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If I Had My Way |
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Date: Saturday, October 16, 2010 Subject: Empower V - People Problems Many, many years ago, I came to the realization that all problems are "people problems." Seems fairly straight forward when you stop to think about it -- no people equals no problems. The difficulty about people problems is that somebody will need to change, and that the process requires discussion -- because you don't change people from the outside -- they have to change themselves from the inside. I have often written that I am an 81 year young engineer turned programmer, knowing full well that I am tapping into peoples prejudices -- I could have written that I was a problem-solver and gotten the same result -- nobody wants to talk to me -- yet. I guess that it is part of the human survival process to avoid confrontation -- to walk away from the problem at hand. If you see a problem on your job you either ignore it or seek another job before confronting the problem. Well, I am just stupid enough to try and solve the problem BEFORE seeking another job -- and I must admit that I have spent a lot of time looking for work because of it. OTOH, I have had some success, and made some very good friends in the process. The foregoing is obviously about the "direct approach," mostly used on personal problems -- how about the indirect approach, more appropriate for group problems. The difficulty in the indirect approach is the need to understand the exact nature of the problem so that you can "work the cause". You need to establish the conditions that will motivate the responsible people to take the corrective action. Here is an example: Charles M. Blow has posted an opinion column in the New York Times web site entitled, "Threat Response" in which he states: The president and fellow Democrats have taken a page from the Republican playbook. They're unabashedly using racial-solidarity politics to animate voters. In this case, the Democrats' appeal is to black voters, the most unwavering portion of President Obama's base, and the message is simple: The president is under attack, and black voters must mobilize to protect him. And I disagree -- IMHO, Mr. Blow has miss-diagnosed the situation and the problem that we all face -- he doesn't seem to understand that we are witnessing the democratic process in action. We got into this jam by screwing up that democratic process -- let's trust the people and the democratic process. The key to solving our present problems is to trust the people, believe in the process and stop trying to subvert the process for personal gain. The upcoming election promises to be the 2 X 4 beside the head that Barack Obama needs to get his attention. The people thought that they were electing a man that was going to "change Washington" -- and they got one that turned out to be part of the problem. Barack Obama has two years to demonstrate that he can become part of the solution -- or the people will replace him. Invoking racism to support his present activity is the wrong action at the wrong time, sorry, Mr. Blow. The system works -- we just have to elect people that believe in the people and the democratic process. Now that ain't so difficult -- is it?? To be continued (I hope) BTW, in hopes of exciting some discussion I am
posting this page on the following web sites. Thanks for your time, Doug Skoglund - skoglund@pdmsb.com
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