Millenials are interested in experiences, not material things. That's what consumer data tells us and so companies go to great lengths to advertise based on those values.
The same is true for people who live in cities. People want great amenities, they want transportation, they want great childcare and pre-K education all because it provides an experience. However, when we think about how to accomplish this, and what sets of amenities are going to get us there, we need to use not just quantitative data but qualitative data as well. What are the stories, the experiences, the challenges and the victories of city life? What do people celebrate and what do they value? To find the answers to these and other questions we need to explore alternative methods of soliciting information. For example, here are 5 ways to get unconventional data about city life: 1) Give kids a disposable camera for the day so they can take pictures of life from their point of view 2) Use a hashtag and let people record a 1 minute fb live describing what their city means to them, or what they do in the morning, what they do at night, etc. It helps to know how people are experiencing city life at all points in the day. 3) Hold a workshop where you provide pictures of amenities, of facial expressions, of different situations, and let participants craft what their city looks like now and what they want it to look like in the future. 4) Interrogate the good as much as the bad. Find out why things are working as much as why they aren't working. If there's a program that's great, start a discussion board about it and ask why. 5) Ask for documentation. Whether it's a city hall meeting, a neighborhood civic association or another type of meeting. What are people saying? In order to craft a better story you have to have a baseline. You can't draw a baseline if you don't know that the current narrative is, not just overall but within each aspect of city life that you want to explore (i.e. housing, criminal justice, education, environment, transportation, etc). Be creative. The future of your city will depend on it. - Adria
Guiding documents are critical to community development yet most people don't know what they are or what they mean so you have to take time to explain it. Below is an example!
The Comprehensive Plan is a document that fundamentally alters how a community looks and feels over the next 10, 20, 30 years. That is what it is supposed to do. It is often crafted by the Urban Planning Department of your local government and can take anywhere from 1 to 3 years to update. Want to learn more, including what questions to ask? Watch this 6 minute video! So often we think about engaging "experts" for our community development initiatives. We need to find someone to do a needs assessment, someone to calculate the tax credits, someone to do a market analysis of the properties we want to revitalize...
And that's all well and good. We need experts. Heck, I wouldn't want someone tearing down buildings and bringing in 4x4s in my neighborhood unless they knew what they were doing! However, while we're engaging experts we also need to think about what we can do to build the capacity of people within the neighborhoods we are tying to revitalize. It's not enough to improve the physical condition of communities when we need to improve the human condition. Building capacity means taking the time to understand what skills are needed to advance the true goals of community revitalization. If people need jobs we need to give them the skills to get a job and if people need their civic associations to be more active, we need to give them the skills to get people to come to those meetings and and want to be part of getting the work done. There are people in the community who are stepping up to lead, oftentimes when no one else will and we need to do more than say "congratulations!" We have to give them the support to be successful. If you know anyone who could benefit from leadership development training, I want you to send them this link: How to lead EFFECTIVE working groups. I'm not the type to just complain. If I see something that needs to be addressed, I provide a solution. If you know someone who is leading a team and struggling, help them out and send 'em my way. When I say plan for transition, I mean from one administration to another and one employee to another.
There are so many times that information falls through the cracks and is forever lost because there was no transition plan. No one expected Ms. Lee was going to retire suddenly or that Jack would go on medical leave never to return or the previous Mayor's appointee would not be carried over to the next administration, etc. We just assume everything is going to keep ticking along just fine, and then BOOM. Something unexpected happens and people try to quickly pick up the pieces and make excuses about operating with fewer staff and blah blah blah. I get it. These things happen and once they're done, they're done. However, I have less sympathy for organizations as long standing as the government. Local governments have been around for hundreds of years and they have experienced at least thousands of transitions yet few take the time to create transition plans. Transition plan: A formal business transition plan puts the goals, priorities and strategies in place for a successful transition. Without a clearly defined plan, business owners are leaving their personal and financial future to chance. (source: entrepreneur.com) Crafting a transition plan takes work and vision. You need to take the time to sit down with your team and figure out the short and long-term priorities, what is needed to execute them and how could things be completed without you. Of course the new person or administration may change the priorities but there should be at least some continuity to avoid projects completely stalling and constituents left wondering what is going on, which can grow into distrust and disdain. Transition plans also signal to your internal and external stakeholders that you are forward thinking and prepared for the future- two attributes we need more of these days. Does your organization have a transition plan? Leading from behind. What does that mean?
