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Here's a white paper on Strategic Doing. We've also launched a new web site on Strategic Doing, where we will be collecting stories, tools and insights into how to do strategy in open networks.

Just got back from Workforce Innovations, the largest gathering of workforce development professionals in the country. With our partner, Near Time, and the Department of Labor, I participated in the launch of Innovating Networks.

Innovating Networks introduces Web 2.0 technologies to economic and workforce development professionals.

The Web 2.0 changes everything because, for the first time, anyone can leverage the interactive power of the Internet. I've included a number of videos below to give you a sense of the possibilities.

Web 2.0, of course, creates new oppportunities for building innovating networks -- clusters -- within regional economies. (In a separate post, I'll give you a briefing on what I've been doing to launch a water technology cluster in SE Wisconsin.)

The new access to a powerful Internet also challenges us to come up with new appraoches to strategy. Strategic planning was developed by large multi-divisional corporations. It works well in a command and control environment. But the process does not work well in a network. We need new practices. That's what strategic doing is all about.You can download a white paper on strategic doing attached to this post.

You can also go through the slides from my Strategic Doing workshop here.

Here's a video overview on Web 2.0.

Here's an explanation of a blog.

Here's an explanation of the power of networks and social networks. (Innovating Networks has some elements of social networking, because it makes the "people network" of economic and workforce development more visisble.)

Here's an explaination of a wiki. Innovating Networks integrates wikis with blogs in an easy to use platform.

Here's an explanation of an RSS feed, another Web 2.0 technology. RSS feeds  help you filter information quickly. Near Time's platform integrates these technologies so that you can keep up with news more easily.

Next week at Workforce Innovations, I'll be releasing a white paper on open innovation models of economic development and workforce development. I've attached a copy.

I will also be releasing a white paper on Innovating Networks. I've attached a copy of that one, as well.

There will be a third one on Strategic Doing for a session I am conducting on that topic. It's not quite ready yet. I'll post it here shortly.

Strategic Doing is a set of principles, practices and disciplines for implementing strategy in a network. Old models of strategic planning were designed for hierarchical organizations, and they do not work well.  Strategic Doing represents the alternative.

(All this material is distributed under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License. That means you are free to distribute and modify anything you see in the white paper for commercial or noncommercial purposes. You do not need permission. Just tell people where you got it.)

One of the major challenges we face in the years ahead will be integrating education, economic development and workforce development. The old federal programs-- many of them stretching back to the 1930's -- create turf in our regions.Defending this turf has not only wasted resources. It has also kept us from seeing new opportunities that are fast emerging for innovation.

Next week, at Workforce Innovations, a group of us will be launching Innovating Networks, a new collaborative web site. 

Innovating Networks is an online community of workforce development professionals and economic development practitioners.  This collaborative web site provides an opportunity to share best practices, success stories and all types of information using Web 2.0 tools while networking and interacting with professionals and practitioners from across the country. It's a promising initiative to bridge the divide among education, economic development and workforce development professionals. I've been working on this initiative with our Web 2.0 technology partner, Near-Time.

I-Open (the Institute for Open Economic Networks) is the non-profit spin-out organization I formed with colleagues from the Center for Regional Economic Issues at Case Western Reserve University. Near-Time and I-Open have been collaborating on a number of promising approaches to support "strategic doing" (how you do strategy in a network), Open Source Economic Development and Open Source Workforce Development.

I'll be reporting from Workforce Innovations in New Orleans next week.

Old ways die hard.

EDPros in New Hampshire's the New Hampshire Division of Economic Development’s Business Resource Center are heading in the wrong direction. They are simply trying to shift businesses from Massachusetts to New Hampshire. Read more.

This economic development strategy is an old one: Mississippi pioneered recruitment in the 1930's. The fact that New Hampshire's strategy has not evolved much in seventy years is telling.

This approach makes little sense in a regional economy (New England) that is competing globally. What's worse, it undercuts the cross-border collaborations we need to make our regions globally competitive.

These are the type of efforts -- poaching, to use a perjorative term -- that make so little sense in today's world. We need economic development strategies that increase 21st century skills, boost innovation and accelerate collaboration. 

If you want examples of cross borade collaborations that are starting to work, look at the Kansas City metro, or Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, or Louisville and Southern Indiana. Also a number of the 39 WIRED regions cross state lines.

New Hampshire and Massachusetts need  "no poaching" agreement, and fast.

Maybe then New Hampshire's EDPros can begin to focus on what matters.

A venture capitalist in San Antonio seems to be focusing on the right target: home grown businesses.

When Maytag shut its doors recently in Newton, IA, the civic leadership was understandably shaken. But the answer to Newton's challenge is not to try to recruit another company like Maytag, but it is to grow another company like Maytag.

The same is true for San Antonio, where AT&T recently announced it was moving its headquarters.

As the San Antonio VC puts it:

"We have to make sure we continue to cultivate homegrown companies because they are more sticky. If they move here that means that they left somewhere else. Companies that grow here have deeper roots."

Read more.

Here's a good idea. Bring together all the people in your region who are teaching entrepreneurship. Share the best ideas and provide some recognition to leading edge thinkers and doers.

That's what happened at Colorado Mountain College recently:  a  “Best Practices for Teaching Entrepreneurship” Conference. Learn more.

A lot of communities sponsor civic leadership visits to other communities.The practice is a simple one, but it is profoundly useful. Civic leaders from vibrant communities and regions are continuously learning and figuring out how to adapt new ideas.

After site visits to 250 communities across the U.S., Michigan State University professor Dave Ivan concludes that vibrant communities focus on a relative handful of key practices. One of them: continuous learning. As Dave points out, "Vibrant communities are continuously learning".

Civic leaders in Portland, OR have taken the practice to a new level. A delegation recently returned from Scandinavia with new ideas on a range of issues, including how to build the city's renewable energy future.As one participant noted, "“These places have grounded their economies with green energy being the cornerstone. That gives us a template for the future.”

Read more.

Here's an overview of of what the KY Cabinet for Economic Development has been up to through its Department of Commercialization and Innovation.

[T]he state has funded $114 million worth of technology projects, programs and infrastructure since 2001, when her office was formed...About $16 million in development assistance has been awarded to 32 companies. That number is "fairly low because up until 2005, the effort was really focusing on building incubators," such as Louisville's MetaCyte Business Lab, and "supporting academic programs that ultimately would spin out companies," [Deborah Clayton, commissioner of the state's Department of Commercialization and Innovation] said. "In 2005 we made a shift to focus more on companies."

Read more.

The issue of water is becming more of a factor in economic development. In South Carolina, a water expert suggests that the state's EDPros draw up a "water budget" to decide among competing projects. Read more.

The American Electronics Association has released its 2008 Cyber Cities report, which ranks 60 metros on high tech employment. The report is expensive: $250 for non-members. Here is an overview of the findings from Cybercities 2008: An Overview of the High-Technology Industry in the Nations Top 60 Cities.

The AEA provided custom press releases for 35 of the 60 cities. You can access these press releases from this page.

You can order a copy of the report from this page.

Business Week carries an article on the appointment of Sandy Baruah to be head of the Small Business Administration.

President Bush on June 25 tapped a career bureaucrat in charge of economic development for the Commerce Dept. to lead the Small Business Administration. But it could be months before the nominee, Sandy Baruah, goes before the Senate for confirmation—the last SBA head was approved two months after his nomination. And if he's confirmed, Baruah won't have much time before a new Administration enters the White House next year.

Read more.

Here's an article form the Washignton Post on the appointment.