John Speck comes up to present the nuggets for second table on the “cabal”: “My thought is this is about Pawtucket and on my blog New England can be very nasty, and well Pawtucket can be one of the nastiest places…and well Speck was attracted to it “light attracts light” Government are the real estate developers, what do we do with such a siloed. Option 1: infiltrate. Or Option 2: Do we surround them with a larger network…build another entity around it. Involvement in Government is disincentivized. Government is the worst at terrorizing talent. So where do we go? What about the immigrant neighborhoods…tend to be insular how do we break into that and how do we engage this community to find leaders? Nugget: don’t worry where you are going, but who is on the train you are traveling. Find one person you trust and let that person find more. The option becomes #1: infiltrate.
Colleen Daley Ndoye: presented for the identifying key leaders: Community mapping of where people live, work, pray, etc. and where the leaders are whether inside or outside the community. And small neighborhoods don’t always have leaders who live there. Gatekeeps can be a key– they may not be leaders themselves but they can identify leaders. For example, like a barkeeper who doesn’t live there but knows those who do.
Glenn Bachman present the nuggets for the moving from individual leadership to organizational leadership: Familiarity with the landscape is key. Need to identify the key organizational stakeholders who are engaged in the SWOT questions asked of them about their neighborhoods and who identified issues- ask them what they’ve done, are doing, and will do next.
Next, create a common language used by the leaders and by the implementing organizations.
Lastly, having enterprise agility. Ensure existing (current) ideas can be accommodated by enterprises. Organizations may have been started years ago and need to be rephrased, missions, values, constituents, so how do you address a more universal appeal for the mission rather than what was in past.
Nancy Whit: presents the using relationships to get resources to show up table nuggets: RI is a small state of limited resources, as a result numerous orgs. are competing. But here we have similar initiatives so there is opportunity to get the projects more in alignment, and the resources. We have to learn how to work together to make the most of programs available and to get the best results. There are other agencies that have not been including…who else do we look out for and help them as they work in the community. All need to learn/ get better at building relationships…without contention, is what
Robert adds: Relationships don’t have the intention… to sit in a relationship and just focus on that instead of how much money you have.
Reflections from Jim, what did he hear:
Jim: I sat in a couple of tables, the one about generating resources. Found himself thinking of the power that gets created to change how people think and do when new people enter the equation who didn’t have access before. There are very real people with a very real lives, in Pawtucket, Central Falls, many leaders who have trust relationships but don’t get involved. We need these people, invited into the equation.
Jim gives an example of bringing in 14 neighborhoods and asked folks to bring in their counterparts from other cities, the mayor to bring his council. They all work together, feed each other. So we tried to use their relationships to tap into it. About 400 folks and how do we recognize them for the time involved. So we thought what about a “graduation” but in reverse! We had the mayor and the MacAuthur funder up there and each person goes up and presents their idea and project. Saying Mr. Mayor this is our neighborhood we are dedicated to give our time and talent to make this happen, and this is your city. All representatives
This is what emerged: Mayor called and said he wanted a meeting with each neighborhood. NOw these folks had never been able to access the mayor. All commissioners were there: police, Economic Development, housing… Copy of the plan was dog eared, the Mayor had read all the plans–the agreements all neighborhoods, real people, doing real stuff that he was frustrated about…he can’t change it, these cast of characters are making something good happen why won’t he support it.
So the tactical power lead to the access to conventional power, getting access to real people with time, energy and talent and willingness to do something. Never chase money chase success…money follows. So what does it take to be successful in a neighborhood. THe social network becomes expontential.


