It was my absolute pleasure to work with the Leadership Unlimited Class of 2027 late last week during their opening retreat, organized by Angie Cirone, Director of Richland Leads, the education arm of the Richland Area Chamber and Economic Development.
We’re trying something entirely new and definitely exciting this year as we strive to reach the Leadership Unlimited class vision:
Bold leaders. Adaptive solutions. A Richland County shaped one experiment, one relationship, and one hard conversation at a time.
Not just another community awareness program, Leadership Unlimited aims to produce community leaders who make positive change in our local workplaces and in our communities. As such, we’ve developed a new, innovative, and custom leadership curriculum to encourage class members to think about leadership and community challenges through the lens of Adaptive Leadership and Experimentation.
Grounded in the theories of Ronald Heifetz of the Harvard Business School, and supported by the iterative and rapid prototyping models refined in the tech industry, this class will run experiments designed to observe community challenges, interpret their root causes, intervene with novel yet lightweight solutions, and then reflect, adjust and repeat the process. In the end we expect to have learned new things about our communities, our workplaces and ourselves, and also to provide positive impact in our five program focus areas: Economic Development, Healthcare, Workforce Development, Public Safety, and Housing. We’ll be sharing our findings and results in a Community Expo at the end of the year.
We are especially grateful to the program area experts who shared their expertise with us as we embarked on this journey:
- Jessica Gribben, President and CEO, Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development
- Jill Gantt, Workforce Development Coordinator Richland & Crawford Counties, Area 10 Workforce Board
- Jason Bammann, Chief of Police, Mansfield Police Department
- Jotika Shetty, Executive Director, Richland County Regional Planning Commission
- Dr. Julia Chaya, Health Commissioner, Richland Public Health
Stayed tuned throughout the year as we learn more and try out new techniques. This cohort is bright, creative, and energetic. If the opening retreat is any indication, they’re going to cultivate amazing outcomes for our community in the coming months!
nicolederr.com 