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3 Responses to “The Next NEO: Streamlining workforce development? Not likely”

1. Rick Bohan Says:
   May 22nd, 2008 at 6:50 am

   Ed,
   What’s WIB?

   Thanks.

2. Ed Morrison Says:
   May 22nd, 2008 at 8:00 am

   Rick:

   WIB stands for the Workforce Investment Board. This initiative is funded by the federal government. Across the country, the federal government disperses about $9 billion this way for training.

   The WIB is by far the largest economic development initiative underway in the county, but few people are aware of it.

   That’s just as well for the local politicians that control its spending. It’s a prime patronage opportunity. Some of the patronage comes from direct employment of WIB staff. The lion’s share, though, goes to service providers — nonprofits — which have strong local political connections.

   Last time I looked, staff salaries accounted for $4.8 million of a $22 million budget. The largest share of funding goes to “youth services”. Only about 1% of the budget goes to the most valuable services to business: customized training.

   The Cleveland Cuyahoga County WIB is a federally funded cookie jar for local politicos and their allied service providers.

   For about 6 months I was engaged in a strategy process at the WIB. My experience: The board was largely disengaged. (One board member did not even know how much money was in the WIB budget. When I showed him, he remarked, “I didn’t know we had that much money.”) The staff was overly concerned about politics, and the Greater Cleveland Partnership never showed up to a meeting.

   Until the business and foundation community wake up to the opportunities for using these funds more productively, politics will dominate. We’ll continue to see federal funds, for example, being used to pay teenagers to paint fire hydrants.

   The person on the Board with the most willingness to speak openly about the incestuous relationships guiding the WIB: Councilwoman Fanny Lewis.

3. Betsey Merkel Says:
   May 22nd, 2008 at 5:03 pm

   Leaders in NEO continue to confuse a manufacturing mindset approach of “get it done” which translates into the outdated practice of “command and control” methodology. Confusing issues further, local leaders insist on regularly infusing a high dose of marketing and sales dollars as a one-stop solution. Both ultimately point to the same end and do not work in building networked economies. Neither can replace the practice of Open Source Workforce Development, an informed, inclusive, collaborative leadership practice to guide economic and workforce development capable of transforming regions. Learn more here.

   Just look to Northeast Ohio’s unwavering 20 year history as our Nation’s 5th or 10th poorest region. The Brookings Institution warned of demographic and economic depletion in 1980, now nearly 30 years ago. And again, in this 2003 report: “Not coincidentally, the city’s unemployment rate is the second-highest among large U.S. cities, and median household income is the third-lowest. In the 1990s, income among Cleveland households did rise, but nearly half of all families with children still lived below or near the poverty line in 2000.” Read more.

   The Plain Dealer’s excellent 2004 article, “The suburbs’ stake in the city” outlines a long decline resulting in the deep, far reaching consequences of the cycle of poverty we experience today. “For eight straight years ending in 2003, Cuyahoga County saw a net loss in personal income, totaling a staggering $2 billion, as thousands of residents left the county for greener pastures.” Read more.

   To turn this big boat around will take more than what the article mentioned, “..Joe Roman, president of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, responded to the summit by agreeing to chair a jobs creation committee.” It will take experienced, successful guiding leadership, many solutions, and all of us working together in an inclusive, transparent process to share resources and align our activities. It will be a matter of pragmatic steps to “come clean,” by mapping activities and declaring budgets.

   The Brookings Institute offers a catalogue of reports on Cleveland’s historic place in national poverty rankings. Here’s one to start with: Two Steps Back: City and Suburban Poverty Trends 1999-2005

   There is no excuse for poverty. If we want different results we need to act differently. It is a matter of accepting our present condition, learning the new skills in Open Source Economic Development, and applying them in an open and inclusive regional Strategic Doing process guided by leadership direction, not politics. It is a matter of higher levels of organization, pushing the limits on integrated Web 2.0 technology tools, and sophisticated approaches to an open source civic engagement process – all in all, an interative approach re-improved by an expanding community’s contributions of successful practices. Other regions are practicing this and moving forward. Consider the 39 WIRED Nation regions across the US.

   What is in our way in Cleveland?

   In a 12-D world, economic development is complex and cannot be ruled singly from above because things change too fast. It’s got to happen on the ground, at the intersections, on the peripheries. That’s the Civic Space, everything outside the four walls of any organization, but of a community that includes us all. A first step is to link and leverage our legacy assets found in Northeast Ohio universities, colleges, libraries, and cultural institutions.

   And as we learned at REI, this begins with I-Open Civic Forums serving civic leaders as they build the new, open networked infrastructure to accelerate transformational initiatives cropping up quickly, everywhere, and all at once. It’s possible, and sustainable prosperity can happen. So, how about it? A gift for your grandchildren when you’re not around.