Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 1235

One of the most profound shifts taking place today – because of new technologies – is that of decentralization. I’ve written about this before, but I keep coming back to it because I find it so fascinating.

It’s happening to varying degrees, but as a general trend, I believe it is leading to better data (less information asymmetries), more efficient markets, and the removal of many middle people. In the past, some intermediaries were necessary in order to act as proxies for portions of the market. But I believe that is changing.

So what’s an example of this? Bitcoin. Bitcoin is an example of decentralization because no one entity controls it. It operates through a decentralized public ledger. And because of this, it has the potential to be highly disruptive to the way we think about currencies today.

Put another way, I see decentralization as a way to leverage the wisdom of crowds. I am convinced that large groups of people can be incredibly intelligent when they’re allowed to contribute in the right ways. And I think this could solve many different problems, from the infighting we see within cities to broader market phenomena.

As another example, there’s something new in the venture capital space called DAO – which stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization . Essentially it’s a decentralized VC platform based off of a Bitcoin derivative currency.

But perhaps the most noteworthy and relevant feature is that it allows its large pool of investors to anonymously vote on which investments to pursue. This is in contrast to a more centralized approach where an investment committee would meet behind closed doors in a big boardroom and make a decision. This would be the more typical approach.

If you’re not in the tech space, the above may not seem all that exciting to you. But I see many parallels between venture capital and real estate development, which is one of the reasons I follow the space. So I can’t help but wonder what this trend could ultimately mean for real estate, design, and other city building industries.

I can certainly imagine a world where the forces that shape our cities are more collective and decentralized in nature. It’s already starting to happen through crowdsourcing, social media, ridesharing, and other online platforms.

Venture capitalist Mark Suster has a great post on his blog called: Lead, Follow or Get the Fuck Out of the Way . It’s a relevant read no matter what kind of organization you happen to be a part of. I think the lessons are universally applicable.

Here are two paragraphs on leadership that I really liked:

The problem with hard decisions is that you can never make everybody happy. There is always somebody impacted or somebody who thought “plan B” was better. Leadership is about listening to multiple opinions but in the end trusting your instincts and deciding. Leadership is about not worrying about how people will think about you for hard calls. It is about being willing to be wrong.

Leaders have well-formed opinions that go against the grain, the temerity to sell their vision to skeptics, the tenacity to stick to their ideas when they are inevitably criticized, the resiliency to wake every day when they’re being kicked by everybody for their beliefs but also the willingness to look at data and re-chart their course when they got it wrong.

In business school they teach you to privilege decisiveness over inaction. They teach you that no decision is actually a decision and that you shouldn’t wait around for the perfect solution. It’s rare to have all of the information. So make a decision and go. Sometimes, of course, this can cause problems. Mistakes will happen. But I generally subscribe to this approach. 

One of the ways I am trying to develop these skills – which may not be obvious to some of you – is by writing on this blog every day. I’m not always happy with result. Sometimes it really pains me to hit “Post now” when I’ve run out of time and I have to get to the office. But in the grand scheme of things, that’s okay. It’s more about the discipline of putting myself out there every single day.

Hopefully this approach creates as much value for you as it does for me.

I just got home from a couple of coffee meetings, an afternoon bike ride and an impromptu basketball shootaround. Toronto is a different place in the summer. And it feels great to be biking everywhere.

But Toronto is more than just Toronto. Toronto is at the center of a much larger urban agglomeration. And our continued success is going to partially hinge on our ability to work together in a coordinated way.

Greg Spencer of the Martin Prosperity Institute recently published an interesting article called: Is it time to create a super-Metro? Here’s what it’s about:

Our research at the Martin Prosperity Institute shows that economic competition is now primarily between cities rather than countries. To be successful in this environment, Toronto and its neighbours need to find a way to erase local divisions and solve their problems together. 

Toronto is a wildly successful city, world-class in many respects. When our current institutional arrangements were forged, no one predicted the level of growth the region is experiencing. Status quo local government arrangements cannot adequately deliver the level of co-operation and collaboration needed to cope and plan for the future.

Greg believes that the answer is a new regional authority that could give “democratic legitimacy to the very important decisions being made for the benefit of the wider region.” 

I’m not going to comment on how all of this should be executed, but I fully agree that we need to think and act as one consolidated urban entity.

Cities are the economic driver of the new global economy, but many (most?) of our governance structures do not properly reflect that reality. And the risk is that we are allowing arbitrary municipal boundaries and lack of coordination to hinder our ability to compete globally.

This goes for Toronto and it goes for every other city region around the world.