Posts Tagged ‘Politics’
Thursday, July 29th, 2010
It really is time for all of us to come together and say “it will stop with me” . In this Op-Ed E.J. Dionne Jr. points in the right direction stating that “stupid politics, irrational ideas on fiscal policy and an antiquated political structure undermine our power”. Then there are tons of comments that show how stuck we are. There is so much blame and polarization it is no wonder we can’t come together. Think about where you dig in your heels to prove your position in life is the right one without really listening to other perspectives. Think about the patterns you need to transform, and then get to work!
In American Politics, Stupidity is the Name of the Game
By: E.J. Dionne, Jr.
Can a nation remain a superpower if its internal politics are incorrigibly stupid?
Start with taxes. In every other serious democracy, conservative political parties feel at least some obligation to match their tax policies with their spending plans. David Cameron, the new Conservative prime minister in Britain, is a leading example.
He recently offered a rather brutal budget that includes severe cutbacks. I have doubts about some of them, but at least Cameron cared enough about reducing his country’s deficit that alongside the cuts he also proposed an increase in the value-added tax, from 17.5 percent to 20 percent. Imagine: a fiscal conservative who really is a fiscal conservative.
That could never happen here because the fairy tale of supply-side economics insists that taxes are always too high, especially on the rich.
This is why Democrats will be fools if they don’t try to turn the Republicans’ refusal to raise taxes on families earning more than $250,000 a year into an election issue. If Democrats go into a headlong retreat on this, they will have no standing to govern.
The simple truth is that the wealthy in the United States — the people who have made almost all the income gains in recent years — are undertaxed compared with everyone else.
Consider two reports from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. One, issued last month, highlighted findings from the Congressional Budget Office showing that “the gaps in after-tax income between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the middle and poorest fifths of the country more than tripled between 1979 and 2007.”
The other, from February, used Internal Revenue Service data to show that the effective federal income tax rate for the 400 taxpayers with the very highest incomes declined by nearly half in just over a decade, even as their pre-tax incomes have grown five times larger.
The study found that the top 400 households “paid 16.6 percent of their income in federal individual income taxes in 2007, down from 30 percent in 1995.” We are talking here about truly rich people. Using 2007 dollars, it took an adjusted gross income of at least $35 million to make the top 400 in 1992, and $139 million in 2007.
The notion that when we are fighting two wars, we’re not supposed to consider raising taxes on such Americans is one sign of a country that’s no longer serious. Why do so few foreign policy hawks acknowledge that if they lack the gumption to ask taxpayers to finance the projection of American military power, we won’t be able to project it in the long run?
And if we are unwilling to have a full-scale debate over whether nation-building abroad is getting in the way of nation-building at home, we will accomplish neither.
Our discussion of the economic stimulus is another symptom of political irrationality. It’s entirely true that the $787 billion recovery package passed last year was not big enough to keep unemployment from rising above 9 percent.
But this is not actually an argument against the stimulus. On the contrary, studies showing that the stimulus created or saved as many as 3 million jobs are very hard to refute. It’s much easier to pretend that all this money was wasted, although the evidence is overwhelming that we should have stimulated more.
Then there’s the structure of our government. Does any other democracy have a powerful legislative branch as undemocratic as the U.S. Senate?
When our republic was created, the population ratio between the largest and smallest state was 13 to 1. Now, it’s 68 to 1. Because of the abuse of the filibuster, 41 senators representing less than 11 percent of the nation’s population can, in principle, block action supported by 59 senators representing more than 89 percent of our population. And you wonder why it’s so hard to get anything done in Washington?
I’m a chronic optimist about America. But we are letting stupid politics, irrational ideas on fiscal policy and an antiquated political structure undermine our power.
We need a new conservatism in our country that is worthy of the name. We need liberals willing to speak out on the threat our daft politics poses to our influence in the world. We need moderates who do more than stick their fingers in the wind to calculate the halfway point between two political poles.
And, yes, we need to reform a Senate that has become an embarrassment to our democratic claims.
ejdionne@washpost.com
Tags: Patterns Perspectives, Polarization, Political, Politics, Power, Stupidity, The Washington Post, Transform, Transformation
Posted in Business, Conflict, Integrity, Leadership | No Comments »
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
The historic health care bill passed the House and is headed for the Senate. It is of great importance since one of the major criteria for measuring the effectiveness of a society is how those who are sick are treated.
