Do you have the right personality to market through social networking?

In today's economy, being smart is not enough to get you interviews, contracts and opportunities. A lot of your competitors know many of the same things -- or more -- than you do. To stand out, you have to show that you bring a distinct quality that your clients value.

Social networking can help.

Sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn make it easy to create a place on the Internet for yourself or your organization. The hardest, and most important parts of this work are in how you establish yourself online.

Determine a persona for your site. What makes you distinct, and why would someone want to connect to you? You may want to do some competitive analysis before you start. For example, if you're smart about an unusual but valuable topic such as transfer of development rights, see if anyone else is actively writing about it in a blog or a social networking site. If they are, how could you write about it differently? (Maybe you could take a different approach to the same, or you could write from a different angle. If the other writer is casual, you could be more academic, or vice-versa)

Give that persona a personality. How do you want your readers to think of you? As the smartest person in the world on a subject? As someone who just tells it "like it is?" As edgy and not afraid to be controversial? Think about who you want to be your clients, and what kind of voice they would respond to.

If the site is for a division or organization, talk with the other members of the organization about what the shared voice of the group should be. This will make it easier for different members of the organization to contribute to the site.

Communicate early and often. Figure out things to talk about to stay on the radar screen of your readers. Don't have anything to talk about this week? Check out a news site, such as Planetizen, and offer your thoughts on what you read. If the topic is interesting enough to talk about it with a colleague, it's probably interesting enough to put on the Internet. Writing can be a lot of work, so if you're not used to writing often, try posting once a month. Then do more as your schedule allows.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Tips for arguing respectfully and productively

Tips for civil disagreement

It’s unfortunate that it takes a tragedy to get so many people in the United States talking about the kind of language we use in policy and strategy arguments. Here are some tips that can help professionals engage in arguments that are more likely to be both civil and productive.


• Focus on the topic, not the person. Personal attacks rarely get the other person to change their views or behaviors. More often, they get met with other personal attacks or angry silence – neither of which helps.

• Know that the argument may be about more than the thing being argued. In a community that has been abused or ignored by previous developers, a community’s opposition to a proposed land use might be more about anger with developers than with the proposal. If an argument is generating more emotion than would seem reasonable, there’s probably more there that you need to explore.

• Do not assume you know the person’s motivation. When someone makes a personal attack, it is sometimes because that person thinks he or she knows what lies behind the other person’s objections.

• Seek to understand before seeking to be understood. Make sure you’re hearing the other person correctly. (One way is to put the person’s comments in your own language and saying something like “did I get that right?”) If you’re getting it right, but the other person isn’t, ask the person if you could clarify your remarks. (Don’t say anything like “Did you understand what I just said.” That can sound patronizing.)

• Understand the other person's logic and the reasons for their emotions. Too many professionals think that others reject their ideas because they don't understand them.  In other words, if the professional could "teach" opponents about a strategy, the opponents would agree with the planner.  The problem is sometimes the professional's education -- he or she hasn't learned enough about their audience's perspectives and mindsets.  Most reasonable people make rational decisions according to their own views of the world.

• Use a zipper strategy – find the areas of agreement and build up from there. In most communities and organizations, people want many of the same things. Talking about what they agree on can help opponents think of themselves more as collaborators than enemies, and build creative solutions that neither group thought of before.

• Acknowledge your areas of newfound agreement. You can do this formally in contracts, or informally through reminders in future conversations.

• Be confident, courageous and creative. There are times when avoiding an argument might be a good short-term strategy. But avoidance over time usually leads to frustration, and eventually more problems. Have the courage to both present your views and be willing to consider those of the other person. Be creative enough to collaborate with your opponent and see solutions that neither of you initially imagined.

• Give, and request to get, respect for your opponent's views. If you refuse to acknowledge another's views, you can not get to a point where you can understand the person.  (Hearing enough just to beat down an argument doesn't count.)  It's also important that you speak from a position of strength by asking others to understand your views.


All of the above assume that the participants are willing to listen to one another and are, for the most part, honest. Sometimes this isn’t the case. In those circumstances – and you should test your understandings to know if you’re in those circumstances – you might need to take more aggressive (but not violent) approaches. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we celebrate Monday, knew there were times when a loud demonstration worked better than a quiet conversation.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Catalytic leaders need to be seen to be heard

Leaders don't need to stand on soapboxes, ride white horses, or be at the front of the line to be effective.  Good leaders use the quiet conversation and strategic questions as much, or even more than, the "big speech."  But one thing all leaders need is to be present.  Or more specifically, to be visible to their audiences.  Technology makes it easier for even the busiest people to be more visible leaders.

