13 ways performance review for ambitious communities...

2016 EDAC Marketing Canada Awards Category: Brand Application 13 WAYS Community Performance Review

13 WAYS Performance Review for Ambitious Communities:

Attitude, Leadership and Opportunity

Category: Brand Application

Group: Budget Level $200,000-$600,000

In the book 13 Ways to Kill Your Community by Doug Griffiths and Kelly Clemmer, the author postulates that if we know what makes a community fail, we should be able to achieve success by doing just the opposite! A very

compelling thought, and Alberta SouthWest, a regional economic development alliance (REDA) of 16 municipalities, piloted an innovative and effective performance assessment process based on this idea.

PURPOSE AND BRAND APPLICATION ............................................................................................................... 2

EFFECTIVENESS................................................................................................................................................. 2

CHALLENGES AND CHANGES............................................................................................................................ 2

SUSTAINABLE AND ONGOING MESSAGE BEHIND THE BRAND........................................................................ 2

ATTACHMENT #1 - Project Partners ................................................................................................................ 3

ATTACHMENT #2 - 13 WAYS Indicators ........................................................................................................... 4

ATTACHMENT #3 - Information-Gathering ...................................................................................................... 6

ATTACHMENT #4 - Interview Design ............................................................................................................... 6

ATTACHMENT #5 - Baseline Data..................................................................................................................... 8

ATTACHMENT #6 - Performance Scoring ......................................................................................................... 9

ATTACHMENT #7 - Sample Progress Assessment .......................................................................................... 10

ATTACHMENT #8 - Action-Planning Matrix ................................................................................................... 11

ATTACHMENT #9 - Lessons Learned .............................................................................................................. 12

ATTACHMENT #10 - Workshop Invitation ..................................................................................................... 13

ATTACHMENT #11 - Priorities and Next Steps ............................................................................................... 14


13 WAYS Performance Review for Ambitious Communities: Attitude, Leadership and Opportunity PURPOSE AND BRAND APPLICATION

To engage diverse partners and entire communities. ATTACHMENT #1

To explore a new approach to success by taking a new look at the old issues of community attitudes and leadership.

To build upon a successful brand: The book 13 Ways to Kill Your Community was already known to our target audience … municipal staff, business and community leaders … and had generated excitement and interest among municipalities. This project carefully aligned, protected and enhanced the 13 WAYS brand by securing permission from the author to put those concepts into action and create an optimistic view of building leadership capacity. Attitudinal and factual insights were explored through research and discussion based upon each of the indicators outlined in the book. ATTACHMENT #2

EFFECTIVENESS

No wheels reinvented! Existing resources were referenced and utilized: Comprehensive research included review of strategic planning documents, MDPs, EDPs, documents relating to economic and business growth as well as review of other reports and studies conducted to assess provincial, community and business development plans and needs.

Strong volunteer engagement is of incalculable value and represents a critical success factor in this initiative. We could not have paid for all the time, travel and energy contributed by our communities and organizations.

Attitude and positive thinking are the “low cost/high value” aspects of municipal leadership that contribute to prosperity, making the community attractive to visitors, new residents and investors.

CHALLENGES AND CHANGES

In design and process, this project represents a first of its kind community performance assessment tool with "attitude" sitting at the core of enabling organizational performance.

The initial term “Report Card” was replaced with “Progress Assessment” to avoid a judgmental tone. The report is really a measure of progress on the journey to community success.

Research and Observation: Extensive secondary research was conducted to generate quantitative, fact-based information to determine trend lines and create the context to evaluate qualitative input. ATTACHMENT #3

The “old school” approach of conducting personal interviews with municipal staff and community leaders served to develop relationships, invite engagement on a personal level and build awareness of the importance of leadership issues. The project demonstrates that while there are no real shortcuts to relationship-building and effective community development, it is possible to work together to make the road to success clear, well-defined and enjoyable.

