Click here to view the embedded video.

Completely free of charge, City Forward connects to the work done by Smarter Cities Challenge teams around the world. The website provides data for more than 100 cities, and offers both city leaders and the public the unique ability to consolidate multiple data sources. The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) recently recognized City Forward with its 2013 Corporate Social Responsibility Webby Award.

How It Started
Creating City Forward was a challenging exercise in transforming open data – the free access to and reuse of government data – into actionable information. Beginning in 2009, the City Forward team sought to tap publicly available open data on cities as they first became available. Sourced from around the world, and coming in many different formats, the data were difficult to harmonize. The quality of data posed another significant challenge, as the availability and type of data for each city varied widely. One way the team overcame this challenge was to enable citizens to upload their own data to City Forward.

How It Works
While City Forward traffic accident data for a given city might help illuminate commuting habits and road conditions, it also may indicate economic activity and enable analysis of air quality. After analyzing the data, city leaders might seek to reduce traffic congestion, encourage telecommuting and improve air quality by making information publicly available and enabling citizens to share additional traffic information.

Why It’s Important
In the era of mobile computing, cloud computing, data analytics and the socialization of information, methodologies for managing public and private sector organizations – businesses and cities – have begun to converge. In the same way that businesses are using data from mobile devices to improve interactions with customers, governments can use these same technologies essentially to “crowd source” information and ideas to make cities smarter. As a free, web-based platform for collaboration among municipal officials, urban planners and city residents, City Forward represents an important step toward harnessing data to drive the essential public dialog about the future of cities.

Gina Cardosi is a Certified Senior Project Manager with IBM.

Related Resources:

Slideshow: IBM Open Data

Read More About the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge

Learn More About IBM Interactive

Technorati Tags: City Forward, cloud computing, data analytics, Gina Cardosi, mobile computing, open data

Governor Fayemi (center) with his staff and the Corporate Service Corps team

Historically endowed with talented human resource, arable land and water resources, and despite being one of the least financially buoyant sub-national economies in Nigeria, Ekiti State is taking concrete steps towards injecting technology in all aspects of its ecosystem, thanks largely to my administration’s focus on “smart governance” principles and concepts.

As the governor of Ekiti State since 2010, I am constantly instructed and challenged by my professional instincts as a development scholar and social activist as I confront daily the sour realities and exigencies of managing the affairs of a small-sized state. By the way, Nigeria is West Africa’s numero uno economy and Africa’s most populous nation with a population of about 160 million people. Ekiti is one of Nigeria’s 36 states, and nearly two-thirds of its population of 2.5 million is involved in agriculture – producing a variety of cash and food crops, including timber, cocoa, coffee, citrus fruits, and vegetables. Most of Ekiti land is rural and peri-urban. Despite our humble origins, Ekiti folks are resourceful, love to acquire knowledge, and take pride in their academic and socio-cultural achievements.

In my current role as a political leader and chief public servant, my transformation from private citizen to chief administrator of our state has been swift. A state which is widely acknowledged as Nigeria’s fountain of knowledge must certainly be in a hurry to develop.
As we moved toward “Putting People First”, which is the theme of the state government’s fiscal blueprint, information communications technology (ICT) was central to our social and economic development plans going forward.

Personally, I have always been inspired by the success stories of India’s Bangalore and California’s Silicon Valley districts. These cities have become synonymous with ICT. In attempting to foment the foundations of smarter governance in my Ekiti homeland, I reckoned that ICT would play a pivotal role, hence my administration’s quest to make the state an ICT Centre of Excellence, modeled after these Asian and North American technology hubs.

