May 6th, 2011

Blue Tech Valley Water Conference—Success!

Thank you to everyone who made this week’s Blue Tech Valley Water Conference a success. The speakers were outstanding. They touched the future and showed us how to get there. The comments below provide multiple perspectives:

“I am sitting here at my desk reflecting on what just happened. It happened so fast. What just happened was a GREAT Water Tech Conference...right here...in the Central Valley of California...thanks to you! The Conference drew people from near and far (some speakers flew in from places like India, Singapore and Denmark) to be here with us to talk Water Tech.

In addition to the presence of our local industry leaders such as: Grundfos, Lyle's Construction Group, Lakos, Jain and Netafim, we had companies like Intel, Veolia Water, IBM & Paramount Farms here too. Top Investment Firms, such as Draper, Fisher & Jurvetson, WedBush and Virgin Green Fund and thought leaders from Universities around California (CSUF, UC Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA & UC Merced) were in attendance. We highlighted innovation and entrepreneurship and showcased some of our star start-ups!”

Kirk Nagamine, CEO--Central Valley Business Incubator.

“The Blue Tech Valley Water Conference was a major event for the Central Valley. I often hear complaints that the Valley doesn’t connect with the best and brightest from around the world due to our isolation in the middle of the state. Well for those of us who attended, this was the highest level of brain power ever assembled in one room to deal with the most important issue we are challenged with to secure our economic future…. Water. I give you my highest congratulations for a job well done and recognize the global connections that are now in place to make this region the Blue Tech Valley for the world. Any support we at the EDC can lend to assist the CVBI and ICWT in accomplishing this is at your disposal.” Steve Geil, CEO--Economic Development Corporation.

“By all accounts, this was an important and very welcome event and a significant step in our ongoing efforts to become a pre-eminent center for water technology and research. Congratulations.” Dr. Bill Covino, Provost, Fresno State

“Great work! This is a watershed moment (a pun intended).” Professor Tim Stearns, Director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

“Congratulations to all. I heard good things from everyone who attend on both days.” Mike Dozier, Director of the Office of Community & Economic Development, Fresno State.

Historical Framework

Given the critical role Grundfos and Claude Laval Corporation leaders played in making the conference a success (Grundfos even brought a semi from Texas), it is important to acknowledge the long time role these companies have played since the beginning. The first meeting of the water cluster was held at the old Grundfos facility in 2000. Founding stalwarts like Claude Laval and Jerry Cook were on hand. This was our beta test to determine whether or not clustering—linking, aligning and leveraging existing assets—would substantially impact our economy. Two incubators, many workforce initiatives, cross industry partnerships, joint ventures, new capital, etc., demonstrate that perseverance pays off in compounding ways if you have the courage to begin and the commitment to continue. Thank you to Collaborative Economics—our catalyst.

April 20, 2011

“Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction”
Such is the tagline from Rebecca Costa’s new book, The Watchman’s Rattle. While Einstein taught us that we can’t solve problems at the level of thinking that created them, he didn’t spell out how to change the level.

Backdrop
Past civilizations (Mayan, Khmer, Roman) came to a point where complexity exceeded their cognitive capacity. Rather than drill deep, they looked for quick fixes and reacted to symptoms. This allowed underlying conditions to worsen. Gridlock and ultimately collapse occurred. The good news—Costa offers a path up and out.

The Brain
Discoveries in neuroscience are as dramatic as learning the world is not flat. People think in linear, holistic and insightful ways. When insightful breakthroughs reach critical mass, systems and economies can be completely disrupted and cultural norms reset. Given the dire circumstances we face, our choice is to cheer the insightful on or continue to watch linear vested interests battle.

