Living with a Disability

We all live with a disability: we are human. We make mistakes. We have other shortcomings. We are not perfect.


What most of us have to counter that disability is hope. We also have each other. Community is what brings us together and supports us all in our seeking to maintain or improve ourselves and each other.

"Strap on Your Goggles!"

As a Director of the Institute for Open Economic Networks, also known as I-Open, (click here) I help teach and sustain behaviors in regional economic activity guided by Open Source Economic Development. The principal behaviors addressed lead to strengthening brain power, connecting innovation and entrepreneurship networks, building quality, connected places, strengthening civic habits of dialogue and inclusion, and promoting an effective brand through sharing positive stories of activity.


In our process we develop innovation zones in a region through civic forums that focus on story telling of best practices, experiences, building trust, and deepening knowledge of ourselves and our communities. Not only is there much learning and collaborative networking taking place with these forums, there also arise initiatives through alignment of individuals’ interests. Through the initiatives growth occurs through creation of entrepreneurial enterprises but also the creation of supportive environments for new activity.


Most recently, the past week a remarkable meeting took place at Nead Brand Partners (click here) , one of the supporters of our activity in the midtown area of Cleveland. In the midtown area where I-Open has been building an innovation zone, the initiatives and partners have grown enough that there is a demand to grow the hot spot out from Midtown to the surrounding neighborhoods that are not in “Midtown.” There is now discussion to further involve residents, not just civic leaders and entrepreneurs. People involved with several of the neighborhoods are excited with what has been going on in Midtown and are requesting that the innovation zone be reenvisioned and renamed so as to discourage concerns over "ownership" and to encourage inclusion and participation throughout the region.

There is now a call out to find a "brand" for the innovation zone that is unique to the area as was "Midtown My Town." The I-Open civic forum on August 9, 2006 is now looking to be a kick off of that expansion with participation from many neighborhoods and local development corporations. There will be an envisioning process taking place as took place with the initiation of the Midtown Innovation Zone.

As has been said before, "Strap on your goggles!" The zones are zooming.

Sustainable Activity

For years our leaders have been telling us “If you want something done, give us more money public or private. We know what to do and will do it for you.” And for years they put together a strategic plan which gets packaged nicely and put on the shelf next to all of the other strategic plans. Occasionally we listen to someone who tells us that he can think out of the box and will do the right things for us. He ends up making the decisions for us and we gain no capability for sustainability because we have not increased our own abilities.

Occasionally someone comes in and listens to us and our ideas and then goes off and picks what he feels are the best ideas, decides what to do, and tells us to do it. There is a tremendous value placed upon both the people and organizations with money and the money itself. We need to enlarge our thinking to place a greater value on brain power of each of us. We need to value more the individual efforts of smaller organizations working together. We have non-profit organizations that are jockeying for control, growing or sustaining their own fiefdoms. They are spending their energies and monies on protecting themselves rather than furthering their missions.

We need to listen to the wonderful ideas that are being put forward. Then we need to align the ideas in focused initiatives. Empowering all to work together behind these initiatives creates the ability to move forward with lower cost and greater speed. Building trust in getting initiatives done builds sustainability. Sustainability builds a stronger economy.

Investments in Our Children

"The way a society cares for its children
predicts the future of that society."

"Education and abundance are privileges that lead to responsibility. Global Justice is the responsibility of educated professionals and the wealthy people. We must take action."

Fr. Masalakulangwa Mabula 14 June 2006

It is the responsibilty of all of us to share our knowledge with future generations. We also need to share our best practices in business as well as in life. Those with any kind of wealth need to invest it to grow our communities rather than bury it in the sand. Having money and/or knowledge creates responsibilities which we must continue to meet.

Its Time For Commitment

I and others from I-Open met today with someone in Cleveland who has worked with developing entrepreneurs in Europe and is now trying to develop some innovative businesses here in Northeast Ohio. It works elsewhere so why can’t it work here? The comment I heard is that Cuyahoga County is so siloed and set in its 1st curve economy ways that it is unlikely anytime soon that Cleveland will move forward. Many are close to giving up hope and a number of businesses, organizations, and individuals already have. My brother has said to me that no community is guaranteed the right to survive. It is up to its residents to make a commitment to work together and then act on that commitment.

