Stop.

Learning how to DO leadership isn’t working, is it?  The trap we fall into, is looking for tips and skills and methods and research models.  Let’s face it; it’s not even easy to be a good follower, never mind an exemplary leader.

Think.

DOing leadership can get you to a certain point – it’s more like pulling or pushing the load than finding the path that lets it “flow” in its natural stride.  That “flow” is created by understanding systems thinking – how things “hang” together naturally.  Flow means that your “whole brain” is engaged, not just the parts that come naturally to you.   Flow is growth, and change, and going beyond what is easy. It’s personal mastery on many levels.  (“People with high levels of personal mastery…cannot afford to choose between reason and intuition, or head and heart, any more than they would choose to walk on one leg or see with one eye.”  - Peter Senge)

Shift.

Once you understand the layers of answers to “would you follow you?” – and the naked truth about how you belong in a team – what you contribute, what you sabotage, what you dare to dream about, what you’re willing to sacrifice or to share… then you can begin to walk the talk of being a leader.

BE.

BEing a leader is not the same as DOing leadership.  Of course you must DO – with your head, your hands and your heart. It’s all grunt work, or as author Bryce Courtney says, “Bum Glue”.

BEing means that this IS you as a leader – the techniques, skills, attitudes are embedded within you.  With the BEing comes the understanding of power – strategy – empathy – communication that engages others – through appreciative inquiry, your listening skills, mentoring others, challenging the status quo – all of the “key leadership skills” that are highlighted at LLD’s.  BEing means that you will innovate “self”.

Some of you understand what it takes to BE a leader.  Many of you are still asking to DO leadership.  Think back to all of the leaders who have participated in your learning days.   Whatever their style – whether you judge them to be great presenters and facilitators or not – their mode is to BE leadership in their organizations and their lives.

Do you remember the comment – while we were at the Paterson Family Food Distribution Centre – about the group that was meeting in the adjoining room?  You looked in through the french doors and said, “That’s a powerful group of people in there!”.  What did they see when they looked through those same doors at us?  What was their impression of us – of you? How do you think they learned to BE leaders who are now DOing leadership in our community?   The same way we all are – one choice, one conversation, one room at a time.

Time Out. Reflect.

Reflect on the difference –  DO / BE – this week.  Are you ready to make some changes in your behaviors and attitudes to BE a leader?  What would that mean for you? What would need to change for you?

Talk about where you’re at when you assess your followership skills as a team through Lencione’s work.  I encourage you to follow through with a dialogue (not a debate) about team functions as you “BE” in leadership mode.

5 Minutes with Lencione is here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dRKa700RaQ

The model is linked here for you.

http://www.tablegroup.com/books/dysfunctions/the_five_dysfunctions.pdf

http://www.tablegroup.com/books/dysfunctions/Conquer%20Team%20Dysfunction.pdf

The 6 Minute summary of the Five Dysfunctions is here:  http://www.bukisa.com/articles/397875_the-six-minute-book-summary-of-patrick-lencionis-the-five-dysfunctions-of-a-team

- Edna Aedy (12/11/2008)

Artist, teacher, Haiku poet Edna Aedy (1916-2008), age passed away two weeks after writing her quote on being ignored.   She also claimed, “I retreat when I sense someone else is trying to push my buttons“, and balanced out her thoughts with  ”A band of knowing is floating nearby.  You can catch it if you try.”  Who were the people in her world who didn’t catch that band of knowing? Caregivers? Family?

Miss Aedy – though I only know of her from her obituary and a link to her diary pages – exemplifies the spirit of a leader who has “walked out and walked on”, accomplishing the extra-ordinary through the ordinary.  Her poetry and prose is a legacy, and I wonder: could these simple words energize and expand our understanding of what “accessible” means?  (“As you age, insistent help may often come with other points of view.”)

“What if we stopped pursuing the perfect problem-ending technique

and decided to become experts on being there for each other?  

We could begin by remembering that we are all humans, so we must be equals.”*

Accessibility – Not Always Visible Disabilities…

Let me also introduce you to a Master in the field of accessibility in Mental Health.

