I’ve just returned from two weeks in Spain.
Europe is far more densely populated than Canada, and so it was even more remarkable to us how much space is devoted to public enjoyment there. Gardens, boulevards, boardwalks, parks, playgrounds, cathedrals — all in urban spaces that would be far more likely given over to concrete and commerce where I live.
And art. This piece was my favourite, greeting us at Valencia’s Bioparc that we visited for my granddaughter’s fifth birthday. It is massive and gorgeous, and completely “unnecessary” and probably very expensive. I’m so thankful someone considered that investment worth it.
Places are designed to reflect and shape the values of the people who inhabit them. Beauty and spaciousness were evident everywhere we looked.
When I work on refreshing the value statements of clients I support, my preference is to spend time with them first, to experience what they value rather than asking them to list it out. Then I reflect back to them what I’ve noticed, and we line it up with the list.
I don’t know if Spaniards would say they value beauty and spaciousness (and slow starts to the morning, and family-oriented Sundays, and charcuterie…) but that was my experience. It’s no wonder I wasn’t too excited to come home.
It left me wondering: what would people who spend two weeks with your organization, or with you, say that you value? To what extent are we investing in “unnecessary” things that add beauty and spaciousness to the quality of our lives and others’?
