As an economic and a community developer, I have had the opportunity to work with communities large and small, rural and urban, all over the country. Quite often when speaking with local leaders about the most pressing challenges, it is interesting to note that the themes across these communities are quite similar:

1. We don’t communicate well
2. Our community feels disjointed
3. We work in our silos

What I find particularly fascinating is that I would have assumed that this is a phenomenon only in the larger and perhaps more populous communities. But this is certainly not the case. In rural communities as small as 1,200 I have heard very similar themes.

So what is going on here?

When I put on my anthropology hat, I believe that this may have something to do with the fact that our worlds may have become too specialized. And perhaps this change happened at a pace that didn’t allow our neanderthal brains to adapt.

For example, in chatGPT, I typed the following question: How many fields of engineering and law are there, and the answers I received back were 19 and 17, respectively. When I asked how many roles there are in local government, the answer came to 20!

Perhaps, as our society specializes more and more, we are starting to occupy corners of this world and thinking deeply about topics where there are few others with whom we can share our views.

Unfortunately, this means that the common ground of conversation that we are left with is sports, Netflix shows, politics, and weather.

On a somewhat different but related note, I asked ChatGPT: What is the largest living being in the world, and the answer it provided me was:

The largest living being in the world is considered to be a network of connected individual organisms rather than a single organism itself.

This distinction goes to the Great Barrier Reef, located off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system, stretching over 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) and covering an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometers (133,000 square miles).

I believe that ChatGPT got this answer wrong. If I focus on this part of the answer, network of connected individual organisms rather than a single organism itself, then there is another creature on this planet that would win the prize. This creature’s empathy is not limited to its own specie. It feels joys when it sees a beautiful sunrise, it experiences sorrow when it witnesses a hurt fawn on the side of the road, and its feelings are not limited to that which it experiences directly. This specie has the power to connect with ideas and individuals through the span of time. It will feel deep emotional pain that can bring it to tears when it learns about atrocities that occurred more than a millennium ago.

We humans are in fact the largest network of connected individual organisms rather than a single organism itself in the world. We desperately crave a sense of belonging. And unfortunately, our increasingly specialized worlds are just one more barrier that prevents what we as a species desperately seek.

In a very minuscule way, we hope that this Alliance can be the antidote for this fractured Northeast Ohio sentiment. Each week I have the privilege of being part of conversations where we get to slowly build and heal broken links. In order to create an integrated physical master plan for the Aerozone District, to tap into the power of Aviation and Space industries, to unlock the STEM potential in our youth, we first need to mend the fractured relationships across industries, municipalities, philanthropy, our economic/community/ workforce agencies, our federal and state institutions, and many more.

The work of economic development can sometimes be perceived as being dry.

Nothing, however, can be further from the truth.

In a very small way, we enable humanity.

Slowly and methodically, new connections are leading to new conversations, the conversations are leading to new ideas, the ideas are leading to tangible actions, actions are leading to accomplishments, and the accomplishments are creating a renewed sense of purpose and pride.

In an increasingly complex world, specialists will be critical. However, just as critical will be the Alliances that foster this connective journey.