The other day, Nyla Haddy weighed in on this blog with some humorous sarcasm about the “changing of the guards” at the GV Chamber: “New” GV chamber; really just the “old-guard” political machine.”
“Nyla Haddy, on February 9, 2013 at 4:11 pm said:
Should be an interesting Chamber!
Nyla Haddy (5 generations of us)
Can’t wait…”
Nyla is the owner of Stray Cuts & Co in Nevada City, where I often walk down the street to get my haircut. Nyla has built a loyal following — from retirees, to elected and city officials to business owners.
I haven’t talked to Nyla about this, but she was in the same NU High class as GV Chamber director Keith Davies, GV Mayor Dan Miller and Chamber board member Patti Ingram — all players in creating this “new” chamber leadership.
Nevada Union opened in 1961 to serve the needs of Nevada City, Grass Valley, and the surrounding communities. Prior to Nevada Union, there were separate high schools in Grass Valley and Nevada City, creating a cross-town rivalry.
I learn more about our community every day.
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Patti was not in the same class as Keith and myself. She wasn’t even in High School when we graduated. Be sure and check the facts.
Dan,
It was just a few years, as you know. You, Keith and Nyla were all in the same class. It’s important to understand the political alliances based on longtime social friendships that continue to influence our community — particularly GV — nearly half a century later. You need to be far more sensitive about how that appears to relative newcomers who come here to put a stake in the ground — i.e., live, work, contribute, raise children, etc. — and who also call our community home. Many of us are used to more of a meritocracy. In the end, a meritocracy will help us prosper. We all have something to contribute. Let the “new” folks in too, including the ones who may not be politically “like-minded.” It’s 2013.
Jeff,
Stay on topic. Patti did not graduate with Keith and myself.
Dan,
You’re ignoring the “elephant in the corner.” Tks.
I’m having trouble seeing the elephant. Since NU is the only comprehensive high school in town, you would expect those who are born-and-raised here to attend it.
Going to high school with somebody doesn’t make you buddies for life. I can think of a couple of people I graduated with who I never want to see again.
But your comment does raise the “vision thing,” as H.W. once put it. I’ve asked numerous NU alums to name a grad I might have heard of outside the county, and nobody’s come up with a name yet.
I don’t know what they teach the students at NU, but apparently they don’t teach them to think big.
Oh, I don’t know George. Define ‘big’.
I know of an alum who works at, I believe, Lawrence Berkeley, who measures stars. Stars are pretty big.
I know of another alum who is a particle physicist. Particles aren’t very big but they require big numbers.
I know of an alum who played football for a team that went to the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl seems to be big.
I know of an alum who is a current pitcher in MLB. Some might say that’s big.
I know of alums who are touring musicians.
I know of alums who are authors.
I know of alums who have been convicted of murder. I think that’s big.
I know of dozens of alums who have gone on to be doctors, lawyers, business people, employees, parents, grandparents…etc. To the people they relate with and influence, they seem pretty big.
Any student who gets a Bachelor’s degree leaves Grass Valley. Most of them go on to other things, and a few of them come back which is fine. There are an awful lot of commuters in Nevada County who moved there for the quality of life, and did not grow up there. Nevada County is also a home for commuters and retirees, not just the grads of the local comprehensive high school.
George, the elephant in the room is that most people who live in Nevada County did not go to NU, but some other high school in the world. They (we) too would like to feel like we are part of the democratic process. The elephant that Jeff keeps pointing to is the fact that the Chamber, City Council, etc., seems to be based in nods, winks, and understanding between old friends rather than the larger community. Old friendships are of course fine, unless it appears from the outside as if that is the main criteria for awarding contracts, making appointments, etc. Which, judging from some of the reactions Jeff is getting, does indeed to be the case in Nevada County.
It’s good that NU has produced its share of doctors, lawyers, business people, etc., because all are needed in any thriving community (well, maybe not the lawyers).
I didn’t set the “big” bar very high–I just asked for the names of people I might have heard of outside Nevada County. You didn’t mention any names, but I think I can identify the two professional athletes, mainly because I spend way too much time following sports.
Hi
I would like to know how the new chamber will work? Checks and balances?
I think the bigger issue is the question, “What is the big vision for our community and where does the power reside that can make that vision a reality?” With all due respect to Jeff’s point, every community has a group of people who have been there for a long time, know where the bodies are buried, know each others strengths and peccadilloes and have an inside track on what’s happening. I know many of the people on the Chamber board, and I am sure they are well meaning and truly believe that they are looking out for the community future.