SUSTAINABLE AND ONGOING MESSAGE BEHIND THE BRAND

During a period of 6 months 150 people were interviewed by invitation to ensure that “informed participants” provided a depth of knowledge in terms of municipal government, community and business issues. Participants included EDOs, CAOs, councillors, Chamber of Commerce representatives, businesses, developers and investors. ATTACHMENT #4

Baseline data: Each community provided information related to municipal operations and issues, which served to create another important set of facts and comparables for each community. ATTACHMENT #5

Custom-designed surveys translated the concepts from the book into questions that became performance indicators. An online “Survey of Perceptions and Attitudes” formed an important feature of the information-gathering. Each municipality generated a list of 30-40 people with strong knowledge of municipal government; the on-line survey was deployed to this informed group. The outstanding 65%-100% response from each community demonstrates the high level of engagement. 132 indicators were used to generate performance scoring and reporting. ATTACHMENT #6

User friendly reports: Each community received a colour-coded progress report with a numeric score associated with each of the 13 WAYS. This attractive, clear and impactful visual representation of strengths and issues alleviates the need to read a multi-page report before starting the conversation! ATTACHMENT #7 That said, the communities each received a more detailed “Strategic Themes and Actions” summary of key points that could accelerate formation of an economic development in each community.

Action-planning matrix: Each community received a summary “matrix” of what was brainstormed, then prioritized, and identified as key actions. Sharing these ideas will serve to help communities inspire each other. ATTACHMENT #8

Lessons learned: This was a rich regional experience on many levels. ATTACHMENT #9

Sustainable message: The author of 13 Ways spoke at the Gala Regional Workshop. 80 attendees experienced inspiring presentations, discussed their Progress Assessments, brainstormed, action planned, and celebrated. The process created an energetic leap forward in leadership development awareness, inspiring communities to examine attitudes and establish an ongoing conversation about the importance of meaningful and positive leadership. ATTACHMENTS #10 and #11


ATTACHMENT #1 - Project Partners

Municipal Partners Nanton MD of Willow Creek

Stavely MD of Ranchland

Claresholm MD of Pincher Creek

Granum Cardston County

Fort Macleod Glenwood

Pincher Creek Hill Spring

Crowsnest Pass Cowley

Cardston Waterton Lakes

Contract Services 13 Ways Inc.

Twist Marketing

Organizational Partners

o Elected officials from 16 municipalities

o CAOs, EDOs and municipal staff

o 6 Chambers of Commerce

o Community Futures Crowsnest Pass

o Community Futures Alberta Southwest

o Livingstone Range School Division

o Lethbridge College,

o Oldman River Regional Services Commission

o Regional Information Network of Southern Alberta (RINSA)

o Business and organization leaders


ATTACHMENT #2 - 13 WAYS Indicators “13 Ways to Kill Your Community” by Doug Griffiths and Kelly Clemmer The book uses some “reverse perspective” to make the point!

1. Water Quality If water quality in a community is bad, the community is probably in sharp decline with businesses closing, empty houses for sale and a community that appears decrepit and unsightly. Nowadays, people view good quality water as an essential quality of life. Furthermore, many industries require good quality water to be sustainable, including agriculture and tourism. If you want your community to fail, if you do not want to see it grow – just don’t bother to address the issue of water (supply, quality, safety, disposal, etc.)

2. Business Attraction The more businesses and business competition in a community, the more likely it is to be sustainable. People like variety and choices and they are willing to drive an hour or more to get what they are looking for. Successful communities are very innovative in their efforts to retain and attract business to the community. They understand that businesses create jobs and expand the tax base; more shoppers mean more revenue in the community. If death of your community is the ultimate goal, don’t bother doing anything about attracting new people and new businesses to your community; don’t change your bylaws or do anything to entice business development.

3. Youth Involvement The more that young people (35 years and under) are encouraged to participate in recreation, culture, and community affairs, the more vibrant the community is likely to be. These people have energy and fresh ideas. I guess all you have to do is look at the average age of municipal councillors to see that ‘youth’ are not always in the leadership mix. Saying that youth aren’t interested is just an excuse for not changing the old ways of thinking. If stifling your community is your plan, continue not engaging youth, don’t find reasons for them to stay and don’t seek out and use their ideas.

4. Assessing Community Needs and Assets You know the old saying, “fail to plan and you automatically plan to fail”. Well, that is especially true with communities. Take a critical look at community needs and then plan step by step how to meet these needs. Take an inventory of community assets and create opportunities and creative ways to use those assets to community’s advantage. If the failure of your community is the ultimate goal, just continue doing things the ways you have always done them while you continue to expect different results.

5. Shop Elsewhere How many rural businesses actually seek their customers’ feedback on how to provide better service or better products? Do they engage their consumers in conversation and demonstrate to their customers are very valuable to them? Sure fire ways your business community can decrease business, lose customers and jobs and eventual close their doors would be to give poor service, don’t keep the business clean and attractive, ensure high prices, and lay a ‘guilt trip’ on customers for not buying locally, ‘bad mouth’ other businesses.

