Planning on the margins

Image via

In my opinion one of the best traits any planner can have is the ability to understand people from all walks of life and really see, sense and feel things from their point of view. And when I say understand I don't just mean being able to describe their TGI definition. You need to have a real empathy and respect for them, irrespective of your preconceptions or what the data might tell you. It is always possible to find something endearing in any audience if you look hard and objectively enough.

Ironically our industry, despite employing interesting people, are generally from the same margin of society. And for people supposedly so open minded it's surprising how easily judgments are made. I'm blogging about this because of a free project we are working on for a local drugs working group that highlighted a really interesting transition in people's attitudes and behaviours towards an audience having spent time with them.

Under our guidance we have given this brief to all our junior members of the agency to answer. After giving them an outline brief there was the usual snap judgements about the lives and motivations of drug users and addicts. It was all very middle class and quite disappointing frankly. So in order to get them over this, open their minds and put them in a slightly uncomfortable position we set up a series of groups consisting of ex-addicts, drug workers and counsellors. It was up to the guys to ask some questions and get some real insight into the lives of drug users. After an uncomfortable start they began probing and developing some interesting relationships. I'd go as far as saying friendships. So good in fact they even went out for some drinks with them afterwards to probably ask more 'informal' questions.

By the end of the session there was a complete turnaround in how they viewed a group of people who are arguably in a completely different part of society, with vastly different life experiences. Not only did they have a real empathy for them, they developed a real enthusiasm for the cause. Well done guys, I can't wait to see the work.