Leaders succeed when they convince others about the value of a goal and persuade them to act on those beliefs. The most successful leaders inspire and motivate audiences to commit their time and resources to a mission.  But you have to practice what you preach.  If you're not seen as being committed and willing to put in the same time and energy that you ask of others, you will lose credibility quickly.

You may have big ideas, but they have to hear them from you.  You may be working hard on a project, but they have to see you working hard.  If you're seen as invisible or out of touch, audiences lose their motivation quickly.

Audiences also get distracted easily.  A lot of things call for the attention of our audiences.  The busier your audiences are, the less space they have on their internal radar screens.  The leader who pops up a few times a year to give a motivational speech probably shouldn't even bother.

For most of his career, Edward Blakely has been one of the busiest urban planners in the United States. He is one of the leading thinkers on local economic development, an active land developer, and has been an advisor to presidents of the United States and big city mayors.  Yet, when he was Dean of a graduate school at The New School, he made time to attend the staff birthday and going away parties. His being at these events was a symbolic gesture to demonstrate that Ed cared about the staff.  In universities, where staff are often seen as second-class citizens, this is important.

Being more visible is especially important when you're building or revitalizing a community around a mission.  According to the Tuckman Theory of Group Development, people in the beginning look to a strong central leader for direction and guidance.  This is the time when the leader needs to be most visible.  If it means holding monthly meetings where the leader is sitting with one or two people, so be it.  Over time, people are more likely to see the visibility as a sign of commitment and consistency, and will be more likely to be involved  (if the mission is right for them.)

What are the best ways to become more visible?

• Sometimes you need to hold more meetings.  We're told that "everybody hates meetings."  But what most people hate are the meetings that are seen as time-wasters.  A meeting to present what someone can read in a report is a time-waster.  A "team building" exercise for a group that is working well together is a time waster.  The more people can get what they want out of a meeting, the more they will enjoy it.  What do people want?  Depending on the person or the circumstance, it could be getting solutions to problems, the chance to be heard, knowledge on something that will affect their jobs or lives, or opportunities to build connections with other busy people.  If you're trying to motivate staff, have meetings where more time is spent on brainstorming than reporting.  If you're trying to motivate volunteers, have guest speakers or discussion topics in the same meetings where you talk about projects.
• Also hold events.  Even in the most casual places, meetings often have formalities and protocols that can make some people uncomfortable.  One way to get audiences to connect with one another -- a key to building social action -- is to hold events that are fun and relaxed.  Turn one of the weekly breakfast meetings into an afternoon coffee hour.  
• Connect to your audiences through email at least once a month. Free group software and commercial email marketing providers (PDI uses Constant Contact) make it easier for you to stay connected with your audiences.  You don't need to be inspiring every time.  You can write about something in the news, and how it connects to your mission.  You can give kudos to someone who has gone above and beyond.  As long as what you write connects to the mission and values of your group, feel free to be creative.
• Try social networking. Blogs and social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn aren't just for narcissists and pundits.  They are a great way for people who are separated by time and distance to connect to one another.  When it is impractical for community members to be together in person often, social networking sites can help to hold a community together.

--Leonardo  Vazquez, AICP/PP

Would you like to build your leadership skills?  Become a Leading from the Middle Fellow.  Learn more here.

The troubles with city planning? For one: long plans

In The Trouble with City Planning, former New Orleans planning director Kristina Ford challenges planners to rethink their normal practices by highlighting the failures of city planning there after Hurricane Katrina.  One of the biggest problems she sees:  plans are unclear and confusing to the people who are supposed to use them. 

The kind of complex, richly- detailed plans that would get an A in a studio course are the kinds routinely ignored by decision makers and communities we try to influence.  The #1 job of a plan is to influence how decision makers act.  If it is not used, it is by definition useless.

