Linkage

A couple articles that make good reading over this holiday break:

Place still matters

Parliament will fight

La drame des régions

Decoding the Decade

Holding NB in Disdain

Everyone wants to jump ship from a losing team. Isn’t that the saying, or something close to it? Whatever it is, the sentiment also works for government in a declining region, i.e. New Brunswick.

You should be forewarned, I’m about to rant.

I had a lively conversation in a pizza place early this week about why people leave the province. (Yes, this ignores the latest figures from Stats Canada. David Campbell provides his thoughts on the numbers here.) A couple others joined what had by then turned into a heated debate midway through.

Everyone involved were from the province. All were educated at University here and all have since left. I hope it was exaggerated by the beer but their frustration with NB was deep. They lamented not being reached out to by government to move back, low starting salaries, language politics, a weak brand, few opportunities, and no economic niche. It got dizzying.

While one can have a legitimate argument about these complaints, there was a crazy conflation between what they should do and what government should and can do. They were quite firm that government creates opportunities. And to a worrying extent, that what opportunities exist in government symbolize available opportunities in the province.

If this is what students leaving New Brunswick think, we’ve got huge challenges. When I asked if they had looked into private sector opportunities and started listing companies doing cool work – Radian 6, Ambir Solutions, Vision Coaching – this had not been part of the equation. Of course, if you want to work in government policy than options are going to be limited, especially during a recession. But as far as I know this person wasn’t looking explicitly for a government job. Government has a huge interest in making it easier to find work, but it is not government’s sole problem or what should be their core competency. These non-government organizations do it well, here and here.

Moreover, to think that government should be subsidizing companies to create opportunities for youth, as was argued to me, greatly misunderstands the role of the private sector. Yes government can, should and does help create opportunities through youth employment programs and internships. But almost all opportunities would not exist without the private sector and nonprofits to do the hiring (or pay the taxes to run government). To rely on government for subsidies creates a free-rider problem that could foster less employment for recent grads as firms wait to hire until government grants them funds to do so.

I do not deny there are deep problems with how we create work opportunities for young people. Lower salary levels are a big problem. Policy discussions and hiring pitches are dominated by baby-boomers talking about the high quality of life in the province, as if the quality of life for someone 24 is the same as the 64 year old about to enter retirement.

In order to fix these things though we need to better grasp what government can and should do. And what we as individuals need to be responsible for.

Being Bold

Dave Veale, CEO of Vision Coaching and one of our Visionary Council members, made this short video reflecting on his 2009. Last year at this time he made a promise to himself to be bold. Since boldness is one aspect of leadership I thought it was worth sharing his reflections. Dave is going to be giving a workshop to the 21 Leaders in Moncton on coaching.

A Vision for the Future

[Here] magazine has a good piece summarizing the 21 Leaders provincial tour in this week's magazine. Check it out [here]. Some good quotes form the Leaders too, giving their perspective on the experience.

Networking at Conferences

I was invited by Ben Peterson, co-founder and Executive Director of Journalists for Human Rights to write a post for his increasingly popular blog. He asked for a post on networking at conferences and for some silly reason it was much harder than expected to write. Anyways, it's up now so check it out and let me know your thoughts.

To : Mr Urquart (MLA), From: Female Reproductive Organs (B.Soc.sc., M.A.)

I hate it when people say that young people are not interested in politics. We are - we just don't necessarily participate in the same way as other (older) generations. Many of us may not chose to be card-carrying members of political parties, but we are certainly active by being activists, writing for school newspapers, discussing politics over a beer at the pub, and yes (dare, I say) post links on our Facebook pages. While I truly believe this, I have come to admit that we must also participate in traditional or convention forms of political participation, if we want to be spared the *sigh* Young people these days' monologues.


So, I had committed to writing a letter to a politician (and ideally, one of my political representatives) for while. But alas, procrastination and a busy schedule took-over, and it sat on the back-burner for a while, when EUREKA! Carl Urquhart used his Facebook profile to make a political statement : "Girls, we need more babies or we will never be able to support our future."


Heck, I was so inspired that I decided to start a blog where I'll post my letters to politicians. That's where you'll find my letter (warning: your French Immersion will be tested).


What Mr Urquhart told the "girls" (if that wasn't a red flag) of New Brunswick that:

1. Our (only? best?) contribution to the province is through our reproductive organs (oops, I guess I could have saved on student loans)
2. We must want to have children (or what kind of woman would we be?).
3. Men are not equals in reproduction and child-raising.

I am annoyed by posts like this one and comments linked to internet coverage of the event. This has nothing to do with political correctness, and everything to do with reinforcing sexist assumptions and institutions. Comments like Mr Urquhart's contribute to our socializing children that men have a natural ability to be powerful politicians, and women are born to be caring mommies. This is socialization 101 : "Je suis qui vous me dites, que je suis"...I am who you tell me I am.


Side Note #1 : See my friend Marc's post on the NB Human Rights Commission panel on Pay Equity in New Brunswick.


Side Note #2: Yesterday, a male building manager from where our workplace rents, called one of the VP's the non-profit I work for "sweetie". Afterwards, when I told her "I'm glad he said that to you, and not to me", she replied "Oh, that kind of stuff doesn't bother me". To which my thought is, but it should - you should make a point of it.

Ding, ding, ding...bring on the debate.

What Do You Do With Opportunity?

How do I want our 21 Leaders to treat opportunity? By the end of the program if they're anything like Tracey Morgan we've done our job:

"They say when opportunity knocks you should let it in and invite it to sit at your table. Fuck that -- when opportunity knocks, you should take it captive. Beat that shit down. I've got opportunity tied to a chair in my basement with a ball gag in its mouth. Opportunity ain't even thinking about leaving my house. If you keep quiet for a second, you'll hear it whining."

Conversations Are All We Have

Guest post by Leah Levac (bio)

I have a strong opinion about important conversations. I believe that they should be had, and that you should be invited to participate in and create them, whoever you are. I also believe that the only way to make sure conversations are actually important is by having them with people who wouldn’t normally talk together.

Last week at the Trudeau Foundation Annual Conference on Public Policy, my opinion about the importance of conversations, and about diverse participation in those conversations, was reinforced.

Dr. Mark Kingwell gave a keynote address on diverse cities, and discussed incivility as a problem facing our cities. He maintained, throughout his talk, that hope of achieving justice (which he referred to as ‘democracy’s gift’) is dependent on civility, primarily because important and productive conversations can only occur through civil discourse.

Last month, we (21inc.) started experimenting with ways to bring a wider range of participants to important conversations, and important conversations to more people. Moderated by Lisa Lane, four people – Ed Broadbent, Kelly Lamrock, David Alward, and I – chatted on video, unscripted, for about an hour. Clips of the conversation are now available.

