President’s Message: Let’s End Up Where We Mean To

“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra

Making History

After back-to-back shocking losses where they missed a trip to the World Series altogether (1954) and then lost it to the Brooklyn Dodgers (1955), the 1956 New York Yankees had much to prove. The memory of their five consecutive World Series championships was fading, and the Brooklyn Dodgers seemed to be the team to beat.

Rising to the challenge however, the Yankees played a triumphant 1956 season, earning a spot in a rematch that pitted them against the same Dodgers who had beaten them the year before. In Game 5 of a deadlocked Series, Don Larsen took the mound for the Yankees and made history, throwing the first and only perfect game in World Series history.

Speaking later of the historic moment Larsen said, “I was so nervous, I couldn’t think straight. Yogi had to do my thinking for me.”

Yogi Berra is an idiot.

That’s a terrifying prospect – because “Yogi” was none other than Yogi Berra, the three-time MVP catcher that’s better known for saying dumb things than for playing baseball. This is the same guy who gave us these gems:

“Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

“Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical.”

“You can observe a lot just by watching.”

“Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.”

Entire books have been written about Yogi-isms, and a generation of public speakers have led with his one-liners as a means to quietly say, “Don’t worry, the rest of my speech won’t be this silly.”

No, Yogi is a secret genius.

When I first heard of Larsen’s quote, I thought it was a sarcastic commentary on his desperation in that moment, to need to rely on Yogi, of all people. Then I watched the interview again, and noticed that he spoke in earnest. It turns out Yogi really did win Don Larsen that game. Now, I’m reconsidering the hidden meaning in some of Yogi’s quotes, and I confess, one of them is fast-becoming a mantra for your Chamber. “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up someplace else.”

Strategic Planning

At the Chamber, we’d love to pitch a perfect game. What I mean by that of course, is that we’d love to be meeting our mission strategically, to be offering the highest possible return on investment to our members, to be the best agency in the region to build and foster business connections. We’d like to develop increasingly better relationships with local officials and advocate well for our region. We’d love to provide meaningful support to thriving downtowns, and see the quality of life improve across the region. We’d love to offer unique and worthy training programs that equip employees with the skills to do great work locally. To communicate with you the way you wish to be communicated with; to offer benefits and affinity programs that help you grow, and to help you overcome barriers to growth in our local economy.

To do this, we need to take a page from Yogi’s perfect game, and know better where we’re going.

That’s why the Chamber has begun the work of strategic planning. To begin, we’ve gathered the Board of Directors to get their perspective on where our Chamber is headed. Their feedback is turning into a list of things that we need to know from all of our members – and soon, you’ll be hearing from us in the form of a member survey, so that we can gather your thoughts and critical feedback. What are you most pleased with about the Chamber? What can we do better? How can we most effectively connect business and education, address the workforce shortage, the childcare desert, and the increasingly polarized political landscape? What benefits would you like to see that we don’t currently offer, and what does a vibrant and sustainable community look like to you, our members?

Once we have these answers, we’ll be developing our strategic plan around them, with S.M.A.R.T. goals to follow. We’ll be cautious not to bite off more than we can chew, and take care of our marvelous staff, who are doing some incredible work already.

If you’re not already engaged with the Chamber, now is the time. If you have hopes for our region to grow, to communicate better, and to align regional goals, it’s time to connect – otherwise, as Yogi said, “…you might end up someplace else.”