Robertson Work has over five decades of professional experience promoting sustainable human development in over fifty countries as UNDP principal policy advisor for decentralized and local governance, NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service professor of innovative leadership, and Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA).
This Week I Learned
- I was reminded of how something as simple as driving can change so radically when doing it in a different culture. However, there are always signals (even if not turn signals!) that are available for quick adaptation to the new environment, and being in a constant state of sending and receiving signals is a trust-building mechanism. To learn more about this, check out these fascinating studies:
- The Making of Driving Cultures, a study by The University of Iowa
- The Role of Values in Road Safety Culture, a multi-author study
- Recently, Google killed Stadia, a gaming platform, almost overnight which means millions of gamers will lose access to their games and the work they’ve put into them including two players who will lose over 6000 hours of time building a character in the popular game Red Dead Redemption.
- That’s 250 days invested into this platform and the person will be left with nothing and is another example of what happens when organizations create a silo for a product or community while maintaining full control.
- This is why I am a huge fan of the open-source approach. Open source gives people the confidence that their hard work won’t be taken away from them for reasons outside of their control and ensures full ownership of a person’s work.
- Finally, a quote from Kent Beck, a software developer, “First make the change easy, then make the easy change.”
Episode Recap
Robertson shared his methods for community building that focused on Human Development, hosting workshops to help people think of their future, obstacles that could arise, and creating strategies to achieve their goals. He also helped communities create Action Plans and organize into Task Forces.
With the United Nations, Robertson helped communities around the world by bringing people together from local areas, non profits, government agencies, and more to create programs and projects for building a LIFE (Local Initiative Facility for Urban Environments) Program in their area. In this role Robertson also advised national governments for planning, leadership, service delivery, and resource mobilization.
Robertson shares his most important insight at the end which is seven key things:
- The full participation of residents at every stage
- Facilitation and participatory workshops
- … with the others coming in Part 2!
We identified the primary actors of government, private sector, and civil society working in collaboration. That’s the key to good governance – when these actors listen to each other, learn from each other, support each other, and care for the people and environment.
Robertson Work
Guest Bio
Robertson Work is an ecosystem/justice activist based in the Swannanoa watershed in western North Carolina and the author of five nonfiction books. He has over five decades of professional experience promoting sustainable human development in over fifty countries as UNDP principal policy advisor for decentralized and local governance, NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service professor of innovative leadership, and Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) country and regional director conducting community, organizational, and leadership development initiatives.
He can be reached at robertsonwork100@gmail.com. His books are available here and elsewhere: https://www.amazon.com/Robertson-Work/e/B075612GBF
