The optimistically titled agenda “Aligning for Community Growth” didn’t take long to unravel. 

A few years ago, I was invited to a regional economic development meeting in a mid-sized city that will remain nameless. Around the table sat nearly every kind of stakeholder you’d hope to see: Chamber execs, the EDO of note, city officials, college presidents, hospital administrators, utility reps, and a couple of well-meaning small business owners. 

One by one, attendees shared updates on workforce initiatives, business attraction, downtown development projects, and available grants to achieve these ends. To the untrained ear, it sounded like progress. But listening closely, you could hear it: overlaps approaching full redundancy mixed with tremendous gaps.

• Two different groups pursuing similar small business incubator projects 
• Three workforce committees working in isolation 
• A housing initiative with no input from major employers
• Well-intentioned but uncoordinated advocacy and lobbying efforts 

Not only was no one directing and organizing this mishmash of traffic, no one knew what the full map looked like. 

The Role Rarely Claimed—but Always Needed

While community and economic development work is certainly still siloed, it’s more interconnected and interdependent than ever before. This is great news as long as someone or something is directing the flow. This role of “traffic cop” must emerge and assert itself with confidence to decide who leads, who supports, and how the finite resources of time, money, and influence are strategically allocated for actual, measurable impact. 

In every community, there’s usually one organization obviously suited for this role. Not necessarily the largest, oldest, or loudest, but the one with:

• Broad, cross-sector constituencies
• The convening power to get the right people in the room
• The respect and reputation to broker honest, sometimes uncomfortable conversations
• A mission dependent on the success of others

In many communities, the traffic cop role is most suited for the Chamber of Commerce. But it’s not a given. Title alone doesn’t grant leadership.

If you hear nothing else, hear this: if this is your organization, you need to claim it. If it isn’t, you have a responsibility to challenge, encourage, or support whoever is best positioned to step up.

Blurry Lines and Busy Intersections

The lines between traditional roles in community and economic development will only continue to fade. Consider the players below and how easy it would be for vision statements and strategic plans to either overlap or miss vast swaths of opportunity altogether: 

• Business attraction & retention
• Talent recruitment 
• K-12 education & technical training
• Housing & transportation
• Tourism & quality of place amenities
• Government advocacy & policy
• Entrepreneurship support & small business growth

Furthermore, each of these objectives affects and is affected by the others as every person’s life story transcends from one, to the next, and to the next. No single organization can own them all—but a traffic cop must first know, then understand, then coordinate to ensure the best outcomes for community prosperity and competitiveness.

Mapping the Ecosystem

This role is no easy task, especially for local leadership with complex relationships and implications for each move made. This is why so many of NCDS’ Roadmap recommendations include clear deliverables like the “Map of the Economic & Community Development Ecosystem” or the “Matrix of Who Does What.” 

These are simple-sounding sections of a Roadmap, but to truly get it right, a third party needs to personally sit down with a cross section of stakeholders, define what success looks like, and get clear feedback—sometimes painfully clear—about:

• Who leads
• Who supports
• Who funds
• And who gets held accountable for what

With anything short of this effort, you get overlapping programs, underfunded priorities, and unmet needs. Everyone is busy. No one is effective.

Accountability Isn’t Optional

The “traffic cop” role isn’t ceremonial or filled with short-term plaudits—it’s gritty, detailed, and operational. It means having the courage to set KPIs for collaborative projects where otherwise “four people responsible” would mean “no people responsible,” start over, and repeat. It means calling out mission creep and even pulling back resources from initiatives that aren’t delivering and redirecting them to what works. It might mean challenging the status quo, perhaps through organizational mergers or spin-offs.

It may seem like an uncomfortable position to assume, but counterintuitively, it’s far easier than the alternative. Thriving communities embrace collective accountability, without exception. 

Take Action

Is your organization directing traffic or just stuck in it like everyone else? If you’re reading this, your organization is likely poised to step into a role of leadership to effect actual impact. And if you’re like most, you know it can be very difficult to know what to do next. 

NCDS works with Chambers and EDOs every day to help them know (and objectively justify) what to do next, specific to their community. Our Roadmap to Relevance and Revenue includes proven strategies to identify your community’s ecosystem players, clarify roles, and align resources to where they’ll make the biggest impact.

Importantly, we do all this for less than strategic planning consultants and with less risk than a premature capital campaign. If you’re ready to get started, contact us today for a free consultation. 

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