The horse has already left the barn...
- Meg Bower
- Nov 3, 2023
- 7 min read
November 2023
...is it too late to plan?
Our world feels full of problems, crises, and tragedies. An event participant gets sick, and the event must be cancelled; our dog eats one of a pair of new, expensive shoes; a major assessment is scheduled for the same day as a prior commitment; a young boy is struck and killed while riding his bike to school, two neighboring cultures wage war with bombs. There are thousands of unexpected, problematic events ranging from minor annoyance to tragic that occur every day, which no amount of planning can help us avoid.
This churns up a topic I’ve been mulling for some time – how can planning strategies, which we normally think of as a way to avoid problems, help us respond well to problems we don’t anticipate, which may be sudden, undesirable, and possibly tragic? Is there a way to ensure that our response, even without the benefit of advance planning, is grounded in solid planning principles, rather than reactionary? And what are those principles?
There are a few examples of really interesting problems and solutions that I’ve been collecting to help me understand this question better. I hope the lessons they’ve provided to me may help you, the next time you face a problem you didn’t plan to have.
1. Is it just me?
Back one year when my child was in elementary school, they told me they weren’t allowed to wash hands before eating lunch – which typically included “finger foods.” When I asked why not, my child said the teacher didn’t stop the line at the restroom, and there was never soap in that restroom, anyway. Now, this was pre-COVID, but not stopping and no soap were both alarming to me. I posted the problem on the school’s chat page and was inundated with quick, easy solutions – I should include wipes in the lunchbox, miniature hand sanitizers were on sale at the Dollar Store, etc. None of them really addressed what I believed was the real problem. After consideration, I called the school office and escalated the question. An administrator and I negotiated, and they agreed to have the soap regularly restocked in the restroom near the cafeteria, and for all children be permitted to leave the cafeteria to wash their hands prior to eating if they asked to do so.
The initial problem might have been “my child has dirty hands at lunch,” but investigating with my child led to the discovery that it was a community problem - no children had a chance to wash their hands before eating, and a related lack of soap and/or bathroom visits prior to lunch. The appropriate response was obligatorily more comprehensive once the problem was defined broadly.
When most people experience a problem (ranging anywhere from small inconvenience to a life-altering tragedy), the first reaction is emotional. There are a host of psychological underpinnings to the way people react to problems, but whether the emotional response is sadness, fear, or anger, the emotional reaction will almost always narrow our perspective too narrowly to see the whole problem. Those of us who work on a contract basis know that success or failure often lies with proper scoping of the effort, so separating the initial emotional reaction from the problem is crucial to framing the situation correctly.
Lesson: Take a step back. A broader view will help you define the problem more accurately.
2. Can you hear me now?
You can’t control all the variables in any situation, particularly when confronted with an external problem. This was a lesson we all learned together in the early days of cell phones. Identifying the rigid elements that will likely not change can help us focus our efforts quickly where change is possible, so that we can more quickly identify viable solutions. I think this every time I travel, because the range of potential problems that lie outside my control is considerably larger than in my daily life.
I’ve personally witnessed a great example of problem-solving within a constrained sphere of control at a small Montessori preschool in Takoma Park. The school occupies a lower floor in a high-rise on a gentle hill. They likely lease, so do not control the building’s infrastructure. When it rains, the drainage always puddles in a grassy area uphill from their front door. When enough water accumulates, it runs out the corner of the bed, downhill in muddy rivulets that streamed past the front door, precisely where parents and children enter and exit the school. This has to be an annoyance and an ongoing problem for this school.
A few weeks ago, I passed by on a rainy day and was surprised to see the doorway was wet, but clean. Stacks of empty plastic plant containers lay uphill where a lovely rain garden had been constructed in the former grassy area. It had a rock edge and plants all around. The pool was full, and raindrops plopped musically on the surface. Downhill, muddy water no longer ran past the door. I was inspired to take the picture that heads this article.
Many contributors to the mud issue - the rain, the slope, and even the building - lay outside of the control of those for whom it caused a problem. The mud was resolved by simply retaining the water for a time and creating a beautiful rain garden in the process. Reducing the range of solutions to those within your control allows things to feel more manageable and can relieve the stress associated with trying to control factors that may never change.
