become a leader in some way, to Foundation was founded to get recognize the opportunity cloaked small cities and towns to shape their future by collaboratively defining, articulating and acting on those as challenge. CommunityMatters and the Orton Family Foundation are elements that make them unique and distinctive. These shared values finding those opportunities more and more, daily. are placed at the center of the planning process. As succinctly phrased

by Ed McMahon, Trustee of the Orton Family Foundation, “Do you want Are you? the character of your community to define development, or do you want outside development to define the character of your community?”

Rebecca Saltman is a social entrepreneur and the President and Founder of

» "Every town has authenticity, character, spirit—its own heart and soul." «

Lyman Orton grew up in the picturesque hill town of Weston, Vermont.

He learned to ski in the late 1940’s on a rope-tow hill on one side of ( 94 )

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an independent collaboration building firm designed to bridge business, government, nonprofits and academia. www.foot-in-door.com.

collaboration close up

Peak-to-Peak Collaboration

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ast spring, three climbers from Boulder, Colorado scaled a 22,000+ foot Himalayan peak— Mt. Edgar—in Sichuan Province, China. They never made it back to the U.S. But this year, as part of the International Visitor Leadership Program hosted in Denver by the Institute Of International Education, their would-be rescuers did.

Seven members of the Sichuan Mountaineering Association, the same group that had recovered the bodies of the climbers who died in the avalanche last year, were invited by the U.S. State Department to come to the U.S. to meet the climbers’ families and to exchange knowledge and techniques with mountain rescue clubs based in Boulder and Summit Counties.

While in Colorado, the representatives from Sichuan Mountaineering Association met with the Summit County Rescue Group and the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group in Boulder, one of the oldest and most expert mountain rescue organizations in the country. In China, demand for mountain activities is growing as the economy improves and gives citizens more leisure and disposable income to pursue their interests.

Like in the U.S., people get into trouble by being unprepared for the high country. The Sichuan Mountaineering Association was eager to collaborate with partners in the U.S. to learn about the use of avalanche dogs, specialty equipment and training.

The Summit County rescuers conducted joint exercises with their Chinese visitors to learn new techniques, including how they used military dogs to rescue victims from the devastating May, 2009, earthquake that killed 68,000 people. The Summit County Rescue Group took the visitors mountain climbing, held a joint simulation of search and rescue operations, and arranged for one of the visitors to meet with a canine search and rescue specialist. The Chinese visitors

them to meet with the sheriff’s department.

The visitors were also the guests of honor at a barbeque that included many of the friends and family of the deceased climbers.

Several of these family members had flown in from out of town to be at the barbeque and welcome the Chinese visitors. The visitors were extremely touched that funding for their air travel from China had been provided by the families from the money remaining from the rescue donations.

were warmly welcomed by the numerous volunteers who work for Summit County Rescue Group.

While in Boulder, the volunteers who staff the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group provided an overview of the organization and demonstrated their custom-engineered rescue equipment. They also did a technical rock climb with the group and arranged for

According to State Department official Chris Mrozowski, this is the first time the U.S. government has invited “actual first responders” from a foreign country to meet with their American counterparts, reported the Summit Daily News. “It's been a tremendously successful visit,” he commented. “Hopefully we'll get these guys (from Summit) out to China at some point.”

Playing for change

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he accomplishments of Playing for Change are testament to the power of connection and collaboration. Through the language of music, Playing For Change has created not only a forum for international musical collaboration, but also a framework that promotes the enrichment of local communities on an economic and artistic level.

ICOSA is honored to have the opportunity to work with an organization so dedicated to improving lives both domestically and abroad. We believe that

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By Karen de Bartolomé

by harnessing the collaborative power of “change making” organizations like Playing For Change, we can truly make the world a better place for everyone.

Playing For Change is committed to making sure that anyone with the desire to receive a music education will have the opportunity to do so. It is their fundamental belief that peace and change are possible through the universal language of music. To learn more about the organization, please visit www.playingforchange.org.