Nelson Mandela, and then Harvard Business School identified this as being on the key qualities defining leadership of the future. The future is evolving into something that is more innovate and thus more competitive. We see things in front of us and we want to change them, we want to make them better, and need people to buy into our vision. But how do we do that? We could tell them, and make them follow us. We could influence them, and suggest they follow us. We could let them go, guiding from behind so they happen upon the vision themselves. or a number of other possibilities. However, leading from behind is primarily for innovators; for people who want to build communities that have a shared purpose. The tough part about this is getting two things right (according to Harvard Business School), and that is: First, leaders must ensure their organizations are willing to innovate. This is fundamentally about building community. Some leaders refer to this function as “creating a world to which people want to belong.” Second, leaders must build the organizational capabilities necessary for engaging in the innovation process. The three essential organizational capabilities are: creative abrasion (the ability to generate ideas through intellectual discourse and debate); creative agility (the ability to test and refine ideas through quick pursuit); and creative resolution (the ability to make decisions in an integrative manner). Creating community is difficult, and facilitating interaction such that people want to be part of something bigger and contribute their energy and talent to realizing that bigger vision is something that happens through trial and error. So how can we foster communities with a shared vision? How can we identify people who want to be part of what we're doing? These are the questions that will drive engagement in the future. These are the questions leaders operating from behind must answer. What kind of leader are you? Does how you lead change depending in the environment you're in? Do you notice yourself leading with a particular style more often? Leading from the side means engaging in a more democratic process whereby each decision is discussed with other team members and the person leading the group has no more power than any other person on the team to determine the direction. However, if you are leading from the side it means you aren't officially in charge but can still significantly impact the group dynamic in a few ways: 1. You can support the president in their efforts 2. You can explain what's happening to team members who may be confused 3. You can initiate projects and ideas for the group to consider 4. You can contribute to finding solutions Basically leading from the side means exerting influence to get things done. It doesn't mean you have an ulterior motive, but rather that you understand the purpose of the group is to get things done and move forward. It could be that personalities on your team are resistant to some of what the president or others have suggested. Leading from the side puts you in a position to change those perceptions and help move the group along without actually being the leader. Have you ever tried to lead from the side? There are so many different leadership styles. Each one depends on who you are naturally and what you want from the people you hope to lead.
Today I'll touch on leading from the front. This leadership style means that you lead by vision. This style is great for people who are naturally self-starters, visionaries and need little motivation to get up and get something done. Within an organization these people are often the head of a group; they set the strategy and vision. Leading from the front can also be challenging because it means that you are more prone to be by yourself if you get too far ahead of the pack. That's why it's important to constantly check in and make sure that others are with you (if that's what you need). I believe another part of leading from the front is being confident about the direction you are taking the group despite the lack of initial engagement or understanding about where it's all going. Leading from the front requires constant explanation and engagement to keep your team on board. This can be tiring but necessary. Does this apply to you? Do you find yourself walking to the beat of your own drum? The first 14 days of this series were done live on Facebook with the setting set to "public" for all the world to see. Going forward, only folks who are part of my community development mastermind group on Facebook will have access to more video-based content. This is a free group for anyone interested in furthering community development practice. What I talk about in this group will be applicable to many different people, and can benefit various organizations, including local government. It's a place to ask questions, get support and change communities.
Want in? Join the group here. When you're operating in a multi-faceted world with dynamic people it's easy for messages to get lost. People may be engaged in the moment but then forget what you asked them to do. There are many ways to prevent this, which I will talk about in future posts, but one of the best ways is to have a clear call to action.
Repeat: Have a clear call to action. When you tell people what you need them to do it signals two things: 1) that you want them to do something, and 2) what it is. I know this sounds basic, but basic is exactly what you need in a world that is complex. Does your message have a clear call to action? Is that request consistent with the value that you've provided up until that point? In other words, is it an easy ask? If so, proceed. If not, you need to think about what you can do to make that ask easier from your side. What can you do to ensure that your ask is not qualified or couched in something else because you feel like you're asking a lot? If it feels like that for you, it will feel like that to your audience. Have a clear call to action that feels easy and you will pave the way for your fans to raise their hand and follow you. Image Source: City Year Chicago There are some things that seem to never get done in any organization. Sometimes it's those small things that you always notice when they come up but a day later you forget what it was so never make a point to address it. These can be things like cleaning up an existing database, verifying contact information for local civic associations, making sure the links to resources on your website are all still functional, etc. As an employee of a moving bureaucracy it may seem your days get taken up "putting out fires" (a phrase I loathe) and other administrative urgencies, so that is why I suggest a hack-a-thon. Hack-a-thon: an event, typically lasting several days, in which a large number of people meet to engage in collaborative computer programming. Now if you know how to computer program - great! But the idea here is to set aside a couple of days a year, or more, to ask volunteers to help make government more efficient. Maybe volunteers can check all those missing links or verify information on your behalf or go through some of those FOIA requests and see what can be done. The possibilities are endless. We don't need to wait until Summer interns arrive to smooth out the kinks of government. In addition to improving the administrative process and resultant experience of constituents, volunteers gain valuable insights into how government works and the people who work daily to make life viable for so many. So consider a hack-a-thon, volunteer-a-thon, help-a-thon, etc. |
AuthorAdria is a community development consultant. She loves all things local and when she's not writing online you can find her enjoying the outdoors. Archives
January 2018
Categories |