In tune with global best practices, we instituted an ICT for Development policy framework which will have public and private sector institutions and stakeholders in the state contributing to an ICT ideas bank. The state government and the entire citizenry of Ekiti State would be responsible for maintaining this local information infrastructure, depositing and withdrawing from this knowledge incubator, reforming old norms of governance, and developing technology-enabled solutions for all aspects of the state’s civil and public service under the auspices of the “Internal-to-Government” ICT Strategy and the “External-to-the-Public” ICT Strategy of the State Government. This thematic template will enable the political and civil service structures of the state to:

• Promote smart governance by ensuring that government employees receive ICT training tailored to ensuring that they achieve efficient and effective service delivery;
• Implement the “Digital Ekiti Program” where installed ICT infrastructure helps to promote digital inclusion, digital literacy, e-services of various forms (financial and e-payment, e-insurance, e-learning, e-health, e-commerce, etc.) and help achieve universal access to ICTs in the state;
• Design, implement and operate a Citizens Information Management System (CIMS);
• Deploy ICT for economic planning and resource management; and
• Inaugurate an e-school project and program that will help prepare and lay a solid foundation for the current and next generation of our citizens in terms of e-education, e-learning and lifelong learning.

But remember, my administration is barely two years old. My job, my focus, my long range vision is to erase or at least attenuate the burdens of the citizenry. I am constantly reminded by the emerging realities inherent in development and governance that ICT is not a top priority or a top-of-the-mind agenda for hungry and economically challenged folks. ICT is just one aspect of the social transformation agenda. My personal take is that technology should not only be viewed as a necessary cost or investment; it is also an enabler of smarter and better development, smarter commerce and smarter governance.

For instance, biometric technology is one innovation that has helped Ekiti State to better manage its human and material resources, ensuring that fiscal loopholes and leakages are plugged whilst growing the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) profile of the state without increments in taxes or levies. What we have therefore tried to do within this short term period is to implement pro-development programs aimed at delivering a few dividends of democracy and improving citizens’ welfare. And clearly, the Ekiti State Government has embraced technology with all its extant implications and demands for smarter governance and smarter computing.

Hosting the team of 15 IBM specialists who did pro-bono consulting work for Ekiti State in February is just one indicator of this institutional quest to install smarter computing concepts within government. As a politician constantly debating the dilemmas of development in the postmodern age with political and business leaders across Nigeria and the rest of the world, the opportunity to allow these highly skilled professionals from 10 countries review some of our practices and processes was one I looked forward to with relish and positive expectation – and I must say that the state has not been the same since they completed their stint of duty here.

The recommendations of the CSC team have helped to further convince me that developing human talent and acquiring technology is the key to the state’s future. The professional attitude and work ethic of the team has also further invoked a sense of urgency – often lacking within government enterprise – within the various departments they worked in.

I am particularly pleased that the work of the IBM CSC team will in the long term enrich and help to foment the “smart connect” between the government and the governed in Ekiti State.

Kayode Fayemi, Ph.D., is Governor of Ekiti State, Nigeria.

Related Resources:

IBM Helps Nigeria’s Ekiti State Improve Its Governance and Education Capabilities

Supporting Nigeria’s Small Businesses

More articles about IBM’s Corporate Service Corps

IBM in West Africa

Technorati Tags: corporate service corps, Ekiti State Nigeria, Kayode Fayemi

The author with her protégé Tamara, a fourth-grader in Orlando.

I had the pleasure of joining IBM during the year of our centennial year, and participated in our Centennial Celebration of Service. On that day, more than 300,000 IBM volunteers in 122 countries organized more than 5,000 projects through which we contributed more than 3.2 million hours of service. And after that day, IBMers continued to give – donating nearly
1 million additional hours of service around the world.

Here in Orlando, I participated in an event with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida.
I live in downtown Orlando, and had seen first hand how one street transitions from luxury condominiums to homeless shelters in a stretch of less than two miles. I knew that my city could use my help.

It can be difficult sometimes for traveling consultants to establish a sense of community with our co-workers because we are away for most of the week. But through the IBM Centennial Celebration of Service, I was able to join my colleagues to volunteer in an elementary school mentoring program (through which I met my awesome fourth-grade protégé Tamara!), donate my time to the Give Kids the World Village for terminally ill children, and lead IBM Orlando’s Employee Charitable Contribution Campaign (ECCC) –
for which we achieved 99 percent participation.

