Just came back from a city council meeting tonight in which “listening” (by the mayor and councilmembers) did not appear to be getting our community members and speakers much real traction.
My best attempt at Freddish for my two minutes of allowed speaking time was to thank the one city staffer–a code enforcement and construction inspector responsible for the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction of >50,000 people (the city itself has a population of <4000)–for doing his job, above and beyond. A real standout compared with the rest of the city Powers That Be.
I am half-certain that, by publicly praising this guy, I pretty much destroyed his chances of getting any promotion or additional pay, and I feel slightly bad about that. He stands out.
It’s going to take a lot of training to Freddish my approach in these meetings. Vast sections of my brain will need recoding.
I get it that part of the success of Freddish relies on tone and delivery. There’s a phrase going around Austin: “authentic vulnerability” and I’ve heard “courage and vulnerability.”
It is just as you say.
Geez I have so much to work on, personally.
Q: Well, what do you normally have at home?
A: Hot cranberry juice. I don’t drink coffee or tea. I just warm up the juice in the microwave. And granola with banana on top and skim milk. That’s breakfast. Lunch is yogurt and cheese or wheat crackers.
Damn.
No coffee or tea?
No one told me that Fred Rogers was like superhuman or something!
I bet he didn’t eat chipotles straight from the can either… 
