![]() ![]() It's easy to talk about this kind of leadership, and actually fairly hard to find it. ![]() That kind of culture of common success starts at the top and flows down-with the leadership, vision, inspiration, and constant communication connecting every task and role with the big picture goals. Many municipal leaders, seeking to fix the problem and create a shared definition of success, like to quote the famous NASA metaphor (full disclosure-I've used it many times): the story of the NASA janitor being asked by President Kennedy what their job was, and the janitor giving the answer "I'm helping to put a man on the moon." So shouldn't the real judgement focus on how we've set up the silo structures and cultures to begin with? But do we really expect them to balance their task against other broader corporate or public interests? That's not what they're paid to do, or likely what they're trained to do. Those of us championing more holistic city-making can be quick to judge those who hold jobs with overly specific job descriptions for thinking that their assigned task is more important than anything else-and for the inevitable myopic thinking that can flow from that. Such is the nature and problem of job fragmentation in a world of silos. Is it surprising that they consider the details really important? To the real people involved, we're asking about their job description, what they specifically get paid for, and maybe even what they get measured on in their performance reviews. We might want the answer to be the former, but if it's the latter, let's not be too quick to judge-after all, that's how we've set up most city halls. Granville Island, Vancouver - photo via Brent ToderianÄoes your local city hall have such shared definitions of success? Ask yourself this-if you polled the various departments in your city hall and asked them what their job description was, would they answer something like "I'm helping to build a great city?" Or would they describe the specific detail of their daily task, like it's the most important thing in their world? I've started to call it "post-departmental thinking" when working with city halls, but it's really just silo breaking. One of my favourite related subjects is "silo breaking"-tearing down the figurative walls between disciplines and departments, and building better multi-disciplinary partnerships around a common definition of success in city-making. Many city halls are struggling with how to improve their skills, capacity and organizational culture-not just what they do, but how they do it. I'm finding these days that as I'm advising cities around the world about better city-making, the conversations invariably turn from content, to culture. ![]()
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