Happy Birthday, Chicago!
Incorporated on March 4, 1837, today is the 173rd birthday of one of the world's most remarkable – and one of the nation's largest – cities.
One of the local papers in Chicago is "celebrating" today with a photo montage of memorable and notorious moments. The truth is, we had to stop looking about half way through the show. While there are a few pics showing the city's good side, most of the photos in this montage highlight the bad and the ugly: mobsters, murderers, and mayhem.
Really, guys?
There's no question that Chicago's history (and current reality) has its share of ugly. But this is also a place where the world is figuring out how to live together. Chicago is home to people of every race and religion. It gave the nation its first female African-American Pulitzer Prize winner in 1949; its first female African-American US senator in 1992; and, of course, its first African-American president.
This is a city that burnt to the ground in 1871 and, in an act of hope-filled defiance, completed the world's first skyscraper 14 years later.
The nation's first blood bank was established here in 1937 by a doctor at Cook County Hospital. This is where the original Ferris Wheel, the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, and the first steel rail road were built. Chicago was one of the first and largest cities in the nation to require public art as part of the renovation or construction of public buildings. This city reversed the flow of the river that runs through it in a feat of engineering that would be astounding today, and it did this in 1900.
Chicago is home to 3 million people, 200 theaters, 200 art galleries, 26 miles of stunningly beautiful lakefront, 15 miles of bathing beaches, 36 annual parades, 19 miles of lakefront bicycle paths, and 552 parks. More than 45 million people visit Chicago each year.
The point is, there are a lot of different ways to tell the story of any city – and any organization. The way you tell that story makes a big difference in how people feel about what you're doing and how you're doing it.
How are you telling the story of your organization? How can you tell it in a way that ignites passion in people? What can you say that will help people in your organization fall in love with each other, your context, and your common purpose? What are you communicating to people? What should you be communicating?
Photo credits:
Sculpture, Peter Jenkel.
Election night rally in Grant Park, Kelly Fryer
Chicago Facts: Explore Chicago
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