JobStrart101 Launches Preparing U.S. College Students for the Workforce

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In several past issues, we have collaborated on stories with Business Roundtable. Recently, Business Roundtable and HR Policy Association announced the release of JobSTART 101: Smart Tips and Real-World Training, an online course geared to students and recent graduates, which introduces both the professional skills necessary for entry-level employees to succeed in the workplace and the challenges and expectations they will face. Accenture, a member of both organizations, provided instructional design, content and program management expertise for the course. A free, first-ofits-kind course, JobSTART 101 covers topics ranging from how to communicate and solve problems to how to develop a professional persona that helps drive a career for long-term success.

Denver Health's Pavilion Project for Mental Health

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“While our nation remains focused on job creation, it’s equally important to ensure that our workforce has the skills and training to succeed in today’s economy. By building communication and analytical skills, JobSTART 101 helps prepare new employees to meet the challenges of the job market, thereby helping to create a more competitive workforce,” said William D. Green, chairman and chief executive officer of Accenture and chairman of Business Roundtable’s Education, Innovation and Workforce Initiative.

“A student or young professional who spends 90 minutes with this course will be a more productive employee and experience greater satisfaction in his/her first job without having to undergo extensive – and expensive – coursework or training,” says Alexandra Levit, an expert on business and workplace issues and the online instructor for JobSTART 101. Six universities participated in the pilot evaluation with a majority reporting that the course engaged their interest, included useful information, and relevant examples that would help prepare them for workplace situations. The website was created through a partnership between The Springboard Project, HR Policy Association and Accenture.

For more information on this free program, please visit www.JobSTART101.org.

enver Health is home to the Rocky Mountain Regions Level 1 trauma center and treats approximately 150,000 Denver residents who seek inpatient care.

With slow, but steady population growth in Denver, the hospital continues to expand and accommodate the diverse nature of its unique patient base. In addition to serving hospital visitors, Denver Health is also comprised of over 20 community health service centers that treat one third of Denver’s population annually. In spite of its numerous facilities, the hospital, as well as the state, lacks the proper space to treat children and adolescents with mental health problems. Mental health issues affect 1 in every 5 young people at any given time and according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, it is estimated that two-thirds of all young people with mental health problems are not getting the help they need.

Considering these alarming statistics, Denver Health, as a state leader in public health services and a model for national public healthcare, will construct the Pavilion Project, a new 78,000-square foot pavilion funded primarily through the federal government, to create a welcoming and safe environment for youth to receive treatment and begin the healing process for their mental health issues.

To attain additional funding, the Denver Health Foundation, along with its Level One Board, have engaged the community to raise funds for the Pavilion Project—the goal being $350,000 by January 2011. The group is well on its way to achieving this monetary goal with a final APPLAUSE event—the Broadway production of “Next to Normal,” with the show’s original cast. If the group can achieve its goal, the new Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit at Denver Health will open its doors to a region that has been deprived of options for children suffering with mental health issues.

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collaboration close up

Louise Atkinson, Alfre Woodard, and MaryAnn Franklin

She went on, “Our paths need to cross more. We need to re-create community and understand history as a continuum.”

Describing the minefields young people face today, including sex tapes and salacious imagery, Woodard said, “They need to see you so they can more easily envision themselves as the successful women you are, not as someone whose goal is to be Miss New Booty or Miss Freakalicious”

» "Your presence in these young girls’ lives is just as important as your big checks." « - Alfre Woodard

Alfre Woodard Urges Positive Community Building for Girls

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cademy Award-winning actress, Alfre Woodard, delivered a stirring keynote address at the 23rd Annual Women’s Foundation of Colorado luncheon on November 4th. The accomplished actress grabbed the 1,800 member audience from the get-go with a message of support, hope, values, realities and effort toward moving women forward.

“You are going boldly,” she told the audience. “You are lights in Colorado and you are casting a safety net under this state. I’m honored to be in this village.”

Woodard thanked the supporters of the Women’s Foundation of Colorado for their ongoing work and encouraged the audience to rally like-minded friends with a like-minded mission. She spoke of the

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Women’s Foundation as the cornerstone for Colorado girls to rise in an upward trajectory. Yet she challenged the audience to become more involved.