Mark Ragans’  “Collected Village Writings”    http://www.mhavillage.org/writings.html  are presented in an easy to read style.  You might enjoy The Four Walls (Section1) and The Four Stages of Recovery (Section 2) to gain a basic understanding of his often quoted expertise.

Legislation: 15.5% of Ontario Population has Disabilities

And finally, The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act became effective on January 1, 2012, and requires compliance.  Over 15.5% of our population in Ontario has a disability – which translates into 1 of every 7 members in our population.  This trend will increase as our baby boomers age.

These standards apply to every person and organization in the public, private and not for profit sectors who:

• provides goods and services or facilities
• employs one or more persons
• offers accommodations
• owns or occupies a building, structure or premises

The five key accessibility areas are:

1.  Customer service

2.  Information and Communications

3.  Employment Accessibility

4.  Transportation

5.  Built Environment

Employers have until 1016/17 for “Employment Accessibility” which creates standards to address paid employment practices relating to employer/employee relationships and how employees with a disability must be accommodated through all phases of their employment.

Protocols, procedures and their effective implementation will ensure freedom from litigation.  Educating yourself and your staff/volunteers is also important, helping you to be proactive about eliminating potential risks.

The legislation link is here:

http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/accessibility/index.aspx

Re-Thinking Our Present “System” of “Intervention”

And a final word about all this from Aristotle.  

He distinguished 3 types of friendship.*

• Friendship based on utility.
• Friendship based on pleasure.
• Friendship based on goodness, which he also called “perfect friendship”.

“Perfect friendship”, he said, “merited his full respect.  It requires equality.  Each person sees the other as a peer and extends ENUNOIA (“joy”), good will.”

When we seek to intervene on behalf of others, more often than not, we do so because we see them as lacking and are blind to their potential.  That is not a friendship of equals.

Friendship creates a container in which we can co-create, support one another and bounce back from conflicts that arise.  Conflict is an inevitable consequence of interdependence.  The more interdependent we are, the more conflict there is likely to be.

But when friendship is present, so too, is our commitment to stay together and work things out.  We open our hearts to one another, knowing that we need kindred spirits – especially when the going gets touch.

We can walk out alone, but we can only walk on with friendship.”

—— *From Walk Out, Walk On, pages 176-179, 182-183

The Changing Face of Leadership

Written By: Sarah Jane Walker

iLead Keynote Meg Wheatley

The idea of leadership often produces an image of one leader and many followers, along with the belief that one person will effectively solve the problems that impact you, your organization, or your community.  However, there is a leadership movement that is sweeping the globe, a grassroots initiative seeking motivated and like-minded individuals who are compelled to effect change in their communities.  Could this be you?

This altered image of leadership, this innovative method that moves people to “walk out of limiting beliefs and assumptions and walk on to create healthy and resilient communities,” is why Leadership Thunder Bay has chosen world-renowned author and leadership consultant Margaret (Meg) Wheatley as their keynote speaker for the upcoming iLead: Innovation in Leadership conference, slated for April 2012.  Wheatley’s concept of “leaders-as-hosts” delves into the realm of curious investigation: who lives in this community or works for this organization, what are their skills, and how can they play a part in creating successful solutions?  Throughout the two-day conference, Wheatley will invite present and future leaders to loosen rather than tighten the reins and make space for others to contribute.

A new style of leadership is needed in these turbulent times…  Will your organization rise to the challenge?  Join Leadership Thunder Bay on April 25th and 26th and “dare to live the future now.”  Visit www.leadershiptb.com/iLead to review programming details and register for this exciting event.  Additional information on keynote speaker Margaret Wheatley can be found on her website, margaretwheatley.com.

Our February Learning Day will be a continuation of the theme we explored in January (Poverty, Homelessness and Crime).  

“Leaders Who Walk Out, Walk On: Accessibility Re-Defined” will focus on the people who have emerged as leaders in our community, who have not let their disabilities hinder their efforts  and have influenced attitudes and behaviors in our community.

To bridge one theme to the next,  please read “Jim’s Story” as he told it to the class of LTB 09.  