For me, it was a remarkable experience; after all, it’s not every day you get to chat with Ed Broadbent. But it was remarkable for more reasons than that one. First, it was awesome that everyone agreed to participate. We need more people who hold positions of power to agree to participate – to really come to the table. Second, it was frank. Sure there was a bit of shiny political speak, but not much. Third, it was respectful, which is more than I can say for the Legislative Assembly, the work place for 2 of us (Kelly Lamrock and David Alward). Finally, it was enlightening, because it wasn’t rehearsed.

We were engaged in civil discourse, and so somehow, we’re a step ahead of where we were before our conversation took place. We talked about public engagement, about media’s coverage of politics, and about our antiquated democratic system. We talked about the importance of social welfare. We talked about government accountability. We talked about these things because they’re important to us. We talked about them on video so that if they’re important to you too, you can join us.

I hope that we, the New Brunswick ‘we’, can start to invest ourselves in more important conversations. Because conversations are all we have.

What Are We Educating For?

I drove home recently from a meeting with many provincial leaders from many sectors where literacy and education were dominant topics. Education and literacy are trumpeted by many as the panacea for New Brunswick’s economic and social woes. It’s been like this for a while now, but it probably started with confederation, when things started going downhill for NB.

Education and literacy is like breathing, who could be against it? With over half of the province’s adults counted as functionally illiterate few could blame politicians, businesses and educators for wanting to tackle it.

I've been thinking about this as an employer. The skills we need as a start-up include systems thinking, communications (in its many forms), self awareness, mental agility, creativity, initiative, self-learner and self-motivated, among others. Will the pressure on the school system to increase literacy help produce more employees with these assets?

I've just started Ken Robinson's book Out of Our Minds, which examines this question of education vs what society and organizations need.

“Business wonders why education isn’t producing the thoughtful, creative, self-confident people they urgently need. Yet business people cling to an uncritical belief in the supreme importance of academic education.”

We have to educate everyone and to a higher standard. That includes literacy. We don't have a choice about that.

We should also be asking questions about what we are educating for. Reading this book is making me worry that our obsessive focus on literacy takes us “back to basics” at the exclusion of all else. We should know now that the world where basics was all you needed is over.

Une affaire de Génération ou de Généralisation?

Plus tôt cet automne, j’ai assisté à une consultation organisée par le Public Policy Forum dans le cadre d’une série de dialogues tenus au niveau national. Le but de cette série de dialogues est de répondre à la question «Y a-t-il une déconnection entre la façon de vivre de notre génération, communément appelée Génération Y, et la façon qu’opèrent plusieurs organisations?»

En me rendant à cette session, mon opinion sur le sujet était mitigée et je n’étais pas certaine de la direction que prendrait la discussion mais je reconnaissais que c’était sans l’ombre d’un doute un sujet chaud, particulièrement au Canada Atlantique où l’exode des cerveaux et la rétention des employés donne souvent des maux de tête aux employeurs. Les résultats de la session furent récemment publiés dans Progress Magazine .

Environ 45 participants, jeunes professionnels et employeurs, ont tenté durant cet après-midi de répondre à la question initialement posée. Puisque mon opinion sur le sujet était mitigée dès le départ, j’ai décidé d’écouter les diverses opinions. Je me suis trouvée encore plus partagée dans mes positions. Parfois en accord, parfois en désaccord, j’ai réalisé qu’une des causes de cette position venait du fait que je fais partie de la génération Y, que je fus élevée par la génération X et non des baby-bommers, et ce dans une famille entrepreneuriale, expliquant pourquoi je me retrouvais parfois en accord avec les propos des employeurs.

Pendant que les membres de ma génération présentaient leurs attentes de leurs employeurs et que ceux-ci partageaient leurs expériences à traiter avec ma génération, j’avais l’impression d’être un spécimen dans une boîte de verre que tout le monde observe, tente de comprendre et d’analyser dans le but de généraliser des caractéristiques et déterminer des pratiques à appliquer afin de retenir une génération en particulier.

Étant parfois en accord, parfois en désaccord avec les attentes présentées par ma génération, j’ai décidé de généraliser à mon tour. Je ne suis certes pas une exception à ma génération donc je me suis dis qu’il était réaliste d’assumer que d’autres membres de ma génération seraient également partagés face aux propos tenus lors de cette discussion. Si ces propos sont adoptés par les employeurs afin d’établir des relations de travail avec notre génération, ils continueront à manquer le bateau avec une partie de cette population.

Après avoir bien réfléchi à tout ça, j’ai tiré mes propres conclusions. Certes, notre génération a des attentes et des façons de faire différentes de celles des générations précédentes, mais n’est-ce pas un également relié au contexte dans lequel nous avons été élevé? La seule généralisation au sujet de notre génération que je suis prête à considérer est que nous voulons être traités en tant qu’individus, non comme un numéro dans une organisation. Si cette généralisation s’appliquait réellement à notre génération, la seule pratique à retenir pour les employeurs serait donc de développer des relations de travail avec leurs employés et de cesser les tentatives de généralisation a sujet de notre génération!

Websites

For all small nonprofit organizations websites are both wonderful and painful. Wonderful because they are a quick and efficient way to tell you what we're doing. Painful because when fulltime webmasters are too expensive, except for raking leaves on a windy day, websites are the world's worst time sink. It's not uncommon to start some website work only to ask "where did the day go?" when done.

We're trying to add a special feature to the front page that better presents what we're up to. Hence, the English side of the page has the numbers 1-4 below the lead photo. You may have noticed that there are no links connected to those numbers. We're working on that. Hopefully we'll have links up in a couple days and this post will become moot.

Thanks for your patience.

Winning Arguments

This Saturday the Board of Directors of 21inc is meeting in Fredericton. Our board meetings are fun. We’re all friends and love what we all do and represent. This doesn’t mean we stay polite and proper. Our meetings can be and have been hot. And then afterwards we end up at a pub.

This board meeting is at a propitious time. We’re looking closely at some potential future programs beyond the 21 Leaders program and 21inc Ideas Festival. Both the above programs were envisioned when we launched almost exactly two years ago. This is the first time that we as an organization will be looking at future programming beyond our current menu.

As the board meeting approaches it’s been an interesting and helpful process reflecting on how to frame the discussion. What are the factors 21inc needs to think about when looking at future programs? The obvious ones are the merits of the programming and alignment with our mission.

But this is not the only lens through which our future actions should be assessed. The outcome of our upcoming conversation will also be determined by values, risk evaluations, and our experiences with organizational development across different sectors.

My sense is that arguments made on merits and alignment alone won’t win the day. Being able to speak to values and emotions will.

Olympic Dream

Hi everyone, I just want to take a minute to tell you about this contest I entered on the Globe & Mail website. It's called "Journalism Dream," basically like a Journalism Idol, and the winner gets to cover the Olympics! I am trying to get enough votes to advance to the next round, which will be judged by the G&M editors. You can vote once per day at:

http://journalismdream.theglobeandmail.com/entry_article.asp?id=485

Did I mention every vote gets you a chance to win a laptop or a camera?

