Strategy this. Vision statement that. Plan the other thing. While deeply respecting the need for communities to direction-set with a renewed sense of passion and far less boilerplate that makes you no different than the community down the road, what I often find missing in community dialogue is any discussion or communication of values.
If you were to build a house, all the planning in the world is built on a concrete foundation. It’s the immovable object….the unflinching reflection of who we are as a community and what we believe in. They are ties that bind as a matter of character.
The power of values is fourfold: 1) Just like Forrest Gump’s “Jenny” – who Forrest felt made them the beauty of “pees and carrots” together, people thinking about investment and relocation are attracted to similar values so it can serve as a tool to align yourself with those in the market who are most like you; 2) They set an expectation level for investment/residential newcomers, which is not unlike telling people what the rules are so as to avoid conflict from introduction of conflicting values; 3) Most communities don’t do it so doing it well allows you to stand out from the crowd; and 4) They nurture social bonds.
If you have strong environmental values or resource restriction and it’s reflected in, for example, desire to introduce only water-lite industry, then water-intensive users quickly know they have an uphill battle locating in your community. That’s a win-win for industry not having to bang its head against a wall, and for a community that may not have water capacity.
In Alberta SouthWest, the “Code of the West” communicated by a number of communities (e.g. http://www.mdwillowcreek.com/html/codewest.html) aims to establish ground-rules for growth of more urbanized acreage living into an agricultural way of life.
Parts of BC like the Columbia River Valley (Radium, Invermere, Fairmont, Canal Flats) could benefit from both communication of values, and consideration of whether to embrace other values in context of the seasonal deluge of Albertans who visit annually as tourists or to visit their recreational properties. Is the Valley protecting and enhancing some kind of cultural bedrock or is it a melting pot by choice? Often times if you scratch the surface with values you arrive at deeper and soulful discussions about community futures.
Most communities reserve values for yawn-inducing “no kidding” cliché descriptors of how anyone should conduct themselves as a matter of professional practice: accountability, communications, collaboration, empowerment, trustworthy, credible, responsive, teamwork, service, continuous improvement, fiscally responsible – are chocolate chip recipe ingredients in a world of the same seven chocolate chip recipe ingredients. More problematic, they are often hidden from view, and create a framework for an organization not a community.
A few years ago I worked on a brand for the Town of Cochrane. Historically a ranching community, a location on the doorstep of Calgary implies diminishment of a more literal ranch/cowboy way of life. Yet there’s a clear community desire to maintain the spirit of what that iconography represents. To address that challenge and bridge history to contemporary, I wrote a rather non-traditional, western thematic set of values statements that could ground the spirit of community strategic direction:
The Cochrane Creed
Community and common cause step beyond “Me” to “Us”
Our diversity of people, ideas, and opinion is our strength
Connectivity to people and place is our highest aspiration
Home is where humanity’s hopes are realized
Random acts of kindness are a passage to wisdom
Attitude defines our character and shapes our audacity of vision
Neighbours are family
Environment grounds our actions as stewards of land, air, and water
Courage is a western spirit that knows no boundaries
Real people and roots ground our community in truth, tenacity, and integrity
Energy sustains our ambition
Every day is an opportunity to change the course of future history
Destiny is a guidepost that lifts us over the stones in the road
Core words in the phrases (spelling “Cochrane Creed” vertically) become actionable. The unusual presentation form creates stickiness in memory.
Full disclosure – this hasn’t been used and has been presented here to be illustrative. Unfortunately as consultants, we don’t always get to advocate for the long-term, and reality is that some things slip away.
Scratch below the surface with a deeper resolution about community values and direction. Make strategic choices that set you on a different and more compelling path than vanilla communities. Link your values to where you’re going and you will naturally start to look and feel different – and more interesting – than other places.
Photo credit – Creative Commons – www.picserver.com