#18 - Integrity w/ Chelsea Collier (Editor, Smart Cities Connect)

Chelsea is the editor-at-large of Smart Cities Connect and the founder of digital.city, which focuses on the development of smarter, equitable, and more connected communities. She's also a University of Manchester Simon Industrial & Professional Fellow, a Marshall Memorial Fellow, and an Eisenhower Fellow. She joins us to speak about the profound impact of integrity and connection. 

Transcript

Episode Description

Chelsea is the Editor-at-Large for Smart Cities Connect and the Founder of Digi.City, which has focused on the development of smarter, equitable, and more connected communities. She's also a University of Manchester Simon & Industrial Professional Fellow, a Marshall Memorial fellow, and an Eisenhower Fellow. Chelsea joins us to speak about the profound impact of acting with integrity and being a unifying bridge.

Transcript

Erol Senel:

Think about a time you've come across someone who possesses something special, imagine taking ordinary topics and viewing them through their lens. Welcome to Success Shorts. Insights that challenge us to be extraordinary. Let's go.

<Music>

Erol Senel:

Hello everyone, I'm Erol Senel. And today I'm joined by Chelsea Collier. Chelsea is the Editor at Large for Smart Cities Connect and the Founder of Digi.City, which has focused on the development of smarter, equitable, and more connected communities. She's also a University of Manchester Simon and Industrial Professional Fellow, a Marshall Memorial fellow, and an Eisenhower Fellow. Geez, that's insane. Chelsea, it's a pleasure to have you on.

Chelsea Collier:

Oh, thanks so much. I really appreciate you creating this series and I'm honored to be a part of it.

Erol Senel:

Oh, thank you, I appreciate that. And when our mutual friend Noah introduced us, I was really stoked. We had our initial conversation and that turned into just a, kind of a, getting to know you to an hour long of brainstorming and saving the world and it was awesome. I was completely provoked so I think we're going to have some fun over the next few minutes. But first I want everyone to have the chance to get to know a couple of fun things about you, but instead of doing two truths and a lie, like we normally do, we're going to do two truths and a joke. So I'm going to turn it over to you.

Chelsea Collier:

Very cool. Yeah. A couple of years ago, I've made this decision not to lie about anything, like not even teeny tiny little white lies that seemed like they couldn't do any harm. So two truths and a joke. Okay. So here's my list of three. Number one, the most fascinating place in the world that I've ever been is Kiev, Ukraine. Number two, I'm learning how to play the harmonica. And number three, pulling weeds is my favorite thing to do.

Erol Senel:

Well. I think it's pretty obvious what the joke is there. And it's obviously learning how to play the harmonic. Right.

Chelsea Collier:

That's actually true. I'm learning how to play the harmonica.

Erol Senel:

Well, all kidding aside, I'm really looking forward to hearing your perspective on what we're about to talk about because when you wanted to go in this direction, I just thought how wonderful it was. So why don't you share with us what you want to speak about today?

Chelsea Collier:

So I'd like to center our conversation around kind of two concepts that are related, which are integrity and connection. And this era right now that we're in, currently being defined by COVID-19, is absolutely indicative of where we've actually been for the past few years, which is this era of great insernity. In smart cities, we're always focused on the future and it can be kind of challenging to remain in the present and just embrace the complexity of all of the different issues we're facing. How do we define our urban landscapes? How do we define how we work together as people? What information are we comfortable with sharing and how does that information help shape us? So this kind of not, knowing is a great equalizer and I think it's important because all these different sectors who were used to being very separate are now having to come together and be very honest and connect with each other and say, we don't know what's going to happen.

Erol Senel:

I think you're striking on something really compelling there because you are right. There are so many different things and everything is so complex and how they communicate with one another, or like you were saying, what they choose to hold back, it really impacts effectiveness in this realm. But before we kind of jumped to that, you said that you made this conscious decision a couple of years ago to go down this path of honesty. What led you to that decision and what have you seen some of the benefits are of going down that road?

