tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64542515049886568092024-03-13T13:42:06.023-04:00Trimtab Management SystemsWe live in a world of huge challenges but also huge opportunities. The capacity exists - within the scientific and social science disciplines - to pull humanity out of these dark times and put it on the road to achieving global peace and prosperity. Trimtab Management Systems offers stragic insights and advice regarding the opportunity that now exists to implement a redesign of our sociopolitical economic system so that that system finally works for everyone.Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-80935843048614694342020-01-29T18:19:00.000-05:002020-01-29T18:19:49.070-05:00American Rebirth: The New Podcast Series From Steve Brant<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "SF Pro Text", "SF Pro Icons", "Apple WebExp Icons Custom", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: -0.065px;">America faces multiple crises: climate, economic, political, and sociological... some of which it shares with the rest of the world. <br /><br />My new "American Rebirth" podcast explores how a Rebirth of the Freedom to Create - which was key to the Founding Father’s success - can enable America to not just regain its former position as "the leader of the free world" but become "the leader of a global transformation"... to a future in which World Peace is finally seen as possible!<br /><br />This podcast series is being created on the <a href="http://anchor.fm/">Anchor.fm</a> website. But it's also available at Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher. I've produced three episodes so far: </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "SF Pro Text", "SF Pro Icons", "Apple WebExp Icons Custom", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: -0.065px;">1</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "SF Pro Text", "SF Pro Icons", "Apple WebExp Icons Custom", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: -0.065px;">. Imagining a Rebirth of America: The Personal Route Out Of Our Crisis</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "SF Pro Text", "SF Pro Icons", "Apple WebExp Icons Custom", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: -0.065px;">2. The Importance Of Life-Long Learning, Including From "The Crazy Ones"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "SF Pro Text", "SF Pro Icons", "Apple WebExp Icons Custom", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: -0.065px;">3.The Most Effective Approach To Planning For Personal & Societal Rebirth</span><div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: SF Pro Text, SF Pro Icons, Apple WebExp Icons Custom, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: -0.065px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "SF Pro Text", "SF Pro Icons", "Apple WebExp Icons Custom", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: -0.065px;">Here's where you can listen to them:<br />"American Rebirth" on ...<br /><a href="https://anchor.fm/steven-brant" target="_blank">Anchor.fm</a><br /><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/american-rebirth/id1494010564" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a><br /><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/7m8eBgyflJNvW6sbfTd0Ww" target="_blank">Spotify</a><br /><a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/american-rebirth" target="_blank">Stitcher</a><br /><br />I look forward to hearing your comments! And t</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "SF Pro Text", "SF Pro Icons", "Apple WebExp Icons Custom", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: -0.065px;">he next episode will be called "World Peace: I've Got A Plan For That". That's coming soon!<br /><br />- Steve</span></div>
Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-8328000716148076392019-07-24T17:22:00.002-04:002020-01-29T18:24:22.254-05:00Russ Ackoff & The Power Of Systems Thinking: My Interview With Phyllis HaynesAmerica is in a crisis, one which actually extends to the rest of the world. It is not the admittedly huge crisis most people hear about: our Environmental Emergency. <i><b>It is a crisis of how we attempt to solve every crisis we face. </b></i><br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_L._Ackoff" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Russ Ackoff</a> (master of the art of problem solving, systems thinking pioneer, and my friend and mentor for the last 10 years of his life) taught that we learn in school to use <i><b>analysis</b></i> to solve our problems. We break problems up into their component parts... find the part that's broken... fix that part... and then think everything will be fine. It's <b>"find and fix the flat tire"</b> thinking.<br />
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But society is not a car with a flat tire. While repairing a flat tire may enable you to continue on your journey, America has a bigger problem: It is "driving a car" in a world where cars themselves are now the problem. Put another way, if you were in a car but suddenly needed to cross the Atlantic from NYC to London, you would die if you drove your car into the ocean. You'd need to get out of that car and into a cruise ship or airplane to get there.<br />
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Being aware that being in a car, itself, is the problem does not come from using analytic thinking. It comes from using systems thinking (sometimes called design thinking). It comes from a process of asking "Why are things not working? What is the root cause of the problem (or problems)?" And it comes from understanding the basic concept that <b>when things don't work, they don't work because there is a defect... a flaw... in the design of the larger system those things are a part of.</b><br />
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There are many crises in the world today, not just the Environmental Crisis. The one in the news even more than that crisis is our Political Crisis. But in every crisis, the solutions being offered are "fix the flat tire" type solutions. Or - similar to the case of a car polluting too much - they are "replace the internal combustion engine with battery power" solutions. But this is still not systems thinking. It is "replace one part with a better part" thinking.<br />
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Russ loved to quote <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Peter Drucker,</a> his friend and colleague, who said <i><b>"We are getting better and better at doing the wrong things. The more of this we do, the wronger we get. We must start doing the right things, even if we do them poorly at first."</b></i> This is true systems / design thinking. It is thinking that leads to developing solutions that are complete breaks from the past: what is referred to as <b>Discontinuous Change</b>.<br />
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I am honored that <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/phyllishaynes/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Phyllis Haynes</a> - who <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzS5V5-0VsA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">interviewed Russ once</a>, in what is a terrific overview of his thinking in about 10 minutes - interviewed me on July 19th. She did this in part because she knows I will be participating in <a href="https://sites.google.com/bzlot.com/ackoff/itinerary" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a gathering of Russ's colleagues July 26-28</a>. The purpose of this event is to celebrate his centennial year and to develop the beginnings of a plan to expand his work out beyond those who currently use it. I have submitted a paper for discussion at this gathering, in which I report on what I've been doing since Russ died and what I think is the most effective way to advance the use of his work. If you'd like to read my paper, <a href="mailto:steve@trimtabmanagementsystems.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">please write to me</a> and I'll send it to you.<br />
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Phyllis and I discussed many things in this 40 minute interview (below). And it follows two more public breakthroughs I've had this year. Both involved suggesting new approaches to significant problems we face: (1) preventing armed conflict (at <a href="https://unausa.org/events/global-engagement-summit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a UN event organized by the UNA-USA</a>) and (2) giving the public hope that the business community can contribute to society working better (at an event organized by NYU's Stern Business School's <a href="https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/about/departments-centers-initiatives/academic-departments/business-society-program" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Business and Society Program</a>). <br />
Here are links to those two videos:<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FxtcAjh5Jk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">At the UN.</a><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NZx6FJzgg4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">At NYU.</a><br />
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I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Phyllis' and my conversation. Thank you again, Phyllis, for this opportunity!<br />
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Here's to <b><i>thinking differently</i></b> about the challenges we face... and to my late friend and mentor, Russ Ackoff. I miss him a lot.<br />
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My interview with Phyllis Haynes:<br />
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<br />Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-51143181525676757492018-09-25T14:26:00.000-04:002018-09-25T14:26:03.658-04:00The Mother Earth Partnership Project / My 2019 Roddenberry Fellowship applicationI am developing a new initiative - the Mother Earth Partnership Project - and have applied to be a 2019 <a href="https://www.roddenberryfellowship.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Roddenberry Foundation Fellow</a> to get the support needed to launch this "next generation" Environmental Protection effort.<br />
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The aim of the Mother Earth Partnership Project is to transform the environmental protection movement into one that champions the positive, hopeful world we can have after we prevent the worst case scenarios of the global climate change crisis. My project will accomplish this by teaching how this "post crisis" opportunity can only be seen when the crisis itself is viewed using a whole systems perspective (also known as Systems Thinking / Design Thinking). <br /><br />By using Systems Thinking, environmental protection shifts from a process of preventing the many, separate elements of Earth's environment (air, water, plants, animals, sea creatures, etc) from going through catastrophic change to a process of also understanding the partnership role the entire Earth plays now and can play in humanity's future.<br /><br />This partnership perspective already exists for Indigenous Cultures around the world. But it is missing in the cultures of the industrial nations, where the Earth is treated as a collection of separate "resources" to be used (and, too often, abused). This abusive treatment of Mother Earth has parallels in the history of how men of privilege have treated women throughout history. Fortunately, this domination-based power dynamic is being challenged successfully by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. My project will leverage and support this movement's cultural change goals to achieve a similar goal for the relationship between humanity and Mother Earth.<br /><br />The use of a whole systems perspective and a shift from domination to partnership will be the two main anchors of the Mother Earth Partnership Project. You can read my application (in PDF form) by visiting the project's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/464675897355255/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook Support Group</a>. Please request to join that group if you would like to follow the future development of this project. Major milestones will also be reported here.<br /><br />I believe it is absolutely essential that the emotions of hope, love, and adventure be added to the existing (and, of course, justified) fear-based motivation that is the foundation of the current environmental protection movement. Fear is a powerful motivator, but it is an external force that saps our strength. Hope, love, and adventure are also motivators; but they are internal forces that add energy rather than take it away. Viktor Frankl, in his book <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"Man's Search for Meaning,"</a> wrote about how the motivation of wanting to achieve a positive future goal (beyond "not dying") was key in how many survived the Nazi concentration camps.<br />
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For those not familiar with the <a href="http://roddenberryfoundation.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Roddenberry Foundation,</a> it is the result of the desire by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RodRoddenberry/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rod Roddenberry</a> (the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry) and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/heidi.roddenberry" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Heidi Bianca Roddenberry</a> (Rod's wife) to support innovators whose work can potentially impact the world in ways that will bring us closer to Star Trek's vision of humanity a) finally at peace with itself here on Earth and b) using its creativity to explore the galaxy: boldly going where it has gone before.<br /><br />This vision informed my life at an early age (I watched the original series starting in 1966, when I was eleven years old) and fits perfectly with the science and innovation based vision I learned at age 24, when I first read Buckminster Fuller's book "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_Manual_for_Spaceship_Earth" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth</a>". I will learn if I have made it into round two of the application process on October 23rd. Wish me luck!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-73394178406177443812017-10-10T19:02:00.003-04:002017-10-10T19:02:43.004-04:00Only Love Can Save The World: Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, a time for breakthroughsIn honor of what would have been my mother's 98th birthday, I published <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-this-62-year-old-guy-has-seen-wonder-woman-eight_us_59b45a26e4b0d0c16bb52d39" target="_blank">an essay on the HuffPost </a>sharing my memory of how brave she was when I was ten years old. Seeing the movie "Wonder Woman" caused me to remember this very painful - but extraordinary, given what my Mom did - period in my life. And the film helped me finally understand that it was the depth of my Mom's love for my sister and I that caused her to literally risk her life to do what she did.<br />
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I have been thinking a lot about the lesson of the film: "Only love can truly save the world". More on that in a moment, but first this...<br />
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While writing this essay was a huge breakthrough for me, the miracle that then happened blew me away! Thanks to the power of social media, Gal Gadot saw my essay and liked it so much that on Sept 12th she shared it on Twitter... adding "There truly is a little Wonder in ALL of us!" 💕<br />
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This extraordinary act of generosity on Gal's part follows a connection I've felt with her, Wonder Woman, and her film since last year (when I went to both the Wonder Woman at the UN event in celebration of gender equality and R.I. ComicCon... where I actually got to speak briefly with Gal while getting her autograph). It also builds on the relationship I've had with the entertainment world in general since childhood. </div>
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That world has been my ongoing source of hope and inspiration since I first watched reruns of the Adventures of Superman on TV as a child (along with shows like Sky King, Sea Hunt, and Leave It To Beaver) through the original Star Trek (so many important personal values lessons) and Batman (so much joy on display from those wonderful crime fighters) from ages 11-13 to more recent series like Battlestar Galactica (again, many important value lessons). The number of motion pictures that have helped me think about life are too numerous to mention, but I share a special fondness for the first Superman film with Wonder Woman's director, Patty Jenkins. I loved the sincerity and personal integrity of Christopher Reeve's performance that I posted this video so people could study this key character moment (which is also a commentary on our times)...</div>
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I have spent more than 25 years working to champion the advanced problem solving methods I first discovered during my career as an engineering program manager. And while I had some success within such networks as the American Society for Quality, the Association for Quality & Participation, the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, the UN Global Compact, and the 100 Year StarShip project (and even got to experiment with using Star Trek to make organizational strategy development inspirational and fun), my work now has much more heart in it than ever before. I have Wonder Woman (the film) to thank for helping me reach into that forgotten part of myself. And I have Gal Gadot to thank for showing me that my personal story - not just what I've learned from the management gurus I studied with - can make a difference.</div>
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At a time when our real world seems headed for an increasingly dangerous, potentially global crisis (not just in how we relate to Mother Earth but in how we relate to Each Other), I have seen many calls for us all to go beyond where we've gone before in our personal efforts to end this crisis and help make the world a better place.</div>
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With my newfound awareness of the importance of love in this "getting out of the crisis" equation, I am now working to add that perspective to how people view the innovation-focused, continuous learning and improvement-based philosophies I champion in my writings and talks. There is a "new design for our world" out there waiting to be seen and then implemented. It is a "design" based on a "love of new knowledge", a "love of learning", a "love of asking questions", and a "love of how being human means not being perfect... of loving making mistakes, because they are opportunities to learn and improve". And it is based on a "love of the diverse nature of the human family... a love of the fact that we are NOT all the same... a love of how that means there's a lot to learn from each other's cultures". </div>
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The thinking "science" of such principles as "discontinuous change" (brilliantly presented by Russ Ackoff in his TEDTalk-like presentation) is still critically important...</div>
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But I believe now that people will never be comfortable using such thinking "tools" if they still live in a world dominated by fear. Fear leads the masses to follow so-called "strong man" leaders (as Trump claims to be). Love leads us to be open to exploring places we've never been before.... sometimes partnered with people we've never partnered with before.</div>
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I believe this new "human social system" design can begin to be marketed and implemented in America first (the land of new beginnings) and spread throughout the world soon afterwards. And I believe the corporate social responsibility movement (AKA the sustainable business community) is the ideal place for this process to begin. I envision a partnership forming that ultimately includes such forward thinking wealthy people as Mike Bloomberg (business), Oprah Winfrey (entertainment), and Bill Gates (philanthropy) ... and mainstream entertainment companies (Disney, Paramount, etc)... but also including entertainment leaders who reach us at a personal level through music, film, sports, and more. Beyonce, Bruce Springfield, Emma Watson, and Tom Hanks are just a few of the names that come to mind.... and the wonderful Gal Gadot! </div>
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As a relatively unknown actor now identified with the values of her Wonder Woman character, Gal now has the potential to be a unique beacon of hope ... an inspirational public voice calling for a future which embodies the broad definition of love I have mentioned above. I believe love of our fellow members of the human family is critical. But I also believe love of the qualities that make us human (curiosity, experimentation, sharing knowledge so as to increase the collective wisdom, etc) is critically important too. And Gal's "brand" has a lot of love in it now, thanks to Wonder Woman! Here's one scene that shows that very well...</div>
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I am working to connect with Gal about all this now. (If you believe you can help, <a href="mailto:steve@trimtabmanagementsystems.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">please contact me</a>.) And I will be attending the <a href="https://www.bna.com/2017-Sustainable-Business-Summit-New-York/#agenda" target="_blank">Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit</a> in NYC October 12-13. Wish me luck finding people there who are willing to push the frontiers of the sustainable business movement!</div>
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Here's to a day when everyone discovers (or rediscovers) that "only love can truly save the world"! 💗</div>
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<br />Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-7576480791208660422017-07-15T10:35:00.002-04:002017-07-15T10:35:50.752-04:00Announcing The Integrity Day ProjectOn July 12th, I posted a "work in progress" manifesto on <a href="http://www.integrityday.org/">IntegrityDay.org</a>, the site for my new project. I invite you to comment on what I've written. I will post again here at Trimtab Management Systems when the manifesto is complete and has been published elsewhere.<br />
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July 12th is sustainability pioneer Buckminster Fuller's birthday and is the day I intend to become a global day of celebration for all things related to transitioning humanity from a scarcity-based, win-lose, cut throat competition, constant war-between-different-cultures social system to a social system based on abundance, everyone-can-win, cooperation (where 1+1=3, 4, or more), and peaceful coexistence and sharing of knowledge between different cultures.<br />
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The Integrity Day Project will both celebrate those other, related projects and be an educational project itself. Its educational programs will be offered to the public, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and governments.<br />
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The quest for global peace and prosperity has a long history. What isn't commonly known is that breakthroughs in the physical and social sciences over the last 50 years has finally made achieving that quest possible. There is much humanity needs to learn (and to unlearn) to do so, and the mission of the Integrity Day Project will be to facilitate the realization by a critical mass of humanity that this is now true. "Until the people demand it, their leaders can't give it to them" is an expression that comes to mind. The Integrity Day Project will enable its participants to be the leaders who bring about this transformation!<br />
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<br />Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-24949993038640268892017-04-20T17:59:00.000-04:002017-04-20T18:02:30.603-04:00Steve Brant speaks on World Peace at Rotary International's NYC Club<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 14.0pt;">On April 13, 2017, I had the
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on a Systems Thinking approach to World Peace. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I want to thank my Rotary sponsor and club board member, Larry Cohen, for making it possible for me to speak at the Rotary Club that's been associated with the UN since the UN was created in 1945.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The main points I made in my 30
minute talk were these:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The world needs a new road map
for achieving World Peace, because our current approach - based on mechanical
thinking, where fixing broken parts seems to be the way to go - isn't working.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I told why my own life’s story
led me at an early age to seek out a better, more peaceful world and led me to
begin researching the subject more formally in 1979. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I explained (with help from
a video of Buckminster Fuller) how humanity must break free of the
fundamental belief in “scarcity of resources” that is the root cause answer to
the question “Why do we fight?”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I discussed how Hollywood has an
essential role to play in teaching the public (“telling the story”) that
scientific advancement now permits humanity to replace scarcity with
abundance-based thinking… the kind of macro historic shift explored in
historian James Burke’s landmark “The Day the Universe Changed” TV series.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I made the point that this new
approach will show the public that sustainable development is about not just
healing the relationship between humanity and Mother Earth but healing the
relationship between humanity and itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And I ended my talk by referring
to Rotary’s “making a difference” theme for 2017-2018, how its history of
working to end the threat of polio is analogous to viewing achieving world
peace as a global mental “health challenge", and how (in the final film
clip I showed) film star Tom Hanks once said that achieving a “power of
cooperation” breakthrough - as existed during the Apollo space program - could
lead humanity to achieve “the impossible”. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 14pt;">Here is the video of my talk:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And here are the slides and videos I used:</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="485" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/673xNU4U9PmN8s" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="595"> </iframe> <br />
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<strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/SteveBrant55/a-systems-approach-to-world-peace" target="_blank" title="A Systems Approach to World Peace">A Systems Approach to World Peace</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/SteveBrant55" target="_blank">The Huffington Post</a></strong> </div>
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Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-79038544451113731322016-09-27T21:49:00.002-04:002016-09-27T21:49:41.407-04:00Why Stopping Trump Isn't EnoughThis essay was originally <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/why-stopping-trump-isnt-e_b_12202546.html">published in The Huffington Post</a> on September 26, 2016<br />
<br />
<br />
I am writing this to say that -- while the election of Donald Trump would be a disaster for America and the world -- preventing his election is NOT enough.<br />
<br />
Yes, America's political system is on fire right now. The truth is going up in smoke. While all politicians have shaded the truth from time to time, just about the only time Donald Trump tells the truth is when he says "My name is Donald Trump." And even then, there's the whole <a href="https://youtu.be/DnpO_RTSNmQ">Drumpf-thing</a>.<br />
<br />
Legendary journalist Carl Bernstein made this "nonexistent truth" point extraordinarily clear, when he said <a href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/09/18/carl-bernstein-cnn-cable-media-have-been-positively-awful-covering-real-biography-trump/213171" target="_hplink">on Sept 18th on CNN</a> that Trump was getting away with a COVERUP of who he really is... and that the media must stop letting him do this! (Can you spell TrumpGate?)<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mtlBU_7dbmQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
But there's a larger point I want to make. Stopping Trump will put out the fire that a President Trump would consist of. We CANNOT have a President of the United States who is a pathological liar! But there is a much larger, anti-truth fire burning across the American socio-political landscape... one that's been burning for decades, if you believe the research Al Gore did (and I do) when he wrote <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Assault-Reason-Al-Gore/dp/1594201226/" target="_hplink">The Assault On Reason</a> in 2007.<br />
<br />
Whether Trump becomes president or not, we run the risk of this larger, anti-truth fire destroying the social fabric of our country.
