PlanET Representatives Attend National Leadership Academy

Last week, representatives from Plan East Tennessee (PlanET) joined nine other teams in Salt Lake City, Utah for the Sustainable Communities Leadership Academy.

The academy provided a rare opportunity to connect peers from across the nation to discuss innovations and lessons learned about regional planning.

"PlanET was new territory for the Knoxville Region, and participating in the Leadership Academy confirmed in my mind that what we are doing to prepare for the future is important," said Mayor Tom Beehan of Oak Ridge.

"We are not alone in some of the issues that we face, and I saw how other regions are dealing with similar concerns."

Hosted by the Institute for Sustainable Communities and Envision Utah?a nationally recognized model of grass roots support for sustainable development?the academy provided insight into ways planning consortiums like PlanET can engage their communities to build shared directions for the future.

Challenges to regional plan implementation were one focus of the academy. Participants learned about keeping consortiums together for ongoing work, building momentum and ownership of implementation activities, aligning existing funding, and creating short-term successes to move implementation forward.

PlanET project manager Amy Brooks credited the format of the academy, remarking, "We used a number of group techniques, like peer-learning sessions, expert panels, and team huddles. We were able to get two months of work done in a short two and half day span," she said. Beehan agreed. "The format was the best. I've gone to many conferences where speakers do all the talking. That was not the case here. It was very interactive and fast paced."

The 10 teams attending the academy represented more than $30 million in regional planning grant funding. In addition to PlanET, other teams were from Western North Carolina; Covington, Kentucky; Memphis, Tennessee; the St. Louis, Missouri Region; the Madison, Wisconsin Region; the Des Moines, Iowa Region; the Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas Region; Wasatch Front, Utah; and, Lane County, Oregon.

PlanET brought members from the City of Oak Ridge, City of Knoxville, Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley, the Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission, the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization, and East Tennessee Quality Growth.

Takeaways from the academy included the need for a strategy to communicate and collaborate across local city and county boundaries. Team members also learned how to develop measurements to support data-driven decisions. And they were shown the importance of having a convener to keep the region moving toward its shared goals and to align resources to further regional prosperity.