Watershed Partnerships

Whether you are pursuing a public-private partnership or considering cooperation with your competitors, Watershed Partnerships will bring you useful stories of breakthrough collaborations to build great communities. Our in-depth conversations with seasoned leaders in community organizations and anchor institutions – working in healthcare, local government, higher education, and natural resources management -- will reveal why it is smart to align assets and share credit with your competitors to get great things done. Based on thirty years of experience counseling strategic partnerships, we will explore successful collaborations in water resources management, workforce development, equity and racial justice, and place-making infrastructure, and always offer three take-aways to consider in your work.

All Episodes

Watershed Partnerships

Watershed Partnerships Trailer

September 18, 2020 • Louis Smith

Your introduction to this podcast - exploring breakthrough collaborations to build great communities.

Whether you are pursuing a public-private partnership or considering cooperation with your competitors, Watershed Partnerships will bring you useful stories of breakthrough collaborations to build great communities. Our in-depth conversations with seasoned leaders in community organizations and anchor institutions – working in healthcare, local government, higher education, and natural resources management -- will reveal why it is smart to align assets and share credit with your competitors to get great things done.

Host Louis Smith has counseled watersheds and strategic partnerships for thirty years. Join us to explore successful collaborations in water resources management, workforce development, equity and racial justice, and place-making infrastructure. Each episode will always offer three take-aways to consider in your work.

Louis : Welcome to Watershed Partnerships, where we explore breakthrough collaborations to build great communities. I’m Louis Smith.

A university president faces tragedy and chooses to double down on transforming his neighborhood relationships:

Paul Pribbenow: On Monday night during our homecoming week in the fall of 2008, one of our students, Nur Ali, was murdered as he came out of the Coyle Center. . . For me that moment could have been a place where we went in one of two different directions.

Louis: A public artist, community activist, and watershed manager traces the sources of his passion for community:

Seitu Jones: When I marched with, and helped organize with these lieutenants of Martin Luther King in 1969 and 70, I saw this tremendous love that they had for themselves, for each other, and for their community.

Louis: A hospital CEO reflects on how the murder of George Floyd has been more impactful on her organization than COVID-19:

Megan Remark: As a Level One Trauma Center, we see results of racism every single day. . . building trust in the black community is more important than trying to solve problems in the community that you think you know the answer to.

Louis: Whether you are facing a pivotal moment of choice … tracing the source of your love for community… or reflecting critically on how your organization will approach dismantling racism -- it’s becoming clear that thoughtful, creative collaboration is one key to breaking through our current challenges.

I have devoted the past 30 years to counseling strategic partnerships, and I have been blessed in working with some amazing people. Leaders of small community organizations or Fortune 500 companies. Hospital executives, university presidents. Mayors, county commissioners, watershed district managers. They are facing some of our generation’s toughest challenges, they have accomplished some great things for their communities, and … they have stumbled.

So it seems like it’s a great time to sit down together to celebrate this work, add a healthy dose of humility to reflect on our mistakes, and see where the next collaborations might take us. We’ll keep a tight agenda, and always offer you three take-aways to consider in your partnership work.

If this sounds interesting to you, I hope you will Subscribe to this podcast so that you can keep track of our upcoming conversations. And find out more at WatershedPartnerships.com