Chelsea Collier:

Yeah, what led me to that decision really was quite personal. And by that, I mean, I had to get really honest with myself about what I wanted and what was really true for me. I'm definitely a "overachiever". I like to aspire to be as good as I can be, as corny as that sounds. I mean, I was always looking to other people for examples of how to chart that course. And it led me down all these really kind of twisty turny career paths. I've been an advertising executive and started my own firm. I worked in state government and economic development. I worked with a social impact entrepreneur tech firm. I thought I was going to go down the academic sector after grad school, and so I just kept finding all these different pathways that I thought were the right pathways. But once I kind of saw what the best of the best was, it didn't seem to resonate with me.

Chelsea Collier:

So again, I just had to kind of tear all that down and get really, really honest with myself and say, what do I really want to do? And instead of aspiring, I had to go inward. And once I decided to get honest with myself and the natural progression of that was being honest with everyone else around me and it just seemed like a total waste of energy to try to project and not tell the truth. And then as I started experimenting with it.

Chelsea Collier:

And once you tell the truth, even when it's really hard and it makes you kind of look bad and maybe somebody's feelings get hurt a little bit, I mean, not like you're trying to be mean, but you don't please people, but when you tell the truth, you just have to kind of state the way it is and it shapes conversations differently. And what I learned was that it shapes it in a really beautiful way. You can connect with people on a much more integrity based level and it just frees up the conversation and it turns into fun instead of always having to kind of morph to what other people expect you to do.

Erol Senel:

It brings down a guard...

Chelsea Collier:

Well said.

Erol Senel:

... for yourself and also for the person on the other side, because I think that a lot of us can tell when someone's being disingenuous or when they're doing something that they aren't really truly into 100%. And by you taking this very present and honest approach with yourself, you're putting yourself into a position to exemplify what that can look like. And when people come across you, and I felt this when we were having our Zoom conversation, I knew I was dealing with someone who was extremely genuine and heartfelt and is doing something that means so much, and it made me want to embrace the energy that you were putting off in that respect, which I know we all have those people in our lives that are like that, but it's always so refreshing to come across someone.

Erol Senel:

So you've accumulated a really wide variety of skill sets, which is really unique, and it puts you in a really cool position. If we can just continue down that a little bit and start to share a little bit about why it's so important and how you're continuing to foster this very authentic approach to life and how are you integrating that into what's going on with you now?

Chelsea Collier:

Thanks for that. After kind of running up all of these different mountains of getting to my version of whatever the top of that mountain was, and then running back down and being like, "Ah, dang, wrong mountain," at the end of the day, I thought, maybe I can just sit still for five seconds and start bringing all of these people together because I found what I was doing, and just my natural conversations was translating between sectors, academic speak very differently than the private sector and startups see the world so differently than people in government, and everyone has so much to give. And I thought, gosh, if we could just come together, have some sort of shared understanding, maybe we're coming from different perspectives and speaking a bit of a different language, but if I can serve as a translator there, wow, just think of number one, how much fun we can have, and number two, maybe we can start to address some of these really big systemic challenges that we are facing as a society and as a people.

Chelsea Collier:

So that's literally what I've been doing. And that current form is in Smart Cities. And Smart Cities, not because I'm a technology expert or I'm an urban planner, or I'm not a subject matter expert in any one particular field, but I sit in the middle of all of those different areas, and my hope is that I can bring people together because how our urban environments are shifting, there are some absolutes. I mean, you have to have a very, very robust communication structure in terms of broadband internet, that is just a given. Number two, you have to have data in order to be able to make smarter decisions, but how those things come together, all of it is really complex, and we're just not going to get anywhere if people come with absolutes and you have to do it this way, it needs to be a shared conversation where everyone comes with what they have to give and what they're really concerned about and the ability to make sure that we honor all of those different perspectives, I think is our most important job right now.

Erol Senel:

I think when we were speaking last time I referred to you as a bridge.

Chelsea Collier:

I like that.