Many plans are just too long, take too long to speak to the readers needs, and have too many details in their text.  This makes them a chore for elected officials, developers and community decision-makers.   Plans should provide focus and direction.  When they say too much, or try to make everyone happy, they fail.   Consider the 2004 Master Plan for Maplewood Township, New Jersey.  It recommends 17 “key objectives” which should be given “equal weight.”  Some of them, such as providing affordable housing to young families and promoting housing that would not have an impact on the school system, are practically impossible to achieve at the same time.  Some objectives are specific – such as promoting the town’s cultural center – while others are just vague aspirations – such as “preserve and enhance the general sense of community.”  Oh, and you don’t even get to these goals until page 15.  

Plans that proved to be more effective was the Comprehensive Community Revitalization Program (CCRP) Plans for the South Bronx in the early 1990s.  These neighborhood plans helped to generate millions of dollars in new investment and accelerate slow-going revitalization efforts.  Today, the South Bronx is facing an issue that was too many unthinkable 20 years ago – gentrification.

By the way, the CCRP plans were written by the same firm that did the Maplewood Master Plan.  I couldn't find an publicly-available online copy of the CCRP plans, but you can read about the plans' impacts.

CCRP lasted two years and each of the plans were short – around 30 to 40 pages.  They were written in plain English, and had a few simple statistics and intentionally cartoonish diagrams.  If they were submitted for a planning studio course today, they probably would have gotten a failing grade.  But they were read and used by the community development corporations in those neighborhoods. (I worked for one of them).  The CCRP plans provided clear guidelines for community leaders and developers to follow.

To be fair, it was the process, rather than the documents themselves, that generated enthusiasm among decision-makers.  But that’s true of every planning process.  What was different about the CCRP plans is that they provided clear guidance to leaders – and could more easily be shared with potential partners, funders and investors.

Another effective plan, by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, helped to further the city’s growth as an arts and cultural heritage tourism destination.  Extending the Vision for South Broad Street branded this place as an “avenue of the arts.”  Today, South Broad is developing into a district for high-end performing and visual arts.

The plan, which by design looks and reads more like a coffee-table book than a policy document, was quietly criticized by some professionals – especially engineers – as not being serious enough.   But it worked.

It’s not just an issue of length.  Sometimes plans have to be long, especially if they might be subject to legal scrutiny because they advocate eminent domain or strategies that might reduce property values in an area.  But the best plans – such as the CCRP or Broad Street plans – make their points quickly and clearly, and use just enough statistical information and graphics to strengthen their points.  

Long plans by their nature are intimidating. Ford talks about a string of long plans for New Orleans, including the Unified New Orleans Plan that would run to 2,000 pages.  As much as I enjoy reading plans, I would want to be paid to look at something that immense.  You can imagine how the stressed and overworked decision-maker would look at such a document.

So how to make a plan that both your elected officials would want to read and the wonky naysayers would find credible?  Split the plan into at least two parts. 

The first part contains the executive summary, a statement of goals (please, no more than 10), a set of strategies to reach the goals, just enough detail to indicate why the goals and strategies are important and reasonable, and images that can illustrate ideas more efficiently than can be done in print.   Think of the busiest person you know, and write this part of the plan for that person.  If you go over 50 pages, go back and see what you can cut.

The rest of the plan can be appendix items with as much detail and statistics as you’d like.  Nobody other than a researcher, lawyer or critic is going to read this part.  So, make sure your facts are straight and don’t sweat the writing.

But always remember: the ability of the plan to influence decision-makers depends more on the planner’s powers of persuasion than the ideas in the plan.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

The Professional Development Institute and The Leading Institute offer several courses to help planners become more convincing and persuasive.  These include Professional’s Writing Studio, a Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program Deep Learning course, and Leading from the Middle, a leadership development program for placebuilders.

Speaking up for community planning at libraries and recreation centers

Two of the most common venues for holding community meetings are in town halls (or their equivalent in cities and boroughs) or large rooms provided by Town hall rooms and the open rooms of large religious institutions.  But these may not be the best places to get people engaged.

Where you have a community meeting is critical.  You want it to be in a place that's convenient and where the audiences will feel welcome and comfortable.  If you work in a community where there's widespread distrust of government  (or the community is divided along political lines), some audience members might be tense when they go into the room.  (This is especially true if a lot of your audience members go to Town Hall only to pay taxes or fines, or to complain about the government.)

Having a meeting at a religious institution has a lot of benefits. The environment encourages people to be more respectful of one another.  If community stakeholders are members of the institution, they will likely feel more comfortable there than in town halls. But people who are members of different faiths may not feel as comfortable or as welcome there.

