Following last week’s seismic US midterm election results, I noticed a quick shift in conversation. Even though the 120th United States Congress won’t be sworn in until January 3, the election results quickly gave way to a widespread demand of “Now govern!” For what it’s worth, the incoming class of US representatives, senators, and governors – each of which include some historic firsts – seem ready to hit the ground running and implement change in ways we haven’t always seen in the past, but only time will tell. But one example keeps popping up in conversations, and I think it has something to offer us in the workplace, not just in the political arena.
The example might be one you’ve heard. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and potholes. In case you haven’t heard about this, part of Mamdani’s commitment as mayor is to focus his offices resources on rapidly fixing small, everyday quality-of-life infrastructure issues to rebuild public trust in government. The way this shows up most obviously for New Yorkers on a daily basis is filling in potholes. In fact, on September 17, less than 9 months after his inauguration as mayor, his office had filled in 200,000 potholes in New York City – a number so staggering that when I was researching this, I was sure it was wrong. And the first 100,000 were filled during his first 100 days in office! The current number of fixes is 3,000 per week, which shows both the efficiency of the work and the poor state the city’s roads were in.
This work happens with real community involvement. Social media is littered with stories of people calling 311 on the way to work to report a pothole, only to come back at the end of the day and find it filled in.
Now, if you’re someone who reads this and feels this is coming off as too partisan, that’s not the point. After all, just months before Mamdani was elected, Marvel Studios’ Daredevil: Born Again showed New York City’s newly elected Mayor Wilson Fisk – also known as the “Kingpin of Crime” and hardly a Democrat (or Republican) – doing something eerily similar. Stuck in traffic, he steps out of his mayoral convoy at the behest of his advisors to speak to workers gathered around a pothole, unable to do anything because of city ordinances. Telling them he’ll take care of the red tape, he orders “I want you to stop what you’re doing and fill that hole.” Gathered onlookers film the interaction, and the resulting viral sensation builds his “man of the people” image that spurs support for his wider agenda. (I couldn’t find a clip of this to link to, but if you’re interested, it’s in Season 1, Episode 2: “Optics“.)
So regardless of your political persuasion (or lack thereof), filling potholes can be an effective way to garner support and make people’s daily lives easier. In our own workplaces we probably don’t have literal potholes. But we almost certainly have the equivalent: daily annoyances and inconveniences that we’ve all just grown accustomed to and we’ve grown to ignore.
What if, in our own teams and sphere of influence – perhaps even just in our own personal lives away from anyone else’s view – we took on our own new charge of “Now govern!”? What if we started to identify and fix those niggling little problems we’ve all agreed to just ignore or complain about? I wonder what small things we could each accomplish this week that might give other people – and maybe ourselves – a better quality of daily life.
This Week’s Tip:
Identify and take action on one pothole problem. You might not be able to fix 3,000 in a week, but you can take care of one. If you’re not sure what pothole problem to address, ask your team. If you want to address a pothole problem in your own life but nothing comes to mind, ask the people you trust – they will almost certainly be able to let you know something you complain about and have chosen to just live with. Needless to say, not everything falls into the category of a pothole problem – a chronic health problem or systemic issues are not things you can simply solve this week – but try on the “Now govern!” charge and see what small thing you can take action on.
Try this out this week, and let me know how it goes – I’d love to hear from you.
As always, you can subscribe to our feed here, or sign up for our weekly newsletter to get these articles directly in your inbox.
