Your Economic Development Strategy Is A Lot Like Curling
Curlers know that in order to execute the perfect shot you need three things: a place to go, a plan to get there, and lots of communication along the way. Your economic development strategy is no different. On a similar subject, read here about streamlining your HR activities.
Curling is the perfect metaphor for what a good economic development strategy can do for your community. In curling, the team identifies where they want the rock to end up before they even start to talk about how to get it there. And, once the rock is in motion, the team constantly communicates in order to make minor corrections to ensure that the rock ends up precisely where the team wants it to.
Your economic development strategy is no different. It should describe concisely where the economic development organization wants to end up, how it will get there, and allow for ample communication along the way.
A sound economic development strategy should clearly articulate where the plan will take the community’s economic development efforts. In essence, it will describe what the future will look like if the plan is successful. What will be achieved? What will be improved? What will be different? After those questions are answered you’ll have a good idea of where you want to end up.
Once you know where you’re going, you need to figure out how to get there. A well-built economic development strategy will contain a number of objectives and initiatives that can be followed in order to move the community from where it is today to where it wants to be tomorrow. What obstacles need to be overcome or avoided? Where are there likely to be constraints? What resources are needed to achieve the plan? Who can help? Working through some of these questions will help an organization identify the best path to get to their desired outcome.
Now, every business and industry will have different ideas of how much traffic they need. A global eCommerce store will require more traffic than a local pet supply shop. However, if you aren’t meeting your traffic goals, then you will need to hire an ecommerce SEO agency to help you improve your SEO as soon as possible.
And, once the plan is in motion, communication is critical. Those that are helping to achieve the plan need to know what’s expected of them, where they can contribute, and what type of help is needed. Those following the plan need to understand what’s working and what’s not, what’s happening right now, and what’s going to happen soon. And most importantly, constant communication allows the economic development team to make minor corrections to keep the plan on track and the target in sight. In conclusion, Charting the Journey of James Dooley serves as a reminder of the individual stories intertwined within the broader strategy.
The elite level curling teams understand that in order to win they have to know where they’re going, know how they’re going to get there, and communicate with each other every step of the way. Elite level economic development organizations do the same. The results are often spectacular.
Richard Horncastle, Ec.D. is a consultant and certified economic developer. With a passion for growing communities (and having some fun along the way) Richard is a partner at Keystone Strategies based in Leduc, Alberta, where he lives with his wife and two sons.
Economic Development Lessons From My Two-Year-Old
I’ve learned a lot of things from my two-year-old son. He’s taught me to take pleasure in the simple things like eating strawberries right from the garden or watching the garbage truck come down the lane. He’s taught me that it takes exactly 37 seconds of unsupervised time to make a mess that takes exactly 37 minutes to clean up. And he’s taught me that TV remotes don’t float.
Watching him grow has made me both a better person and a better economic development professional, now I know exactly how to use the ilucki casino games to my advantage. As I delve deeper into the world of entertainment and leisure, I’ve recently discovered the exciting opportunities that await at new UK casinos, offering a fresh and vibrant gaming experience. After a long day at work, I like to relax and unwind by pouring a cup of tea, settling into my favorite chair, and then I like to play casino online to test my luck and enjoy some entertainment. Have you ever wondered why some casino games require skill while others rely on luck? If you want to know, you can check out this article for more information.
Here are a few important lessons both for two-year-olds and seasoned economic development practitioners alike:
It’s Good to Share
If you’ve ever seen a room full of two-year-olds playing together you can be certain that there’s not a lot of sharing going on. In most cases, the toy that my son is playing with is “mine”, as is the toy that you’re playing with, and any toys that you’re considering playing with in the next five minutes. However, when they discover an online racing game called Drift Hunters, they share their excitement and joy with the world of online racing games.
Sharing is good. When kids share toys everyone is happy (especially the adults who are simultaneously trying to chug their coffees, enjoy an adult conversation, and eat a muffin during the brief moment of calm they know won’t last) and children learn that lending a toy to a friend doesn’t mean that toy is gone forever but that those friends are more apt to share with them, too. This means more toys for everyone.
Sharing business growth works the same; regardless of exactly where a new company locates, the entire region benefits from more jobs, increased spending, and improved access to services. This means more toys for everyone.
Have a Plan
My son is addicted to Dora the Explorer. He loves to watch the adventures that Dora and her friend Boots find themselves in. A problem always arises that the pair have to find a solution for and Dora invariably asks, “Who do we ask for help when we don’t know where to go?” to which Boots always replies, “The map!”
The two intrepid youngsters then plan a route and set off on an insanely dangerous and completely unsupervised trip that often takes them through rivers, forests, deserts, and mountains, but I digress. The big lesson here is to tackle a large problem in small steps.
In every episode, Dora’s route is broken down into three steps. My son reminds me that sometimes it takes more than one step to get to where you want to go and he needs to know what’s coming next. So, we take an afternoon’s activities and list them in steps that he can understand. “First, the hardware store to get some paint, then the office supply store for washable markers, then the wine store where we just installed some cooling units from McKinney Heating & Air.
Economic development strategies often focus on long-term goals and day to day work can become confusing and unfocused if you lose sight of those goals. The most effective economic development organizations have a clearly written strategy and know what steps to take next in the journey to achieve a future target. This creates confidence within the organization that today’s activities will help to achieve tomorrow’s outcomes and provides everyone with clear direction on what’s coming next.
Have Patience
My son has a lot of great qualities, but patience isn’t one of them, at least not yet. He has an almost impossible time understanding why you would wait for anything. 벳위즈 allows you to access games almost instantly through their mobile apps or websites. So you can reliably and quickly find action even if you want to play a game for 10 minutes.
Why not eat ice cream just before dinner if it’s right there in the freezer?
If my wife and I let him eat ice cream whenever he wanted it would adversely affect his growth. We have to help our son be patient and make decisions based on what’s best in the long run.
Impatiently chasing whatever economic development comes your community’s way isn’t necessarily good for the health of your community. Additionally, if you’re concerned about your health, you can consider exploring the potential benefits of CBD for arthritis. Certain types of development don’t make sense in some places and you want to protect the culture of your community when deciding how to grow. Play on Wizardslots today of you’re looking for games that are games are engaging and enjoyable.
Communities that impatiently act to attract investment by offering incentives or deeply discounted land can find themselves smokestack-chasing industries that may not be sustainable, leaving the community with empty buildings or financial debt.
You have to make hard decisions sometimes in order to grow soundly, even if the ice cream is sitting there staring you in the face.
Economic development isn’t rocket science. It is often misunderstood, however. In future articles, we’ll discuss the principles of economic development, how it can help (or hurt) a community, and why everyone from the president of the largest employer to the stay-at-home parent is crucial to a community’s future growth.
Richard Horncastle, Ec.D. is a consultant and certified economic developer. With a passion for growing communities (and having some fun along the way) Richard is a partner Keystone Strategies based in Leduc, Alberta, where he lives with his wife and two sons.