6. Appearance of Businesses and the Community at Large It’s human nature to be drawn to attractiveness, whether aesthetically pleasing people or places. We don’t usually buy houses, cars or clothes that are ugly. We don’t usually shop in businesses that are junky, disorganized and messy. People will actually pay more for a product or service from a business that is nicely decorated, freshly painted, tidy and well organized…. even if it means shopping outside of the community. There is no evidence of civic pride in communities with poorly lit streets, uncontrolled weeds and unsightly premises, cracked sidewalks, streets with potholes, poorly maintained recreation facilities, damaged signage or lack of signage, lack of well-groomed park areas and green spaces; an uncared-for community is less attractive to most newcomers. If the failure of your community is your ultimate goal, continue to make business and community aesthetics a low priority and be successful in driving business and newcomers away from your community.

7. Cooperation An essential requirement of all human relationships is cooperation (marriage, business, friendships, sports teams and work bees). You can be assured of leading your community into a pattern of bullying, intimidation and hostility by ensuring your community remains at a disadvantage by avoiding meaningful cooperation with other municipalities, organizations, businesses; by ignoring activities, talents, and efforts of another groups. You can actually pursue open conflict with other groups; or you can pretend to work with them while you ‘bad mouth’ them behind the scenes and follow your own hidden agenda. Any one of these is an excellent way to kill spirit and energy.


8. Live in the Past To have the ultimate goal of destroying your community (albeit unwittingly most of the time), requires just the right attitude. Living in the past and dwelling on past problems, mistakes and failures will infiltrate the entire community. These folks are most vocal in meetings, the coffee shop, the lounge and sitting around the council table and are very skilled at sucking the energy out of creative, forward thinkers by arguing about failures rather than seeking solutions for the future. If strangling your community is the ultimate goal, negative attitude is essential. Hold on to it, live by it and share your thoughts with everyone who will give you a moment’s attention.

9. Ignore the Seniors Many seniors have money, time on their hands, and capability to contribute to the wellbeing of the community, but many community leaders choose to ignore this community asset. Successful communities capitalize on their senior population. They realize that seniors are consumers that contribute to the overall economy of the community and have skills and wisdom to be active, contributing members of the community. Successful communities not only keep their seniors, they attract others. If you are bent on destroying your community, you are best to ignore the seniors. Ensure that this large, dangerous group is kept in the background and not involved in the community in anyway except at their own senior drop in centre. Warehouse them in old folks’ homes and don’t let them get too involved in the community. And definitely don’t cater to their needs. Out of sight – out of mind is the best approach.

10. Nothing New If you want to keep your community down trodden, ignore anyone who brings up new ideas or talks about emerging trends. Community that seek out ideas, explore options, exchange ideas and seek out ways of working with other communities, the private sector and other organizations discover a whole new world of opportunities. Businesses often learn to be successful by following the practices of other successful businesses and by regularly seeking out suggestions from employees, suppliers and customers. Create chaos by following similar practices! No, you must continue using the same leaders, the same leadership styles and the same ideas over and over again while continuing to expect different results. You are best to stay within sight of the water tower. This will ensure that no new ideas come up and the community will slowly die doing the same things it has always done.

11. Ignore Immigrants and Newcomers Immigrants and newcomers have new ideas and ways of doing things. Successful communities wholeheartedly welcome newcomers, including immigrants into their community. They recognize the benefits of diversity, new skills, the newcomers’ work ethic, their entrepreneurial drive and their willingness to invest in their new community. They are most appreciative to have the opportunity to be part of a safe community. If you don’t want newcomers to get a foothold in your community, the best way to deal with these people is to keep them shut out of civic affairs, make little or no effort to integrate them into the social fabric of the community. After all, they dress funny, speak a language we can’t understand. They seem to work all the time and they east strange foods. Make them feel different and excluded and, in due time, they will move somewhere else.

12. Take No Risks Successful communities are not afraid to take risks and embrace change. By being creative and taking on a ‘can do’ attitude, they find that one success leads to another and another. If you like the status quo and have no stomach for risk taking – you’ll be in a good leadership position to keep your community away from all chances of success. Don’t take any risks … just keep tight purse strings on the budget and cut where ever you can each year. Don’t even think about trying something that’s never been done before. Taking risks and trying something new can lead to failure; best just stick with what you have always done and let the government figure out what can be done to attract new people and business to rural communities.

