Dining with Della: Ken Dobell at Bacchus
January 18, 2016
Ken Dobell had an extraordinary career in public life. From City Manager at the City of Vancouver to the head of the start up of TransLink to the halls of the Legislature as the top bureaucrat, he dedicated his incredible intellect and tremendous efforts to making our communities work better.
Through our work together, we developed a close friendship that includes feisty debates about politics, popular culture, books and values.
Ken answered these questions before we met up for lunch so I only fought him on one point and I let the rest stand on its own... with a bit of commentary from me.
What worked...
What one bit of communication impacted your life?
One of the comments I heard from people I
respected (you were one of them) was not to communicate about some
issues where it isn’t possible to win. This related to some politically controversial issues that involved
me. I thought that I was a good
communicator, and if I could lay out my position, it would help. It did not help, of course, but simply turned
up the volume. If I were doing it all
again, I would assess whether to communicate at all.
What did not work...
Lots of things. Communication about transit and
transportation, how to fund assets through tolling, other politically
unacceptable but technically very sensible ideas. Mostly, these were good ideas we did not try
to communicate because it was obvious, immediately, they were premature. More specifically, we were unable to sell
most sources of funding for TransLink. In a way, it was like the current Republican primary -- too many choices,
with preferences divided. We needed good
information gathering and a communications answer to that situation.
The great idea I have only now started
to communicate is the empowerment of the illiterate by social media (and I don’t
mean jihadists). While there are a few
blogs and articles that attract intelligent discussion, mostly they don’t. When social media says lets hold temperature
increase to 1.5 instead of 2 because its better, and the politicians (including
ours) pick up on that even though most scientists think we likely can’t
make 2, it’s dangerous. I’d like to
communicate the idea that our system has empowered the illiterati, and that
brings a focus on “wouldn’t it be nice if....” instead of how can we manage to
move in the right direction.
Note from Della: Ken and I digressed on this topic for quite a while. He tends to focus on logic versus emotion. He is not anti-social media or online dialogue, he wants a better discourse based on expert knowledge. I pointed out content experts like him are often not in this arena... and that is where people are the having the discussions - Nice, when I can have the last word :)
a) What great idea did you never communicate to anyone?
The dangerous role of social media along with politicians who pay attention to it.
Note from Della: Well, up until now!
b) What is the one idea you tried to communicate but it flopped?
Usually technical questions which had a practical significance, but I never explained them satisfactorily.
Note from Della: We call that the curse of knowledge.
c) What moment did you not say what you wished and should have said?
Lots of times but I can’t remember the specifics, just that they happened.
What if...
What advice would you give to your younger self to enhance your ability to communicate with others – and why?
Some of that is above.
Think about whether a communications
effort is going to helpful, or just drag things out. A related question is why the communications
effort -- there needs to be a plan to build on successful communications to a
desired conclusion. So think it through.
Develop presentation skills -- work on
them as a specific set of tools that you need to have at hand.
Hire people who are good at it.
One of my favourite communication moments with Ken was when he was in the midst of starting up TransLink. We were exchanging emails about some big challenges when he ended one of his notes with "And, I can't even get anyone to get my damn letterhead". I responded with "I will get your damn letterhead done" meaning I was happy to help get the small things done for him. This was before emojis and he thought I was being cranky so called me to apologize! Haha, what a prince of a man. At the top of the heap, but no ego. What could be more attractive?
One of my favourite communication moments with Ken was when he was in the midst of starting up TransLink. We were exchanging emails about some big challenges when he ended one of his notes with "And, I can't even get anyone to get my damn letterhead". I responded with "I will get your damn letterhead done" meaning I was happy to help get the small things done for him. This was before emojis and he thought I was being cranky so called me to apologize! Haha, what a prince of a man. At the top of the heap, but no ego. What could be more attractive?
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