A lot of you have already been voting and I really appreciate it, as this truly would be a dream assignment for me.

If you want to go the extra mile, you can join this Facebook group my wife set up, and invite all your friends to join as well:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=179584952664

Thanks again,
Nate

Retour sur la Tournée d'Étude 2009

Avant de partir, j’avais bien l’intention de partager avec vous notre trajet sur le blog. Comme vous avez pu le constater, ces bonnes intentions n’ont pas fait long feu une fois plongée dans le bain! Maintenant que la tournée est terminée, j’ai eu la chance de réfléchir sur cette expérience unique et j’ai décidé de partager cette réflexion avec vous.

Bien que j’aie assumé le rôle de coordonatrice dans la planification de la tournée et en avais discuté avec des anciens participants, je dois admettre que je ne savais pas très bien à quoi m’attendre à l’aube de notre départ. Même en sachant très bien que c’est impossible, je voulais que tout soit parfait et que l’expérience plaise à tout le monde.

J’ai bien vite réalisé certaines choses sont hors de notre contrôle et que peu importe le niveau de préparation qui a été fait, les gens vont constamment vous surprendre! J’ai donc dû vite apprendre que la meilleure chose à faire était d’apprendre à rouler avec les coups et de faire des ajustements rapides!

J’ai également réalisé que même si le Nouveau-Brunswick est petit en superficie, plus de 8 jours sont nécessaires afin de pourvoir affirmer bien le connaître. Que ce soit sur les plans économiques, culturels, environnementaux ou sociaux, que l’ont parle d’industrie ou de ses gens, le Nouveau-Brunswick nous a réservé bien des surprises durant cette semaine ou nous étions des touristes dans notre propre province.

La tournée fut pour moi une expérience d’apprentissage des plus enrichissantes autant sur le plan professionnel que personnel, la vivant à la fois sous mon chapeau de coordonnatrice et de jeune Néo-Brunswickoise.

En rétrospective, je me considère choyée d’avoir pu rencontrer tous les leaders établis qui nous ont généreusement accueillis dans leurs communautés ou entreprises durant la tournée, nous exposant volontiers à leurs réalités quotidiennes.

Je me considère également chanceuse de vivre dans une province qui fait certes face à sa part de défis mais qui offre également sa part de potentiel et d’opportunités.

Finalement, je me considère privilégiée d’avoir pu partager cette expérience avec notre groupe des 21 Leaders 2009. Ce fut un plaisir!

Applied Innovation

The importance of creativity for 21inc got reaffirmed last week during the Creative Spaces and Places conference hosted by Artscape.

Throughout the conference speakers reiterated the urgency to reinvent our institutions to meet 21st Century economic and environmental challenges. The 20th Century was defined by mass production and it’s under these tenants that many of our institutions still operate. The 21st Century looks like one requiring constant reinvention. In this world creativity, or as it was called at the conference, applied innovation, is a priority outcome.

To give an example, a study presented by Sir Ken Robinson showed that when kids are aged 2-3 85% of them could make over 200 objects from a random assortment of blocks, ropes and other stuff. By age 10 the rate declines precipitously, to 30%. By 25 the percentage of people who can make over 200 objects is 3%.

It is through institutions that we can reverse this trend on a societal scale. We need governments, universities, nonprofits, and schools to find ways to enable creative thinking, and fostering leadership that supports innovation and collaborative attitudes.

What does this look like? One example of this is the Australian state of South Australia which has a "Thinkers in Residence" program. Every year the Premier invites world leading thinkers and practitioners to live in the state for 2-6 months and embark on public education and policy specific studies that help guide the state forward.

Another example profiled at the conference was of a filmmaker in residence program -- at a hospital. This filmmaker didn't make documentaries but rather she integrated film techniques into the medical delivery system.

In Atlantic Canada, where ideas to deal with demographic and economic challenges are dire, In NB, arts & culture organizations can play an important role by being a central hub of social capital/idea generation. We need people with new, different and odd takes on the world to inspire solutions.

I’d be remiss not to include 21inc as part of this solution. We’re trying to ensure that the next generation of leaders have the skills and knowledge to inspire and apply creativity in our businesses, governments and nonprofit organizations. We’re still learning but this is the direction we're going. Having it reaffirmed last week is a confidence boost that we’re on the right direction.

Tournée d'étude - Jour 3

La journée est parie du bon pied par une rencontre avec des vice-présidents de JDI inc. qui nous ont présenté un aperçu des opérations du groupe et ont répondu à toutes les questions des leaders. Ils nous ont ensuite permis de faire la visite du moulin de papier de Saint Jean, qui est un très bon exemple d’innovation dans une industrie traditionnelle.

Les leaders ont ensuite eu une présentation d’Entreprise Saint Jean durant laquelle ils ont pu découvrir comment cette ville a pu se créer une identité unique et une communauté dynamique. Tenue chez Big Tide Brewing, une nouvelle micro-brasserie établie à Saint Jean, cette discussion nous a également permis de discuter des réalités de se lancer en affaire dans ce domaine au Nouveau-Brunswick.

Résultant du dynamisme de cette communauté, le sujet de la pauvreté est adressé d’une façon unique et nous avons donc pu rencontrer des intervenants dans le domaine, qui nous ont guidé à travers des quartiers à risque et ont discuté des efforts mis en place pour améliorer la situation.
Saint Jean approche également le patrimoine et la conservation de son architecture d’une façon particulière, soit de tenter de conserver au lieu de démolir et rebâtir. Nous avons donc fait un tour guidé de certains édifices ayant des particularités architecturales.

Nous nous sommes ensuite rendus à mon alma mater, l’Université de Moncton, où nous nous sommes engagés dans une session ayant pour thème «Les Femmes en Position de Leadership». Aldéa Landry, Anne Hébert, Andrée Savoie et Tina Robichaud ont discuté de leurs expériences sur le sujet, donnant lieu à une des séances les plus puissantes de la tournée puisque bien que ce sujet soit abordé régulièrement, les hommes ne sont habituellement pas invités à la table.

Maman et papa font la Tournée du Nouveau-Brunswick

Lors de notre visite à saint Jean, j’ai eu l’opportunité d’avoir une discussion avec une de mes ressources essentielles dans la planification de la tournée d’étude. J’ai rapidement réalisé que j’avais oublié de poser une question essentielle de ma préparation pour la tournée : «Quel est mon rôle durant la tournée?»

Bien que j’avais une très bonne idée de mes tâches - modérer les discussions, rassembler le groupe et tenter de respecter l’horaire – je n’étais pas confortable dans l’exécution de celles-ci, en partie parce que je me sentais toujours comme la «party pooper», celle qui doit terminer les conversations, inciter le groupe à suivre cet horaire chargé que nous avons pour eux.

