Lessons from the City of Calgary.
Since 2020, Creative Futures has been working with the City of Calgary on a number of projects, with a number of different teams.
We helped the Resilience and Infrastructure team create a strategic foresight toolkit, which includes Future-Focused Calgary 2035 scenarios.
We helped the Smart Calgary team identify their strategic focus areas for their strategy and action plan using the Three Horizon Framework.
We worked with a cross-corporate team to explore the potential futures of remote work for Calgary, and identify a preferred hybrid work model for city staff.
And most recently, we worked with the Facility Management team to help ensure their upcoming Corporate Facility Portfolio Plan anticipates a range of disruptions on the horizon.
Thinking back on this work, there are a few key lessons we’ve learned:
City of Calgary employees are smart, dedicated, and exactly who you wish you had on your team. Time and time again we’ve been incredibly impressed by the insight, commitment and passion for public service demonstrated by the teams we’ve worked with.
Innovation in cities is thriving but people have to work extra hard to make it happen. You hear about it all the time - how large institutions make it near impossible to innovate. Regardless, we witnessed innovators being patient and slowly making it happen. It’s incredibly inspiring.
Never say it’s cold outside. As a virtual team that is (typically) Toronto-based, no matter how cold we may be, it’s probably colder in Alberta. Best to kick-off conversations with something a little more riveting than the weather anyway…
Bring data, but also compelling narratives. Good foresight is always data-driven. However, different mindsets need data in different ways. In an organization full of exceptional economists, planners, policy analysts, community organizers, and more, it is critical that information be conveyed in a variety of formats.
Make it fun, make it light(er). For all cities, including Calgary, there are a range of possible futures that are not very optimistic. Exploring these challenging possibilities during a global pandemic, while budgets are severely constrained, and departments are completely reorganized is not for the faint of heart. We did our best to make our work together fun, and lighten the mood whenever possible. These are challenging times for everyone, and while the work is serious and incredibly important, we certainly learned the importance of occasionally throwing in something absurd just for a smile.
Learn more about our work with the City of Calgary.