They say that a problem well understood is a problem well on the way to being solved. Well, here's <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/progressives-deserve-to-b_b_682070.html" target="_hplink">an essay I wrote in 2010</a>, in which I detailed the problem. I called this anti-truth challenge a virus back then, and urged President Obama to be the nation's "truth doctor". Maybe that will happen after he leaves office. Would certainly be a worthwhile thing for a former-president (and Star Trek fan, by the way) to do... because he could not just help people learn the truth about the Assault on Reason... he could help people learn the truth about How Much Better Society Can Actually Be. That's where his love of Star Trek comes into play.<br />
<br />
You see, while there is an "assault on reason" in which people like Trump try to convince us that "up is down" (<a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/03/hillary-clinton/yes-donald-trump-did-call-climate-change-chinese-h/" target="_hplink">global climate change was made up by the Chinese</a>) and "good is evil" (<a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-legal-immigration-20160901-snap-story.html" target="_hplink">America's history of welcoming immigrants must stop</a>); there is also a "coverup" (whether intended or accidental) of the truth about how much better our world could be if we fully implemented the improvements possible in society that have been figured out by the world's leading sustainable science experts (such as <a href="http://mbdc.com/" target="_hplink">McDonough - Braungart</a> and <a href="http://www.rmi.org/" target="_hplink">Amory Lovins</a>) and the world's leading win-win based conflict resolution and innovation / collaboration experts (such as the <a href="http://www.pon.harvard.edu/" target="_hplink">Harvard Project on Negotiation</a> and <a href="https://www.deming.org/" target="_hplink">W. Edwards Deming</a>).<br />
<br />
What does this have to do with Star Trek? Well -- if you combine the work of McDonough, Braungart, Lovins, Deming and an number of others (especially including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_Manual_for_Spaceship_Earth" target="_hplink">Buckminster Fuller</a>, whose pathbreaking work with Gerard Piel, the Founder of Scientific American, pretty much kicked off the sustainable development movement in the 1960s before the term "sustainable development" even existed) -- you get the beginnings of a pretty clear and detailed road map to WORLD PEACE....<br />
<br />
... the kind of world peace Star Trek shows us we can have in the future once we all learn to be excited about diversity instead of afraid of it... and once we figure out that it's possible to feed, clothe, house, and educate everyone on Earth (eliminating scarcity, which is the root cause of war).<br />
<br />
Here's Buckminster Fuller talking about this option in a video that also shows astronaut Buzz Aldrin playing The World Game, which Bucky developed to help people learn to solve problems based on the assumption of abundance rather than scarcity...<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LQ3DXDONKmQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
This is why I say stopping Trump isn't enough. We've got to get the truth out about (a) the larger anti-truth fire that's been burning a long time and (b) the HUGE TRUTH about how much better our world can be thanks to advances in the (hard) sustainability sciences and the (soft) conflict resolution sciences.<br />
<br />
What a wonderful world it could be! And once enough people know just how wonderful.... that critical mass of humanity will demand they be given that world by their leaders!<br />
<br />
We have the ability to create a world in which everyone can (as Mr. Spock would say) Live Long And Prosper. Let's put out the fires that are burning. And then lets build a new world!Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-29745343957215999652016-09-23T23:32:00.000-04:002016-09-23T23:32:03.390-04:00Oblivion or Utopia: Star Trek and HumanityOriginally <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/oblivion-or-utopia-star-t_b_11919110.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">published in The Huffington Post</a> on September 8, 2016<br />
<div>
<br />
Over the years, I have pointed people to a book published in 1955 by Milton Meyer, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/They-Thought-Were-Free-Germans/dp/0226511928" target="_hplink">They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945</a>”, because I feared people in America didn’t realize they were sliding towards the same political cliff. If you want to read more about that book, here’s a <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/8/29/1125588/-German-s-Thought-They-Were-Free-and-So-do-You" target="_hplink">good link</a>.
<br />
<br />
But today, it’s not just a political cliff we are sliding towards (as dangerous as that cliff may be). It’s an overall cultural cliff. The social fabric of society is coming apart:
Dysfunctional behavior has been treated as “normal” by the entertainment industry for some time (<a href="http://choices.scholastic.com/story/reality-tv-messing-your-head" target="_hplink">think: Reality TV</a>).<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-the-distorting-reality-of-false-balance-in-the-media/2014/07/14/6def5706-0b81-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html" target="_hplink">False equivalency reporting</a> has given equal time to climate change deniers and others who live in a fact / science-free world. They are allowed to lie to the American people without anyone pointing out that what they are saying is wrong.<br />
<br />
There is a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/War-Science-Waging-Matters-About/dp/B01F1G6VCI/" target="_hplink">war on science</a>.<br />
<br />
There is an <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Assault-Reason-Al-Gore-ebook/dp/B000SCHC0G/" target="_hplink">assault on reason</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.politicususa.com/2016/09/05/soledad-obrien-destroys-cnn-normalized-white-supremacy.html" target="_hplink">White supremacists are getting interviewed on CNN</a> because they support Donald Trump, as if their viewpoints should be given commentary-free airtime. This is normalizing their beliefs.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://time.com/4457110/internet-trolls/" target="_hplink">culture of hate is taking over the internet</a>.<br />
<br />
This list could be longer, but I trust I’ve made my point.<br />
<br />
We are headed for Oblivion. Not just the political but the overall social fabric of society is heading for collapse.<br />
<br />
And into the poisonous brew of all-conflict all-the-time comes a new Star Trek series, <a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/star-trek-discovery/" target="_hplink">Star Trek: Discovery</a>.<br />
<br />
This is no mere new TV show. This is a critically important cultural development. Here’s why…<br />
<br />
The oblivion we are headed for has parallels in the catastrophic situations the crew of the Enterprise faced time and time again. But through the combined bravery and teamwork of that crew - including often remarkable acts of ingenuity by a crew member or the captain himself - they avoided death… and that’s what you and I need to do today! And that’s what I hope Star Trek: Discovery teaches a new generation of viewers (while also reinforcing those lessons in older series fans like me).<br />
<br />
There’s a wonderful scene in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_II:_The_Wrath_of_Khan" target="_hplink">Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan</a> in which we learn how Captain Kirk beat the “no win scenario” of the Kobayashi Maru test while a Starfleet Academy cadet. It’s a test in which all Starfleet cadets normally get to experience the destruction of their ship and the loss of many crewmates because there’s no way to win. But cadet James T. Kirk won.<br />
<br />
“I reprogramming the simulation so it was possible to rescue the ship,” Captain Kirk tells Lt. Saavik, whose ship was destroyed when she took the test. “I changed the conditions of the test. I got a commendation for original thinking… I don’t like to lose… I don’t believe in a no-win scenario.”<br />
<br />
Here’s the scene, in which Kirk also avoids a real-life no-win scenario…
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/b9dEI-Ru1CI" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Captain Kirk doesn’t like to lose. Well, neither do I!<br />
<br />
Oblivion can be avoided now… by us… for real… starting right now!<br />
<br />
And – in a case of life imitates art – avoiding oblivion today will also require “reprogramming the simulation”… this time of the world in which we live. It will require we consciously, creatively and pro-actively take control of the design of the human social system in which we live!<br />
<br />
Yes, this isn’t a simulation we’re dealing with, but it still involves a programming change… a change in the mental programming we all live with every day in our real lives.
We must design a better system… a better frame of reference for the world around us… one that enables us to win… one that enables everyone to win.<br />
<br />
I’m a civil engineer, project and program manager by training and profession. And believe me when I tell you that the hard science of sustainable development coupled with the soft science of conflict resolution and win-win negotiations can give us the world of our dreams... the world envisioned by Star Trek... global peace and prosperity for all!<br />
<br />
The passengers and crew of the “spaceship” in which we are travelling… not of the Enterprise… but this beautiful living Spaceship Earth (so named by the philosopher Buckminster Fuller but also familiar to visitors to Disney World) can all make it! We can beat the no-win scenario we are being fed today!<br />
<br />
I know I’m talking about reality not simulation, but the redesign process ahead of us is remarkably similar to that of a computer game… once you realize just how much control we have over the “software” and the “input parameters” of our world. In his landmark TV series “The Day the Universe Changed,” British historian James Burke said “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REKRLYoz2fc" target="_hplink">You see what your knowledge tells you you’re seeing. And when that knowledge changes, for you the universe changes.</a>”<br />
<br />
This new system starts with us… with how we think. And that starts with the information we take in and cycle back out into our world.
We have the power to choose what information we take in on any given day and the power to choose what information we send out to our friends and associates. While the mainstream media may think we mostly want to watch shows that portray dysfunctionality and mainstream press may avoid taking sides when it comes to science and moral values, we can choose to take in information from sources that provide information that helps rather than information that makes things worse and to then talk about that better world information.<br />
<br />
And as more of us choose to focus on constructive rather than destructive content, the power of the marketplace will take effect.
<a href="http://roddenberryfoundation.org/" target="_hplink">The Roddenberry Foundation</a> – created by Rod Roddenberry, Gene Roddenberry’s son – recently launched its <a href="http://roddenberryfoundation.org/" target="_hplink">#BoldlyBetter initiative</a>. The Boldly Better hashtag will be used to help people find information about all the positive, constructive things people and organizations are doing.<br />
<br />
I will report more on this initiative in the future. I was at a launch event for this initiative last Saturday…<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ez3b7Qs2mHY" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Of course, those who make money keeping us thinking about competition, hate, and fear rather than cooperation, love, and respect won’t be happy we have made this personal choice. But this is how capitalism works. Those who know that people will want something new, offer that new product or service in what one globally best selling business strategy book calls a “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Ocean-Strategy-Uncontested-Competition/dp/1591396190" target="_hplink">blue ocean</a>” (one devoid of competition… not colored red from the blood in the water).<br />
<br />
But this new system also starts with how we all - as one human family - think. We tend to think about parts of the system in which we live. A lot of people specialize in one thing or another. But being a generalist is very important if you’re going to see how all of the parts of the world currently fit together… and how they need to fit together if the system is to function in a way that enables us all to have peaceful and prosperous lives.<br />
<br />
In his book “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_Manual_for_Spaceship_Earth" target="_hplink">Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth</a>,” Buckminster Fuller said the most general, “big picture” question we need to ask is “Can the basic survival needs of everyone on Earth be met?” “Can we live in a world of abundance rather than scarcity?” He asked this question because if everyone’s basic needs can be met then the root cause of war… the original reason we started to fight many thousands of years ago… the reason we developed a global culture of separate “tribes” in which it’s okay to kill “the others”… goes away.<br />
<br />
And the answer he came up with – from scientific investigation with his good friend Gerard Piel (the founder of Scientific American magazine) – was YES!”<br />
<br />
The root cause of war is gone… it’s obsolete.<br />
<br />
Engineers see problems as design challenges. And when I think about global peace and prosperity, I ask myself “What kind of social system design – one based on abundance rather than scarcity thinking – could we have?” It’s one heck of an innovation question… and one I think it’s time for us to answer.<br />
<br />
Fifty years ago, Star Trek gave us a vision of what humanity would be doing once that answer was found. It’s a vision that inspired a lot of people then and one I believe can inspire a lot of people today.<br />
<br />
The Guardian published a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/sep/04/star-trek--50-year-mission-best-of-humankind" target="_hplink">generally positive story about Star Trek’s vision</a> this past Sunday.
However, this article quotes the author <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_A._Altman" target="_hplink">Mark A. Altman</a>, who recently wrote<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Year-Mission-Complete-Uncensored-Unauthorized/dp/1250065844/" target="_hplink"> The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete Uncensored & Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek</a>, as “(doubting) whether Roddenberry’s vision still appeals today”. They quote Altman as saying<br />
<blockquote>
“For a genre in which dystopian futures and space pulp dominate, one has to wonder whether the thoughtful, cerebral, kinder, gentle Star Trekkian ethos still has a chance to engage and excite new viewers – particularly in light of the tepid box-office reception to the most recent Star Trek [film].”
