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Transforming our public workforce system:

One view of where we stand and where were goingEd Morrison

Purdue Center for Regional Development

I-Open

Command and Control Link and Leverage

Like the rest of the economy, the public workforce system is

adjusting to new realities.

We are moving from strategies based on top-down command-and-

control to state and regional strategies based on linking and

leveraging assets within open networks.

Within these networks we are working with a wide range of

partners: individuals, employers, educational institutions, training

providers, social service organizations

The transition will take time, and it is our job to find new pathways

to a 21st-century public workforce system.

We are seeing the key characteristics of this system beginning to

emerge.

It will be more collaborative. It will be more open. It will rely more

heavily on networks. It will be more flexible and adaptive.

Some the strategies are already emerging, and we will be doing

additional work today to refine these strategies for our region.

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As we move toward a transformed public workforce system, we will

need to draw new maps. Every region of the country and every

business sector is going through dramatic economic changes. Its

easy to get confused and lost.

These pictures will help us keep our bearings and focus on the

challenges ahead.

These maps are approximations. They help us deal with complexchallenges by communicating a lot of information quickly.

Here is an example of an early map. Like the explorers, we will refine

our maps, and they will become more accurate.

We can use these maps to keep track of our strategies and maintain

our focus.

Re-employment Pathways

New firm,same

industry

Life styleself-

employment

New firm,new

industry

GrowthStart-up

Formaltraining

Retirement

Lower skill,lower pay

employment

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Business fails or downsizesUnemployment

One Stops

Business struggles withweak strategy

Business grows afterretraining tied to new

strategy

Continued unemployment

9

These pathways are approximate. They do not represent exclusive either/or choices for an

individual. So, for example, a person might take a lower paying job (Path 7), while at the

same time pursuing a new job in a new industry (Path 4).

This map is designed to help workforce development professionals focus on the networks

that they can build to leverage their resources.

The re-employment process begins with a business saddled with a failing strategy. Faced

with this situation, a business can opt to take a new strategic direction and develop

training programs that support the new strategy. The current workforce gains new skills to

improve productivity and accelerate innovation.

Alternatively, the firm can do little or nothing to change its strategic direction. In response

to market forces, the firm starts job-sharing, downsizes significantly, or goes out of

business. Unemployed workers now face several different pathways.

Some workers may be able to move quickly to firms and closely related businesses. This

transition can take place without additional training.

Other workers may decide to change their career path and complete a formal training

program that enables them to find a new job and a new industry.

A small number of unemployed workers may decide to launch a growth or iented spin-off

business, commonly based on skills, intellectual property, or business experience they

gained at their old employer.

Alternatively, some workers may decide to become self-employed in their own lifestyle

business.

Some workers may reluctantly decide to take lower skilled jobs at lower wages.

Some workers may simply retire.

Some workers stay unemployed.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Charting re-employment pathways

An early map of North America (1797) does not look quite right. Source:

Archiving Early America:http://www.earlyamerica.com

http://www.earlyamerica.com/http://www.earlyamerica.com/

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Re-employment Pathways

New firm,same

industry

Life styleself-

employment

New firm,new

industry

GrowthStart-up

Formaltraining

Retirement

Lower skill,lower pay

employment

Business fails or downsizesUnemployment

One Stops

Business struggles withweak strategy

Business grows afterretraining tied to new

strategy

Continued unemployment

Layoffaversion and early

warning strategiesassistcompanies and workers as they

adjust to new strategiesneeded to compete

Improvedskill assessmentshelp us

focus our assets on getting peoplere-employed quickly. They help

provide each individual their own

map of their options

Skillstransferability focuses on

the best opportunities to introduceindividuals to new opportunities in

higher growth sectors, such ashealthcare and renewable

energy

Training

strategiesfocus on

creating newoptions withinnovative

trainingstrategies

Actionableworkforce informationfocuses on

turning piles of very detailed data into high-qualityinformation and useful insights that move people to

action

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Strategic Planning Strategic Doing

As we move toward the new system we will need to think and act

strategically in different ways. Strategy has never been more important.

How we think and act strategically has changed, however.

We are moving from an expensive, linear process of strategic planning toa faster paced and more action oriented process of strategic doing.

Strategic doing is a process to keep our conversations focused on both

where we are going and on our next steps. It is a simple discipline that is

not easy. Like most new skills, it takes practice.

Strategic doing teaches us how to deal with complexity by following

some simple rules. We learn by doing.

The process involves focusing on four questions:

1. What could we do together? This question involves mapping

our assets and finding new ways to connect them to opportunities.2. What should we do together? This question focuses on

defining clear strategic outcomes.

3. What will we do together? This question focuses on the

commitments we will make to each other on our next steps.

4. How will we learn together? This question focuses on how we

will stay connected and come back together to revise our strategy.

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I. Our Strategic OutcomeII. Our initiatives to achieve the outcome

III. Our metrics to measure progress toward ouroutcomeIV. Our next steps to implement our initiativesV. Our process to stay connected and revise our

strategy

The practice of Strategic Doing leads directly to a strategic

action plan. The first plan is an alpha plan; the next version

is a beta plan. We can then move into version 1.0; then 1.1;

1.2 and so on.

The strategic action plan is never done. Like a good softwareprogram, it is continuously revised to incorporate new ideas;

new opportunities.

In addition, revision gives us the opportunity to redeploy our

resources when we find that something is not working like

we expected.

We can manage a Strategic Action Plan by thinking differently

about how we organize.

We will be taking steps toward our Strategic Action Plan this

week.

We use

workshop

exercises --compiled into a

Strategic Doing

Pack -- to move the

conversation around

the cycle.

These exercises

provide the main

components to a

Strategic ActionPlan