Introduction

What I’d like to talk about this morning are some personal experiences as they relate to me living under many conditions imposed by poverty.  A lot of people have preconceived ideas and notions about the poor. I know that my fellow panelists will offer information that is reflective of their passions and line of work.  This morning, I am going to try to put a face to the issues that you’re learning about, and I hope this helps your understanding as you spend the day discussing this important subject.

Poverty has always existed.  There have been numerous research studies that identify well established, albeit fluid stats.  There are many common themes and trends tied to the subject.  Media coverage going into Christmas talks about the plight of homelessness, the working poor being one paycheck away from living impoverished and how more and more families with children need access to food banks.  We hear about shelters and other agencies hosting Christmas dinners, or see the firemen and women supporting Toys for Tots in our malls and those dressed up like Santa raising money for the Salvation Army.  These images that come before us each year cannot only be symbolic of Christmas, but with poverty as well.

I think there is a lot of awareness at a very basic level.   At the same time, there is probably just as many myths and misconceptions that deter people from wanting to help or get involved to eradicate poverty.  The vast majority of people have gone hungry even if just for a short time.  We can imagine how it would be to face starvation often.  It’s like relating to the weather.  There is a variety of means to information and experts and people as a collective are aware of and understand the nature of the beast in poverty.  Yet, poverty has a nasty trend of getting exceedingly dire year after year.  There are powerful influences that impact on people’s ability to help the poor, such as our own depleted pocket books.  I think what troubles me most is how the rate of poverty is not apt to improve any time soon or in the foreseeable future.

A Letter To My Sister

With all its issues and complexities, poverty can be a difficult subject to teach and a much harder one to rectify.  If you follow the news, you’re aware that people are reaching out for help for the first time.  Despite well meaning people with good intentions and efforts, our society has not proven capable of keeping up with the mounting needs.  Food bank lines get longer with less to offer while some shelters provide record numbers of meals per month.  Children are sent to school on empty stomachs, compromising their learning and potentially life beyond school.  Stressed families are utilizing other social service agencies like mental health and credit counseling.  Sometimes these ripple effects lead to more tragic consequences as in substance abuse, homelessness and suicide.  In the past two months, one friend of mine gambled away his cheque while another is trying to drink away his troubles or reality as he feels and lives it.  It is all relative, and unique for people.

My Story

There are reasons for impoverishment that are often deep seated by nature.  Everybody has their story and I want to share some experiences that strongly affected me at quite a young age.

My father was a Chief Chemist at a firm and I grew up in a middle class neighbourhood in Winnipeg.  My family consisted of me, my mother and an older sister.  Our basic needs of food, clothing and shelter were comfortably met.  Nevertheless, I was unaware that I was headed and to some extent destined to travel a journey into that of poverty.

A child’s developmental years are the most influential and important ones of life.  As a youngster, I did not have to worry about hunger.  I did, however, have to deal with an abusive, alcoholic father who was also addicted to Valium since before I was born.  He was an ill man and I can’t attest to all of the reasons as to why he made it perfectly clear at a very young age that he did not like me.  He was a constant presence and one to be feared and not trusted.  His behaviors and actions towards and against me instilled and created an exceedingly negative picture or image of myself that took decades to reverse and overcome.

The abuse at first was mentally, emotionally and psychologically inflicted with harsh put downs like, “you’re stupid; you’ll never amount to anything; nobody likes you” and every time he said, “you make me sick” it struck at the very core of my being.  The result was a 5 year old kid fearing people to where I did not talk much or want to be around others including kids my own age.  I was quite introverted and never became friends with the kids on my block and at school.  My insecurities, doubts and social awkwardness were being fed almost daily at the home-front.  My father’s bitter words got the best of me until I agreed in that I was an unlikable and worthless thing.  Huge inferiority complexes were soon augmented by feelings of self-loathing and I was turning into my own worst enemy.  All of my fears, insecurities and my self-image extended to every aspect of my life including that of the school front.

I didn’t care about learning and despised school from kindergarten right up to the day that I dropped out.  Even if I would have had a question in class, I was much too shy and unsure of myself to raise my hand and bring attention to myself.  I was hospitalized for a few months for pneumonia and consequently failed grade one because my reading and writing skills were so underdeveloped.

