What If Leaders Had Used Maps This Way?

Below is a page from the 1997 NEWSLINK, the printed newsletter of the Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection, which I formed in late 1992.  

The headline is "No General Would Go to Battle Without a Map".  It's aimed at corporate CEOs.

In the top map inset is a 1997quote from Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley.  It says, "I look forward to a time when businesses, churches and leaders throughout this city will each stake out an area in a particular community and pledge to take an active responsibility for the education and well-being of all the young people in that area."

The bottom map shows hospitals in Chicago.  The heading next to it says, "Channel marketing:  Encourage "look-alike" groups (health, law, arts, science) to expand outreach programs in neighborhoods where they operate, with afterschool programs serving as distribution centers for these efforts"

In the text it says "Healthcare groups with "prevention" programs aimed at changing behaviors before they come to the health care provider as problems could partner with existing programs. Staff and volunteers could be role models to help youth hear healthcare "prevention" messages, modify behavior, and sustain changes until they become a habit. At the same time health groups are a source of mentors, job shadowing, careers, professional resources and even safe place for youth and adults to meet."

In the inset the text says:

WHAT IF?
While everyone can't be a one-on-one mentor, different groups have special skills that could help tutor/mentor programs be more effective.

While the map shows how hospitals could adopt neighborhoods, what if the alumni groups of Chicago's business schools (Northwestern, Chicago, DePaul, Loyola) made it their mission to have teams of business/marketing experts at each afterschool program in the city to help ALL programs build effective long-term business plans.

WHAT IF THAT PROMISE WERE MADE?

I've been encouraging businesses to adopt strategies like this for more than 25 years.  You can read the full NEWSLINK issue at this link. 

Visit this page and view visual essays that I've created since the 1990s to share similar ideas and strategies. 

While we mailed our print newsletters to nearly 7,000 people by 1997, too few people have ever seen the ideas I've been sharing.  

That means they are "NEW" to everyone who has not seen them.  Which means anyone can begin to add these ideas to their own leadership and maybe ten years from now the WHAT IF will be LOOK AT WHAT WE DID!

If these ideas have value to you, please visit this page and make a small contribution to help me pay the bills and keep this resource available to you and the world.