J’ai donc posé la question à cette personne ressource, qui a réussi à m’éclairer par une analogie que je tenais à partager. Elle m’a expliqué que Tim et moi sommes le papa et la maman du groupe et que naturellement, le groupe perçoit Tim comme le papa, celui qui apporte les enfants au parc, qui leur achète de la crème glacée et les laisse se coucher plus tard tandis que je suis perçue comme la maman, celle qui demande aux enfants de faire leurs devoirs, de se dépêcher le matin pour prendre l’autobus et de manger leurs légumes. Elle m’a aussi rappelé qu’à la fin de la journée, même si les enfants semblent avoir plus de plaisir avec le papa, ils aiment toujours leur maman!

La première journée

C’est parti! Au moment d’écrire ces lignes, les 21 Leaders 2009-10 ont complété la première journée de la Tournée d’Étude du Nouveau-Brunswick. Le tout s’est amorcé par une session ayant pour thème «Technologie, Leadership et le Future du Nouveau-Brunswick. Durant cette session, Laura O’Blenis (Knowledge Park), David Gourlay (Oracle) et Blain Adams (Red Ball Internet) ont présenté au groupe un survol des activités de chacune des organisations et leur vision du future de leur organisation au Nouveau-Brunswick.

Les Leaders ont ensuite eu l’opportunité de s’entretenir avec David Hay, PDG d’Énergie N.-B. M. Hay a expliqué son parcours de carrière, discuté de concepts et leçons personnelles de leadership et a engagé les leaders dans une discussion ouverte et honnête au sujet du présent et future de l’industrie de l’énergie au Nouveau-Brunswick, des énergies alternatives et à même partager avec le groupe son secret pour gérer les conflits de groupe.

Suite à cette discussion, le groupe s’est dirigé vers le Département d’Éducation du N.-B. où M. Guy Lavallée, Sous-Ministre Adjoint de la division francophone du Département d’Éducation, Mme Tiffany Basten, Spécialiste en alphabétisation K-12, division anglophone du Département d’Éducation et Mme Wendy Papadopoulos, directrice d’Elf, ont partagé avec nous le portrait de la situation de l’alphabétisation dans la province et le rôle de leur organisation dans l’amélioration de la situation.

Pour terminer cette première journée, le groupe de leaders actuel a eu l’opportunité de rencontrer les anciens leaders du programme lors d’un souper de famille de 21inc. Cette soirée a permis au groupe actuel d’apprendre de l’expérience des membres des programmes précédents et de tisser des nouveaux liens avec des jeunes qui partagent une passion commune : avoir un impact positif sur le future du Nouveau-Brunswick.

Voici en gros le récit de la première journée de la Tournée d’étude du Nouveau-Brunswick 2009. Pour suivre nos péripéties quotidiennes, continuez de visiter le blog!

Annik

Hitting the Road

Today is the first day of our provincial study tour. It's one of the highlight experiences of the 21 Leaders program -- put 21 of NB's most promising young people on a bus for a week visiting decision makers and community leaders across the province.

You can find the schedule for the week here: english, francais.

The tour plays an important role in the leadership education these folks have. The exposure to leaders and initiatives across the province is a powerful demonstration of how entrepreneurial drive, innovation and passion are everywhere in our province. The discussions that take place on the bus and in workshops provides the knowledge to know and the confidence to act.

Check back on the blog and on twitter searching for #21Leaders hash tags.

Comfort Zones

On Wednesday I gave a talk in Sydney, Nova Scotia to the Nova Scotia Association of Regional Development Authorities on “out of comfort zone” experiences and economic performance.

I linked the two through learning and development. We can't increase our skills and leadership abilities without stepping out of our comfort zone.

To set it up I stole the image below from a wonderful book by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky called “Leadership on the Line." The zone of optimal learning indicated by point B in the figure below is where one lives during out of comfort zone experiences. Our stress levels are heightened, we focus more, try harder, and learn more.


The trick, I said, was that when we leave these experiences we stay at a level of performance higher than what we came in. That point C needs to be higher than point A.

Managers think about this a lot in terms of staff. What type of experiences can we give staff to increase their abilities and go from point A to point C? The big question I posed was that if we can do it at an organizational level can we also do it on a regional level?

My answer was absolutely. We have to. I used the lessons we’re learning at 21inc to discuss how. I talked about three specific elements that need to exist in any out of comfort zone experience to maintain a high level of performance: support, practice, and time. For each I told a story and played a video of one of our alumni talking about it.

I want to share Leah Levac’s video. Leah is a founding member of 21inc., and is also a Trudeau Scholar, another community that provides a group of inspired, young intellectuals with a supportive network that allows them to push their own, and each others, limits. She does an excellent job explaining why a group of young people actually decided to jump out of their comfort zones and create 21inc. It was in large measure because of the support we felt from each other. That support allowed us to take more risks since we knew that if we fell someone would be there to catch us. Here’s Leah:

Scaling What Works

How do you scale a successful social innovation in a down economy? If something increases literacy scores by 100%, what needs to happen for it to go from one pilot school to 200?

I drove back to Fredericton tonight with this thought after spending the day at Activate - the Business Community Anti-Poverty Initiative (BCAPI) day long conference in Saint John.

BCAPI, brain child of the insatiable Bill Gale, and long championed by J.D. Irving Ltd., the day gathered the province’s heavyweights of industry including J.K. Irving, Jim Irving, Gerry Pond, Derek Oland, Aldéa Landry, and many others to talk about poverty and the role of the business community in reducing it. As Gerry Pond said during his remarks, this gathering was likely the first business to business meeting in Canada dedicated to the reduction and eventual eradication of poverty.

The conference happened in the middle of the New Brunswick Government’s poverty reduction public engagement process. Phase II consisted of a series of roundtable discussions across the province listening to citizens. Phase III, a “Final Forum,” occurs later this year.

What struck me was the frustration shown by business leaders with not being able to expand programs that are working. P.A.L.S. (Partners Assisting Local Schools) was the most frequently cited example. The program matches literacy mentors with struggling children in schools where over 40% of the students come from poverty. It works. In one cohort at the Prince Charles School in Saint John, literacy levels doubled from 33% to 66% in two years.

The business community, particularly through the New Brunswick Business Council, has started to spread this model to other schools across the province. A school in St. Stephen and Ganong Bros. have started a similar program. As have Barrett Xplore and a school in Woodstock. It’s an amazing example of emergence.

When the business community went to government to look for support to expand and deepen the program’s impact, government initially met their request supportively. But soon the broader government agenda took over. The initiative went from a poverty reduction strategy to the community schools initiative (CSI). This is not a knock against the CSI. It’s great and needed in NB. However, depending on how the community and school engage, it may not be a poverty reduction strategy. So poverty levels remain. Then a recession hits and government has to make difficult decisions. Budgets are reduced and anything not deemed essential is cut, including money promised to expand and deepen P.A.L.S.

