Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Three Things I Learned

By Jay Verner, COUNTRY Financial


A couple of Saturdays ago I was surrounded by some really important leaders from our community – City Managers from both Twin Cities, the Economic Development Council CEO, Communications Director from Mitsubishi and the director of Community Development at State Farm.

It all came about when the people who run the Multicultural Leadership Development Program invited me to moderate a very cool discussion about the benefits of partnerships between private business and public entities.

Here are the top three things I learned:

1. If you drive down Veterans Parkway, just about everything you see is a result of a public-private partnership.
2. We sometimes get lost in dollars and cents and forget to measure public projects by how they impact our quality of life. Communities with better qualities of life attract more businesses.
3. The best way to lead change is to start networking in the community. After all, MCLP was created because one guy started networking with enough people until his idea gained traction.

MCLP participants were pretty lucky to have such an impressive collection of leadership all-stars in one room. Check out their impressions below.

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