I tell you this because failing only compounded my problems.  All the kids I’d been around moved on whereas being held back forced me to be with younger kids that I didn’t know or want to be around for that matter.  Eve at the time, I’m sure I felt that everything said by my father was consistent and fittingly suitable for where I was at.

By the time I was 9 years old, the abuse had reached heights I’d never fathomed before.  To this day, I cannot account for how I got this idea to help me cope.  I was experiencing strong desires to hurt myself, despite never hearing of such a thing or seeing it.

The day I decided to self-harm opened a Pandora’s box in a sense while on the other hand it may have saved my life.  I took a large wrench and found satisfaction as soon as I began to hit my thigh until my skin was blackened.  The act felt like deserved punishment, although I could not have foreseen the pleasure physical pain brought.  Harming myself was actually more about self-preservation than destruction, but it was definitely something I wanted people to know about.

As time went by the self-abuse had evolved into more drastic acts of burning and cutting myself.  By the age of 15, I needed a different method – something a bit more serious, but nowhere near fatal or requiring medical attention.  My father was a hunter and the house was loaded with rifles and guns.  I thought the air gun would do nicely and so I shot myself in my lower left side, thinking I would be able to feel, locate and cut out the pellet. It was not a suicide attempt, however I found myself in much more of a medical problem than I’d anticipated.  I couldn’t feel the pellet and was bleeding more and faster than most cuts did.

I got too panicked and called a girl I’d met who actually spent time talking to me. The act and then telling her changed my life.  I asked her to not tell anybody and to meet me on her street corner.  As soon as I walked up to Marcie, her father jumped out of a parked car, put me in the back seat and drove me to a hospital.  These acts in turn threw me into a kind of life I could not have understood let alone comprehend.

Being committed by one of my parents or perhaps both would turn out to be a life-defining experience.  I woke up the next day to learn that I was a mental patient.  I was locked up in that adult psychiatric ward and warehoused for 3 months when my mother over the phone told me I was to be transferred to a juvenile ward at a different hospital.  I don’t think I’d ever been so angry as this time and utter defiance prevailed.  This hospital had therapy and recreation and patients were expected to attend their school program.  I wouldn’t talk or take part in anything they had to offer and after 3 months of disobedience, I believe the hospital staff gave up trying to get to me and I was discharged.

I returned home to a very ill, angry and violent father.  If he didn’t start a fight with me some day I’d wonder what was going on inside his mind.  With how he felt and in a houseful of guns, I for years wondered when he’d shoot and kill me.  Early on, my mother pleaded with me to never fight back against him and so I never did.  I’d let him hit and vent and then go and beat myself up.  Whatever he could do, I could do better, or worse looking back, and this in a sense, lessened his abuse.  By the time I was 16, my parents began kicking me out after the fights and I found myself in a scary world of homelessness.

Surviving

Abuse was something I’d learned to survive, but I was ill equipped to deal with being on the streets.  Luckily, my mother put five dollars in the mailbox so I could eat and drink a little most days.  What really bothered me was sleeping in parks and back seats of cars, and having nobody to tell or to provide support because I didn’t know what to do or what to expect next.  Fortunately, my experiences with homelessness were only for a few days or a week at a time until my mother would let me back in the house.

Under threats of homelessness, I returned to school at 17.  I was not prepared because evidently word was out that I was a crazy, psychiatric mental patient on the loose.  It had all caught up with to me…I was marginalized and alienated by the students and I gave in and let them push me out the door when I quit for good with a grade 9 education.  This was my lifestyle from a young age to the end of my schooling.  What I’m really trying to illustrate and convey is that for a lot of children and youth, doing well in school and having aspirations and goals are trumped by more important things, like surviving.

To jump forward a few years, my father died of sclerosis of the liver when I was 21.  At the age of 22, my mother told me to go to school, get a job or get out of her house and I certainly can’t blame her.  I was in a world of my own and more messed up from having been drugged and raped a few months after I’d dropped out.  I was not capable of work or school so I chose to move to T-Bay.  This was much of a life-altering decision as when I pulled the trigger of that gun, only this time I was on a journey to recovery, with many incredible experiences to cherish.