“In the age of political polarisation – in which the echo chamber of social media reinforces one’s own stringent (and often strident) beliefs, in which social discourse has given way to online screaming matches, in which no one bothers to even try and accept the reasoned opinions of others – it’s even harder to believe that the Star Trek future, in which the family of man has transcended its petty differences, is viable.”</blockquote>
I think Star Trek's vision definitely does have appeal today, as a visionary pull for those of us who have hope things can get better because of what we have learned from people like Bucky Fuller… but also for those who are attracted to that future enough to go looking for the answer to the question “Can it happen for real?”<br />
<br />
I am thrilled CBS is launching a new Star Trek series! And one reason is that Bryan Fuller, its Executive Producer, gets that we're in very challenging times. In fact, at the recent San Diego ComicCon, he called on all Star Trek fans to become more than fans. He called on us to creatively seek ways to bring Gene Roddenberry's vision into reality today...<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wi8x_xHSEZE" width="560"></iframe><br />
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So, we have the creative head of the new series urging Star Trek fans on. And I have to imagine that the show itself will be a big help for that reason. And we have the #BoldlyBetter initiative of the Roddenberry Foundation and the work of lots of other creative optimists out there like me.<br />
<br />
Live Long And Prosper, Star Trek. Happy 50th Birthday!
</div>
Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-15543846399478533692016-07-13T23:59:00.001-04:002016-07-13T23:59:50.742-04:00Saving America From Itself<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(Originally <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/saving-america-from-itsel_b_10941776.html" target="_blank">published in The Huffington Post</a> on July 12, 2016)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We are living in such tragically hopeless times. I have watched the PBS Newshour’s
weekly wrap up with Mark Shields and David Brooks for years, and I have never
seen them look as hopeless as they looked last Friday…</span><!--EndFragment--> <br />
<br />
<br />
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">President Obama may have saved America from macro-economic collapse
after he first took office (I was so inspired by his election I went to
Washington for the 2009 inaugural events), but he has failed to prevent the
further deterioration of America’s culture… a culture reaching a tipping point
that could lead to total collapse.
This is a condition some blame on our history of bigotry. But it is a condition I see in much
bigger terms. This is because
while bigotry exists in the minds of some, it does not exist in the minds of
all. What does exist is the perpetuation
of one false truth that – if exposed – has the power to transform our society
to one based on hope rather than hopelessness… one based on love rather than
hate.<br />
<br />
Are you ready for a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_pill_and_blue_pill" target="_blank">“Matrix” red pill / blue pill moment</a>? Okay. Then read on…</span><!--EndFragment-->
<br />
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">“…there is no turning back. You take the <b>blue pill</b>—the story
ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You
take the <b>red pill</b>—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the
rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I'm offering is the <b>truth</b>.” - Morphius</span><!--EndFragment-->
<br />
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What exists in the minds of all (well, nearly all… and definitely in the
minds of those who currently have their hands on the levers and buttons of
power in society) is a belief in scarcity… a belief that there’s not enough for
everyone… that we live in a Zero Sum society. “If I am going to have more, then someone is going to have
to have less.” Scarcity of
resources is the foundational truth underlying the design not just of America
but of our global culture. We live
in a “you or me” world. And as
more people see how the “have’s” are continuing to get more and more at the expense
of the “have nots”, anger is building to a boiling point.<br />
<br />
Now here’s the red pill moment:<br />
<br />
SCARCITY IS A LIE. There IS enough
for everyone. We have the ability
to feed, clothe, house, and educate everyone on Earth. This technological milestone was first
reached in the 1960s. Buckminster
Fuller and his good friend Gerard Piel (the founder of Scientific American) did
their best to get the word out.
But it never became “front page news” in their life times. However, it CAN become front page news
starting now!</span><!--EndFragment-->
<br />
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">You and I can declare… to all our family, friends, associates, and the
rest… to journalists and other media types… to the celebrities of the
world: “Abundance is the true
nature of reality now!... The root cause of war and suffering… the reason why
humanity spilt itself into separate tribes countless centuries ago… the fear
that for me to have what I need someone must not have what they need… is no
longer scientifically true!”<br />
<br />
For proof of this new reality, please read <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_Manual_for_Spaceship_Earth" target="_blank">“Operating Manual for SpaceshipEarth,”</a> Buckminster Fuller’s pathbreaking book from that 1960s time period.<br />
<br />
I will be writing more about this “new truth of abundance” in the days and
weeks to come. But I wanted to
start this conversation today, because it is Buckminster Fuller’s
birthday. He was born on July 12,
1895. I read “Operating Manual for
Spaceship Earth” in 1979 and met him in 1983 when he came to NYC for what
turned out to be his last presentation.
It was called “Integrity Day” and was about the power of human
integrity… our ability to tell the truth about the way things are… to change
the course of humanity.<br />
<br />
So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUCKY! Thank
you for being a force for truth in a world still caught up in the “big lie”
that there’s not enough for everyone.
Here’s my favorite, short video of Bucky. (Many videos are out there that are longer, but this one
communicates a lot is less than 3 minutes.)</span><!--EndFragment-->
<br />
<br />
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<br />Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-28411227405012135132016-02-24T22:47:00.002-05:002016-02-24T23:25:46.659-05:00What If Macys Created a New 'Miracle on 34th Street'?<div class="MsoNormal">
We face so many problems these days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Education. Health Care. Food and water
quality. Infrastructure. Money in politics. Global climate change. And more.
But there's one problem I believe rises above them all. And that is...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are still trying to solve ALL of our problems using the
same kind of thinking that created them!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Have you heard the expression "Insanity is doing the same thing
over and over and expecting a different result"? Well, our society is
stuck in an "insane" kind of problem solving do-loop. Problems
appear, and we use the same old thinking to solve them. They may look like
they're gone, but they come back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And then we do it again. And they come back again. And we do it again.
And they come back again. Etc. Pretty insane, right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, our problems never really go away!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I could give you examples of people who have gotten out of
this trap... out of this mental do-loop of ineffective problem solving (think:
pioneering inventor-types). But because I also believe "Give a man a fish,
he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he will feed himself the rest of
his life.", I am going to briefly explain this new thinking - it's called
Systems Thinking - to you instead. And then I will demonstrate its use by
solving a problem currently plaguing an industry I love very much: the retail
shopping industry. This is the industry my mother worked in after my parents
got divorced when I was a kid. And, in a way, it saved both her and my life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I hope this demonstration makes you want to learn more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The world desperately needs a critical
mass of those who are problem solvers (hint: all of us!) to adopt this new
thinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because when that
critical mass is reached, society as a whole will take a giant leap forward...
to a much happier, healthier, and safer world. Sounds crazy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, trust me. That's different that
sounding insane!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Okay! Let's go!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Systems Thinking is very different from the traditional
problem solving approach we learn in school. That traditional approach is
called "analysis", and - because we are all taught it from day one -
society as a whole uses it without question. We break our problems up into
their component parts... look for the broken part... and then think fixing that
broken part will make everything fine... only to have things stop working all
over again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are taught problems are like a car that won't run and
that fixing some broken part is all we need to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don't realize that the potholes in the roads (or our bad
driving skills... or a medical condition like sleep apnea) will just cause
something to break again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
that's because it's not always the car's fault.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The car is interacting with its environment and with the person
who is driving it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure, parts of
a car can wear out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But a car does
not exist separate from the rest of reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is part of an "environment-car-driver system".
A properly maintained car driven on properly maintained roads by a properly
trained and healthy driver will not break (unless it is hit by another less
well maintained "car-driver system", of course).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Systems Thinking teaches that the thing that's broken isn't
the only thing we need to look at. We must also explore the larger system in
which the thing that's broken exists. That's because when something doesn't
work it's often a flaw in the design of the larger system that is producing the
problem... time and time again. If we don't change the design parameters of the entire system, the problem will just reoccur; because problems are produced by
improperly designed systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Looking at the design of the larger system so as to uncover the flaws in
its design is called Root Cause Analysis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And redesigning the system is what we do next. We figure out what new,
foundational design principles will let the system in question function in a
way that never produces those problems again!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine that: a problem-free system!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, at least free of the problem that
was troubling us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes a
newly redesigned system creates new problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But at least they're new.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Better to do something new than constantly do the same thing
over and over, right? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Okay. Enough theory for now. It's time to show this theory
in action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let's apply Systems
Thinking to the retail shopping industry.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To most people (especially in these difficult economic
times), shopping is defined as "finding what you want and paying the
lowest price for it you can". That's the shopping "car" most of
us "drive". And the people who manage the stores where we shop focus
on servicing that shopping equation. (For the wealthy, the equation may
substitute "exclusive" for "best price".) </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But what if those store managers saw their customers as
having a larger, more interrelated "life equation"? What if instead
of being "shoppers" they were seen as "people"?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What other needs that those "people"
have might those store owners seek to satisfy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shifting from "shoppers" to "people" is
the start of using Systems Thinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So is seeing the store as more than a provider of goods or services at
the lowest price (or providing the most exclusive goods or services).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This "whole person" approach already exists for
individual shopping experiences (like buying coffee from Starbucks, where the
atmosphere is as large a part of why people go there as the coffee).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But is that approach in use for a major
department store? Or are those stores locked into an ultimately unwinnable
fight with online retailers like Amazon over who can give customers the product
they want at the lowest cost and fastest delivery time?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.investors.com/news/macys-downgrade-amazon-threat-apparel-retail/" target="_blank">Amazon is projected to topple Macy's as the USA'snumber one apparel retailer by 2017</a> "To me, they're all trying to me-too Amazon,"
<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/big-box-stores-target-think-these-new-apps-can-defeat-amazon-161648" target="_blank">noted Nikki Baird, an analyst at RSRResearch</a>. "The younger [the shopper,] the more advantage Amazon
seems to have." <a href="http://www.retailwire.com/discussion/18452/will-same-day-delivery-keep-macys-ahead-of-amazon" target="_blank">Same day delivery</a> is now becoming a
battleground too.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When customers are only seen as "shoppers," price
and delivery speed are Amazon's strengths. What new strategic advantage might
Macy's gain if it saw customers as "people"? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For that answer, look at the larger system of the society in
which customers live. What do you see?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You see conflict - sometimes very violent conflict.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You see people who have decided that
their differences with "others" - be they political, religious,
racial or ethnic, gender, or sexual orientation - are increasingly reasons to
declare war on those "others".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And you also see a planet under siege by a humanity that is only now
(with large pockets of resistance still) coming to terms with the need to
partner with - rather than abuse - Mother Nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a way that Macy's can use this larger reality -
seen using Systems Thinking - to its advantage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You think me insane to suggest this? Remember. Insanity is
doing the same thing and expecting something new to happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm not insane. But I AM crazy. Crazy
in the way Apple promoted its products in 1997, with its Think Different
campaign:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TM8GiNGcXuM/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TM8GiNGcXuM?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A very powerful business strategy was championed starting in
2005 when the book "<a href="http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/" target="_blank">Blue Ocean Strategy</a>" was
published. That strategy was innovation-led "discontinuous change" in
the products or services companies offer. Blue Ocean Strategy swept the
business world (multiple millions published in over 30 languages). And a
revised edition was published last year. Positioning your company so it offers
customers something they never thought possible - but which they would then run
to after learning it was now available - became hot for the obvious reason that
having uncontested market space makes you the instant market leader!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why do I think Macy's should adopt this "discontinuous
change"-based strategy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why
do I think Macy's should start saying to its customers "Shop here for a
better world"?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because Macy's
already says that to its employees! People who work for Macy's already work in
at least the beginning of that "better world"!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Macy's Social Responsibility report (which you can read
about <a href="http://macysgreenliving.com/sustainability-in-action/social-responsibility/" target="_blank">here</a> and download <a href="https://www.macysinc.com/assets/docs/social-responsibility/Macys_CSR_Online_2015.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>) details the extraordinary
measures Macy's is taking to create a more equitable, safe, and environmentally
sustainable workforce environment and product supply chain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also details how these "better
world" efforts extend to at least some of the products Macy's offers its
customers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This essay is not the place to detail how Macy's could
expand these efforts to create a similarly comprehensive assistance and support
effort for its customers. My aim is simply to show that such a breakthrough
agenda could result from Macy's using Systems Thinking to see its customers as
people rather than just shoppers... and using Systems Thinking to see the leap
in marketing and reputation value that would result if what it already does
internally were expanded outward.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Macy's is uniquely positioned to act on such a strategic
vision too. The theme of its annual Thanksgiving Day Parade could be made to
reflect this new strategy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it is where the story of the motion picture
"Miracle on 34th Street" took place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why does that matter? Well, in that story, the character of
Kris Kringle (the store's Santa Claus) is the catalyst for the transformation
of how Macy's treats its customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Following Mr. Kringle's lead, Macy's employees help customers find the
products they want even if Macy's doesn't carry them! The extraordinary amount
of good will this kind of service creates more than offsets the sales lost when
people buy certain items elsewhere!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is "reputation management" taken to the
highest level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while it only
happened in a motion picture, a real world version is absolutely possible.
Macy's could leap forward in the retail shopping industry by showing its
customers how to join its employees in creating a sustainable future.... One in
which not only are products produced in ways that treat Mother Nature with
respect but one in which people - no matter what their differences - work
together in a spirit of cooperation towards the goal of a more harmonious
world... one in which everyone has the opportunity to (borrowing from Star
Trek, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year) "live long and
prosper".</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Welcome to the breakthrough problem solving world of Systems
Thinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Welcome to a future
where people flock to stores like Macy's because they can get something they'll
never get from an online store: face-to-face educational experiences regarding
how to make the world someday work for everyone. This is what we know Millennials
already want <a href="http://www.recruiting.com/articles/what-do-millennials-really-want-at-work/" target="_blank">where they work</a>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And a hint of that result regarding Millennial shoppers can
even be found in the <a href="https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-outlook-who-are-millennial-shoppers-what-do-they-really-want-retail" target="_blank">Myth #3 Social Networks section here</a>...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"The goal should be to create positive buzz, to be
talked about by a presence on social media isn't enough--the aspiration should
be to become the topic of conversation for all the right reasons."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
But honestly, I can only imagine how truly delighted ALL
shoppers will be - and how great the impact on the future of brick and motar
retail shopping - when that shopping experience becomes part of making the
world work better too!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(Originally published in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/what-if-macys-created-a-n_b_9299144.html" target="_blank">The Huffington Post</a> on February 23, 2016)</div>
Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-3877293850573412022016-02-11T11:12:00.003-05:002016-02-11T11:12:57.358-05:00The Past and Future Truths In the Democratic Party<div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
There is an interesting conversation going on in the
Democratic Party... regarding who is being more "honest" about the
future: Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. (See "<a href="http://www.forwardprogressives.com/like-it-or-not-hillary-clinton-is-being-more-honest-to-voters-than-bernie-sanders/" target="_blank">Like it or Not, Hillary Clinton is Being MoreHonest with Voters Than Bernie Sanders</a>" by Allen Clifton,
writing in <a href="http://www.forwardprogressives.com/" target="_blank">ForwardProgressives</a> for an example.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fact is there are two kinds of "honesty" we're
dealing with here. And I'm not talking about truth vs fiction, because both are
true. The difference is that one
"truth" has to do with the past and the other "truth" has
to do with the future. I'm talking about a political system that is going
through a transformation... due to a redefinition of the foundational operating
principles that control its design. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The current political system's design (which is on its way
out) is controlled by Big Money. That's the system in which Hillary's
"honesty" is true. She is essentially saying "Honestly, this is
what's possible in the system we've got." But Hillary is talking about the
system an increasing number of Americans (especially the Millennials) know doesn't
work. For that reason... and because so many Millennials are going to vote...
it is destined to be the system of the past.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The new political system - in which "We, the
People" return to being in control of our country - that is taking the
place of the old comes with it's own definition of "honesty" and
"truth". In a country once again run by "We, the People",
the government will actually run differently than it currently runs...
differently than the way it does in "Hillary's political
system". Bernie Sanders is
living in that new political system.
And he is helping bring it into being for the rest of us. And this is why he is also
"honest". Bernie is
honest about where we can go.
