This month I’m pleased to introduce David Gershon, a social visionary who is also a personal friend. His newest book Social Change 2.0 is our book of the month. Make sure you see the empowering video of how Gershon organized the First Earth Run, which involved passing a lighted Olympic Torch runner to runner, through 63nations.
I recently taught a group of executives from Golden Eagle Broadcast System, China’s most progressive media organization and owners of 11 television stations, several radio stations, and a movie production business. My topic was strategic thinking, planning, and action, as part of a custom UCLA Extension program on entertainment in a digital era. If you have attended my Strategic Project Management course, you will remember the Noah’s ark case study. It was pure joy watching these execs enthusiastically develop a Logical Framework for the Noah’s Ark case in Chinese, then did a LogFrame to create a “Chinese Bollywood”.
CEO & Founder
Haines Centre for Strategic Management
http://www.hainescentre.com/
Insanity has been described as doing the same thing over and over and expecting difference results. It’s clear that doing the same thing in Afghanistan won’t work. It’s time for a holistic solution that integrates issues concerning security, social rights, ethnic group concerns, education, culture, political, economic, and infrastructure. . The US and NATO need a strategic plan that focuses on these different issues—and not just on sending more troops to fight. . Addressing each of these areas in an integrated way can create a new, sustainable Afghan country and state for the first real time ever (if that is our Goal as it seems to be).
Point #1 – Cut a Deal with the War Lords
Cut a deal with the War Lords to run their own territories and ethnic groups, but with a government like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and promote a decent Value System—including social rights and women’s rights. The Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, USN Ret (Former class president and graduate of the US Naval Academy with the Legendary Leadership Class of 1968) has all the granular intelligence and information on the ground to do this.
In terms of corruption, since it is ingrained in the Afghan culture at ALL levels, decide if you want to attack this culture change directly or through the warlords. Be careful here.
This has worked before -- Franklin Roosevelt’s (FDR’s) 4-Point Marshall Plan, helped rebuild European countries following World War II. In an address also known as The Four Freedoms Speech, FDR proposed four points as fundamental freedoms humans “everywhere in the world” ought to enjoy. (1. Freedom of speech and expression, 2. Freedom of religion, 3. Freedom from want, and 4. Freedom from fear.) Those same themes should resonate for the Afghans.
Point #2 – Purchase the Poppy Seeds
Buy up the Poppy Seeds, a $4 billion industry which provides the economic base of the rural farmers. This is cheap. Once owned, they can then be destroyed and gradually replaced with a new economic base. Creates loyalty too-just be sure the money does NOT get back to the Taliban
Point #3 – Wire the Country
Set up a massive infrastructure program to connect the country. Ask the Norwegians and Chinese how to do it successfully as they have done.. Redbuild the critical infrastructure -- roads, schools, medical facilities, tunnels, bridges, trains, and industrial facilities. Employ Afghans to do most of the work, such as has been done with by Aramco in Saudi Arabia This is what we helped Germany and Japan do after World War II; have become global powerhouses and allies. Don’t have the contractors from around the world be more than General Contractors—“ a person with a job is not a terrorist”. Be sure they are taught marketable skills as a part of this—see Point #4.
Point #4 – Teach them Skills
Declare amnesty for Taliban and Terrorists and to teach them practical job skills so they can build the infrastructure. We don’t need to teach their Army how to fight—thy have been doing that for 30 years since Charlie Wilson’s War. Let’s teach them skills for peace and prosperity, not war.
Point #5 – Leverage Women Power
Make special use of the women. Give opportunity to women who are being held back. Set up a Women’s Movement to help them with education, jobs, families, and taking their rightful role.
Point #6 – Share the Power
Let Kabul be the titular capital, but acknowledge the War Lords are the real power. Just like Abu Dhabi does for the UAE, Kabul would handle the few national government tasks it minimally needs to do. There would be a limited officially centralized leadership to link it with NATO and the world community, UN, etc..
Point #7 – Align Our Resources
Get joint funding and leadership from NATO on all this—including support from Russia and China—to help establish a JOINT LEADERSHIP TEAM of the countries to form a miniature-United Nations that works. Then, place Warrior-Statesman Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of State in charge, who can make the pieces come together. #2 choice is four star General Zinni, USMC Retired, former CentCom.
A full solution must recognize the larger system context, and include Pakistan. For Pakistan, support the plans of Admiral Michael Mullen, Admiral, USN—Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (from my Legendary Leadership Class of 1968, US Naval Academy) who has been working on this issue for the past two years with the Pakistani Generals and Government quite successfully.