Having only a portion of the population feeling they are being tended properly when they become ill indicates patterns of avoidance. As citizens we are all entitled to get effective treatment and know we are part of a larger community that values each of us.
I believe that Obama’s determination to pass this bill is, in part, his obligation as President of our country. I also believe there is a personal desire to right a wrong done to his mother when she was dying from cancer and spent much of her day fighting with insurance companies to have her treatment covered.
There are so many horror stories of people who have either died because of lack of money for treatment or those who have spent their life savings or gone bankrupt because of health issues. Perhaps this historic time will be a change in direction for our country that has become so polarized that conflict resolution seems almost impossible.
And yet, while there are those who still posture and choose to stand in the way of progress, the majority of us can take a deep breath knowing that our society is better for moving from avoidance to becoming initiators of a new way. When the pattern of avoider moves to initiator stagnant old patterns are cast aside and the healthy winds of change have an opportunity to bring fresh ideas to blossom.
Obama and his colleagues who have worked relentlessly to overcome the obstacles and fears of old ways of thinking and helped our country face rather than continue to avoid the idea that “we are all in it together and no one wins unless we all do” are to be congratulated.
Tags: Avoider, Collaboration, Fear, Health, Leadership Strategies, Moving Forward, Patterns, Politics, President Obama
Posted in Avoider, Collaboration, Communication, Fear, Health, History, Leadership, Leadership Strategies, Patterns, Politics | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
Recently Jeff Zucker, President and CEO of General Electric Co’s NBC Universal Entertainment, told PBS interviewer Charlie Rose: “It’s the sign of a leader to step up and say you know when something’s not working, and have the guts to reverse it”.
By the end of the interview, it was questionable whether Zucker, like Conan O’Brien, would be fired. That is the way we work. Take risks, win and get the equivalent of an Oscar. Lose, and get the boot!
Is there a better way? Can there be a middle ground where what is learned when risk- taking fails gets dissected, and gives those in the loop a chance to reform their thoughts and actions in a more positive way?
What is so often the case is that the “loser” is so busy defending what has happened and is feeling the heatwaves of being under constant attack, there is no time to learn from what has been going on.
As a culture, we are so addicted to winning, and accept that as the only way. We lose, yes – lose both sight of the value of the down side of risk taking, as well as the human cost of defending, explaining and justifying behavior.
Jeff Zucker may be in a stagnant time in his career. He may be used up in his CEO role. On the other hand, he may well be in a fertile time of learning from the mess and come up with some real and juicy ideas that will get NBC out of the doldrums. If he is fired, he will lose and so will whoever replaces him. There is always backlash where the pendulum often swings to the opposite side. Thus, conservative, risk adverse individuals often follow the risk takers and progress is paralyzed.
So, NBC, a paraphrase from the song “Give peace a chance”, think about it and “Give Jeff a chance”.
Tags: Accountability, Behavioral Patterns, Business, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict, Consulting, Economy, Education, Emotions, Ethics, Executive Teams, Family-Based Patterns, Leadership, Management, Media, Money, pattern aware, Politics, Power, Stress, Transformation, Workplace Relationships
Posted in Accountability, Avoider, Boss, Business, Coaching, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict, Consulting, Diversity, Economy, Education, Employers, Ethics, Executive Teams, Human Resources, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Management, Media, Money, PatternAware, Patterns, Power, Psychology, Super Achiever, Team Building, The media, leadership development | No Comments »
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
Senator Ted Kennedy is an example of a life well lived. Filled with bumps and valleys he is an example of courage and determination. A perfect life? Hardly. A complex life? Yes. A respected life? Often.
What can we learn from a life well lived? First, there are always “mosquitoes in paradise”. The Kennedy’s were the Camelot family. Wealthy, handsome, privileged. Yet, there were relationship difficulties, health issues, accidents, hurts, and disappointments.
Next, is how the traumas and discomforts were handled. Earlier in his life Ted ran from an accident where a female companion in the car died. At the time it tarnished his reputation and seemed to end the possibilities of a life in public service.
