Bird's Eye View

Central Park Civilization

Ah, summer.  It is already here in Manhattan.  At least it feels so.  And because I am fortunate to live and work close to Central Park, it is a major factor in the way I experience this great city.

 

In the mornings, I jog around the New York reservoir, which means I jog past the back of the Metropolitan Museum (a lovely trip in itself, past blooming trees and people walking dogs) and then on to the reservoir.  I do this on a near-daily basis, so I see a number of the same people every morning.  Although we don't actually converse, we acknowledge each other ("lovely day;" "Hello again," etc.), a lovely, civilized way to start the day.  I'm aware of my jogging "friends" as we pass each other and it feels like a kind of neighborhood of kindred souls.

 
 

When the days get warm as they are now, it's a great pleasure to steal over during the lunch hour and experience the urban gift the park provides: children around the pond of Stuart Little fame, older people chatting on park benches, young people with guitars, joggers, of every stripe.   Twenty five million people use the Park at one time or another during the year.  That's a lot of parkgoers, each find his own favorite spot (I learned just today that of the many pedestrian bridges in the Park, no two are alike).

 

New York would not be New York to me without Central Park.  It is the heart of this metropolis with its tough exterior, and it is my respite from the concrete, the tall buildings, the rush.  Once inside the park, I hear the birds sing, I slow my walking pace, I can be reflective.  It's a great place for conversation. 

Central Park is the civilizing side of Manhattan.  The world should be grateful to Frederick Law Olmsted, its genius designer. 

 

Guest Post: Subway Talk

My name is Anja Wafzig and I am currently an intern at WF360 in New York City. It is a pleasure for me that my beloved colleagues here are providing me with this opportunity to write my own blog about my experiences in New York.

I am from Rodalben, a small town in Germany. It is a very rural area and I don’t like that because it is too quiet and peaceful. Therefore I was really excited to come to the big city that never sleeps.

I have been here for over a month and slowly but surely am able to see the things that I dislike or that are different compared to my country. Before New York, my experience with the subway was minimal, as I rode the subway only a few times in bigger cities in Germany or in other countries like London and Italy. I always enjoyed riding the subway, tube or metro because it is never boring. You can see a lot of different people getting on and off while you just sit there and observe all the interesting things that can happen.

The subway is a big part of my life as I take it to work daily. Unfortunately, that means it is during rush hour which is obviously not a pleasant time: everyone is pushing while you are packed inside the cars like sardines. As unpleasant as this may sound, it is still an experience for me as I have learned a lot about how New Yorkers communicate.  For example, I find it funny that everyone says excuse me when they don’t actually mean it. They are not really excusing themselves but want to call attention to the fact that you are in their way and you should move before they bump into you.

 
 

But as I mentioned, riding the subway is never dull. Every time I am in the subway there is always an interesting conversation among the passengers. I am a very curious person and like to listen as I don’t have an iPod... this is my entertainment! It is fascinating how in depth and private these conversations are for such a public place. I feel like I know more about these strangers than I do about most of my good friends. For example, one couple last week was discussing their issues on getting married. One of the parents didn't accept the groom-to-be and was therefore causing problems for the couple.  Another conversation was between two friends or colleagues.  One needed help as she made a big mistake and wanted advice on how to resolve that. I couldn’t listen any further because it was my stop! Too bad because it was just starting to get good!

 
 
Additionally, I find very peculiar those that beg for money or food on the subway.  It is strange to see so many of them beg even though it is not allowed.  They all have their sad stories and I really feel for them but I am a poor student, too. This clearly stirs up conversation within the train by the passengers or even at a later time between my friends and me.

 
 

Living in New York and experiencing the subway every day is definitely something to talk about. Whether it is eavesdropping on a conversation or seeing something and sharing that story with my friends, the subway has stirred up a lot of talk.  My advice for those who are curious and want to be entertained during a commute: don't listen to your iPod!!!

Who Can Be Trusted?

At dinner last night with friends, I told them of the two recent Inner Circle discussions I've facilitated on the topic of trust (one at the New York Stock Exchange in April; the other at BT headquarters in London a couple of weeks ago).  They immediately pounced on the topic and the conversation quickly became animated.  Everyone, it appears, is fascinated with the topic of trust.

Specifically, our group of six focused on who each of us trusts, starting with individuals, then focusing on organizations, corporations, institutions, and brands.

