“Harriet Beecher Stowe.” Ohio Historical Center Archives Library. Call Number MSS0116 Box 106.

POSITIVELY POWERFUL: When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

1. The world, this planet, is divided up between the haves and the have-nots. “We” are the haves.
2. People must earn the right to live. Breathing is not an inalienable right.
3. Scarcity and fear, are motivation for reaching ones higher self.
4. Money determines true value and worth.
5. We are care takers for the planet and we are doing a good job.
6. Love your neighbors, when you see them or are related to them or they agree with you.
7. We are never responsible for what someone else does.
8. Where you were born determines the contributions you can make.
9. Your past determines your future.

We have envisioned ourselves as enlightened and benevolent, yet we avoid responsibility for the poor, hungry, oppressed, disadvantaged or the cruel. We reject concepts, like abundance, win-win and empathy because they are not competitive.  We are, unfortunately, passionate about life being a zero sum game, that in order for someone to win someone has to be the loser and when we or others lose, we are eager to determine fault, so that someone is blamed.

Don’t believe me, keep a tally on how often you ask yourself, “Whose fault is it? Who should get the blame for what is going on?”

In our workshops, “Conversation on Leadership”  we look to bring alive what it means to be a “Positively Powerful Person”, to providing a fuller understanding of “Responsibility”  and to how finding fault or blaming others diminishes ones own power.

2012 Sonic

Radically thinking and leadership is how we work our way out from under our current economic situation. Two new radical terms, Collaboration and Cooperation, may just work!

Let’s give an applause to General Motors for their new vehicle  – The Chevrolet Sonic – as well as to The United Auto Workers Union, for doing something as radical as “Collaborating and Cooperating” with each other in attempting to produce something positive for both sides.

The excuses on both sides of the political divide are simplistic, comical and shameful. They draw solutions from a history, when there was no IPhone, Google, a cure for most disease,  BMW being manufactured in South Carolina or 6 billion people on the planet. So it would seem evident that rummaging through their old bag of tricks and ideologies would not solve the issues of the day. Zachary Karabell post on the “Daily Beast” frames the problem perfectly “The truth, it is becoming clear, is that unemployment is a structural issue, and that the tools being used are based on the wrong analysis and will therefore continue to fall short.” We need to create a radically new model for economic growth in this country and possible for the world. Depending on our government to figure it out for us is risky.

So it is up to us. What is our first step?

Today most news media operations are in the entertainment business and are expert marketeers. The golden rule for marketeers is  “Give the customer what he or she wants”. As one spokesperson for a major fast food chain said when responding to a question about their menu containing  items with questionable health value, “We would not stay in business long if we did not give the customer what they want”. Is our consumption of negative media coverage every evening (or consistently at any time) something that we’ve been asking for? Let’s change this now, there are more positive things happening in the world then what we have allowed ourselves to see or hear each day.

Marketing communications pioneer Tom Burrell, author of Brainwashed is a recognized leader and change-agent revolutionizing the use of positive and realistic images of African Americans in television advertising and the founder of The Resolution Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to self-healing and self-actualization. In a recent  A New Way Forward Virtual Training held online, he put it this way:

We have to understand … that there is nothing more powerful to influence human attitudes and behavior than media messages. As someone once said, “Media speaks more loudly than mom.” We can lay out the steps (to changing negative media messages) but people must be motivated to take them.

The Internet as a medium is a great tool, let’s not waste it. Lead the way, what’s Positive and Powerful that we can talk about now? Spread the word.

There is always something that we didn’t know or  a different culture to understand and diversity provides us with the opportunity to become smarter and wiser. We find that the issues that confront us daily are often resolved outside of our personal comfort zone via communication with people or communities we don’t know well.

Businesses, regardless of their size are seeing the advantages of diversity. Now more than ever, consumers of our products and/or services are coming with a wide range of needs supported by culture, race, gender and geography. We are living in a diverse and global economy and isolation is impossible and unhealthy.

As more and more women join the ranks of executive business leaders, they bring with them their unique understanding of how to build and nourish relationship, the importance of community and their sustainability. Women are leading the way towards a global recovery.

Teachers have an enormous responsibility. In order for them to be successful they must be able to teach the process of learning, not  answers, and to inspire the practice of learning, which is transferable from one occupation or domain to another. Teaching an answer denies the student the opportunity of discovery and much more.

At TED 2011, Salman Khan’s talk about what he has been able to do with the  Khan Academy and the  obvious benefits of the Internet as tool for learning. What the Khan Academy offers to all schools is the ability for teachers to resume the profession that they love via 2000 + well constructed online educationally lessons and self test that augment and supports the learning process. Look for the Video on TED in the coming weeks.

There was no forecast for the upheavals in the global  financial markets nor was there one for the sudden push for democracy in Arabia and North Africa, both seemingly unconnected to one another.

It took the financial breakdown for many to realize that what impacts people on the other side of the globe has a direct and almost instant (4 seconds, Internet time)  impact on us as we sit at home. One realization is that we, meaning the “West”, don’t have to force people to want what it is that we want. We are able to see and hear that we  all want the same thing, to be identified, recognized, respected and to have self determination.

The street artist JR won the  2011 TED PRIZE for his “Inside Out Project” which gives an “over-sized” face as well as voice to the world’s humanity. See his TED Talk below and be inspired as I was. Congratulations to JR, well deserved.

I’ve heard some wonderful stories about the November 4th “mock elections” and this one is a spectacular display of transformational leadership in action by 5th graders.

“Our school is going to be the first in America to be named Barack Obama Elementary school!” fifth-grader Teonte Jackson said. “I feel proud.”

Jackson is flying high. In Ludlum Elementary‘s “mock-election,” Jackson was named: President Barack Obama. His classmate, Jalani Johnson, was his running mate.

“My name is Jalani Johnson and I am also Joe Biden,” Johnson said.

Students here said the mock elections were so invigorating, they begged for something more permanent. Led by 10-year-old lobbyist Samantha Alburez, this trio surprised the Hempstead School Board on Thursday night with unexpected and overwhelming written requests, delivered as stirring oratory.

“Ludlum is a diverse school, so naming our school Barack Obama would honor the diversity of the staff and students,” Alburez said.

You must see the video. The printed word cannot express the strength, vision, passion, and pride of these young people. Kudos to those who created their context of greatness, Principal Mrs. Jean Bligen (left) especially.

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