Our Approach
Ecosystem‑based, emergent, and grounded in community.
How We Work
Our work in Antioch was grounded in a few core approaches that helped a small team move multiple initiatives forward while staying accountable to community needs and long‑term systems change.
Ecosystem Building
Emergent Strategy
Community Engagement
Systems Thinking
Ecosystem Building
We treated Antioch’s economy as an ecosystem rather than a set of isolated projects. Instead of investing in a single program or sector, we advanced a diverse set of initiatives that interact and reinforce one another to grow local jobs.
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To explain this approach, we used a native ecosystem metaphor:
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Local jobs are the acorns – the fruit of our collective efforts.
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Small business support is the fertilizer – strengthening the roots of existing and emerging enterprises.
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Business associations are the mycelium – the underground network that connects businesses, shares information, and supports mutual growth.
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Procurement excellence is the ground cover – keeping local dollars circulating in the community, preventing “nutrient runoff” to other places.
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The medical workforce initiative is irrigation – redirecting the flow of workers from long commutes toward local employment opportunities.
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Industrial zones and brownfield work are land remediation – literally and figuratively preparing ground for new economic activity.
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The clean technology hub is the flowering plant – attracting “pollinators” (entrepreneurs and investors) to Antioch.
This metaphor helped stakeholders quickly see how each initiative connected to the others and where they might plug in, whether as partners, champions, or participants.
Emergent Strategy
As a two‑person team working in a city of more than 100,000 residents and advancing multiple initiatives at once, we relied on an emergent strategy approach, inspired in part by adrienne maree brown’s “Emergent Strategy.” We used biomimicry‑informed principles—nonlinear, responsive, iterative, and grounded in data and story—to move work forward with limited resources.
Community Engagement
The bedrock of our work was rebuilding and strengthening trust between local government, small businesses, and nonprofits. Our community engagement approach emphasized respect for residents’ time and lived experience, and clarity about how input would be used.
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Key practices included:
Building Internal Awareness
We were explicit about our own strengths and gaps, talking frankly as a team about when we were the right people to lead and when it was better to partner or step back. This self‑awareness helped us avoid promising more than we could deliver and guided us toward the right messengers for different conversations.
Avoiding Engagement Fatigue
We were careful not to ask for input we could not act on. Before launching a survey or listening session, we clarified how responses would inform decisions and checked for duplicative efforts. We also helped community members understand what kinds of feedback (e.g., references to particular programs or budget categories) would make their input more actionable.
Making Space for Past Harm
We built time into meetings and informal gatherings for people to share previous frustrations and experiences with local systems. Allowing those stories to be aired without defensiveness helped clear space for new collaboration, and signaled that acknowledging history was part of moving forward.
Systems Thinking
We approached Antioch’s economy as an interconnected system, drawing on systems thinking frameworks such as those articulated by Donella Meadows. Rather than only treating symptoms, we looked for leverage points—places where strategic interventions could shift long‑term patterns.
In Antioch, the core leverage point we identified was the commute: roughly 90% of employed residents leave the city for work and spend a substantial portion of their budgets on transportation. This pattern contributes to talent drain, reduced local spending, environmental impacts, and low civic engagement—especially in communities already facing economic disadvantage.
We realized that the throughline connecting all fellowship initiatives was building local jobs. Local jobs are, in many ways, the opposite of a commute. By designing projects that collectively increase quality, “high‑road” employment opportunities in Antioch, we aimed to start reversing negative feedback loops—gradually increasing local spending, civic engagement, and sense of place. While full transformation will take years, the fellowship work set key gears in motion.
Antioch's commute is the result of urban planning that designated some communities as job centers, and others as commuter towns. Residents want a community where they can live and work.
What else?
If you made it this far...please let us know which of the following approach frameworks, if any, would be most valuable to add to this page!
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Students as economic development partners – co‑designing projects with high school and graduate students to advance real initiatives while building local talent.
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Economic development as energy work – thinking about attention, trust, and motivation as forms of energy that can be channeled, not forced.
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Business retention as attraction – using strong support for existing businesses to attract new ones through quality of life and reputation.
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Process over personalities – designing systems and structures that do not depend on a single champion, so progress can continue through staff transitions.