Then there was the plane crash that caused him physical pain for the rest of his life. And for a devout Catholic, there was divorce from his wife Joan. Think about how you might respond to daily public scrutiny. Think about how you would take each setback and make something positive come from it.
Ted was an example of leadership in action. His life was truly a leadership development course. He ended his career as an esteemed Senator who was able to connect people with each other and with ideas of merit. He was an impassioned champion of right choice and good deeds.
Think about how you can learn from his life as a leader, someone who mastered the art of conflict resolution, high level communication skills, and mostly, how to be a good man, an example of a life well lived.
Tags: Accountability, Business, Communication, Conflict, Death, Economy, Education, Ethics, family patterns, Health, History, Leaders, leadership programs, Media, Patterns, Politics, Power, programs, Senator Ted Kennedy, Transformation
Posted in Accountability, Business, Coaching, Communication, Conflict, Economy, Education, Ethics, Fear, Health, History, Honor, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Media, Patterns, Politics, Power, Transformation | No Comments »
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Denial, as the joke goes, is more than a river in Egypt. It is something we all do on occasion when what confronts us is too hard to fathom. So, we say, “No, this isn’t happening”. Has to be a dream…mistake….joke…. And then, we pull ourselves up and do what we have to do, most of the time, some of the time.
Except deniers! They refuse to heed warnings and will do what they have always done the way they have always done it. Ever wonder why? Ever hear the expression “Better safe than sorry”? That is the mantra for the denier. Usually there was a trauma that happened in the family that went underground, too painful to discuss and the youngster learned that the best way to handle anxiety, stress, and pain is simply to ignore it, pretend it away.
Bob Woodward aptly titled his book “State of Denial” about the inner workings of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. Reading the book is unsettling when you realize how unprepared the leadership of our country was, and continued to be, month after month after month.
I did some research on George W looking for clues concerning his personal state of denial, the pattern that seems to be his strongest one. Several facts began to coalesce. When George was a child his sister Robin contracted leukemia. Barbara Bush spent most of her time at Slone Kettering in Manhattan with the little girl. George was back at the ranch with his caretakers.
Barbara, it was stated, would not permit any signs of sadness around Robin and when George Sr. would visit the hospital he would have to leave the room if he showed signs of his internal upset. Thus, pain and discomfort were swept under the rug.
Fear, anger, hurt, the painful and ugly side of life is locked into deep, steel clad vaults. Death, war, betrayal, rejection cannot surface. Deniers simply want to look at the positive and see even the days of Katrina as sunny.
Leadership strategies with deniers take a lot of hard work and armfuls of determination. It takes repetition and repetition laced with kindness to break through the barriers a denier has built up to keep the pain away.
Deniers do best if they are first offered more abstract possibilities before they will ever attempt to consider their personal discomfort. I have found that films about other people and how they have handled adversity can be the way to get a denier to look internally. Just know this is a long, difficult process.
Tags: Accountability, Behavioral Patterns, Bob Woodward, Business, Coaching, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict, Deniers, Education, family patterns, Family-Based Patterns, Fear, George W. Bush, Leadership, leadership programs, Management, pattern aware, Patterns, Politics, Power, programs, Stress, Transformation
Posted in Accountability, Coaching, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict, Consulting, Education, Employers, Fear, History, Honor, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Management, PatternAware, Patterns, Politics, Power, Psychology, Reflections, Transformation | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
What exactly happens when people come together to discuss contentious issues? Normally all sides are consciously willing to talk in a fair and balanced way, and unconsciously prepared to protect their points of view. There may be a verbal “I really want to understand your perspective”, yet, underneath survival mechanisms are at play.
Thus, the traditional double bind is working. We want to listen, seem willing to change and yet, and yet. Samuel Goldwyn, long time head of MGM Studios in Hollywood said it best: “I don’t want any “yes-men” around me; I want everybody to tell the truth, even if it costs them their jobs”. Somewhere in our growing up we learned what is safe and what will cost us, our careers or maybe even our lives. So most of us shut up and go with the party line.
