Episode: 361

Episode Title: Seeing the Forest

Sometimes, it can be tough to bring education, workforce, and economic development together because they’re each so good at what they do. Stay tuned for more, next on The Perna Syndicate.

Ep 361 show:

It’s a new week on The Perna Syndicate—welcome! I’m your host, Mark Perna, and today, I want to talk about some key points from my recent interview on the Develop This! podcast with host Dennis Fraise. Dennis is spearheading our economic development project in Lee County, Iowa and it was a great conversation with tactical-level strategies for shifting the paradigm in education, workforce, and economic development. 

One of the biggest challenges we face in trying to bring these diverse groups together and get them on the same page is that they’re all excellent at what they do. I’m not kidding. They are pros in their area of expertise. 

The reason this is a challenge is because their area of expertise is all they know. I see education and employment as a forest, with each organization and stakeholder focusing on their own particular tree, if you will. 

But there’s a bigger picture out there that many times, no one is seeing. Each tree is part of a larger ecosystem that thrives or fails due in large part to what’s going on around it. We’re all part of that forest.

If you’re working to bring education, workforce, and economic development together, you’ve likely run into this challenge. We’re all really good at growing our own tree, but if we really want to make a difference, to shift that paradigm for the next generation, we have to step back and look at the whole forest. 

So this is something I’ve been working with the Lee County team of stakeholders to achieve. Tomorrow, I’ll share the one core idea that unified this diverse group and how we’re moving forward together. Thanks for listening to The Perna Syndicate today…we’ll see you tomorrow!