Phil Hardwick

Yesterday I discussed how communities and organizations are often seen as having human characteristics. I also suggested an exercise for your staff meeting to discuss what your organization would look like as a person. The primary reason for the exercise is to gauge how your employees perceive your organization. It could also be used to determine how your customers or the community in general perceives your organization. The point is not so much how your organization is perceived as it is whether different groups see the organization in the same way. For example, let’s say that your organization had 30 offices. Going through this exercise in every office would be valuable because it would reveal whether different offices see the organization in the same. If one office describes the organization as an old lady, and another described it as a young man then clearly there is something going on. In this case the exercise reveals that the organization apparently has an internal commun

Don’t you just love those mac vesus pc commercials? Especially the mac ones that portray mac as a young, hip dude and pc as the suit-wearing, paunchy salesman? Regardless of which computer system is better it must be admitted that by assigning human images to a product an impression has been created about the product. And so it is with communities. Cities and towns are often perceived as having human attributes. For example, would you say that Austin, Texas is young and hip or old and out-of-touch? How about Detroit? Or Miami? Or Atlanta? There is an interesting exercise that I use in my strategic planning retreats that relates to this phenomenon. I assign breakout groups the task of describing their community or organizations as though it was a person. Usually I will ask them to come up with the following characteristics: age, race, gender, vacation preference, last book read, political views, type of vehicle driven and favorite restaurant. The results are always fascinating. Want to

What is asset mapping? “Asset mapping” is the current buzzterm in economic and community development. Everywhere I turn it seems that I find that organizations and communities are doing asset mapping. So, exactly what is asset mapping? There are no shortage of definitions. Consider: A disciplined, structured process of listing key community features in spreadsheet format designed to discover unique and unknown assets. Mapping should always be contained within a defined geographic boundary - ConnectSI (Southern Illinois – 20 county collaborative) An asset map is an inventory of the strengths and gifts of the people who make up a community. Asset mapping reveals the assets of the entire community and highlights the interconnections among them, which in turn reveals how to access those assets. – Northwest Regional Education Laboratory At its most basic level, the asset mapping process will provide leaders with an inventory of key resources that can be utilized in a development effort. A

Interesting article in today's Wall Street Journal about why it appears that most college football coaches vote Republican.  It should be fodder for plenty of discussion, especially the comments of Coach Lou Holtz: Mr. Holtz, who coached Notre Dame to its last national championship in 1988, draws a parallel between the standards and rules that most coaches set for their players and the Republican vision of how American society ought to operate. "You aren't entitled to anything. You don't inherit anything. You get what you earn—your position on the team," Mr. Holtz said. "You're treated like everybody else. You're held accountable for your actions. You understand that your decisions affect other people on that team…There's winners, there's losers, and there's competitiveness."