We all need to stop making the same strategic plan year after year and decade after decade, stop having conversations about what would be wonderful if somebody else did it, and stop whining. We need to start working together, supporting each other, and sharing best practices. We need to learn to do strategic thinking and doing rather than strategic planning. We need to treat each other and each others ideas with respect. Maybe even implement the old golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” rather than the current Cleveland golden rule, “He who has the gold, rules.”

The Morrison brothers have always said that the revolution will come from the mountains. It will come from the outlying areas, whether it be Akron, Youngstown, Mayfield, or Berea. Cleveland civic leaders and all who interact in the civic space need to learn and practice new behaviors. I will continue to teach new behaviors in the civic space, to encourage entrepreneurs to stop waiting for someone to give them permission, and to help build collaborative networks and behaviors.

New Approaches to Economic Development

We need to cultivate practices that create open conversations leading to new levels of collaborative behavior. The last two days I participated in an economic development program at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. The conference was put on by the Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open). The conference was principally held to delve into new approaches in regional innovation.

What was so exciting was the breadth of experiences, positions, backgrounds of the twenty-four who elected to participate. There were people from Cleveland; Jefferson City, Missouri; Wayne County; all over Cuyahoga County; Nashville, Tennessee; and Indianapolis, Indiana. There were people who work for the City of Cleveland, TVA, Cuyahoga County, various non-profit organizations, the Cleveland Institute of Art, Case Western Reserve University, Myers University, the Cuyahoga County Library.

There were people who are economic development directors, librarians, students, unemployed, non-profit administrators, small farm supporters, network builders, community development leaders, car restorers, technology directors, bio-fuels engineers, agricultural innovators. There were people in suits, people in jeans, and people in skirts.

We got involved in the discussion of first curve versus second curve innovation strategies, quality connected places, building connected networks, building innovation networks, growing regional economies, appreciative networks, authentic engagement, network weaving, collaborative projects.

All of these people came to the table and participated in open conversations building trust, finding common ground, and building new collaborative networks. We developed new ways to help focus our actions leading to bring innovation to our communities.

Overall, we looked at ways and committed ourselves to teach and encourage new behaviors in regional innovation and economic growth. There will be another conference in June at Baldwin-Wallace and I hope that more will be there because the depth of the experience depends upon the participation, stories, and comments of those at the table.

Needing New Behaviors

I fully agree with Guhan Venkatu who is an economic analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, that the reasons for Cleveland’s woes are not what are commonly cited. Guhan Venkatu presented an economic commentary for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland titled “Cleveland (on the) Rocks,” February 2006; posted March 2006 which may be read here. However, the reasons put forward by Venkatu fail to take into account what I feel may be the most major factor in Cleveland’s failure to thrive. Cited, but taking a minor position, are lack of qualified workers, the quality of life, access to transportation or distribution networks, or regional regulation and tax policies. Many of those problems may also be more perceived than actual.

Cleveland has long had a problem with the behavior of its leaders in relationship to each other and to new entrepreneurs. The region needs to build an aura of trust and collaboration. The collaboration needs to be that which encourages individual identity without the fear engendered by the thought of consolidation.

Cleveland leaders need to encourage all levels of entrepreneurship from concept, startup, mid-market, and maturity. Open communication also needs to take place. We need to have strategic thinking that leads to strategic doing rather than strategic planning. Time and again over the last several decades consultants have come in issuing strategic plans over eighteen month periods, saying the same thing. The region holds feel good events with little or no focus on how and where we move forward. We finance the flash that brings stars to the eyes but which soon fades. We look for the short term gain, especially for real estate developers and the construction industry which fail to provide for sustainable economic development.

We all need to work with our schools, colleges, universities, and libraries to teach new models of behavior, treating each other in ways that build mutual respect and trust. We need to re-envision our agendas into categories that are less narrowing: envision brainpower versus education, collaborative networks versus hierarchies, wealth creation versus command and control.