Resources | Forward Impact

COLUMBUS, OH

RESOURCES

Forward Impact is informed by a number of thought leaders and leading edge ideas that continue to refine the way we think and work. Below we capture some of the resources we have drawn on for inspiration as well as work that we are contributing to the field of positive social and economic impact.

ARTICLES OF NOTE

BOOKS OF INTEREST

Big Ideas for Small Business

Mastering System Change

Orchestrating Systems-Level Change

Effective Change Requires Proximate Leaders

Outcomes-Based Approaches for an Equitable Recovery

Small Businesses of Color Recovery Guide

Ann Mei Chang, Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good

Christopher Gergen & Gregg Vanourek, Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives

Johnathan Holifield, The Future Economy and Inclusive Competitiveness: How Demographic Trends and Innovation Can Create Economic Prosperity for All Americans

Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

Bruce Katz,The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism

Andre Perry, Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities

BY FORWARD IMPACT'S FOUNDING PARTNER, CHRISTOPHER GERGEN:

SELECT SPEECHES / PRESENTATIONS / TELEVISION INCLUDE:

A keynote that at the 2019 NCWorks “Future Works" conference that reflects my perspective on the necessary leadership skills required to compete in the 21st century

A five-part series on UNC-TV that I hosted in 2017 profiling the work of InnovateNC across five different communities across North Carolina

A keynote that I gave at a Business Innovation summit in 2014

A TEDx talk I gave on our book Life Entrepreneurs

A 2016 podcast on The Five Levers of Local Innovation that I discussed as a featured guest on the show, Municipal Equation

SELECT ARTICLES / BOOKS / CHAPTERS WRITTEN:

On economic/workforce development:

A piece on Entrepreneurship and the New Cares Act on how self-employment assistance can be better leveraged as a workforce/economic recovery strategy

With the advent of COVID-19, I wrote the following piece: Developing Rapid-Response Plans for Cities to Help Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses in this Time of Crisis.

For MIT press, I co-authored a book chapter in 2016 on “Making Beautiful Places: Fostering Innovation through Place-Based Ecosystem Development.”

For eight years I co-authored a bi-weekly column for the Raleigh News & Observer called “Doing Better at Doing Good” (over 200 columns total). Here are two relevant samples:
- A column from 2017 on why it’s critical that micropolitan communities stimulate their local innovation economies and the path to get there; and
- A 2017 column called “If NC wants to Feed Itself – and the World – It Needs to Save its Farms” that lays out a set of strategies for stabilizing and investing in NC’s agricultural economy.

On leadership development/education/ entrepreneurial development:

In 2008 I co-authored the book Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives that profiled 55 leaders and the collectives lessons we can learn from their journeys and apply to our own lives.

In 2008, I co-authored the leading chapter on “Talent Development: Looking Outside the Education Sector,” for the book “Educational Entrepreneurship: Possibilities for School Reform” published by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)

In 2014 I co-authored a piece for Stanford Social Innovation Review called “Educating a New Generation of Entrepreneurial Leaders.”

In 2015, I co-authored a column for the Charlotte Observer on how North Carolina should be developing next generation entrepreneurial leaders

In 2018 I authored a column on “How to Help Students Become Citizen Leaders”