I lived at the Empire Hotel for a week until I looked in the phone book for hospitals and saw the LPH listed.  I did not know there was a McKellar hospital just a 5 minute walk from the hotel.  I walked to and admitted myself into the LPH.  After a committal of 6 months and a dozen electro convulsive therapies, I was told I was better and discharged to one of the group homes.  From there I navigated my way through the mental health system as it existed.  I learned a lot about the agencies and programs and came to build a value and belief system about them.

I got involved in my first committee in 1989 and for the first time I was interested in and excited about something.  I’d found passion in advocacy and pulling others together for a mutual purpose.  In 1990, I co-founded a “psychiatric survivors” organization called PACE.  We were government funded by 1991 and I was hired as its Coordinator along with a Membership Development Worker and Office Manager.  In a very short time, I went from living on welfare to being paid $33,000 a year.  It was a huge income escalation and was the first time I had money.  My biggest strength was probably passion and that would ironically be central to my exit from the workforce.  I worked a hundred hour weeks, never took time off or went on a holiday and after four years I’d emptied the tank and I burned myself out.  I went back to welfare, was denied a disability pension and found myself back into poverty as fast as I escaped it.

From 1994-1995, I had a number of part-time contract jobs relating to mental health: research studies, project development, a documentary and touring the film.  But it was my last job in 2006 that taught me a lesson that I should have learned a dozen years before with PACE.  A Toronto organization hired me to facilitate the development of a Mental Health and Criminal Justice Coalition in town here.  Once again, passion prevailed and I was working a half-time job 12 to 15 hours every day.  I couldn’t think about anything else and after a few months, the Coalition was in place with nearly 90 members in all.

After 5 months, I’d worked myself sick again.  The Ministry of Health took part and it was now apparent that they had basically the same plans only with the power and money to take over.  I was mentally exhausted and rapidly losing interest and becoming dangerously depressed until the day I completely lost my grip on reality.

A Nice Day to Die

One day I woke up and rather than going to a meeting, I decided it was a nice day to die.  I fed my cats, cleaned their box and took a large handful of pills.  I left my apartment in the midst of winter wearing runners, jeans and a T-shirt.  I never brought keys or my wallet because I thought this was a one-way ticket and I’d be dead within an hour.  I was spotted by police while trying to find a place to lay down.  I was lucky for his timing.  I woke up two days later with tubes in my nose and mouth after a brief coma.  I’d stopped breathing so it was a close call.  I was diagnosed with chronic stress and depression and quit the job a week later.

Passion as Strength and Limitation

I’ve come to see that my strengths are not without limitations and I’ve stuck to volunteering – which I’ve always had a passion for.  I volunteer on the Children’s Centre Advocacy Committee and recently completed a six year term on their Board.  After a year’s absence, one is eligible to serve a second 6 year term.  The Nomination Committee is aware I want to come back and I hope to be elected come June.

So here I am, 23 years since moving from Winnipeg.  I’d like to spend the last few minutes by using statements that describe my life as it relates to poverty today.

Think of Self as a FORTUNATE POOR PERSON

My source of income since 1995 has been from ODSP.

I’ve lived in Community Housing for four years.  It is a subsidized apartment and I’ve lived here longer than the other 20 places I’ve lived since moving here.

My income is $625/month but I pay just $85 in rent.  I pay $125 a month for hydro and another $45 for cable.  I do not have a phone, computer and internet expenses.  I spend $200 for my groceries and another $55 on my cats.  A bus pass costs me $20 and there’s always odds and ends to get so I generally have a $130 – $140 surplus each month for clothes, etc.

There are additional expenses such as with clothing but by and large I can put aside $20 for coffee with friends, $40 for some movies, $25 to spoil myself with a pizza and $30 to add a hockey piece to my collection.

My basic needs are met with a little extra each month, but saving money is another matter as are emergencies (gloves, Christmas).

Some of the implications or consequences common to poverty are things like social isolation and sometimes alienation: “Not in My Back Yard” – NMBY syndrome.