Our team also participated in our first Downtown Orlando IOA Corporate 5K run, the funds from which benefit local sports programs for children. Even though many of my consultant colleagues and I spend almost all of our time traveling and working remotely, we’ve still been able to contribute our time and skills through IBM’s citizenship programs.

The author (center) with IBM’s After-Hours Gaming League team.

Another great example is the chance I had to help jump start the first-ever IBM eSports Group! eSports stands for electronic sports, and group members get together virtually for video game competitions. Our eSports team participated in the After Hours Gaming League along with teams from many of our technology industry competitors. The eSports community allows mobile and remote employees around the world to get together after work and on the weekends to foster a sense of community, network with colleagues and with employees at other companies, and play for the goal of benefitting a non-profit that receives a donation if their team wins. It’s a terrific – and fun – way to help others.

I am proud to be part of a company that supports so many unique opportunities for service!

Kathy Pham is a Business Analytics and Optimization Senior Consultant with
IBM Global Business Services.

Related Resources:

IBM On Demand Community

IBM Community Grants

Corporate Responsibility Must Be Integral to Corporate Culture

Applying Technology and Expertise to Global Societal Problems

Skills-Based Volunteering Builds Personal and Professional Relationships

VIDEO: IBM: A Culture of Service

Technorati Tags: Centennial Celebration of Service, ECCC, IBM Culture of Service, Kathy Pham

WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD) recently bestowed their “Visionary Award for Shared Value” on IBM in recognition of our “outstanding corporate governance and corporate citizenship” efforts. IBM Director and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson accepted the award on our behalf.

The ability of corporations to positively influence the direction of society did not appear overnight. From the late 19^th Century through the latter part of the 20^th Century, corporate philanthropy grew from the largesse of wealthy individuals into strategic corporate giving and more community-minded business practices in such areas as supply chain sourcing and mitigating impacts on the environment.

Today, as corporations address their citizenship responsibilities in a global context, they need to work with a variety of public and private-sector partners to pursue practical solutions to challenges no single entity can overcome alone. Some guiding principles to consider when implementing citizenship programs that deliver real value include:

• Building broader partnerships that allow participation by stakeholders outside of
  the corporation;
• Reaching beyond so-called “checkbook philanthropy” to contribute a company’s
  most valued assets – including its top talent and core competencies; and
• Seizing opportunities to develop new relationships and build global leadership skills through programs that enhance the communities in which one serves.

In a changing and interconnected world with increasingly diminished resources, each of us should be committed in making sustainable civic, societal and economic improvements – not just creating short-term goodwill. As we continue to shape the post-philanthropic era, we move beyond the notion of shared value to create real value by helping citizens, governments, nonprofits and other companies build a smarter planet.

Stanley S. Litow is IBM’s Vice President for Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs and President of the IBM International Foundation.

Read More About IBM’s Citizenship Initiatives:

Corporate Service Corps: Focusing Technology and Expertise on Global Societal Problems

Smarter Cities Challenge: Improving the Quality of Urban Life for All Citizens

P-TECH: Reshaping Educational Paradigms to Connect Training to Jobs

Technorati Tags: corporate citizenship, corporate governance, Stanley S. Litow, Visionary Award for Shared Value, WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD)

Councillor Vern Veitch (holding trophy) and IBM’s Catherine Caruana-McManus receiving the Smart Infrastructure Award from Infrastructure Partnerships Australia

The pilot is breaking new ground in the way data is collected and analysed in near real-time. At its core, the program will help identify and enable ways for the people of Townsville to drive water conservation by empowering residents with smart technology to assist with positive behavioural change.

Why does a city located in the tropics need to worry about water consumption, given the incredible deluges we experience during our wet season? Like many towns or cities located in the tropics, we have two very extreme seasons – wet and dry. So when it’s wet, it is really wet; and when it’s dry, there is not a drop of moisture for months on end. And it is always hot!

