SPOTLIGHT INSIGHT
Do More Together: Strategic Doing for Stronger Communities
Prof. Elizabeth Martin Founding Director, Anderson Classroom to Career Center
Adam Klawitter ’23 Content Writer, Agency 81
What do you do when the old way of working just doesn’t work? That’s the question Liz Nilsen posed when she visited Stevens Point in October as part of the School of Business and Economics Business and Society Lecture series. Nilsen is Associate Director of the Agile Strategy Lab at the University of North Alabama, Director of Operations of the Strategic Doing Institute and co-author of the award-winning 2019 book, Strategic Doing: Ten Skills for Agile Leadership . Nilsen’s visit was made possible due to support from the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership. The old way of work was based upon the “command and control” model, with one person doing the “thinking” and commanding a group to do the “doing.” That’s not how most organizations operate today. Instead, open and
loosely connected networks are the norm; collaboration is the backbone of how most work in communities and workplaces gets done. Collaboration is where Strategic Doing excels. For over 30 years, Strategic Doing has been helping communities learn ways to work with each other and thereby accomplish more together. How does Strategic Doing work? Its success stems from its name: doing. Strategic Doing’s approach is to start with a framing question (one that helps a group envision a better future), find the relevant resources that people can contribute, create and execute on a plan and follow up with frequent meetings to review progress and make adjustments.
But does Strategic Doing really work? Yes! Consider the Muscle Shoals region of northern Alabama which, much like our region, wants to retain its college graduates in the area. Shoals Shift, a Strategic Doing partnership between the University of North Alabama and the community, has been revitalizing the area’s economy for the past eight years.
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Center for Business and Economic Insight
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