This is an excerpt from a column posted at BizOpinion.
If there’s a flaw in Wisconsin’s cultural DNA that should be targeted for knock-out genetic treatments in one of our leading laboratories, it would be our reluctance to occasionally learn from others.
Our inbred insularity may stem from the fact we’re off the nation’s beaten paths on the East and West coasts, or that so many of us come from northern European “don’t-ask-for-help” stock, or that a populist political tradition means people react poorly to things like public officials taking legitimate trips outside the state – events invariably described in news accounts as “junkets.”
Whatever the reasons, the same parochialism that makes most of us loyal Packers and Badgers fans sometimes closes our eyes to the possibility that people living elsewhere can also be smart, productive and inventive. We can love it here and still admit we don’t know everything.
An example of looking beyond Wisconsin for best practices took place Aug. 27 when the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce organized a leadership bus trip to Chicago – a metropolis that influences the Wisconsin economy in major ways – to tour the “1871” digital co-working space. Opened less than two years ago in the Merchandise Mart with support from a major private donor and state government, it’s a place for designers, coders and entrepreneurs to build companies.
There are similar, albeit much smaller, spaces and accelerators in Wisconsin, so the purpose of the trip wasn’t to expose participants to something entirely new. Rather, it was aimed at learning how others have approached an issue – company formation and entrepreneurship – that is top of mind in most states and cities.
