Businesses for Inclusive Local Thriving Lab
Businesses for Inclusive Local Thriving Lab
Tracks
Management and Leadership
Certificate Credits
2.0 EEUs
Topics
- Organizations & Leadership
- Strategy & Innovation
- Systems Thinking
Course Highlights
- The Business for Inclusive Local Thriving (BILT) Lab program helps company leaders identify and plan for place-based investments in workforce development, regional economic development, sustainability, and energy security that are strategically important for their companies and will advance their region’s innovation strategy.
- Upon completion, companies leave BILT-Lab with a plan to improve their ability to identify, train, hire, and retain a diverse workforce with 21st-century skills including AI literacy; create more quality jobs; expand the pool of high-quality talent available for hire; and generate benefits for the wider community, in support of regional economic growth.
- MIT faculty and coaches will guide participants on how to activate place-based design thinking through innovative, cross-sector partnerships, and will provide personalized feedback on advancing strategic goals.
- This course is delivered in a hybrid model with one two-day onsite on the MIT Sloan campus in Cambridge, MA; and two hours of advance online sessions and an online session approximately four weeks after the onsite program.
- Participants will earn a certificate of course completion from MIT Sloan Executive Education
Course Snapshot
Meet the founders
Kate Isaacs
MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer
BILT-Lab Co-founder
Kate Isaacs advises senior leaders and teams on organizational strategy and innovation-focused stakeholder partnerships that generate economic and social value. She draws on design thinking, system dynamics, and developmental psychology to help leaders create conditions for collective intelligence, agile performance, and transformative change. She is a Shadow Work coach who focuses on the positive potential in people and organizations—transforming obstacles and habits that block people’s natural orientation towards creativity, growth, and health.
Tom Giordano
Executive Director, Partnership for Rhode Island
BILT-Lab Co-founder
Tom Giordano is an experienced advisor to CEOs and Governors and a nationally recognized fundraising and social impact executive focused on creating spaces for collaboration around infrastructure, sustainability, education and the workforce. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Providence College and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Tom is a resident of Rhode Island and serves as a local volunteer and public school parent.
Why attend Businesses for Inclusive Local Thriving (BILT) Lab
The BILT-Lab is an action learning opportunity for business leaders who want to develop a future-ready talent strategy and accelerate regional innovation and resilience by making targeted place-based investments in regional workforce and innovation.
The course will bring together place-based “anchor” companies and large employers, along with their local partners, who want to develop a future-ready talent strategy and accelerate regional innovation and resilience by building diverse regional talent pipelines; reducing barriers to workforce participation; creating quality jobs; and boosting energy security and ecosystem health.
Ideal participants are invested in creating future-ready organizations and in building the prosperity of their local communities. Participants should be willing to approach problems with curiosity and share experiences openly with peers to support shared learning.
Led by experienced teachers, researchers and industry-tested professionals, the BILT-Lab will help participants identify and highlight impactful, place-based investments that produce measurable economic, social, and environmental outcomes. Participants will learn about and implement solutions for talent development and community health that companies can deploy inside their walls as well as outside in the communities where they operate.
Course Experience
This course is delivered in a hybrid model with one in-person session on the MIT Sloan campus in Cambridge, MA; the remaining sessions will be online.
The BILT-Lab will guide company participants through a process to 1) identify what elements of their company’s strategy tie into the region’s economic growth and sustainability strategy, 2) identify high-leverage moves to train and hire related sources of diverse, high-potential talent in the community and region, and 3) design appropriate long-term community engagement plans that advance company strategy and generate positive local benefit.
Participants will define and advance a performance goal that is aligned with their existing priorities and represents a challenge for their organization and for themselves personally. BILT-Lab faculty, coaches, and peers will support participants to make measurable progress on their goal and preparing a plan for continuation after the conclusion of the course.
Participants will learn through a variety of formats including content delivered by guest speakers and academic experts, executive and peer coaching, session prework, dialogue and learning forums, and presentations that they will prepare and deliver onsite.
Participants will have access to an MIT faculty member and coach to support them in accomplishing their course objectives, plus support from MIT Sloan Executive Education to answer administrative or technical queries.
Learn more about the in-person course experience.
