OUTSIDE OF THE BOX

Published On - August 10, 2024

admin ESTABLISHING THE BACKGROUND

Observation One:

When an issue persists, despite many attempts to resolve it, people will suggest that we need to think outside of the box.  The problem this creates is that when that effort creates a comprehensive solution, it too is out of the box.  No one supports it and the problem persists.

 

Observation Two:

“Silos” permeate society. Integration and Collaboration are more rhetoric than execution. When government separately funds broadband and telemedicine but does not recognize their natural synergy, costs go up and effectiveness goes down. Minnesota has/had 13 economic development regions that require their jurisdictions to have a comprehensive plan but the state has no program by which these plans are reviewed for compatibility with the state’s (unfortunately, non-existing goals Therefore they act independently; the Metropolitan Council ignores the rest of the state and the state has no plan.

 

Exiting the Box:

Twenty-five years ago, we published the Checklist for Action report which led to three events:

  1. CommTech- a two-year project in Little Falls included formation of this non-profit group with leadership from Fort Ripley, Morrison County, Little Falls Schools and other leaders. Numerous assessments and surveys were completed and led to the design of what we now refer to as our Community TeleCenter Network®. We arranged for the private sector to provide fifty precent of the funding for this initial telecenter.
  2. Legislatively we led a six-session Senate Hearing series with over 100 organizations testifying for the adoption of an Information Age engagement. It was among the most attended sessions in years, according to Senator Langford. We also passed two nationally unique bills adopting telework as a state strategy.
  3. The Community Dialogue Process used our patented e-Consensus Forum® and asked100 participants over the one-year process: “What does your community need to thrive in the Information Age?”The process identified three key challenges…
    1. Create a distributed Network through which all could interact
    2. Create a critical mass of electronic services to support & attract businesses
    3. Create an environment to support the viability of each Community “Type”

…and developed seven powerful recommendations, which we adopted as our workplan:

  • Define, Benchmark and set timelines (with institutional accountability) to achieve “Information Age” Friendly communities
  • Develop and evaluate a scenario based upon the decentralization model (encouraging comprehensive rural development) vs. the centralized model (supporting major investment strategies in and around the urbanized areas) to optimize the economic benefits for the state as a whole
  • Develop a multi-state regional strategy to become competitive in the global economy (identify and remove regulatory differences to mitigate the “border” effect)
  • Facilitate a balanced process for interaction and co-operation among the public, private and community sectors
  • Develop a universally accessible, interoperable public/private “content” delivery system
  • Develop an Assessment Program to build a broad understanding of the opportunities available through electronic delivery vs. the traditional delivery mode
  • Develop a timeline to review all regulations to identify and remove barriers to the application and/or deployment of “content services”, i.e., tele-medicine, distance learning etc.

 

Over the last fifteen years we created the Workforce Virtualization Program® which was based upon facility right-sizing, continuity/disaster recovery, and operational optimization; it integrated the employer’s deployment program with regional transportation forecast and congestion management.

 

We evolved our Little Falls telecenter pilot into the Information Age Community® concept via a process of defining a solution and overcoming the barrier to implementation; not only did we do this nine times but we also developed a number of strategies and tactical tools that support this evolution.Although the legislature was supportive, the agencies blocked the Little Falls project.But the implementation logic survived:

 

  1. The “RTAP” and the “TDP” validate the role of telecommuting in addressing urban issues.
  2. The resulting “Telework Deployments”break the link between the home and the work place thereby empowering employees to exercise greater residential choice.
  3.  The “Telecommuting Mindset” seeks parity between physical and electronic access to services thereby creating a comprehensive suite of telecommuting applications (SoTA) capable of supporting families regardless of their residential choice. 
  4. The “Distributed City Model” encourages each community to create a vision in support of a unique quality of life capable of attracting residents- thereby rebuilding their demographics.
  5. Urban development pressures are reduced,

 demand for rural subsidies is reduced,

demand for government programs is thereby reduced, and

community viability is enhanced