Dean Kamen—Inventor Extraordinaire
When Dean Kamen spoke in Fresno, he changed attitudes. He put wind into the sails of innovators and entrepreneurs. In Costa’s book Kamen explains we know the problems and the answers. We are stuck because the culture is mired in old thinking—widely accepted beliefs that simply are not true. These are called memes. Family memes help us feel connected. Supermemes--beliefs that go viral--can contaminate a culture. While “knowing” can relieve anxiety in the moment, worsening conditions kick up stress notch after notch until a breakdown occurs.

Five Supermemes Holding Us Hostage
1.Irrational Opposition—Being against everything and for nothing.
2.The Personalization of Blame—Father should have known best & controlled all the variables. Holding individuals accountable for systemic and cultural problems.
3.Counterfeit Correlation—accepting correlation as a substitute for causation; spinning to manipulate evidence and relying on consensus to determine basic facts.
4.Silo Thinking—compartmentalized thinking and behaviors that prohibit the collaboration needed to address highly complex problems.
5.Extreme Economics—using simple business principles (profit/loss; risk/reward) as the litmus test for determining the value of people and priorities, initiatives and institutions—the legacy of the industrial revolution.

Solutions
Our community discovered an antidote like Costa details in her book—a Four Spheres Framework, Community Values, Focused Blitzkrieg (do many things simultaneously) foster innovation and entrepreneurship, listen to the quantum level thinkers, and persevere until what once sounded foreign becomes normal.

The Book
The book is riveting and instructive. The snippets above are just a taste of her thinking. I encourage you read it. Another option, check out her website at www.rebeccacosta.com.

April 12, 2011

Economic Development Meets Human Development—Website for Internships
Through partnerships across our educational institutions, there is already a database to connect internship coordinators across the entire system. However:

The Problem
• San Joaquin Valley has a low-skilled worker population.
• Lack of professional development opportunities for young professionals.
The Cause
• Businesses are reluctant to develop internship programs.
• No single resource for businesses to connect with Valley colleges/universities and students for internships, career fairs, facility tours, service learning projects, etc.
The Solution
Develop a self-sustaining, integrated website with the following utility:
o Post internship positions at one location. Students may search and apply directly online.
o Connect businesses to the “right” person at education entities, specifically aligning to their internship needs.
o Internship toolkit--develop an effective internship program; paid v. unpaid internships; resume evaluation; interview questions.
o Promote career fairs.
o Wish list- students may submit what they are looking for and we can help them get connected.
The Benefits for Businesses
• Access to the up and coming “crème of the crop.”
• One source to post internship positions, connect with internship coordinators at colleges/universities.
• Understand the skills of the next generation of workers.
• Provide feedback to the colleges/universities regarding gaps in skills/training, work ethic, and other curriculum suggestions.
• Actively participate in increasing our higher education system and grow our skilled workforce.
The Request—Community Support
To launch, the project needs 10 sponsorships at $500. They are tax deductible. For more information contact Jen Paul at 559.347.3908 or jenpaul@csufresno.edu. Thank you to the FBC board members that wrote at check at this morning’s board meeting! This is a highly leveraged, highly impactful strategy to connect two groups that want to meet—they just need onramps and a platform.

March 21, 2011

California’s Innovation Initiative—Innovate to Innovation (i2i)
In 2010, legislators from both parties tasked the CA Council on Science and Technology to assess our state’s innovation ecosystem. The ecosystem approach acknowledges that like other critical issues, the challenge is complex, interdependent and solutions will require steward leadership of the whole. No one alone has domain over all the essential parts nor the expertise needed to craft a successful strategy. As new funding is unlikely, the solution is “barn raising”—reallocation of existing resources, philanthropic funding and contributions of time and talent. Collaboration is “changing in place” by shifting the mindset from siloes to shared outcomes.

The action team is a “first bus” of high level talent from industry, academia and government that will develop an Innovation Roadmap and Improve Critical Innovation Infrastructure.

The Roadmap will include:

1. Rapid application of research to use through policy and system changes, multi-sector financing and cross sectoral communications networks.