The people of Townsville love their gardens. They carefully tend gardens and lawns as they proudly make our community a better looking place. But Townsville has a growing population and with our seasonally dry climate, almost 70 percent of the average household water consumption is currently used on lawns and gardens.

Not only that, but the infrastructure that supports the flow of water around the city and down from the Ross River Dam is aging. Since our average household consumes up to three times more water than other major Australian cities, through this project we are aiming to demonstrate that significant water consumption reductions are possible across the city. This in turn should lead to flow-on savings for the Council through reduced water treatment costs and deferral of capital investment.

Fortunately for Townsville, we were awarded an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant in 2011. The project team that visited us recommended a number of options to help us manage our city by utilising our existing infrastructure in smarter ways.

By using IBM’s Big Data expertise, this pilot project is an output of this grant. It delivers near real-time information about daily water usage from digital water meters to the Council and residents via a web portal. But delivering information on how much water a household is using is not enough to positively change behaviour. Where the real “smart” aspect comes in is via the analytics that IBM has developed.

Through the web portal, it provides personalised and actionable insights so households can better understand their water consumption patterns and even be alerted to potential anomalies to help indentify leaks. We can also encourage some friendly competition amongst the pilot community by comparing and contrasting usage with other participating households. A future application even includes the option of participants receiving a mobile phone text message stating rain conditions, allowing residents to change their water usage behaviours accordingly.

A similar pilot has been used very successfully with IBM and the City of Dubuque, Iowa, USA. The Dubuque Water Pilot Study resulted in a 6.6 percent reduction in water consumption and an eightfold increase in leak detection, so there is enormous potential for significant social and economic benefits here in Townsville if our trial is successful.

I would challenge other cities to explore how they too can use technology on existing infrastructure in smarter ways, and most importantly create a more sustainable future for their cities and citizens.

Councillor Vern Veitch is Deputy Mayor of Townsville, Australia. Vern spent many years campaigning for sustainable land and waterways management in North Queensland.
Since becoming a councillor, Vern has championed efficient and sustainable use of the environment and the Council’s role in providing leadership on environmental challenges facing North Queensland.

Related Resources:

Townsville Wins National Award with IBM Smarter Water Management Project

Ensuring Tucson’s Water Future

The Making of a Smarter Geraldton

Technorati Tags: Big Data, cloud computing, data analytics, environmental sustainability, mobile computing, Smarter Cities Challenge, Townsville Australia, Vern Veitch, water management

WWF is one of the world’s largest conservation organizations, and focuses its work on the magnificent diversity of life on this planet. The organization works closely with business and industry partners and runs about 1,300 projects at any one time – including the TRAFFIC program to protect African elephants and rhinoceros from poachers.

Click here to view the embedded video.

IBM donated a thorough user analysis of WWF’s Swiss website to help the organization determine how to engage visitors more actively. Traffic on the website had been robust, but while visitors were reading the content they were not downloading files or registering for events. Jan Schlink, WWF’s head of digital and print services expects the analysis to help the organization improve its online performance.

The Web User Analysis Grant that we received from IBM will help us develop
the insights we need to improve the branding and usability of our website. The analysis will give us the tools we need to define our strategic roadmap for
the site. – Jan Schlink

To undertake the analysis, a team of IBM experts from Switzerland and Germany started by interviewing WWF internal staff and external users of the site. Then they analyzed the effectiveness of the branding, look and feel, navigation, and content of the WWF site. During a one-day workshop with WWF’s leadership team, the IBM consultants presented their findings with a solid peer-to-peer approach.

The whole project was managed perfectly. Communications and coordination were best-practice. The team’s skills, productivity, kindness, service orientation and communication were exceptional. – Jan Schlink

Moving forward, WWF expects their IBM Web User Analysis Grant to help them reach their goals for online fundraising and mobilizing member support.

Jacqueline Spuehler is Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs Manager for IBM Switzerland.

