BONUS: The Power of Social Innovation w/ Keith Stanley and Rana Altenburg
This episode is a replay of a previous episode with Keith Stanley and Rana Altenburg about the Near West Side Partners. We are replaying the episode due to the clear and urgent calls for social change that have happened over the past month and particularly the last week. This episode has a brand new update from Keith on the current state of the Near West Side Partners. Enjoy!
Although many people may think that gaining consensus is a great thing - it doesn’t work for innovation. In fact, the best ideas are usually the ones that make people uncomfortable.
When there are too many people at the table, it’s easy to get a lot of nice words but not a lot of action. And that is what you might expect to happen when 5 large institutions - Marquette University, Harley Davidson, Miller Coors, Aurora Healthcare, and Potawatomi Business Development Corporation - got together and created the Near West Side partners to try and find innovative solutions to address the challenges in their Milwaukee neighborhood.
This organization's goal is to revitalize and sustain the Near West Side as a thriving business and residential corridor.
On today’s episode, I speak with Keith Stanley, who is Executive Director, and Rana Altenburg, who is President of the Near West Side Partners.
We discuss their approach to social innovation and the unique challenges and opportunities associated with the work they are doing. We hear about:
The necessity of the right people to put any plan into action
The importance of overlooking your assumptions to get at the truth
And embracing the tension of sustaining what you currently have while also trying to building something better for the future
As Malcom Gladwell said:
“Innovation - the heart of the knowledge economy - is fundamentally social”
Please check out the episode in the above link. If you have an opinion on these topics, please feel free to email us through the contact page. The best ideas often stem from the intersection of different points of view. The episode is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!