There’s inactivity, uncertainty and insecurity, illnesses, mal-nutrition, deflated expectations and self-esteem.  Homeless and impoverished people experience not only the same problems and issues.  They also share mutual feelings and emotions.  These are some of the feelings that I’ve experienced related to poverty and homelessness.

Humility

Degraded

Worthless

Shame

Anger

Guilt

Hopeless

Anxious

Disgrace

Trepidation

Helpless

Stuck

Burdensome

Upset

Desperate

Alienated

Trapped

Alone

Onerous

Stigmatized

Isolated

Courage

Indignity

Misunderstood

Disgust

Labeled

Stressed

Controlled

Embarrassed

Judged

Belittled

Fearful

Humiliated

Blamed

Worried

Demeaned

Useless

Lost

Empty

Displaced

Resourceful

Dependent

Foolish

Denial

Defeated

Loathed

Weak

Stupid

Apathy

Defaced

Grouped

Demoralized

Wounded

Resilient

Durable

Vulnerable

Why!

Overwhelmed

Untrusting

Prideless

Unworthy

Disrespected

Forever

More Feelings/Emotions re: Poverty

Exposed

Undesirable

Destitute

Bound

Cold

Entrenched

Responsible

Undeserving

Flexible

Inferior

Failure

Unhealthy

Humiliated

Denounced

Stifled

Obligated

Powerless

Meaningless

Uneducated

Resourceful

Tenacity

Disadvantaged

Underachiever

Devalued

Marginalized

Grateful

Envy

Fortitude

Underestimated

Troubled

Uncertainty

Discouraged

Indignity

Excluded

Bored

Adaptable

Limited

Dismissed

Depressed

Exploited

Silent

Imposing

Vulnerable

Frustration

Oppressed

Compromised

Defunct

Wet

Hungry

Depleted

Fortunate

Accountable

Unsuccessful

Worried

Spent

Insecure

Broke

Stereotyped

Forgotten

Filed under: Uncategorized ]]> http://xowhat.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/jims-story-a-letter-to-my-sister/feed/ 0 thunderbaylead http://xowhat.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/authentic-conversations-about-systemic-causes/ http://xowhat.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/authentic-conversations-about-systemic-causes/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:30:49 +0000 Leadership Thunder Bay http://xowhat.wordpress.com/?p=161 Continue reading →]]> So, what’s really going on?

“If you put fences around people, you get sheep.”  - William L. McKnight (former 3M CEO)

 If you don’t help people TEAR DOWN fences, regardless of how they got there, you also get sheep.” – Doug Sundheim, Fast Company

In preparation for our next Learning Day, let’s explore the role of “Authentic Conversations” for Leaders.  You will be in the company of 3 leaders who are immersed in community organizations, all with the common goal of reducing the systemic causes of poverty/homelessness and crime.   Expect them to reveal “their truth” – and potentially some ranting – because they have learned to speak “authentically”.

AUTHENTIC CONVERSATIONS:

Assessments of thousands of leaders in Centre for Creative Leadership’s database indicate that many leaders fall short on abilities directly relating to their listening skills, including:

• Accepting criticism and making necessary changes in their behaviour.
• Trying to understand what other people think before making judgments.
• Encouraging direct reports to share.
• Imagining someone else’s point of view.

 The “Authentic Communicator’s goals are engagement and finding meaning with others.  

Which of the following is true for you?

 -  She would have left behind that part of her personal background and baggage which would have poisoned relationships with her team and her peers

-  She would check her ego at the door and make sure it didn’t effect her communication style: for example, by not “stealing” credit for projects from others

-  He would have a view of people as essentially motivated, intelligent and creative

-  He would believe that those qualities can be “invited” into the work environment with the right kind of management support and encouragement

-   He would see his job mainly as a coach, not a controller

-  She would have a profound respect for her people and treat them that way

-  She would treat people with equality and fairness, not favoring some at the expense of others based on personal relationships, or other factors not related to the job itself

-   He would base all measurement processes of his team on mutually-agreed-upon, clear goals

-   He would provide honest, supportive, regular and timely feedback to others

-   He would be tough enough to make difficult personnel decisions, such as helping a low performing employee to face up to that fact

-   He would be a communicator of the stated values of the organization as well as living them via his own behavior

-  She would not tolerate violations of those values by anyone and would protect the  team from those who would violate them

Observe the leaders who share your day next week:  How would they rate on this scale?  What can your CAP team learn from these role models?

