It’s exciting to launch new community assets such as economic-development organizations, entrepreneur facilities and the like. Doing so requires major investments of time, resources and political capital and such announcements are great for building community momentum.
However, focusing too much on the buildup to launch and all the excitement surrounding it often comes at the expense of less visible but critical strategic planning that will ultimately determine the project’s success or failure.
I call this the “Ribbon Cutting Syndrome,” where the lion’s share of community focus and energy is funneled into getting to a successful launch point, leaving long-term sustainability and impact as a secondary emphasis. Unfortunately, it can result in financial instability, operational challenges and potential failure of the project overall.
As a project example, let’s look at developing a new entrepreneur support facility. Typically, the vast majority of community effort is devoted to rallying support to acquire property and build the new facility, leaving little energy to address the greater challenge: ensuring its successful operation and impact for decades to come.
Essential planning elements often lost in the initial fervor include developing a solid financial model that extends beyond initial launch capital, creating an adaptive management system to address future challenges and opportunities which are certain to arise, and setting bold impact goals for the project overall to ensure public accountability and greater outcomes. These are just some of the topics required for long-term success which often fall far down the planning agenda.
For strategic projects warranting major community investments, it’s imperative that long-term success be prioritized over short-term optics. This requires a culture that elevates outcomes over headlines and a willingness to invest for the long haul, holding staff and elected officials accountable for results and a return on community investment. It also means creating a new paradigm for evaluating future projects and a commitment to doing fewer things better.
While launching new strategic projects is exciting and newsworthy, the real work — and the real success — lies in ensuring these initiatives can thrive and produce the results their communities desire long after the initial applause has faded.
The next time your community announces a major new endeavor, enthusiastically applaud the announcement and realize the race has really just begun.
John Moore is a principal with Momenteum Strategies, an Upstate-based consulting firm specializing in helping communities and their economic development organizations build thriving, impactful innovation ecosystems.
