The following appeared as a Counterpoint in the News-Record, Wednesday, September 1, 2010.
It was refreshing to read accounts of the Piedmont Triad Partnership by Keith Debbage and Rob Bencini (Aug. 4). Both are right about PTP. They ask tough questions about the rhetoric and reality of regionalism that PTP and all leaders should answer.
For readers who don’t understand the point of regional economic development, it’s simple: Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem will do far better pooling resources to attract and develop growth than trying it on their own.
In 2008, I was hired by PTP to create a team of educators from the region’s colleges and universities to make an interactive training module for surgical technicians. That is, we were going to make a computer game, an otherwise expensive exercise no single institution could afford.
I knew what I was getting into. One teammate described my job as “herding cats.” A business colleague later confessed PTP would have had to pay her triple to do my job because it looked like “Mission: Impossible” through most of it. By the project’s end we had solid, notable successes and some mixed results — not enough to declare victory and start a game industry here in the Piedmont, a dubious PTP ambition, but more than enough to show what we needed to do if the region was serious about attracting and developing businesses that used high-tech skills like those found in the game industry. And more than enough to show what teachers needed to know to be more effective in the classroom.
If I’m certain we had a positive local impact, I’m less certain PTP came close to big-scale change. Even our small project gave PTP considerable leverage to maximize our results because it paid higher education’s tab for faculty training, no small gift in tough times.
With millions from its Department of Labor grant it could call the shots, bring everyone to the table, and enforce discipline and Kumbaya teamwork. That’s herding cats on a grand scale. Now that the grant’s done, we shouldn’t be surprised to see old ways return.
In baseball, everyone loves the drama of a homer, but there are other ways to score. My team hit the ball and, as we round second, we’re wondering if the new PTP management has the keen eye and experience to spot an inside-the-park home run. We blasted the ball high up, it’s just hit the wall and we’re running, running, waiting for a sign.
