Greetings!
Cleveland, Ohio of course is where I live and do much of my work. It's home for many of my friends. It's right on a great lake, Erie. Many of you reading this, subscribers, are also living in northeast Ohio. For others here's some background before I think out loud about a vision for Cleveland.
By 1950 Cleveland's population peaked. As a center for the auto, steel, aluminum, and, great lakes shipping, along with lots of other kinds of manufacturing, it was once the seventh largest city in the U.S. Eventually, Cleveland began a long transformation away from its heavy industries. Taken as a region, northeast Ohio made a sometimes painful, often challenging shift toward a more economically diverse future.
Today the Cleveland area is a national center for healthcare and medical innovation, a leader in sustainability, is home base to numerous legal, financial and insurance companies, and, is home to many forward looking medium and small industrial businesses. Steel is made here, wind turbines spin, and, urban gardeners and farmers turn the soil.
Cleveland locates most of its vibrant higher educational and cultural institutions, including its second-none orchestra, in the renowned University Circle. At the same time, neighborhoods have been revived to be spots for galleries and eating and performances. Our area is advantaged by great housing stock, an inexpensive cost-of-living, and, relatively sane traffic.
We do suffer the forty-seven year drought in major sports championships!
 On June 19, The Plain Dealer, featured an article about the best places to work in our region .
(Hear the excellent Podcast too from our local NPR affiliate.) I reflected upon the companies the article mentions, and on the companies mentioned in the underlying survey, and on the many companies I know would have made the list had they been surveyed, and I became really inspired. I began to make out the picture of an exciting possibility rooted to our region. Great work cultures are fundamentally at the center of my work and journey. How lucky to be in Cleveland! The city is home to the Weatherhead School of Management and its innovative researchers and theorists and practitioners. Which is to say, when I need to plug in Appreciative Inquiry or Emotional Intelligence into a consulting design, my team literally lives next door.
I draw on all kinds of other resources too--all of which are right here. It's remarkable, and I feel deeply blessed.
Here's my completely obtainable vision. What if Cleveland aspired to become, and became, the world center for the advanced organization? What if Cleveland was the first place people thought of when people thought of a region where there were great places to work?
Cleveland becomes the place people come to to experience, investigate, and learn from the second-to-none practices, models, and companies; all dedicated to demonstrating that the holistic, integrated, humane, compassionate work culture is the most advanced, highest performing, and effective work culture.
This seems realizable because the foundation is already so strong and dynamic. The main thing for me is that such a people-focused vision (or hope!) already has so many hopeful and skilled people on the ground, right here, in good ol' Cleveland.
What do you feel/think? In our world full of challenges, I'm wondering if anybody else is feeling drawn toward amping up collaboration and the forward-looking "vision thing."
Feel free to opt out, forward this newsletter along, opt in, and provide feedback. Have great days! Leslie
[The 12 Principles for Fun at Work is up to Step 7 this week. The full reprise of steps is available at my Fan Page . Every week the steps, inspiring quotes, examples taken from the research, and updated musings, appear every day there and on LinkedIn, and Twitter, where I'm nowhavingFUN .) Facebook:Leslie Yerkes, Thought Leader Twitter:NowHavingFun LinkedIn: Leslie Yerkes CHECK OUT OUR BRAND NEW FAN PAGE ON FACEBOOK
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