Double bind! Whether you agree or disagree, you lose! If you speak up you can cause trouble and if you don’t you are selling a part of your soul. Camps are set up. Isn’t that the game we play all the time? This no-win mentality so prevalent in many organizations keeps people from being able to really talk together, to engage in honest dialogue.
Isn’t that what pits Republicans against Democrats, Rush Limbaugh against Jon Stewart, Sarah Palin against Arianna Huffington?
So, what is going to happen when President Obama, Sgt. Crowley, and Professor Gates meet for a beer? My guess is they will exchange pleasantries, have a photo op, get a few good sound bites for the press and their Twitter followers, and go home with their fundamental positions intact.
What do I yearn to see happen? The words of T.S. Eliot say it for me:
“We shall not cease from exploration,
and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time”
Tags: Accountability, Arianna Huffington, Business, Coaching, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict, Diversity, Ethics, Jon Stewart, Leaders, Leadership, leadership programs, Media, Politics, President Obama, Professor Gates, Rush Limbaugh, Samuel Goldwyn, Sarah Palin, Sgt. Crowley
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Monday, July 27th, 2009
I have been following the undertow reactions from last week when Henry Louis Gates Jr. the African American Harvard professor was taken to police headquarters and now has a mug shot to add to his list of memory photographs.
Immediately the media and most folks who had conversations went to a polarized “who is right and who is wrong”, traditional stance. We are so patterned to knee jerk “my side/ your side” that even President Obama initially tilted to take his friend Skip Gate’s side.
I kept listening and wondering. What could have led a seasoned police officer to handcuff the older man? What could have gotten the professor riled up to become overtly agitated?
And then I had an “AHA” moment. I did the best I could to be in Professor Gates emotional field. I thought about what he must have endured growing up black in West Virginia. I wondered if he had ever been stopped by police, perhaps others in his family must have tales to tell. Track back and I’m sure there is someone or many some ones in his list of family and friends that have a horror story on their life resume.
Then I thought about what I know: when stress hits the hot button we are all prone to go back to behavior patterns we learned as children to help us survive. I wonder if Professor Gates suddenly reverted back to become the youngster who had to protect himself, his family, or friends from racial onslaught. I wonder if he over-reacted from a place of patterned response rather than to the obviously annoying, even embarrassing situation of the moment.
I know I’ve been there and done that when I have been upset.
I also did my best to get into Sgt. James Crowley’s emotional field. I worked with members of the police force back in the days I was a family therapist. I know many join the force because they did not feel safe as youngsters, often with abusive fathers. I have no idea if this is the case here. Did some ancient hurt activate when the professor became upset?
I know that relationships are complex and interactive even though we have been trained to only look from one point of view. I know that the older parts of the brain, the fight, flight, or freeze area called the amygdala (what I have named the Amy Hijack) takes over and there is an adrenaline surge that makes us all behave in less than ideal ways.
This is a “teachable moment”! To find the way OUT we all need to Observe, Understand, and Transform our personal and cultural behaviors. We all need to realize that the past is always present in our hearts and minds. We can all react from a place of hurt and childhood pain no matter neither how old we are nor how much education and training we have.
The lesson: time to talk about the visible/invisible divide that will not go away until we all participate in making it happen. In our “Total leadership Connections program” everyone does a Sankofa Map. Sankofa is a wise word from Ghana that means “Clear the past to free the present”. We all need to be able to map our past, our personal and collective history and talk about the arrows that have pierced our hearts. We need to talk and listen. We need leadership models for a better way. Perhaps the professor and the police officer can lead the way.
The poet Rumi says it all: “Somewhere between right and wrong
There is a field
I’ll meet you there”
Tags: Accountability, Behavioral Patterns, Coaching, Communication, Conflict, Education, Ethics, family patterns, Family-Based Patterns, Fear, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Leaders, Leadership, leadership programs, pattern aware, Patterns, Politics, Power, programs, Psychology, Sankofa, Sgt. James Crowley, Stress
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Monday, July 6th, 2009
There is a very interesting article in the Washington Post about Mark Sanford regarding moral principles and leadership that really made me think and here is my response:
Are we asking the right questions? At this time it needs to be more than “Did Sanford stray”? It is important to look beyond one incident and address long term behavior patterns to find what a person is really made of.
