Looking for Leadership

There was an interesting article by Chris Satullo in Sunday's Inky, "In search of a region's 'connectors'." (p. C7)

Those who have read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point are familiar with the concept of a connector -- someone who knows people and can get things done by tapping those connections. Liz Dow, president of Leadership Philadelphia, the nation's oldest community leaderhip program, has begun the connector project. As Satullo describes it, "It's a bid to identify and hail more of the region's less-hearladed 'leaders next door,' to map the connections between them, and to foster dialogues among them."

Here is a longer description of what they are looking for:

In fact, Philly is richly blessed with people providing world-class innovation and leadership in fields civic, artistic, entrepreneurial and scholarly, people whose work inspires other to fly here to study and learn.

But what do many of these gret doers and dreamers have in common? They steer clear of the arena that absorbs most media attention: politics. They learn to "fly under the radar," to get what they need from the political class without getting sucked into its nasty, tribal, corrupt ways.

Harsh, but apt.

If you would like to help identify the region's leaders, go to www.leadershipphiladelphia.org -- there are a series of questions to answer about some of the people you would like to nominate.

This an interesting and worthwhile project. From a purely intellectual standpoint, mapping these regional connections would be fascinating, but from a social standpoint, if these connections can be found and selective ones activated for particular projects, there is no end to the good things that could spring forth from the region.