Episode 33 - Vicki Selva: "When Competitors Multiply Impact: Building Regional Excellence Through Strategic Collaboration"

What if your biggest competitors could become your greatest force multipliers? When you're exhausted from operating in isolation, trying to coordinate partners who won't coordinate, or watching potential collaborations die from friction—there's a different way.

In this episode, Vicki Selva shares how three historically competing counties now collaborate on $6 billion in defense work through the Detroit Regional Defense Coalition. You'll discover how to lower collaboration friction, why strategic partnerships align success rather than compromise it, and the leadership power of admitting "I don't know." This is Generate Momentum—the dark blue ring in the Hardcore and At Ease Framework—in action: where individual excellence transforms into collaborative force multiplication.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00) Introduction: Does Your Leadership Generate Momentum or Dependency?

(00:51) Meet Vicki Selva: Building a $6 Billion Regional Ecosystem

(01:29) The Power of Strategic Partnerships Over Competition

(04:04) Inside the Detroit Regional Defense Coalition

(05:46) Making Defense Work Accessible to Small Businesses

(11:46) Advocacy, Membership, and Multiplying Regional Voice

(20:13) Leadership Wisdom: The Confidence to Say "I Don't Know"

(38:35) Three Principles for Generating Collaborative Momentum

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER:

✓ How to turn competitors into collaborators by designing systems where everyone's success is interconnected

✓ The three-step framework for lowering collaboration friction in your organization

✓ Why admitting "I don't know, but I'll find out" creates more sustainable excellence than performative expertise

✓ How to identify who you're treating as competitors when they could be force multipliers

FEATURED GUEST:

Vicki Selva - Director, Detroit Regional Defense Coalition

Vicki serves as executive director where Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties collaborate on regional defense ecosystem development. With experience from Senator Levin's office and NDIA board service, she's building systems where regional success and individual success become identical.

RESOURCES:

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