Planning Progress: Lessons from Shoghi Effendi

This is a practical examination of the idea that planning as a skill is essential to human progress, but that some individual exemplify this skill more than others, and furthermore that such individuals may be able to help organizations move in a more purposeful direction. The book reviews planning theory in relation to planning for a better future, looking at such classic authors as and then explores the planning style of one key leader, Shoghi Effendi, to show how such strategies as vision, encouragement, and feedback can help improve the planning outcomes for a range of human organizations. Other major components of able planning include consultation, goal-directed behavior, and meaningful action.

The original letters of Shoghi Effendi, dating largely from 1936 to 1957, offer illustrative text for these principles. In this particular case, his leadership of a worldwide spiritual community devoted to the principles of unity and justice and yet stymied by low growth rates drew successfully on such principles in order to achieve progress in a series of countries and continents. The book includes practical suggestions for improving the planning success of organizations private and public as well as of individuals.

June Manning Thomas, PhD, has studied and written several articles and books about race unity and anti-Black racism, such as Redevelopment and Race: Planning a Finer City in Postwar Detroit; co-edited The City after Abandonment; and the recent Struggling to Learn: An Intimate History of School Desegregation in South Carolina. She is Professor Emerita of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Michigan and a faculty member of the Wilmette Institute.