Each of the group express the same level of surprise expressed by the executives at our Inner Circles.  When the question "Just whom do you trust?" was posed.  The unanimity of response was almost comical.  Each mouth opened with what appears to be a quick response, then closed as the speaker reflected on the proposed answer and had second thoughts.  After a pause, each came forth with one name.  Some had two or three.  None had more.  Even after my prompting, only a few more names emerged.  President Obama was the only public figure mentioned, and by only one person in the group.  Someone mentioned her family doctor, but then changed her mind when she considered "he's probably getting money from big pharmas, too." 

When we got to organizations and institutions, it was just as difficult for people to find trusted names.  It was much easier for them to cite those they do not trust.  From Tylenol to Toyota to the Catholic Church to Congress to politicians of all stripes, a laundry list quickly developed. 

Everyone was surprised at how strongly and deeply they felt distrust for so many outside their closest circle of family and friends.  One said pointedly, "When I think of it, there are probably three people I totally trust in this world."

Hmmm.  Consider the impact of such widespread distrust on even casual conversations, not to mention efforts to reach people through advertising messaging.   

You may want to ask the question of your own friends and colleagues.  I suspect the conversation will be as animated as ours was last night.

UK Leaders Worry About Trust

The Inner Circle that took place in London last week was remarkable.  We wrestled with the same topic covered in our Inner Circle at the New York Stock Exchange on April 13: "What's Happened to Trust and What You and Your Brand Can Do About it."

I was initially concerned that our London Inner Circle discussion was taking place so soon after the UK elections that participants would be focused on the LibDems and Conservative coalition efforts and unable  to consider the broader concept of trust.  I was wrong.  Like their American counterparts, these leaders are concerned about the "crisis of trust" -- as several referred to it -- in Parliament, in the Church of England, in their business dealings, in their consumer transactions, everywhere.  In short, they, too feel there has been a widespread dilution of trust and there is little incentive on the part of individuals and organizations to remain true to their core values.  

 

At one point in the conversation, it was suggested that even if we were able to restore trust in individuals and in corporations and in financial institutions and in government, it could be much like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.  The global transfer of wealth from the West to the East is already underway and will only quicken its pace.  And because the rules under which we operate (beginning with the Golden Rule of treating your neighbor as you would wish your neighbor to treat you and including our interest in transparency in transactions) are not the same rules that govern behavior of our counterparts in other parts of the world where bribery and other forms of corruption are considered standard operating procedure, we may find we are less and less equipped to deal advantageously in business arrangements.

 

That view set a pall on the conversation.  If it's true that focus on issues of trust is irrelevant to larger concerns about the inadequacy of Western-based governments and businesses to compete globally, then Houston, we have a problem.

I'm still thinking about what all this means.  What do you think?

 

   

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat Off to London to See The Queen

Do you know this old English nursery rhyme?

"Pussy cat, Pussy cat, where have you been?

I've been to London to see the Queen

Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you do there?

I frightened a little mouse under her chair."

Ok, Ok, so maybe you were more into reading "goodnight Moon" in your childhood, but the Pussy Cat nursery rhyme was one I liked a lot. 

In any event, it's clear the Queen of England has been busy in the last couple of days, among other things appointing--as is the protocol--the next Prime Minister, David Cameron, when he paid his traditional visit to her at Buckingham Palace.

 
  

I'm going to London today but not to see the Queen.  I'll be meeting Friday in an Inner Circle with some other amazing folks, though, among them Sally Davis, CEO of BT Wholesale, Gay Huey Evans, Vice Chairman of Barclays; Bronwyn Curtis, the highly regarded economist who now heads HSBC's global research operations, and a dozen others, to discuss, at BT headquarters, the topic "What's Happened to Trust...and what you and your brand can do about it."

We discussed this same topic in a similar Inner Circle gathering at the New York Stock Exchange about six weeks ago.  So far, my brief pre-gathering calls with our participants in the UK indicate a cultural difference in attitude on the subject.  The Americans in our NYSE meeting were more cynical,more untrusting of literally everything and everyone.  The Brits seem to be more measured in their distrust and have been more reluctant to point out companies and individuals who they believe have lost the public trust.

  

We'll see if that general tone holds true through the meeting itself. 

You won't hear from me for a while, though.  I am leaving London on Friday for vacation in the Mediterranean with friends.   I'm looking forward to many conversations, some serious, some frivolous, all interesting.  So I hope to be back on American soil the 25th with some interesting ideas to discuss with you.

  

London Bound And Further

Tomorrow I fly to London to facilitate an Inner Circle on the topic of What’s Happened to “Trust”?... and what you and your brand can do about it.

 

It's the same topic we tackled in our Inner Circle gathering at the New York Stock Exchange a bit over a month ago.  Our New York conversation was one of our most provocative discussions yet.  Even in the pre-Circle interviews, participants were highly vocal about the trust issue, how trust has eroded in both business and personal life.  They each had long lists of people or positions they used to trust, but no longer.

