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Making Planners Human |
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K.K. Gerhart-Fritz
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Planners (particularly those in the public sector) are often perceived by the public to be heartless and soulless bureaucrats, who aren't very well liked. This upbeat paper provides tips on how planners can "humanize" themselves, and become more accepted in their community. This paper contains brief stories of how a real-life planner has taken action to make herself more liked in her community, which also raised her personal self-esteem. As a bonus, becoming more likable led to more trust between the planner and the public, leading to increased support of the planning department.
I admit to being one of those cock-eyed optimists who likes people, and who people always seemed to like. Imagine the surprise I experienced at my first job when this planner learned that the local planning department ranked alongside the license branch as the most dreaded agency in town. By association with our job, all of us planners were automatically viewed as piranhas. No one in town liked us, and as the newest kid in town, looking to make a few friends, I was really distressed. My self-esteem started to take a nose-dive, and I had to get out my "Miss Congeniality" trophies from the closet to remind myself that someone, somewhere once liked me.
It took me a couple of job moves before I finally came up with a winning strategy for humanizing myself. By the time I figured it out, I really had become more machine-like, and I needed to put some effort into my planning make-over. I'd like to share some of the steps that helped me shed my public sector "bureaucrat" image, and explain how that helped my personal and professional well-being.
Build a broader base of contacts, and share your special skills to benefit your town. I enjoyed my volunteer work. It made me feel like I was making a positive difference in people's lives, something we occasionally doubted within the walls of the planning department. For example, I helped a local non-profit resource and referral agency develop their first strategic plan. I did find that I needed to vary my volunteer efforts to also include non-planning related things. My most rewarding experience was not a board presidency, but as a "big sis" in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program. Volunteerism is a good way for planners to fulfill that goal we had early in our careers - "Make the world a better place."
Admit it, by the end of a multi-day planning conference, aren't you ready to go home and think about something besides planning? The same should be true of a day at the planning office. I once had a planner friend who actually was part-owner of a bar - now that was a potentially dangerous combination. It got to be pretty tempting to have a beer with my co-workers every Friday night after work to moan about our sorry treatment. I had to reduce my visits to the "planner bar" in order to change my perspective (of course, I still made it to the bar for the Neil Diamond impersonator night, but that's another story). I cared about my co-workers, but we weren't doing each other any good by having these moanfests. I still believe it is important to socialize and befriend your co-workers, after all you spend more waking time with them then anyone else. There is no substitute for bonding experiences outside the office, just try to steer the conversation away from work.
We all need to talk a little about our workday, but we have to be careful not to dwell on it too much, and having others around with the same experience can do just that. Not that you can't still have buddies who are planners - heck, I'm married to another planner. I obviously hang around with him, but we've had to develop some ground rules over the course of our marriage about what we can talk about and for how long. Of course, I'm the first to admit that when you are having a particularly tough day, it helps to have a planner friend (or spouse) who understands exactly what you are going through.
So, I've put more effort into seeking and maintaining friendships outside of the office with people who aren't planners (remember those contacts made with other volunteers).
Being a planner can be pretty darn stressful. I mean, you've got the next generation depending on you to save the world (or at least part of it). This planner engages in positive activities such as exercise or Bible Study for renewal. Lunch-time step aerobics class especially helps me let go of my frustrations when I "feel the burn".
After getting away from my desk, I feel more energized. I admit that as a working Mom, the lunch hour is sometimes my only opportunity to put in some needed overtime on a project. My track record is about 50% on this get up from your desk suggestion, but consider it one of those "Do as I say, not as I do" things you heard about from your parents. You know what, once I get back to my desk, I usually have a fresh idea about how to tackle something.
With stress, prevention is often the best cure. Try to think about what types of situations are stressful to you, and avoid them when possible. If you can't avoid them, be prepared to deal with them. Endless long hours create the most stress for this planner, and when I'm stressed I become more accident-prone - I imagine the worker's comp people could confirm that trend. Anyway, most of us make more mistakes when we are feeling frazzled; we get careless. In the planning profession, that carelessness can have huge ramifications. I remember one instance when an over-wrought co-worker forgot to do all the steps with the public notice, and a huge, non-controversial case had to be continued, costing the developer time and money, and wrecking havoc with the planning department's reputation. Whatever your own personal way of dealing with stress is, take charge of it before it takes charge of you. True, as humans we have emotions, but we shouldn't wear them on our sleeve. Our public can sense when we are tense and frazzled, and they don't like to be around us.
It is okay to smile and have a sense of humor. The basic fact is that people will put up with you when you are a machine, but they won't like you. Please understand, I'm not advocating that you waste lots of work time telling jokes to the neighborhood representative who is trying to research a zoning proposal, but I am saying remember your manners.
As a parent, I've spent a lot of time trying to teach my daughters the Golden Rule, and I think it applies here, too - treat others the way you would want to be treated. This includes learning to say no to someone in a positive way. Over the years I've met planners who actually enjoy telling people "No". That scares me. It also goes a long way in explaining why a department can get a bad reputation. Remain human enough to sympathize or empathize with the applicant's problem. Next time you get called away from an important project to go up to the front counter to talk to an angry citizen, take a deep breath (out of their view and earshot), take the frown off your face, and walk up ready to listen.
To err is human. Machines supposedly don't make mistakes, but human planners do. Learn to admit your errors and accept criticism graciously. As I told one of my former co-workers who questioned me about the wisdom of this practice, I'm not advocating that we wear Hair Shirts and become a profession of sobbing sad sacks, begging forgiveness for every over-optimistic population projection. I am suggesting that we could be a little more gracious about what we do when we realize a mistake has been made. An apology is always in order - and even if it is not received well, you will feel better knowing you have done the right thing. Even if the mistake is not yours, you can still offer an apology. As a supervisor, I tried to make it a practice to apologize to the client when one of the my charges made a mistake. I have never believed in the sacrificial lamb approach, particularly in the public forum. It was important to make sure that the planner knew what had been done wrong, but don't beat them to death with their mistake. It wasn't always the fun thing to do, but I gained some measure of respect for our department when I extended an apology. I also found that when you apologize to someone, they are also less likely to remain angry as they run down the hall to see the Mayor.
In addition to apologizing, we need to take every opportunity to learn from our mistakes. Believe me, this planner has learned a lot over the years - and I am still learning.
Look between the lines in the rule book. Someone forgot to tell me that piece of advice in my first job, and I didn't recognize initially that real-life isn't all black and white, the way it is in school. As a result, I made some enemies with my interpretations. Most of us start out our careers being way too rigid about things, because we are nervous and inexperienced. If we are lucky, we get a good mentor and learn to see the gray along the way. If not, we can become one of those planners I described who ends up liking to say "no".
As a planner, it isn't appropriate for you to break the rules (leave that to the City Council). But you can look for other options or creative solutions to problems. If one of the rules is wrong, you can also suggest changing it.
We planners have a tough and usually thankless job, and we have every opportunity to become heartless and soulless bureaucrats as we plug along at it. When this starts to happen, it is hard to break the downward cycle. If you are feeling inhuman, try some of these tips. If you don't see results in a few months, it may be necessary to consider a change in jobs. While this last suggestion sounds drastic, you may need to make a fresh start to regain your self-esteem. There are some planning agencies out there who deserve their bad reputation, and you may not be able to change that on your own. Keep you chin up and put a smile on your face. You're a person, not a machine after all.
K.K. Gerhart-Fritz, Planner / Project Manager
HNTB Corporation, Indianapolis