Guest speakers*
- Jennifer Benson Principal at TSK Associates
- Dick Gochnauer Co-Founder, CLAOC Managing Partner, SoCal Master Fund
- Brad Hewitt Retired CEO, Thrivent Financial
- Francesca Ioffreda Founder, Breakthrough Strategy Partners; Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Metro
- Bruce Katz Co-Founder of New Localism Advisors
- Fred Keller Founder of Cascade Engineering
- John Rice First Nations Elder Knowledge Keeper, Orillia, Canada
- Madeline Schomburg Energy Futures Initiative
*Invited guest speakers may be subject to change
Download the Complimentary 2023 Survey Report
This comprehensive survey maps the landscape of US business coalitions that lead regional economic innovation, inclusive talent development, and equitable prosperity. The survey, conducted in 2023, aims to equip coalition leaders with benchmarking data about peer organizations and insights into successful change strategies.
Have questions?
Contact Us if you would like to speak with a program director or visit our Frequently Asked Questions page for answers to common questions about our courses.
Health and Safety
The BILT-Lab will guide participants through creating the following:
- Gap Analysis of Organizational and Regional Talent Demand and Supply: Participants will compare their company or business unit’s talent pipeline and sustainability goals with the regional talent supply and opportunities for growth through skill (re)development programs, partnerships, and employer demand signaling.
- Talent and Community Investment Strategy: Prioritized plan and concrete action steps for high-leverage changes needed to advance future-ready talent goals, company strategy and community benefit.
- Implementation and Stakeholder Engagement Plan: 30-day action plan including internal actions and external outreach as needed to build industry-wide and cross-sector collaborative partnerships. Because talent needs can rarely be solved by one organization alone, this will include an assessment of the key external stakeholders who must be engaged and initial action steps to take in the next quarter
Additionally, participants in this course will:
- Learn regionally-oriented sustainability and talent pipeline best practices, and identify those that could be adapted to achieve business and sustainability goals—including elevating workforce quality and future readiness, local resilience, and the economic strength of the company, sector, and region.
- Understand the hurdles in achieving talent and sustainability goals, or meeting regulatory requirements, and what stakeholder engagement means to those efforts. Critically examine and evaluate their own organizational strategies, and engage in peer learning on how to avoid common mistakes and reduce obstacles to reach intended outcomes
- Build productive working partnerships for a diverse workforce with public and non-profit sector partners, including state energy and economic development organizations, Workforce Investment Boards, labor unions, and impacted community groups
- Identify how your company can contribute to the design and implementation of community benefit plans required by many federal grantmaking organizations
- Learn best practices from peers across the country, and join a growing network of like- minded business executives and community leaders
- Contribute to advancing national and regional strategic sustainability and energy transition, decarbonization, and workforce diversity goals where the company has operations
Sample Schedule—Subject to Change
Anchor company participants: Individual participants are welcome, but we encourage companies to send teams of two or more for maximum impact. More than one company from a region can send participants if they share the same talent needs and challenges. Multi-company, or regional, participation is encouraged to represent the strength of the energy sector in your region. Company representatives:
- Should be in a leadership position at an organization committed to clean energy future, inclusive workforce development, job quality, and community benefit in one or more geographic regions
- Can represent their company, a business unit or function within the company, or a geographic region in which the company operates
- Must have one or more of:significant budgetary responsibility; decision-making power; ability to influence culture; and access to the CEO / C-Suite to enable fast, decisive action on the company’s behalf during the BILT-Lab program
- Are encouraged to seek support for their participation in the BILT-Lab from at least one senior leader in the organization to ensure strategy alignment and organizational backing for the work they will undertake during and after the program
Participants could come from a range of business units and functions that have responsibility for strategy, talent, culture, sustainability, and community benefit, for instance:
- Human Resources/People Managers
- Corporate Planning and Strategy Executives
- Community Relations Managers
- Chief Sustainability Officers or designees
- Executive VPs
- COOs
- VPs of Talent Development, Recruitment, Workforce
- Other senior managers with leadership responsibility
Company participants are highly encouraged to invite 2-3 regional partners who are important to engage for an inclusive regional talent pipeline strategy. These could include:
- State / regional / municipal energy, sustainability and labor organizations, training providers, colleges, and universities, and relevant policymakers
- Representatives committed to building a common language with the private sector around diversity and inclusion, workforce development, community engagement, and community benefit planning
- A regional foundation, business coalition, economic development organizations, or Chamber of Commerce who may provide funding
Tracks
Management and Leadership
Certificate Credits
2.0 EEUs
Topics
- Organizations & Leadership
- Strategy & Innovation
- Systems Thinking