13. Don’t Take Responsibility Is your cup half empty or half full? Positive thinking people see problems as an opportunity to make changes, develop new skills, make money, meet new people, create new partnerships. Negative people are unable to think beyond the problem, focus on everything that is wrong and have no problem solving skills. If you are determined to see your community fail, focus on everything that is wrong and ensure you and everyone else you know does not take responsibility for any problems in your community … that way, no one will feel compelled to fix anything. Lack of housing and financial resources, declining volunteerism, high taxes, increased vandalism, people moving to larger centres – are always someone else’s fault. Whatever you do, find someone to blame. Challenge them to fix the problems but don’t take on any


ATTACHMENT #3 - Information-Gathering

A 42-page document outlines the rationale, methodology and process for the project. Highlights of that rationale:

One-to-one and small group interviews served to build relationships and gather important operational and

attitudinal information

Online Survey of Perceptions and Attitudes forms the core element of a 13 WAYS Score Card that enables further

discussion There is no intent to circulate a survey to the general community given performance assessment requires

deep, direct knowledge of the organization, and the outcome is intended to inform other strategic approaches and

processes in which there is traditionally a measure of community engagement.

Secondary and observational research included compiling photos and observations of community infrastructure and

operations, gathering demographics, business and industry information to identify strengths as well as issues.

Workshop brought the whole project together, stimulated additional brainstorming and prioritizing. The events

engaged community leaders and spurred action-oriented activities to enhance performance.

ATTACHMENT #4 - Interview Design

Alberta SouthWest 13 WAYS Interview Discussion Guide

Interviews will be conducted in person in one on one interviews or in workshop Q&A format. The approach will be conversational to ensure better interview flow and may deviate from question set in one on one interviews to follow line of inquiry. Participants will be provided questions ahead of time – with approach to cover all topics in a casual way that naturally flows from discussion.

Interviews will be conducted via community visits.

2-3 interviews will be conducted per community, or as an alternative a single group meeting.

Average target time for all one on one interviews is 30-45 minutes.

A community may opt for a group interview.

Average target time for group interviews workshops is 60-90 minutes. Preamble Opportunity Insights for Ambitious Communities- Based on a book entitled 13 Ways to Kill Your Community authored by Doug Griffiths and Kelly Clemmer. With its focus on attitudes that lie at the root of any successful, or unsuccessful, outcome – as opposed to typical focus on outcomes, 13 Ways is a refreshing way to approach municipal governance. Our attitudes are the precursor to and set the stage for, performance. If we understand the what and the why of how we think about governance, we can recognize the dynamic when we see it and quickly transition to leadership insights and productive decision making pathways. Research activity will consist of three elements:

1) Baseline Research to be completed by Twist Marketing. 2) Interviews 3) Online Survey of Perceptions and Attitudes

A colour coded Report Card will be generated from the results, which will serve as a discussion guide for a Twist Marketing return visit to each of the Alberta SouthWest communities to conduct a workshop that seeks identification of action steps aimed at municipal government performance enhancement. This process is symbiotic with current strategic, analytical and operational municipal approaches and is meant to inform perspective by taking a novel and atypical approach to viewing a community through the prism of attitude. As such, this process isn’t about replacing any existing approaches or activities.


Alberta SouthWest is an innovator as the pilot region for 13 Ways auditing/performance enhancement recommendations. Questions

Our ability to attract talent to municipal government is good. Yes or no. Why or why not?

What are the three most important issues facing the community in the next five years?

What are critical success factors for your municipal government as an organization?

Does the community have too many Plans…hampering ability for our community to understand our “big picture”

direction? Are Plans too complicated for the general public to engage with?

o Is the public/target audiences generally aware of municipal direction/strategies?

How do you define a) high municipal government performance; b) municipal success

What stands in the way of better organizational performance?

Are strategies and services in alignment?

Does “We’ve tried that before” or “we’ve never done that before” gets in the way of new ideas coming to life?

Do you/how do you measure your performance?

What does the word leadership mean to you? (single word responses)

Does the public trust municipal government in your community? Why or why not?

What do you feel your community’s competitive advantages are?

Describe main street succession in your community. Describe agricultural succession in your community.

Is new business and industry a local government priority? How is that demonstrated?

o Describe in terms of processes/issues/activities

What are you doing/not doing to retain youth in the community/attract them back to the community to raise a family?

What makes you different/better than other communities? (top 3 things)

Have you asked people what your community’s values are? If yes, nor no, what are they?

Do you have a community brand? How does it describe your differentiation from other places/what makes you better?