In Sanford’s case he responded to his many incidents of infidelity as an avoider. His eyes were roving for many years and he could not find the courage to straight talk with his wife. They have a long road to travel and that is their personal issue.
However, that he used state funds for his trip to Argentina and left his post as Governor without anyone in command, especially after living through September 11, that level of avoiding responsibility is unforgivable.
This is not a high school student council we are talking about. Sandord’s pattern as an avoider is clearly one that has important ramifications for his leadership role.
Unless he is required to do deep internal work (not at taxpayers expense) I believe this tendency to avoid when it is too tough to face situations will show up again and again.This is the type of pattern we cannot afford to have our leaders bring to work.
Tags: Accountability, Behavioral Patterns, Business, Communication, Conflict, Economy, Ethics, family patterns, Family-Based Patterns, Governor Sanford, Leadership, leadership programs, Media, pattern aware, Politics, Transformation
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Monday, June 29th, 2009
How many more “family values” based politicians will make the news about affairs this season? It is interesting that the latest, Governor Sanford had his press “mea culpa” conference sans wife by his side. He needs to do this alone and it will be interesting to see what he can learn from his philandering.
The news around him is familiar. The talk shows have experts tell why he did what he did and what he should now do differently. Experts who write about narcissism call him a narcissist. Experts who don’t believe in divorce talk about the devastation for the children. Experts who focus on politics dissect his career possibilities.
I would like to offer another point of view about the complex sides of all of us labeled human beings. It is time to bring the “shadow” side of who we are into the light. I have no idea what went on in the Governor’s personal relationship with his wife. That is for them to untangle. I don’t know how his relationship with his sons has evolved. That is for them to dialogue.
What I do know is that when we crusade about a cause, any cause, without being able to look at all sides there is a tendency to fall into the pit of the opposite and take on the energy of what we are so against.
The good Governor was a strong advocate of family values and a vocal judge of those who have “gone astray”. Now, he will have an opportunity to learn from personal experience, or at least one hopes he will learn about what it feels like to be “the other”.
Hopefully this will make him a more caring, deeper individual able to see all sides of the equation in the future. Perhaps this is his best leadership development training and rather than merely judge the man we can send him our best caring wishes that he will tackle his shadow side and be able to bring more light to this complex world of ours.
Tags: Accountability, Business, Communication, Conflict, Diversity, Ethics, Governor Sanford, Leadership, leadership programs, Management, Media, Patterns, Politics, Stress, Transformation
Posted in Accountability, Business, Communication, Conflict, Economy, Ethics, Executive Teams, Honor, Integrity, Leaders, Leadership, Management, Media, Patterns, Politics, Power, Reflections, Transformation | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
I was struck with the tidbit of the Elizabeth Edwards interview that will be aired on Oprah this Thursday, May 7. I admire Elizabeth for her accomplishments and tenacity. The title of her book, “Resilience” is perfect for a cancer and affair survivor. And yet, and yet, I was both saddened and angered by her willingness to protect her husband as the “victim” of the predatory “hussy” who waited to snare John when he returned to his hotel with the comment “You are hot”!
In my work as a leadership coach and also as a family therapist who spent years working with couples I so hoped Elizabeth could see that any affair is, at its core, a three party relationship.
I do not believe it is helpful to “air dirty laundry” before the world. Details are just window dressing. Underneath the titillation of an affair are three people who are frightened and vulnerable. This does not excuse secrets and lies. And yet, protecting each other and blaming doesn’t help either. What helps is digging for the truth and then sharing that, if one is so inclined, with the world. Perhaps merely saying “I am hurt and angry and what John did has reverberated through our family and has consequences. What ‘she’ did was wrong and there is always a price to pay.”
Elizabeth did shine when she talked about taking things day by day, month by month. That was a magical moment of “teaching truth”. Real truth, as I so often repeat, is not spilling your guts. It comes in short, clear sentences. It is an art form we need to begin teaching at home, in schools, at the office. It can be just the medicine we all need to find a higher road in how we relate both personally and professionally.
It is hard to stop blaming, to see all sides of tough and painful situations, and yet, in the long run there is more to gain from all party accountability. It’s about you, it’s about me, and it’s about time!
Tags: Politics
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