Erol Senel:

I'm going to stick with that because there's a very important role that the bridge plays. So many people like to flex their technical acumen or their ideas, and they get very married to them. And then they're going to come up against someone who is very similar to that. And sometimes you need that person that bridge, that can hear both sides that has those active listening skills, which are extremely undervalued in society and to bring it together so that everyone can start to work together. I want to get back to integrity for a second. What are the benefits of acting with true integrity? And if you can provide a little bit of a framework around that, I think it would be great for us to hear

Chelsea Collier:

Sure. The benefits, I think, number one, you just learn how to trust yourself. Because if you're really being honest and things, aren't exactly perfect. You just get to raise your hand and say, "Oh, there I go. Being a human again. Okay, let's rethink that." Or you just come to a conversation with more authenticity because you're trusting that what you have to bring is simply what needs to be seen or heard at that point. As a professional woman, I've definitely experienced imposter syndrome. And when you're working in the field of Smart Cities or really any field as a bridge, to borrow your term which I really appreciate, it's really easy to get imposter syndrome being surrounded by all of these subject matter experts. So being able to trust yourself and really love your "imperfections", I think is a real benefit, again, it just frees you. Another benefit is that you get to name what you want, and this takes some work. It's, I think, really important to be clear about what it is that you truly want and not doing that is a kind of form of dishonesty, if you really think about it.

Chelsea Collier:

I mean, yes, it's cloaked in fear because for whatever reason you don't believe it's true or don't trust that you can have what you want, or maybe it feels too ambitious to really name it. But naming what you want is in a sense saying, this is the best that I have, and I can bring this in service to the rest of the world. Another benefit is that you partner with people differently. I've definitely had some prior professional relationships that didn't have that shared value set, or maybe I rushed too quickly into them because I didn't listen to that still small voice that was saying, "Well, I don't know if this is exactly right," and really do my homework and then really speak up when I thought things weren't aligned. I learned the hard way to be really honest again, with myself and with others, and that causes you to partner with people differently.

Chelsea Collier:

So, now if anything doesn't feel quite lined up, then I just address it and make sure that if there's some friction being felt that we can work through that, or maybe we don't work together, and either of those outcomes is okay. All of this, the idea of being really honest and showing up and not telling them an untruth, it's messy. I'm not trying to paint this picture like you just decide to tell the truth no matter what one day and then all of a sudden it's just roses and sunshine. It's a creative process, but I think it's a really important one, at least it has been for me.

Erol Senel:

I think that's the case any time you decide to make a really conscious change, because you're the one deciding to make the change, the world around you hasn't decided to make that same change. So you have to be okay with the fact that it's not going to be easy always to be this different version that the rest of the world isn't used to yet. I think that those three points that you laid out there, trust your instinct, name what you want and partner with people differently, those are really good boundaries to set for yourself. And if we can do that, I think that everyone can have a far better experience when going into relationships and acting more genuinely in a way that is right with your spirit or your soul, or however you want to phrase that, that was really tremendous insight. Now, for those people who are listening, we've obviously covered on a lot in a really short amount of time, but what would you recommend that they kind of take away that they can begin to implement starting now.

Chelsea Collier:

Be okay with the unclear path? I know that's really difficult to do for a lot of people. Personally, I'm kind of a change-a-holic. I get a little antsy when things get monotonous, so I know that's kind of an odd thing to say. But it is the way that the world is going to work, in fact, it always has, but now we're just seeing it a bit more visible. So being in a world where the path is unclear, it gets easier when you're clear about who you are and what you want. And part of being clear about what you want is really naming what that is and asking for it. It takes courage because once you name it, you have to really believe that it can happen. And if you don't believe that it can happen, then that invites a sort of exploration around what's getting in your way, what do you think could stop that process?

Chelsea Collier:

And then you just have to hack it away, kind of overcome what you believe is in your path. And from my experience, all the things that I thought were in my path were just made up, nothing was in my path once I've really decided, "Hey, this is what I want to do." I want to be surrounded by really brilliant people who care about solving really challenging problems. And I want to share the best practices of anyone who's willing to jump into that conversation, and it's literally what I do today. Yeah, I think you can have whatever you want. Be of service, show up in the world, and just get busy and tell the truth.

Erol Senel:

It's really about knowing what your core principles are. And once you identified it, you've been able to cultivate this world and this vision around that. But it all started with something very simple, and that was looking inward, and having certain non-negotiables that you just wanted to hold true. And so I think that's a really wonderful thing and I want to thank you for sharing all this with us.

Chelsea Collier:

Oh, thanks. It's my total pleasure.

Erol Senel:

That's all we have for this episode of Success Shorts. Hopefully you found today's topic useful and remember, have fun, stay curious and keep it short.