Before returning to Michigan a couple years ago, Michael Brennan spent 15 years working for the United Way in a variety of markets throughout the state and across the nation.
"So, if you are in this work of United Way, which is fundamentally about making communities better, you sit there and you say, 'Why? Why are some regions outperforming?' And I'm not just talking in an economic vitality sense, but also in terms of the social fabric and the way in which they care for one another," says Brennan, now president of
United Way for Southeastern Michigan.
When he came back to Southeast Michigan, he says that he noticed the region was struggling with the same kinds of things it had been facing 20 years earlier. "There was the same script that was being played, the same issues. Often the region was feeling it wasn't making much progress on the issues it cared most about," he says.
So Brennan collected his thoughts in a paper:
The Seven Disciplines of a Community of Progress: Creating a New Path.
"There's too much of an overemphasis on our inability to get things done, instead of imagining fundamentally a different state, and that we could move towards that," he says.
One way Brennan and his organization is encouraging the region's transformation is through participating in One D, a newly formed partnership with the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan, the Detroit Regional Chamber, New Detroit and Detroit Renaissance.
The group will focus on:
• economic prosperity;
• educational preparedness;
• regional transit;
• race relations;
• regional cooperation;
• and quality of life.
"We believe that this region can make better progress on social issues, and we believe in the collective," he says. "A vibrant region always has economic success and social success. The reason is they are forever intertwined. You cannot separate those."
What follows is the introduction to Brennan's
Seven Disciplines paper. Future issues of
metromode will include other installments from the paper, here in the
Regional Activation Zone. Next Thursday, check back to read about the first discipline, "Believe It to be Possible."
The Seven Disciplines of a Community of Progress: Creating a New Path
Introduction by Michael Brennan, president of United Way for Southeastern Michigan
This is home to me. I am a third generation resident born and raised here. I started my family and professional career here. My grandfather came to Detroit on the promise of $5 a day to escape the mines in Springfield, Illinois, and marry the girl of his fancy. He found work with the Dodge Brothers on the east side of Detroit and started his family near the corner of McNichols and Van Dyke. He delivered milk by horse and made a career working for Detroit Creamery while raising six kids. His oldest son, my father, enlisted in the Army during World War II, served in China, enrolled at University of Detroit on the GI Bill and married the girl he met on the bus returning home from campus. They, too, bought a house on the east side and began to raise their own family. I arrived as the caboose to a train of six kids.
After being gone from the area for more than 15 years, I returned home in early 2004 to accept the role of President of the United Way for Southeastern Michigan. I set out to reconnect to the community of my birth and origin. Like seeing a friend you haven't conversed with in years, I saw my hometown through a fresh lens. Over the next 36 months, I drove over 70,000 miles in the tri-county area meeting with individuals, community groups, nonprofit organizations, regional and state public officials, and corporate, civic and religious leaders.
From the neighborhood on the east side my grandfather came to nearly 100 years ago, to the growing communities on the outskirts of our metro Detroit region, I found familiar street corners, landmarks and people. I found decade old wounds which festered like a picked scab. I saw new communities that have never seen the strengths of the old communities. And vice versa. But through this, my travels reminded me of what I already knew: metropolitan Detroit's complexity is both its strength and its Achilles' heal.
Southeastern Michigan's history is full of stories on our divide – race, geography and income to name a few. Yet, there is too little conversation or acknowledgement of the common ground we share. The economic and social data on the region reminds us that our current way of addressing issues is not delivering the desired results. Hence, future work will require us to develop new paths together and to leverage our regional assets.
We all want our city and region to make progress. We want a sense of consistent improvement. The critical question facing us is — can a region make collective progress in today's climate of identity politics, globalization, and ever changing paradigms?
I believe the answer is "yes". I believe in the power of the collective. What is our reality – the success of the Super Bowl or the regional divide over Cobo? Both are.
There are seven disciplines that must be present for our region to make consistent progress. We could identify this progress when we see forward movement on issues such as jobs that pay a wage, which support a family, or greater access to quality health care, or even a higher graduation rate for our urban centers to name just a few. A community of progress readily finds these disciplines at work.
The Seven Disciplines of a Community of Progress
1. Believe It to be Possible
2. Embrace the Genius of the And
3. Pass the Torch of Leadership
4. Power of Three
5. Get on Base
6. Strengthen the Citizen Muscle
7. Only Everyone
Next Thursday:
Believe It to be Possible
What is the Regional Activation Zone? A place to Get inspired. Get informed. Get connected.
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you can find an opportunity that interests you and is close to home.
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Photograph © Dave Krieger