What Top 5 “small things” are you working on (e.g. paint the playground slide)?

What does presence of a business in your community mean to you (benefits and/or drawbacks)?

What happens when a business opens in terms of whether people like the idea or not, or how they feel a business is

doing? Name short phrases that come to mind when you hear comments in the community.

Why do you shop elsewhere?

What do you like and not like about the appearance of the community?

What is the most beautiful thing in the community (big and small/unique)?

What’s the most lacking in terms of physical appearance?

What initiatives are undertaken to look a bit different than other communities/beautification?

Best example of cooperation in last 5 years? Worst?

How are retirees connected to opportunities in community?

What is missing/what do we need to do to make us more desirable to retirees?

What is your process for ideas generation? How are new ideas managed?

List new initiatives that have taken place in last 5 years – the five best ideas that have come to life

Any new ideas suggested that have met with resistance or didn’t happen and why. Any ideas adopted in the last 5 years

that came from somewhere else – like a best practice, or via an Internet search?

How do you feel ideas/contributions of newcomers are treated? Any special initiatives to attract newcomers?

Immigrants?

What does a dynamic/vibrant community mean to you?


ATTACHMENT #5 - Baseline Data

This short excerpt is an example of some “baseline” questions that were asked.

A fill-in-the-blanks format was a little more time consuming for the project consultants, but was the quickest way for municipal

staff to provide information.

There was always consideration to respect the best use of any time offered by our partnering communities and organizations.


ATTACHMENT #6 - Performance Scoring

The project became a complex process of aggregation … 132 indicators from the baseline and on-line survey were sorted, and

analyzed and also correlated with the information gathered in personal interviews, and secondary research.

Two novel (to municipalities) measures were developed and reported in the Score Card:

o Satisfaction Barometer that used semantic differential statements (a type of a rating scale designed to measure the

connotative meaning of objects, events, and concepts, and is one of the most widely used scales used in the measurement

of attitudes) to establish individual municipal positioning on a number of qualitative word ranges (e.g. Happy-Sad) relative

to a broader regional average.

o Net Promoter Score (commonly used as a core marketing evaluation dimension that measures loyalty) was generated based

on the question: How likely is it that you would recommend working in, running for political office, or volunteering with

your municipal government to a friend or colleague? A score was generated for each community relative to an average

scoring for the entire region to generate comparative positioning.


ATTACHMENT #7 - Sample Progress Assessment

Below is a roll-up of regional results as a way to illustrate the format of the report.

Each of the partner communities received its own personal report, in this same format, which served as an impactful

visual summary to start the discussion of priorities and what would be important to address as next steps.

NOTE: The visual summary is accompanied by additional commentary and analysis that adds perspective to the results.

As the project unfolded, we changed the name of the summary from “Score Card” to “Progress Assessment”; it is

important to maintain the context of an ongoing “journey” rather than a judgement.

And, in a nod to the title of the book, it seemed appropriate to measure the progress in “kill-ometers!”


ATTACHMENT #8 - Action-Planning Matrix

Each community engaged in brainstorming and prioritizing in the workshop. Below is the sample from one community:

Initiatives Brainstorm Priority Initiatives Key Actions

Youth enterprise opportunity downtown with business start-up grants

Youth Entrepreneur Challenge

Gain entrepreneurship skills through local business mentorship. Involve local business. Mentorship. Student engagement through the schools.

Encourage youth organizations and schools to pursue experiential learning

Promote Community/ 4 Seasons

Website. Define target markets. Develop strategic, collaborative marketing plan.

Market seniors’ lifestyle Engage Youth to Assess Values/Needs

Guide youth program planning with: design of appropriate engagement method; design questions; assess, report and communicate results.

Develop youth council

Invite students to attend Council meetings

Develop wayfinding system/signage

Attract event and conference visitors

Develop welcome packages/service

Develop an investment club

Develop downtown creek bank as a destination

Sign on highway – “free ice cream”

Community calendar

Community welcome lunch / ethnic dinner

Talk about ourselves – regional service country, volunteerism

Determine what makes us unique/different (brand)

Strategy to keep seniors in home longer (transportation, advocacy, support services)

Pair up youth and seniors – mentorship

Seniors housing with supports

Walking tours – historic, ghost, horticultural

Gateway improvements/theme

Adopt a sister town

Turbine on town land to be interpretive centre

Oldman Reservoir development

Street café in summer

Community-owned fibre optic network

Combine Town and MD

Youth centre

Economic development – investment attraction

Youth classes – dance, language, etc.