2. Create communities of collaboration—co-locate federal, state, private and technology assets—idea pressure cookers—to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer and job creation.

The Infrastructure Improvements will include:

1. An educator alliance to fund, develop and deploy effective K-16 digitally enhanced education enabling personal customization and preparation of a globally competitive workforce.

2. Create a science and technology-based water road map to innovate across the entire water system, link water and energy technology, ag and biotech, and climate and conservation strategies. What It Means For Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley—Opportunity! For the past decade, our community and region have been building relationships across sectors, disciplines and geographies. The Regional Jobs Initiative, Human Investment Initiative, Smart Cities and the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley are all comprehensive approaches that are led by stewards of the whole. They create the essential “CEO function” needed to link, align and leverage assets from many places to achieve major outcomes.

The Lyles Center, the WET Incubator, the Central Valley Business Incubator, CART, K-12’s increasing focus on career and technical education are all assets we can assemble. All local school districts and our universities have embraced a unified approach called Strive, a Cincinnati created approach to education that Stanford research has determined holds great promise. Rising above collaboration, the effort creates a leadership team, “white space leaders and staff” who are responsible for linking, aligning and leveraging the assets of many players to achieve specific outcomes.

#2 on infrastructure is readymade for our region—the WET Incubator, the Water Technology Cluster, agriculture as a major industry, a growing international reputation—preparation meets opportunity = success. Check out the Blue Tech Valley Water Conference at www.BlueTechVAlley.org.The theme is International Solutions to Regional Issues. Save the date—May 3 and 4th.

March 7, 2011

White Space Leadership—Key to Transformational Change
As Californians and residents in other states continue to grapple with fiscal constraints, enormous challenges and faltering institutions, the importance of focusing on the opportunity side cannot be overemphasized. The postindustrial perspective, one that recognizes the importance of customization, innovation and interdependence, needs to find its way into every sector if we are to capitalize on the opportunities of the 21st century. As always, pioneers went out early, signaling the way yet the crisis wasn’t stark enough to get enough people’s attention, particularly those that succeeded in the hierarchical framework. Times have changed.

In 1997, national leaders in the movement toward regional solutions, Neil Pierce and Curtis Johnson, and their inspiration—John W. Gardner—wrote a book to capture lessons learned across the country. They titled it Boundary Crossers: Community Leadership for a Global Age. In Fresno, we have learned many of the same lessons. A book can explain a concept, but you don’t “know” it until you live it. As the rhetoric of the poles gets uglier and louder, it’s important to remember we are all citizens first—responsible to the whole. A self-absorbed, single interest’s agenda is “more for me” typically without regard to the impact on the whole. Think of a cancer cell or a suicidal personality within someone suffering from a dissociative disorder. This is why steward leadership of the whole—white space leadership-- is essential to charting the path forward. This is the level of thinking Einstein spoke of—higher than the level of thinking that created the problem.

Lesson 8 is particularly timely. In the forward to the book, John Gardner explained, “What we need, and what seems to be emerging in some of our communities, is something new—networks of responsibility drawn from all segments, coming together to create a wholeness that incorporates diversity. The participants are at home with change and exhibit a measure of shared values, a sense of mutual obligation and trust. Above all, they have a sense of responsibility for the future of the whole city and region.”

Lesson 8: Government always needs reforming, but all the reforms need government.
“Ever since Revolutionary times, we Americans have distrusted and consistently disparaged government. But our healthy skepticism has turned into dangerous cynicism that makes it difficult for our government to play an effective role in the new global economy. If we shackle government, starve it for truly needed funds, we may get just what we deserve—government mired in the management methods of 20th century. Since government is at least 15 to 20 percent of any local economy, the entire economy is then shackled and pulled down. It is a fact that no matter how much business or philanthropies or other civic forces seek to lead, at the end of the day government is needed almost invariably, as a partner at the table. Any major undertaking runs up against rules, regulations, funding priorities, land use plans or some other domain of government. Local government is needed as a funding partner in major enterprises. It is needed to provide quality services, especially in poor and struggling neighborhoods, and to start the tough task of tying social services for families to school programs in a time of serious family breakdown. It is needed to protect the air and water, and to assure environmental equity to low-income neighborhoods often the scene of landfills and toxic dumping. In addition, a community that tries to operate independently of government may easily find itself paralyzed when it tries to work collaboratively.”