  

We will have a totally different group of participants in London on Friday, and I can already tell it will be a different conversation.  Perhaps it is because the Brits are distracted by the upheaval of the present election, since it means potentially significant change for all UK citizens and institutions.

Or it could just be a "national personality" issue.   Thus far in my calls, the Brits are much more subdued in their feelings about the erosion of trust, not certain that things are much different on this topic than a decade ago.  The difference, many of them say, is simply that we know more about the behavior of corporate executives and political leaders, so we find more to criticize.  But basically there has not been a unanimous view that there is a trust gap across the board, affecting social as well as business life.  I find this curious.

 

I'll let you know how the conversation develops on Friday.  Perhaps things will have shifted by then.

Panda-monium in New York City

Enough about terrorists and news of Greeks cheating on their taxes and financial markets cratering...time for a laugh or two.

 
 

But where find something to smile about?  Well, it turns out that smiles can be found right here just a few steps from my apartment in New York.

I was walking back to the apartment after a business meeting when I saw something unusual, enough to make even a jaded New Yorker take notice: a young man in front of me walking along in a Panda suit, cradling his panda head in his right arm.  He was in a group that appeared to be involved in a project of some sort, some carrying what looked like props, and one handling a large handheld video cam.  I couldn't resist asking what was going on.

 

Well, said one, "We're on our way to Hollywood.  Or so we hope.  We're making a movie."  Apparently the panda is going to have a starring role.  He deigned at that moment to don his panda head and I decided to have my picture taken with this unusually talkative panda so I could send the photo to a friend in Hong Kong who loves pandas, particularly the real ones.

We're already referring to this as the "panda moment," indicating the kind of moment that makes you smile and take a few steps back from the pressing issues with which you may be preoccupied.

 

And it's a great conversation starter.  As is, "Today, when I met a young man dressed as a panda on 75th Street..."

So what will make you smile today?  And how can you build that into a conversation so others will smile as well?

News From Italy About Times Square Terror

We have an intern at Wf360 named Anja Wafzig who has come to us from Germany.  As you can imagine, for the past several days there have been many in-house discussions about the would-be terrorist act on Times Square and how New York responds to situations of such potential major threat.

Just minutes ago*, she announced that a friend of hers who lives in Italy had just contacted her through Facebook to alert her of "yet another bomb" in Times Square. Others here at Wf360 have gotten similar news from Twitter.  Anja said "Isn't it amazing that my friend in Italy knows more about what is happening in New York than I do...and I'm sitting right here!"

 
 
 
  
This is the blessing/curse aspect of the Internet as favored news agency.  There is not --at least at this moment--news of a bomb in TImes Square.  What there is news is that an ice cooler, left abandoned outside the Marriott Hotel in Times Square has caused enough police interest to evacuate the entire area and, in the process, feed the rumor mill about "yet another disaster."  This ice cooler incident is one of eight known "mystery packages" reported thus far in Times Square since the failed effort of Faisal Shahzad to blow up a car and people who happened to be around it last last Saturday.

 

My take on all this is that first of all, isn't it great that in New York, when someone "sees something," they "say something," just as we've been urged to do by major advertising campaigns. 

As well, I like the fact that our New York police department is known globally to be about as good as it gets when it comes to handling terrorist activities in an urban setting.  Thank God for our men in blue!  And I like the way Police Commissioner Kelly tells it like it is and makes it clear there is no basis for complacency.  Conversely, there is good reason to be aware of one's surroundings and ready to speak up if something seems wrong.

But at times like this, the Internet can be a rumor-monger worse than the town gossip of old.  Rumors--the worse the better--spread like wildfire globally.  As Anja tells us, her parents are probably panicked right about now that she is in New York, reported on the web to be a dangerous place indeed.  My view is that she's fortunate to be here, in a city as well protected as this one.  Let's face it, New York stands for all that is progressive, sophisticated, innovative, raw fresh and provocative.  Of course we're a target for those who hate all that.

 
 

Goes with the territory.  But, folks, please remember. picnic cooler is not a bomb until the authorities who should know say it is a bomb.  Up until them, I'm goin' with picnic cooler.  As for Anja's friend in Italy, come back with real news when you have it.

*The bomb scare was a false alarm.

Terrorist Faisal Shahzad Good For NYC

As an attorney I should know better than to call Shahzad a terrorist before he is proven to be one.  So, OK, I'll refer to him as alleged terrorist Faisal Shahzad.  I'm hoping that he may be good news for New York.  For the whole nation, in fact.

