I am in Tampa Bay Florida with the National Workforce Association and David Bradley. I am looking forward to visiting with old friends in the workforce system and catch up on some best practices. Some of my former board members from Indiana are going to be here tonight, so I look forward to visiting with them.
I will blog on what is happening at this conference and post some of my thoughts.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
The shifting of the economic midwest
One of the realities I have discovered since I moved to rural Illinois over two years ago is the attitude that the status-quo must be maintained at all costs because that is what "we know."
I have experienced much in this time in the rural Midwest. I appreciate the slow pace, the informal dress, the farming business, and the spots here and there of manufacturers.
The fact is, globalization is happening here and the slow decline of the job base is now to the point where there are too few jobs and too many unskilled workers wanting jobs.
While we adapt to the slow changes on a daily basis, we fail to comprehend the systems changes augmented by those incremental changes. As Thomas Homer-Dixon puts it, "This very capacity is "a real handicap when it comes to dealing with slow-creep problems. We just don't see the change, and the thing about slow-creep problems is that they be slow-creep for awhile, but then all of a sudden there is a non-linear shift and we find ourselves in a crisis" (Shambhala Sun, September 2008). That describes the housing crisis, the financial crisis, the environmental crisis, and the disappearance of manufacturing in the Midwest.
Part of our problem is that we continue to try and solve the problems with today's thinking. Today's thinking put us in this situation. Creative and innovative thinking will bring us out of the situation.
In southeastern Illinois, we have many of the problems plaguing the Midwest with a couple of exceptions. We have Effingham that is experimenting with entrepreneurship training in the High School for the entire county. The hope is that this effort will show success and be able to be scaled up to other counties in the region. Effingham also tends to have a more progressive outlook for the future.
However, for every Effingham, I have many smaller towns that are on the verge of disappearing. This region is still bleeding its young and smart people out due to a lack of opportunity and global connectability. Broadband service is limited and expensive compared with metro areas.
It is time for a new model of economic growth that is based on sustainability and emulates the natural cycles in life.
The future can be very bright for the Midwest. Moreover the opportunities to live in small towns has its draw. However, the infrastructure will need to be on par with the larger cities, or the rural life will continue to disappear.
I have experienced much in this time in the rural Midwest. I appreciate the slow pace, the informal dress, the farming business, and the spots here and there of manufacturers.
The fact is, globalization is happening here and the slow decline of the job base is now to the point where there are too few jobs and too many unskilled workers wanting jobs.
While we adapt to the slow changes on a daily basis, we fail to comprehend the systems changes augmented by those incremental changes. As Thomas Homer-Dixon puts it, "This very capacity is "a real handicap when it comes to dealing with slow-creep problems. We just don't see the change, and the thing about slow-creep problems is that they be slow-creep for awhile, but then all of a sudden there is a non-linear shift and we find ourselves in a crisis" (Shambhala Sun, September 2008). That describes the housing crisis, the financial crisis, the environmental crisis, and the disappearance of manufacturing in the Midwest.
Part of our problem is that we continue to try and solve the problems with today's thinking. Today's thinking put us in this situation. Creative and innovative thinking will bring us out of the situation.
In southeastern Illinois, we have many of the problems plaguing the Midwest with a couple of exceptions. We have Effingham that is experimenting with entrepreneurship training in the High School for the entire county. The hope is that this effort will show success and be able to be scaled up to other counties in the region. Effingham also tends to have a more progressive outlook for the future.
However, for every Effingham, I have many smaller towns that are on the verge of disappearing. This region is still bleeding its young and smart people out due to a lack of opportunity and global connectability. Broadband service is limited and expensive compared with metro areas.
It is time for a new model of economic growth that is based on sustainability and emulates the natural cycles in life.
The future can be very bright for the Midwest. Moreover the opportunities to live in small towns has its draw. However, the infrastructure will need to be on par with the larger cities, or the rural life will continue to disappear.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Obama's Potential
Last night was historic by every measure. And the potential for the workforce system finally coming out of a long deadlock is within sight. The big question is whether there is a growing understanding that as people receive additional weeks of unemployment help, that it should be tied to skill enhancements funded with additional money for the workforce system.
In Southeastern Illinois, we are reeling from the slowdown in the auto industry. Many of our remaining local manufacturers are tied to the auto industry supply chain. Currently, we have over 150 workers on lay off and it is growing by the day with announcements of plant closings and companies filing chapter 11.
At the same time with the rescission we sent back to the Department of Labor earlier this year, the system is struggling to meet the increasing demand. Our Crossroads Workforce Centers are very busy and the state partners, the Illinois Department of Employment Services needs to have additional help to receive all the calls they are getting. Many people are irate because they have not been in this position before and are unsure of the process. The ES staff are trying their best to answer the deluge of calls and the frustration that tends to come out from people just laid off. They should get "combat pay" for having to deal with this every day.
So, the opportunity is to move forward with change and improvement. Our system had the Baldrige Quality Principles built into the law. We need to adjust and make the system better. We need to more closely work with economic development and education. But we also need the investment in the people we serve by the federal government and some kind of incentive to bring business dollars to the table too. This system servers all employers. And those that are complaining about the quality of the job applicants need to stop complaining and investing in a solution. The workforce investment system can be an important part of the solution.
In Southeastern Illinois, we are reeling from the slowdown in the auto industry. Many of our remaining local manufacturers are tied to the auto industry supply chain. Currently, we have over 150 workers on lay off and it is growing by the day with announcements of plant closings and companies filing chapter 11.
At the same time with the rescission we sent back to the Department of Labor earlier this year, the system is struggling to meet the increasing demand. Our Crossroads Workforce Centers are very busy and the state partners, the Illinois Department of Employment Services needs to have additional help to receive all the calls they are getting. Many people are irate because they have not been in this position before and are unsure of the process. The ES staff are trying their best to answer the deluge of calls and the frustration that tends to come out from people just laid off. They should get "combat pay" for having to deal with this every day.
So, the opportunity is to move forward with change and improvement. Our system had the Baldrige Quality Principles built into the law. We need to adjust and make the system better. We need to more closely work with economic development and education. But we also need the investment in the people we serve by the federal government and some kind of incentive to bring business dollars to the table too. This system servers all employers. And those that are complaining about the quality of the job applicants need to stop complaining and investing in a solution. The workforce investment system can be an important part of the solution.
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