Happy Friday Everyone!
I finally took my mindset immersion trip. I am least comfortable with the “Green” orientation so I participated in a local community meeting to discuss concerns about an upcoming redevelopment. It was a good one, but I couldn’t wait until
it was over.
Our MINI Cooper location is in an area that is slated for development. It’s a very busy area with lots of residents and traffic. The redevelopment is a major one with outdoor pedestrian mall, retail, residential, commercial, office, etc.
so they are holding community meetings so that the general public can come and see the plans and voice concern, speak to the developers, and the city council members. This is not the way that we are used to running a meeting or a business at Passport. In our
world, we typically meet with a few senior managers and make decisions on our own without having to involve all levels of the dealership and all employees that want to voice their opinion. If we did that we would never get anything done (which is why govt.
takes so long to do things!!) It was annoying to me and frustrating to hear the complaints of some citizens that attended and how miniscule their issues seemed. I could only imagine that the developers were chuckling on the inside, but had to let everyone
be heard and address their concern even if the response was only “We’ll look in that and get back to you” as a way to side-step and move on.
Attending this meeting did help me to better understand the green orientation even if it frustrated me a bit. I was forced to practice active listening since I was in the audience and could not hi-jack the meeting or conversation. Hoping
now that I have a better tool set to be able to communicate with these folks and give them the opportunity to be heard.
Thanks,
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Cameron Hellmuth |
