I just finished reading 'Abundance' and truly believe you've hit on something so important. We are stagnating in every way. There are many reasons for it- and I love some of the ones you've brought forward here. THANK YOU
Kimber, your words mean a great deal to me. You know that I’ve long valued our friendship and admired your vision, leadership, and unwavering commitment to community. So, receiving your praise is deeply appreciated.
While I’ve stepped back from consulting and shifted my focus more toward commentary and public thought, I continue to feel a strong pull toward meaningful engagement, contributing to the civic good, and exercising my voice. I’d welcome any thoughts you might have on where you see opportunities for someone like me to be of service again in a more direct and impactful way. Let’s stay connected.
Nice job, Herb. I love that you use "sclerotic" in a sentence that does not indicate anything directly medical: "What needs disrupting is the sclerotic systems that have made democracy less responsive, less effective, and less inspiring than it could be."
I worked on the transition from paper to electronic records and communication methods for the lion's share of my career at the County. It was quite a project, and we exerted a lot of effort crossing and dotting, maintaining duplicate systems, and convincing people who were settled into their hard copy way of doing business that the benefits of using images and electronic interfaces would surpass all of their expectations for accuracy, clarity, efficiency, and security. And we were right. Look at the way we conduct business now--electronic records are the expectation rather than the exception. Paradigms do shift. Our boss was the elected official who always championed this effort; he envisioned the end game and our results played out. Indeed, we were all astonished at the versatile, synergistic, and elegant solutions that we were able to contrive and develop once we set out in the direction of change.
A well-done piece. It will take true commitment to a cause to make it happen. What I see is too much fear about stepping outside the box (getting primaried and losing your job or facing total harassment by someone with a good deal of money). One must be willing to face the ugliest of retribution to create a new and better system. Most who did not wish to participate in doing the hard work of creation of something better just stepped aside and left those behind to continue political revenge.
Thanks. We're nailing one of the core dilemmas in engaging good people in public service. I appreciate your insight. Advocacy for substantive structural change shouldn't have to come at a personal cost.
It may take a while, Ralph. But, if we're going to make any progress in repelling Trump et al, we need new vision, new messages, and new and better messengers. This is the kind of stuff we ought to be talking about....to inspire and galvanize.
Good piece Herb… counterpoint to T’s effort to restore the ante bellum south for 21st C America… no thanks!
I just finished reading 'Abundance' and truly believe you've hit on something so important. We are stagnating in every way. There are many reasons for it- and I love some of the ones you've brought forward here. THANK YOU
Kimber, your words mean a great deal to me. You know that I’ve long valued our friendship and admired your vision, leadership, and unwavering commitment to community. So, receiving your praise is deeply appreciated.
While I’ve stepped back from consulting and shifted my focus more toward commentary and public thought, I continue to feel a strong pull toward meaningful engagement, contributing to the civic good, and exercising my voice. I’d welcome any thoughts you might have on where you see opportunities for someone like me to be of service again in a more direct and impactful way. Let’s stay connected.
Warmest regards.
Nice job, Herb. I love that you use "sclerotic" in a sentence that does not indicate anything directly medical: "What needs disrupting is the sclerotic systems that have made democracy less responsive, less effective, and less inspiring than it could be."
I worked on the transition from paper to electronic records and communication methods for the lion's share of my career at the County. It was quite a project, and we exerted a lot of effort crossing and dotting, maintaining duplicate systems, and convincing people who were settled into their hard copy way of doing business that the benefits of using images and electronic interfaces would surpass all of their expectations for accuracy, clarity, efficiency, and security. And we were right. Look at the way we conduct business now--electronic records are the expectation rather than the exception. Paradigms do shift. Our boss was the elected official who always championed this effort; he envisioned the end game and our results played out. Indeed, we were all astonished at the versatile, synergistic, and elegant solutions that we were able to contrive and develop once we set out in the direction of change.
Thank you for sharing.
In every instance, right, change requires courageous risk takers...visionaries. Appreciate your response.
A well-done piece. It will take true commitment to a cause to make it happen. What I see is too much fear about stepping outside the box (getting primaried and losing your job or facing total harassment by someone with a good deal of money). One must be willing to face the ugliest of retribution to create a new and better system. Most who did not wish to participate in doing the hard work of creation of something better just stepped aside and left those behind to continue political revenge.
Thanks. We're nailing one of the core dilemmas in engaging good people in public service. I appreciate your insight. Advocacy for substantive structural change shouldn't have to come at a personal cost.
Great concepts - wake me up when any of them are actually enacted by either party anywhere.
It may take a while, Ralph. But, if we're going to make any progress in repelling Trump et al, we need new vision, new messages, and new and better messengers. This is the kind of stuff we ought to be talking about....to inspire and galvanize.