So the question remains of how to scale social innovations like P.A.L.S when money is tight. One idea with strong support was for a more united voice from business that government should primarily allocate scarce tax dollars to education over all other files. This alone won’t ensure an increase to P.A.L.S. - this needs more than government - but it would be a good start.

A Reponse to the G&M’s Margaret Wente

I just read this...

Firstly, don’t event get me started with this statement, “Of course some research, especially in the sciences and medicine, matters a great deal to the advancement of society. But a vast amount of it – especially in the humanities and social sciences – does not”.

Secondly, what Wente describes is very far from my experience as a post-secondary student in the Atlantic Provinces.

During my four years at the Université de Moncton (au département de Science Politique), I encountered the best and most encouraging teachers. And smart too! They had brilliant research projects of their own – though probably neglected because of all the time they spent with us -, and offered thought-provoking and enriching classes. I was never turned away when asking for help and further explanation. I would pop by my professors’ offices to chat about class, current issues and career preparations. They are the best of the best. I would also soon find out that the education I received from them more than prepared me to be in a program with graduates from UofT, McGill, Queen’s…their education had nothing over mine.

And perhaps somewhat to my surprise, I was met with the same commitment at the larger Dalhousie University for my Master of Arts program. The Political Science professors here also happily (I think!?) took to the time to answer my 101-questions inside and out of class.

At both of these institutions, professors (professeurs et professeures) pushed me to be reflective, critical and daring. They believed in my academic performance and ability, far more than I did. They were there every step of the way.

So, I don’t know what Wente is talking about – but it’s not my experience of postsecondary education in Atlantic Canada. That is not to say that there is no pressure to rapidly produce research projects in some fields and universities in the country…but please, don’t blame it on the professors.

Lamrock, Democracy 101 et la fracture numérique

Hier, monsieur Kelly Lamrock a annoncé le projet « Democracy 101 » - assumons qu’un titre français sera affiché sous peu -, une initiative cherchant à accroître la participation citoyenne dans les affaires gouvernementales et publiques de la province. Chaque semaine, 101 ménages seront choisis pour dialoguer avec d’autres citoyens, des invités spéciaux et – assumons -, Mr Lamrock et d’autres parlementaires sur certaines questions de l’heure. Je comprends que ce dialogue aura lieu par entremise de médias sociaux tels les microblogues (Twitter), et les outils de gestion de réseau social (Facebook).

Certes (j’espère), ce projet verra une participation jeunesse notable. Je l’ai toujours dit – que les « jeunes », et moi incluse, ne sommes pas apolitiques. Nous participons à la vie politique autrement que nos parents et grands-parents – dans notre préférence pour la nourriture organique, dans nos manifestations contre les hausses de frais de scolarité, et oui, en affichant des liens à des pages web sur notre profile Facebook, etc. Ce projet a le potentiel de faire connaître l’intérêt politique qu’ont les jeunes, déjà familiers avec ses médiaux sociaux.

Cela étant dit comment ce projet va-t-il tenir compte de la « fracture (ou fossé) numérique » (dit Digital Divide en anglais) - un problème dans le monde entier, incluant notre province. Est-ce que des partenariats avec les centres d’accès Internet ou des foyers de personnes âgées seront établis? Comment faire pour s’assurer que ce dialogue soit accessible à tous – jeunes et moins jeunes, autochtones et non autochtones, rural et urbain, etc. ?

Oui, c’est une belle initiative, mais pas sans avoir adressé la fracture numérique (voire, fracture sociale) qui existe dans notre province.

what young public servants are looking for

This word cloud was made after I cut and pasted the entire text of a document that provides the basis for a meeting I'm facilitating tomorrow. It's a group of rising star young public servants from GNB who are helping create a New Professionals Network within government. The bigger words indicate more mentions and thus, so the theory goes, are of more importance. Click on the image for a better view. I'll have more to say on this event and our 21 Leaders weekend later this week.

Connaissance de soi et le leadership

Quels sont les attributs d'un bon leader? Nous savons qu'il existe plusieurs styles de leadership mais comment peut-on reconnaître quel type de leader nous sommes?

Nous croyons que l'identification du style de leadership doit être précédée par une connaissance de soi, et qu'en ayant une perspective réelle de qui nous sommes en tant qu'individu, nous serons en mesure de nous identifier en tant que leader.

Cette réflexion marque le point de départ de la programmation de l'édition 2009-10 du programme des 21 Leaders, qui débutera le 10 septembre prochain à Fredericton. Afin de permettre aux leaders d'identifier leur style en tant que leader, nous tenons à leur donner l'occasion d'apprendre à mieux se connaître eux-mêmes. Nous avons donc invité Phil Holmes, auteur et directeur général d'Ambir, à guider nos leaders dans ce parcours vers la connaissance de soi.

Cette session n'est qu'un aperçu de ce qui est prévu pour nos 21 Leaders, laissant présage à une fin de semaine des plus intéressantes!

Nonprofit Management

Managers of nonprofits are frequent readers of business books. I often find colleagues at the bookstore browsing through the latest Jim Collins, or a classic by Peter Drucker. Unfortunately, there aren’t many Canadian how-to-manage-nonprofit books. There are several in the US but even there the pickings are slim.

Which is why I was stoked to recently find these blogs, www.leadingbydesign.blogspot.com, and www.advancingthenonprofit.blogspot.com. Neither are Canadian but they do meet a real gap I’ve been experiencing of late, a daily dose of thinking about management specific to the nonprofit sector.

These nuggets of wisdom I found particularly compelling. In a post labeled “Seismic Shift: The Changing Nonprofit Landscape” the Karen Eber Davis talks about some important dynamics we’re seeing in New Brunswick.

A Dual Focus on Outcomes and Savvy Communications. The outcome focus is not new, what is new is the understanding that outcomes alone are inadequate. If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there, it doesn’t help your cause. Those who thrive will provide outcomes plus have the public relations savvy to successfully communicate why these outcomes are important in the noisy market.

Absolutely. You can’t have one without the other. The relationship between outcomes and communications is something we’ve been thinking about for a while. But I’m not sure we, as an organization (on individual levels we’ve had strong voices on both sides) ever fully acknowledged just how much of our focus should be shared between these two elements.

Over at Leading by Design, Anne Ackerson puts words on what all nonprofit people know to be true. That we live and die by the meeting,

Given the fact that nonprofits are all about people means that there's a ton of communication that must take place in order to nurture and maintain them, and service the constituents who need them.

Given that there isn’t a “nonprofit chamber of commerce” (we’re members in an actual Chamber of Commerce), these sites are an important way people in the sector stay connected, informed and motivated.

Congrats John!

It’s a good day for the 21inc community.

John McLaughlin, President of UNB for another couple days, is the recipient of the Order of New Brunswick. Clare Whelton-McCain, a strong supporter of the arts in New Brunswick is also a recipient. Through our partnership with McCain’s I’ve had the opportunity to meet Clare and this is great recognition of her work.

