Executive Summary This white paper draws on the findings of the International Economic Development Council’s 2022 report, Effective Economic Development Roles in Workforce Partnerships. It highlights the strategies and successes of five communities: Greater Memphis, TN; Firelands Region, OH; Jacksonville, FL; Lehigh Valley, PA; and Norfolk, VA.  Each of these communities were recognized for innovative EDO-led workforce partnerships and demonstrate how EDOs are increasingly responsible for solving complex talent challenges through regional coordination, funding alignment, and inclusive system design.

In today’s highly complex and competitive workforce environment, Economic Development Organizations (EDOs) play increasingly vital roles beyond traditional business attraction and retention. Their involvement in workforce development now includes data analytics, collective impact tracking, regional collaboration, and system-building. Yet, these multifaceted responsibilities require a specialized skill set not typically embedded within EDOs. This white paper explores how Certified Performance Improvement Facilitators (CPIFs) significantly enhance the efficacy of six critical EDO roles:

1. Providing Data and Insights
2. Tracking Collective Impact
3. Catalyzing Change
4. Facilitating Funding
5. Convening and Communicating
6. Building Capacity and Filling Gaps

These roles align with the Ten CPIF Performance Standards, which define the competencies necessary to guide cross-sector collaboration and system-wide improvement:

1. Analyze and Apply Critical Judgment
2. Facilitate Deriving Meaning and Engagement
3. Focus on Systemic Factors
4. Plan and Record
5. Organize and Manage Resources
6. Guide and Focus Collaborative Improvement
7. Build Capacity
8. Demonstrate Organizational Sensitivity
9. Monitor Adoption and Accountability
10. Implement for Sustainability

Through the lens of five nationally recognized workforce initiatives, we examine how the CPIF framework empowers EDOs to build high-functioning, results-driven coalitions that address workforce challenges with precision, equity, and sustained impact.

1. Providing Data and Insights CPIFs bring structured methodologies for data collection, root cause analysis, and stakeholder alignment around evidence. EDOs like the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation and Firelands Forward used labor market data, housing and childcare studies, and employer input to define challenges and opportunities. A CPIF enhances this role by:

• Applying critical judgment to interpret data in context (Standard 1)
• Facilitating discussions that enable stakeholders to derive meaning and engage productively (Standard 2)
• Identifying systemic gaps contributing to workforce challenges (Standard 3)
• Documenting data insights to inform collaborative planning (Standard 4)

Moreover, CPIFs ensure that data isn’t simply presented, but framed within systemic implications and opportunities for action. They build the capacity of local stakeholders to use data in decisions and align workforce strategy with long-term talent development goals. This turns raw data into a catalyst for joint problem-solving.

By leveraging stakeholder workshops and facilitated interpretation sessions, CPIFs help communities understand not just what the data says—but what it means for real people, industries, and institutions. This context-aware interpretation allows EDOs to craft responses that reflect local conditions, needs, and ambitions.

Additionally, CPIFs help ensure that performance indicators align with meaningful outcomes and avoid metrics that inadvertently incentivize short-term thinking. Through multi-stakeholder sense-making, data becomes not just information, but actionable insight.

2. Tracking Collective Impact The ability to measure multi-partner outcomes is a hallmark of effective workforce collaboration. The Greater Memphis Chamber’s People Powered Prosperity initiative exemplifies this. CPIFs contribute by:

• Coordinating data collection to monitor adoption and performance (Standard 9)
• Supporting transparent planning and resource mapping across partners (Standard 5)
• Ensuring collective action is aligned and sustained over time (Standard 10)

In this role, CPIFs often serve as the bridge between intention and outcome. They enable communities to track key indicators across multiple systems—education, workforce, economic development—and facilitate adaptive responses. CPIFs also help EDOs align partners on what “success” looks like and how to measure it effectively.

With their ability to manage and align multiple data streams and programmatic efforts, CPIFs reduce duplication and help local leaders monitor the cascading effects of their strategies. Through performance scorecards and regular feedback cycles, they enable course correction while reinforcing accountability.

CPIFs also promote transparency and ownership by facilitating the design of shared data dashboards. These tools make progress visible and accessible to all stakeholders, especially frontline practitioners, who often lack access to traditional reporting mechanisms but are key to sustainable change.

3. Catalyzing Change EDOs often need to realign institutional roles and expectations to meet new talent demands. Firelands Forward and Norfolk Works demonstrated this through stakeholder restructuring and community-specific program delivery. CPIFs:

• Lead collaborative root cause analysis to uncover structural challenges (Standard 1, 3)
• Guide cross-sector teams in identifying leverage points and building commitment (Standard 6)
• Demonstrate sensitivity to organizational cultures and change readiness (Standard 8)

Critically, CPIFs bring the facilitation techniques and human-centered mindset required to engage stakeholders in constructive disruption. They surface entrenched assumptions, ensure voices are heard equitably, and foster the trust necessary for change to stick.

