- YouTube not ABC?
- Wikipedia not Encyclopedia Britannica?
- Airbnb not Marriott Hotels?
- Twitter not Associated Press?
- A playground not Little League?
City movements become much more powerful when they lift a transformational vision that engages people and organizations in their self interest. Swanson listed the kinds of self interests that various parties within city movements hold deeply to give examples of why they may become involved. These self interests include:
- Pastors — Community Impact
- School Principals — Increased graduation rates
- Mayors – Looking for stories of increased cross-sector collaboration.
- Job creators — Hiring 5% of our workforce from among those hardest to employ.
- Educators — Increased 3rd grade reading levels
- Artists — A public forum to paint about social issues
- Donors — A desire to fund those organizations that move the needle in the city.
When city transformation becomes a platform rather than only residing in an organization, the work of a city movement will experience new levels of effectiveness.
Download Slides From Eric Swanson’s City Transformation as a Platform
The full presentation below was recorded at our GoodCities Leadership Gathering. The video of Eric was pretty shaky, although the audio was very good, so this presentation shows a few stills of Eric interspersed throughout the presentation of his slide deck.