Woodard, who is part of a national girls’ mentoring effort, cited startling dropout rates and the critical need for inspiring girls. She emphasized getting the facts out of “what could be.” She said, “Your presence in these young girls’ lives is just as important as your big checks.”

Woodard shared her own life experiences about her parents and teachers as role models. She highlighted, by name, those impressive teachers who had made a difference in her life. “The need for community role models to be involved with young people is vital,” Woodard said. “It is about seeing the possibilities.”

Woodard’s remarks included a global perspective on the plight of women worldwide. Noting that no woman is an island, Woodard reminded the audience of the importance of working toward global economic justice, including how we do business and communicate with men.

In her closing remarks, Woodard energized the audience with her passionate message and unflinching commitment to the job at hand. “So much is said by how we treat the most vulnerable. It is a high yield investment in women. They keep the world up and running. We need to encourage, soothe and try to teach fairness and compassion. There is enough greed and neglect,” she said.

Referring to the girls the Women’s Foundation serves, Woodard told the audience, “You need to look into their eyes and let them know you are expecting something from them.”

Alfre Woodard received a standing ovation for her exhilarating message.

The event, chaired by Piper Billups, Cathy Hart and Susan McIntire raised $800,000 for the Colorado Women’s Foundation.

Part of the Women’s Foundation of Colorado’s mission is to build resources and lead change so that women and girls of Colorado are full and equal participants in society. The goal is for women in Colorado to be economically self-sufficient.

Thursday, Jan 13 2011 @ 6pm Sheraton Hotel - Denver, CO

On January 13th 2011, A Dinner of Unconditional Love will honor the work of a rare human being, Dr. Rick Hodes. Over the past 20 years, through the support of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), Dr. Hodes has devoted his personal and professional life to serving Ethiopia’s poor and sick.

"Nothing beats a Jewish guy, working at a Catholic mission in Africa, on behalf of the world's poorest and most disadvantaged." — Noel Cunningham, event chair You can be part of this special evening. Visit www.adinnerofunconditionallove.com

Would Like To Thank The Following Friends For Their Inspiration

Arc Thrift Retail Stores Rebecca Arno ARZU Studio Hope Bechtel Corporation Riley Bechtel Neil Bellefeuille Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Mayor Michael Bloomberg Tom Boasberg Patricia Brannan Judith Brissette Taylor Kelly Brough Ben Bryan Business Roundtable

JD Chesloff Allison Coulter-Redman Dr. Kacie Crisp Kim DeCoste Denver Foundation Denver Health Denver Public Schools Dan DiMicco Discovery Learning System Sarah Dixon Connie Duckworth Economic Prosperity Center at King M. Trimble Robert Edson John Feinblatt Dr. William Foege Angelle Fouther Dr. Patricia A. Gabow Global Giving Triche Guenin Heidi A. Heltzel Carrie Hessler-Radelet Scott Hitt Hogan Lovells Allan Jones Susan Kiely John Klug Lloyd Lewis Linda Lloyd da Silva Kevin Lynch

Richard Male Kelly McCormack Brendan McNally Landry Lenny Mendonca Mi Casa Resource Center Dafna Michaelson David Miller Rupert Murdoch Nucor Corporation The Paradigm Project Partnership for New York City Peace Corps Benedetta Piantella Simeonidis The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Eric Reamer Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute Meredith Roach Rotary International Rebecca Saltman Dr. Mike Sather Social Venture Partners Southwest Airlines Tracy Learning Center Angel Tuccy Christopher Ward Steve Werner Dennis Whittle Kathryn Wilde World Vision

Collaborative Leadership In Tough Economic Times October - December 2010

4120 Jackson Street Denver Colorado 80216 I www.icosamag.com

Cinco de Flyo.

Fly to six destinations in Mexico: Cabo • Cancun • Cozumel • Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo • Mazatlan • Puerto Vallarta

FrontierAirlines.com

Where do you go when your desire to help is larger than your zip code?

You go to Morocco, Mongolia, or 71 other countries.

And when you return, your own community will benefit in ways you can’t imagine.

800.424.8580 www.peacecorps.gov

Life is calling. How far will you go?