Related Resource:

Read more stories about IBM Services Grants

Technorati Tags: IBM Service Grants, Jacqueline Spuehler, World Wildlife Fund

Click here to view the embedded video.

This year, I was blessed with the opportunity to cultivate an educational community focused on innovation through science, technology, engineering and mathematics as the founding principal of Goode STEM Academy. I left the corporate world to become an educator because I wanted to spark the imagination of young innovators and inspire young students to use education as the gateway to a better future. At Goode STEM Academy, I’ve made it our mission to strive each day to spark innovation and technological advancement, as well as to better prepare our student innovators with the skills necessary to succeed in higher education and the workplace.

Similarly to New York’s Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH), Goode STEM Academy is the result of a collaboration among the Chicago Public Schools, the City Colleges of Chicago and the business world. Goode STEM Academy is redefining secondary education by integrating high school, college and career. The idea is for educators and employers to work together to tailor school curricula to develop necessary skill sets and create a rigorous academic and workplace skills program.

To ensure that our innovators have the best chance to succeed in this dynamic and ever-changing global economy, we established a partnership between our school, IBM and City Colleges of Chicago, so that our student innovators are prepared to succeed in tomorrow’s business world. Mentors from IBM help to develop the necessary skills of collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking in our student innovators. In addition, our mentors help our student innovators learn to embrace failure – as failure is a natural
process of learning. Through our collaboration with City Colleges of Chicago, our goal
is for our students to graduate not only with a high school diploma but also with an Associate’s Degree.

President Obama praised New York City’s P-TECH and the grades 9 through 14 model
for connecting education to jobs in his 2013 State of the Union address, and his administration has set aside $300 million in the current federal budget to support the redesign of secondary education. Here in Chicago, Goode STEM Academy is one of five new P-TECH-model schools – each with a different corporate partner – inaugurated under Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s leadership. We are finishing up our first year and are extremely proud of the results:

• 98.3 percent of our ninth graders are on track for promotion to the 10^th grade
• Half of our current ninth graders will have the opportunity to take college level courses as 10^th graders
• 95 percent attendance rate

We know that a high school education is not enough for today’s (or tomorrow’s) economy. High schools, colleges, and businesses must work together to build a learning culture that nurtures creativity and sparks imagination. We need our young innovators to shape the world by “changing the game” not only for themselves, but for everyone with whom they interact. It is up to all of us – educators and business leaders – to help our innovators live their dreams and go out into the world as successful, productive adults.

Matsuo Marti is the founding principal of Chicago’s Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy.
Mr. Marti grew up on Chicago’s Southside and is a product of the Chicago Public Schools’ system. Before becoming an educator, Mr. Marti worked as a research and design engineer for Motorola, where he was granted a patent for cellular telephone circuitry design.

Related Resources:

Mayor Rahm Emanuel: Building a Smarter Chicago

Crossing the “Great Divides” to Save Our Children

U.S. Competitiveness: Addressing the Skills Crisis

Exploring Public-Private Partnerships in STEM Education

STEM Pathways to College and Careers Schools: A Development Guide

Technorati Tags: Matsuo Marti, P-TECH, Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, STEM education

The Tucson Smarter Cities Challenge Team (from left to right): Chet Karwatowski, Sandy Elder (Tucson Water Deputy Director), Satish Kalyani, Andrew Greenhill (Assistant to Tucson City Manager), Sridhar Iyengar, Kat Carlisle, Mayor Rothschild, Barbara Guzak, Carol Savage, Alan Forrest (Tucson Water Director).

Now we face a new century full of numerous uncertainties. At what rate will Tucson continue to grow? How will political forces, climate change, the economics of energy and other dynamics affect Tucson’s water supply? And how can we make more cost-effective investments in public education and infrastructure to increase conservation, reduce water loss and ensure that future generations of Tucsonans enjoy a more secure water future?

