Harnessing the Energy of Fear

The more we create and participate in trusted networks the better we are able to deal with the uncertainties and fear in our lives. Fear will destroy a community unless there is a way to harness that energy and move the community forward rather than backward.

One major problem that we all face is that there are those among us who harness the energy of fear but, rather than doing so to move us forward, doing so to create greater fear and more power to their own agenda. Many in the media are particularly good at expanding negative behavior as it exposes more to their paid advertising. There are politicians who are good at pandering to the fear so as to create support for their misguided agenda.

We need to be able to turn to trusted voices, share our concerns, and work through our feelings. In time of fear and economic woe, all of us, especially our leaders, need to help guide the conversations forward and dissipate the buildup of bile that poisons us all.

Trust in the Digital Age

A number of questions regarding trust in the digital age:

• In the new world of internet communication how do people build trust?
• If I am in email communication with you how do you come to build a collaborative relationship with me?
• If you are a blogger, how do your readers come to a position on being able to act on or respond to your comments?
• What leads me to a level of trust that I post a comment on your site with my own name?
• There seems to be great promotion about how all in the economy eventually will be handled digitally. Will things move faster when there is some physical interface?
• At what point in digital networks in degrees of separation do trust and respect stretch thin and no longer flow?
• Do the bonds of trust reduce geometrically the more connections involved?
• How fragile are digital bonds of trust?

Muck and Mire of Media Manipulation

Brewed Fresh Daily has a blog today "Define Gaming" which goes to the heart of why we need trusted lines of communication.

I think we need to reframe the dialogue on gaming. I was reading my tech posts realized that in a creative economy gaming refers to video games not gambling. There are a lot of people in this area working on making Northeast Ohio a videogame development mecca. Why aren’t more political leaders putting their political clout behind that? [BFD]

The same thing has taken place with the smoking industry as in the gambling industry. Proponents recognize that their organizations have a sleazy reputation and work very hard to sanitize the perception. To a certain extent it is all spin but it also serves to confuse intentionally.

Open communication is how we all work through the smoke and mirrors to determine for ourselves that information that is important for our decision making. This is where blogs do their part, along with civic forums in which we all agree to behave in ways that build trust and respect. We need to continue to build our own trust networks so that there are people and organizations we can go to in order to avoid the muck and mire of media manipulation.

Open to New Ways

As I listed in my blog when I first started, we need to re-envision the box. We need to leave ourselves open to new interpretations, new ways of thinking, listening, and doing. We also need to communicate in new ways, using new methods and new language. There also needs to be accountability. There is a need for better, more, and faster communication. However, the only way that communication truly works is when there is open dialogue and honesty.

Now more than ever.

Sustainable Activity

For years our leaders have been telling us “If you want something done, give us more money public or private. We know what to do and will do it for you.” And for years they put together a strategic plan which gets packaged nicely and put on the shelf next to all of the other strategic plans. Occasionally we listen to someone who tells us that he can think out of the box and will do the right things for us. He ends up making the decisions for us and we gain no capability for sustainability because we have not increased our own abilities.

Occasionally someone comes in and listens to us and our ideas and then goes off and picks what he feels are the best ideas, decides what to do, and tells us to do it. There is a tremendous value placed upon both the people and organizations with money and the money itself. We need to enlarge our thinking to place a greater value on brain power of each of us. We need to value more the individual efforts of smaller organizations working together. We have non-profit organizations that are jockeying for control, growing or sustaining their own fiefdoms. They are spending their energies and monies on protecting themselves rather than furthering their missions.

We need to listen to the wonderful ideas that are being put forward. Then we need to align the ideas in focused initiatives. Empowering all to work together behind these initiatives creates the ability to move forward with lower cost and greater speed. Building trust in getting initiatives done builds sustainability. Sustainability builds a stronger economy.