Mayor Jackson issues three strokes to ensure Sustainable Cleveland Summit 2019 continuity

Submitted by Sudhir Kade on Thu, 09/24/2009 - 11:17.
Mayor Jackson makes a historic announcement

Mayor Jackson issued three bold edicts at City Hall on Tuesday, September 22nd at 10:15 AM, to help ensure sustainability of the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Conference objectives:  First, he designated a cabinet-level position, Chief of Sustainability and promoted Andrew Watterson to that position.  Second, he designated a twenty-five member special advisory council to ensure strategic progress and coordination - their purpose and makeup are detailed here.  Finally, he assigned the formation of a sixty-three member steering committee, which will include two representatives from each organic work group, to ensure meaningful and strategic design for next year's 2010 Summit - the next annual installment on the way to realizing a 2019 vision for a better city.

It was empowering to attend this session at City Hall and hear these leaders make earnest commitments to positive change.

My teacher and mentor, David Cooperrider, who did a such a great job with Summit design and facilitation with the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value, gave a nice assessment of the current progress, speaking of the nicely-evolving combination of grassroots, bottom-up development and top-down development to advance our city's progress.   This commitment and action bodes well for our great City and Region.

A robust set of organic work-groups and action teams are pushing twenty-eight core initiatives as a result of this summit = a nice diversity of efforts towards positive change and transformational outcomes.  Kudos to all.

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9-22-09_Post_Summit_Announcements_ADVISORY.pdf77.1 KB
jackson_announcement.jpg39.71 KB
Swearing_in_Andrew.jpg40.21 KB
FactSheetApprecInquirySteeringCommittee.pdf97.44 KB
FactSheetApprecInquiryCouncil.pdf83.13 KB
SummariesofProposedSustainableCleveland2019Initiatives.pdf46.54 KB
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well said

Submitted by Zebra Mussel on Thu, 09/24/2009 - 19:39.

SR -  Well done.  Good scoop my friend.  Its nice to hear we have such a former RADICAL like Andrew Waterson ascending the ranks of City Government.  My thinking is that Paul Watson will be attempting to reconnect with this former volunteer in the near future.

http://northcoastgreenspieler.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

Submitted by Sudhir Kade on Thu, 10/01/2009 - 14:31.

Good to hear from you, John.  Things are evolving nicely, and as you can see from the 28 action plans posted above a lot of great things will get accomplished with this effort over time.  Past summits have been plagued by the inertia that follows the 'feel good' time immediately after one.  The key is to install mechanisms that ensure continuity - which is why the edicts above are so important.  Appreciative Inquiry is an iterative process and follow through must be part of the design.  As the city evolves and opportunities to adapt to dynamic changes in real-time arise, we need to capitalize on those to maximize value.

It's also important to provide the working teams with support, and all members of the Summit should have an attitude of supporting one another and these initiatives in any way they feel they can add true value.  This is what I work to do on an ongoing basis on our Sustainable Cleveland 2019 network.  I've recently offered the most meaningful mapping model I can derive, for example, so the action teams think about the key principles like inclusion, cross-sector collaboration, leveraging existing infrastructure and incorporating all our best assets, and reducing redundancies - all in collaborative and co-creative fashion.  The initial offering only gets richer when left open to collaborative modification and enrichment, so I leave it as a living legacy.  I hope the 28 new programs from the summit can benefit from it.

We can all make a difference with these efforts - I prefer smartly-organizing and effectively engaging to constantly complaining and whining inertly.   Map it out, folks, then organize and act!