It’s not an embellishment to say that John has been an instrumental force in New Brunswick. His NextNB program at UNB (link to about us) spawned 21inc, and John has continued to be a huge champion for us. That’s why it was a no brainer when 21inc co-Founder and Founding Chair Anne McInerney proposed that a group of us nominate him for this award.

But not only was it his vision that was the impetus behind 21inc, but the New Brunswick Business Council and the Wallace McCain Institute for Business Leadership too. At his retirement dinner David Ganong spoke of his legacy going beyond UNB’s walls, creating institutions that will continually spawn more and better leaders for New Brunswick. How awesome is that!

John’s vision has always been challenging, unconventional, progressive and inspiring. For example, this is from a speech he gave to the Public Policy Forum in Ottawa.

“…our political process has become pretty bad theatre. There is this sense that it does not connect with us individually or collectively. It does not resonate and it does not deal with the real issues that are emerging. It does not allow us to be engaged in any meaningful fashion.”

"As we in Canada wring our hands and reflect on how we somehow have to regenerate and rejuvenate our political process, I would say to our political parties that the next great Canadian political leader will not be the one grasping the ten-point plan, not the self-described populist who thinks he or she is speaking up for regular people, and I doubt it’s the one who is most familiar right now to the establishment. You will know him or her when you meet them. It is going to be someone who can not only read the crowd, but who can translate what they are saying and from whom you can get that sense of empowerment and engagement.”

Congrats John! Well deserved.

A Buffer Against Mediocrity

How do you teach and inspire leadership attitudes and behavior? This is the challenge for leadership programs like 21 Inc.’s 21 Leaders for the 21st Century. Skill development is necessary. Mentorship is important. Contextual knowledge is often forgotten. None are by themselves sufficient. Unless they combine in ways that foster entrepreneurial and collaborative attitudes there is more work to do.

Reaching this outcome is not easy. Which is why it’s unfortunate that two national leaders in the field have recently halted operations. The Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation recently announced the conclusion of their Global Fellows Program, and Action Canada (of which I’m a 2007 Fellow) discontinued their program this year.

If we’re learning one thing about fostering the attitudes and skills we need in our future leaders it’s that the peer networks created through programs like our 21 Leaders program, and the discontinued ones mentioned above, are crucial.

In the same way that people come to identify with being part of a certain group (Canadian, New Brunswicker, an X alum, or Maple Leafs fan), participants in these programs start identifying themselves with and against others in these networks. As a result they begin to expect more from themselves. They are more willing to take positions of responsibility and be effective in them. They hold themselves up to a higher standard of excellence. These programs are buffers against a Canadian culture that more often inspires muddling along.

The WDG Foundation did create a Northern Fellows program that they’ll start up this year. However, Canada is nowhere near capacity yet with these programs so the loss will be felt. The results of these programs are long term and their disappearance is going to be manifested as potential not reached, rather than an acutely felt loss. More muddling.

This is not to say these programs are perfect. As an Action Canada fellow I can tell you that that specific program needs reform. But their termination leaves a big hole for young Canadians wanting to be better prepared to make a positive impact on our world.

Dear Old People

Dear Old People who run the world,
My generation would like to break up with you.

Read the Generation M Manifesto here, it's a sick piece. Hat tip to David Eaves, who wrote a great follow up.

Lunch with Warren Buffet

As a nonprofit, thoughts of fundraising and revenue generation are never far. That's why this piece of news caught our eye. A Toronto based hedge fund bid $1.68M USD to have lunch with Warren Buffet. All funds raised by the lunch go to the Glide Foundation in San Francisco.

Not a bad pay day for Glide. But would it work in New Brunswick? How much could be raised using our local celebrities, entertainment, business and political?

We don't need to look far to find out. Laubach Literacy Fredericton does an annual Lunches for Literacy auction with mostly Fredericton based political and business leaders. The list includes Doug Williams, now co-owner of the popular pub, The Garrison Ale House; the Minister of BNB, Victor Boudreau, and even Freddy Mack from the Fox radio Morning Show. The highest bid I could find was $350 for Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside.

If we were able to secure a higher profile individual (not that these folks aren't high profile) would this be worth pursuing? Who might fetch $10,000? $100,000?

A family cottage on the beach as a microcosm of New Brunswick

Tomorrow night for the first time in a few years, my Breau clan will descend upon my grand-parents cottage at Caissie Cape, meters from the beautiful beach facing the Northumberland Straight. Since the last time we were all together, there have been a few additions to the family, most importantly the first two great-grand-children.

Some forty years ago, when my grand-parents built their cottage, they wouldn’t have been able to imagine what their family would look like, all these years later. My grand-parents who are in most regards, two typical Acadians (that’s definitely not a bad thing) from south-eastern New Brunswick, will be joined by their ever-diversifying kin and their partners.

On the beach tomorrow night, we’ll find our share of Acadians and Acadians-at-heart but also Francophones and Anglophones, New Brunswickers, Islanders and Ontarians, Non-Canadians, Canadians living abroad and Second-generation Canadians, academics, professionals, trade workers and students.

We don’t all look the same and we don’t all speak the same languages. We don’t all call New Brunswick home. And you know what? That’s okay, to all of us. Because we love being together, and learning about, and from each other. There may be a few teachable moments, like learning to play the spoons or getting familiar with traditional Acadian words (“qui’c’qui va grailler la table?”), but it’s all good. What’s important is that regardless of our backgrounds and lifestyles, we all feel at home and at ease sitting on the beaches of New Brunswick.

Nothing else matters. Or at least nothing will tomorrow night.

Is the rest of the province as open? Are our families? Our governments? Our businesses? If not, you have some catching up to do, because the Breaus aren’t looking back.

Retour sur la Journée d'Évaluation

Le 27 juin dernier, 40 des 50 candidats présélectionnés ont pris part à la Journée d’Évaluation à Fredericton. Sous l’œil attentifs de leaders établis ayant le mandat de sélectionner les prochains 21 Leaders, les candidats ont démontré leurs habiletés en leadership lors d’activités de groupe. La journée fut parsemée d’opportunités de réseautage donnant lieu à la création de relations parmi les futurs leaders du Nouveau-Brunswick. Désireux de continuer dans cette veine, les candidats ont demandé qu’une liste de leurs coordonnées soit circulée parmi le groupe, ce que nous avons fait volontiers!

Nous avons eu droit à une démonstration hors-pair des habiletés de leadership des candidats, tous plus impressionnants les uns que les autres. Bien qu’épatés du talent des candidats, les juges constatèrent au cours de la journée qu’ils auraient des décisions difficiles à prendre!

A l’approche de cette journée, nous étions partagés entre l’idée d’offrir aux candidats une opportunité d’apprentissage dans un environnement amical et le fait que cette journée est tout de même une compétition entre les candidats pour une des 21 places disponibles pour le programme.