Hillary is honest about where she believes we are meant to remain.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This dynamic between "past and future truths" is
simple to understand, if you're familiar with the history of human cultural
evolution. To get you quickly up to speed, I invite you to watch the first few
minutes of the masterfully produced TV series "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Universe_Changed" target="_blank">The Day the Universe Changed</a>". It
was created by British historian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Burke_(science_historian)" target="_blank">James Burke</a> in the late 1980's. I
watched it back then on PBS, and it was hugely influential of my understanding
of what's possible in the future and what's not.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/REKRLYoz2fc/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/REKRLYoz2fc?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>In this 10 episode series, Mr. Burke showed how our culture
has changed... how what we believed to be true has changed... how the
"design of the system" (speaking in organizational development terms)
has evolved throughout history. That cultural design will continue to evolve
for as long as humanity exists. (It might even evolve to the future envisioned
in Star Trek some day, if we're lucky.) And it's poised to take a big leap
forward in this election, if enough people understand the concept of bringing "new
truths" - the design of a new system - into being.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bernie Sanders' "honesty" comes from that new
system. Hillary Clinton's "honesty" comes from the old. It's up to
each of us to choose which system we want this election to give us. We have a
choice. That's something The
Founding Fathers gave us and The Revolutionary War was fought to preserve. Here's to revolutionary (or
evolutionary) change, my friends.
Honestly, it's possible!</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/the-past-and-future-truth_b_9206396.html" target="_blank">Originally published in The Huffington Post</a></div>
Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-50547938484846734402016-01-26T17:53:00.001-05:002016-01-26T17:53:32.141-05:00Secretary of State John Kerry on the Future of CivilizationAt the recently concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, Secretary of State John Kerry stated that the major challenge we face is between "civilization"and "barbarism".<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fVAgdLi9pw8/Vqf1xuCw6tI/AAAAAAAAAYA/4qUO3xGGVvA/s1600/JohnKerryAtDavos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fVAgdLi9pw8/Vqf1xuCw6tI/AAAAAAAAAYA/4qUO3xGGVvA/s320/JohnKerryAtDavos.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I would add that the best strategy for eliminating barbarism is for our civilization to consciously and overtly work to become one in which we all (the entire "human family") learn to live in harmony.<br />
<br />
How to do that? Start with studying the pioneering management work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and the science-based, scenario planning work of Dr. R. Buckminster Fuller. Then find a vehicle for introducing this pathbreaking vision into your company. <br />
<br />
That's what I'm here to do. If you want your company to offer both your current and future customers (and ultimately the public-at-large) an aspirational road map to a much better future, <a href="mailto:steve@trimtabmanagementsystems.com" target="_blank">contact me</a>.<br />
<br />
Here is a taste of their work:<br />
<br />
Dr. Deming on a transformed world in which "everyone wins". (4:19)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/67B1DZlDTF4/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/67B1DZlDTF4?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />
Dr. Fuller on an economic system based on abundance rather than scarcity. (2:21)<br />
<br />
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<br />Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-29889094002511228052016-01-26T13:31:00.000-05:002016-01-26T13:31:52.514-05:00Getting Back In The GameWhile one's personal and professional life may have it's ups and downs, the challenge of creating a more sustainable and prosperous world for all remains.<br />
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I have been on a break since late 2013 to get past a particularly bumpy part of the roller coast ride of life but am now getting back in the game.<br />
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I invite you all to read about the new <a href="http://www.businesscommission.org/" target="_blank">Global Commission on Business and Sustainable Development</a>, which had its <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/21/news/poverty-climate-change-davos-opinion/index.html" target="_blank">public launch at the World Economic Forum in Davo</a>s this month.<br />
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Why does the CSR movement need another organization? Good question! But with anything new comes new opportunities for fresh thinking. I'll be reporting on what new thinking might be going on and what new thinking "could" go on soon.<br />
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Thanks for your interest!<br />
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"Stay tuned..."<br />
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SteveSteve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-2548240234198694102013-04-02T02:15:00.000-04:002013-04-02T02:15:42.369-04:00Founder & Principal of Trimtab Management Systems To Speak and Lead Workshop at First Annual Fuller Future Festival<div>
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April 2, 2013</div>
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Steve Brant, the Founder & Principal of Trimtab Management Systems, is headed to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale to participate in the first annual <a href="http://www.fullerfuturefest.com/" target="_blank">Fuller Future Festival</a>. 2013 marks the 30th anniversary of the passing of Dr. R. Buckminster Fuller, who pioneered what is today referred to as the sustainable development movement.</div>
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The festival's theme is "Livingry: Designing Peace". And in keeping with that theme, Steve will be giving a speech entitled "Can We Design and Implement a Global Sociopolitical
Economic Shift From a World at War to a World at Peace?"</div>
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But in keeping with Steve's and the festival's organizer's desire that this festival be a place where designing peace isn't just talked about but where that design begins to be realized, Steve will also be leading a workshop entitled "Designing, Building, and Launching a Trimtab for World
Peace Based at Southern Illinois University: A Preliminary Exploration”.</div>
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Complete information about the festival can be found <a href="http://www.fullerfuturefest.com/" target="_blank">here.</a></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-50686486685188559512011-07-26T21:27:00.003-04:002011-07-26T21:44:39.162-04:00The Revolution...Sorry, Transformation Starts Now!Originally published in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/the-revolutionsorry-trans_b_833869.html">The Huffington Post on March 10, 2011</a><br /><br />I predict the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/us/10wisconsin.html" target="_hplink">Naked Power Grab by the Republican party in Wisconsin</a> will go down in history as the second "shot heard 'round the world" which began the second American Revolution. Except, if the Progressive Movement in America really wants to win this Revolution, it will not launch a revolution at all. It will launch a Transformation. The Transformation of America (and, ultimately, the world).<br /><br />I insist that Progressives follow my reasoning, below, because -- in today's world -- the Freedom Fighters (i.e. us non-super rich, non-social Darwinist folks) are way outgunned in a traditional sense. In other words, there is no way Progressives can win a traditional, head-to-head confrontation with the Right.<br /><br />Only asymmetrical warfare by Americans interested in Real Progress (i.e. progress that is Inclusive... even including the wealthy) will win this war. <br /><br />And in my opinion, this warfare will have to be on the order of what Gandhi did. In other words, nothing violent that would give the rich and powerful cause to say they were justified -- as a worst case scenario might merit -- declaring Martial Law.<br /><br />Rather than attempting to "storm the castles with torches," I foresee initially something on the order of massive numbers of people disengaging from (taking power away from) the system. No more buying anything made by corporations that support the behavior seen in Wisconsin might be a good beginning. Maybe a work stoppage nation-wide to begin giving ordinary people a sense of being connected... of having personal power because of those connections.<br /><br />But this People Power must be channeled into doing more than what organizational development experts refer to as Stopping Bad Stuff. Ultimately, this power must be channeled into Starting Good, New Stuff. <br /><br />This is pure systems thinking. You want to eliminate what doesn't work. But that doesn't get you to a new place. It gets you to a "less bad" place, but not a really new place.<br /><br />Therefore, for this Revolution to play out successfully... for it to get America (and the world) to a truly Better Place... it cannot to be a Revolution at all. It must bring a truly new America into being. It must be a Transformation, not a Revolution.<br /><br />Historically, people as diverse as Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, inventor/philosopher Buckminster Fuller and legendary management theorist and systems thinking pioneer W. Edwards Deming have publicly stated that a Transformation in American (and global) society is needed... a Transformation to a new world view based on the principles of abundance, not scarcity. This is the $64 Trillion question. Can America's Progressives learn that shifting from scarcity to abundance thinking is the name of the game here?<br /><br />The war the Right is waging is based on the Darwinian/Malthusian based fear that there isn't enough in the world for everyone. As a result, the Right is organized around the aim of making sure that only those who are just like them "make it". And the rest of us be damned.<br /><br />That scarcity-based world view has been scientifically demonstrated to be obsolete, but it's very rare that the public hears about this. The sustainability sciences have proved that it's possible to feed, clothe, house, and educate every man woman and child on Earth, but those in the know have yet to pull off the necessary marketing effort to make this historic breakthrough the Front Page News it deserves to be. (More on that in a future post.) <br /><br />One key aspect of this science is tapping the free and unlimited supply of energy coming from the Sun. Plants already do this. Humanity can too.<br /><br />It is this Transformation -- from scarcity to abundance thinking (with the resulting design, development, and implementation of a society based on that fundamental principle of abundance) that the Progressive movement in America should work towards. <br /><br />Forget about the talk by many on the Left of a "limited resources" planet Earth. That view is because those people -- when thinking about our energy needs -- are, literally, only looking down... at the Earth. If they only looked up, they would see the Sun in all its free energy glory! (Sorry Jeffry Sachs. Your world view is actually obsolete. I highly recommend you study Bucky Fuller and Dr. Deming's work.)<br /><br />This is the path that can lead Progressives to success over the forces on the Right. While the Right is fighting old, obsolete battles based on fear and division, Progressives will be building a hopeful, optimistic, and very appealing better world that will both create "heaven on Earth" and will take away the fear-based power the Right is currently using to drive its movement.<br /><br />Eliminate fear, my fellow Progressives. That's what the people in Egypt did. And when they were no longer fearful of the power structure in their country, they were able to dismantle it and begin to build a much better country... one that will work for everyone in Egypt, not just the wealthy. <br /><br />We American Progressives can do the same, except that America's position in the world will mean our work will eventually help fulfill an even greater human dream... of a WORLD (not just a country) that works for everyone!<br /><br />Here's to winning the war by refusing to play on the Right's battlefield or using their rules! <br /><br />Here's to winning the Revolution but not "revolting" but by "transforming" (building something better) instead!<br /><center><br />****</center><br /><br />A post-script from the world of business:<br /><br />Business leaders such as Steve Jobs know this transformation principle very well. You put your competitors away not be fighting them head-to-head but by inventing something so new and exciting that you Win Through Innovation. The book <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ocean_Strategy" target="_hplink">Blue Ocean Strategy</a> was a huge, global best seller in business circles, because it presented this approach as well: winning without fighting... by leaving your competitors in the dust by offering people something better that no competitor was offering.<br /><br />I will be attending <a href="http://ideas.economist.com/event/innovation" target="_hplink">The Economist's conference on Innovation</a> later this month in Berkeley. The conference program says "The summit will attract executives who believe in the power of innovation to transform our businesses, our lives and our planet." <br /><br />I will be engaging people there on the challenge of transforming all of society... what Bucky Fuller and Dr. Deming advocated. And I have a public education plan I will discuss that could move this process into the civic conversation in a big way. It's based on the little known 1955 partnership between <a href="http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/disney_article.html" target="_hplink">Walt Disney and Wernher von Braun</a> which taught the American people that space travel was now scientifically possible.<br /><br />Update from The Economist's Innovation Conference:<br /><br />Through a process that required that I "campaign" for support from the other conference attendees, I got to lead a session on using innovation to create Global Peace and Prosperity. This was a real breakthrough in my experience of how people will respond positively when presented with this option as one of their "what to think about" choices!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/23065257@N08/5557267423/" title="P1020040 copy by SteveBrant, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5030/5557267423_e26222b630_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="P1020040 copy"></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/23065257@N08/5557852460/" title="P1020041 by SteveBrant, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5171/5557852460_344549d291_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="P1020041"></a>Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-79353744382625513322009-11-03T14:24:00.003-05:002016-02-24T22:50:36.309-05:00Russell Ackoff, "Einstein of Problem Solving," Has Died(Originally published in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/russell-ackoff---the-eins_b_341349.html">The Huffington Post on Sunday, November 1, 2009</a>)<br />
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The world lost a very great man this past Thursday. So great, in fact, that the only person I can compare him to is Einstein. And that's because this man - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_L._Ackoff">Russell L. Ackoff, Professor Emeritus of The Wharton School</a> - transformed the world of problem solving just as Albert Einstein transformed he world of science. Russ was my friend and mentor for the last 10 years and was 90 years old when he passed away from complications resulting from hip replacement surgery. <a href="http://ackoffcenter.blogs.com/ackoff_center_weblog/2009/10/russell-l-ackoff-management-consultant-systems-thinker-90.html">His official obituary is here</a>.<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Why I compare Russ Ackoff to Albert Einstein</span><br />
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Before Einstein and his fellow physicists made their discoveries early in the 20th Century, the scientific world assumed that our universe was - essentially - <a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_some_accomplishments_of_Sir_Isaac_Newton">a "giant clock".</a> This mechanical view of the universe was made obsolete by the discovery of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics">Quantum Mechanics</a>, through which the universe was redefined as being an interrelated and interconnected series of waves... of patterns of energy. (I'm using short-hand language here.) The bottom line: <a href="http://digg.com/general_sciences/Quantum_Mechanics_For_Dummies_2">computers could not exist without Quantum Mechanics</a>, because its principles make possible how computer chips work.<br />
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Mechanical view of the universe... no computers. Quantum Mechanics... computers (and a whole lot more). It's that simple.<br />
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Well, before Russell Ackoff and his fellow organizational development theorists made their discoveries in the period following WWII, the management world assumed that solving the problem of how to make organizations work better required using <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis">Analysis</a>: breaking the problem (the organization) up into its component parts... fixing those parts (including "those people") that were broken... and putting the organization back together, with the expectation that it would then work. This was also a "giant clock" philosophy.<br />
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This mechanical view of problem-solving was made obsolete by the development of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_thinking">Systems Thinking</a>, through which making organizations work better was redefined in recognition of the role played by the design of the entire system. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesis">Synthesis</a> - the thinking method involving seeing how different elements in a system interact with each other - replaced Analysis as the method of developing breakthrough operational improvements (otherwise known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation">Innovation</a>).<br />
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Innovation comes from looking at whether an entire system can be transformed, not if certain parts of a system can be improved. You don't get from a car to an airplane by just looking at how the car's engine works.<br />
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The work of Russ Ackoff and his colleagues codified what had previously been done by people who were innovators naturally (inventors, for example). Previously, how these people thought was not a formally recognized thinking discipline.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Why All This Matters</span><br />
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If you don't think codifying the thinking used by inventors matters, here's why it does:<br />
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You may not get from a car to an airplane without thinking this way. But you won't get from a nation that is failing to solve the many crises it faces to a nation that is healthy and provides an environment in which its citizens can prosper without thinking this way either.<br />
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In fact, it is Einstein himself who once said..<br />
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"The specific problems we face cannot be solved using the same patterns of thought that were used to create them."</blockquote>
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Russ loved that quote.<br />
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Currently - in the course of trying to solve its numerous, critical problems - America is tearing itself apart. And that is because - technically speaking - it is using Analytic Thinking in its efforts to do so. American needs to look at the larger system - in this case, the larger sociological culture - in which all of its separate problems exist. That is the only way America is ever going to solve its problems once and for all.<br />
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It is possible to solve the many crises America faces. It is possible to not just solve but dissolve our crises in education, health care, job creation, etc. But we won't do so if we keep trying to solve them the way we have... separately. We must solve them in the context of redesigning the larger sociological system in which they all reside.<br />
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And this is why I am urging all of you to explore the life's work of Dr. Russell Ackoff - and that of the other systems thinking theorists with whom he worked - on this, the occasion of his death. <span style="font-style: italic;">There is no more critical thing "we, the people" can do for the long-term health of our nation than to reorient how we approach solving our problems.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: italic;">We must learn to think differently!</span><br />
