Drawers of dreams possess a unique skill set. Very few possess the ability to take something that is yet to exist and sketch it into existence. They are artisans that paint the picture of what could be.
Drawer of Dreams
Ron Huffman has been drawing dreams for more than forty years as a landscape architect and community planner. He has been the drawer of our community’s dreams since 1997.
Ron is a landscape architect by trade, but a drawer of dreams by giftedness. He is one of the most talented people I have ever met.
I was born and raised in Acworth, Georgia. My story is unique in that I have been able to grow up in, be educated in, raise a family in, and build a career in one place. It’s rare and I don’t take the opportunity for granted.
To fully understand Ron’s impact on our community and my leadership journey, you must travel back to the mid 1980’s to the late 1990’s. This period of time was my childhood and teenage years. Acworth did not have a lot of life then, there was very little to do. Outside of schools or ballfields, there wasn’t much keeping me inside the city limits.
When I was in high school, you could roll a bowling ball through our Historic Downtown and hit nothing, it was a ghost town. We had very few quality restaurants to choose from and zero spaces to hang out on the weekends.
In the early 2000’s our Mayor, Board of Aldermen, city staff, and volunteers made a intentional decision to move Acworth forward. The vision was to build a quality of life that was second to none. To create a place where people desired to live, work, and play. The mission was to position our community for sustainable success for generations to come.
To do this, we needed a drawer of dreams. Ron Huffman was the man for the job. Here are the tools that this drawer of dreams utilized to get us where we needed to be:
Listen Well
Drawers of dreams are great listeners. Ron is just that. In his line of work, he must be able to extract the dreams of multiple parties, varying interests, different perspectives, and funnel it down into one cohesive vision. Fragmented vision does not deliver on dreams.
Listening is the Glue that Ron uses to hold vision together. He intently listens to all perspectives, asks good questions for clarification, and hears the heart of everyone’s intentions. It’s not about his preferences, his opinions, or his experiences, it’s about what others need and want.
Leaders get pulled in lots of different directions. We hear competing interests that compete with our dreams. It’s the leader’s tremendous responsibility to listen to all Vantage Points, hear them, and draw the plan for the future.
Be Uncommon
Ron is a throwback, he is uncommon. For those not in the design world, there are two types of plans produced, architectural and civil. Think of architectural as anything vertical, civil as everything flat. Civil plans show grades, utilities, hardscapes, and landscaping.
Ron produces beautiful renderings of architectural elevations and civil site plans. We have utilized his services to master plan nearly ever large project that has come to fruition over the last twenty-five years. I’ve witnessed him hand draw an entire set of civil documents.
His abilities are a lost art. Most designers utilize computers, drafting tools, and design programs to produce what he does with the stroke of a pencil, pen, or brush. Give him a survey, some trash paper (translucent paper), and a pencil, and watch him draw dreams.
We have long called Ron’s process, “doodling.” It’s his process of taking a dream and making it an obtainable vision.
If you are a student of leadership, it’s tempting to want to assimilate into what authors and podcasters tell us a leader should be. When in reality, the greatest gifts that we possess are those most unique to us. Our uncommon talents are what separate us from the rest of the pack. They are the specialty tools that make us the drawer of dreams.
Teach Others
I’m not sure he would view himself as this, but Ron is a good teacher. Since the age of 18, I have carefully watched him exhibit his craft. I have learned a tremendous amount of design and planning principles from watching him draw our dreams. Things I never learned in a classroom.
He was always willing to answer my questions, show me how he did things, and share the strategy behind his intent. His wealth of experience and knowledge has been invaluable to my career trajectory.
We all have people like Ron that have poured into our lives. As we go further in our leadership journeys, we cannot forget our obligation to pay that investment forward. The wisdom we gain along the way can be invaluable to the growth of others. When we teach, we help draw the dreams of others.
Conclusion
As the city began to grow in the early 2000’s, there was a need for a new City Hall. In 2004 Ron drew that dream, one that kept our City Hall in the heart of our community. Two years ago, we went through a substantial renovation of the nearly twenty-year-old facility.
As part of the project, I had a dream to create a wall that featured all the conceptual renderings of the projects we had completed as a team over the last twenty-five years. Guess what…Ron’s work dominated that “Vision Wall.” He was clearly the drawer of our dreams.
The work that he has done for our community has been transformational. There is nothing better than a dream that comes to reality.
Leaders dream, then leaders draw. Be like Ron. Be the drawer of dreams.
Check out his special talents at https://mygasketchbook.com/.
