Leadership Metro Richmond: Pursuing Big Projects Unleashed Passion

One of the riskiest actions any organization can take is to change a winning formula. You better have a good reason.

With full appreciation of the risk, Leadership Metro Richmond threw an unprecedented challenge at its 2009 Quest class: Pick important issues in the community. Form teams to examine them. Propose solutions or programs to launch actions. Commit to seeing them last.

As the chairman of the recently completed LMR year, I can attest that committed emerging leaders can make a difference when they work together on issues of common interest, bound by trust and passion for improving the quality of life for all residents.

I witnessed a group of 66 strangers form teams on the high-profile topics of education, affordable housing, transportation, work-force development, crime and public safety as well as fostering pride in the Richmond Region. I watched as they scrambled at first, got to know each other better, discovered new ways to solve old problems, examined the community from various angles, polished conclusions, and then articulated winning plans.

The 2009 LMR class created a new path for succeeding classes to explore where they can really make a difference.

For years, the LMR classes were handed pre-selected assignments to work with nonprofit organizations with specific needs. From all accounts, the projects helped the organizations and allowed the now 29-year-old LMR to demonstrate its coveted servant leadership lessons.

But as the Richmond Region started changing, so did its calling to something greater at LMR. The more recent classes were somewhat frustrated that they weren't working on bigger projects that had bigger impacts on the overall region. So last year, LMR decided to take a new approach to strengthen its mission: "To advance the Richmond Region by educating, energizing, and connecting a diverse group of leaders to serve the community."

The LMR urgency was to better connect servant leaders to solutions that would advance the community. There were plenty of uncomfortable moments when it appeared that maybe changing the LMR formula wasn't a good idea. But an interesting pattern started to emerge. Each of the 10 teams discovered opportunities that either networked groups already working on solutions or uncovered possibilities where no one was operating.

One of the most admirable results was the class's ability to avert reinventing someone else's solution and finding a role to accelerate an already good idea that required additional boosting.

In LMR Quest, the year-long projects culminate with presentations in May to an audience made up of the class, mentors, and interested guests. I wish the entire community had been there to see the 10 presentations.

You'd have cheered the two groups -- "Team Pride" and "My Richmond" -- committed to promoting what's good about our region (check out myRichmond.org, for example) as well as plotting a process for open dialogue.

You'd eagerly sign up to help the "First Responders" team that wants to build positive relationships between public safety officers and at-risk children. You'd see the brilliance in an advertising campaign called "Got Transit?" that's already helping the GRTC Transit System broaden its reach as a transportation solution.

You'd understand the importance of the "Pathfinders" team's model for support services to engage middle-school students and improve academic achievement, as well as the "Early Learners" team's pilot program to help two local groups collaborate on early childhood education.

Add the project by the "Succeed Don't Leave" team that aims to combat the scourge of young people dropping out of school and another project by the "Workers Bees" team that would import from Hampton Roads a program to better prepare schoolchildren for emerging careers that emphasize science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

You'd have been blown away by the commitment secured by the "United Housing Alliance" team to get three advocacy groups to work together on affordable housing. And, you'd be humbled by the simplicity of how reducing the number of disposable foam cups helps our environment, a project by a team aptly named "Our Cup Runneth Over."

LMR's importance to the Richmond Region is that many of the 1,700 graduates of the Quest program stand ready to further help the community. Think about them as engines for actions.

I'm glad we invited the 2009 LMR class to take a chance on a new approach to community advancement. The teams excelled. Now, here's to more victories for our region in the years ahead.

Tom Silvestri is president and publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and is now the immediate past chair of Leadership Metro Richmond. For information about LMR, go to http://www.lmronline.org.