In many communities, there are other neutral locations:

• For small group meetings, consider using the local library.  More and more, libraries are reinventing themselves as community service centers.  Besides circulating books, many libraries offer computers with Internet access (which many people need just to apply for jobs), and provide space for other information services.   
• Check out a local recreation center for larger group meetings.  These centers are often designed with large spaces for sports activities.  It's often easy to add tables and chairs.
• Local schools often have classrooms for small group sessions, large rooms for interactive sessions, and auditoriums for presentations. 
• If your budget can handle it, try using space in a local restaurant or catering hall. Because people often associate these spaces with happy events, the location can help put participants more at ease.

In any case, always check to make sure the places you consider are not controversial in the community.  (It's best to check local blogs or discussion boards, or ask neutral sources.)  If a seemingly neutral location is known to be dominated by a faction in the community that is in conflict with another, try to find a difference space.

For community outreach, where you say it can be as important as how you say it.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Talking points for connecting the arts and sustainability

Two big trends in urban placebuilding today are arts-based planning and sustainability.  Here are some talking points to help leaders and community understand how they connect.

But first, let’s get on the same page: “The arts” and “sustainability” are two of the most vague concepts in placebuilding. If your audience thinks the arts are just a bunch of weird stuff that only rich people enjoy, or that sustainability is about protecting every blade of grass, you’re not going to have much luck trying to promote either idea.

—  The arts are all activities related to the creation, distribution or consumption of products or experiences that are valued for their aesthetic qualities.  In other words, if someone is willing to pay more for some object or experience because of how it looks or makes them feel, that “thing” is some form of art.  That means that the opera and the classic car show are both artistic experiences.

—  Sustainability is a set of practices by people or groups designed to promote the long-term sharing of resources with future generations.  This includes reducing demands on the environment, promoting economic opportunity, and increasing social equity.  (Remember the 3 E’s of sustainability: Environment, economy and equity.)  If you run into a deep ecologist just wants to focus on environmental protection, let them know people decide whether to go or stay green.  If you don’t take care of people and you don’t enhance quality of life, they’re not going to be too worried about protecting trees.

(Presentation tip: Show a pie chart or triangle to show the relationships among the 3 E’s.)

How the arts (and artists) can contribute to local economies

—  The arts attract wealth (arts patrons, visitors, theater-goers, etc.). Wealth attracts businesses;  businesses attract more wealth, and so on and so on in a virtuous circle. (Presentation tip: Show a flow chart or one of those diagrams with the big arrows running in a circle.)

—  The arts help to diversify the business and employment mix.

—  Artists contribute their skills to many businesses outside the arts.

—  More of the money spent in arts establishments is likely to stay in the local economy, compared to the money spent in chain stores, franchises and the Internet.  (For more on this, read Ann Markusen’s work on the artistic dividend.)

—  The arts are part of place-based experience economies, so artists tend to be involved with local economic revitalization efforts.

—  Creativity is critical to industries that rely on innovation, such as biotechnology and other knowledge economy businesses.

How the arts (and artists) can contribute to the environment

(Note: Art tends to be neutral regarding the environment, but artists have a long history of being connected to the natural world.)

—  Visual artists, such as landscape painters, draw inspiration from local environments.

—  Artists are more likely to be involved in preservation efforts.

—  Artists are more likely to reclaim abandoned and blighted spaces, reducing construction waste.

—  More architects and urban designers are promoting “green” building and design.

—  Visual artists, such as landscape painters, draw inspiration from local environments.

—  Artists are more likely to be involved in preservation efforts.

—  Artists are more likely to reclaim abandoned and blighted spaces, reducing construction waste.

—  More architects and urban designers are promoting “green” building and design.

(Presentation tip: Use an image that shows artists working with children in a ‘green’ project.)

How the arts (and artists) contribute to equity

—  Art provides a safe and inviting bridge for people to learn about other cultures.

—  Art gives people who feel discriminated against a productive way to express themselves.

—  Artists are often involved in revitalization efforts in their communities.

—  The arts can provide job opportunities to people without advanced degrees.  (Ok, it’s probably not a lot of jobs, but it helps.)

How communities can better connect the arts and sustainability

—  Bring arts and sustainability leaders together.

—  Identify current and potential connections between the arts and sustainability initiatives.

—  Create a local cultural plan with a sustainability focus. Try to get it attached to the community’s master plan.

—  Work on short-term and highly visible projects to highlight the connections.