Point #8 – Fight the War Unconstrained
Finally, what all the military wants—give them the resources to fight, win and HOLD the territories gained. Stop the rules of war that prevent success—and yes, build friends and credibility and keep civilian loss to an absolute minimum. But make it clear—join us or be killed. Then let the killing of the radicals get serious. This includes the use of Drones, one of the most effective ways to do it. Remember the USMC motto—no greater friend and no worse enemy!
In Summary:
If we have learned one thing over the years, piecemeal solutions never work, whether in organizations or societies. Developing a sustainable solution requires taking a systems thinking approach and executing a set of strategies to build a foundation for success in this difficult situation.
Stephen Haines is a globally recognized systems thinker and founder of www.HainesCentre.com, the world leader in strategic management. He is the Western VP as a US Naval Academy Graduate with the Legendary Leadership Class of 1968.
This issues of the times requires us to think beyond the bounds of where we currently live to find ways to contribute to our world and the next generation. I am always looking for organizations and people who inspire us to bring out the best in humanity.
One such organization is The South Bay Vietnamese Cultural Center (California USA), which is devoted to creating educational opportunities for youth in their homeland of Vietnam.
Mr. Dien Nguyen, a Northrop-Grumman engineer and Cultural Ccenter leader, attended my class at the UCLA ExtesnionTechnical Management Program, and took this opportunity to strengthen their approach by using the LogFrame planning tools.
Read through the LogFrame they designed to solidify what they were already doing and define additional points of action—and you too will soon be saluting their efforts!
Identifying Your Professional and Personal Points of Action
When our lives and work becomes clouded by emotions wrought by challenging situations, it can be difficult to identify where to focus in order to leverage our resources and actions and achieve the Outcomes. Identifying your personal and professional points of action starts with understanding the aspects of key situations in your life and in your work that need work.
Sometimes we need to step back and analyze situations from various angles in order to increase our ability to address them in an Emotionally Intelligent manner that supports us and for others involved. Start by asking yourself the following questions:
- What is working in my professional life? and in my personal life?
- What are the key situations that are challenging?
- How do I feel during those situations?
- What do I think during those situations?
- How do I behave in those situations?
- What might a better approach be?
- What am I doing that is working?
- What do I need to change? And how?
Once you become more aware of the answers to such questions, you empower yourself to find the Points of Action to change or improve the situation. I recently asked these questions about my own development, and realized a need to climb the learning curve on the use of electronic technology to better organize my life and work.
By David Gershon
In Social Change 2.0, social architect David Gershon lays out a compelling and coherent blueprint for sustainable societal transformation at a time when the world desperately needs fresh thinking. I first met Gershon (and his life partner Gail Straub) a decade ago at an Empowerment Workshop they conducted in Seattle. I was so impressed by their ability to manifest large-scale visions that I sponsored their Seattle workshops for the next two years in addition to having attended other transformational trainings they conduct.
To understand their capacity for positive global thinking, consider First Earth Run, an amazing event they conceived and organized. At the height of the Cold War, their event involved passing a light from Olympic runner to runner through 62 countries around the world. This 1986 event involved some 25 million people organized in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund and ABC Television. The event raised millions of dollars to enable UNICEF to provide care to the neediest children of the world. Check out the video here
The United Nations calls Gershon a “graceful revolutionary.” He understands empowerment and his social change initiatives have inspired behavior-change and large-system transformation from a span of government agencies, huge organizations, communities on a collective and individual level worldwide.
Among his contribution, Gershon is the creator and administrator of Global Action Plan, an international not-for-profit organization throughout the 1990s that clustered small groups of people together in "ecoteams" to bring about environmentally sustainable behavioral change at the grass-root level.
Gershon reminds us that with the accelerating unraveling of our planet's life support system and the deterioration of so many of our social systems, we are being called upon to create rapid transformative change. But the current social change tools at our disposal, such as governmental command control, legislative change, financial incentives, and citizen protest -- what he calls “Social Change 1.0” -- were designed for slow-moving, incremental change.
According to systems theory, when the current solutions prove inadequate for the magnitude of change required, a system goes into stress and begins to break down. We see evidence of the planet’s very system unraveling in such major large-scale problems as global warming, environmental pollution, chronic poverty, terrorism, epidemics, ethnic and racial animosity. What is required to help the system evolve is a second order change solution or a solution that is capable of transforming and reorganizing it to a higher level of performance. Gershon’s Social Change 2.0 represents such a solution for our social systems.
His core premise is simple: the natural starting point for changing our world for the better is us. He argues that taking personal responsibility to make the needed changes within ourselves and our communities is the foundation for changing our institutions—not the other way around. The heart of Social Change 2.0 as a strategy is empowering people with a vision of possibilities and providing them with the tools to make it happen.
While this begins with individuals and teams, it allows the synergy within a collaboration of talented people to go exponential. Gershon also discusses how to take a social innovation to scale.
