I am following a blog titled EdProWeblog. It's written by Ed Morrison, an economic development consultant who writes this blog as a way to promote his practice. He also works at Purdue University's Center for Regional Development. He promotes what I believe is a fairly new way of looking at workforce development, education, and economic development -- he believes that they should work together (WHAT A CONCEPT!). It sounds obvious, but these 3 elements often don't work together which is why all 3 remain a disconnected mess in many parts of the US.
He promotes what he calls "Open Source Education, Economic, and Workforce Development."The term, open source, as used in software development means that the code used to develop the software is "open" for anyone to manipulate for their own specific purposes. Programmers from all over the world can collaborate to take general software (think Open Office) and make it useful for their own cultural context. This is the opposite of "closed source" or proprietary software (think MS Office) that cannot be manipulated by anyone outside of programmers at Microsoft. The same collaborative spirit is applied to Open Source Education, Economic, and Workforce Development. People from all 3 industries work together in a specific region to find the most effective and efficient solutions that benefit all. Again, WHAT A CONCEPT!
So what does this have to do with leadership? Ed Morrison, for the most part, works as a consultant to people in 3 industries. While his specialty is economic development, he also has the knowledge of the other 2 industries to help his clients make more informed decisions. Thus I would think that as a consultant, he is speaking to the skills or competencies approach within the leaders he works with. He would start from where the leader (and thus the team she is working with) is currently in their skills, then try to build on that to fill gaps that lead to effective problem solving. The belief behind consulting is that leaders can improve their work through the assistance of someone who can provide a new perspective. Thus using the trait approach may be not be efficient as trying to change characteristics a leader is born with may take a while. Consulting can also be aligned with the style approach to leadership as it emphasizes both task and relationship to people that lead to wanted outcomes.
1 comment:
I was intrigued by your review of EdProWeblog. I was in economic development for many years (for the state of Virginia and then later for a locality). The single most frustrating thing I encountered was the disconnect between CC, Universities, and the Workforce development group in VA. Frankly, the community college system was much more progressive and easier to work with when it came to industry and training. However, universities - in my experience - were more "possessive" of their perceived territories. They were more of a "closed source."
In light of the difficult financial times, the growing importance of workforce development, and higher education institutes being more pro-active and progressive in their pedagogy(ies) - the time is right to have an "open source," for the workforce. A lot of new "rules" of the game will need to be established - be we can get there!
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