—  Develop a leadership group committed to promoting the arts and sustainability.  Build the group to include all parts of the community.

—  Try more. Learn from your mistakes. Create new solutions. Update your plan. Build more leaders.  Repeat.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP 

Rutgers University's Arts Build Communities provides research, continuing education and technical assistance in the arts and community and economic development.  Learn more...

Using focus groups in placebuilding

Having a large number of huge public forums seems like the ideal way to get good input for making places better.  But there are a number of reasons why this strategy often doesn't work:

• You probably don't have the budget to do all of the public meetings you want to.
• In communities where there's a lot of tension between residents, or there are ethnic or cultural groups whose members don't often go to public meetings, the people who show up usually don't represent the diversity of the place.
• The 'town hall' model is biased towards people who are comfortable speaking up in public, or have the courage to say things that others might not want to hear.  So the people who talk don't often reflect the diversity of views in the place.
• The Q & A format in a limited time frame forces people to compete for time, which biases the format to the most strong-willed in the group.  People are so focused on what they want to say that they are less likely to listen to others.
• News videos of town hall meetings usually focus on people yelling, arguing, or saying unreasonable things. This doesn't make public meetings feel welcoming to thoughtful people.

Photo credit: Creative Commons

Focus groups can help address some of these problems.  This kind of public participation technique is designed to help get richer information than you can get through a survey or town hall meeting and leads to participants listening to and learning from one another.

Focus groups are moderated meetings of usually no more than 20 people selected to represent the diversity within a community.

While businesses often use focus groups to test products with potential consumers, focus groups for placebuilding often play a different role.  They are used both to get rich information and to create opportunities for members of competing or conflicting groups to listen and learn from one another. 

Focus group participants usually sit around a conference table, a U-shaped set of tables, or a circle of chairs.  Unlike in town hall meetings, where participants talk at decision makers (usually sequestered behind tables), in focus groups, participants often talk to facilitators and in relation to others in the room.

Focus groups typically run about an hour to an hour-and-a-half.  During that time, the facilitator (who is often a planner or specialist in group skills) asks a series of questions.  The questions should be "deep"; that is, they should be designed to encourage thoughtful conversation among participants.  ('Why' questions are usually deeper than 'what' and 'when' questions.)  Usually, there is time for no more than five or six deep questions because the participants will respond at length to the question and sometimes to one another.  Or the facilitator may want to follow an interesting line of conversation and ask several follow-up questions.

Focus groups have the potential of eliciting rich information that participants might not be willing to share in a survey or a public meeting (at a lower cost than conducting individual interviews.)  They also help competing interests understand each others' views by putting them in environments that allow them to be more open to different ideas.  (When you are representing an interest group's viewpoint in a public meeting, you risk losing credibility with your members if you appear to be too conciliatory.)

The keys to making these focus groups work best are:

• Create a list of participants that is bigger than what you can have at the table and:
• Select participants who can reflect and represent the diversity of the place.  This often means selecting participants who are involved in at least one organization or initiative within the place.  Former leaders of groups are especially good to have at the table because they may speak more freely than a current leader or director.
• Select participants who are known to be good listeners.  This can be hard to do on your own.  Ask your contacts in the place about who is known for being fair, approachable or having other traits associated with listening well. 
• Have a facilitator who is skilled at working with small groups and will:
• Be knowledgeable enough about the placebuilding project to know which questions are critical and which can be dropped when an unexpected but more important issue comes up.
• Work to ensure that everyone has fair opportunities to speak.  This does not mean that everyone will speak an equal amount of time.  Some people are more comfortable listening, then presenting their ideas at the end.  Pushing them to speak up earlier and more often may make them feel uncomfortable.
• Be able to manage tension -- defusing it when it inhibits thoughtful conversation, aggravating it to challenge participants to be more thoughtful.
• Start on time, end a few minutes early, and have refreshments.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP 

The Leading Institute and the Professional Development Institute offer several classes a year on strategic communications, public participation and other issues in placebuilding.  Learn more or find out about upcoming courses.

Want to be a more trusted advisor? Just answer the question...

Here is a true story of how an economic development expert lost an opportunity to do a great project:

A public agency asked a planning consultant about creating an economic impact study.  The consultant contacted the economic development expert to invite thim to be on the team. Let's call the planner Steve and the expert  L.K. Nove (all names are changed.)

