Building Capacities for Community Transformation: Iowa

By LaDene Bowen

The Institute for Decision Making (IDM) at the University of Northern Iowa has traditionally been a Midwest leader in community visioning and strategic planning. The institute provides community and economic development technical assistance and applied research to communities and organizations in Iowa and beyond.

Founded in 1987, IDM began five years ago to prepare rural community leaders for the new challenges of comprehensive community transformation through three major projects:

1. County-wide education about future weak signals and a parallel-planning process for county government.

2. The development of a core group of economic development leaders in a five-state region who were coached in new leadership concepts, connecting new knowledge to new resources and methods that relate to community transformation.

3. Ongoing incorporation of adaptive planning into IDM’s visioning and planning model.

With the assistance of futurist Rick Smyre and the Center for Communities of the Future, the planning project started by painting a picture of the 2028 future for community and government officials, community leaders, and interested residents. The adopted vision continues to be the driving focus of Black Hawk County government, and no budgets are approved until each county department submits short-term plans tied to the vision.

An excerpt from the county’s adopted vision statement includes the following passage:

IDM’s second project was to become the Mid-Central Node for an evolving community and economic-development network to help new knowledge emerge. Six economic-development leaders from five Midwest states agreed to be a part of a leadership team for a Global Rural Network. The initiative attempted to create a network of individuals interested in the future of rural development, recognizing that, in this new economy, new skills and thinking would be required to be successful.

The third IDM initiative, ongoing, is to play a proactive role in incorporating many of the comprehensive community transformation concepts into IDM’s services to communities and organizations.

IDM has also made adjustments in its planning model to incorporate a parallel-planning process and to better position communities to embrace adaptive planning.

LaDene Bowen, a certified economic developer, is the associate director of the Institute for Decision Making, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa, www.bcs.uni.edu.