Mike Leavitt and Rich McKeown had a busy weekend, Sept. 28-30. On Saturday evening, Sept. 28, they were the pinnacle presentation at the Utah Book Festival where journalist Jennifer Napier-Pearce facilitated a lively discussion about the book and its concepts.
During the on-stage conversation at the downtown Salt Lake City Library auditorium, Leavitt noted that the world—from business to governmental entities—is organizing itself into networks. “As organizations learn to work in a network,” Leavitt said, “they will outperform those who are still in silos.”
McKeown added that collaboration generates better decision making. “Collaboration takes advantage of those with multiple perspectives on an issue,” McKeown said. “When we manage from the top down, that stifles collaboration.”
At the Envision Utah annual awards luncheon on Monday, Sept. 30, Mike Leavitt’s keynote sensitized the nearly 400 in attendance to be on the lookout for collaborations that are springing up all around. He used an experience from his youth to illustrate his point. Growing up in Cedar City in rural Utah, as a teenager Leavitt often helped a friend who worked at the local movie theater. “When the time came to change the film reels,” Leavitt recalled, “there would be a white dot flash in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Once that dot flashed, you had six seconds to make the change.
“I had never noticed the flashing dot before, but after I saw it the first time I could always see it in future films,” Leavitt continued. “In a similar fashion, once you’ve experienced a collaboration, you begin to see them—or see the need for them—in multiple locations.”
After the Envision Utah luncheon, several members of the Salt Lake City press corps interviewed Governor Leavitt and Rich McKeown. Those news clips will be posted as soon as they are available.
For a copy of the Envision Utah case study co-authored by Leavitt Partners and Envision Utah, please click here.
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