One critical area for cost-effective investment is technology. We are converting all of our customer water meters to digital in order to reduce the amount of labor required to manually read all the 225,000 customer meters each month. And we are replacing our Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system in order to improve our ability to control and manage our water distribution system.

These systems will cost millions of dollars over a number of years. And as mayor, I want to make sure these investments result in better customer service, reduced labor costs, better leak detection, more data-driven management of Tucson Water. In addition to managing our water more efficiently, we also want to establish a set of best practices that we can use beyond the Water Department and across city government.

I was pleased that Tucson was selected for a 2013 IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant. As a result, a team of senior IBM executives came to Tucson for three weeks to listen to our story, learn about our water system and lend their expertise. They came from North Carolina, Texas, New York, California and Virginia to learn about how one of the most arid American cities is setting the standard for wise water use. The IBM team lived in our community and worked with the Tucson Water Department. They learned a great deal and helped us even more.

The Smarter Cities team’s final report delivered exactly what we were looking for. It contained a roadmap with both shorter and longer term recommendations. The report did not recommend additional investments beyond our means, but it did make an effective case for the timing and scheduling of our planned investments – recommendations which will help us achieve better near-term results while we develop sustainable practices for this ongoing project. The four areas of improvement detailed in the roadmap were:

• Improve customer service with automated metering
• Modernize our meter management systems
• Implement advanced operations management systems
• Build additional capacities for our existing information technology systems

It was also important to me that the city would be able to scale the Smarter Cities recommendations and apply their principles to other departments. If fully implemented, the Smarter Cities roadmap recommendations will improve Water Department efficiency and service, strengthen the IT Department, and serve as a model for other departments across city government.

It’s clear that IBM has made a strategic decision to focus on the opportunities and challenges facing cities around the world through its Smarter Cities program. They understand that a city is a “system of systems,” and that comprehensive analyses of the ways these systems interact with one another and with the populations they serve are critical to improving the quality of life of citizens everywhere. IBM’s selection of Tucson as a global smarter city has given us the chance to demonstrate that we have some of the highest standards for resource management, conservation, financial planning and community engagement for municipal water departments anywhere in the United States.

Thank you to IBM and to the IBMers who became Tucsonans during their three weeks with us. I have no doubt that we will continue to share information in the future and build upon what we learned during our time together. In this way, the wise water strategies Tucsonans have learned from our desert ancestors will be further refined and shared with other smart cities facing similar challenges in a changing world.

Jonathan Rothschild is the Mayor of Tucson, Arizona.

Related Resources:

Read Other Mayors’ Blogs About the Smarter Cities Challenge

Anatomy of a Project for Sustainable Water

Simpler Is Better for Saving Our Waterways

Technorati Tags: Jonathan Rothschild, Smarter Cities Challenge, Tucson

I recently was in Taiwan, where our employees are very keen on helping students maximise their potential through training for STEM careers (Science Technology, Engineering and Math). More than 300 IBM Taiwan employees have worked with more than 3,000 Taiwanese students since 2008, and this work continues today. In 2012, IBM Taiwan partnered with our client China Steel Corporation to grow volunteer participation and reach an even larger number of students. And in 2013, we will partner with China Steel Corporation and Tatung Company to provide a total of 400 volunteers to participate in nine high schools in Taipei
and Kaohsiung.

IBM Taiwan Volunteers Participated in Engineer Week at Taipei Jing Mei Girls High School

We recently deployed our first Smarter Cities Challenge team to Taiwan, where they worked with New Taipei City Mayor Dr. Liluan Chu, his leadership team and the Commissioner of Police to identify the challenges facing this rapidly growing metropolis. Together, they developed a roadmap for how the city can address issues of traffic management and public safety, and for how New Taipei City can use technology to engage its more than 3.9 million residents spread across 29 districts. Later in the year, a second team of IBM executives will work with Pingtung County to help it develop strategies for energy conservation and environmental sustainability.

