If you are part of a group or organization, at some point you will probably wonder if what you have been doing has been successful or if the people involved are satisfied with the group.  There are many different ways you can go about evaluating this, from getting the group together and asking for feedback to conducting an online anonymous survey with questions that people can respond to.  However you decide to find out if you're doing well, you'll need to make sure that you carefully plan out what you want to ask.  Few things can be more frustating than asking a group questions with the intent to evaluate performance, only to end up with answers that are of no help to you because you didn't ask the correct questions.  This can happen if someone is not familiar with the purpose or atmostphere of the group or organization that they are looking at.  So how do you know that you're asking the right questions?  How do you make sure that you're getting responses from the people that you want?  There are a few things that you can keep in mind that will help you to answer these questions.  

Make sure that you really know what you want to learn - If you aren't sure what it is that you're looking to find out, then you will not be able to ask the right questions.   If you don't know what it is you want, how can you expect anyone else to?

Make sure they understand why this is important - Even worse than getting answers that aren't helping is getting no answers at all.  Make sure that you convey to those involved why this is important and how it will help things to work better.  

Don't operate in a vaccuum - Run your questions by someone else in the organization.  Don't assume that you got it right the first time and instead let others to point out ways things can be worded to get better results.  

Make it work for the group -If you're looking at a group of people who are technically challenged, conducting an online survey may not make a lot of sense.  You need to big a method that works for those you are trying to get answers from.  

The Membership Committee of the Maine Gay Men's Chorus recently conducted an anonymous online survey of the singing members asking about their satisfaction with the organization so far for the 2009-2010 season.  Before sending this out to the membership, the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors was consulted about the questions that would be asked to make sure they reflected the organization and what information was important.  The reason for this survey was also conveyed to the membership, letting them know what the information would be used for and how their contributions would help.  Because of these important steps, almost every member who received the survey completed it and provided valuable information that was in line with what the Membership Committee was trying to find out.  The results they have received will enable the organization to now improve for the remainder of the season and going forward in the future.  

In economic development we know what doesn’t work:  one way communication and top down government-lead initiatives.  This “old school” economic development process is characterized by committees lead by government staff that are “public official heavy”.  Business and citizens become involved only as an input to be checked off the project to do list.  Involvement in this old school approach typically takes the form of scheduling hearings and asking business representatives and citizens to step to the podium and give opinions and express wants and needs.  The information is then turned into a government focused strategy by the committee that creates programs to be delivered by government and consumed by businesses and the public.  The end results of this old school approach is includes passiveness on the part of the private sector, reports that sit on shelves, lack of implementation due to lack of resources by the public sector, or programs supported and run by government that fail to have an impact.

So the question is what does work?  While there is no one answer and foolproof process that can guarantee success, there are many conditions, approaches and practices that can lead to the creation of economic development strategies that get implemented and meet desired economic, business, and community outcomes.  The following is an overview of what we have observed and participated in at PolicyOne.

Letting the business and citizens lead and government support and leverage – Government does not have to be the one that come up with the ideas and then leads the effort.  Just like excessive government borrowing crowds out private borrowing, government lead initiatives crowd out grassroot initiatives.  Businesses and citizens come to believe that government will take care of it and become passive and non-responses at worst and consumers only at best.

Identifying actions that can be taken outside of government implementation and programs that do not require government control and expenditures - no matter what strategies are development roles, responsibilities and financial support that does not involve government should be consider first, not last.

Using business and industry associations and citizens groups not just to provide feedback and representation by their staff but to get local businesses and citizens involved and active - Business and industry associations are typically included in old school economic development initiatives, but their involvement is frequently through paid staff and the involvement can suffer from the same ownership and control issues experience with government entities.  A more productive use of business and industry associations is to utilize them to help stir up and engage businesses to directly participate.  The same could be said of citizen interest groups.

Focusing on partnering and coalitions among organizations as opposed to ownership and control – Economic development touches many aspects of our daily lives and businesses and as such involves many different organizations.  Often times one organization tries to own and control the process in an effort to justify or gain resources.  The end result is often lack of long-term support and implementation and continuance f the status quo.   Through partnerships and coalitions organizations can create economic development strategies that can be implemented through broad based ownership and shared responsibility.   The key is not focusing on ownership and control but rather community outcomes.  If the community becomes economically successful its businesses and organization will be able to succeed as well.

Using new media – New media was once the playground of the young and tech savvy.  Now it is being used more and more by the entire population.  It is an effective and low cost way to both disperse information about economic development efforts and to engage interested persons and allow input, feedback, and new ideas.  Blogs, websites, newsletters, and social media tools such as Linked-in and Facebook provide free tools for these purposes.

Through our work at PolicyOne we have come across several recent examples of how these approaches can work.

Scarborough Farmers’ Market – Seeded by the Scarborough Economic Development Corporation (which is lead by a private sector – business board) partnering with the Scarborough Land Trust (grassroots organization interested in protection of land and open space to benefit the community and environment) and regional farmers and vendors.  With this engagement a grassroots, bottom-up famers market was piloted in the summer of 2008 and with a once-week summer schedule launched in summer of 2009.  Vendors and interested community members are now in the process of refining the market for further success.  Except for a bit of administrative support from SEDCO, all of this was done with no grants or no public funding – simply the hard work and dedication of volunteers and vendors.

Buy Local Scarborough – Modeled after Buy Local efforts, small independent business owners in Scarborough Maine recently united and created the Buy Local Scarborough Initiative.  Like many communities across the nation, Maine street businesses and small independent businesses in Scarborough have been impacted by an influx of national chains, big box stores, and the national recession.  Rather than sit back and watch sales and revenues decline, a group of independent businesses joined together formed the Buy Local Scarborough initiative.  In three month the group recruited 80 members, produced its first guide/directory, launched a website, and developed plans for a consumer discount campaign. How was so much achieved in so little time?  The answer these businesses and volunteers didn’t wait for government approval or support.  They identified a threat – lost sales and revenues, developed a solution:  branding local and independent to boost business recognition, and implemented it.  A local councilor helped spearhead the effort but she was acting as a local business owner and using grass roots organizing as opposed to government command and control techniques.    

Maine Entrepreneurs Group on LinkedIn –The business and entrepreneur community in Maine has long recognized that networks are key to economic success as the facilitate knowledge sharing and peer support.  To succeed however, networks in Maine must overcome geographic dispersion and lack of density that exists in larger urban areas.  One entrepreneur, Kirk Hill, Owner of Quai Inc a software development business, recognized this need and challenge and rather than wait for an organizational or government program went ahead and created and Maine entrepreneur network on LinkedIn.  At first the network was mostly virtual consisting of the sharing information, advice and opinions via the on-line community, but is has since grown to over 900 members and monthly in-person get together to network, socialize, and dive into specific issues.  The meetings typically draw 30-40 persons and although networking may result in business leads the focus is on information and knowledge sharing.   The network is low cost (beyond Kirk’s sweat and blood) and is not support by any government program or funding.

These are examples of what we at PolicyOne have seen working using new approaches.  I welcome the sharing of other successful methods for grassroots engagement in the economic development process right through taking ownership and responsibility for implementation.