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Russ Ackoff knew that the true solution to a problem can only be found by examining the design of the larger system in which the problem exists... and then correcting that design to eliminate the flaws that generated the problem in the first place. This "start with the whole and work back down to the broken part so you know *why* the part is broken (not just *that* the part is broken)" is a radical and upside-down way of thinking, but it works!<br />
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Analytic view of problem solving... problems persist. Synthetic/Systemic view of problem solving... problems dissolve, never to return! It's that simple!<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Problems Dissolved, Never To Return</span><br />
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"Problems dissolved, never to return? What are you talking about? If such a thing were true, how come I haven't heard of it before? If Russell Ackoff - and no disrespect intended... may he rest in peace - helped develop such a miraculous way of solving problems, how come he isn't as famous as Einstein? In fact, how can you compare someone who's unknown to someone as famous as Einstein?"</blockquote>
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I'm sure many of you are thinking some variation of the above thoughts.<br />
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And let me say for the record that the nearly 60 year history during which a critical mass of the American public - or, at a minimum, of the American public's political/civic leadership - never learned that this body of knowledge exists is one of the greatest cultural developmental failures I have ever known... but one I have come to understand in the following terms:<br />
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Only when disaster strikes do cultures make significant changes in how they view what they are doing... in how they organize themselves to create a future that's different from their past. That disaster can be economic (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal">The New Deal</a> grew out of The Great Depression) or military (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Japan">Japan's non-violent constitution</a> grew out of it losing WWII) or a combination of both (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany">Nazi Germany</a> grew out of Germany's loss in WWI and its economic crisis - linked to the global economic crisis - in the years immediately after). Please note: I didn't say all such changes are for the betterment of the global situation. I only said that disasters produce change.<br />
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Einstein and his colleagues benefiting from the fact that they were working within a field - physics - that accepts new knowledge once that knowledge has been sufficiently proven. Plus, when it comes to reaching a critical mass of political leaders, they benefited from their research leading to the development of the Atomic Bomb. In a cruel twist of "public marketing fate", the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people from the use of The Bomb - when combined with its unique visual qualities - made it part of the public's consciousness in a significant way.<br />
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So, the world of physics was permanently changed. And Einstein's name became known to people throughout the country... and the world.<br />
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Russ Ackoff worked within a field in which no such "replace old theory with new" process exists. Old management processes continue to coexist with the new. As I related in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/why-obama-must-follow-dru_b_309184.html">my recent Huffington Post essay about why President Obama should listen to the late Peter Drucker rather than General McChrystal</a>, most of us grow up in an autocratic management world called "the family", which doesn't help when it comes to creating a critical mass for change.<br />
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But this 60 year long "failure to communicate"may be coming to an end. And not, specifically, because Russ Ackoff has passed away (although I am determined that his passing receives the attention from the press that it deserves).<br />
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No, the end to Systems Thinking's long period of isolation in an intellectual wilderness may come because the United States appears to be headed for the kind of crisis that has brought about large-scale change in the past.<br />
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As I said above, America is tearing itself apart.<br />
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As <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/opinion/01rich.html">Frank Rich reports in today's New York Times</a>, the Republican Party is progressing steadily down a "road to purity" (led by people such as Sarah Palin and Glen Beck). This will further destroy the already nearly non-existent partnership that exists between the two sides of "the house of America". And as President Lincoln said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I don't care what the DOW does or what the GDP numbers are in the next quarter. (And please note: BusinessWeek doesn't appear to care about GDP numbers that much anymore either. See "<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_45/b4154034724383.htm">The GDP Mirage</a>" in the latest issue.)<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">It's the health of our socio-political fabric that determines whether a nation avoids a catastrophic crisis or not. And right now, that health is dropping rapidly.</span><br />
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So, the stage is being set for when America will finally be ready for "a new way". I only hope that the Systems Thinking community (and its cousins - by virtue of <a href="http://www.unglobalcompact.org/Issues/sustainable_development/performance_model.html">the Performance Model of The UN Global Compact</a> - in the corporate social responsibility community) manage to get organized well enough to offer themselves as the "new way" when the time comes. Because if they don't then some "other new way" will take its place. (Yes, I'm talking about, Sarah Palin. I know she sees this crisis coming. But she has a very different take on what the response to the crisis should be. After all, <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4720440.ece">she's an "end of days" person</a>.)<br />
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But there's another hurdle that Systems Thinking will have to overcome. And that is that - at its very core - <span style="font-style: italic;">it is a discipline that involves thinking differently</span>. As the name suggests, it involves thinking in systems... frequently and continuously... which is not how many of us have been taught to think.<br />
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Ours is a culture of specialists. From doctors, to lawyers, to sports, to politics... most of us specialize in something. Precious few of us are generalists. The saying "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" is correct when it comes to doing specialized actions, like flying a plane. But "a little knowledge about a lot of things" is actually a very powerful thing... because only by knowing "a little about a lot" can we see the connections between things that don't necessarily appear to have obvious connections.<br />
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But there's one person who comes to mind whose 20+ years of talking about "connections" - to the public in a very effective way - may be of use here. I'm referring to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Burke_(science_historian)">British historian and educator, James Burke</a>.<br />
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Starting with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesBurkeWeb#p/c/415CF94FE89807D4">The Day the Universe Changed</a> (which I watched on PBS in the late 1980's) and through <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesBurkeWeb">Connections 1, Connections 2, and Connections 3</a>, James Burke has produced the finest examples I know of educational programming on the interconnectedness between ideas and how those connections throughout history have led to the modern society we have today.<br />
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I urge the Systems Thinking community to reach out to James Burke and, in all other ways possible, to encourage the public to learn this history lessons he has to teach as a way of motivating study of Systems Thinking.<br />
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Russ Ackoff has left a huge legacy. Nearly 30 books, hundreds of articles, and a global network of students and colleagues he impacted in very significant ways. To get an idea of what I mean, I invite you to read the notices from people at <a href="http://www.organizationaldynamics.upenn.edu/od.cgi/ackofflibrary7.html">the UPenn Organizational Dynamics Program site</a>. Or just <a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=ackoff">search "Ackoff" on Twitter</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">But to me, the real legacy of his work is the knowledge of how our society can heal itself.</span> Russ' work wasn't about management in some objective, dispassionate way. It was humane and deeply philosophical... about people achieving their best, based on their individual, natural gifts. He may have talked tough to people at times, but it was a form of "tough love" based on his wanting us all to reach our full potentials.<br />
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As a nation, <span style="font-style: italic;">we are suffering sociologically</span> from a loss of capacity to talk to those who don't think like we think. And <span style="font-style: italic;">we are suffering procedurally</span> from an attempt to fix all the seemingly separate challenges we face without recognizing that they all share a common core connection... and that - by redesigning that connection... that larger system - the solutions to those separate challenges will become self-obvious and much easier to design and put in place.<br />
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A great man may have left us... one who knew that it's possible for our nation (and our world) to be a place of prosperity for all. And he may have even known how to get there. But what he had to teach remains. The question I'd like to ask you to ask yourself is:<br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">If our society could get beyond the huge mess that it's in but, to do so, I would have to become a generalist instead of a specialist... to see whole systems instead of parts of systems...would I be willing to learn to think this way?</span><br />
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I look forward to hearing answers from those who want to share them.<br />
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And here's a one minute video that may help you think this through....<br />
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<br />Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-27959334494517732542009-02-06T15:33:00.002-05:002009-02-06T15:38:56.467-05:00Mountain Redesign: What "Davos Man" Should Be DoingOriginally <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/mountain-redesign-what-da_b_161532.html">published in The Huffington Post on January 28, 2009</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">The Economist</span> has published an essay on the World Economic Forum in Davos entitled <a href="http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13008806">"Mountain Reboot"</a>, which says, in part...<br /><br /><blockquote>It is generally agreed that the system needs rebooting. The Davos agenda, entitled "Shaping the Post-Crisis World", is laden with soul-searching discussions about the mess, from the brainstorming session on "What Happened to the Global Economy?" and an "interactive dinner" called "36 hours in September: What Went Wrong", to CNBC's debate, headlined "No Way Back".</blockquote><br /><br />... and sums up this year's event as follows:<br /><blockquote><br />Mr Schwab (the World Economic Forum's founder) is likely to be delighted that this year's Davos will feature a record crop of heads of state and politicians. This marks the latest stage in the evolution of the World Economic Forum from a gathering of European businessmen trying to figure out how to get more trade liberalisation into the leading talking-shop for the global elite. Although it is not a decision-making body, the true test of the Forum's value will be whether the week's chatter will lead to action. Having led the world into its current mess, will Davos Man and Woman find a way to lead it out again?</blockquote><br /><br />The essay's title -- "Mountain Reboot" -- implies that the system that has crashed just needs to be restarted, like an old computer. This is the wrong metaphor. We don't have a system that needs to be restarted. We have an obsolete system that needs to be redesigned!<br /><br />I wish the organizers of Davos had invited some engineers and architects to lead the "What Happened to the Global Economy?" brainstorming session, because when something collapses on its own -- as capitalism has -- engineers and architects know to look at the principles used to design the system in the first place and see which of those design principles are the reason for the collapse. Replacing those principles with new principles that work... that will prevent a future collapse... is what they do. (I used to be a civil engineer. That's why I know this.)<br /><br />Taking this approach, I see that the current system was designed when the world consisted of separate, independent nations that could survive in an environment in which they competed with each other for dominance of the world (putting aside that some of them would be destroyed during the occasional war). "Balance of power between nations" was the catch-phrase. The current system was also designed when "never ending consumption and growth" (including never ending growth of profits) was an essential part of the business world's foundational beliefs.<br /><br />We now know that "competition for dominance" and "consumption / growth" are obsolete principles.<br /><br />Why? Because we truly are now in an interdependent world (both economically and regarding the challenges we face, like global warming). And because sustainability -- (the wise use of what we have, including the free energy supply from the Sun) -- has replaced never ending growth and consumption as how we now know we need to live.<br /><br />It is time for our economic system to catch up with our physical, technological, and sociological realities. The gross mismatch between a competition and growth driven economic system -- functioning in a world that knows we are one human family that needs to live together in peace (and finally has the technological ability to do so) -- is why capitalism has crashed. Capitalism as currently designed must be replaced, not "fixed"... not "rebooted".<br /><br />Just as you must switch from a car to a boat when you begin traveling on the ocean instead of dry land, our world's leaders must organize around designing and implementing a new economic system appropriate to this totally new world. This is what Kofi Annan knows we need. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kofi-annan/time-of-crisis-and-opport_b_161231.html">He has written "At Davos, our business and political leaders must show they understand that our world has shifted for good and that we have to change with it or perish."</a><br /><br />Perish we will, if we think using an obsolete system will enable us to travel in the new, "one world" waters we find ourselves in now.Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-59494297335412008852008-11-07T00:18:00.003-05:002008-11-07T02:34:50.107-05:00Celebrating Capitalism's Death? Not so Fast...(Originally published on <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/celebrating-capitalisms-d_b_127758.html">The Huffington Post</a> on 19 September 2008 as a follow up to an essay entitled "Capitalism Is Dead. Now What Do We Do?" which was published on <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/capitalism-is-dead-now-wh_b_127016.html">The Huffington Post</a> on 17 September 2008)<br /><br />Welcome to our brave new post-Capitalistic world.<br /><br />Today our leaders in Washington announced (all the details to come later) that the Federal Government is going to rescue the financial system from total collapse.<br /><br />You can read the story <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/business/economy/20cndleadall.html">as reported by <em>The New York Times</em> here</a> and, of course, more details of this plan will come out in the hours and days ahead. But I want to address the very first part of <em>The New York Times'</em> report: the reaction of the markets around the world...<br /><br /><blockquote>Stocks shot wildly upward Friday morning after the federal government moved to try to restore confidence in the financial markets.<br /><br />The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 400 points only moments after the opening, and later settled up more than 300 points. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 was up nearly 3.5 percent. Markets in Europe and Asia also traded significantly higher, with stocks in London and Paris up more than 8 percent. </blockquote><br /><br />There is a celebration going on. This doesn't surprise me. But I'd like to raise the following point from the world of Systems Thinking:<br /><br /><em>Just because you stop something old that is bad, doesn't mean you will automatically start something new that's good</em>.<br /><br />Our government has stopped something it considers to be bad. It saw the collapse of the economic system coming. The action it has taken has -- and this is me talking, not our government, of course -- ended Capitalism here in America.<br /><br />Actually, its not just me talking. Here's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/business/worldbusiness/18rescue.html">a report from <em>The New York Times</em></a> on what financial leaders in the rest of the world think about what we are doing here. They know America is no longer a Capitalistic society either. From this September 18th report...<br /><br /><blockquote>"I fear the government has passed the point of no return," said Ron Chernow, a leading American financial historian. "We have the irony of a free-market administration doing things that the most liberal Democratic administration would never have been doing in its wildest dreams."<br /><br />The bailout package for A.I.G., on top of earlier government support for Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has stunned even European policy makers accustomed to government intervention -- even as they acknowledge the shock of the collapse of Lehman Brothers.<br /><br />"For opponents of free markets in Europe and elsewhere, this is a wonderful opportunity to invoke the American example," said Mario Monti, the former antitrust chief at the European Commission. "They will say that even the standard-bearer of the market economy, the United States, negates its fundamental principles in its behavior."<br /><br />Mr. Monti said that past financial crises in Asia, Russia and Mexico brought government to the fore, "but this is the first time it's in the heart of capitalism, which is enormously more damaging in terms of the credibility of the market economy."</blockquote><br /><br />We no longer have a "market economy" here in America. Capitalism is dead.<br /><br />But what are the people on Wall Street and other financial centers celebrating? The end of something bad. But -- I assert -- not the start of <em>something new that is good</em>.<br /><br />Our government literally sees that the Titanic is sinking. And it is using its extraordinary power to raise the Titanic out of the ocean, shake all the water out of it (<em>literally bailing it out</em>), and place it back in the ocean hoping it will then sail on. <br /><br />But the Titanic cannot sail on. <br /><br />That's because the Titanic that is our global economic system is fundamentally flawed. It is based on a belief that we are still sailing in a zero-sum world, a world of scarcity, a world where there will always be too many people chasing too few resources. The sustainability scientists... and those schooled in advance social and managerial sciences as well... know this is no longer true. They know an abundance-based world is what we live in now, from an objective reality point of view. They know that the only thing in the way of that becoming the reality we all live in is the design of our political-economic system.. because it is still a scarcity-based design.<br /><br />The American government's effort is very impressive in scope... but not in sophistication. It is an 800 pound gorilla approach, involving a huge willingness to throw money at the problem. But, intellectually speaking, it is "the blind leading the blind". It is "experts in the past" attempting to solve a problem whose root cause they cannot see. None of them has ever even heard of - as best I can tell - that scarcity is an objectively obsolete way to view the world. None of them has ever seen what is at the foundation of the work of people such as <a href="http://www.mbdc.com">William McDonough</a>, <a href="http://www.rmi.org">Amory Lovins</a>, or the late <a href="http://www.bfi.org">Buckminster Fuller</a>.