Sounding for Real Transformation: Our Board
By end of May, RISE Cities have set up its Souring Board, a group of experts and representatives of diverse sectors that was formed to support the development of the program and its activities focusing on engaging the collective intelligence of the civic, business, university, political, and public administration towards systemic change.
By BY RISE CITIES AND CHARLES LANDRY MON JUL 05 2021
Wed Jul 07 2021
Where do you start? Two key words are significant: Slow and long. Whatever is done will take time and needs a paced and purposeful approach – in short incrementalism with intent. Furthermore, any strategy would need to try to solve one problem without causing another.
Labs, at their best, as interdisciplinary, neutral parts of a city work are valuable. They work when they go with the grain of what is already happening in a city and reinforce that momentum so seeking to add value. Key is identifying simple achievable (not simplistic) projects that are catalytic and leverage more potential – good ideas are those that can spread virally. The RISE Cities Lab proposes a 6-month intervention – how does that then relate to the point about the long term and staying with the project? Perhaps if it can help catalyze further resources that may be an answer.
The RISE Cities concept can be strong and there could be various options to generating impact. A thought experiment: Can we conceive of lighter touch interventions in several cities, might not using the word lab but using some of its features. Participants might become involved via a call with those selected already showing commitment. This shifts the focus to creating more of a movement or in other words is putting all your eggs in one basket a good idea?
On the effectiveness of labs the Danish Design Centre is about to launch a report Deep Dive based on research in several places on how labs might become a more stable infrastructure and can be effective in addressing issues like ‘overlabbing’. The CEO Christian Bason is very good and might be useful talking to.
Finally, in reviewing how the BMW Foundation can achieve impact has it explored what other philanthropies have done or are doing? For example, the Rockefeller 100 Resilient Cities Network, which funded Chief Resilience Officers or Bloomberg Philanthropies support to mayors or the Bernard Van Leer Foundation’s long term work with children in cities.
Perhaps worth exploring is extending what it already does - thus the idea of a BMW Foundation leadership program for cities, that has the aim to achieve practical results and whereby leadership is seen here as also community driven initiatives.
Click on People to know more about the seven members of the RISE Cities Sounding board.