We'd gotten pretty complacent around here, even New Yorkers who swear they will never forget 9/11 and who in many cases date things by 9/11 reference, as in "That happened before 9/11..." or "That was the year after 9/11."

I guess we'd figured that since no terrorist has inflicted significant damage on US soil since 9/11, we can breathe more easily.  Wrong.  And we'd figured that car bombings were a specialty of folks in other countries but not here in the good old USA.  Wrong again.

So thanks to Faisal, we have been given a noisy wake-up call, all sirens blazing.

 

We are never going to be completely free of people who hate America and all she stands for.  There will always be people who want to inflict serious damage on us, including taking the lives of Americans right here in our country, to demonstrate just how strongly they feel about destroying the American Evil Empire.  These people are not competitors who want to demonstrate the superiority of another economy, another religion.  They are  destroyers, who want to take us and our Country down.  Plain and simple.

So thank God that despite our bungling of the near escape of Shahzad on an Emirates plane Monday (can't you just hear the conversations that went on between the authorities regarding just who let him out of their surveillance grasp on Monday afternoon in Connecticut?...and just who failed to check the "No-Fly" list at the airport before giving him a boarding pass, no questions asked --despite his paying cash for a one-way ticket, with no luggage?) our joint Feds and NYPD effort resulted in his being apprehended within 53 hours.  That's pretty good. 

But not good enough.  Not enough to make us all breathe so easily this time.  So talk this one up.  Do all of us a favor by initiating conversations about just how alert we need to be about the safety of our airports, our schools, our Times Square.   Let's support the efforts to throw surveillance cameras up everywhere, as they do in London and other major cities.  This zoned approach to have video cameras all over the place may feel like an invasion of privacy to some, but to me it makes me feel more secure than not having them there.  I want the face of every Shahzad of this world flashed on the media as soon as possible if we're after him/them as suspects in possible mayhem like this Times Square incident.

 

And be sure you talk at home and at your place of work about your "Plan B' in case of a disaster.  Do you have a plan for where you and your family will meet?  And a Plan B in case that first plan doesn't work?  And do you have a stash of water and food for several days, just in case bad stuff happens?  And do you share with your loved ones a specific message that will alert everyone of your being in danger?  If you don't have this in place, do it now.  NOW.  

 
 
And pray that Shahzad's successor--because there will be one, many of them--is no smarter than Faisal was.

Times Square Terror: See Something, Say Something

Looks like the Times Square drama of last Saturday was the real thing.  If it hadn't been for the faulty workmanship on the part of the would-be terrorists, the US might have suffered its first non-homegrown terrorist bombing.  Ever.  Sobering thought.
 

 

My hunch is that between the Feds and New York's Finest (some people's fond tag for our City's police force) they'll find the people who did this.  Whether that means they'll find the mastermind(s) behind it (surely not whoever the lowlifes responsible for the botched bomb rigging) is debatable.  But I like knowing that they're on the case and am eager to hear more.  You've probably heard that New York City's anti-terror squad has such a positive reputation worldwide, they are often asked to travel to other cities and help them structure their own departments.

As for the quick action by the two Vietnam vets who have been selling tourist trinkets for years on Times Square and who are apparently buddies with the patrol officers on the beat in that area, thank you Gentlemen for your quick reporting of what you sensed was something wrong about the parked--possibly abandoned--car.  

These guys have bought in to the campaign that is now SOP in New York City, especially on the subways: "If you see something, say something."  The campaign has been aimed to make people in New York City aware of their surroundings.  See a knapsack that appears to have no owner nearby?  Say something to an available authority.  See something fishy about a couple of people nervously standing around the station?  Say something.  The idea her is that we should err on the side of caution and forget being branded as scaredy cats or, worse, tattle tales.

 

This is not at all the kind of vigilante effort taking place in Arizona where it has been legislated that anyone who "appears to be not a citizen of the US" is fair game to be questioned by the police.  That just scares the heck out of me and reminds me of stories about persecution of the Jews in Germany in the 30's.  

But the "If you see something, say something" campaign is brilliant.  And because these vets both referred to it when interviewed about their quick reporting to the cops, it will help all of us remember to be aware of what make look off in our surroundings as well go about our business in this great city.

 

The "if you see something, say something" mentality should apply to those of us who are parents as well.  If your kids are not behaving normally, talk with them.  If your neighbors withdraw from the world, make an effort to find out what's happening.  We are all part of the human family and need to act as good community citizens do: care for one another and take action when things appear amiss.

How about at your company?  Is there a similar campaign that "if you see something, say something?"  Should be.