TheLoop21.com

By: Keenan Pendergrass (Add to your loop)
Fri, 08/14/2009 - 13:11

As Barack Obama proves, change comes in waves.

If you would indulge me for a second: consider this country a Fortune 500 company that is broken and has lost it's way... Think IBM in the 80's and not GM today. And to take the analogy one step further, consider the President and his administration selected the management team to return the company to it's former glory. We are all employees who have a vested interest in the success of this company, but we are divided when it comes to the best approach that will ultimately lead us to accomplish this goal. Some people have made a career as corporate turnaround artists. They take an often iconic company lost and without direction and attempt to put it back on a path of financial viability with an eye toward making a quantum leap that will put them back in or ahead of the game.

The secret to success is all in the vision and the execution. The first thing you have to do is develop a list of things you must STOP doing. Those things that are often as comfortable as an old blanket and about as outdated shouldn't be re-tooled, but instead should be created totally new in order to succeed. This means that some people, some processes and some once effective strategies have to go. It's all about change. The one thing we know about change is that some people will oppose it until they breathe their dying breath, even if they believe it is the best course of action.

Change is a process. You can't stop doing everything at once, but there has to be a strategy in place that systematically stops one thing and starts a new thing in the proper order before everything collapses in on itself. You have to build consensus and generate some level of buy-in from the people who have to execute the new plan. Everyone has to believe in the vision, or at least believe it's possible to make that vision a reality even if you don' t like the approach.

When both the presidential administration and the party in power change all the gears in government grind to a halt, the momentum shifts in the opposite direction and takes some time for the flywheel to begin to gain any kind of momentum. When you are changing the policy approach and attempting to change the fundamental way we approach governance— regardless of who is in power— you are going to run into opposition from people on both sides of the aisle with legitimate concerns.

Why would anyone who understands human nature in the area of change expect a new administration to waltz into an office and tackle everything on their list in the first six months in office? In part, the acceptance of opinion over fact is a result of the Internet! While it has revolutionized the way we communicate and interact with each other, it has also blurred the line between fact, innuendo, gossip and outright fiction, having people often believe the fiction and question the facts. Why? Because the facts most often run counter to their belief system, while the fiction uses just enough of what we believe in and are committed to to make it believable. When one man is ready to die for a belief in something that another man made-up and published on the Internet to simply get rich and maintain his power, then we have a problem. And when people applaud for their independence, ingenuity and commitment to being right at any cost, then we have officially lost our way. The Internet— or at least the way we use it to communicate—has become both a blessing and a curse.

Balance comes from understanding the difference between up and down, right from wrong, dark and light. Everyone isn't going to be right, but everyone should feel empowered enough to speak their mind. We should respect each other enough to earnestly listen without judging the opposing points of views. We are so quick to point out why someone else is wrong that we often miss the critical facts that could hold the key to our ultimate turnaround success. A house divided against itself cannot stand and we cannot grow, mature and develop as a country with a one-sided approach.

When did we become so cynical that every suggestion is met with immediate and absolute opposition? This has to be the most closely scrutinized administration in our history, but I guess that goes with the territory following the Bush years. My problem is that the people claiming to have the public's best interest at heart are not politicians or elected officials, but rather entrepreneurs seeking capital gain from the ongoing fight that seems to be escalating every day. It is quite simply... a distraction, a ploy to pit one side against the other in order to maintain the status quo, and the weapon of choice is the Internet. You choose the topic: abortion rights, gun control, affirmative action, greenhouse gases, biofuel; the list is endless and the profit and power generated by even a minor shift in thinking is mind boggling .

When the rhetoric is so loud that it impedes our ability to honestly assess what is the best way to protect the national interest; when the cry of "Chicken Little " reverberates so loudly from coast to coast that we debate the symptoms because no one even notices or cares about the root cause of the problem; when the people no one elected start to impact the national agenda by only telling part of their story to make their point and profit, then It is time for not one of us, not some of us but all of us to stand up and say, "enough."

The vote for change was easy, but now you must have the faith to act and the patience to allow those actions to impact the process. Successful turnarounds take time and what has been accomplished in six months by this administration would have been considered impossible by many people six months ago.

What is required right now is faith...not in government or politicians, but in the one who created us all. Just like the children of Israel who didn't believe in Moses' vision or didn't have enough faith in the most high God to believe what they could not see, but rather wanted to return to the comfort of slavery in Egypt— we are also lost in the wilderness. Many voices today fight to go back to old ways of doing things rather than walk through the wilderness. People don't want to face their trials and tribulations head on, but we must have enough faith to walk through the wilderness and into the blessings that surely will be ours. The wilderness journey is filled with tests and it requires a discerning spirit and the ability to believe what you cannot see . ..

Who among us wants to win the battle, bu yet lose the war. It's not the chains that bind us or the cell that imprisons us but rather the way we think and what we believe...

Remain faithful and beware of false prophets.

Should Obama put a moratorium on off-shore drilling leases?

Absolutely

Maybe, until the oil is cleaned up

No, but regulations should tighten

No, we need the oil production

I don't know