The board members and staffs of South Dakota Rural Enterprise, the South Dakota Community Foundation and the Rural Learning Center gathered in Spearfish September 28 to develop a theory of change about rural economic development in South Dakota to guide goal setting for 2007.

“These three organization share commonality in statewide service area, commitment to community development and commitment to collaboration,” said Beth Davis, president of SD Rural Enterprise. “We believe there is benefit in understanding how our partners think about each other’s work and to clarify potential overlaps and gaps with respect to each partner achieving our missions.”

The process was facilitated by David Peter Stroh of Bridgeway Partners using systems thinking strategies. To begin the work, Bridgeway Partners interviewed several representatives from the boards and staff of the three organizations to better understand the outcomes they seek and the driving forces they believe either support or hinder their efforts. All of the board members and staff were invited to submit written responses to the interview questions.

Stroh facilitated an evening with the participants from all three organizations to introduce the discipline of systems thinking. Stroh then guided the development of a theory of change about rural economic development in South Dakota that draws on the experience of the three organizations. The four critical factors that create a core engine of economic growth were identified as sustainable income, population, educated workforce and competitive jobs. Each organization was asked to reflect on how it is currently working in accordance with the theory and identify any overlaps and gaps they should consider going forward.

“The mapping strategy used to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of our state’s economy gave us a chance to visualize the connections between elements which drive growth,” Davis said. “Creating a diagram of those connections provides insight into leverage points where change and improvement can occur. That helps us to focus the combined efforts of our organizations more efficiently.” Each organization then worked in parallel to explore the implications of this theory for their own planning. The organizations reconvened at the end of the day to share their learnings and discuss next steps. The results are being assembled into a final report, which will be shared with the three groups and others around the state.

2006 AUTUMN REPORT
	Statewide groups strategize for future
	Micro-enterprise a major priority
	Combine products to boost development
	Training sessions put NMTC to work
	Ten years - and growing stronger
	Meadowlark Project

Consultant David Stroh (Bridgeway Partners) leads assembly in diagraming SD's economic strengths