it took me a minute when i was in college to figure out what interested me, in terms of a possible career paths. i think i started out with a vague idea of wanting to study communication to go into advertising maybe? i stumbled into an alternative energy class at one point and that sparked enough of an interest to prompt me to look into switching majors to something in the environmental studies genre. and when i finally settled on that, the university i was attending at the time required that students pick an emphasis of either bioscience or policy and planning. a professor i consulted suggested that bioscience was mechanics; planning and policy was where innovation happened. so that’s how i ended up with a BA in environmental studies with an emphasis in policy and planning.
and while navigating through that course work, i happened upon the hippiest possible environmental studies / city planning class where the talk was all about city planning and the human experience. this appealed to me on a number of different levels and then just as i was finding my groove… i graduated.
so i hurled myself directly into grad school. (i tell people today that if i had it to do over again, i would have taken some time off in between to work a little bit – to get some “real world” experience to reflect on as i studied up in graduate school.) and then a year and a little bit later – i completed my masters in city and regional planning.
so there i was after 6-ish years of school with two degrees both related to city planning. and now here i am 27 years later still more or less still orbiting around the field of city planning without doing even a tiny bit of the actual planning itself. i mean, i still talk to planners on the regular – those who actually do the planning – but my days are filled with other things. and people regard me differently. it’s weird.
i’m the deputy director of the department. i’ve have taken to describing the work i do as being sort of like a ninja – cartwheeling my way into different work groups to better understand the challenges they’re dealing with, and then working to whip things back into shape before zip-lining my way on to the next group. and lately i’ve spent a lot of time talking about culture – creating a work environment where there’s space for creativity and innovation. accountability and excellence. barely any zoning. but lots of working to understand individual and organizational psychology.
somewhere out there there’s a cover letter from me that includes a description of my ability to “fix” broken teams. i keep saying that this niche that i’ve found myself in seems so far removed from where i started, but what i’m holding onto is the fact that i’m doing this work of supporting the creation of a highly functioning organization within the public sector, and specifically in the field of community development. i told someone once that i wanted to be part of the reason why people can believe in local government. i work to create the environment where good things can happen in the name of city building.
that’s something, right?
at dinner this evening when i was describing to my family about the day i had had – it included some tough conversations around performance matters – my mother observed that she wouldn’t want the job i had, and had i given any thought to changing careers? (i’ll refer you back to the note above: i’ve been in this general field for TWENTY SEVEN years now. and i know it’s never too late to change. never too late for a happy childhood, a friend of mine likes to say. but still.)
i have enjoyed learning more about how organizations work. about what goes into shaping a good work environment. it has meant that i’ve needed to learn more about how people are wired. i’ve had some good successes that i’m proud of, but i’m slightly uncomfortable about the degree to which i’ve had to just learn this stuff as i go, how much i’ve had to just intuit my way along.
in 2020 i was accepted into an exciting program at the kennedy school of business – executive leadership in state and local government. it’s a three week intensive on-campus experience and i was so looking forward to spending the time to study the things that i’ve had to just figure out on the fly. the idea of starting out with a game plan, some tools in my belt to work with, rather than just taking a leap of faith when confronted with a new organizational challenge was ex-hil-er-a-ting.
alas. COVID.
so the program was deferred to this year… and i just heard that it won’t be held in person this year either. argh. to say i’m disappointed doesn’t quite cover it.
meanwhile the challenges continue. and i’m back in the fray. i’m happy and grateful to have a job. and to have a job where i am still able to see the connection to the initial spark that caught my interest oh those many years ago. but i’m also a little surprised to find myself here. leadership isn’t so much about the doing anymore. it’s really much more about facilitating the doing. and that requires a whole different set of skills. the good news is that i find it all so interesting…
eleven bee 