Smarter Cities Challenge/New Taipei City team and Mayor Dr. Liluan Chu at Project Kickoff

Skills-based volunteering is something IBM takes very seriously. Our employees around the world love to volunteer; they use their many diversified skills to help their local communities. Here in Australia for example, our employees volunteer as fire fighters, emergency services technicians, surf lifesavers, and school literacy program teachers – among other things. They all have the same goal to use their expertise to help others.

IBM’s values and culture of service influence everything we do. This is true in every country where we do business or have employees. Across the Asia-Pacific region, and in all of our growth markets, we invest in local communities through the contribution of our technology and expertise. In addition, we have a team of dedicated citizenship professionals who manage our community relationships in each country. We work in partnership with NGOs, not-for-profit organisations, governments, schools and universities to maximise our reach and impact – with a focus on addressing issues of national, regional or global importance.

IBM Taiwan Software Engineer Rebecca Chen joined Corporate Service Corps in South Africa

Whether it’s direct volunteering through our On Demand Community, support through an IBM Services Grant, or the engagement of one of our Corporate Service Corps or Smarter Cities Challenge teams, IBM and IBMers collaborate with the full spectrum of not-for-profit entities to provide real value in service to our communities.

Louise Davis is Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs Executive with IBM Asia Pacific/
Growth Markets. She is responsible for IBM’s Citizenship programs in 14 countries.

Related Resources:

Read More About IBM’s Culture of Service

Learn About IBM Services Grants

Join IBM’s On Demand Community of Volunteers

Technorati Tags: corporate service corps, IBM Services Grant, Louise Davis, New Taipei City, Smarter Cities Challenge

CIS Kids at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in Charlotte, NC

At CIS, we find ourselves asking: How do we serve at-risk public school students – our “clients” – in a time of greater need and scarcer and more competitive funding? In a challenging economy, how do we convince donors to sustain our current quality work while enabling us to prepare for the future? How do we communicate our need to invest in risk-management functions, general operations and professional development to maintain our top-notch service delivery? Now, more than ever, thinking creatively to find opportunity in the unexpected is critical to our success.

Recently, our staff had a fantastic opportunity to participate in a leadership workshop led
by IBM’s Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs team. The Leading in a Changing World workshop exposed our team to concepts which will help us find solutions to some of the tough challenges our organization is facing. It did this by helping us change our mindset, and by exposing us to the benefits of developing an organizational culture of creativity
and innovation.

The workshop invigorated our team with ideas such as:

• Don’t get discouraged because the rules change, but focus on your objective and find new ways to achieve it; and
• Fail Forward – lean into your mistakes and use what you’ve learned to grow.

In particular, our CIS team has embraced the simple, but powerful idea of rewarding creativity, and we are implementing ways for our entire staff to employ innovative approaches to problem solving. The workshop’s focus on creativity and innovation already has helped our team see the benefits of developing their “creative muscles,” and is leading the way to innovative change.

Our situation is not unique to the nonprofit community. Which among nonprofits in the human services sector has not seen greater need but fewer resources over the last four to five years? Despite this, CIS is off to a strong start toward creating a workplace culture that embraces creativity and innovation. The team at IBM has planted the seeds of a new leadership model that we will grow into innovative solutions. In fact, the new reality of having to do more with less may turn out to be the greatest change agent we could have hoped for – thanks to the compelling workshop that IBM offered us last week.

Molly Shaw is executive director of Communities In Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Inc., an affiliate of the national Communities In Schools (CIS) network. CIS’ mission is to surround students with a community of support – empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. Each year, through case management services in 45 Charlotte-Mecklenburg public schools, CIS serves 6,500 students who are most at-risk for dropping out. CIS also assists an additional 30,000 students through school-based programming and by securing resources.

Related Resources:

Doing More With Less: Why Professional Management Is Essential
for Social Services Providers

IBM Project Management Grant Helps Memphis Advance a Culture of Excellence

Get More Information About IBM Initiatives and Grants

Technorati Tags: Communities In Schools (CIS) North Carolina, Molly Shaw