Bien que satisfaits du déroulement du processus de sélection, quelques questions ont fait surface lors de notre rétroaction. Est-ce que le climat amical créé a servi de camouflage à la passion associée à l’image d’un leader ou étions-nous en présence d’une nouvelle génération de leaders en mesure d’arriver à ses fins par des discussions respectueuses? A l’avenir, devrons-nous créer des activités ayant pour but de provoquer ces réactions passionnées?

Il est évident que la tenue de la Journée d’Évaluation à la fin juin est loin d’être idéale et il est déjà prévu que l’événement se tiendra plus tôt l’année prochaine. Toutefois, nous reconnaissons que nous sommes en présence de leaders et qu’il est assuré que la date sélectionnée ne conviendra pas à tous les candidats. Cette année, nous avons accordé des entrevues individuelles aux candidats ne pouvant prendre part à la Journée d’Évaluation. Bien qu’elles furent relativement efficaces, il demeure difficile pour le comité de sélection de baser leur évaluation sur le rapport d’une seule personne.

En tenant compte de ses éléments, devons-nous simplement obliger la participation à la Journée d’Évaluation? Est-ce qu’une méthode alternative pourrait être plus efficace que l’entrevue? Est-ce que nous devons simplement conclure que le candidat ne pouvant participer à la Journée d’Évaluation encourt le risque que son sort repose sur le rapport d’un évaluateur?

Conscients qu’aucun processus de sélection n’est parfait, nous tenons à nous assurer d’offrir à nos futurs leaders une expérience bénéfique tout en leur offrant l’opportunité de démontrer leurs habiletés de leadership au comité de sélection et en permettant aux évaluateurs de sélectionner les meilleurs candidats disponibles.

Elaine Albert named to Prestigious NB Board

It's not an appointment that makes headlines, but it makes us proud.

Elaine Albert, from St. Jacques, and one of the 2008 21 Leaders, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the New Brunswick Investment Management Corporation. Elaine's background as an accountant and entrepreneur will be an asset for the group. She may also be the youngest Director by 30 years.

The corporation is the organization that manages the pension funds of almost everyone who has a paycheck that is paid via the public purse. In New Brunswick that's approximately 49,000 people.

The news was announced in the Royal Gazette on May 13, (page 797), but the NBIMC still haven't changed their website yet to recognize the change.

Congrats Elaine!

Vers la sélection des 21 leaders 2009-2010

Nous sommes présentement à mi-chemin dans notre processus de sélection pour nos prochains 21 Leaders. Des 110 mises en candidatures reçues, un comité de trois leaders établis ont sélectionné 50 candidats pour passer à l’étape suivante : La Journée d’Évaluation.

Nouvelle étape à notre processus de sélection, la planification de cette journée d’avère un défi en tant que tel. Étant désireuse d’offrir aux candidats une expérience qu’ils apprécieront et dont ils pourront bénéficier, beaucoup d’efforts sont déployés dans la création de la programmation. Comme pour l’organisation de tout bon événement, l’attention au détail est de mise et croyez moi, les détails ne sont pas ce qui manquent à cette journée!

Nos évaluateurs n’auront pas la tâche facile, la qualité des candidats étant très impressionnante. La délibération promet donc d’être un exercice des plus intéressants auquel j’ai bien hâte d’assister.

A tous ceux et celles qui prendront part à cette journée, j’espère que vous apprécierez! Pour ceux et celles qui n’y seront pas, j’espère que vous tenterez de vous y rendre lors de la prochaine édition!

Pitch Perfect

This is my buddy's Stephane de Messieres pitch on his organization, Citizens Market, to become an Echoing Green Fellow. It's a great 90 second clip and he gives an awesome performance to the judges.



As Stephane says, Citizens Market utilizes the power of the crowd so that when someone buys, say, shampoo, they can find out if the company was good or bad in making that product. It's a great example of how young people are using technology to make a difference.

Is this what Malcolm Gladwell was talking about?

As was blogged previously, a group of the 2008 Leaders cohort successfully completed a project called “Our New Brunswick/Notre Nouveau-Brunswick” in which 6 grade 7 classrooms from around the province created short-films about their communities. These short-films were exchanged between the 6 classes, and the students were brought together via videoconference last month to talk about their experience and their communities.

Turns out…there may be a sequel…

Inspired by the project, and appreciated of the opportunity to explore their community and the province through short-film, one of the participating classes from ONB/NNB from Northumberland County successfully applied for a grant with the Innovative Learning Fund, with the province of NB. This grant will allow them to visit some of the places they learned about during the project!

So let me get this straight…Group of the 21 Leaders from the 2005 cohort launch an organization called 21inc…launch a 21 Leaders Program… 21 Leaders (v.2008) go on a bus tour across the province…Group of ’08 Leaders get together to create a project that will allow students to discover their community and their province through film…Class receives a grant to visit some of the places they have discovered through ONB/NNB.

Stay tuned my friends…this is getting exciting!

Social Tech Training 2009 at MaRS

If you’re following my twitter feeds you would have noticed a spike in productivity last week. I was “live tweeting” from Social Tech Training, a conference sponsored by Web of Change and the Social Innovation group at MaRS.

This conference happened at a good time for 21inc. We’re about to select the next 21 Leaders from over 100 applicants. We’ve launched this new site and are aiming for the fall launch of an exciting program aimed at providing leadership opportunities to young people in communites across New Brunswick and Atlantic Canada.

Through social media there’s an opportunity to engage all these folks in ways unavailable even 5 years ago. Social media isn’t a panacea despite what the proselytizers out there say it is. It’s a communications tool. In a meeting today we joked about the tendency of boomers to become utopian about Facebook, YouTube and their kin. "All the kids are doing it, we need to be there." There are serious limitations to these tools. When done half-assed it's underwhelming. Hence the post on why social media is like teen sex.

But when done well the upside is ginormous. This is exactly the point Sam Dorman makes in this short video, where I asked him to talk about the link between leadership and social media.





A better understanding of how to provide value to friends, supporters and members is the major reason organizations should be thinking about social media. Creating a Facebook fan page is a start, but no where near enough. The fact that most people attending the conference had job titles like Director of Social Media or E-marketing Manager shows that nonprofits, who represented 99 percent of attendees, are starting to get it.

A big shout out to the McConnell Foundation who sponsored our attendance!!

Brooks on Obama

David Brooks shows his witty side when discussing Obama and the US health care challenges.

You are daunted by the challenges in front of you until you remember that by some great act of fortune, you happen to be Barack Obama. This calms you down. You conceive a strategy.

It's the not usual stuff we write about, but I got a kick out of it.

Les jeux sont faits!

La date limite pour les mises en candidature étant hier, le processus de sélection est maintenant enclenché. Nous avons reçu plus de 100 candidatures, qui sont maintenant entre les mains de nos juges en vue de créer une présélection des 50 meilleurs candidats, qui prendront part à la Journée d'Évaluation, le 27 juin prochain, à Fredericton.

