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Archives for September 2010

Leeds – ‘Knightsbridge of the North?’

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John Baron over at Guardian Leeds is running an interesting poll at the moment, asking about whether Leeds City centre is sanitised and sterile, whether we should welcome the development of yet more retail space in the city and whether Leeds should aspire to be the Knightsbridge of the North.
And I am genuinely surprised that the majority of pollsters seem to think that the ‘Knightsbridge Strategy’ makes sense….(NB the poll is still open so perhaps things will change).
As one who remembers when the Merrion Centre was new, and has seen several new developments ‘revolutionise’ the retail experience in Leeds, I am far from certain that they have helped to achieve any real progress for the city.
I can think of worse fates than to be the ‘Knightsbridge of the North’ – but not many.
It will commit us to a long term strategy based on retail infrastructure development and we will witness the ‘old’ centres going to the wall as newer, bigger more glamorous centres come to take their place.  The centre of retail gravity will shift around the city as too much capacity fights for too little footfall.
Developers, planners and builders will be happy.  So too will the politicians as they can keep announcing the ‘creation of new jobs in construction and retail’.  And those of us that can afford to buy our way to consumption fuelled temporary contentment may enjoy it for a while, before the more or less inevitable existential crisis, or whatever we use to keep it at bay, eventually gets us.
When I am working with people on their personal and professional development I ask them three questions:
  1. What do you want to have?
  2. What will you do in order to have it?
  3. If you do that what will you become?

In the case of Leeds the answers seem to be:

  1. We want to have – A prosperous economy based on tourism and retail (finance may still be crucial but is no longer flavour of the month), creating lots of low paid jobs and providing a great playground for those with disposable income
  2. What are going to do so that we may have it – Pursue ever greater retail and leisure development projects.  Allow our city to become a giant retail hoover to suck up capital from across the north and put it in the pockets of retailers and developers who can afford to play the game.
  3. What will we become if we do this – The ‘Knightsbridge of the North’. A northern simulacrum of a London suburb where the ‘haves’ can flaunt their wealth while the ‘have much lesses’ work the tills and warehouses and the ‘have nots’ are pushed out of sight. A city where the gaps between the rich and poor continue to rise, but GVA, like exam results, continues a relentless rise.  Where we rely on trickle down and Victorian philanthropy to retain an air of decency.

Often with personal and professional development the secret to getting a better future is to start the process with question 3.

Then, ‘what we do’ and ‘what we have’ might just serve our dreams rather than sabotage them.

That is why it is so important that we get a Vision for Leeds that works for all of us in the city.

A little less conversation, a little more action please…Leeds…

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Conversations of different types are opening up all over Leeds at the moment.

Organisations like Together for Peace host them as a way of helping people make connections around shared values and turn ideas into positive action.  The Culture Vultures have been flocking to conversations to talk about issues that matter to them with like-minded folk (generally this group is made up of younger early(ish) adopters of social media with a background in the creative arts and digital media).  The Leeds Initiative have been holding conversation as a way of drawing out priorities for the Vision for Leeds holding conversations both face to face and virtually.  Indeed my own twin projects of Progress School and Innovation Lab are little more than structured conversations focussed on helping individuals and groups who wish to make things better.

But what purpose does conversation serve if it does not result in a decent action plan?

Perhaps we need a little less conversation, a little more action please?  I sense frustration breaking out in all sorts of places that all this chatter is getting us no-where.  It does not build tram systems, arenas or social justice.  It just recycles hot air. Endlessly.

Well all I can say is that if the conversation is just re-cycling hot air then you are doing it wrong.  In good conversation something shifts.  Things are learned.  Possibilities are created by the group that no one member could have seen on their own.  The conversation itself transforms the way we see the world and the range of possibilities it offers.

So the conversations are building commitment, clarity, relationships and frustration.  Sounds like the perfect heady brew from which some really interesting innovation and change can emerge.  You see, contrary to the great Action Plan Myth some worthwhile projects are spontaneous, they emerge, take shape and make their mark.  They are not handcrafted in Microsoft Project, developing 5 year Gantt charts with milestones and objectives to be ticked at every stage. Hard work, commitment, flexibility, relationships and, above all perhaps, passionate belief make exciting things happen.

And everything, yes, EVERYTHING starts with a conversation…

So, if you find yourself frustrated, wanting a little less conversation and a little more action please just ask yourself what you can do to move things on a bit.

Perhaps a change of tactics is just what’s needed.

And one thing I am pretty clear about.  The more you try to steer the conversation towards action plans and outcomes the more anaemic those conversations become as people start to lobby and advocate rather than listen, explore and learn.

So, a little more conversation, frustration, relationship and commitment please.

The action has already started…and it is all around us…just this week end I witnessed the birth of @nofishybusiness and a wonderful trip to the seaside where 70 people from all over the UK (but mainly Leeds) were bought together by Leeds band Hope & Social to share music, food, conversation and dreams.  Test Space Kitchen made its debut at Temple Works, one of the world’s leading community organisers is coming to train in the city…

Things are happening all around us.  And if you can’t find something that works for you then just start something yourself.  The chances are that you are not alone….