February 21, 2011

Devolution—the Opportunities and the Pitfalls
Governor Brown and others are discussing devolution—the pooling of powers (and hopefully resources) from central government to the regional or local level. Many believe that government closer to the people will be more efficient, effective and accountable as it will be easier to draw a line between efforts and outcomes. The less one is embodied in the community one is elected to serve, the more likely single interests and personal ambition can distract from the original mission. This leads to government spending--addressing symptoms and building bureaucracies-- rather than investing where there will be a return--infrastructure, education, etc. Today many communities are mirror images of the state and federal government—fragmented, symptom focused and competing over scarce resources and credit. Fresno’s evolution has prepared us for devolution.

We have learned a lot over the past decade about the importance of shared values, strategies and a commitment to outcomes. Overcoming the legacy of siloed thinking and funding in the government and nonprofit sectors has become more urgent with the prospect of devolution. The Four Sphere Approach, dubbed the new civic DNA of California, offers a steward’s view of the whole where opportunities to leverage resources become clear and we all share in success. To learn more about how this works, attend a workshop. Our next one is slated for next week. Let us know if you plan to attend or would like to have a presentation for your organization.

December 27, 2010

Message From the Chair Emeritus—Richard Johanson
…and so we prepare to say goodbye to another year and welcome in a new one. It bodes to be a year that holds within it an opportunity for all of us to join ever closer together on an ever widening pathway leading to a better tomorrow for all among us. Our degree of success will depend upon our commitment to each other. We must continue to broaden our vision of what we can accomplish as a united community. Philosophical extremism and personality issues are being exposed as counterproductive. Soon those who employ them to keep us fragmented will be overlooked. They are being replaced by effective leadership arising from stewardship-focused individuals and organizations, locally, regionally and statewide. The New Year holds great promise for this region because of this emerging aura of creative collaboration. In that spirit, I wish everyone a harmonious and prosperous New Year.

Looking Back—Two Major Reports Issued in 2000
In 2000, the Great Valley Center released two seminal reports, The Economic Future of the San Joaquin Valley and the Survey of Current Area Needs (SCAN) that struck a chord and mighty response in Fresno. With the assistance of the James Irvine Foundation and in kind support from Fresno State and the Fresno Business Council, the Fresno Area Collaborative Regional Initiative was launched. Similar efforts were initiated across the state as part of a network of regions seeking to address critical economic, social and environmental issues comprehensively. From this platform, two more focused efforts were launched: the Regional Jobs Initiative and the Human Investment Initiative to address job creation and human development. Many specific projects and a wide range of clusters have led to an impressive list of results. In addition, we have learned through experimentation how to apply a new type of thinking (holistic) to complex challenges helping to align siloed efforts and leverage existing resources. 2011 holds the promise of scale and acceleration.

Key Messages From the Economic Strategy
The new economy is innovative, fast, global, knowledge-based, networked and technology intensive. Our challenge is a shift from competing primarily on low-cost to an economy based upon innovation, resilience and diversification. The key recommendations and our community’s response:
• Develop networks of regional leaders (California Partnership for the SJV)
• Create cluster networks (Regional Jobs Initiative)
• Develop an innovative workforce (CART, align workforce with clusters)
• Focus technology on innovation in all clusters
(Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship)
• Support entrepreneurship (Lyles Center, Central Valley Business Incubator)
Along with responses to specific recommendations, we have developed a new culture. Where once collaboration was a noun, today it is all verb and expected.