The Questions Unite Us

There are so many things that we allow to divide us. We define ourselves by what we hold true and build boxes to separate ourselves from others who hold other truths. Then we spend tremendous amounts of brainpower and money enforcing our truths on ourselves and others.

I believe that we need to change our focus and energies to the questions which unite us. When we invest in the questions the answers will come but at a much lower cost and in a way that there is a greater acceptance because we are working together and we are part of the solution. The answers we arrive at may be different and activity occurs when there is community and passion in the answers.

Some of the questions are how do we deal with the poverty not only in our urban communities but also in our rural areas? How do we create sustainable businesses that don’t poison our environment and overly deplete resources? How to we fairly value our contributions to and in an ongoing society? How do we behave in ways that build trust and respect?

Community Investment

All too often American society in general and its media evaluate activities solely on dollar amounts. We seem to value our organizations on the bottom line rather than their contributions to the stockholders as well as to the community. Who are the analysts who have decided that this is the way to evaluate activity? Why do we allow this behavior to be taught in our business schools? Why do we accept this shallow thinking from our leaders?

To compare education systems based solely on dollars belittles the value of other assts such as community involvement. The costs of behaviors in the civic space vary all over the spectrum. What has become clear is that when there is a sharing of the process involved, the total dollar costs as well as the individual costs appear to be less. Educating our children is so much less per child when the parents, teachers, students, and community have made a commitment to participate and where the community is not in flux. This is especially true in private school education as well as in charter schools. Public school communities where there has been parental and community support and where there is not significant flux in the community cost significantly less and appear to provide a stronger education than other communities.

Our non profits make a point of publicizing dollar donation levels and celebrating the big dollar donors. What of the people that give of their life rather than of their excesses. We all need to invest in our communities but there is less need for dollar investment and greater need for intellectual and hands on investment. It is not to say that money is not needed but rather that non monetary investment is so important and should in the forefront and not be disregarded or be playing second fiddle.

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.

Taking the Easy Way

Why do we often seem to take the easy way to deal with our fears? The greater the fear the more we move to the easy, short time solution. This behavior is not just restricted to our leaders, but also occurs in the followers. Somehow we have stop using our brains to think strategically but have accepted a strategic plan and stuck to it. We have accepted that the ends justify the means.

The using of, what is for me are questionable, means applies in our fight against terrorism; our thirst for unending supplies of oil; our quest for a secure, accurate voting system; our desire for affordable college educations; and our move towards sustainable economies. Yes, when problems caused by our actions come to the fore, we can always say that we did not know then what we know now, but why do we not work harder, think strategically in an accountable manner, and apply some innovative solutions. We need to review our values and not always accept the answer based on money. Let us look at that which recognizes basic human values and celebrates the ability to think with the brainpower in us all.

Accountability

For years Clevelanders have had the same development leaders. In the last decade their leadership has been less than effective as evidenced by the state of the region, especially in comparison to most other Midwest regions. At what point do we, as the community hold them accountable and either encourage them to severely change their behavior or move aside for people who embrace new effective practices?


Economic development leaders are community leaders only because the community says they are and treats them as such. It appears that these leaders are too much into invest, command, and control rather than invest and advise. As a region we need to refrain from viewing the behavior as a top down process but to turn everything on its side so that we are all on an even plane. We need to stop allowing hierarchies to be the driving force in Cleveland.


Let's return to the old Golden Rule; moving from "He who has the gold, rules." to "Do unto others that which you would have them do unto you."

Are Apes Descended from Man?

I am always looking for new ways to make the box bigger rather than thinking outside the box. Here is a new way to look at evolution.

Perhaps much of the confusion arising through the controversy over evolution between religion and science comes from a viewpoint by both on what may have occurred. How about viewing Apes as descended from Man (or Woman)?

There also is a question about what is Man. Is Man homo sapiens or something else? When a person dies, the homo sapiens dies but the Man continues. With that view, Man has evolved from nothing or primordial ooze/clay while homo sapiens has appeared at some much later point in time. Man was created by God but homo sapiens evolved.

Way of Life

“We know how to save the world. We just don’t realize that we know what we know.”
Leonard Sweet

Where do we go where we feel safe enough to tell our stories, to experiment with thought, to express our dreams? Where to we go to hear new stories, to be challenged with new ideas, to be exposed to new opportunities? Where do we go to be supported, be supportive? To find synergies with others? To be collaborative in leadership and in following? To discover what we know and what we can do? To be passionate about our work?

Midtown does not have all the answers but for me there are many places where I feel safe to grow and collaborate. Sure there are those who focus only on their own agendae, but there are mostly those who are genuinely interested in where you are going and how they can help.

My style has always been to build upon the best practices of others. You can call it creative appropriation but seeing what works and applying it in new ways is so much faster and leaves brainpower for other problems. Whether it is creating or improving a website or setting up a new chart of accounts, I find that I often look for samples of what has been done before. However, my style requires the input of others and that is where my relationships in Midtown come in.

I also find that I do a lot of strategic thinking so that when something happens I am not completely unprepared to move forward quickly and informed. I also find that in my work as manager and administrator, there has been less managing people but more managing systems and providing support for people who inhabit those systems.

Midtown has been supportive of that style and has allowed me to grow into myself. Midtown is a way of life. Experience it.