One more post on Jane Jacobs (maybe…).
Le Corbusier was a Swiss-French architect who planted the seeds for urban renewal in the 60's and 70's in North America. He conceived of his ideas while flying over Paris. From this God-life vantage he felt that he could see all the solutions to the many problems a city had. He knew how to fix the problems of those people on the ground. Him and his ideas would come to the rescue.
Jane Jacobs was the exact opposite. She believed that to find the answers you needed to be on the ground with the people who would be most impacted by the changes you were thinking about. That those people should be in the drivers seat.
Today I had an opportunity to be on the ground for a bit. Spending time with people. For some reason, it can be hard to make time for things like this. I had a lot of things that I "should" have stayed in the office to get done. It's funny that many of us who work in experience/service industries spend less and less time with people as we advance in leadership. We start to feel like we don't have time. What else could be more important?
The funniest part is that after my hours spent out and about, I had a very productive 90 minutes in a coffee shop and cranked through a bunch of my tasks I needed to get done.
I need to start asking myself WWJJD (What would Jane Jacobs Do?) and cut through the clutter, get grounded and tune in to the world around you for the answer.
Being a Force for Good 