7/26/2018 1 Comment July 26th, 2018Hows it going?
I’m doing fine, thank you. It’s just that out of increasing complexity arises simplicity. So when I look at simple things they become complex. Let’s break it down. Take Canada for example. It’s a country. But, it’s comprised of 8 provinces and 3 territories. Divided into multiple ethnicities and nationhoods. Canada has a population of 39 million individuals. Each individual has a relatively unique system of loves, values, & fears. What do you enjoy doing? I like soccer. I also like writing. It’s fun. Philosophy is another passion of mine. Aren’t we all human? Totally. But, the experience of that is complex. There are roughly 6,500 different languages between 7.5 billion of us. Four billion without internet. Simply, we all need clothes but dress differently. I keep this in mind while marketing. Our needs are common; our solutions aren't. Maximizing conversion is about finding simple categorical definitions and then breaking it down. When canvassing for the Ancient Forest Alliance we look for those interested in the environment. Are you interested in habitat protection, hiking, outdoors, nature conservancy, old-growth forests? Then we probably share the same values. They're just expressed differently. Canvassing requires I focus on what makes each door potentially different. Despite them being the same. The trick is communicating shared values. Sometimes it is an accent. A slight shift between neighbourhoods. Maybe you value innovation over community or the economy over ecology. I have to gauge this within two or three questions. In an earlier post I mentioned meme theory that helps break it down more. Online the process is more refined. Algorithms hone in on the individual and can get very specific. Is that a bad thing? In a way the internet reflects and responds to your values and needs. Marketers try to figure them out then algorithms hand it out. These algorithms give us the power of self-curation. Collectively we act as the editors for major news corporations that act as platforms for advertisements. But, if you don’t know how to use the tools you are the tool. It’s largely automatic. We choose what to see then its reflected & reinforced. You are either aware of that or you aren’t. We may focus on our differences forgetting what's in common. I may dress up in a button up; you may dress in a tank top. You may eat vegan options; while I eat meat. You may want a strong community by promoting economic develop; while I want a strong community that protects the environment. I can become entrenched in our difference. However, there is a need to see that difference is based off of what is common. Often this comes as a common need, or problem. My high school principle used to say life is a mosaic. That it is the fragments when brought into relation with each other that form a picture. Not any one piece. Being in an inter-disciplinary organization shows the achievement of bringing different perspectives to a common need, issue, or problem. They create a picture, or mind map, or better understanding that then allows us to move forward together. Our era is ripe with perspective. However, sometimes common ground is hard to find or is non-existent. What then? I don't know. Maybe that's where you come in.
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7/20/2018 1 Comment July 20th, 2018Human creativity is born out of our diverse interactions; We are in a constant state of give and take.
We are subject to our environment and it to us. My motivation to create is driven by an internal pressure. It's an outlet of my imagination. I share my imagination in hopes that it procreates with yours. I will share my perspective because it is valuable and needed. My good sense deserves to be trusted, challenged, shaped, and shared with others. Your perspective deserves to be considered as well. That is how we shape understanding. At Urban Systems we believe in "spirit in service for vibrant communities" as our higher calling. Therefore, I think it is important to develop perspective on what that means. For me, vibrant communities is a qualitative sense of goodness that will differ place to place. Vibrancy is a continuum of good to bad, stale to lively, etc. Vibrancy is expressed through the identity of the community. Identity being a holistic concept that can be broken down in various ways (e.g. personality, interests, values, skillset, beliefs, motives, history, relationships, etc). Some carry great depths of character and others come with potential or struggles. A community is something larger than any one of us and by definition requires a prismatic lens, or shared understanding, of who we are. There are many traps to a vibrant community. One issue may be adopting the regional image and narrative without consideration of a place's authentic identity. Quoting Margaret J. Wheatley: "The presence of a clear identity makes the organization less vulnerable to its environment; it develops greater freedom to decide how it will respond." Finding an authentic identity cannot be achieved through external influence alone, as that can lead to what Charles Taylor and Nancy Fraser call the politics of misrecognition, which I've explored in essays. The process of identity is negotiated between the self-identified entity and the external reality. An authentic identity can be recognized as a resonant truth of being to which the self-recognized thing navigates through the world as; arguably making the process spiritual because it requires collective introspection of who we are, what we need, how we can achieve our aims, and why we exist. Sometimes I feel like the odd man out. There's a lot of expertise at Urban Systems. There are the technical experts of engineers, the planning professionals with master degrees, and those behemoths with over 5 - 10 years experience in consulting. Then there's me a recent undergraduate, new to the work-field, and trying to figure out how to succeed.
