This post is third in a series: 5 Key Elements of Great Cities.

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A Mindset for Greatness

A vision for the future, although a necessary precondition for greatness, is not enough. The greatest cities, states and nations have also had a mindset that propelled their vision forward – a driver which helped them maximize their potential. And let me be clear, I am not talking about false flag-waving jingoism, the reference to mindset is less about an attitude and more about collective psyche of a society. A society-level mindset is something that can extend across generations, a thread of either mediocrity or greatness that may eb and flow but never quite disappear, something which can be tapped by just the right individual, group, or circumstances. A mindset is about what more than one group or university or individual accomplishes in isolation, it is about what they accomplish together, in the public realm and for the public interest, when others say it cannot be done.

In random order, here are some, but not all of the concepts that accompany a mindset for greatness: ambitions, big thinking, follow-through, excellence, expectations, intensity, visionary, results, hope, optimism, enthusiasm, future, forward, global, intentional, deserved.

Here are some of the concepts that accompany a mindset of mediocrity: reserved, restrained, conservative, provincial, staid, rigid, myopic, narrow-minded, unadventurous, shortsighted, uncreative, unambitious, status-quo, incrementalism.

The difference between these two mindsets can be seen between the Dutch mindset and the Puritan mindset, a thread throughout history, which it can be argued, has played  role in the politics, development and ambitions of New York State vs that of New England.

New York State’s nickname is The Empire State. The Empire State title continues to reinforce a mindset that dates back to the Dutch, who were ambitious,  shrewd and highly intentional businessmen. One of the most significant transformations this nation has ever seen occurred because of the construction of the Erie Canal. This was the first transportation system without portage between the Atlantic Ocean and the midwest (with it’s vast natural resources), reducing the cost of transportation by some estimates 90%. It created vast amounts of wealth across the entire state, and solidified NYC’s dominance over all other east coast port cities. It was constructed in the face of a nation of naysayers and a presidential veto because New York State was bold enough to say we are going to build a 363 mile canal from sea level at Albany to 560 feet above sea level at Buffalo, 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide, with no engineering schools (although RPI would open because of it), no power or hydraulic equipment, and spending around $7 million dollars, the equivalent of around 3/4 of the federal budget. In 1817, Governor DeWitt Clinton and the NYS legislature had a mindset befitting of The Empire State, it was the same mindset that constructed the NYS Capitol – the most expensive public building of the 19th century. It was the same mindset of Governor Rockefeller for the Empire State Plaza in Albany – the most expensive public building of the 20th century, or the World Trade Center in NYC – the tallest building in the world at the time, the United Nations Headquarters a decade before, and certainly it was the mindset of Robert Moses who built seemingly everything else. The nation as a whole shared this mindset when we sent humans to the moon within 10 years, and when we built the interstate highway system, or the transcontinental railroad.

On the opposite end of the spectrum Puritan New England featured plenty of  “fire and brimstone” where God would bring judgement on wrong behavior. Puritans have been described as self-righteous and intolerant (hence Roger Williams and the founding of Rhode Island), believed the world was filled with depravity, frequently narrow-minded, suspicious of outsiders and new ideas, expecting very little from life, all of this leading to a life of fearful living, guilt, reduced expectations and ambitions, not deserved of nice things. To read more, pick up a copy of The Puritain Dilema by Edmund Morgon. When compared against the two lists of adjectives above, this is not at all a description which matches the mindset for greatness. While there are examples of “firsts” in modern Puritan New England, during my years in Massachusetts, I saw examples time and time again of this old mindset still playing out 400 years later. (An entire non-profit organization called Future Boston was recently formed to combat this Puritan problem. See the video – it even references Boston’s attitude that says if you are critical of Boston then leave.) Just for a frame of reference, the New York-Newark-Bridgeport Combined Statistical Area (CSA) has around 22 million people, the Boston-Worcester-Manchester CSA has only around 7 million people. Read more about the Boston vs New York mindset in this expose from Boston Globe Magazine July 2012. (Update: heard on NPR 10/7: “Massachusetts is not as liberal as people think, it was founded by the Puritans and some of that sense of Puritan propriety and norms and expected sets of behaviors has remained.”)

So now ask yourself, where on this spectrum is Detroit? It is abundantly clear that Detroit was created by do’ers – an impressive cast of characters which included Henry Ford and whom arguably invented the Middle Class in America. Detroit’s story is quintessentially a story of a deliberate city with a mindset for greatness, a city that followed through on it’s promise and potential. With a few key people and organizations, plus an influx of new citizens with energy, creativity, optimism, and entrepreneurialism, all of who see potential in Detroit, (and the commitment from many who stayed and never gave up), Detroit will again have a mindset for greatness. While we have lost this to a large extent on a national level during the past 40 years, without a doubt, I see a spark of it still present, and about to reach critical mass here in Detroit.

up next: Assets for Strength