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Archives for August 2010

A Radical Idea for a LEP…

August 31, 2010 by admin

First of all reject the temptation to be entirely strategic.

Don’t try to analyse the economy like it is a game of monopoly where you can understand the roll of the dice, seeing and preparing for an uncertain future.  Don’t pretend that people and their aspirations count for nothing as you ponder the balance between investing in ports, ring-roads, runways or fibre.

Instead learn to compliment strategic development with a responsive approach.  One that engages residents in their hopes and aspirations for a better life and gives them the power and the responsibility to pursue them.  Put your faith and confidence in people.  Provide them with hope, leadership and support.

Dare to be relevant to people and not just ‘the business community’.

A city region of around 3m people like Leeds would require a network of around 75 coaches to provide access to person centred coaching support for everyone that really wanted it.

  • It would engage about 45 000 people in the process of providing direct hands on assistance to their peers.
  • It would provide direct assistance to about 16500 beneficiaries a year, the vast majority of whom would make significant progress in their personal journeys as a result of benefiting from a coaching rather than a coercive approach.
  • I would anticipate at least 750 sustainable business starts from this cohort every year.  I would envisage business survival rates around the 90% rate after 3 years.
  • It would make a very real difference to the perceptions of some 20 000 people a year about the extent to which they feel that they ‘belong to’ and ‘feel supported’ in their community.
  • In addition to traditional ‘enterprise’ outputs I would expect substantial impacts on health and well-being as well as increases in volunteering, cultural productivity, mental health, fitness and so forth.
  • It would help to integrate the dual priorities of economy and community rather than treating them as separate and often incompatible determinants.
  • Within 3-7 years I would expect it to have made a sustained and measurable difference to the enterprise culture in the city region.

And it would cost about £3.75 million a year.

The price of a very rich wo/man’s house.

NB this piece was prompted by reading ‘The Economic Opportunities and Challenges for the emerging Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in Yorkshire and Humber – Briefing Paper‘.

As far as it goes this is an ok piece of work. Unremittingly strategic, focussing on communications, infrastructure development and targeting support at key industries – all tried, tested and largely at best partially successful ideas for economic development.  One of the ideas challenges it identified is to develop sufficient ‘low skill jobs’ for our low skill economies.   It talks about the structures required to ensure integration of LEP structures across the region.  One can almost here the creaking of bureaucracy…

Filed Under: Community, Leadership Tagged With: Aspirations, community, community development, Government, Leadership, Leeds, person centred, Regeneration, responsive

‘Making sure people are in control’

August 29, 2010 by admin

So says our new PM.

Some questions:

  1. Which people?
  2. In control of what?
  3. Is ‘control’ possible, desirable?

What do you mean by control…

  • power to direct or determine; “under control”
  • a relation of constraint of one entity (thing or person or group) by another; “measures for the control of disease”; “they instituted controls over drinking on campus”
  • exercise authoritative control or power over; “control the budget”; “Command the military forces”
  • lessen the intensity of; temper; hold in restraint; hold or keep within limits; “moderate your alcohol intake”; “hold your tongue”; “hold your temper”; “control your anger”
  • the activity of managing or exerting control over something; “the control of the mob by the police was admirable”
  • operate: handle and cause to function;
  • dominance: the state that exists when one person or group has power over another;
  • manipulate: control (others or oneself) or influence skillfully, usually to one’s advantage;
  • restraint: discipline in personal and social activities; “he was a model of polite restraint”; “she never lost control of herself”

I wonder what exactly Mr Cameron means by ‘Making sure that people are in control’?

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: community development, Government, Leadership, Power, Regeneration, Values

Dumb Strategy and State Funding

August 29, 2010 by admin

I am hearing a lot at the moment from people and organisations that face a scary future because at some point in the past they chose (consciously or not) to develop a business model dependent to a very great extent, in some cases entirely, on public funding.

And right now that looks like a dumb strategy, because the development of mission, the pursuit of purpose, is regulated by a bureaucracy that makes political decisions about what to fund and when.  It decides how success will be measured.  In essence they are in control.

They hold the strategic reigns.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: business planning, community development, Uncategorized

The Regeneration Game – Builders, architects and developers

August 25, 2010 by admin

Yesterday I asked the twitterverse:

Why does nearly all regeneration work in Leeds have at its heart buildings, architects and developers?

It produces some interesting, and necessarily brief responses:

Because Leeds is full of banks, and banks only sell money and property guarantees money. making bankers feel safe!

@councilhousekid

Buildings provide a container for loads of good activity, somebody has to make sure they perform effectively?

@lexmarksmith

People associate regeneration with the fabric of the city, not with people, even when it’s supposedly about making lives better…or maybe it’s because we need a tangible output from the investment rather than seeing regeneration as a process.

@LouiseEbrey

Your wrong! Nearly all regeneration work full stop is about buildings and architects – what else could politicians open?

@EnterpriseIain

Because that’s where regen grants are targeted? In infrastructure rather than people?

@gedrobinson

Didn’t you get the memo? Regeneration is a synonym for new building project 😉

@amcewen

because that’s where the cash is?

@philkirby

Definition of regeneration http://tiny.cc/sonul I really like the moral revival or rebirth definition. Real social change…

@BatleyGreen

Your thoughts?

Comments?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Leeds, Regeneration, regeneration

Leeds Loves Shopping…

August 18, 2010 by admin

This is the brand for a 10 day ‘fashion lover’s festival’ to be held in the city in October.

Just think about that as a brand.  Something to be known for.  A perception to be planted in heads around the world….

‘Leeds?’

‘Oh yes, that’s the place that loves shopping‘

‘Sounds interesting! Why don’t we go there and spend some of our hard earned….’

The fact is that many of us don’t love it.  Hate is probably a more accurate description of our relationship to ‘shopping’.

Some for the mind numbing tedium that it induces.

Others because of its role in driving consumption, environmental degradation and sexualisation of society.

Still more because of debt.

So for a large chunk of Leeds residents this brand leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

It is just not true.

‘We’ are telling a little white lie to help drive our retail economy.

I wonder what else we will tell little white lies about if it delivers the holy grail of economic growth?

And who are the ‘we’ in this case?

As far as I can make out it is a partnership between Leeds City Council’s marketing team and a group of retailers.   I am OK with my relationship with one of these being ‘caveat emptor’….but the other, well, I would quite like to trust them.

Now I suspect we paid a lot for the Leeds Loves… brand and the whole ‘Leeds. Live It. Love It.’ campaign.  But does it give us more than a neat line to attract outsiders to come and throw their money at us?

  • Does it gives a brand that we can rally a diverse community around?
  • Does it open up space for conversation and dialogue?
  • Or does it just provide a set of ready-made assertions that mean we don’t have to work too hard to get our messages out?

Just to be clear, I have no problem with some kind of fashion and retail festival being used to pull in the crowds.  I’d prefer my city to be known for things other than its retail offer, but we are where we are.  Pragmatically, perhaps, it makes sense.

But ‘Leeds Loves Shopping’.  Really?

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: community, community development, Leeds, Regeneration, Values

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