Tuesday, June 23, 2009

On page 58, as we work through the truths about cool communities, I noticed that Ryan talks about communities that work together are the ones that win. She says in a knowledge economy, communities have to think regionally. Anyone following the NGRDC current event in the local news? Have an opinion? Do we (school district) think regionally, or at least community-wide? Examples?

I know some new followers have just joined us and I encourage you to read through and continue to post on previous days. (Ric, I finally posted my response to your spiral vs loop thoughts on June 17. Had to go back and pull out my Fourth Turning book.) As a result of this book study, I have been asked to facilitate a conversation on the book with our local YPA and another later in the fall at Dalton State. I plan to bring some of my learning from you to the table during those conversations. (Will not attribute to you individually but will discuss more as themes and stories.)

Also, to build on something Nancy said in previous days, I believe all of this helps us get deeper and clearer about our customers and core business whether the context is community, business, or education.

So keep reading and/or posting…
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3 comments:

  1. Ric MurryJune 24, 2009 at 8:54 AM

    Dr. Hawkins,

    I responded to your reply on June 17.

    Thanks for the conversation.

    As far as the attribution, you already have given attribution. It's right here. I hope you are able to make progress with YPA conversation.

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  2. Trevor LedfordJune 24, 2009 at 9:05 AM

    I haven't been keeping up with the NGRDC events recently, so I can't comment on that question.

    However, I will make a brief comment on the 2nd question, "Do we (school district) think regionally, or at least community-wide?

    I think we have begun to think beyond our own district a bit since I've been here. The example I would point to is the joining of our leadership academy with Whitfield county schools. I initially went through that experience the first year the two were joined. I'll tell you that it was brilliant to join the two systems for that experience. It gets us thinking outside of our own box. We learned so much from each other that year (and in subsequent follow-up sessions). The main thing was that there were facillitated conversations between people that probably wouldn't have happened otherwise, and they were in a protected environment. Prior to that experience I always got the feeling that we were competing with each other as systems. Now, I feel it's more of a cooperation. It's a small example, and a small step in thinking beyond ourselves, but I think it's an important one. As the old saying goes, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step".

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  3. ERICABJune 24, 2009 at 11:34 AM

    The possible NGRDC merger may hinder future Dalton/Whitfield economic development in terms of Ryan's outlook. Rome has made more strides in recent years toward becoming a "cool" community and the newly developed regional committee will not doubt play on these strengths. This could, I fear lead to more concentration of efforts outside of Dalton. In the bigger, regional picture, staff efforts will be spread over a larger area, further diluting Dalton's efforts. I am in favor of recent moves by our City and County governments, to both of which I pay taxes, to work together for our localized economic development. I see no reason to lump in Rome and further accentuate the "Atlanta and everyone else" mindset when it comes to state funding and state level decision makers efforts.

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