However, the problem is that that is not enough. Traditional power structures, with their dependence on the ‘great leader’ theory, have a tendency to disempower new leaders, whether consciously or sub-consciously, and force them into alternative structures to impact the community. New leaders must wait their turn, and in turn go where their leadership is appreciated.
I find it ironic that, in general, Chambers of Commerce, whom I respect greatly for their institutional knowledge, experience and ability to network a specific set of people together, are having a hard time learning a core lesson of modern business: that the collective impact of using both formal and informal power structures and learning networks are more efficient, more democratic and in the long run more beneficial to local businesses and communities because they take advantage of new ideas and train a new generation of leadership to implement them.
Leadership today is a distributed network. Young people today do not trust traditional power structures and gravitate to places where power is distributed and opportunity is afforded to individuals who achieve. One need look no further than the research done by Richard Florida, author of the Rise of the Creative Class, and by the University of Toronto, to see this writ large on the nations demographic. One of the major reasons there is a rural brain drain is that in urban centers that value distributed leadership young people are afforded opportunities that they cannot access in more traditional settings. Equally, innovative thinkers of all ages are repelled from leadership because their vision often conflicts with established power structures.
Our communities in the Sierra Nevada could learn a lot form the corporate sector where distributed leadership and learning networks have created great competitive advantage for corporations and even small businesses that have adopted the theory. There is no better example of this in the corporate world than CISCO CEO John Chambers who recently said in a Harvard Business review interview “From a business model and leadership perspective, we’re seeing a massive shift from management by command-and-control to management by collaboration and teamwork. You could almost say this shift is as revolutionary as the assembly line.” But the same could is true of small business, where entities like the Vermont Country Store and others have built small businesses into leaders by adopted distributed leadership theory.
The hallmarks of such a business or social sector organization are that 1) leadership functions are spread across a large number of individuals and teams, 2) leadership can be taken by those that wish it who are not in formal leadership roles, and 3) change can be driven from the bottom up, and 4) the ‘leader’ is there to assist.
This is a lesson that has been hard for me to learn over the years, because I was raised in a culture where the ‘great man’ was honored. We speak of Presidents as though their achievements were individual, but John Kennedy did not build Apollo and make me weep to see a man on the moon at the age of 10; a team of engineers and practitioners did. JFK merely created the challenge.
‘Great men [people]’ wear out, tire, become set in their ways, and in the end impede progress most of the time. Seeing this, I had to learn to distribute decision making authority and vision within an organization, create teams empowered to create their own vision, figure out within their teams how to implement it, make their own decisions, occasionally fail, and appreciate failure as well as success as a learning opportunity. In my personal experience, our organization has thrived because young, sharp, risk taking leaders have raised to the challenge, and their success is my joy, because I get to bask in the glow of the young entrepreneur.
This brings us to the vision thing.
Our community is capable of great things. We see it every day when an event like the Wild and Scenic Film Festival grows from an idea born in a metaphorical garage, to a major national event, or when hundreds of people show up at One Billion Rising in downtown Nevada City to discuss sexual assault. But we are only capable of great things if we learn to use the power of distributed networks, diffuse power and authority in our communities to the maximum number of people possible, allow them to take control of their destiny, celebrate failure and success, and stop running our systems based on a wink and a nod.
In my humble opinion our Sierra Nevada communities have a hard time articulating a coherent vision of their future because traditional power structures inherently fear vision and leadership being shared across a broad network. We need to learn from business, and the emerging network leadership models in the social sector, that the diversity of opinion, approaches and solutions—even those untested but allowed to be applied—are our greatest strength.
This does not mean that there is not a meaningful role for traditional leaders; they have the institutional knowledge, the connections, and often the vision buried deep in their souls but repressed like a bad memory. The new traditional leader has experience that is valuable and must be tapped and applied to those empowered to advance innovation and adaptability. I once heard someone refer to this as the power to “allow new leaders to fly but not crash.” I love that.
I am encouraged that the Nevada County Economic Resource Council picked a Robert Trent, who thoroughly understands and appreciates distributed network leadership theory, for a position of leadership. It bodes well for our community and for the promise to create a collective vision of our future that empowers people to fly.
Steve: Nicely written!
The main problem with the in-breeding of leaders in small towns is that nobody has–or is willing to consider–new ideas. Instead of asking the question, “What should we do to create a better future?,” they’re content to complain about environmentalists and government regulators killing the mining and logging industries.
That kind of leadership has helped make Nevada County an economic backwater in a state with one of the largest GDPs in the world.
@Jeff. You should actually talk to Nyla about this. She has an interesting perspective that you should know.