The "Wow Factor" of Richardson's Goals

After complaining for months about the Richardson City Council's non-transparent process for deciding its near-term action items, I guess I ought to say something now that the goals have been revealed. But first, go ahead, read 'em yourself.

After the jump, my own reaction.

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What's specific? Well, I guess the council won't be raising tax rates. Beyond that there's nothing specific. The goals and strategies are filled with general, unmeasured actions like "strengthen" and "enhance" and "improve." How? Dunno. How much? Dunno. There's no way to quantify anything. If I were on city staff, either I'd be celebrating (our bosses are leaving everything up to us) or despairing (our bosses want the world but aren't telling us how to proceed to get it).

What's new? Nothing that I can see. I can't see anything that makes these goals and strategies unique to either 2013 or to Richardson. They could just as easily have been written by any city council, any time in the last few decades, anywhere in America. Next time, my advice would be to save the time and effort and instead just plagiarize from some place like, say, Peoria:

City of Peoria Vision 2026

It's our
SAFETY AND ATTRACTIVENESS,
LIVELY DOWNTOWN/WAREHOUSE DISTRICT,
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GREAT PLACE FOR DIVERSE BUSINESSES,
DESIRABLE NEIGHBORHOODS,
GROWING CITY,
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CULTURE OF EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT,
COLLABORATION FOR COMMUNITY EXCELLENCE,

that make us UNIQUE.

Source: City of Peoria.

Yeah, Peoria's vision is as "UNIQUE" as all of the thousands of cities across America who have equally generic vision statements, including Richardson.

This is the output of four long, off-site city council meetings without video recording or written minutes of the deliberations. It's like the council members were the inspiration for the article: "What The Heck is Wrong with... Mission and Vision Statements?"

Let's face it; most company mission and vision statements are horrendously bad. They are wordsmithed to the max in long-drawn meetings where in the end everyone is so tired that they sign up to any old rubbish. Most mission and vision statements I read are so generic that they provide no guidance whatsoever.

Source: Bernard Marr.

I don't have the heart to parse these goals and strategies one by one. Like I said, take a minute to read 'em yourself. Trust me, it won't take more than a minute. I'll just tell you my personal favorite of the seventeen strategies:

Increase our "Wow Factor"

Source: City of Richardson.

Let's just say I'm not wowed.