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“What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a planner!”
“But, what do you do?”
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Whenever I meet people in my personal or professional life, I get asked this question, give that answer, and struggle to find a way to answer that follow-up question. After all, when you work in a field as broad and widespread as community planning and its ilk, it can be difficult to give a concise answer. Before I joined SEMCOG, I worked in a few different areas under the banner of “planner.” Right out of college, I did zoning administration work and master plan updates as a land use “planner” for a planning and engineering consulting company, and later on put together applications for permits for renewable energy projects as a “planner” for an environmental consulting company. Now at SEMCOG, I work as a “Planner” in our Economic and Community Vitality Group, and beyond the normal expectations of being a planner, I find myself working in things I never learned how to plan for while I was in college: broadband, materials management, workforce development, and so on.
It is easier to talk about this kind of work with my coworkers and professional colleagues across the region and state, but it is still difficult to avoid giving a long-winded explanation of our Broadband Framework or our Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy when the baseline question is simply, “What do you do?”
A conference, it turns out, helped me get closer to that answer.
The Planning Michigan Conference is held in early October every year by our Michigan chapter of the American Planning Association in different locations around the state. It is truly a who’s who of professionals in the planning realm from Monroe to Menominee, Sault Ste. Marie to St. Joseph, and everywhere else in between, dedicated to the same types of work. As I attended the conference, networked with familiar and new faces, and anxiously maneuvered through my presentation, I was able to get a much more solid idea of what it meant to be a “planner.”
The Planning Michigan Conference
The session topics this year focused on a broad range of ideas and challenges. The idea of how we plan for where people live, work, and play is continuing to evolve due to many different events around our communities, state, nation, and planet. Some of these are intriguing, others provide insight into new opportunities, and others can be downright alarming. The sessions at this year’s conference reflected this, as presenters discussed diverse topics about smart cities, adapting to a changing climate, fighting our ongoing housing shortage, how we work across all parties and make sure everyone is given the same access to opportunities and prosperity, and other pressing issues in our society. I have a penchant for alliteration, and if I had to give a succinct theme for the conference-and perhaps planning writ large-it would be: “Facing the Future.”
My colleague, and SEMCOG Staff Assistant, Jaylyn King, and I attended several sessions ranging from the impacts of AI on the planning profession, to the importance of public-private partnership for successful commercial corridors, to housing strategies for an aging population. I was also fortunate to have had the opportunity to present at this conference. I talked about SEMCOG’s broadband efforts and the role of planning for broadband more generally, along with my co-presenter, Superior District Library Director Lisa Waskin, who discussed the critical importance that libraries play in expanding digital equity – particularly in rural areas.
Lessons for Emerging Planners
Above all, these sessions show that planners are all over the spectrum of human and community development to make sure that our communities, our businesses, our homes, and our institutions are ready for whatever the world sends our way. While I was in these sessions, it also let me think of some key points of advice for those who both attend these conferences and work as professional planners. I’m still early in my career, but I think keeping some of these things in mind can be a boon to personal and professional development in this field:
- Be Curious. I’ll be the first to admit that I love asking questions; I have a family friend who has referred to me as “The Quizmaster” ever since I was a kid! One of the most important things you can do in this field is to ask questions and always have an open mind. A constant of planning is that it is always changing and evolving with the needs of people and the environment. Always asking about those changes and paradigm shifts is key to being a dynamic and effective planner. In addition, having that curiosity and openness provides you an avenue to factor in the diverse mindsets, cultures, and backgrounds that form the bedrock of our communities.
- Be Kind. The world, from national and international events down to the goings on of our neighborhoods, can be rife with contention and uncertainty. Planners, as professionals who provide recommendations and ideas, are both shepherds of information and a critical linkage between policymakers and their constituents. Being kind and cordial to everyone you work with, keeping an even temperament, and always being enthusiastic about your work are key to assuaging concerns and getting buy-in from your community, your government, and your professional partnerships.
- Be Thorough and Think Systemically. Nothing we work with exists in a vacuum. Every action taken, every scenario planned for, and every recommendation implemented can have known and unknown impacts associated with them. For example, let’s take the issue of housing. If initiatives are implemented to make it easier to build affordable housing, then there is a potential for the demand for new housing to go up. Demand for new housing means more developers may enter the market, which can increase demand for professions like construction, architecture, and the building trades. These workforce growth opportunities may lead to increased spending, which can have ripple effects throughout our local and regional economies. Planning for all these scenarios and externalities are critical to make sure that plans are comprehensive and effective.
Systems thinking also plays a key role in increasing equity and addressing historic socioeconomic injustices. What systems created these divides and opportunity gaps to begin with? If one aspect of it is resolved, how are the others affected? This kind of thorough and wide-reaching thinking is crucial in making sure the work we do as planners is both empathetic to residents’ and businesses’ needs, and is effective in how we correct injustices and expand opportunities for the future.
- Be Connected. One of the main things I greatly enjoyed about the conference was interacting with peers and colleagues around the state. These included friends from my undergrad days at Michigan State, past and present classmates at Wayne State, old coworkers and mentors, and people I had seen at previous conferences. This was the first time I was face-to-face with some of these people since before the COVID-19 Pandemic, and it was a refreshing experience! It helps to know that you have friends around the state also doing this work, and expands your horizons on different ideas and best practices. Networking with people at these conferences can help open your eyes to new insights and concepts in interesting and novel ways. Above all, it reinforces that you are part of a large body of diligent planning professionals working to make lives better for every resident of our beautiful Great Lakes State.
So, What Do You Do?
While writing this blog and reminiscing on the Planning Michigan Conference, I think I have developed a better idea of what it means to be a “planner.” My journey into this career field started decades ago when I first booted up an old copy of the original SimCity on my dad’s Windows 2000 PC, and carried me through a fascination both with the built environment and the people that make it. I think understanding what it means to be a planner will be a constantly evolving process as I work through this career, but I have gotten a better idea of the discipline.
Through the lens of a regional planner at SEMCOG, the work that a “planner’ does is wide-ranging, but a few things rise to the top. As a regional planner, you need to understand the spatial elements of the diverse communities across the region’s built and natural environment. You must work with communities to understand their needs and what it takes to make the lives of their residents more enjoyable and more sustainable. You are always looking to the future, trying to anticipate change, and developing strategies to embrace and withstand that change. You reflect on the history, culture, nature, understandings, and tangible and intangible aspects that shape the identity of the region to make it better. You envision the region and the communities that make it up through an ever-changing world to be ready and able to handle whatever it throws at you.
So, the next time somebody asks what I do for a living, I will try to iron it out in a few words: “I find ways to make our communities stronger and more sustainable, now and for the future.”
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