As CEO of The Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership (The Partnership), George Wright’s definition of success rests firmly on the foundation of his strong belief in The Partnership’s team, his leadership, and hard work. He knows that success is within his control as long as he keeps the “why” at the center of his endeavors. He believes that “If the ‘why’ is ‘Wright,’ the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ will follow.”
Personal Lessons That Shaped a Workforce Mission
While working as a career financial services professional, George observed that economic development and mobility often focused on consumer lending and small business development. After a couple of decades of working within these areas, he realized that “workforce” was actually the genesis and driver of all economic development, and that “No matter how affordable housing is, without a career path, it could never be affordable enough.”
George also realized that small businesses cannot thrive or survive if career readiness and mobility do not give them the support they need. As a community lender, he sometimes had to inform applicants that the financial institution he worked for could not extend a loan to them, often in the pursuit of a life milestone, such as purchasing a car or a home. Eventually, he learned to turn a ‘no’ into a ‘not yet,’ using his experience and knowledge to educate customers on how to increase their ability to leverage the power of their own finances to achieve their goals.
“I am somewhat less concerned with traditional career milestones, such as an award or promotion, than experiential milestones that allowed my own growth or that of my team. These very concrete, personal interactions gave me a feeling of accomplishment, only verified later when I would come across those same people, who thanked me for making what I considered at the time to be ‘just doing my job, giving my best’ into a huge ‘life-changing’ event for them. I continue to keep these experiences in mind today, as we connect career seekers with professional and financial opportunities,” George reflects.
“You never lose; you’re either winning or learning.”
Transforming Work Into Lasting Opportunity
As the nonprofit umbrella organization of one of the nation’s largest public workforce systems, The Partnership doesn’t just connect people to careers and help businesses find talent – it opens doors to possibility. Through bold leadership and a deep commitment to equity for all, The Partnership helps individuals rise, businesses grow, and communities across Chicago and suburban Cook County thrive.
The Partnership helps people find careers, not just jobs, and connects job seekers to training, career centers, and resources, enabling them to build long-term, meaningful careers. It also supports businesses by working with employers to find and train the right talent, helping companies to grow and stay competitive.
Designated by the City of Chicago and Cook County to steward federal workforce development funding, it guides a vibrant network of approximately 70 community-based organizations, American Job Centers, which include sector and youth-focused hubs, and career centers. The network’s reach extends even further through partnerships powered by public, private, and philanthropic investment. With a belief in the transformative power of a meaningful career, the team of passionate professionals is united by a shared commitment to economic growth across Chicago and suburban Cook County’s workforce development system. The organization’s focus on equity for all ensures that everyone has access to career opportunities, regardless of their background.
The Partnership collaborates with public and private sector funders and stakeholders to help strengthen services, maximize resources, expand opportunities, and fuel workforce development.
Innovation Rooted in Community and Commitment
As CEO of The Partnership, George believes the workforce development ecosystem has historically been highly connected to the “outcomes” of its work, whether it be the number of career seekers or employer-partners served, the number of out-of-school youth or returning residents successfully connected to opportunities, or dollars invested in training, etc.
However, he believes that true innovation cannot be realized until the focus is just as concentrated on the “impacts” of the work. Outcomes may be immediate, but impacts are transformative at a grassroots level.
“By impact, I mean wages earned, education obtained, and dollars and resources poured back into a family’s household budget and the community at large. The number of customers served is, of course, important, but the impact of that service is really where the true benefit can be found, in the long run,” he observes.
In addition to these initiatives, George notes that The Partnership is undertaking real efforts to uncover and lift up the economic benefits that career seekers and career providers (employers) produce through their outcomes; the economic impact of increasing career readiness on a region, census tract, or neighborhood.
What keeps him grounded and motivated while leading in a space that intersects policy, people, and economic impact is his faith in the people and the commitment they demonstrate daily. “It is these people whom I work with and for who are my grounding agents, who show up each day to change the lives of people they often do not know, through workforce development,” he reflects.
“Always bring your authentic self to work, as allies do not sit on the sidelines.”
Keeping the North Star in Focus
George balances long-term strategy with the day-to-day demands of leading a large workforce development organization by keeping an eye on the “North Star” or focus of his work. “I attempt each day to track my time, balancing between short-term day-to-day tasks that are important, but tend to be transactional in nature, versus long-term, more strategic actions. I try to track each type of action each day, knowing that transactional work, at times, may feel like the minutiae in a day, but these smaller achievements must be made in service of larger, strategic goals. Tracking both of these each day provides me with the data needed to adjust to balance,” he explains.
Elaborating on some of the biggest challenges that he has faced in aligning public and private sector goals, George notes that typically, the public sectors lean towards transactions. In contrast, private sector goals tend towards a strategic approach. “This is not to say that strategy is absent in the public domain or that there is a lack of transactions in the private sector, but the opportunity presented by aligning the two is to initially understand and embrace the species-specific behaviors of each and then leverage those two vital tendencies to the advantage of both,” he states.
George admits that technology plays a considerable role, typically in large, for-profit institutions, where IT has the largest budget, as everything revolves around it. “However, what I have learned about the nonprofit space is that the IT budget is, in a host of cases, one of the smallest budgets. That says it all,” he observes.
Meeting Tomorrow’s Workforce Needs Today
George insists that adaptability is essential as workforce demands shift faster than ever, preparing people for jobs that, in some cases, don’t even exist yet, while also addressing the unique needs of multiple generations in the labor market. Currently, there are four generations in the labor market, ranging from “the freshmen,” Generation Z, 16 to 30 years old, to the “seniors,” Baby Boomers, who are between 61 and 79 years old. Between them are Millennials (Generation Y), who are 31 and 45 years old, and Generation X, who are 46 to 60 years old.
“This is a challenge as their needs are constantly evolving. For instance, there is some evidence that says the jobs that will need to be filled in 5 to 7 years may not even exist today,” George observes. “The answer is simply that collaboration with various stakeholders must be increased and continued agility shown to meet the changing needs of employers and the workforce.”
Removing the Lid for Future Leaders
George believes that true mentorship is about helping others see beyond perceived limitations and empowering them to realize their full potential. When mentoring future leaders, he shares a popular story that illustrates how limiting beliefs keep us stuck. “I am constantly reminding them of the story of the grasshopper that was put in a jar with a lid, and thus the grasshopper would only jump so high. After a while, if you removed the lid, the grasshopper would still only jump as high as the point where the lid used to be. I’m constantly encouraging them to ‘jump out of the jar’. I believe the best way I know how to mentor is to remove the lid,” he reflects.
George’s advice to emerging leaders who want to drive innovation in public service or workforce development is: jump out of the jar. You never lose; you’re either winning or learning. Lead by example. Always bring your authentic self to work, as allies do not sit on the sidelines.
“Jump out of the jar.”
Conclusion
Through his work and the way he envisions shaping the future of workforce innovation, George Wright hopes to leave a legacy of continuous learning. As a lifelong learner, always open to new and innovative ideas, he has discovered that following this path allows him to continue growing, learning, and mentoring others. As a result, he is always trying to learn something new and urges others to do the same.
