Accept Powerlessness
Posted: 4:14PM November 1st, 2011 | Comments
A sustainable region is not possible without planning. No matter how many LEED-certified buildings we develop or backyard gardens we plant, the truth is we need to figure out how to plan the future of our region together. And that means all of us, Middleton, Verona, Madison, Fitchburg, Sun Prairie, etc. The Pioneer Valley Planning Association is a powerhouse in the central Massachusetts region (think: Amherst, Northhampton). They've managed to pull together towns and cities from a huge swath of the state (not to mention parts of Connecticut) to attract new businesses and talent to the region, improve public transportation and catalyze a green economic revolution, among other things. You may ask, do they have regulatory power? No. Do they set policy? No. Well then, how do they do it? At the Capitol Area Planning Conference last week, we got to hear from the Principal Planner of the Association and the top 3 things I learned from her are: #1. Accept Powerlessness. We need to learn how to create a vision of our region and then sell this vision to a whole bunch of people without any legislation. We must use our ability to communicate, build relationships and collaborate, which leads to lesson #2. Leadership is essential. Leadership is identifying an idea, mobilizing people to support the idea, gathering the resources to make it happen and moving into action. And lesson #3. We need to plan, do, measure. Plan, do, measure. It is easy to get caught up in endless planning or even just talking about the fact that we need a plan. We need to move to the doing as fast as possible, even if it is a small action. Success with small projects creates the confidence we need to take on bigger projects. The biggest lesson I took away from Pioneer Valley was, we have what we need right now to transform our region we just need to step up and do it. - Kristen
