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Engaging in the Vision for Leeds

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Warning: This post was written in a state of frustration, high dudgeon and anger.

I remember advising Chris Johnstone many months ago not to get too excited about the Vision for Leeds process.  I had my own visions of some of the city’s best activists getting drawn into bureaucratic processes that would achieve little, instead of doing what activists do best – organising campaigns, raising awareness and lobbying for change.  I was cynical about who would listen and what would change if we did choose to work with the council on their preferred methodologies of Visioning for the City.

But recently I sensed that perhaps I was wrong.

Council employees started to show interest in what we were doing.  Some expressed opinions online.   To show up at events where ‘we’, ordinary Leeds residents, were gathering to talk and plan about the future not because it was out jobs, but because it was our futures.   The tone may have been generally apologetic and defensive (on both sides) but at least we were talking.  They were no longer just inviting us into their territory to help fulfil some statutory obligations around consultation, but to step into ours.

Perhaps I should at least reciprocate?

So it was with some enthusiasm that I waited for the launch of the What If Leeds… site, which promised to be a place to share views on how Leeds can become a better place to live, work and play.  Not withstanding reservations about branding and design, the intent felt right.

The site launched on Monday.  I wrote a piece.  I was encouraged to ‘Do the Math’ to save.  I did the math.  And my post was lost into the ether.  I tried again.  Same result. I swapped browser.  Same result.

I tried to look at  another debate.  But when I clicked the link I was told the debate I was interested in ‘was not found’.  So I tried to create it.  But no luck.

A couple of us decided to set up a site that would do the job.  A simple grou.ps site and a wordpress blog that would provide all the functionality we needed for free.  It took us half an hour.

But we were counselled to be patient.  Let the council fix the site.  Don’t set up competing sites. (In our mind it was not so much about ‘competing’ but ‘working’.  We thought we might actually be helping…).

The Council site was taken down because of ‘technical difficulties’.

Today, Wednesday it came back online.  I wrote a post and guess what…Groundhog Day.  Deja Vu! More wasted time….

I was angry and frustrated.  I still am.

Not primarily because my time had been wasted and my words lost.  Some will think that no bad thing.  But because:

  • the potential for an interesting use of social media to inform policy in the city, and through which ideas could be developed has been damaged
  • an opportunity to build social capital through online conversations about topics that matter to us has been lost
  • a platform that may allow fresh voices to be heard has so far failed to deliver
  • we have given petrol to the cynics who would make a bonfire of our attempts at online engagement and dialogue.

And the cynics lie both inside and outside of the council.

I know of at least four influential bloggers and tweeters who have attempted to work with the site and would have happily promoted it to their extensive networks, had it done what it said on the tin.

But I also know people who say to me ‘Mike, why do you bother? Even if the site was well designed and worked, do you really think they would listen?’  People who dispense the advice to me that I had dispensed to Chris all those months ago.

And as my daughter said to me this morning. ‘The Council?  What have they got to do with us?’.  And for me this says everything about the work that needs to be done to build the partnership between council and residents.

You can access the What If Leeds site here

If you have something to say, but that site won’t work for you, then you can access the site we built here.

NB This is not an attempt at ‘council bashing’.  I know and respect many in the council.  Good people, doing good work.  They get much very right.  I was an employee myself for a couple for years.  It is just a report of my experience and feelings in relation to this one piece of activity.

And hallelujah that the web makes it easy for me to do so!

When the bureaucrats show up in Leeds….

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‘Bureaucrat’ to me is not a dirty word.  I happen to think we need people to organise policies and procedures to bring some sense of organisation and pattern.  To enforce the rules when they need enforcing.  Government and governance can be good.  As long as they remember certain things.

Bureaucrats have been turning up at meetings organised by people who do not work in the official bureaucracies of the city.  They are not employed by the Council, or Business Link, or the Regional Development Agency, or the Arts Council.  But they recognise gaps that these agencies leave and they fill them.  There are enormous gaps left in the online world (anyone tell me of a bureaucracy that does a good job of engagement online?) and the world of the independent and the creative.

These ‘worlds of ones’ are difficult to service for bureaucracies who prefer to batch process large groups of similar types as this offers a much more cost efficient way to ‘achieve’ the outputs that they are contracted to achieve.   At least on the surface.

For me the presence of the bureaucrats is a very welcome one.  The more diverse the group the more potential for something interesting to happen!  They bring skills, resources, political insights and a certain knowledge about how things actually get done in the city that few of us can match.

It is interesting to watch the way in which some of the bureaucrats engage.  For some there is much  note-taking and reporting back, but very little interaction or contribution.  For others the contributions are mainly defensive and explanatory, providing the background to a particular campaign or decision that the ‘world of ones’  has been less than impressed by.  And some perhaps offer personal opinions, thoughts and beliefs, fearlessly, recognising that they attend these conversations as people and not primarily as bureaucrats.  And some, perhaps most yo an feel are torn between keeping their heads down and ‘managing’ risk or just diving in and facing the consequences, whatever they may be, later on.

Leeds Council and its agencies are beginning to wake up to the ‘online community’ (I hate that label as most of my life is not lived online).   What is interesting for me know is to see what happens now.

Are we (The Twitterati, the Web 2.0 Evangelists, the ‘people that slag us off’ as we were recently described) simply a new addition to the list of ‘stakeholders’ to be ‘managed’? Or is there an understanding that perhaps things have changed.  That hyperlinks subvert hierarchy and bureacracy.  That we may be impossible to manage but might respond well to engagement and facilitation. That we are not interested in justification and defence but in relevance, identity and soul.  That co-creation might offer a way forward?

We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting.  I wonder if we will be able to develop a way of working in the city that blends the best of chaos and order.

Who is up for Chaordic Leeds?

Elvis said it best: “We can’t go on together with suspicious minds.”

We’re both inside corporations and outside them. The boundaries that separate our conversations look like the Berlin Wall today, but they’re really just an annoyance. We know they’re coming down. We’re going to work from both sides to take them down. – Cluetrain Manifesto

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?