Southeast Louisiana Regional Alliance

1
Southeast Louisiana Regional Alliance

• Reconnecting to the Vision
• and better understanding

2

Simplified Goals

• Achieve better alignment around regional
  activities within each Council and across each
  Council to improve Talent Development
• Ask questions and listen to responses
• Gain better understanding SWOT
• Collaborate to find solutions to common issues
  and challenges
• Strengthen partnerships and relationships
• Take SMART actions (Specific, Measureable,
  Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) to achieve
  tangible results

3
Structure Leadership Team and Councils
4
Lets Look at it Another Way
Leadership Team Four Representatives from Each
Council 20 person Team
Workforce Development 4 WIBs First
Planning Orleans Jefferson River Parishes
Economic Development Eco Dev Entities
Chambers
Business Industry Large Small Union Trade
Assoc
Human Services Public Non-Profit Faith-Based
Education K-12, Adult Ed Tech
schools Universities
Project Teams
Project Teams
Project Teams
5
Practical Reasons for the Leadership Team
Structure

• SLRA is intended to have a broad general
  membership, but needs a smaller focal point
• Each general member can participate at the level
  that he/she is comfortable
• Large does not mean waiting for everyone to agree
  
• Allow for concerns to surface and give full
  consideration to those that may disagree or have
  expressed specific concerns
• However, the ones that would need to play an
  active role in a particular solution - would need
  to be agreeable.
• Elected leadership from each Council represents
  the interest of the Council members
• Your role is to bring the voices and issues of
  your Council to the table

6
Representative-Styled Leadership Team Approach

• Attempts to achieve diverse and healthy
  cross-representation
• Each Council made decisions on how the whole of
  the Council could be best represented on the
  Leadership Team
• Each Team is unique and is designed to suit the
  dynamics of each Council
• Adjustments are made by individual Councils as
  needed

7
Representative-styled Leadership Team
ApproachEducation

• Selection based mainly on three primary areas of
  education and one at-large that includes Adult
  Ed

Betty Jean Wolfe
Kathleen Mix
Mark Stahl
Petrice Sams-Abiodun
Community and Technical Colleges Public and
private
K-12 Public and private
Universities Public and private
Others in Education Includes Adult Education
8
Representative-styled Leadership Team
ApproachEconomic Development

• Selection based, in large part, for cross
  geographical representation
• Need to determine best way to represent two
  groups

Walter Brooks (5 parish region)
Glenn Hayes (Jefferson) Brenda
Reine-Bertus (St. Tammany) Amy
Ybarzabal (St. Bernard)
Chambers Business Development
Economic Development entities Public , private,
local and regional
9
Representative-styled Leadership Team
ApproachWorkforce Development

• Selection based on representing different WIB
  leadership level and the four board WIB
  partnership in the region

Region One WIB Partnership
Bill Jessee (Orleans Board Member)
Melissa Kirsch (First Planning Board
Director) Rodger Scott (Orleans Board
Member) Vacant (River Parishes Board
Chair)
10
Representative-styled Leadership Team
ApproachHuman Services

• Selection based on two primary areas of public
  and non-public (non-profits and faith-based)

11
Representative-styled Leadership Team
ApproachBusiness Industry

• Selection based on four primary areas relevant to
  the business community, including type/size of
  employer

Woody Oge (large business)
Sandy Hughes (Small Business)
Andy OBrien (Union)
Peggy Bourgeois (Business Association)
Small Businesses Less than 100
Large Businesses 100
Unions / Organized Labor
Business Trade Associations
12
Alignment

• Previously stated goal
• Achieve better alignment around regional
  activities within each Council and across each
  Council to improve Talent Development, i.e..
• Vertical and Horizontal Alignment
• What does that look like?

13
Vertical Alignment at the Council Level

• Each Council has different primary groups within
  them all unique
• What is the alignment in each of those individual
  primary groups sharing info, processes, and
  resources where possible and where it makes
  sense?
• Education Council as an example

Universities public and private
K-12 public and private school to Boards to
State, etc.
Tech Schools and Colleges public and private
Adult Ed public, private, non-profit, etc.
14
Horizontal Alignment at the Council Level

• How do each of the primary groups align across
  each other
• Do they share information, processes and/or
  resources around regional activities where
  possible?
• Working agreements?

All levels of K-12 public and private school
to Boards to State, etc.
Tech Schools and Colleges public and private
Adult Ed public and private
Universities public and private
15
Example of Vertical Alignment a work in progress

• Each individual WIB is continually working toward
  better vertical alignment, some examples include
• Board and Staff training
• Better communication between staff in centers
• More comprehensive performance measures and
  reporting methods

First Planning
Orleans
Jefferson
River Parishes
16
Example of Horizontal Alignment a work in
progress

• The four WIBs formally partnered and collaborate
  around regional activities where possible and
  where it makes sense
• Share resources, share staff, contracts,
  policies, and processes
• Meet as a region at multiple levels WIB
  Executive Committees, WIB Directors, Local Area
  Coordinators, Business Service Reps, etc.

First Planning
Orleans
Jefferson
River Parishes
17
Why alignment is important?

• Better alignment at the many different levels
  allows for smoother and swifter courses of
  action.
• Alignment that is demonstrated through working
  agreements
• adds credibility
• More likely to attract funders

18
Purpose of the Councils

• To look within the group and identify issues,
  concerns, commonalities, and opportunities
• To allow for better partnering (alignment) within
  working agreements on regional activities
• To make things better and work on solutions
• To gain better understanding about the dynamics
  within - SWOT

19
How to represent your Council what you should
bring to the Leadership Team

• Asking questions and sharing information
• What are the issues and challenges of the
  organizations you represent?
• What can we (the members of your Council) do
  within our own organizations to address these
  issues and challenges?
• What are we already doing to address our own
  issues and challenges?
• What do we need assistance with in addressing?

20
Asking questions and sharing information

• Of the issues and challenges expressed by the
  other Councils, is there something we can do in
  our arena to contribute to solutions?
• Can we change a policy?
• Offer a resource?
• Ease a communication path?
• Can we align our processes in a better way?

21
Asking questions and sharing information

• How well aligned are we (the Council
  organizations) on things that affect us or others
  regionally ?
• How are we aligned? In what way?
• How are we not aligned? In what way?
• What should/could be better aligned?
• What can we do to better align?

22
Project Teams

• In addition to the Leadership Team members role
  of sharing information and promoting alignment
  around regional activities in their Councils,
  the Leadership Team is also identifying and
  prioritizing common issues.
• Assembling a smaller cross-council team that is
  dedicated to the specific issue
• That teams findings/recommendations need to be
  taken back to the Councils to identify what each
  of them the organizations in each of the
  Councils can bring to the table that may bring
  about solutions

23
Structure Project Teams

• Leadership Team
• Identifies common issue
• Determines it to be a priority
• Creates Project Team
• Assigns Team Advocate

24
What are some 1st year goals

• Get very solid in our foundation
• Achieve some quick wins on pre-identified issues
• Working agreements for regional activities
• Possible 501c3 status to apply for funds to
  sustain growth and forward momentum and become
  more ambitious tackling the harder and larger
  issues
• Bringing funders to the table as its own
  collaborative Council can align and develop
  working agreements to fund projects proposed by
  the SLRA
• You want to have a clean house and the table set
  before your guests arrive for dinner