<br /><br />It is a tragedy in the making, because they are missing a huge opportunity to truly do the right thing... to take a sophisticated -- rather than 800 pound gorilla -- approach to this crisis.<br /><br />A sophisticated approach.... one led by people who know how to work with the fact that the present is different from the past -- i.e. <em>designers</em> -- would address the fundamental fact that our economy is based on a zero-sum mental model in a global reality that is actually an abundance-based world waiting to be born.<br /><br />As a designer myself, I saw this situation when there was a smaller -- but still very visible -- challenge to the stability of the global economic system. This was in October of 1998. At that time, <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1998/b3601195.arc.htm"><em>BusinessWeek</em> published an editorial called "The Age of Uncertainty"</a>. In that October 26, 1998 editorial, BusinessWeek said:<br /><br /><blockquote>In the blink of a summer's eye, the psychology in America has changed totally. People suddenly don't know what to think about the economy, their investments, or their future. Before July, the U.S. had economic nirvana. Now confusion reigns. Volatility dominates markets. Hedge funds blow up. Deflation looms. The Asian contagion spreads. Russia defaults. The dollar plummets. CEOs worry. And Washington fiddles with impeachment. Yet the economy still feels pretty strong. So what is really going on out there?</blockquote><br /><br />In response to that editorial, I wrote <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/1998/46/b3604078.htm">a letter which <em>BusinessWeek</em> published</a> on November 16, 1998. Here's what I wrote back then:<br /><br /><blockquote>IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY, ALL PARTS NEED TO PROSPER<br /><br />"So, what is really going on out there?'' you ask, in ''The Age of Uncertainty'' (Editorials, Oct. 26). For a more complete answer, look to the principles of systems thinking. A ''confluence of events'' is not the only thing masking the true fundamentals of the global economy, creating this ''fog'' you refer to. The ''fog'' is being created by the tendency to see globalization from a perspective grounded in our history of living in a world of separate, independent nations. The world's economy has become one interdependent system, yet we continue to view it through independent eyes.<br /><br />What's really going on, from a systems perspective, is that a new, single, global system is struggling to be seen for what it is -- a system that can prosper only if all of its parts prosper. It is a single system, one that innately knows that either all of it will make it or none of it will. That's the way healthy systems work. The business world will prosper beyond its wildest imagination once it cuts through this fog and stops viewing the future through ''past-focused eyes.''<br /></blockquote><br /><br />I still believe everything I wrote almost ten years ago. <br /><br />The business world will prosper beyond its wildest imagination once it sees the future for what it can be. Some businesses will have to change more than others to take advantage of this new opportunity, but that's what the best businesses do, right? (Weapons manufacturers will have to change the most, as war is finally seen as the obsolete "international development tool" that it is. But that's okay. The skills of those corporations can easily be used to study, analyze, and produce constructive solutions -- especially highly scientific ones -- to our sustainable development challenges.)<br /><br />This business world mindset is why the business strategy book <a href="http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com"><em>Blue Ocean Strategy</em></a> has been a global best seller since its release in 2005... because business leaders are always looking for the "blue ocean" of "no competition"... the economic landscape where they can operate first.. offering new products and services that do and offer things that no other business is selling. <br /><br />Well, there is a huge blue ocean available to all the world's businesses now. It is the post-scarcity, post-zero sum Capitalism world that is waiting out there.... just waiting for us to reach out for it.<br /><br />I hope at least some of our business and political leaders are in enough of a shock that they will look for new ideas and new answers such as those I am talking about here.<br /><br />We don't have to settle for 800 pound gorilla thinking. We can innovate our way out of this crisis, with our eyes completely open to the true nature of the challenge we face... open to understanding the root cause of the challenge we face. And by understanding the root cause of the crisis we are in - that we literally see fighting as the "first principle" of living when cooperation and collaboration should be the first principle -- we can design our way to a better future... to an economic system that will provide all businesses -- and all the people on Earth - with more prosperity than they ever believed possible.<br /><br />We must not just stop something old that is bad. We must start something good that is new.<br /><br />Addendum: Saturday the 20th, 8:45am<br /><br />To give people hope that society can continue to evolve (mature), I invite you to watch the opening of this landmark TV series "The Day the Universe Changed", hosted by James Burke, which first ran in the late 1980's on PBS. Mr. Burke went on to host the similar series about this history of human progress, "Connections", "Connections2" and "Connections3". Mr. Burke's <a href="http://www.k-web.org/">current work can be found here</a>.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wj9OB3Lq-ig&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wj9OB3Lq-ig&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-18734918696052130662008-11-07T00:13:00.000-05:002008-11-07T00:27:00.552-05:00Capitalism Is Dead. Now What Do We Do?(Originally published on <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/capitalism-is-dead-now-wh_b_127016.html">The Huffington Post</a> on 17 September 2008)<br /><br /><strong>Capitalism is dead. <br /><br />And I'm not surprised. </strong> <br /><br />I'll explain why in a minute, but first here's Capitalism's obituary. It's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/business/17insure.html">the <em>New York Times' </em>lead story on the bailout of A.I.G</a>....<br /><br /><blockquote>WASHINGTON -- Fearing a financial crisis worldwide, the Federal Reserve reversed course on Tuesday and agreed to an $85 billion bailout that would give the government control of the troubled insurance giant American International Group.<br /><br />The decision, only two weeks after the Treasury took over the federally chartered mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is the most radical intervention in private business in the central bank's history.<br /><br />With time running out after A.I.G. failed to get a bank loan to avoid bankruptcy, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, convened a meeting with House and Senate leaders on Capitol Hill about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to explain the rescue plan. They emerged just after 7:30 p.m. with Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke looking grim, but with top lawmakers initially expressing support for the plan. But the bailout is likely to prove controversial, because it effectively puts taxpayer money at risk while protecting bad investments made by A.I.G. and other institutions it does business with.</blockquote><br /><br />Hmm... <em>"...the bailout is likely to prove controversial, because it effectively puts taxpayer money at risk while protecting bad investments made by A.I.G. and other institutions it does business with." </em><br /><br />Controversial? No. Not to me. <strong>Confirmational.</strong> That's what it is.<br /><br />It <strong>confirms</strong> that our nation is not willing to let Capitalism be Capitalism, except for us little guys of course. But here's the thing. <strong>If Capitalism isn't Capitalism for the Big Guys, then it isn't Capitalism for the little guys either.</strong><br /><br />Just like there's no such thing as being a little bit pregnant, there's no such thing as having a little Capitalism over here and a little Socialism over there. You can't have two economic systems operating in one country at the same time, at least not if "all men are created equal" is written in that country's founding documents. <br /><br />Sorry, my friends. You either have Capitalism or you don't.<br /><br />And here in the USA, we no longer have it. It's dead.<br /><br />Think about this. Our government has just decided -- without asking any of us, including our Congressional representatives -- that $85 billion more of our money should be used to cover the actions of (and pardon the unsophisticated language here) <strong>stupid, greedy, criminal people</strong>. <strong>Stupid</strong>, because they didn't have a clue that what they were doing would have such negative consequences. <strong>Greedy</strong>, because all they could see were short term dollar signs in front of their eyes. <strong>Criminal</strong>, because they just robbed you and me of $85 billion dollars by holding a "we're too big to fail" gun to the head of the US government.<br /><br />They should have let A.I.G. fail, because -- if that had brought about the collapse of the global economic system -- that would have just sped up our journey to a point of systemic collapse we are destined to reach anyway. I say destined to reach not because it's God's will but because no system can continue to function when its fundamental design is flawed. You see, the current global economic system is based on a fundamental assumption that -- while it was true when the system was first set up -- is no longer true today. <br /><br />Let me give you another way of thinking about this. If a car that is designed to handle any road condition at any speed suddenly finds itself traveling across the water, it will quickly sink below the surface even as its wheels keep spinning. And, if the driver remains oblivious to the fact that there's no longer a road under his or her car, that driver will die.<br /><br />We are no longer on land, my friends. We are in a car when we should be in a boat (or maybe an airplane). The global reality has shifted, but our political leaders are largely blind to this reality. They think we're still on dry land. <br /><br />More about all this in a minute. But first, back to the US economy...<br /><br />The funny thing is, I've known that a significant portion of the US economy is Socialistic for years. "What are you talking about?", you ask? "The Military Industrial Complex," I answer.<br /><br />You do know that all military weapons are purchased using "cost plus" contracts, in which businesses are guaranteed a profit, don't you? And that literally every weapons system comes in over its original budget... and that those cost overruns are absorbed by the government, not the arms manufacturer? There is no Capitalism in the Military Industrial Complex. It's all Socialism, justified by the concept that these weapons are so important to American security that the companies that manufacture them have to be guaranteed a profit, so they don't accidentally go out of business. (By the way, I worked in contracting years ago at the Army Corps of Engineers. So, I know something about how military contracts work.)<br /><br />Now, getting back to the death of Capitalism in America as a whole, don't be so sad. You know the expression: "From every emergency, there's a chance for something new to emerge."? Well, that's where we are.<br /><br />We are in one hell of an emergency. And - if you'll step back for a minute - you'll see it's the opportunity of a lifetime.... the opportunity to stop using what no longer works and figure out what does.<br /><br />And now I'm going to surprise you by (partially) agreeing with John McCain. He says we need a Commission to study the problem. And I agree. But we don't need a Commission of the kind John McCain suggests we have. His Commission would consist of financial experts. And that won't do. Because <strong>financial experts are experts in the past.</strong><br /><br />We need to bring specific, outside of Washington expertise to the party. But they must be experts in the future, not the past.<br /><br /><strong>And what kind of people are experts in the future?<br /><br />Designers. That's what kind.</strong><br /><br />Designers know how to envision what's possible from the best of what we know how to do today. They know how to take a <em>clean sheet of paper approach</em> to figuring out how to fulfill a particular need.<br /><br />Designers know how to take a system that no longer works... determine what assumptions (or design principles) used to build the system are still correct and which are incorrect... substitute new assumptions or principles where necessary... and develop and implement a new design appropriate to the reality of today.<br /><br />We need people like that... people who know that a tipping point has been reached... that the ground on which our old economic system has stood has disappeared... and that, as a result, the old system is totally dysfunctional. But at the same time, these experts must know how functional - how <em>elegantly functional</em> - our new economic system can be!<br /><br />We have a chance for something new... something beautiful... to emerge from this emergency! But to do this, <strong>we need people who understand how to take a culture through a Great Transition...</strong> a transition based on recognizing we're no longer on dry land, as I mentioned above.<br /><br />So, if we are no longer on dry land, where are we?<br /><br />Well, the "dry land" of the past is the zero-sum, fixed pie, scarcity of resources based economic model that has existed since the beginning... since the time when two groups of cave dwellers fought over a watering hole that contained enough water for only one group to survive. Humanity has been on that "dry land" for a long, long time. But science and technology - including the power to capture limitless amounts of energy from the Sun - has progressed to the point where we can live in a society based on an economic systems based on abundance (not scarcity).<br /><br />A world where it's possible for all survival needs to be met. That's where we live now. Call it water or air, it's definitely not the dry land of the past.<br /><br />And that's why Capitalism has died. Because it is a system that is compelled to try and make more and more money based on Darwinian principles that are no longer true. They were true when Capitalism was created, but they are obsolete now. This death was inevitable, because the mismatch between the world Wall Street thinks exists and the world that really exists is so fundamental... the methods needed to continue making money in a world of the past had become so complicated... that self destruction was only a matter of time.<br /><br />If the universe is a giant clock, you can only last for so long if you don't work the machinery the way it's designed to work. You will blow up the clock if you don't change what you're doing.<br /><br />"Oh, but humanity can never learn to stop fighting with itself," some people might say. "That's a fundamental part of how things work too."<br /><br />"Really? Is a baby born wanting to fight? Is it born wanting to kill others of its own kind? No, fighting is a learned response," I say in return.<br /><br />A big job? Yes, making this change will be a big job. But with the death of Capitalism, we have been given a great opportunity to take the first steps.<br /><br />And with the choice of Barack Obama -- a man who knows cross-cultural, systemic, and bi-partisan issues and who does not see the world through <em>warrior eyes</em> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZCISY40qns">as John McCain does</a> - we have the opportunity to take a huge step (politically) in the direction of making this change.<br /><br />But it's going to take more than electing Barack Obama to support the rise of a New Economics from Capitalism's grave. Barack has said this election has never been about him. And he is right. We must all contribute to this process, by learning what a post-scarcity-based world can be like, including the interpersonal skills of "interdependent living" such as those in the classic book <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People">"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People"</a> by Stephen R. Covey.<br /><br />Beyond the personal, I suggest you study the works of two masters of large-scale systemic change: Drs. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming">W. Edwards Deming</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_L._Ackoff">Russell Ackoff</a>. They developed much of the management theory needed to organize such a transformation. Dr. Deming's last book was called "<a href="http://maaw.info/ArticleSummaries/ArtSumDeming93.htm">The New Economics</a>". And Dr. Ackoff's recent book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Idealized-Design-Dissolve-Tomorrows-Crisis-Today/dp/0131963635">Idealized Design</a>" is the other book I would start with as. <br /><br />In the popular jargon of my friend Renee Mauborgne's book "<a href="http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/">Blue Ocean Strategy</a>" (co-authored by W. Chan Kim), what I am suggesting is that the death of Capitalism gives us the opportunity to develop and implement a Blue Ocean Strategy for America's sociopolitical economic system. <br /><strong><br />This will be a sociological change as much as it is a financial system change.</strong> Humanity has lived in a "you or me" world for many, many centuries. Changing to a "you and me" world (as <a href="http://www.bfi.org">Buckminster Fuller</a> used to call it) will be the great adventure of the 21st Century.<br /><strong><br />Thanks to the death of Capitalism, that adventure is an idea whose time has come.</strong> Let's look for leaders who understand the need to figure out how to live in this new world. Leaders like Barack Obama. And leaders (hopefully) like the person you see in the mirror every morning.<br />---------------------<br />Addendum: 10:30am Eastern<br /><br />As I think about AIG saying "We're too big to fail" to the Feds, I am reminded of America's long-standing policy not to negotiate with terrorists. Well, it sure feels as if the Feds have just agreed to the demands of certain financial terrorists: people who threatened to destroy our way of life if they weren't paid $85 billion. Disgraceful... and further proof that the America we think we live in... an America of ethical, Capitalistic principles no longer exists. If AIG needed $85 billion, they should have held a big charity event and asked the American people for the money... not taken it from us by using threats of the harm they would create if they didn't get it.<br /><br />Addendum 2: 12:15pm Eastern<br /><br />While I responded right after a specific comment, I'll state it here so it's clearly visible to everyone. I am <strong>not</strong> advocating Socialism replace Capitalism in America. I say Socialism already exists in portions of our society, but that does not mean I think it is the solution. The solution I am advocating is a New Economics designed by people who know how to take a "clean sheet of paper" approach to problem solving.. and who will develop an economic model appropriate to an abundance-based (rather than scarcity, zero-sum based) world view. This new economic model has no name because it has not been invented yet. The closest thing I've seen to what this might look like is the concept of <a href="http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/GPG%252f.aspx">Developmental Economics</a> as described by systems thinking experts such as Dr. Russell Ackoff.<br /><br />I hope this clarifies things for you all.Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-10237484691031396672008-06-26T07:34:00.000-04:002008-06-26T19:15:41.784-04:00How on Earth can we have fun living together?I am writing this on the opening day of the 2008 <a href="http://www.tallbergfoundation.org">Tallberg Forum</a>, which takes place in the resort village of Tallberg, Sweden each year.<br /><br />The overarching question created by those involved in this forum to date is "How on Earth can we live together?" The status of the ability to answer that question was stated (at the end of the 2007 Forum) as follows...<br /><br />"Do we know what to do? Probably yes. Will we do it? Probably not."<br /><br />"We know how to be economical, to live in harmony with those closest to us and our community. We know how to cultivate our lands to sustain nature's ecological balances. We know how to stay out of trouble and protect our homes and livelihoods."<br /><br />From my perspective as a student of three of history's greatest Systems Thinkers (Drs. R. Buckminster Fuller, W. Edwards Deming, and Russell L. Ackoff), I believe the complete statement of the challenge humanity faces can be found by looking at what is missing in the statements above.<br /><br />What is missing is this:<br /><br />By saying we know how to live in harmony with those closest to us, what is left out is that we do NOT know how to live in harmony with everyone on planet Earth. In other words, the global "human family" does NOT know how to stop fighting with itself. It is a family at war... a condition that strikes family members even within what we traditionally define as a "family". And - just as traditional families benefit from reconciling their differences - the "family of man" would benefit tremendously if it were to finally reconcile its differences.