Steve, busy on a number of projects, asks Nove how much it would cost to do an economic impact study for the public agency.
$20,000 to $120,000 was L.K.'s quick answer.

"OK, I didn't give him enough information to give me a better range," Steve thought.  So Steve asked Nove what the client could get for $20,000, $60,000 and $120,000.

Nove responded with a long, rambling email saying, in effect: You don't get much for $20,000, you get some good information for $120,000, and sometimes these studies are even more expensive. He said nothing about what tasks he might perform. 

Steve thanked L.K. for his time and decided that he would never ask him to do any work again.  Nor would he ever recommend L.K. for any project -- despite the fact that L.K. was a known expert.  And if somebody asked him about L.K., he would have no comment, a signal that many people in the private sector understand.

When busy people or clients have questions, they are going to rely on those advisors who can give them clear answers.   Steve indirectly asked L.K. what tasks he might perform for specific dollar amounts.  Rather than answering that question, L.K. gave an unasked-for interpretation.  This just made Steve frustrated and angry.  It also made Steve wonder, "If L.K. can't answer my questions, how can I trust him to answer my client's questions?"

You might say that Steve should have been clearer in his request.  But it is the job of the advisor to understand not just what the client says, but what the client means.

Client competency skills are not just nice to have.  In the Internet age, where professionals in our field know most of the same things as their competitors (or could find out easily), your success depends more on your emotional intelligence than on your technical expertise. 

Some clients know exactly what they want and need, and can make themselves clear to their advisors. (Often, these clients don't need consultants; they need an extra pair of hands.)

Many clients know they face conditions they want to manage more effectively, or change.  These clients usually have some ideas about how to address the issue, and so they ask advisors if they can do X, Y, or Z.  But often, what they really want to know is: "Can you figure out the best way to reach my goals?  Can I entrust you with this responsibility?"

In other words, a client's question about tasks is clear, but the client's question about goals is present, but unstated.  A good advisor works to understand both the clients wants (stated questions) and interests (unstated questions).  To do that, the advisor needs to ask questions of the client to better understand the unstated concerns or interests.

Considering this, L.K. should have:

1. Made it clear what tasks he would perform (answer the stated question)
2. Asked Steve what was his understanding of the client's wants and interests.
3. Explained how the quality of the analysis would improve if the client were to spend more.

Why didn't L.K. do that?

It could have been arrogance.  L.K. is recognized as an expert on economic impact and he might have felt this his opinions were as valuable as his facts.

It might have been that L.K. didn't know enough to answer Steve's question.  But because he felt he had to give an answer, he talked around the question.

Or it could be that, like many professionals in planning, development or public design, L.K. has more training and experience in speaking ('profess'-ing) than in listening.

We don't know.  But we do know that L.K. lost at least one potential client, and all the others that Steve will work with in the future.

-- Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Learning opportunities:

The Leading Institute's Leading from the Middle program can help you be a more influential advisor.  It is designed for urban planners, community and economic development professionals, and others who need to influence, but don't have the ability to coerce others, or would rather persuade than demand.

For more on understanding clients better:

Flawless Consulting and The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook, by Peter Block

SPIN Selling and The SPIN Selling Fieldbook, by Neil Rackham

Emotional Intelligence, and related books, by Daniel Goleman

Developing high quality verbal images

Verbal images -- examples, metaphors, analogies and stories -- help audiences better understand complex matters and feel more comfortable about change.  Here's how to make them work better for your goals:

*Use verbal images that your audiences will easily understand.  What sounds better to you? "Trapped between Scylla and Charybidis" or "Caught between a rock and hard place."  They say the same thing.

*Be aware of your audience's emotional response to the verbal image.  A New York City-base planner was working on a .development plan for a suburban Long Island town.  In his initial presentation, he used examples of good planning from the New York City borough of Brooklyn.  Bad mistake.  A number of the town's residents moved out of places like Brooklyn.  You can imagine what they thought of a planner who they thought was trying to bring Brooklyn into their town.

*Use imagery that elicits strong, but not extreme, emotions.  I was talking with a planner in Montana about how I could both support the concept of the American Institute of Certified Planners' Certification Maintenance program while opposing its design.  I said "you can support economic development, but that is not a blanket endorsement of eminent domain."  I picked this image because of the strong emotions elicited by the words "eminent domain" (especially in Western states).  The planner said that analogy helped him see the issue in a new light.