As always, COMMENTS most welcome!

Maggie

PS Make sure you review the “special instructions” sent in an email.

Let me take a few snippets from the book, “CANADA in 2020 – Twenty Leading Voices Imagine Canada’s Future.

What intrigues me (and I hope you will find this interesting in light of this month’s Learning Day (E-voting and “Power”), is that we take our democracy for granted, or so we say when comparing our rights as citizens to other governments.   (Has “democracy” become our export item?)

In a Chapter titled, “The Future of Democracy”, author Mark Kingwell writes:

“The basic tenet of all democratic politics is a fiction.  The tenet is that each one of us, simply by virtue of having existence thrust upon us (read: we were born in Canada), has a say in how our society is structured and run…

Our notions about democracy date from no earlier than about 1679, and even that is a scholarly stretch given that the modern forms of electoral politics are essentially 20th century inventions.

Plato distrusted the “demos” because, like many a leader today, he did not really trust the people to act in their own best interest.  A city that gave in to democracy was, he thought, ripe for domination by the clever demagogue he called the tyrant.

In a varied country, like Canada, where not so long ago Don Cherry was voted the nation’s leading political intellectual, such elitism is of course impossible to utter, even if it is secretly harboured.  Politicians have become brokers of interest rather than leaders, and citizens reduce themselves to consumers of goods and services enjoyed in return for regular obedience to the tax code.

This devolution, however efficient, does little to improve the status of politicians: a recent Angus Reid poll found that just 15% of Canadians trust their elected public servants, a sad story that is, more sadly still, news to nobody.  Elections, meanwhile, are stolen with impunity even in countries that claim to be democracy’s vanguard.

The “Dark Age Ahead” DAA Scenario: 2020

Greater and greater distrust of the process combines with mounting cynicism among those who contest elections.  Tech advances create more, rather than fewer, opportunities for electoral abuse even as the gap between tech haves and have nots widens.  Political apathy grows more widespread, fed by a culture of comprehensive banality and the sort of blind affluence that consumes products and services without ever asking the real cost of their availability.

The wealthy countries of the West grow ever fatter in their all-leisure-all-the-time manner, ignoring the growing unrest over water, food and disease among the vast bulk of the planet.  At the national level, meanwhile, democracy declines into a parody of itself, a hyper-mediated sideshow that commands dwindling interest, such that some 10 times more people are moved to vote for an aspiring television singer or potential fashion model than a leader.

Ah, you will say: “That is the present, not the future.”   The DAA scenario is merely a modest extension of existing trends, based on the sound predictive principle that most people, and certainly most politicians, fail to change their self-harming behavior even in the face of massive evidence – particularly if they are palliated by rounds of shopping and relentless brain-dead television.

…

The real challenge for Canadian democracy is to continue extending and extending the promise of justice for everyone — which is likewise justice, indeed life, for ourselves.

Until everybody’s somebody, nobody’s anybody.

What Do You Think?

Filed under: Uncategorized ]]> http://xowhat.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/would-plato-e-vote/feed/ 1 thunderbaylead http://xowhat.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/who-has-more-homework-than-a-grade-5-student-politicians/ http://xowhat.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/who-has-more-homework-than-a-grade-5-student-politicians/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:22:57 +0000 Leadership Thunder Bay http://xowhat.wordpress.com/?p=136 Continue reading →]]> The Countdown to our Mock Council Meeting… Time to do some serious background reading about E-Voting.

In addition to the information below, you will be receiving an email package within the next 7 days.

Ann Magiskan, as the class City Clerk, please contact John Hannam IMMEDIATELY for your instructions.