<br /><br />I do not know why the Tallberg statements from 2007 leave out the need for the human family to come together as one... to stop the fighting... but this is a Critical Need is we are all ever going to "... learn to live together."<br /><br />What is also missing from these 2007 statements if fun. That's right... fun.<br /><br />I will update this essay later on that last topic and more, but it is time for the formal program to begin.<br /><br />If any of you who are reading this are also at Tallberg, please look for me. We've got a lot to talk about! :)<br /><br />And if you're not here in Tallberg, please contact me if you'd like to talk about this too.Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-11602260240474309352007-09-11T13:58:00.000-04:002007-09-13T02:18:14.847-04:00Six Years After 9/11: What Have We Learned? What Could We Still Learn?Six years ago I watched the World Trade Center's collapse from my Brooklyn apartment. I went out to vote that day (an election that was ultimately re-scheduled) and the smell of burning plastic filled the air even though I lived miles from the site. From this picture taken from Earth orbit, I can see why...<br /><br />The wind carried the smoke right over my part of Brooklyn.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_B3hC0bBGecA/RucQ8QCAOOI/AAAAAAAAABE/gScIG0w8QK8/s1600-h/WTC_BurningFromSpace.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_B3hC0bBGecA/RucQ8QCAOOI/AAAAAAAAABE/gScIG0w8QK8/s320/WTC_BurningFromSpace.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109070929556682978" /></a><br /><br />I had lived with the WTC ever since 1976 - when I got out of college - because I worked in lower Manhattan at 26 Federal Plaza and my office windows faced South. In fact, each fall my office mates and I would wait for just the right days when the path of the setting Sun would take it right between the twin towers... an amazing thing to see.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_B3hC0bBGecA/RucRrACAOPI/AAAAAAAAABM/9UfPBehDpX4/s1600-h/WTC_SunsetBetween.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_B3hC0bBGecA/RucRrACAOPI/AAAAAAAAABM/9UfPBehDpX4/s320/WTC_SunsetBetween.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109071732715567346" /></a><br />A beautiful image that combined the best of the natural and man-made worlds.<br /><br />After living in Brooklyn for 15 years, believe it or not I was scheduled to move back to Manhattan on September 15, 2001. I give my moving company (<a href="http://www.shleppers.com/">Shleppers Moving & Storage</a>) a lot of credit for making the move happen on the originally agreed upon date despite all that had happened (and with needing to find a route from Brooklyn to mid-town Manhattan that was passable). Here's a picture of lower Manhattan that I took as I crossed over the East River on my moving day. You can see the smoke from the still-burning World Trade Center site.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_B3hC0bBGecA/RucSUgCAOQI/AAAAAAAAABU/p61RjV-LvFc/s1600-h/WTC_91501.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_B3hC0bBGecA/RucSUgCAOQI/AAAAAAAAABU/p61RjV-LvFc/s320/WTC_91501.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109072445680138498" /></a><br /><br />In the weeks after the attack, as all Americans struggled with "What do we do now?" questions, I was fortunate to have my thoughts on the subject published twice as letters to the editor of The New York Times (something I've been able to do about 10 times over the years). <br /><br />On September 27th, I wrote that our capitalistic society - starting with the philosophy for redeveloping lower Manhattan - should aim to put <span style="font-style:italic;">compassion</span> at the center of a re-imagined core.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_B3hC0bBGecA/RucWUACAOTI/AAAAAAAAABo/j_g2lJsoVX8/s1600-h/NYTLtr_MonumentToTowersOfPain.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_B3hC0bBGecA/RucWUACAOTI/AAAAAAAAABo/j_g2lJsoVX8/s400/NYTLtr_MonumentToTowersOfPain.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109076835136715058" /></a><br /><br />And on November 19th, I wrote that plans for redeveloping lower Manhattan should help people think clearly about the nature of the world both before and after 9/11.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_B3hC0bBGecA/RucXVACAOUI/AAAAAAAAABw/eGD_JrIf8QM/s1600-h/NYTLtr_AFittingMemorial.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_B3hC0bBGecA/RucXVACAOUI/AAAAAAAAABw/eGD_JrIf8QM/s400/NYTLtr_AFittingMemorial.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109077951828212034" /></a><br /><br />So, what have we learned since 9/11? And what could we still learn?<br /><br />Well, I'll invite you form your own opinion about the plans to redevelop lower Manhattan by helping you visit the site for the planning organization, "RenewNYC.com". You can <a href="http://www.renewnyc.com/AboutUs/index.asp">visit RenewNYC.com here</a>. The memorial itself has as its theme <span style="font-style:italic;">Reflecting Absence</span> and is described this way:<br /><br />"Reflecting Absence is the memorial to honor the 2,979 heroes lost in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993. The memorial will ensure that future generations will know where the towers once stood and will never forget each individual life taken during those tragic days. The memorial will be a place for families and friends to remember, a final resting place for those who have not been identified, and a place where thousands will come to reflect upon and share our personal and collective loss.... The memorial will not only remember those killed, but it will celebrate the heroism that prevailed following the attacks, and the resolve of our nation to overcome."<br /><br />The phrase "the resolve of our nation to overcome" is appropriately therapeutic but misses the critical element that to truly move on from tragedy one needs to commit to a purpose that is future focused. Perhaps one that respects the lives of those who died by reflecting what they wanted to accomplish in their lives, but still one that is future focused. Without that, one remains psychologically "stuck" in the past forever.<br /><br />This is something that Mayor Michael Bloomberg apparently recognizes himself. You can read about how Mayor Bloomberg is - in the words of The New York Times - "(playing) an essential if more subtle role in nudging the city to gradually let go of its grief. It is a challenge the mayor has handled sometimes clumsily and sometimes with great sensitivity and eloquence, as he charted the path away from the concrete events of 2001. Now, as he works to imbue the city with optimism for the future, he even hints at a day when remembering may not mean reading the names of all the dead." <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/nyregion/11bloomberg-1.html">here</a>.<br /><br />This article also quotes Mayor Bloomberg as saying (after the first 9/11 anniversary) "I think the Jews do it right. They have a headstone unveiling a year after the funeral, and that’s sort of the time that you sort of stop the mourning process and start going forward. And the 9/11 ceremonies, what I’m trying to do is that in the morning we will look back, remember who they were and why they died. And in the evening come out of it looking forward and say, ‘O.K., we’re going to go forward.’"<br /><br />"Go forward." If only those redeveloping lower Manhattan knew this concept well enough to make "Ground Zero" and its vicinity an area that called to all Americans... and the people of the world... to make capitalism more compassionate. Well, I'm an optimist. Perhaps that will happen some day. <span style="font-style:italic;">(Read on for how I believe that can happen.)</span><br /><br />There is one thing in RenewNYC.com's plans that does focus on the future - and in a very significant way, too. It is the development organization's commitment to <a href="http://www.renewnyc.com/plan_des_dev/construction_guidelines.asp">"green" building design and construction principles</a>. That is a great commitment, but it has no direct connection to the question of whether the future we create will be one in which terrorists either stop or continue to attack us. It will, however, save energy and provide a healthier work environment for the people in these buildings. And that's a good thing.<br /><br />So, one thing we've learned since 9/11 is that those entrusted with formulating redevelopment plans in the face of a national catastrophe tend to do so by looking backward rather than forward. And the result is an increased potential that we will remain emotionally stuck in the past... not a good thing. In my opinion, there is nothing about the redevelopment of lower Manhattan or the World Trade Center memorial itself that will help the public think critically about what type of society we should be building in the future. <br /><br />Although if Mayor Bloomberg had been in charge, there's at least a chance the memorial would have been forward and future focused.<br /><br />Now, regarding my call for <span style="font-style:italic;">Compassionate Capitalism</span>, we only have to look as far as <a href="http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine">Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine"</a> to show us how far capitalism is from being what one could even begin to call "compassionate". (If you haven't watched the short documentary made in conjunction with her new book, I highly recommend you <a href="http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/short-film">do so here</a>.)<br /><br />"The Shock Doctrine" describes how entire societies have been taken advantage of (one might even call it "cultural rape") by those entrusted with leading them out of danger. Whether the danger is economic or security related, when it strikes there exists a conscious effort on the part of members of the business and political classes to push through changes in "the rules of the game" that make it much more possible for certain wealthy people to get wealthier and more powerful while the rest of us get poorer and less powerful. <br /><br />When matched against the rules of society, this is serious, immoral and illegal stuff. And to the degree that it is happening in America (and it is, but Naomi Klein's work talks about other countries as well), then those responsible should be tried for their "high crimes and..." Well, you get my drift.<br /><br />Unfortunately, it has become increasingly clear that the George W. "<a href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/101704A.shtml">we create our own reality</a>" Bush administration cares very little about the Rule of Law. It cares about the <span style="font-style:italic;">Golden Rule</span> ("He who has the gold rules.") And those businesses - and business leaders - who finance and otherwise support the Bush administration's activities and the activities of those politicians (both Democrats and Republicans) who keep this systems in place also live according to this most twisted of "golden rules". As I say, they should be put on trial for their crimes against the system created by <a href="http://www.foundingfathers.info/">The Founding Fathers</a>.<br /><br />(Can you imagine what it would be like if our nation's business and political leaders - who so frequently refer to their religious beliefs - lived in accordance with the <span style="font-style:italic;">real</span> <a href="http://www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm">Golden Rule</a>? Why, we've live in a totally transformed world! But I digress. Sorry.)<br /><br />John Dean has just written a fascinating new book, "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Government-Republican-Destroyed-Legislative/dp/0670018201">Broken Government</a>", in which - along with many other things - he discusses the role the Democrats play in keeping this illegal, immoral, and dysfunction system going. In an article Dean wrote called "Defeating Dysfunction" to promote his book, he says "Democrats criticize Republican policies, but they ignore the persistent abuses of process that have become normal Republican political behavior. Democratic distaste for addressing process issues first came to my attention following the 2004 presidential campaign, when I spoke to one of Senator John Kerry's top advisers. I was curious why Kerry had not pressed President Bush about the excessive secrecy he and Vice President Cheney had imposed on their administration... Kerry's adviser told me the campaign had not addressed this concern because "secrecy is a process issue." Process, apparently, was an area where the Democratic candidate did not go."<br /><br />Dean goes on to say that "the current inside-the-Beltway wisdom holds that the public is not interested in process. In fact, empirical data show this is wrong." And he concludes by saying "The vitality of American democracy demands that (the Democrats) once again take up process in 2008."<br /><br />In saying clearly that "It's the process, stupid", John Dean points to the critical lesson of our time... and the lesson we must learn. For it opens the door to the only way we will ever have the Compassionate Capitalism we are capable of having. This is <span style="font-weight:bold;">The Lesson We Can Still Learn.</span> It's not too late.<br /><br />It is a lesson that will take America down a road which many Democrats may be uncomfortable traveling, but it is the only road that leads to the objective we must reach as a nation: the restoration of our American values. "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" wasn't just something Superman used to say he stood for. It was who we were on our best days and who we sought to be on our worst. It was never what the people we have entrusted to lead us into the future consciously sought to violate.<br /><br />So, we must deal with the process we are using to get where we say we want to go. The Democrats must deal with the process. Progressive thinking Republicans must deal with the process. Third party candidates must deal with the process. (Ralph, this means you don't get to say that there's no difference between Democrats and Republicans anymore. Read John Dean's book, okay?) And "we, the people" must deal with the process.<br /><br />Because to not do so is like saying "The automobile I'm driving has gotten me everywhere I've wanted to get to so far. I'll just keep driving it as I try to get to this new destination", as you leave dry land and set off across the water to get to a distant land called Compassionate Capitalism.<br /><br />See how crazy it is to think this way? We're still in our cars and are trying to drive across the water. We are sinking fast, my friends. We need to get out of our cars!<br /><br />If you agree with me and are now asking "Okay, where do I go to learn about process? And has anyone figured out what process could get us to this better future?", then I say "Welcome aboard! It's going to be an exciting journey from here forward!"<br /><br />There are places you can go to learn process. And there are people who are already using the <span style="font-style:italic;">New Thinking</span> society needs to adopt in order to get to this better world.<br /><br />If you are an organizational leader (either for-profit or non-profit), I highly recommend you get involved with the <a href="http://www.baldrige.nist.gov/">Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program</a>, which is run by the federal government's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This program - which was signed into law 20 years ago during the Reagan Administration - is based on the continuous learning and improvement principles originally developed by such quality management leaders as <a href="http://www.deming.org">Dr. W. Edwards Deming</a> and <a href="http://www.juran.com/">Dr. Joseph Juran</a>, the men who went to Japan after World War II and taught the Japanese how to make high quality products.<br /><br />The Baldrige Program is intense, educational, and the best national program I know of for learning how to view what you're doing in ways that support you in making fundamental change. (Perhaps the US Congress should get involved with the Baldrige Program.) For those who want to "play in the minor leagues before joining the majors", I recommend the state-wide, Baldrige-based programs that function under the umbrella <a href="http://www.networkforexcellence.org/">Network for Excellence</a>. (Point of transparency: I am a board member of the <a href="http://www.keystonealliance.com/">Keystone Alliance for Performance Excellence</a>, which is the Baldrige-based organization that covers Pennsylvania.)<br /><br />Finally, while you may think that Compassionate Capitalism is an idea beyond what anyone dealing with process is talking about, I call your attention to the Corporate Social Responsibility movement. It is an increasingly mainstream corporate strategic focal point - as recognized by Harvard Business School's Michael Porter, in his article <a href="http://www.isc.hbs.edu/HBR_Strategy_Society.htm">"Strategy and Society"</a> which was published last December - AND it includes a focus on process, especially under the umbrella of the work of <a href="http://www.unglobalcompact.org">The UN Global Compact</a>. The Global Compact's <a href="http://www.unglobalcompact.org/Issues/sustainable_development/performance_model.html">Performance Model</a> is a Baldrige-like, continuous learning and improvement based program any organization can use to examine how it is going about attempting to be a good corporate citizen and to improve the processes it is using to do so. The Global Compact is a world-wide initiative that includes a network of USA-based corporations. At the same time, here in the USA we have <a href="http://www.bsr.org">Business for Social Responsibility</a>, which works in partnership with The Global Compact.<br /><br />There is hope, my friends. You just need to know where to look for it.<br /><br />And in the case of our political and business leaders, we who want them to "do the right thing" need to demand that they examine and fix the process! (And learn how to do so first!)<br /><br />We can get to the better world we say we want. But we can't get there by using the same thinking... the same process... we've used until now. We need to learn how to <a href="http://www.thinkdifferently.us">Think Differently!</a>Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-35687262047258807752007-08-28T01:01:00.000-04:002007-08-28T09:59:09.593-04:00Gonzales Is Gone. But The Disease Remains.At the conclusion of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/opinion/28tue1.html">The House Lawyer Departs</a>, its lead editorial on the subject, The New York Times says "Mr. Gonzales, for all of his undeniable deficiencies, merely reflected the principles of this administration. His resignation is a necessary but hardly sufficient step in restoring the nation’s commitment to the rule of law."<br /><br />Contrast this with the words of President Bush, who - when he went before the cameras to report Attorney General Gonzales's resignation - <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/washington/27bush-text.html">said</a> "Al Gonzales is a man of integrity, decency and principle. And I have reluctantly accepted his resignation, with great appreciation for the service that he has provided for our country....After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position, and I accept his decision. It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons."<br /><br />The Rule of Law vs. The Rule of Bush. It doesn't get any clearer than that, folks. President Bush's world remains untouched, unfazed, and undisturbed by the very <span style="font-style:italic;">bipartisan</span> "mud" through which his friend's name was dragged. All that counts are Bush's feelings. Facts? Bush doesn't care about facts.<br /><br />Having said this, I hope it's clear to you all that we should <span style="font-style:italic;">not</span> really celebrate Gonzales' departure. Why? Because we are dealing with a problem far more pervasive than the work of any one man... far worse than the work, even, of a team led by Bush, Cheney, and Rice... worse, even, than the <span style="font-style:italic;">cancer on the presidency</span> that America cured itself of over 30 years ago. <br /><br />We are dealing with a systemic condition within our country. For lack of a better term (and with apologies to Walt Disney), I will call it "Living In Fantasyland". <br /><br />It is a condition that exists in ways big and small throughout our society. From the ENRON Fantasyland of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3875297.stm">Ken Lay</a>... to the "dog-fighting as sport" Fantasyland of the <a href="http://sport.independent.co.uk/general/article2900944.ece">Atlanta Falcons' Michael Vick</a>... from the "I spent as much time as the rescue workers" Fantasyland of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/us/politics/17giuliani.hthttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifml">Rudy Giuliani</a>... to the "I was lied to by President Bush" Fantasyland of <a href="http://www.radioopensource.org/hillary-clintons-war-vote/">Hillary Clinton</a> (who <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/28/clinton.iraq/index.html">chose not to read the National Intelligence Estimate</a> on Iraq before her vote).<br /><br />People we want to trust - with our money, our cheers, the future of our country - are just making stuff up as they go along. Facts? They don't care about facts!