Little By Little

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009

A New Economy Doesn't March In...

It Enters on Cat's Paws...

It's so easy to walk past an alleyway, and not notice the innovation, the design, the symmetries of scale. When we shot the photo above, no-one else stopped to admire the view through the walkway connecting the buildings, or the juxtaposition of old and new. That's what happens to large scale change in our community as well. Unless we happen to be "attached" in some way, well, we just don't understand the scale of the change.

The LTB class this week meets at the Whalen Building... the PUC down at the marina...we drive past regularly. We chose to meet at the CEDC on purpose, because this was the headquarters for major changes in 1913, just as it is in 2009.

1913

The Whalen building, built in 1913 by James Whalen, a logging tycoon, was one of the first really high office buildings in the area.

James Whalen (1869–1929) was a Canadian businessman and entrepreneur based in Port Arthur, Ontario, with interests in the forest industries, shipbuilding, dredging, and towing. From a modest beginning as a timber contractor in the 1890s, he built an impressive business empire in various Great Lakes marine businesses.

Companies associated with James Whalen
Western Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company
Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company, PASCO
Great Lakes Dredging Company
Canadian Towing and Wrecking Company
Dominion Towing and Salvage Company
Whalen Pulp and Paper Company (British Columbia)
Canada West Coast Navigation Company
Canada Pebble Company

September 07, 2007
Thunder Bay Takes Step Toward Creation Of Technology Cluster

Provincial Funds To Inject New Life Into Downtown Heritage Building
SUDBURY – The McGuinty government is helping Thunder Bay create a professional data centre that will act as a catalyst to attract and secure new economic activity in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci has announced.

The data centre will be a key component of a new technology cluster in the city’s downtown north core, where the city-owned Whalen building will be retrofitted to accommodate ICT-related companies. The project is expected to strengthen existing businesses while generating new economic activity for the future.

“The Whalen ICT Cluster will help us build our capacity to provide important services, such as comprehensive data and web services, that are currently unavailable through local sources,” said Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Bill Mauro. “Having a quality cluster of ICT-related services will support all sectors of the city’s economy.”

Under its Infrastructure and Community Development program, the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) is providing $1 million to the recently formed Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission to retrofit the Whalen building and develop the data centre in collaboration with Thunder Bay Telephone and Confederation College.

There's more to the Knowledge Based Economy...bring your walking shoes, your curiosity... see you on the 16th at 8:40!

Open Doors & Open Minds

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2008




Opening Doors (of Our Minds)

“How do we frame what we are doing in a way that makes it easy for people to do the right thing?” - Al Etmansky, Plan It


Following up on November 20, 2008:


A. Our Economic Renewal and Change learning day at Bombardier was a great experience. The presentations gave us a new way to frame our vision of the potential of our City.



Michael Mehagan comments:
“Since returning to Thunder Bay about three and a half year's ago, my outlook for the city future has gone from pessimistic (glass is half empty) to realistic (glass is two times too large) to optimistic (glass is half full and filling), with yesterday's session being the final tipping point from realistic to optimistic.”

B. Kristen Oliver submitted the Mayor’s Opening Remarks and they are now posted on http://www.leadershiptb.com/ e-Board. Take 10 to read the speech. Go back and review the City’s Strategic Plan on line. Life and Business IS better here!

The Mayor mentioned Dr. Dekker, the newly arrived researcher who is all excited about the fungus in Centennial Park. We’ll ask him to be one of our presenters in the spring, because many of us are curious about the how we transform our city into a research and knowledge based industry.

C. John Hatton, from Confederation College recommended two books. John Kotter’s, Leading Change is about “crisis” as a propellant of change. Harvard Business Professor Kotter advises those who would implement change to foster a sense of urgency within the organization. "A higher rate of urgency does not imply ever present panic, anxiety, or fear. It means a state in which complacency is virtually absent."



Did you notice that the word “complacency” does not belong in Bombardier’s vocabulary? What does that tell you about higher order leadership skills?