Reminder for everyone:  Connect with your Councillor or Adminstrative Representative for background information.  Citizens for/against, important to start to write your documents (and call Clerk Hannam for assistance if you’re not familiar with the process).

I have heard rumours that Mayor Hobbs may be attending your Council meeting … remember that you are establishing your reputation as a leader at every LLD…

Clerk John Hannam says:  Happy to answer any questions! 3 are from Peterborough, provide a good outline of how they handle things there.
John S. Hannam
City Clerk, CMO MPA
City of Thunder Bay
ph.807-625-2238
fx. 807-623-5468

(See attached file: Survey_of_Municipalities_Using_Electronic_Voting.pdf) (See attached file: 2010 report to council on alternative voting.docx) (See attached file: Final Report_Online Voting Conference.pdf)   (See attached file: General Election Policy and Procedures.pdf) (See attached file: Internet Information Guide.pdf) (See attached file: Internet Voting Procedures.pdf)

http://www.e-voting.cc/
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/electoral_commission_pdf_file/0008/13220/Electronicvotingsummarypaper_27194-20114__E__N__S__W__.pdf
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/news-and-media/news-releases/electoral-commission-media-centre/news-releases-reviews-and-research/official-report-on-internet-voting-pilot-at-rushmoor-elections-published

Cheers and,

“Be a better Canadian!” (Jack Layton, 2011)

Mandela’s rules are calibrated to cause the kind of trouble that forces us to ask:  Are we spinning our wheels in frustration or leading because we know how to follow?

How can we make the world a better place?  How can we support a colleague to make his world a better place?  What can she do to help me, if only I were to ask?

No. 1: COURAGE is not the absence of fear – it’s inspiring others to move beyond it.

No. 2:  LEAD from the front – but don’t leave your base behind.

No. 3:  LEAD from the back – and let others believe they are in front.

No. 4:  KNOW your enemy – and learn about his favourite sport.

No 5:  KEEP your friends close – and your rivals even closer.

No 6:  APPEARANCES matter – and remember to smile.

No 7: NOTHING is black or white.

No 8: QUITTING is leading too.

Adapted by Maggie Chicoine from Source:  Time Magazine, July 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized ]]> http://xowhat.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/would-you-follow-you/feed/ 5 thunderbaylead http://xowhat.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/politics-and-power/ http://xowhat.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/politics-and-power/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:32:34 +0000 Leadership Thunder Bay http://xowhat.wordpress.com/?p=130 Continue reading →]]>  

Power…Politics… let’s dive in!

This month, you will have the opportunity to explore politics, and it’s related Key Leadership Skill, power.   After the debate about E-Voting, we’ll delve into grass-roots power and its relationship to political power on the community level.  Interesting?

I searched “politics and power”, so without a long list of readings this week, here are quotes that perhaps will evoke a comment or two.  At the very least, I hope you find them amusing or disturbing!  Source:  http://www.quotegarden.com/politics.html

Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.  ~Richard Armour

Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently and all for the same reason.  ~José Maria de Eça de Queiroz, translated from Portuguese

Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against.  ~W.C. Fields

We live in a world in which politics has replaced philosophy.  ~Martin L. Gross, A Call for Revolution, 1993

There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.  ~Alexis de Tocqueville

We’d all like to vote for the best man, but he’s never a candidate.  ~Frank McKinney “Kin” Hubbard

All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field.  ~Albert Einstein

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right.  ~H.L. Mencken, 1956

I think it’s about time we voted for senators with breasts.  After all, we’ve been voting for boobs long enough.  ~Clarie Sargent, Arizona senatorial candidate

A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.  ~Leonard Bernstein, The New York Times, 30 October 1988

In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.  ~Charles de Gaulle

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.  ~Plato

Politicians are the same all over.  They promise to build a bridge even where they is no river.  ~Nikita Khrushchev  (Ed note: Didn’t this just happen in Alaska?)

Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence.  Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.  ~William E. Gladstone, 1866

Truth is not determined by majority vote.  ~Doug Gwyn

An election is coming.  Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.  ~George Eliot, Felix Holt, Chapter 5  (Thanks Julie!)

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.  ~Ernest Benn

We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.  ~Stewart Udall