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Good evening, everyone:

Almost 23 years ago, the McKnight Foundation, which I then led, was asked to help create a regional leadership group that could create and steward a civic framework to address issues that were impeding regional growth, prosperity, and equity in the Twin Cities. It was called the Itasca Project.  The project’s leadership recently announced that it would sunset the effort, proposing that its work could now be wrapped into other regional economic development efforts; I traveled to Minneapolis last week to acknowledge and celebrate this extraordinary chapter of Minneapolis-St. Paul civic life.

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A decade ago, several of the founders of Itasca wrote in a McKinsey publication:

Our group, the Itasca Project, has been experimenting for more than a decade with fresh collaborative approaches aimed at boosting the economic and social health of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul region of the United States, America’s 16th-largest metropolitan area, with about 3.4 million people. If you’ve been to any meeting of your local Chamber of Commerce or Growth Association, you may think you know what a civic alliance such as Itasca does.

Ten years ago, we would have thought so, too, because we and our companies had long been trying to work productively with governments and not-for-profit groups in the Twin Cities. But we would have been wrong. Although other organizations play a critical role in communities, Itasca is different. It’s an employer-led civic alliance with no individual members, no office, and no full-time staff. We are quite prepared to end Itasca the minute we feel it is no longer adding value. In fact, we debated that very issue—should we continue?—at our fifth birthday and again this year, at our tenth.

We keep going because of the opportunities we see to make a difference. In the past decade, Itasca has forged links between the business community and our region’s biggest university. It has improved the financial fitness of the region through educational programs and cast a national spotlight on growing socioeconomic disparities. Today, Itasca is working to improve higher education and generating quality-job growth, as well as advancing efforts to address transportation issues comprehensively.

Well, another ten years on, and the group decided that its value would best be enhanced if it resided in another regional economic development organization: Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul. I wanted to reflect on that milestone for several reasons.

First, its record of accomplishment – in regional transit, early childhood development, health care equity, and other domains – is remarkable within the universe of regional business-led economic development entities.

Second, it was the model for Detroit’s CEO’s Group, which was founded by Gerry Anderson of DTE, led for several years by Matt Cullen, and will be headed going forward by Mary Barra and Mark Reuss of General Motors.

And third, because it demonstrates how civic decision-making can effectively be distributed among the private, nonprofit, public, and civic sectors.  In Chapter 17 of my Drawn to Challenge book, I wrote:

The success of Itasca conjures the Star Trek phenomenon of shape-shifting. The corporate community forged novel partnerships with the public, academic, philanthropic, and nonprofit sectors. The businesses, while never compromising their institutional interests, defined them more expansively than was customary. Itasca moved beyond the constraints of ossified trade organization priorities, with the group dynamic arcing above and beyond conservative political expectations.

And the shape-shifting wasn’t limited to the business leaders.

Nonprofits—initially skeptical of an elitist group of CEOs presuming to set regional civic priorities—worked hand in glove with Itasca to craft effective approaches to transit, childcare, and health priorities they too had been pursuing for years.

At first concerned about creating an impression that they’d relinquished public decision-making authority to unelected corporate leaders, mayors R.T. Rybak and Randy Kelly took a back seat to—but threw their full weight behind— a process outside their scope of command and control.

And the McKnight Foundation, originally unsure whether philanthropy could contribute meaningfully to such an unprecedented effort, had realized Larry Perlman’s [the CEO of the Control Data Corporation] aspiration. McKnight took the lead in designing the Itasca enterprise, set it in motion, and supported its early endeavors. And it then stepped away, as IRS guidance demanded, when a specific legislative proposal [a comprehensive statewide regional transportation bill] was born. For a foundation like ours, it was risky business. But it was the kind of risk, anchored in the pursuit of long-term public good, that private foundations are uniquely equipped to take.

There is a marvelous synchronicity between the sunsetting of Itasca and the launch of a new era of the Detroit CEO’s Group under Mary Barra. Mary’s team is serious about taking aim at the definitional issues facing the city, and region. We in Detroit are different from Minneapolis-St. Paul, but bringing more concerted multi-sector problem-solving to the table is something both communities have come to understand is essential to long-term, equitable growth and health.

Rip

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