My general tactic is to research, network, and to ask questions, then reflect, which is my cyclical process of understanding. At first it was overwhelming. My experience I assume is similar to getting dropped off in a place where you sort of speak the language, feel lost, and you're hungry. Having a sense of hunger is what brings me forward. It forces me to speak brokenly to others as I try to get fed and temporarily feel the sense of being found. How does one stay fed at Urban Systems? For one, Urban Systems requires being entrepreneurial. We have to constantly look for work internally and then eventually go out to find external clients. The process is different than what I'm used to. I have to be able to provide value through my skillset and communicate my skillset to others. Work isn't necessarily given. The concept of spending 10,000 hours to become an expert means spending five years practicing. My success depends on it. Part of that success will come from lens crafting. I like to pursue perspective and to be omni-considerate. Omni-consideration for me means the ability to consider other people's perspective and, as a political scientist, understand their behaviour then dive beneath it. Behaviour is visible and easier to see. Values, which form the framework of perspective, are invisible. Value systems are fundamental systems of thoughts, motives, an instructions, which determine how we make a decision and set priorities in our lives. Value systems are how we see. Or, maybe they are how we experience? Value systems can reflect preferences in different worldviews, assumptions and intrinsic motives in people and in organizations. The belief is that intrinsic motives strongly determine: our perceptions, our emotions, our thoughts, our actions, and our avoidance mechanisms. Value systems are a constellation, which is a multi-dimensional complex that form our personality and our culture, roughly speaking. Considering other value systems as perspectives helps build common understanding and an ability to communicate. This brings me back to a conversation I had with one of the planners and on the principals in Urban Systems Victoria office. They remind me of the multi-scalar nature of governance. Certain perspectives carry more weight federally than on a municipal level. These different platitudes comes with different conditions and considerations to operate effectively. Just like myself, governance can be limited by their resources, networks, and innate capacity. They provide different services and think differently. Their values differ. After reflecting on the conversation through meditation a single question came to me. How do you think like a community? My assumption is that each community is unique. However, just like humans, our unique expressions are scratches to a common itch. We all need clothes but dress differently. We all need to eat but require and/or prefer different diets. We all have a common need but go about it differently. In modern thought, (if not in fact) Nothing is that doesn’t act, So that is reckoned wisdom which Describes the scratch but not the itch - Anonymous Needs can be hierarchical and time based meaning that some may scratch their legs while other scratch their heads. If I'm struggling to buy food currently would I buy a new winter jacket during summer? In a municipal sense if I'm struggling to provide my essential core services how effectively could I adapt to climate change? If my need is a immediate how effective can I meet a future need? Do I have time to consider it? Given some needs like doing the laundry are consistently cyclical... Could Sisyphus who is forever pushing a boulder up a hill have time to do the dishes? What about weeding and watering the garden? Getting the gutters fixed and building a new bioswale in consideration of cleaning stormwater? He doesn't have time, which reminds me of something a friend told me once. Time is the real currency seeing how we pay by the hour. Given certain needs are more demanding, where some can be cyclical and others not, and that needs require the scarce resource of time. How do go about solving them? The short answer is that it depends. It depends on the community (that allows us to solve things larger than ourselves) and their situated context. It'll depend on the need and the preferred solutions. It'll depend on the resources, capacity, and network of the community. It'll depend on the local personality and culture. It'll require listening and exploration as a consultant. It will require interdisciplinary communication to share knowledge and come to a solution. And, given the complex nature of communities in our modern era, a focus on what is common. The question of how do you think like a municipality is dependent on their community. The lens to see something larger than ourselves can vary. We can be engineers, planners, government officials, or people living on the street. The prismatic fractal of experience is a multi-dimensional problem. Where each piece is a lived experience with a relatively unique perspective. Conversation between silos builds bridges between perspectives and common vantage points that are more holistic. Doing so, helps burn away misunderstanding and illuminate blindspots. I guess no one person can think like a community, as a community is not one person. What do you think? |
AuthorRobin Roger Gagne is a freelance writer, web designer, and SEO wizard. Archives
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