Stratiscope hosted the September 5, 2018 City Impact Lab at Southern California Leadership Network in the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. Our speakers were Kellie Hawkins, Senior Vice President of Englander Knabe & Allen, and Nancy Olsen, Vice President of the L.A. Chamber’s Center for Leadership and Executive Director of SCLN. Here’s a snapshot of what they had to share with us…
Kellie Hawkins
When I left Los Angeles in 2010, we did not have the homeless epidemic that we currently have. It was there, but we had the Downtown Women’s Center, Union Rescue Mission, all these great organizations, but with less overcrowding. People were being taken care of.
I returned in 2015 to an explosion of homelessness, as if people had been evacuated for an earthquake drill. My family and I used to bring food to a gentleman that stood at the entrance to freeway 10. His name was Mr. Green. That’s who used to be on the street, Mr. Green, not Mrs. Green plus three kids.
I visited the Downtown Women’s Center after I returned to Los Angeles, joined their board, and found myself at a discussion about the pipeline to their larger governing board. I told them they needed a young professionals’ group to act as a pipeline, and to talk to board members about who they’re grooming from their companies or organizations.
Then they asked me, “okay, well, who are you going to call? I found that I could pull from my network of colleagues that either had also just moved back and saw this explosion or those that currently lived here and wanted to be a part of the solution.
Nancy Olson
Leadership L.A. is a civic leadership organization that brings working professionals from across sectors together to learn about what makes L.A. tick. When people work in silos, work is inefficient, duplicated, and not as effective as it can be. We spark collaboration among people who may otherwise never meet.
Our program begins with a principle called non-positional thinking. For example, If you’re presented with a deceivingly complex problem, you might have your own solution for that problem based on your experience and your knowledge. Non-positional thinking starts with the premise that you’re wrong. So where do we go from there? What other possibilities does that open up? Are those possibilities even more productive solutions than your original?…
Our thanks to SCLN for hosting this City Impact Lab, and we look forward to seeing you all at our next monthly breakfast!