Promote community – four season recreation

Engage youth to find out their wants and needs

Youth entrepreneur challenge

Dragon’s Den for locals

Use ski hill in the summer

Homecoming weekends


ATTACHMENT #9 - Lessons Learned

The “13 WAYS Performance Review for Ambitious Communities” gathered informed input from municipal, organizational and

business participants and designed an engaging process to inspire communities to examine attitudes and reflect upon the

importance of meaningful and positive leadership.

What is fun gets done: The project demonstrated a feel-good way to re-set governance guideposts.

Attitude and Leadership capacity are important determinants of success. A focus on how to gain positive results can serve

to build capacity and enable communities and regions to aim at realizing their highest aspirations.

Stakeholder engagement: The evocative 13 Ways to Kill Your Community is relevant to community leaders. Copies of the

book were given to each community for information and to generate informed interest.

Personal interviews and one-on-one contact and relationship-building remain at the core of effective economic

development and this project served to educate and raise community awareness while we also gathered information.

Engaging knowledgeable community leaders created informed input, increased awareness and energetic problem-solving.

Community initiatives: Each community identified up to three diverse initiatives that would create short-term wins or

breakthroughs on the aspirational community development pathway.

Identifying community priorities creates a sense of strength and optimism for promoting opportunities.

Aligning community priorities creates regional economic development priorities. In particular, Broadband emerged as a

top-of-mind initiative that has subsequently been pursued.

Collaborating regionally creates impactful “’critical mass” to support shared commitment and building leadership capacity.

Branding of the initiative required attention; specific permission was granted by the author for use in this context. Using

consistent graphic and verbal messaging served to raise awareness of the initiative.

Web tools and on-line surveys had very good 65%-100% response as it was an extension of previous personal engagement.

Special Event regional workshop was a celebratory occasion attracting 80 participants from all the partner communities.

News coverage in 7 local newspapers.

Vigorously documenting plan, process and outcomes supports replication in other organizations, communities or regions.

Ongoing evaluation can become part of a community economic development plan, with this first Progress Assessment

serving as a benchmark.

Reinforcing the importance of seeing the positive aspects of the community generates optimism, creativity and

collaboration, building confidence, strong community engagement and commitment to results.


ATTACHMENT #10 - Workshop Invitation

You are invited to attend!

13 WAYs-finding Workshop: Navigating Community Success

Feature presentation by Doug Griffiths

"13-Ways-To-Kill-Your-Community"

Wednesday May 13, 2015 4:00pm to 8:30pm

Heritage Inn, Pincher Creek Supper and presentation materials included.

Please RSVP before Friday May 8, 2015 to [email protected] or call 403-627-3373.

Who should attend? All of our AlbertaSW community councillors, administration, representatives from chamber, school division and other partner organizations. Bringing a group of at least 3-6 people from each community is ideal for best benefit!

What did we do? Our 13 WAYS pilot project has translated the "13 Ways...” into action. We looked at municipal organizational strengths and initiatives in a fresh way for all communities in the AlbertaSW region. We interviewed. We surveyed. We gathered data. We took pictures….

How will we share results and envision next steps? The session will be facilitated by Doug Griffiths, and Chris Fields and Catherine Proulx of Twist Marketing. We are doing something historic with ongoing value for the future. Bring your trail-blazing spirit! We are way-finding … and creating … the paths to community success!

mailto:[email protected]


ATTACHMENT #11 - Priorities and Next Steps

AlbertaSW held a presentation and workshop to celebrate completion of the first 13 WAYS pilot project. Over 70 representatives

from councils, boards, and committees took a fresh look at building community capacity for business development and

governance. Twist Marketing designed and conducted audits of communities based upon the key elements identified in the book

13 Ways to Kill Your Community.

The author, Doug Griffiths gave a thought-provoking presentation, challenging communities to embark on 13 ways to build

strong, successful communities.

The workshop included a discussion

of a number of regional themes that

emerged from the research activity:

Housing affordability,

Broadband,

Code of the West brand,

New developments with more

character,

Mentor/investment groups for

business,

Reunion/ “come on back” activity,

Business retention

(Go Local, Gift That Keeps on Giving),

Need for bold economic

development positioning

(websites).

Agreement around regionally-based

themes can create important

competitive advantage for Alberta

SouthWest.

There is power in the collaborative

energy of 16 communities focused

on a set of regional economic

development initiatives.

13 ways performance review for ambitious communities...

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