If you want provocative ideas from a visionary social architect, Social Change 2.0 will equip you with transformational strategies that can make a difference.
Kids' Ideas About Love
- "If falling in love is anything like learning how to spell, I don't want to do it. It takes too long." -- Glenn, age 7
- "Love is like an avalanche where you have to run for your life." -- John, age 9
- "I think you're supposed to get shot with an arrow or something, but the rest of it isn't supposed to be so painful." -- Manuel, age 8
- "No one is sure why it happens, but I heard it has something to do with how you smell. That's why perfume and deodorant are so popular." -- Mae, age 9
- "Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too." -- Greg, age 8
- "Once I'm done with kindergarten, I'm going to find me a wife." -- Tom, age 5
- "On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date." -- Mike, 10
- "I'm in favor of love as long as it doesn't happen when Dinosaurs is on television." -- Jill, age 6
- "One of the people has freckles, and so he finds somebody else who has freckles too." -- Andrew, age 6
- "My mother says to look for a man who is kind. That's what I'll do. I'll find somebody who's kinda tall and handsome." -- Carolyn, age 8
- "It gives me a headache to think about that stuff. I'm just a kid. I don't need that kind of trouble." -- Kenny, age 7
- "One of you should know how to write a check. Because, even if you have tons of love, there is still going to be a lot of bills." -- Ava, age 8
- "When somebody's been dating for a while, the boy might propose to the girl. He says to her, 'I'll take you for a whole life, or at least until we have kids and get divorced.'" -- Anita, 9
- "I'm not rushing into being in love. I'm finding fourth grade hard enough." -- Regina, age 10
- "Most men are brainless, so you might have to try more than once to find a live one." -- Angie, age 10
- "A man and a woman promise to go through sickness and illness and diseases together." -- Marlon, age 10
- "[Being] single is better . . . for the simple reason that I wouldn't want to change no diapers. Of course, if I did get married, I'd figure something out. I'd just phone my mother and have her come over for some coffee and diaper-changing." -- Kirsten, age 10
- "Love is foolish...but I still might try it sometime." -- Floyd, age 9
- "Love will find you, even if you are trying to hide from it. I been trying to hide from it since I was five, but the girls keep finding me." -- Dave, age 8
Kissing:
- "When a person gets kissed for the first time, they fall down, and they don't get up for at least an hour." -- Wendy, age 8
- "You should never kiss a girl unless you have enough bucks to buy her a big ring and her own VCR, 'cause she'll want to have videos of the wedding."-- Jim, age 10
- "Never kiss in front of other people. It's a big embarrassing thing if anybody sees you. But if nobody sees you, I might be willing to try it with a handsome boy, but just for a few hours." -- Kally, age 9
- "You learn [how to kiss] right on the spot when the gooshy feelings get the best of you." -- Doug, age 7
- "If it's your mother, you can kiss her anytime. But if it's a new person, you have to ask permission." -- Roger, age 6
- "It's never okay to kiss a boy. They always slobber all over you. That's why I stopped doing it." -- Tammy, age 10
- "I know one reason kissing was created. It makes you feel warm all over, and they didn't always have electric heat or fireplaces or even stoves in their houses." -- Gina, age 8
- "The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that." -- Curt, age 7
- "The rules goes like this: if you kiss someone, then you should marry her and have kids with her. It's the right thing to do." -- Howard, age 8
- (on seeing a couple kissing) "He is trying to steal her chewing gum!" -- Boy, age 6
Beauty:
- "If you want to be loved by somebody who isn't already in your family, it doesn't hurt to be beautiful." -- Anita, age 8
- "Beauty is skin deep. But how rich you are can last a long time." -- Christine, age 9
- "It isn't always how you look. Look at me. I'm handsome like anything, and I haven't got anybody to marry me yet." -- Brian, age 7
How People In Love Act:
- "Lovers will just be staring at each other and their food will get cold. Other people care more about the food." -- Brad, age 8
- "They act mooshy. Like puppy dogs, except puppy dogs don't wag their tails nearly as much." -- Arnold, age 10
- "All of a sudden, the people get movies fever so they can sit together in the dark." -- Sherm, age 8
- "Romantic adults usually are all dressed up, so if they are just wearing jeans it might mean they used to go out or they just broke up." -- Sarah, age 9
- "It's love if they order one of those desserts that are on fire. They like to order those because it's just like how their hearts are -- on fire." -- Christine, age 9
- "See if the man picks up the check. That's how you can tell if he's in love." -- John, age 9
- "Many daters just eat pork chops and french fries and talk about love." -- Craig, age 9
What Mom and Dad Have In Common:
- "Both don't want no more kids." -- Lori, age 8