Harnessing intuition to get the best outcomes for all, with Greg Vann
Greg is qualified in planning and economics and has been at the forefront of planning in Queensland for nearly 40 years. He is one of Australia’s best known, respected and widely experienced planners. Greg’s many leadership positions include life fellow and former State President of the Planning Institute of Australia, project director of the new SEQ Regional Plan, chair of the State’s Transit Oriented Development Taskforce and on various government and university advisory groups.
What do you love about cities?
What I love about cities is their potential to save humanity. Cities are where most of our people live in the world now, particularly in Australia. Getting cities right will make or break our future as a species in the challenges of climate change, energy consumption, resource scarcity, and all the big challenges that we are facing.
What changes have you seen in cities over the past 20 years that matter the most to you?
The first one is the real revving-up of the knowledge economy and cities are a place of idea exchange. In the progressive and economically successfully cities around the world, they have revisited how people move and realised we can't do everything by car. The third one is the big shift to urban renewal and housing diversity. People have rediscovered the inner cities after abandoning them largely post-war to the suburban flight.
Tell us about a project you’ve worked on that has been most important to you?
As project director for Shaping SEQ, the current regional plan for Southeast Queensland, I've had the opportunity to combine everything I've learned over 40 years into one big piece that could really make a difference. I think it was really the opportunity to pull together a whole lot of things that could make the biggest possible difference in my world.
How did this project/s shape your professional practice?
It honed my focus on the key things that make a difference. So, when thinking about the economic piece, it’s the agglomeration of economics, the ability to co-locate things, that makes the whole greater than the sum of the parts. You get it right, you get a great place. If you get it wrong, you've got problems. That project helped me to hone the message. Trying to portray complex things in a way that was both understandable to the stakeholders and lay people, but also emotionally appealing was important.
What are the outcomes you strive for in every project?
I get out of bed in the morning to make a difference in the world; that's what keeps me going at 64 and 40-plus years into my career. Planning is a public interest profession; city building is a public interest profession; so, always keep your focus on public interest. There is a really important role for private interests but it's ultimately harnessing that market force towards the best public outcome.
“…it doesn’t matter how much rational processing you do, you don’t sign up to something unless you’re emotionally okay with it.”
What are the key practices you draw upon to help you achieve these outcomes?
I'm an intuitive thinker but it took me 10 years-plus to trust and understand intuition. Rather than having the mindset that you have to understand and explain to someone logically how each step will be taken to get you to a particular point, I'd much rather say: "Well here's the point we would like to get to. Now let's work back, and what are the steps and actions we need to take to get us there." And the truth of the matter is that it doesn't matter how much rational processing you do, you don't sign up to something unless you're emotionally okay with it.
To be a great ancestor for future generations, what does our sector need to focus on today?
If we get the public interest right, which is about more equitable and sustainable communities – evidence shows we will be more successful socially and economically. We need to understand the human animal as a species better. We have to help people understand the implications of their choices and hence the needs to address the psychology of the species.
What has to change or be amplified in our system to make these things a priority?
Advocacy is the fundamental thing that we have to do differently as a profession. I would love to see commentary about government budgets switch from ‘winners and losers’ to commentary about why decisions are a great thing for our city, for our country.