<br /><br />As I said, the cancer on the presidency of Richard Nixon was of limited scope. We were able to contain and eliminate it. And the 93rd Congress - contrary to popular opinion - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_federal_legislation#93rd_United_States_Congress">actually got a lot done</a> while it conducted Nixon's impeachment hearings. <br /><br />But a lot has happened to the American psyche since the 1970's. The "Greed is good" <span style="font-style:italic;">me generation</span> of the 1980's (and the updated version brought to us by the current Bush administration and today's Wall Street) and the pervasive "you create your own reality" <span style="font-style:italic;">transformational technology</span> personal development trainings (such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhard_Seminars_Training">est</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmark_Education">Landmark Education</a> created by Werner Erhard) launched in the early 1970's are just two of the major cultural trends steering America towards a "You can have it your way no matter what the existing reality tells you is possible" mental belief system. <br /><br />We know this is how George Bush and his team think, from Ron Suskind's amazing <a href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/101704A.shtml">17 Octboer 2004 article in The New York Times.</a> But what not enough of us seem to realize is that this is a society-wide disease. Al Gore knows the magnitude of this problem. It's the subject of his book <a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1622015,00.html">"The Assault on Reason"</a>.<br /><br />So, what to do? How can Truth and Facts defend themselves in the face of this very virulent disease? Well, here's my suggestion: <br /><br />Truth and Facts can become known for being about more than what the real bad stuff is. Truth and Facts can become know for showing us - <span style="font-style:italic;">all of us</span> - the real... honest to God... exciting and adventurous road forward. If I told you that the true nature of what's possible is quite literally "Heaven on Earth", that would get your attention... wouldn't it?<br /><br />Yes, there are truths and facts about Ken Lay's business dealings, Michael Vicks' leisure activities, and Rudy and Hillary's post-9/11 political calculations. But there are also truths and facts about how much better our world could be, if the majority of Americans were to learn what a number of research scientists and international development theorists know. And what is there that the American people could learn? That it is now scientifically possible to build - with the support of enlightened business and political leadership, of course - <span style="font-style:italic;">a world beyond war in our lifetimes.</span><br /><br />Now that's something that no pack of lies can give us, no matter how well packaged they are. <span style="font-style:italic;">A world beyond war in our lifetimes</span> can only be the product of the truth. <br /><br />This brave new world - if we choose to build it - will be built on the facts, research, and hard won wisdom of those on the front lines of the sustainable international development movement. For proof that these facts exist, I invite you to explore the work of <a href="http://www.rmi.org">Amory Lovins</a>, <a href="http://www.mbdc.com">Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart</a>, <a href="http://www.bsr.org/">Business for Social Responsibility</a>, <a href="http://www.unglobalcompact.org/">The UN Global Compact</a>, and <a href="http://www.coventry.ac.uk/researchnet/d/434/a/2191">The Next Great Transformation conference</a> taking place at The Eden Project in October.<br /><br />There's more to <span style="font-style:italic;">truth and facts</span> than most people know. It can be a great world in which to spend your time... <span style="font-style:italic;">and it's no Fantasyland, either!</span>Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-15716941742418003192007-08-19T00:10:00.000-04:002007-08-21T15:38:15.196-04:00America's Infrastructure Crisis: Are We Really A Developed Country?In the three and a half years in which I worked in the office of <a href="http://curiouscat.com/guides/ackoffbio.cfm">Dr. Russell Ackoff</a>, my mentor in the field of Systems Thinking, he probably talked about one thing more than anything else: the true nature of development. "Development," Russ would say, "increases the capacity of people to manage their own lives. Growth - which is what people usually talk about when they say a community or a nation is getting better - is about the accumulation of greater amounts of things, some of which are beneficial and some of which are not. Growth is not the same as development."<br /><br />One of the expressions Russ used most often to make this point is <span style="font-weight:bold;">If you give someone a fish, you feed them for a day. If you teach them to fish, they can feed themselves for a lifetime.</span><br /><br />When it comes to our nation's infrastructure, I fear that our political and civic leaders have - for decades - been giving us "fish" in the form of lots of roads, bridges, mass transit systems, utility systems, and other elements of what is sometimes referred to as <span style="font-style:italic;">the built environment</span>. We know who these leaders are. They're the people in the photographs taken at the ground breaking ceremonies when new projects start.. and at the ribbon-cutting ceremonies when projects are complete. After that, we rarely hear from them again.<br /><br />Well, perhaps with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge">collapse of the I-35 bridge</a>, we will. In fact, we already are... in the personages of Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Chuck Hagel (R-NB). Their <a href="http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/4002">National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2007</a> is an important first step in moving we Americans past our long history of "being given fish" and towards a future in which we learn "how to fish for ourselves" and then act of that new knowledge.<br /><br />Of course, by "learn how to fish" I mean <span style="font-weight:bold;">learn how to take care of what we've got... not just admire it when it's new and then let it fall apart under our very noses.</span> <br /><br />Russ loves using this fishing analogy to help people understand what true development is. And - because he emphasizes that development involves wisdom that focuses on long-term (not short-term) results - I'd like to start a national dialog on the following question: <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Is the United States truly a developed country? Or are we just a "built up" country?</span><br /><br />It is common to talk about how our world is divided into the developed and under-developed nations. And the US - based on its GDP and other factors - always falls into the "developed nations" category. But based on my knowledge that to be truly developed is to know how to take care of yourself and what you have - not just to have a lot of stuff - I no longer personally put the USA into that category.<br /><br />I think - and this seems especially appropriate when you consider how young America really is, in "country years" - that America is in a category that may have never existed before. Neither under-developed nor developed, America appears to be a "proto-developed country". We've accumulated a lot but do not yet have the wisdom to manage what we've got.<br /><br />Now, having just described the problem, I'd like to suggest at least the beginning of a solution: <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Education.</span><br /><br />As H.G. Wells once said <span style="font-weight:bold;">"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe."</span> <br /><br />I almost hate using such extreme-sounding language, but there really is a catastrophe awaiting us if we don't address our infrastructure crisis very soon. Just as the homes we live in will fall apart if we don't maintain them, so will the larger built environment - literally, our national "home". And for this analogy I have <a href="http://www.gridlocksam.com/about.html">Sam Schwartz</a> to thank. Sam was the First Deputy Commissioner at the NYC Department of Transportation when I worked there in the late 1980's. He ran NYC DOT's Bureau of Bridges. (I directed the office in the Bridge Bureau that contracted with private engineering firms to fix NYC's bridges... in my former life as an engineering program manager.) Sam recently wrote a very blunt <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/opinion/13schwartz.html">New York Times OpEd piece entitled "Catch Me, I'm Falling</a> in which he points out how crazy the bridge maintenance financial system is throughout America. I highly recommend you read it, as a first step in educating yourselves about the true nature of our problem. Because, it's only when a problem is truly understood that it can be permanently solved.<br /><br />Solving America's infrastructure problem starts with understanding the magnitude of the physical challenge (see the <a href="http://www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/index.cfm">report from the American Society of Civil Engineers</a>) and then understanding the financial system challenge... which includes the long-term financial costs which will be incurred as more and more of our infrastructure falls apart.<br /><br />To some extent, I suppose, this is a painful thing to come to terms with: that we now have to find the money (and fast) to "learn how to fish"... to maintain that which we have. But I also expect this is exactly the lesson America needs to learn in the run-up to the 2008 elections. <br /><br />We need to ask ourselves - and those who would be our political representatives - if they "know how to fish". We need to find out if they know how to think long-term. We need to find out if they know how to learn to do the right thing - as defined by experts in the field such as, in this case, Sam Schwartz and the American Society of Civil Engineers - when information about a problem is presented to them.<br /><br />Making sure we take care of what we have. Making sure what we have works and is the best quality it can be. That, my friends, is the hallmark of a truly <span style="font-style:italic;">developed country.</span> And right now, this is <span style="font-weight:bold;">not</span> something that is true about America. <br /><br />But it's not too late. We can still learn how to fish.Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-17126534239887607512007-08-15T13:52:00.000-04:002007-08-16T16:46:47.998-04:00China's Quality Problem: A Long-Term vs Short-Term Thinking Teachable MomentWith the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/business/worldbusiness/15imports.html">recall by Mattel of 19 Million toys made in China</a>, the question on my mind is "How will the business world - and the American people in general - respond to this <span style="font-style:italic;">teachable moment</span> in the never ending struggle between short-term and long-term thinking?"<br /><br />Here's what I mean: We have a product quality crisis on our hands, one that is so big it could upset the entire economic relationship between the United States and China. Both short and long-term thinking based solutions exist to this crisis. And the differences between these two types of solutions is huge... like night and day. In fact, the real difference is that one will actually solve the problem, while the other will just sweep it under the carpet. Guess which is which. <br /><br />That's right, short-term thinking will not solve the crisis. Only long-term thinking will. And isn't it funny how you knew the answer intuitively, even without knowing what the long-term oriented solution is in detail?<br /><br />Regrettably, the main stream media voices are not speaking from an intuitive place. They are speaking from a classic <span style="font-style:italic;">regulatory mindset</span>, which says "If there are bad things in the world, we should put more people in place to catch the bad things before they reach us." Here's what I mean, from today's New York Times:<br /><br />In its editorial - <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/opinion/15wed1.html">"China, Unregulated"</a> - The New York Times says "What China needs is an effective and transparent regulatory system to enforce product safety standards. The United States and other countries can help with technical advice and warnings about what would happen if Beijing refuses to take it."..."American regulators...must also do a lot more to ensure the safety of Chinese-made goods, sending their own personnel to China to perform inspections of factories and test goods before they are shipped."...and - lamenting the inability of the Consumer Products Safety Commission to protect us - "(The CPSC) must inspect tens of billions of dollars worth of goods sold every year with only about 100 field investigators and compliance personnel."<br /><br />Yup. Regulations and enforcement...threats to stop doing business with them...that's how to get people and organizations to change. Motivation by fear. (By the way, while to the best of my knowledge it hasn't been widely reported, <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/China_toy_recall_Boss_kills_self/articleshow/2278919.cms">the head of a major Chinese toy manufacturing company at the center of this crisis committed suicide over the weekend</a>. Anger, fear, betrayal and other related emotions got to him. This is a real tragedy. Not only has a human life been lost, but any knowledge he had regarding why his products were of such poor quality was lost with him.)<br /><br />Speaking of people who are no longer with us, if he were still alive, <a href="http://www.deming.org">Dr. W. Edwards Deming</a> - famous for helping the Japanese make "Made In Japan" a symbol of world class quality (even though right after World War II it meant the opposite) - would be saying something like this to government leaders, manufacturers, and consumers in both the US and China: <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">"You cannot produce high quality products by inspecting them at the end of production. All you can do at that point is prevent poor quality products from reaching consumers, at a tremendous waste of time, energy, and materials. High quality results from a process of redesigning your manufacturing processes - including your relationships with your suppliers - so that your products are built correctly in the first place. This is a long-term process requiring a continuous learning and improvement mindset. I predicted it would take the Japanese five years to turn their manufacturing processes around. Through dedicated effort, they did it in four."</span><br /><br />(I studied with Dr. Deming in the early 1990's.)<br /><br />This is how you really solve a production quality problem. You design the manufacturing system so that it produces a high quality product from the get go... or re-design the system, in the case of one that's already up and running. <br /><br />At the end of World War II, the American government sent Dr. Deming (and others, such as <a href="http://www.juran.com/">Dr. Joseph Juran</a>) to Japan so they could help the Japanese successfully rebuild their manufacturing capacity. Our government did this, because our foreign policy was amazingly enlightened at the time. Just like with <a href="http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/57.htm">The Marshall Plan</a>, we knew that helping rebuild the countries of our former enemies would benefit them, us, and the whole world in the long run.<br /><br />I would like to humbly propose (and if I'm lucky, maybe someone from one or more of the political candidates' organizations will pick up on this) that the US government send a team of experts to China to teach Dr. Deming's methods. Dr. Deming may no longer be alive, but his and related work continues thanks to such organizations as <a href="http://www.deming.org">The W. Edwards Deming Institute</a>, the <a href="http://www.in2in.org/">In2:InThinking Network</a>, and - perhaps most appropriately since it's funded by our tax dollars - the <a href="http://www.quality.nist.gov">Baldrige National Quality Program</a> or people from <a href="http://www.networkforexcellence.org/">the State-wide programs that are based on the Baldrige criteria</a>. <br /><br />This is the long-term thinking solution. Why? Because quality management takes time to implement. It takes time to learn. But so does anything that enables you to do something you've never done before. <br /><br />In an American society that continues to be fixated on "instant gratification" and "flavor of the month" lifestyle choices (not to mention addicted to quarterly profit statements), long-term thinking and its associated life long learning approach is the true route to solving China's poor product quality problem (and problems in our education and health care systems as well). <br /><br />Will average Americans realize that short vs. long term thinking is at the crux of our problems? Will America's opinion and policy making leaders? Will the Chinese? Only time will tell.<br /><br />But there is a parallel to China's quality problem in American history. If you go back to the 1970's, our poor quality products (especially our automobiles) were losing market share to products from Japan. There was a lot of time spent asking "If Japan Can, Why Can't We?" (which is the name of a famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_Japan_can..._Why_can't_we%3F">1980 NBC- TV White Paper report</a>). That report showed what was going on in Japan, including their use of the management theories taught to them by Dr. Deming, who was still consulting with Japanese businesses at 80 years old. America learned then that it needed to get the "quality religion". And it worked for a while. But old, short-term thinking habits die hard...especially when supported by the demand for quarterly profits at any cost.<br /><br />It's not too late to learn those lessons once again my friends. Short term thinking is killing China's export business. And, if truth be told, it is killing the American way of life too.<br /><br />So you can learn more about Dr. Deming and the quality revolution he helped launch, here's the first part of a 3-part BBC documentary from 1991. Links to the other three parts can be found when it's done playing. In it, Dr. Deming himself speaks about his work, as does Don Petersen (former CEO of The Ford Motor Company) and others.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GHvnIm9UEoQ"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GHvnIm9UEoQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454251504988656809.post-3708479819190468782007-08-13T17:35:00.000-04:002007-08-13T17:54:20.905-04:00Hope and "Life Long Learning" go hand in handI'm sure you've heard this quote before: "It's not what we don't know that hurts us. It's what we know that just ain't so anymore that does."<br /><br />This, to me, is the crux of the problem - and the source of the solution - to all the challenges we face. It's also why I currently think that Barack Obama is the candidate with the best chance of helping America (and the world) get out of the mess we're in right now.<br /><br />I believe that the only way to get from this really unhealthy reality to a better one is to look with a critical eye at what we believe to be true and what is objectively, actually true regarding the capabilities we - as a human race living in an increasingly "we're either all going to make it or none of us are going to" world - have to design and build the better world that's out there waiting for us.<br /><br />Barack's "politics of hope" suggests to me that he has at least some knowledge regarding how much better our world can be. I think he is familiar enough with recent technological advances that he knows humanity has reached a point where - if we organized ourselves to do so - we could feed, clothe, house, and educate every man, woman, and child on Earth. <br /><br />Of course, we aren't organized to do this. And if our political system - both within America and throughout the world - continues to function based on the "win - lose", zero sum principles in use today, we will never get to that better world.<br /><br />But with his international perspective (based in part on where he grew up) and his apparently "world class" intellect - which I'm sure includes a healthy desire to keep on learning new things for the rest of his life - I believe Barack has the potential ability to open the eyes of enough people that we will undertake the "redesign effort" of the current sociopolitical economic system that is needed so that this much better world... this much more "hopeful" world... has a chance to be born.<br /><br />I definitely see "life long learning" as key. Because, as I'm sure most people would admit, "if you want to get some place you've never been before, you're probably going to have to learn new things in order to be able to get there."<br /><br />My feeling is that - unlike the current occupant in The White House - Barack is a "life long learner". I believe that's how he's able to keep hope alive within himself. He's learned things that the majority of Americans haven't. He knows we can be a much better country - morally and ethically - than we are and achieve the promise of "prosperity for all, not just the rich and powerful" that was part of the vision of the Founding Fathers. After all, the Founding Fathers ended the Declaration of Independence with the words "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."<br /><br />"...we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." sure sounds like the words of people who knew we were all in this together. Doesn't it?<br /><br />I look forward to hearing any comments you all have.. and to the prospect of hearing Barack speak on this issue of "learning what we need to learn... and unlearning what we need to unlearn" some time soon.Steve Branthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09082059581230075706noreply@blogger.com0