Pick Your Community’s Narrative, And Go
Despite being one of the nation’s healthiest economies, Colorado’s backroads reveal the same empty factories, rusted equipment, and abandoned claims that litter the vast forgotten stretches of our nation. Skeletons of hope. Evidence of despair.
In the face of unprecedented innovation and social disparity, many communities are finding that their old economic playbooks aren’t working anymore. Now more than ever, local community leaders are at the crux of “what this town used to be” and what it will become.
This fragile position can often stagnate progress, sometimes leading to hundreds of pages of economic development reports, colorful powerpoint presentations, charts, and buzzwords. What is the right next step for my community?
A mentor once told me, “the only wrong decision is no decision at all.”
It turns out, this applies to economic development too. And what is economic development after all?
It’s not meetings. It’s not diagrams. It’s not consultants. It is not committees.
It is action. It is real business creation.
So how do you take action, and foster creation for your local community?
Choose a local narrative.
A local narrative is a declaration of the types of businesses your community is uniquely qualified to create.
Identify your local assets, and use these to align your community toward progress.
Sometimes your local narrative is a result of your circumstance. Sometimes it is the result of a few local crazies getting together and doing something special (eg Silicon Valley).
The sniff test for a local narrative:
- Is my community UNIQUELY QUALIFIED to own this narrative?
- Are entrepreneurs collaborating around it?
Number one is essential. Number two may be harder to come by, and may even take some pushing and prodding. The key is recognizing where entrepreneurs are generating sparks and providing them all the supportive gasoline you can — money, space, branding, beer (seriously).
Once declared, a local narrative serves as light for citizens of your community to spot opportunity.
Using Colorado as an example, the narratives already in action, or waiting to be seized across our state are surprisingly diverse.
Gunnison: Public Lands — Western State University offers a degree in recreation and outdoor education, and the region is home to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory and ColdHarbour Insititute. This academic firepower, combined with the exceptionally collaborative nature of local land agencies and diverse landscape make it prime for developing new public lands solutions.
Durango/Silverton: Reclamation — The nearby San Juan Mountains are both stunning and covered with the evidence of unchecked mining. Meanwhile, Fort Lewis College is home to fantastic natural science and outdoor education programs, and the Mountain Studies Institute hosts an annual Innovation Expo focused on new solutions to this century-old problem. The San Juans are prime to be the epicenter for reclamation collaboration.
Rangeley: Dentistry and Aviation — Home to Colorado Northwestern Community College, this small northwestern Colorado town produces a disproportionate share of dentists and pilots. That’s a new batch of students each year who live in Rangely and have unique insights into the opportunities for innovation in these industries.
Delta/North Fork Valley/Palisade: Organic Foods — From Palisade peaches to Olathe corn, this region is known for outstanding crops. This makes it uniquely situated to discover innovation in journey from farm-to-table. ENGAGE is a local organization that is championing this local narrative already.
Chaffee County: Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) —Led by Chaffee County UAS, this high Rocky Mountain county has established its COA (certificate of authorization) to make UAS use easy, has an alliance of local businesses around this, and even teaches student to fly drones in the high school gym.
Once you make your local narrative known, you’ll be surprised how many other folks will start spotting related opportunities. Entrepreneurs have a funny habit of doing that. You’ll have a consistent way to explain the opportunities your communities provide, with real examples to point to. Starting this economic flywheel doesn’t take expensive economic development consultants, 300 page reports, or shiny logos.
It just takes action.
Post-Script Note: It is not solely up to leaders in economic development positions to choose a narrative. In fact, it is best if entrepreneurs themselves self-select to become leaders and embrace their local narrative with fellow entrepreneurs.
