“If you don't know where you're going, any road'll take you there.” — George Harrison, “Any Road.”
Being in the trucking business, Shepard Dunn knows something about the importance of knowing where you're going, of having a road map to guide you to where you're wanting to go, and preferably with your cargo intact.
To be honest, we've always taken these exercises in “strategic planning” with a grain of salt, primarily because no one can, with 100-percent accuracy, predict the future.
Time is a fickle mistress when it comes to planning, and as history has shown, what may ring true today quite possibly will become irrelevant within a remarkably short time.
That's not to say those involved in securing economic opportunity should take a whimsical approach to their work and chase after every new development caprice that comes down the pike.
A certain steadiness is not just preferred but really required of those who seek to guide the fortunes of a community.
But we can't mistake immutability for steadiness; not moving until sure of where to go is to be preferred over a refusal to move at all.
Moving forward, even incrementally, is a must, as KCDC leaders well know.
Much of what was discussed Thursday had to do with the county being able to attract young professionals with an entrepreneurial bent who would move here and start businesses — or, better, being able to lure locals back to put their skills to work here at home.
Lots of talk about “quality of place” initiatives to make Knox County as appealing to millennials as Bloomington, West Lafayette and the donut counties around Indianapolis are to them now.
That would require quite a change, a metamorphosis that would likely prove too much for too many in the community to be willing to tolerate.
Knox County has experienced considerable change in the last 15 years; some would go so far as to call it profound change.
But it's not changed so much as to be willing to accept the kind of laissez-faire social attitudes that make those other communities attractive to talented young professionals.
That's not to say KCDC or the hospital or the university or any other community organization should abandon their efforts to foster further changes in attitudes; they should do the exact opposite, doubling-down on their leadership and efforts to promote tolerance and acceptance of differences.
The KCDC strategic plan also has plenty of emphasis on the practical aspects of economic development (workforce training) as well as community development (investment in public infrastructure, such as the Kimmell Park project) to appeal to those whose focus is on more-immediate rewards.
And there's certainly nothing wrong with that. Too often we forget that the desire for those immediate rewards is what ultimately leads to job creation and income growth and to the tax revenues required to make investments in public facilities that benefit us all.
It's a winding road that will lead us to the future, with plenty of twists and turns and likely even a few detours along the way.
As long as we're moving forward it's a trip worth taking.