The other reading recommendation was “Hot, Flat and Crowded” by Tom Friedman. The significance of the title is:


HOT - Global warming, the climate system is sensitive. There is only 6 degrees celsius between the ice age and today.
FLAT - The rise of the middle class all over the world
CROWDED - Population growth. 2.6B people in 1953 when Friedman was born. 9.2B people in 2053 when he reaches 100 years old. Fuels that we are using today are expensive, exhaustible, and toxic.

• According to Friedman, the 5 Megaproblems our world has:
  Energy and Natural Resources Running Out
  Petrodictatorship
  Climate Change
  Energy Poverty
  Biodiversity Loss

John also recommended the CEDC website for data, statistics and economic information about Thunder Bay. Data is powerful. You can find it on the City’s website at http://www.thunderbay.ca/index.cfm?fuse=html&pg=5485

From one of John’s Power Points (see the full presentation on the LTB E-Board):
The Role of a Leader – Appreciative Inquiry…

What If?
What are the Priority Actions?
What are the Best Practices?
Who owns the Problem?

D. Johnny (Rocket) Blackburn told us about BOS: Bombardier’s Operating System. It is remarkable. Go back to last week’s blog and re-read the Bombardier article by Dr. Brad.

Everything at Bombardier is designed and measured in 4 categories. Remember this billboard during your tour? Did you notice the Green Red and Yellow Flags which are visible standards of progress (or not and why not)?

People 1st.
Quality.
Responsiveness.
Cost.


E. Speaking of “required reading”, let’s clear the confusion about important resources for each Community Learning Day and your Community Action Project background.

1. The Whole Brain Business Book - ongoing, 1 Chapter recommended monthly

2. 7 Strategies of Master Leaders, 1 chapter emailed to you monthly

3. Resources for the CLD at the top right corner of the blog. "Read this by...". This list changes monthly.

4. The XOWhat Blog, http://xowhat.blogspot.com/ lists links or suggestions you may want to check out. The blog is posted every Tuesday, every week, and includes resources which are applicable to either the CLD or your leadership journey. Please subscribe - it's easier to keep up.

If it’s posted on the “TOP RIGHT CORNER of the XOWHATBLOG”, there’s relevant background information for you. I do my best to find appropriate, up to date and intriguing articles for you. Read as much as you can if you want to grow your knowledge base about: Community / Servant Leadership; Personal Leadership Development; the history/background/politics and current events and issues of Thunder Bay and the North. (No one will ask you what you have read. There's no test. It's up to you.)

Readings cover information and research that we just can’t fit into one learning day. Readings are posted every Tuesday so that you’re not hit with a huge amount of background info like a ton of bricks landing in your inbox just before CLD’s.

If you can’t open a link, then tell either Kari or myself…or google the topic. You can click on “comments” at the end of each week's posting, right beside the “date” and tell us all what you’re thinking. Anything controversial? Total agreement? Make a comment...

This month, for example, spend some time at the Tamarack* Community Engagement site, because December’s topic is The Voluntary Sector. Read the excellent "The Story of Somewhere" and join in the teleconference on Wednesday. See below for free registration.

I’m also recommending the introduction to Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets," by John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight. Your next community learning day takes the theory of “community assets” and makes it come “alive”! Go to the blog site: check out the top right corner "Read This" for the links.

F. B O N U S* - FREE TELESEMINAR!
Wednesday November 26: Register and Meet Us There for Lunch.
This free seminar is part of Tamarack’s* Practical Visionaries series. Presenters not only envision a better future for communities, but also create the means to help us to get there.

The Story of Somewhere
Date: Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Time: 12:00pm Eastern
Speaker: Author Eric Young
Description: We need a new narrative about community, says Eric Young. Stories have the power to give shape to our lives and our futures. And we have the power to create a new story for our communities, one that creates hope and inspires change. Register at http://tamarackcommunity.ca/g1_events_LCtele.html

G. A Request on behalf of Alumni and the Northern Women's Leadership Forum: Please invite a spouse, colleague, your boss or your CAP group organization’s host to join us on January 15 for “An Evening With Dr. Brad”. Please help us to fill the room and sell out this event. (Did you know that everyone working on this event is a volunteer?)


Enjoy your week! Questions? Call me or Kari… doors and minds are open…

- Maggie

807 939 3000