NB not sure what YOU can be doing to make things better?  Try Progress School…

Green Grows the Economy – O

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Is ‘sustainable green infrastructure that supports our economic development’ an achievable goal?

Sustainable economic growth on a finite planet?

Sustainable economic growth in a finite city?

Some say ‘Yes’ – Carbon capture and storage creating thousands of jobs, hydrogen powered buses and carbon emissions reductions

Other say ‘No’ – It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism

How will this play out in the Vision for Leeds?

It’s NOT all about the economy, STUPID!

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So the coalition has major plans to re-balance the economy.

It seems that as far as the UK is concerned this re-balancing means shifting from being paid to move money around (financial services) to the production of wealth through the creation of value by manufacturing and value adding services.  It also seems to imply shifting the economic engine away from the South East…getting the rest of us to pull our weight.

Local Economic Partnerships and a £500bn regional growth fund (a fraction of the budgets available to the Regional Development Agencies when they led this work) are being set up to make it happen.

This sort of re-structuring of the quangos in pursuit of the holy grail of economic growth has been going on for decades.  And I am sceptical about what it achieves.

It configures largely the same people, sitting around largely the same tables having largely the same conversations (skill needs, infrastructure development, investment readiness etc), pulling on the same ‘economic’ levers (vocational training schemes, growth investment funds, business support, enterprise zones, ever diluted ‘apprenticeships’ in pursuit over more skilled jobs) and getting pretty much the same, generally disappointing, results – just under a different brand.

The majority of people are not engaged, leadership is weak and one dimensional (economic growth is king) and the whole shooting match leaves most of us as passive recipients of whatever the private sector led quangos decide to do.  Perhaps invest in the waterfront, build an Arena, a new relief road, or a large mixed use development, you know, flats and shops and workspaces and all….

Why?

Well I believe at the root of the problem is the misguided believe that it is all about the economy.  That the economy is a puzzle to be solved that is disconnected from other aspects of how we choose to live.  If we can just get the economy right – then the rest will surely fall into place.  I think that even if we did ‘just get the economy right’ we would be in no danger of approaching utopia any time soon.    A growing economy seems at least as much progress trap as progress.   Even if we could run ‘the economy’ in a way that delivered ‘no more boom and bust’ I really don’t believe that it alone help us to achieve the ‘better’ communities that we crave.  We have been throwing cash at our most deprived communities for decades and progress remains slow.

When we treat the economy as a closed system, as some kind of sacred cow two inter-related problems occur.

Firstly we start to treat human beings as ‘factors of production’ that we can manipulate and influence for the good of the economy.  The anointed can encourage us onto our bikes, into big society, or to look at ‘opportunities’ in construction, retail, call centres etc, all in the name of ‘the economy’.  Volition, aspiration and enterprise are dulled at the service of the economy.  Just keep your heads down, do as your told, and we will deliver stable economic growth is the message.  Hardly the recipe for an enterprise culture.

The second thing that happens by treating ‘the economy’ as a sacred cow is that the creative tension that lies at the heart of truly inspiring innovation is lost.  The one-dimensional focus on GVA stops us from pondering the really big questions such as:

  • How do we create sustainable economic growth and build communities in which we are proud to live?
  • How do we design work so that it is productive and promotes well-being and happiness?
  • How do we create wealth and manage the transition to a sustainable steady state economy?
  • How do we build an economy that includes all of those who want to find meaningful work?

Instead by making the economy the holy grail we get a society that on the one hand pursues economic growth (anyone for Going Up a League) while on the other hand provides crumbs from the table to ameliorate the negative social impacts that presumably are seen as just the price that we have to pay for a great economy (How about we Narrow the Gap too).  Cultural and creative activities are judged merely by their impact on the economy rather than the soul.

One of the real pleasures, and lessons I learned, from working with Danone at their social innovation lab was the way that they knew that it was these creative tensions that held the key to breakthrough innovation.  By choosing to split out the economy from wider questions of community, sustainability and well-being I believe we trap ourselves in the same old sterile debates amongst the same old business voices.

It is not just Local Enterprise Partnerships and their various fore-runners that do this.  Councils do it too (Leeds Council is based on four directorates, Adult Social Services, Children’s Services, City Development and Neighbourhoods and Environment).

The Leeds MPs, who I am delighted to see have pledged to overcome party differences to advocate for the benefit of the City in their Team Leeds endeavours, have agreed that each MP will have an individual policy portfolio.  This is sure once again to separate ‘the economy’ from other aspects of community development.  In the competition for resources that is bound to ensue I am sure it will be the ‘all about the economy’ mantra that will carry the day.  No surprise too that  Leeds Chamber of Commerce played a key part in the Team Leeds initiative.

Now of course we have to organise somehow.

Specialisation and the division of labour make sense.  But let’s make sure that the way to choose to slice things up does not ignore vital interconnections and does not allow us to consistently put the cart before the horse.  To allow one part of the whole system to dominate the conversation and allow the benefits of development to accrue to the few.  For the business interests to accrue too much power.

  • Anyone for a whole systems perspective?
  • Understanding the city as a complex adaptive system rather than as a reducible puzzle to be solved?
  • Time for innovation?