Discovering Our Collective Leadership Edge

          This seminar was presented by Your Leadership EDGE: Innovative Leadership for you and your Community.  Session 1 took place on Friday, February 10, 2012 from 2:00 – 4:30.  The focus of today’s session was twofold:  1) to find the gap between the current reality and our future aspirations for our respective communities; and 2) to explore our roles in the issues we care about.  We discussed two different types of problems - those dealing with technical issues versus adaptive issues.  With technical issues the problem solution is clear and known, but adaptive issues require learning.  An example given of a technical issue was the failure earlier today of a lift pump.  Examples of adaptive issues were community solidarity and local poverty relief.  An expert or someone in authority typically is called on to fix technical problems and it is often done quickly.  On the other hand, adaptive issues typically involve a process or an experiment and require effort on behalf of the stakeholders.  This program focuses on adaptive issues as they require leadership.

          I sat with the Chief of Police and the Fire/EMS Chief.  There were about sixty attendees from the City of Newton, Harvey County, and a wide variety of local non-profit agencies.  Each of us had our own issues that we were concerned about.  Mine has evolved since I have been doing research for Dr. White.  I would like to see a unified approach by Newton and other local municipalities, the Sand Creek Watershed, and Harvey County to the EPA’s unfunded mandates regarding the NPDES Phase II (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System).  Currently, the mandate only applies to Newton, but the Watershed and the County have major impacts on local water quality.  The City of Newton is 11.73 square miles in size and lies within Harvey County which covers 540.5 square miles. 

We have a booklet which we are to work in.  We are to list the Technical Elements and the Adaptive Elements.  For Technical Elements, we are to list: 1) Expertise or information needed; 2) How might we get this done? Who could help?; and 3) What challenges might we face?.  For Adaptive Elements, we are to list: 1) What do we need to learn or change?; 2) How might we work together? What process should we use?; and 3) What challenges might we face?. 

             I am finding my background in Public Administration and in Urban Planning to be beneficial in addressing these issues.  We were encouraged to address issues that we were not too large for us to tackle, like eliminating World Hunger.  There are two more sessions next week and one the week after that.