Ed Morrison · BFD Learning Moment: Vision East in North Carolina

October 14th, 2010


This week, I participated in a strategy session with Vision East, an extraordinary collaboration of eight workforce boards in eastern North Carolina. In the middle of August, we held our first strategic doing session over two days in New Bern, North Carolina. During that session we identified four focus areas to move Vision East forward. Tuesday, we met for half a day in Greensboro to revise our strategic action plan.

Our four focus areas include youth opportunities, military/community relationships, career readiness certificates, and web 2.0 development. As part of our initial action plan developed in August, each group defined a measurable outcome, an initiative and an action plan from August to October.

Yesterday, we took a measure of our progress and then refined our strategic agenda for the next 90 days (until early January).

In our work yesterday, several interesting patterns emerged. First, the groups focused more clearly on the appropriate outcomes and activities that can move them forward. During our session in August, many of the ideas generated were large-scale and difficult to translate an action. Yesterday, we were more pragmatic. (This pattern is common. As loose networks learn how to conduct and conclude strategic conversations, they quickly cut down on rhetoric, wish lists, and “bumper sticker” thinking.)

Second, our work in August enabled us to share ideas across organizational boundaries. By listening to each group, we learned the focus within each group. We saw more clearly the potential connections among different focus areas. Yesterday, we strengthened these connections.

Third, as each group’s experience with strategic doing grows, their ability both to define actionable big ideas and translate these opportunities into outcomes and next steps grows.

So, for example, the youth opportunities group focused on a region-wide experiment to intervene early in elementary school to introduce young children to potential careers and the value of education. Each workforce board will select an elementary school with which to work. The group will then design a pilot initiative targeted at the third or fourth grade.

Rather than set a wildly ambitious goal for the next 90 days, the group’s action plan reflects pragmatism. Each workforce board between now and January will select one elementary school with which to work. At the same time, other group members are continuing to develop their research on promising models that can be deployed during the pilot phase.

Finally, each group focused on identifying promising initiatives that are already taking place in the region. We turned our attention to how we could expand these initiatives across the region. In other words, our emerging regional strategy builds on our strengths.

North Carolina is a leading state in workforce and economic development, and this week’s gathering of workforce professionals from around the state provides an excellent opportunity to understand the emerging trends in the integration of workforce development with economic development.

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