Citizen Brand

Front Porches vs. Backyard Decks

It has been a full day of ideas and discussion at the first annual Public Innovators Summit.  The event is sponsored by The Harwood Institute and Fast Company along with a grant from the Kellogg Foundation.  Leaders representing government, nonprofit, corporate and media sectors have come together this weekend in the mountains of Utah to figure out how to generate innovative thinking to address societal challenges.  There is a consensus that the private sector celebrates and rewards innovation and that a similar approach is needed if we are to improve education, health care and the general standard of living for many people who are in need.

A common theme of our discussions is how to create a greater sense of community overall.  We have talked at length how technology can be both a hurdle to community development as well as a great generator of communities.  Not surprisingly, this group understands the power of technology and many ideas emerged about how to leverage technology to help non profits grow stronger both financially as well as reputationally.

My favorite analogy of the day came from Art Dunning, Vice President of the University of Georgia in Athens.  He talked about how there was a greater sense of community in the days when most homes had front porches.  Sitting on the front porch guaranteed interaction with your neighbors or anyone else who might be happening by.  People who knew each other and communicated regularly were more likely to be interested in each other and watch out for each other.

Art said all that changed as people moved to the suburbs and replaced the porch on the front of the house with a deck in the backyard.  The social center of the house moved from the public arena at the front of the house to the privacy of the backyard.  It became invitation only.  Neighbors were redefined not as people who you knew but as people who lived on the same street as you.

I thought this was a simple and powerful observation.  What we need to do is figure out what the front porches of the future are going to be to help us reconnect with each other.

Public Innovators Summit

I'm just outside Midway, Utah at the Zermatt Resort (feel sorry for me?) to attend the first annual Public Innovators Summit sponsored by The Harwood Institute and Fast Company.  The Summit is supported by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The list of attendees represents a cross section of leaders in business, government, education and non profit organizations.  The driving force behind the Summit is Richard Harwood, founder of The Harwood Institute.  You can easily understand the reason for this Summit when you understand the Institute's mission.  This is from their website.

Rich Harwood founded the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation to help people imagine and act for the public good. For almost 20 years, he and his colleagues have been evolving both the ideas and the practical approaches for changing the negative conditions in society that too often divide people and keep them from making progress in their neighborhoods, communities, and the nation as a whole.

At The Harwood Institute, we seek nothing less than to spark fundamental change in American public life - so that people can tap their own potential to make a difference and join together to build a common future. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works within a long tradition of small, catalytic, and public-spirited organizations in American history that have sought to improve public life and politics.

We believe there is enormous potential to unleash in America if we can pursue an alternate path for ourselves, our communities, and this nation.

What attracted me to this Summit and my desire to be selected as a participant is part personal and part professional.  One of the drivers of our company is to help our clients get on the path to becoming what we call Citizen Brands.  We believe it is now a must for corporations to be engaged in helping to improve society, not just sell their products and services.  That is my professional reason for being here.

On a personal note, I love the idea of spending a couple of days engaging with other people who share a common interest of figuring out how to make a difference in the world and to help convince others to do the same thing.  Not to mention, I'm back in the mountains for a couple of days.

I look forward to sharing some of the discussions that come out of the Summit.