Blog Posts
Insight: Who Needs to Do the Work?
By: Ken Embley Are you having fun with the Presidential debates? There seems to be something for everyone; a real Clint Eastwood cultural touchstone “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” type of affair. Despite the rancor, the dominant view of leadership persists; a view that demands each candidate lay claim to having the answers to our nation’s pressing challenges. As Heifetz, Grashow and Linsky phrase it in their work The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, “Each candidate is working hard to demonstrate their abilities to provide citizens ‘direction, protection and order.’” […]
Insight: Analysis of Neighborhoods’ Housing Identifies Areas of Population Growth in Salt Lake County
By: Dr. Pamela S. Perlich, Ph.D. Today we release our tract level population, household, housing unit, and group quarters estimates for Salt Lake County. These are annual estimates for 2010 through 2014 for all 212 census tracts within Utah’s most populous county. Our analysis shows that areas of rapid growth are in the southern portion of the county (Bluffdale, Herriman, and South Jordan), central valley (Midvale and Murray), and Salt Lake City. […]
Insight: Measuring the Impact of the Sundance Film Festival
By: Anna Bergevin This week in Utah, the Sundance Film Festival is well underway. With an estimated attendance of more than 45,000 people the festival has a significant economic impact on the state. The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute contracts with the Sundance Film Festival each year to conduct a study of this economic impact. […]
Insight: Utah economy expected to continue to prosper in 2016
By: Juliette Tennert, M.S. Yesterday, the Utah Economic Council released its 28th annual Economic Report to the Governor. The report is a collaborative effort of the Council (who are convened by the David Eccles School of Business, the Salt Lake Chamber, and the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget) and a number of public and private sector experts. […]
Insight: Utah’s Fertility Rate is at Historic Low
By: Pamela S. Perlich, Ph.D. Utah is well-known for its signature demographics, the most iconic of which is the highest total fertility rate in the nation. What is perhaps less well-recognized is that Utah’s fertility rate has fallen significantly since 1960, when it was 4.30 children per woman, to 2.33 in the most recent data for 2014. This is an historically low fertility rate for Utah, and only slightly exceeds the replacement level of 2.1. [1] We can identify several key drivers of this change. […]
Insight: Leadership for the Common Good
By: Ken Embley “It’s not leadership if it’s not for the common good. Leadership is mobilizing others to make progress on deep, daunting, adaptive challenges.” [1] An intriguing leadership concept from the work of Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky! Three staffers from the Gardner Institute and five from United Way of Salt Lake (UWSL) spent several worthwhile days exploring many intriguing leadership concepts at the Kansas Leadership Center (KLC), Wichita Kansas. The KLC equips people with the ability to make lasting change for the common good. Again, an intriguing concept! […]
Insight: Mayor Biskupski Should Provide Statewide Leadership
By: Natalie Gochnour Originally published in the Deseret News We learned this week that Jackie Biskupski will be the next mayor of Salt Lake City. In an election that was hard fought and hard earned, Mayor-elect Biskupski shared an inclusive vision that inspired Salt Lake City residents. She has my admiration, respect and congratulations. […]
Insight: Online debate polls- Are the results representative?
By: Dianne Meppen According to six of seven online polls I saw the morning after the last Republican debate, Donald Trump was the winner. There was considerable difference between poll results, however, with Trump receiving anywhere from 24 percent to 43 percent of top votes in the various polls I checked. Pundits didn’t give Trump the resounding victory the online polls did, though. In fact, there wasn’t much consensus on a debate winner by commentators and political experts. […]
Insight: Census Releases Detailed Data on Utah’s Veteran Population
By: Dr. Pamela Perlich, Ph.D. Every Veterans Day I remember back to how handsome my father was in his blue Air Force uniform and carefully shined black shoes. When I was very young my dad was a pilot in the Strategic Air Command, which was a key component of the “strategic nuclear strike force” during the Cold War. I remember that he would dress in his green flight suit with the tall black boots, pack his duffle bag, and leave the house for what seemed like forever. His homecomings are very happy memories for me. […]
Insight: Utah's threshold economy breaks through
By: Natalie Gochnour Originally published in the Deseret News The Utah Jazz experienced a breakthrough last year when the franchise traded Enes Kanter and promoted Rudy Gobert to the starting center position. The Jazz have played better basketball ever since. The trade created an inflection point that produced improved chemistry and defense. The young team passed a threshold. […]