A Joint Initiative Between     Heart of Wisconsin     Business & Economic Alliance and     Community Foundation of     South Wood County

Home About Us B2B Club Breaking News Contact Donate Events / Programs Feedback Ideas Incubator Industry Clusters Links / Resources Progess Funds Progress Teams Public Art / Murals Publications		Breaking News October 15, 2007 - Community responds to progress initiative By: Dale Arendt, for the Daily Tribune Last week, I participated in an evening of training for individuals who were interested in serving as board members of non-profit boards within our community. To my astonishment, more than 40 people showed up for the program. A number of the people present were not currently serving on any boards or committees, but wanted to utilize their unique gifts and talents to give back to their community. What does all of this suggest? To me, it speaks of how the Community Progress Initiative is having a positive, grass-roots, individual citizen impact on our community. The variety of leadership training and service opportunities that is created through the efforts of the initiative continues to open doors for many people to utilize their gifts and talents for the greater good of this wonderful community. So what is the impact on our community of new people stepping up and offering themselves in service to others? The obvious answer is that when more people are involved it creates fresh ideas and opportunities. More people involvement creates a healthier community perspective. It allows more people to be included in the decision-making process which allows for new and innovative ways to solve problems. If we look a little deeper, we see new volunteers who are cross-pollinating with people they would normally not connect with. These new relationships that are being built become a hot-bed of potentiality. Who knows what these new connections and relationships being formed today will bring to fruition five years from now? Another area of impact is that these new and emerging leaders are not only having a greater impact in their current jobs, but they are utilizing these skills within the social network of the community. As individuals work with others who are not in their day-to-day work environment, they observe and can discover what best practices others employ to address today's leadership challenges. This results in stronger local businesses that are more effective and profitable. More profitability provides businesses more discretionary income to expand their physical plant, add staff and increase wages if they so desire. Perhaps the greatest benefit of investing in leadership is how it will impact our community 10 to 20 years from now. We do not know what impact the global business landscape will have on our local area. But we will be poised and ready with a number of talented and relationally connected individuals to address our community challenges in a fashion that will be in our community's best interests. Sometimes change seems like it takes forever or that it is not producing any results. But when we look a little deeper, we see a number of things growing that will have a great return a little further down the road. Leadership development in our community is one of those significant investments in people that is and will continue to pay great dividends for our local businesses and for the community at large. Dale Arendt is a Progress Initiative Cluster member.
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