I recently attended a meeting in Pueblo, Colorado. The local workforce center was holding its regularly-scheduled meeting with its partners. The people sitting around the table represented the local Department of Human Services, Voc Rehab, the community college, and an Adult Basic Education program.

About halfway through the meeting, one of the attendees asked if everyone had received a request to respond to an RFP. Most of the attendees were not aware of the grant opportunity…but they continued to talk about (1) what the project was trying to achieve, (2) who should be engaged on this particular project, and (3) how to avoid this type of miscommunication in the future.

Wait, what?!!

Money is involved. That usually results in people being territorial. Most of the time, people don’t want to involve other parties because it will mean less money for them. That, of course, is not the right attitude. More than anything, we should be thinking what it’s going to take to support our communities, regardless of the impact it has on our own organizations. And this is exactly what I observed in Pueblo. The sharing of information and resources will only give them an opportunity to better serve their customers from every angle.

Bravo!