PLANNING HORIZONS

“Cities are beautiful because they are created slowly; they are made by time. A city is born from a tangle of monuments and infrastructures, culture and market, national history and everyday stories. It takes 500 years to create a city, 50 to create a neighborhood.” 
-Renzo Piano, Italian Architect
It is hard to tell if the changes we’re currently living through are minor or major, whether they will be noted in the headlines of history or a simple footnote. That is out of our control. What is in our control is what we do in our time of leadership.

There are objectives that can be acted upon immediately and make a difference in months or a few short years. There are others that require a longer view, an expansive planning horizon, and discipline to serve future generations and sacrifice short-term gains. As the above quote states, cities and communities aren’t built overnight or even in decades, but over centuries.

As we make our immediate plans for the future, build our strategies, and detail our actionable tactics, let us pause to ask what impact each will have 100 years from now, if at all. Let’s challenge ourselves to take the steps that will be remembered, that will endure, and be remembered positively by future generations.

Let’s have a great week, lift each other up, and move forward together.