Rather than imposing change, CPIFs equip communities to co-create it. Through shared diagnosis and design, stakeholders take ownership of reforms and internalize the motivation for action. This distributed ownership enhances both implementation quality and sustainability.

In addition, CPIFs can lead scenario planning and systems modeling to visualize how proposed changes might interact across the ecosystem. This foresight capacity enables EDOs to anticipate resistance points and design supports that accelerate adoption.

4. Facilitating Funding Accessing and aligning funding sources (WIOA, ARPA, EDA grants) requires a compelling narrative and cross-sector coordination. In Memphis and Jacksonville, EDOs led successful multi-million-dollar workforce funding proposals. CPIFs support this by:

• Organizing partners to define clear outcomes and resources needed (Standards 4, 5)
• Guiding the co-creation of fundable program designs with measurable impact (Standard 6)
• Building stakeholder capacity to pursue and manage funding collaboratively (Standard 7)

CPIFs help ensure funding strategies are not isolated transactions but integral to long-term system improvement. By using CPIF tools, EDOs can align budget requests with stakeholder value, making funding proposals more persuasive and sustainable. They also facilitate accountability by establishing roles, timelines, and performance benchmarks from the outset.

Through logic models and results chains, CPIFs help EDOs map how proposed investments will lead to tangible workforce outcomes. Their collaborative approach attracts funders who are increasingly seeking systemic, measurable, and equitable solutions.

Furthermore, CPIFs support funder engagement beyond the proposal stage by co-facilitating design sprints, site visits, and reflective debriefs. This builds credibility and positions the EDO as a steward of collective impact, not just a grant applicant.

5. Convening and Communicating JAXUSA and Lehigh Valley both demonstrate the power of EDOs as workforce conveners. CPIFs are trained to:

• Facilitate meetings that foster mutual understanding and shared purpose (Standard 2)
• Manage diverse perspectives while keeping discussions focused on systemic improvement (Standard 3, 6)
• Maintain feedback loops that build trust and reinforce stakeholder alignment (Standard 10)

This role is foundational. CPIFs understand that collaboration is a discipline, not a default. They establish norms of engagement, design inclusive processes, and help participants co-create vision and values. They also build communication infrastructure—shared language, knowledge products, feedback systems—that sustains the coalition long after the initial convening.

Strong facilitation transforms convening from event management into change management. CPIFs create inclusive spaces where consensus is built, conflict is navigated, and forward motion is maintained—all while deepening commitment and trust among participants.

CPIFs also coach partners on how to communicate impact internally and externally—ensuring that shared wins are celebrated, lessons are captured, and public confidence in workforce partnerships is enhanced.

6. Building Capacity and Filling Gaps Identifying where an EDO can directly augment the workforce ecosystem is central to sustainable impact. Norfolk’s WeldNOW mobile lab and JAXUSA’s Career Pathways platform are prime examples. CPIFs assist by:

• Helping partners assess readiness and capability to take on new roles (Standard 1, 7)
• Facilitating planning and recording implementation steps (Standard 4)
• Monitoring outcomes and supporting mid-course corrections (Standard 9)
• Promoting sustainable structures and shared accountability (Standard 10)

Building capacity is both a means and an end. CPIFs coach leaders, train facilitators, and embed improvement routines that institutionalize collaborative practice. Rather than simply solving problems, they empower others to do so consistently. This creates resilience within the workforce ecosystem.

CPIFs also strengthen the local talent infrastructure by helping partners design and deliver just-in-time supports—technical assistance, learning cohorts, peer exchanges—that accelerate performance improvements while spreading knowledge horizontally across the ecosystem.

Additionally, CPIFs foster cross-learning among workforce development, education, business, and public sector stakeholders. By helping these groups learn from one another’s insights and constraints, they accelerate innovation and reduce silos.

Conclusion EDOs that integrate Certified Performance Improvement Facilitators into their teams or partnerships gain a strategic edge. CPIFs ensure that collaboration moves beyond meetings and memoranda to measurable, lasting outcomes. They align strategy with practice, bring rigor to facilitation, and foster systems thinking essential for today’s complex workforce challenges. As workforce development becomes more intertwined with education, infrastructure, and social equity, the structured facilitation skills of CPIFs are not just a value-add—they are essential.

Call to Action EDOs, chambers, workforce boards, and philanthropic partners should consider investing in CPIF training for key personnel. Doing so builds internal capacity for systems leadership, stakeholder engagement, and collaborative problem-solving, the very capabilities needed to navigate and lead the future of workforce and economic development. By adopting CPIF competencies, organizations can ensure their efforts are not only well-intended but well-executed, and positioned for long-term, inclusive success.

To learn more about the CPIF certification and how it can support your region’s workforce priorities, visit https://tifpi.org.