D-Day - Team Effort. Shared Value Model?

I just viewed a video on the Forbes.com web site where the author talked about what the term “creating shared value” means. He shared three strategies for creating shared value, and one was to "create clusters" of companies that "look down the long road to the future".

"Creating Shared Value" is described as a new idea, but it seems to me great leaders have been bringing groups together to solve complex problems for a long time. We have all profited as a result. As we celebrate the D-Day landings in WW2 I encourage you to think of the planning and leadership that was needed to make this happen.

In my writing I use graphics like the one below to illustrate a goal of helping kids to jobs and careers. I think leaders in business might apply the concept of "creating shared value" and "creating clusters" in their own efforts to assure that they have the workforce they need in the coming years and that they also lower some of the costs associated with poverty in big cities where they operate.

It's not philanthropy to take a lead role in bringing young people and people of color into the workforce. It lowers costs of poverty which business pays via taxes and higher wages to recruit employees into a region with high crime and poor schools.



I create these graphics using a CMap tool, as well as using power point. Below is another that illustrates roles business might take.

You can find this map here. Follow the links from it to see maps like this, which illustrate a role CEOs might take in building "clusters" that include community organizations, schools, colleges, political leaders who should be all connected in the business of creating a future workforce and future citizen leadership for America.

In this blog the writer talks about creativity and how it is so important to the future of America. In this set of articles I talk about MOOCs, or Massive open Online Courses, which to me offer a way for corporations to support "clusters" of business and community partners who dig deeper into libraries like this and use the shared information to innovate new ways to prepare more young people for the workforce and future adult responsibilities.

In this ROLE of LEADERS article that I wrote more than 15 years ago I outline steps a CEO might take to create a "cluster" focused on workforce development and poverty reduction.



Why do I focus on business so much? I feel they are the only ones who understand the urgency and who have the visibility, talent, technology and resources needed to bring diverse groups of people together. They have the resources to organize and support this collective learning process and sustain it for a decade or longer. They may even find new products and services that enable some companies to profit from t

This could mean forming teams within companies to take on this project. It also could mean giving $40 million to a university with the stipulation that the money be used to support this team building, learning and innovation process.

Some CEOs understand that it is D-Day and we need to create new beachheads where we reach kids with learning, mentoring, vocational training, etc. that is not being provided in traditional schools throughout the country, and is less available in schools in poverty neighborhoods.

Chicago will host the National Conference on Volunteering and Service from June 17-19. If you're attending and you find workshops using maps and graphics like these please share on Twitter. I'll be following.

For those who may not be able to afford the National Conference, I'm hosting a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference on June 14 at First Unitarian Church in Hyde Park. I've hosted this conference every six months since 1994 in my own commitment to building "shared value" and "collective effort". Use hashtag #TMConf_Chi to connect on Twitter. Sign in at http://tweetchat.com/room/TMConf_chi starting June 12 and follow on line.