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 Most people have heard the old saying "if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." Regional stewards are learning they need to create teams who diagnosis regional challenges and learn from best practices to choose the most appropriate tools for their specific problems. This is one of the key lessons learned from 10 regional John W. Gardner Academies for Regional Stewardship.
For example, Oklahoma City created a leadership team to diagnosis their talent challenges and learn from experiences of other regions how to attract and retain a creative workforce. Long Island built a leadership team that looked at best practices from other regions and decides to create an indicator project to raise public awareness of regional issues. The Fresno region formed a leadership group that analyzed their economy using the tools of industry cluster analysis to design a Regional Jobs Initiative to create 30,000 new jobs over the next ten years. Northern Kentucky developed a leadership team that examined other region's visioning processes and then designed Vision 2015 that is now learning from specific best practices to create regional initiatives focused on the economy, education, urban renaissance, livable communities and governance.
The Gardner Academy is now sharing this experience on how to initiate a regional stewardship effort through an intensive, Regional Stewardship Boot Camp, where regional leaders learn from best practices and design an start-up strategy for their region. The first Boot Camp was held May 4 prior to the National Stewardship Forum in Washington, DC and was attended by participants from Colorado, Texas, Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia. These regional leaders left with a plan to help recruit a leadership team, identify best practices and design a regional stewardship initiative based on the most appropriate tools for their situation. In some cases, those tools might involved developing indicators or visioning techniques such as scenarios, table top exercises or electronic town halls. ARS identified many of these tools in its second monograph prepared in April 2001: https://regionalstewardship.org/Documents/Monograph2.pdf
The key lesson is that before choosing specific tools, it is important for regional stewards to create a strong foundation of leadership and to examine best practices that fit with their specific challenges. It is also important to remember that best practices have more to do with specific tools and not with the wholesale transplanting of the experience of another region, since every region will be unique. That is why diagnosis of regional challenges is so critical.
For more information about the John W. Gardner Academies for Regional Stewardship contact Doug Henton, National Coordinator at or John Parr, President and CEO of the Alliance for Regional Stewardship at .
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