It’s so easy to criticize isn’t it? Nothing is perfect, and we’re all the ones perfectly poised to point out exactly what’s wrong. But criticism without putting in the effort to fix things is just complaining. And suggestions that involve only your idea’s, with no analysis or public benefit behind them are just ego trips or worse, greed.
And solutions ignored is just denial. If the doctor tells you that you need to lose weight, and you order cheesecake for dessert the same night, then you’re not serious about the advice. And adding raspberry topping to the cheesecake isn’t what adding more fruit to your diet means.
Listen – I’m describing almost all of us. We need to face up to certain realities, accept advice, and take on the roles we need to play in order to change. But only if we WANT to change. Maybe we already live the greatest life we could imagine, or already live in the city we envision as great. When talking about civics, that’s the first question: what do we all want out of this city? What is civics to us?
But where do we start? And what do we want? Because expectations are everything. If we expect to be thinner, we WILL lose weight. But if we are so used to not being able to catch a deep breath and having our knees ache – if we expect that every morning – then we’ll continue to live the lifestyle that gives us those results. Genetics are an important thing. But lifestyle is usually a larger factor. The genetics of Niagara Falls are phenomenal. Location can’t be bought – and the city is in an amazing location. The falls that give us tourists also give us hydropower, the original green energy, another thing that can’t be replicated. So, if we’re not currently the garden of eden that we could be then lifestyle – in this case civics – must be playing a role.
We need expert help. Fortunately, we have experts at our disposal.
Are you familiar with the 360-review process? It’s okay if you’re not. It’s a simple concept to understand. It’s even a simple procedure to conduct. You’ll pick it up in minutes. And it’s a very accurate and unbiased reflection of exactly who we are, what we expect, and what it might take to get to a new place. There’s only one problem with a 360-review – it hurts like hell to read the results. It’s not uncomfortable, it hurts.
In a personal 360 review a cross section of your peers, supervisors and subordinates are asked questions about you. The results are a window into how you treat those above you, among you and below you. As much as the Bible instructs you to be fair to everyone, you usually aren’t. You’re a suck up to some, and a real bastard to others. I’m telling you, it’s worse than looking in the mirror when you get the review results. It’s more like having a talking mirror with a sarcastic attitude. It’s not at all unusual for people to cry when reading what people really think about them – because of course this is an anonymous and completely honest review process. And how we view ourselves is much different than how the world views us.
It’s much less painful to participate – be the one giving the feedback – in a 360 process. And that’s what I’m going to be asking you to do. Because before we can suggest how the city should change, if in fact it should change at all, we need to know what people’s expectations of this city are. And we can’t hurt the inanimate object called “city”, so it’s not going to hurt that much to read the results of this exercise.
And like any thorough 360 review, we need the opinions of peers (city residents), supervisors (the people who invest money into the city) and subordinates (let’s call them anyone who visits the city from the outside) to weigh in. If we only talk to each other, then it’s not a thorough review. If we only talk to people with money, we risk mistrusting their motives. And if we do not talk to visitors to the city we are missing the most important people of all.
These reviews take time. I’m suggesting that over the course of the next five months – during the campaign season for local office – we conduct this review. The public’s sensitivity will be heightened by the thought of change in leadership, fresh voices etc. Let’s use this time to begin the discussion of civics-in-action, what we truly want this city to be. Then after November we, together with the newly elected leaders, will have some honest feedback. I’ll only ask one thing to start: if you want to participate in this review send me an email at tom@thecivicsproject.org, or reach someone at the newspaper who will get me your contact information, and you can participate. But just as importantly, if you think there’s someone who should participate in this review, send me that name also. Should we ask Warren Buffet for example, or Bill Gates, what they expect out of Niagara Falls? What about the movie director Michael Moore, who spent some time here making the movie Canadian Bacon. Send me your honest idea’s and we’ll make every effort to reach people.
I said we have experts ready to help. I just didn’t explain that you are one of those experts.