Creating A Leadership Culture

Willmar & Kandiyohi County
In Honor of Wilt Croonquist

Stepping Forward, Making a Difference
When Wilt Croonquist returned to Willmar in 1980 to become executive director for economic development, he didn’t foresee what lay ahead for the community. He did discover that there were conditions in Willmar and Kandiyohi County — something about the very culture — that was promising. A “culture” is a fairly stable pattern of beliefs and practices that enable a group to organize and carry out its common life with a reasonable degree of predictability.

Wilt Croonquist (BCLP 1991) found he could count on a spirit of cooperation that, over the years, has made a difference in the quality of life in both the community and county. No one would romanticize how far reaching that spirit of cooperation was or suggest that it always worked at its peak. But there was a disposition for people to figure out ways to work together that has enabled Willmar to be named an All-American City in 2005 and be ranked as the 81st of the top 100 “micropolitan” communities in the U.S.

In mid-December 2005, a group of community leaders gathered to reflect on the progress that has occurred in Willmar, especially under Wilt’s early leadership. Though retired at the time of the interview and in remission from cancer, Wilt maintained a vital interest in what his colleagues were continuing to do. Part of Willmar’s success lies in the fact that six cohorts of community members from Willmar and Kandiyohi County completed either the BCLP core program or its Partners In Leadership Program. Not surprisingly, Wilt was instrumental in bringing BCLP back to the community all six times.

Steve Renquist (BCLP 1998), executive director of the Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission, has observed that participation in BCLP did not “create” leadership skills where they were lacking. Rather, BCLP provided the structure, process and opportunity to release the leadership potential already inside those willing to step forward to “make a difference.” Moreover, in the on-going relationship with Blandin Foundation programs, communities in the county have been prepared to receive people ready to lead with a new sense of vision and enhanced skills. The willingness to collaborate Wilt found early on deepened as community members learned to create ways to work together, resolve disputes in a productive fashion, and identify in strategic ways areas of community life that needed improvement.

Catalysts for Change
Several themes emerged as the group reflected on how Willmar now does things differently. As people recognized that change was occurring whether they wanted it or not, they decided to lead it and not sit by passively letting it happen to them. Kathy Leedom, Willmar’s superintendent of schools, pointed to the Vision 2020 Project as an example of the strategic decision to act. The project, undertaken in 2000 with support from the Blandin Foundation, provided guidance to key governmental, educational, business and community leaders by identifying ten critical issues in the Willmar Area Community that required decisive leadership goals, strategies and action items. The issues included: infrastructure, transportation, healthcare, telecommunications, population growth, integrated services, economic strength, cultural diversity, education, and a strong community image.

The movement from vision to action, however, can be an interesting journey. Sometimes creating the vision becomes an end in itself. Inspiring goals and a brightly painted picture of the future make action seem simple and inevitable. But, too often, vision statements end up as archives, unable to find traction much less ownership by an entire community. That didn’t happen in Willmar. Vision 2020 became a catalyst for helping the community gain a new understanding of what it wanted and what it would take to make that understanding a reality.

Transparency Enables Progress
Local leaders interviewed all agreed that working with the Blandin Foundation was a significant empowering force that not only helped create a vision but also equipped people with the knowledge, skills and confidence to make it a living document. Kathy Leedom said those involved in generating Vision 2020 recognized the need to widen the circle of conversation so the plan didn’t end up the brainchild of a few. Lorry Massa added that leadership training became an important resource as Vision 2020 became a public process, involving hundreds of community members. “We could have moved the process forward without training, but it would have taken us much longer.”

“Going public” has become part of the culture in Willmar. “It is the only way we are going to sustain interest and commitment for the long haul,” Bruce Peterson said. “It is also critical if we are going to engage new people in community life and stop relying on the same people all the time.” Another dimension of the commitment to include as many voices as possible in community conversations is, as Mick Schmit (BCLP 2006) noted, is the ability to be transparent — “to work with all our warts out there.”

Transparency of this sort requires trust so that opinions of all sorts can be heard and mistakes or missteps don’t become obstacles to progress but occasions for learning.

Lessons in Diversity: No Quick Fix
One of the challenges (i.e. an occasion for learning) Willmar encountered as it became more actively engaged in shaping its future was the changing composition of its population. Wilt talked about the rough period the community went through as it learned what it meant to have people of other cultural, ethnic backgrounds settle in the community as the place they will call home. Willmar wasn’t content to maintain an uneven peace among community factions but drew on the Blandin Foundation’s Partners In Leadership Program as a way to help the community move to a new understanding of itself as a diverse place. With Blandin support, a community survey was conducted and a collation formed to change how long-time residents perceived the newest members of Willmar. As Wilt said, “Along the way, we learned that the people in the Hispanic community we identified as the leaders weren’t the people Hispanics themselves recognized as leaders. That was a good lesson for us.”

