Living in More Than One World

I’m always interested in finding out what makes successful people tick. The recent Fast Company feature Leadership Hall of Fame: Richard Florida, Author of “The Rise of the Creative Class” makes for fascinating reading, on a number of levels. Richard Florida has had a zooming career as an author and professor, built on his profession of urban planning. He is also a blogger with a devoted following. Mediabistro reported recently that he will add to his workload as a Senior Editor at The Atlantic, one of his blogging homes. What particularly struck me in the Fast Company interview is his revelation that two of the biggest influences on his work have been Peter Drucker and Jane Jacobs, the author of the classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities, who was from my home town, Scranton, Pa. “My work hopes to be a synthesis of Jacobs and Drucker,” Florida says. Last year, I blogged about my return to Scranton to speak about my book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life. I noted the Drucker connection to the city, his commencement address to the University of Scranton in 1964. Jacobs, who graduated — albeit many years before — from my high school, Scranton Central, died in 2006 at 89. Her work as a critic of cities, neighborhoods and urban planning was successful despite having no academic background in urban planning. Like Drucker, she remained relevant and influential throughout a long life. And similar to him, books continue to be published about her, including one released yesterday, a collection of essays published by the American Planning Association, Reconsidering Jane Jacobs. Another wonderful thing about her legacy is Jane’s Walk USA, including one to be held in Scranton on May 7. The final years of her life were lived in Toronto, where Florida teaches at the Rotman School of Management. In Drucker and Jacobs, he has chosen his professional role models well. Aiming to do work that will live beyond our lifetime is a noble goal.

After my Peter Drucker-related presentations in Claremont earlier this month, I went to New York last week for three speaking engagements: for SLA NYC (held at METRO headquarters), at Baruch College and for the London Business School Club of New York. I was honored to be associated with all these organizations, if only for a short period of time. I met many interesting people at all three events: students, professors, librarians and business people. Baruch College was a particular revelation: a super-vibrant school with highly diverse students. I did not previously know a lot about Bernard Baruch, the alum whom the school was named for. I discovered that he was somewhat Drucker-like, and not just because a school of higher education was named after him. Although they were in different professions, both lived intentional lives of purpose. And both thought about how their work had ramifications beyond themselves, to the world at large. In particular, I was struck by Baruch’s advice – similar to Drucker’s — to take time for self-reflection and contemplation, no matter how busy you are. The London Business School event was on November 11; the fifth anniversary of Drucker’s death. And it was appropriate to go from Claremont, where Drucker lived from 1971 until his death in 2005; to New York, where he lived for many years prior. He taught at New York University, and wrote many of his most important books during those years. The city is also home to the Leader to Leader Institute (formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management), and the Drucker Society of New York City. Last year I did a “fireside chat” with Leader to Leader President and Chief Executive Officer Frances Hesselbein (who wrote the foreword to my book Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life), for the Drucker Society, my only New York event until last week. I left in an energized state of mind, looking forward to more presentations there in 2011.

When I heard that two-time Pulitzer Prize winner W.S. Merwin had been named the new Poet Laureate by the Library of Congress, I thought of our shared roots in Scranton, Pa. I was born and raised there and Merwin lived in the city from ages 9-14. His connection was covered by the local media, including the Times-Tribune and neighboring Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre.  Last year I blogged about the city’s transformation, and I returned for the first time in a year and a half two months ago, when I was one of the featured authors for the inaugural event Jewish Authors of Northeastern Pennsylvania. On my final day in town I walked through the reshaped courthouse square area, and saw the new Piazza dell’Arte sculpture paying tribute to Merwin and others from the worlds of the arts and humanities with ties to Lackawanna County.
At the author event I discussed my book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life. There is also an important Scranton connection for Drucker. Forty six years earlier, in May 1964, he delivered the commencement address for the University of Scranton, within walking distance of my event, at the Jewish Community Center. At the time, he was 54 and a longstanding bestselling author. I was 12, living a short distance from where he spoke, and unaware of who he was. Part of my talk at the event was about how our lives intersected years later.
As for Merwin, he describes his changed, more positive feelings for Scranton in this 2008 Fresh Air interview. The Times-Tribune story says took part in a poetry series in the area about 20 years ago. What a wonderful touch it would be, if in his new capacity as Poet Laureate, he would make a return visit to Scranton to complete the circle.

Scranton, Pa., where I was born and grew up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, was not particularly a cultural hotspot when I lived there. But in recent years, the situation has changed dramatically. Many people know it as the fictional setting of the hit NBC show The Office. There are now Office-themed tours, the subject of Jayne Clark’s recent USA TODAY story Scranton welcomes fans of ‘The Office’. And during last year’s presidential campaign, the city became known for the family roots of both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joe Biden. Among the major improvements in recent years include two top minor league franchises shared with their neighboring city, The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, the Triple-A baseball affiliate of the New York Yankees; and hockey’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the top affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain (near the baseball stadium) books major pop music acts during the summer. These big-time sports and music activities would have been nearly unthinkable when I lived there, and it’s nice to see the progress. The latest major development is the new Commonwealth Medical College, which has just seated its first class. It went from idea to reality in less than five years. Read the fascinating two-part series in The Scranton Times Tribune, by Sarah Hofius Hall. It shows how far the city has come in the long, painful transition from a coal-based and manufacturing economy to becoming more knowledge-based. There are also excellent, long-established local schools of higher learning including The University of Scranton, Marywood University, Penn State Worthington Scranton and Lackawanna College.  The tourist attractions such as the Steamtown National Historic Site and the natural beauty of much of the area and its surroundings, combined with its relatively short driving distance to both Philadelphia and New York City, are also making people see Scranton in a more positive and hopeful light.