Several years ago I visited the first Starbucks in Seattle, Washington. Although it just seemed like any other coffee shop, I’m sure for coffee aficionados this is holy ground because this is where it all started. Or, put another way, I’m sure for the business owners and investors, this is holy ground, it was the start of an empire. This original location created such a strong sense of culture around coffee and community, that someone decided to make another, and another, until they scaled up to over 32,000 locations world-wide. Starbucks, like Walmart and McDonald’s have become standards for efficiency, profitability, and business success.
Scaling up involves taking something local and successful, and replicating it elsewhere. Processes are developed, marketed, adjusted, and eventually the formula is reproduced over and over again. Scaling up does not pay much attention to the specifics of a context, to the local culture, or complex dynamics, its only requirement is enough space to unfold and open up. I’ve been in a McDonald’s in the Middle East and in England and found that both had hot food and a clean bathroom. Scaling up makes sense, but it might not always get us what we truly want.
The founders of these mega-corporations started with good things like customer service, a good product, and grew a culture that was unique and special. The original stores had something dynamic that others would go on to replicate. But some things, like community, do not grow by scaling up, but by growing something special anew in every place.
Margaret Wheatley says that people assume that because a strategy for community development happened well in one place, it will happen here. People just need to mimic another process, scale up, and improve on the machine by changing out parts, tweaking until successful, and plan to produce the same results. She says, however, that, “community is nothing like a machine.” Scaling up creates a kind of monoculture where everything looks the same as it does elsewhere, and instead of creating a vibrant new dynamic place, it simply demands that we do what was done before. For Wheatley, she likens it to being on the hunt for good wine with a specific French regional terroir, with rich flavours, only to find a bad tasting bland cheap mix. For those who want something special, it’s a let down.
Neighbourhoods in Chestermere are growing at a fast rate, and places are being scaled up based on designs from other places. It means homes are cheaper and more people can live in our great city, that’s not all bad. But long after the developers leave and our city has ‘scaled up,’ we will have to discover that it takes far more than a franchise formula to create a world-class city. Every neighbourhood and community in Chestermere needs people who can help it grow: people like you and me who tend to the culture and life that emerges in our place. It is not enough just to move into a house, we each work to help make this city a home. We need space for culture and art, places to play, worship, get married, open a shop and teach skill. These things are not part of a scaled up standardized process, they take time to grow, form, and are nurtured by those who are called to care. There is no other way.
Chestermere is growing and that’s not bad, but I hope we grow a thriving garden and not a monoculture. I hope that below the suburban master plan we find ourselves growing a community that is unique to us, and healthy enough to thrive whatever comes our way. The world does not need another neighbourhood that looks like all the rest, but it does need a city that values every person and knows what makes us special – because we are.