Lesson: Your sphere of control is limited. Work within the space where you can be effective.
3. That which does not kill me...
All the buzz today is around inclusion of diverse voices, but planners have known for a long time that finding an individual solution is not going to be as sustainable or successful as a community solution. Punctuating this commitment, the American Planning Association charges certified planners with identifying all stakeholders in a given project. This mandate reminds planners they must identify hidden stakeholders and invite them into the discussion. Seeking wider community involvement not only delivers a better solution, but it also helps to surface potential unintended consequences early in the solution development stage when they are easier to avoid.
Dialogue TM also weighs in on this topic. Professional Dialogue recognizes four dialogic “actions” – move, follow, bystand, and oppose. Dialogue practitioners are cautioned to be wary of decisions that appear to be consensus-driven, but which do not include any “oppose” in the discussion. These decisions often look like consensus but are actually complicit compliance, where a decision has been made prior to stakeholder engagement. Dialogue reminds us that the only way good discussions happen is when “oppose” enters the room. Dialogically trained individuals are conditioned to not only welcome “oppose,” but to seek it out, contribute it, and use it to generate better ideas. Doing so requires skill, patience, and tolerance of engagement that might become messy.
I experienced first-hand the value of including controversial voices in the process long ago, as 50% of a two-person team conducting a criminal justice system master plan for a tight-knit community. The study included the courts, jail, and related agencies. We held evening meetings every month with a group of local business leaders who were equally concerned about crime and change. One of the business leaders was actively opposed to any idea we came up with. He dominated the meetings, and we always left exhausted from his constant stream of opposition. About eight months into the year-long process, a new business leader joined the group and started asking some of the same questions this man had asked, early on. My colleague and I braced ourselves to retread the same old ground, but before we could begin to speak, the man we knew to be so challenging spoke up and gave a powerful, coherent explanation for where we were now. He defended our process as rigorous and thorough and spoke with pride of membership in the team and our collective solution. That individual became the project’s strongest advocate as we moved to finish up and our solution was better for having addressed his concerns.
Lesson: Challenges are essential to doing our best. Seek them out!
4. Don't be in a hurry to do it wrong!
One of my Aikido instructors has a saying: “Don’t be in a hurry to do it wrong.” His point is that learning good fast technique requires passing through slow and careful technique, first. The partnered saying is, “Slow and correct can become good, but fast and poor (technique) can never become good.”
This lesson is exemplified in a planning context by a small community crisis posed by skaters doing tricks off the Korean War Memorial in Tallahassee, Florida in 2014. Skating is popular in Tallahassee as a year-round outdoor recreation and means of transit, particularly for students at two Universities, the FAMU and Florida State University, but many emotions surrounded skaters doing tricks on a war memorial. After a long planning process, the solution that was implemented was to create, fund, and construct what is now known as the Skateable Art Park. It took years of planning, design, and construction but the skate park opened in 2022, along with a larger park and cultural trail. All lie near both FSU and FAMU, providing a connectivity and recreation zone that serves both universities and the surrounding communities.
The Skatable Art Park is a good reminder that when responding to a problem or crisis, the fastest solution may not be the best one. A planner at the municipal level was able to recognize that the problem wasn’t as narrow as, “Skaters don’t respect the war memorial.” It was, “Skaters lack appropriate venues that challenge them.” The best solution was not to create skating prohibitions or to post a guard at the park. That planner, and the rest of their agency, were willing to take the time to work toward a truly exceptional solution.
In the real world, there isn’t always time to work through developing a customized solution. In situations that require a faster resolution, one way to introduce time without prolonging the process is to bring in someone who already has the experience required. In the skate park example, lifelong skaters were invited to contribute to the design.
Lesson: Fast is not always good.
Always look on the bright side.
I’m sure you have experienced similar situations where a problem (however large) spun off a result that would not have occurred without the problem. The final lesson is to seek the silver linings. They may help to see a bright side you’d otherwise miss!
All the best, Meg
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