These community leaders talked about how issues like cultural diversity are always in process as people work toward mutual understanding and discovering ways of changing differences into assets. Lorry Massa pointed out how preparing an application for the All American City award helped people appreciate how change is a process of taking action, learning from the results, and taking new action to move forward on issues that matter. “Looking backwards at where we have been not only gave us a chance to take stock of what we have accomplished but also showed that there were no quick fixes.”

The progress in Willmar, however, bears testimony to the efforts of its leaders to be as inclusive as possible in identifying and addressing community issues. Some of that effort reflects good instincts, but some is due to skillful leadership that understands. As Kathy Schwantes (BCLP 1999) said, “Everything depends on building trusting relationships, something those of us learned attending BCLP.” Wilt agreed. “Willmar and its county neighbors have cultivated mutual trust. It is gives them a great sense of pride.”

Sustaining a Collaborative Spirit
One of the by-products of Willmar’s on-going efforts to live out of a spirit of collaboration is the realization among community members that economic strength and development are everyone’s responsibility. The evidence is in a series of community improvements that is impressive by any standard: $52 million hospital expansion, a half-percent sales tax for renovation and expansion of a new library, airport improvements, a new wastewater treatment plant, transforming the regional treatment center into a state-of-the art technology business campus serving the region, a performing arts center, two hockey arenas, an aquatic center, and a baseball stadium. As Mayor Les Heitke said, “Willmar is on-the-grow,” but it has done so by paying for improvements as they’ve been accomplished. This is reflected in the fact that Willmar has one of the lowest property tax rates for a municipality of its size in Minnesota.

It would be too easy to focus on real estate and miss the real point in Willmar. The city and the county are partners, realizing what Wilt Croonquist recognized early on, that what happened for one community in Kandiyohi County — no matter its size — affected every other community and the county as a whole. Through the years, Wilt played a pivotal role in broadening the scope of community leadership across the county.

A Proud Past, A Confident Future
Changes of the scale noted above do not happen without opposition. Asked what they’ve done when encountering opposition, the group responded unanimously: “We keep bringing them to the table, stay engaged in the dialogue, and reframe issues and proposals to address concerns raised.” This kind of openness, which is part of Willmar’s culture, helps dispel rumors. Going public with controversial issues and getting media information that is accurate and clear makes it possible to manage conflict and work across differences to meet community goals that all parties share.
Even with all that has been accomplished, the work of community building isn’t done. Among new challenges is the proposed creation of a multicultural marketplace in Willmar to accent the richness of the new cultures that now make up the community, provide economic opportunities for new community members, and expand access of county residents to a wide range of international goods and products. This will entail revisiting the relationships between long-time and newer residents and, addressing in new ways and proactive strategies, how people come to recognize and respect each other in the midst of cultural differences.

Leaving a Legacy
Over 25 years ago, Wilt Croonquist recognized how much of a difference community leaders could make in Willmar. He saw the potential of Blandin Community Leadership training and helped recruit the first cohort of participants in 1991. He actually credited BCLP with “creating Willmar’s culture of leadership,” so it comes as no surprise that he spearheaded recruitment efforts to bring BCLP back to the community six times. In fact, his wife Betty (a 1994 alum) said that Wilt was very grateful that one of his last acts of community service was to organize and recruit the 2006 Willmar Area cohort.

As the end of his life drew near, Wilt took great satisfaction that his foresight had become one of the things he bequeathed to the community and the county he served so well. He spoke about the impact the past 20 years have had on a new generation of community leaders. “We’ve broken the barrier to the resistance to change. My confidence for the future has never been greater.”

 

*In May 2006, just months before his death, the Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission (EDC) presented Wilt Croonquist with a lifetime achievement award for his many accomplishments on behalf of, and service to, the area. To echo Steve Renquist’s remarks that evening…”We are the beneficiaries of the innovation, inspiration, motivation and dedication of the people who came before us. No person was more involved or more dedicated to creating the environment of growth that we all now enjoy than…Wilt Croonquist.” This story is written in the spirit of hope he represented.

Thanks to all area community leaders who contributed to this story: Ron Erpelding (Retired Administrator, Ridgewater Community College), Jodie Heuring (Co-Owner, Legal & Administrative Assistants, Inc.), Mick Schmit (Willmar City Administrator), Kathy Leedom (Superintendent, Willmar Public Schools), Lorry Massa (CEO, Rice Hospital), Bruce Peterson(Director of Development and Planning Services, Willmar), Les Heitke (Willmar mayor), Steve Renquist (Executive Director, EDC), Kathy Schwantes (Assistant Director, EDC)…and, of course, Wilt.

The work of community building in Willmar continues as residents seek to retain and inspire a new generation of community leaders. This marked the first annual get-together of residents who “came back” to Willmar to work and raise families. Wilt Croonquist (front row, second from left) initiated the Bring Them Back Home program during his tenure as executive director of Economic Development.