Empowerment, One Step at a Time

Let's revisit Empowerment as an ingredient for success in downtown revitalization.

Our study group wrestled with a huge number of marketing and economic development issues before crumbling under their weight. Most group members are city merchants or employees and have priorities in their lives and heavy demands on their time. Without an infrastructure, or a "bigger picture" we were unable to define a common meaningful task for ourselves. My sense is that without the empowerment of understanding where everyone else (the City, the Chamber, the downtown organization, the residents) wants to go, the risk of spending time on the "wrong" task is too high for most.

Our resolution was to encourage subgroups or individuals who feel strongly about a task to execute it. The time the group has spent looking at issues and prioritizing them may be enough foundation to allow successful accomplishment of some projects. And that may buy time for the bigger picture to come into focus. But it is a shame to lose the synergy of the group's total power.

On the other hand, maybe there have to be certain foundations in place before an infrastructure can be built. The City has begun revising their web site, all to the good so far. Exciting advances in terms of customer interface seem tantalizingly near.  The committee studying a Downtown Improvement District is wending their way through the process, and has obtained excellent information from both customer and merchant segments. Other intermediate, almost clerical tasks, such as documenting the processes of Managing an Event, Starting A Business, or setting up Business Classes are essential to empower people. Big change cannot happen without more community members involved, and there need to be guidelines to make the involvement simple and successful.

So, indeed, it seems that our journey of a thousand miles begins with a few self-motivated steps. And maybe the footprints of those steps will lead others to empowerment.

What do you think?