*Use images that connect to what concerns your audiences.  Parents are concerned about the safety of their children.  If you're trying to promote the development of sidewalks, you would have more success getting audiences to envision the dangers to children walking on streets.

*Unless you feel there is no better image, avoid images that elicit extreme emotional responses.  Words like "steal," "rape," "Nazi," "Hitler," are more likely to cause your audience to roll their eyes than raise their eyebrows.

*Use images of experiences that you might have in common with your audiences.  No matter how different we are, we all have experiences of growing up, being nervous, shopping, having friends.  These kinds of images will help you connect with your audience.

*Stories -- also known as visions, scenarios or simulations -- are excellent tools for helping audiences feel comfortable about pursuing change.  They help audiences understand and visualize complex and abstract information.  My favorite stories make the audience members the main characters in the world that the plan envisions.  ("Imagine you are walking down _________.  You see _______.  You hear _____."

-- Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Learn more:

Become a more effective communicator through Professional's Writing Studio.  This Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program course runs from March 10 to April 17, 2010.  (Missed this course?  Get updates on this and other courses.  Go to the Professional Development Institute website to sign up for updates. 

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When a fence is more than a fence

Someone in my hometown, a leafy, liberal New Jersey suburb, put up a fence. It's a nice fence: Americana white pickets that curve gently, rising from two feet high to a little more than four feet where they meet the solid fenceposts. It stands at the property lines of a beautiful Victorian-style house. I went to a zoning board meeting to have it removed.

My problem was not the fence itself. It was the symbolic communication of the fence. Several years ago, my town required in its zoning ordinance that front-yard fences be no more than two feet high and placed no closer to the street than the building setback line. (The setback line is the marker that tells you how close your building can be to the street or your neighbors' property.) The purpose was also symbolic: to let residents and visitors know that the town is safe and welcoming. Fences send a different message: This is my property. Stay away.

Another reason: The fence was built illegally. The property owner's representative said his client was given permission by the local building official to put up the fence, but offered no proof. If the zoning board allowed the property owner to keep the fence, the board would implicitly be sending the message that it's better in our town to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. Obsessing over rules and regulations may be unwise and unhealthy -- except to lawyers -- but sometimes you risk compounding a mistake by letting it go.
In his application to the zoning board, the applicant said that the fence was for safety and privacy. But this didn't make much sense. Neighbors said there were never any problems with intruders walking on the property. (A two-foot fence is not going to deter anyone anyway.) The fence has large gaps where you would expect gates to be, as well as gaps between fence posts and trees on the property. So it seems that the fence is meant to say: This is my property. Stay away.

After objections to the fence by several neighbors, the zoning board denied the applicant's request.

This story is not really about a fence. It is about the strength of objects in our built environment to be symbols. Symbols are physical objects (like fences) or conceptual objects (like logos) that convey information about the values, beliefs, customs, etc. of a place or organization.

Symbols are powerful because they give us a shorthand way of processing information about complex systems. We use symbolic communication every day in our gestures and rituals, and often convey symbolic stature on the objects in our offices and communities.

Imagine that your office is ordering new chairs. Everyone gets the same type of chair, except for the office director. Now the chairs aren't just furniture. They're symbols of the difference in status between the office director and everyone else.

Of all the land use disciplines, urban design and place marketing are most focused on symbolic communication. Too many people make the mistake of thinking that streetscaping, historic preservation and other urban design issues are just "decoration" and luxuries. These people tend to think that market forces will ensure quality design, or that no one should be told "what to do" with their property. This is an expensive mistake. People would rather go and live where they can make sense of place; in other words, where the symbols provide clearer communication.

Of course, urban design can be used as a tool for excluding people or trying to control social behavior.  That is why in an increasingly diverse world, we have to be more mindful of the symbols, and the people who determine the rules about them, in our communities.  Take a look at your community's historic preservation, zoning, and design review boards.  How much diversity do you see there?

So there has to be a balance between the community's desire to provide some sense of order and individuals' desires to express themselves and feel they have a stake in the community. In this case, the fence sent a message that was wholly inconsistent with the community's intended messages of openness and friendliness. That's why no matter how nice the fence was, it was in the wrong place for the wrong reasons. If you find yourself on an architectural review board that is deciding what colors should be allowed on residential properties, please do more than look at what colors you like. Think about who likes those colors and what they symbolize about the community.

   

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

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