Je dois avouer qu'en regardant brièvement les applications, j'ai pu constater le haut niveau de qualité des candidats et je suis certaine que les juges n'auront pas la tâche facile! Cette observation me pousse à conclure que les jeunes au Nouveau-Brunswick sont présents, engagés et désireux de s'impliquer dans le future de notre province. Je suis donc convaincue que nous aurons cette année aussi un groupe de Leaders des plus dynamiques!

Bonne chance à tous!!!

Teen Sex

I'm in Toronto at a three day conference hosted at MARS called Social Tech Training.  It's a "Masters" level class on how to use the social web to foster social change.  This quote was used during one of the sessions and I want to share it.  It just might be the. best. quote. ever. 

"Social Media is like teen sex.  Everyone wants to do it.  Nobody knows how.  When it's done, there is surprise that it's not better." 

Avinash Kaushik, Web Analystics Guru, Google

Comment identifier le leadership?

Dans notre quête pour nos prochains 21 Leaders, nous devons établir un processus permettant de sélectionner les meilleurs candidats disponibles. Qui dit sélection dit également définition de critères de sélection. Avec la multitude de théories, approches et recherches sur le leadership, j'aurais cru que qu'il serait plus facile de définir les éléments que doivent posséder un individu afin d'être considéré un leader.

Hélas, ce n'est pas le cas! Tout le monde a une opinion différente de ce qui constitue un leader, me ramenant donc à la case départ, avec plusieurs questions à répondre. Que cherchons-nous et quel genre de critères nous permettrons de trouver ce que nous cherchons? Des critères tels que démontrer de l'initiative, posséder des habiletés en communication et être en mesure de travailler en équipe vont-ils nous diriger vers les gens ayant du leadership ou vers des gens ayant une «belle personnalité»? Est-ce nécessaire d'avoir une «belle personnalité» pour avoir du leadership ou est-ce possible d?exercer du leadership sans exhiber les caractéristiques typiques d?une personnalité extravertie? Ces deux éléments sont-ils interdépendants ou indépendants?

Quelles soient exactes ou non, je devrai trouver réponses à ces questions. Une chose est certaine, cette prochaine édition des 21 Leaders sera elle aussi constituée de gens exceptionnels, peu importe les réponses à ces questions!

Heritage As Open Source

Photo taken with my Blackberry.  Not bad for a phone.

 

A couple weeks ago we hosted a colloquium for the Heritage Branch of the New Brunswick Department of Culture, Wellness and Sport to explore how young people think about heritage.  It was an all day event with young people aged 20 to 30 from across the province.  

Over the past couple days I’ve been going over my notes from it in preparation to write the report.  One theme is clearly dominant: our heritage is dynamic.  

Heritage was many things to the participants – history, culture, identity, relationships, food, and the environment, for example.  All these things can be encapsulated by the idea of Heritage as a story we tell about ourselves.  There are important chapters to this story that have occurred throughout the province’s history.  The rise of bilingualism, architecture and music were mentioned often.  

This story has also been fragmented and fraught with tension: French/English; Urban/Rural; Protestant/Catholic; First Nation/Everyone else.  Moreover, there’s a global story being told that young New Brunswickers want to be more a part of.  

Many people see heritage as the past, leading to conflicts between those who want to preserve heritage, and those who prefer progress. But the young people at the colloquium didn’t see it so starkly.  To them heritage was an evolving story.  It was best expressed by someone from Fredericton who said rather matter of factly, “we need a new heritage.”  Someone else talked about a “future heritage.”

This “new heritage” is inclusive, connected and forward looking.  It celebrates one’s identity proudly, while continuously seeking to maximize the sum of one’s many changing identities – Anglophone, francophone, mother, daughter, soft-ware developer, Coldplay fan, farmer, coffee connoisseur, Canadian, New Brunswicker, Monctonian, global citizen.

It is heritage as an open source concept.  

Creative Policy Making

I just finished writing a piece for The Mark that argues our current policy conversations are dated.  Like army generals who fight their previous war, the policies being debated are for the previous crisis. Our future well-being requires policy targeted to the future and with more creativity.  I don't try to reinvent the wheel in the piece but instead look around the world for interesting policy programs that we could replicate with little effort and potentially a big payoff.

The program I discuss most is in the state of South Australia, called Adelaide Thinkers in Residence.  Started in 2003 by the current Premier, Mike Rann, the program brings world-leading thinkers to live and work in Adelaide to assist in the strategic development and promotion of South Australia.  

One of the past Thinkers was former advisor on innovation and governance to Tony Blair, Geoff Mulgan.  I'm currently reading a piece by him on social innovation and how to make the most of the state's collective intelligence.  Here's a quote:

"The usual approach of public sectors [towards social innovation] is a scattering of pilots, combined with new initiatives that reflect the enthusiasms of ministers or officials.  There is plenty of excellent innovation in South Australia.  But, as elsewhere, it often happens by stealth, under the radar, despite the rules rather than because of them.  Often good pilots are not fully assessed and scaled up.  Many grow outside the system."

There will likely always be innovation "outside" the sytem, since systems become fixed and less open to new ideas.  But given the challenges we face in New Brunswick, this is an unacceptable approach to policy making and social innovation.  It would be a big step forward for a group of New Brunswick stakeholders to commit to a Thinkers in Residence type program, encouraging the experimenting, learning and scaling we need to make meaningful change.

In The News

Our search for 21 of the province's most promising new and emerging leaders is picking up great coverage across New Brunswick.  Here is a sampling of stories:

L'Acadie Nouvelle - Les 21 leaders recrutent dans le Nord

The Daily Gleaner - Young Leaders Nurtured at 21inc

The Telegraph Journal - Leadership Development Program Seeks Applicants

The Telegraph Jouranl - Leadership's Ripple Effect 

Info-Weekend - Des élèves découvrent les trésors cachés de la province

The Northern Light - Innovative Program Seeks New Leaders of Tomorrow

Putting Our MLA's on Notice

 

Larry Kennedy, MLA for Victoria-Tobique, stood up in the Legislature last week and entered into provincial record, as well as informed the province's MLA's, of our search for 21 of the province's new and emerging leaders.  Considering we didn't ask the Honourable MLA to do this, it's quite a nice surprise!

 

Mr. Speaker, 21inc. is a non-profit organization aimed at developing and inspiring some of New Brunswick’s most promising young people.  Earlier this month, 21inc. launched a province-wide search for 21 enthusiastic and energetic young New Brunswickers to participate in its 21 leaders program.  Participants will join a dynamic and diverse network of engaged young New Brunswickers committed to their province and its future.  Mr. Speaker, this program will help young New Brunswickers develop skills that will serve them now and in the future.  I strongly encourage those interested to apply. These are the leaders of tomorrow, the New Brunswickers who are critical to building a self-sufficient province.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker