Pondering On the Eve of Independence

It is appropriate on the eve of the 232nd anniversary of the birth of the United States of America that we reflect on the state of the nation. A trip around the blogs this week finds two posts that will give you pause. The first is a post by Steve DeAngelis, Enterra Solutions offers a suggestion that the trademark product of Enterra Solutions, has an application in America. Development-in-a-Box™ at Home in America Steve begins.

In a recent op-ed piece, New York Times' columnist Thomas Friedman insisted that the next U.S. president needs to focus on "nation-building at home" ["Anxious in America," 29 June 2008]. Friedman laments the fact that America's economic situation is so bad that it will undoubtedly become U.S. voters' most important concern during the rest of the campaign season.

Steve's company Enterra Solutions is involved in developing investment and best practices in at-risk emerging nations, and has taken the lead in Iraq by working to set up new businesses that are home-grown enterprises. DeAngelis serves up this essay, in the belief that Enterra's core product, Development-in-a-Box will work here in America.

Steve continues;

I titled this post "Development-in-a-Box™ at Home in America" to connect with Friedman's idea that we need to conduct nation-building at home as well as highlight the fact that America, too, needs to ensure that it builds the future on best practices and global standards. That is the only way that U.S. companies will once again demonstrate the kind of competitive edge that they will need to compete in emerging markets -- the markets that hold the greatest promise of growth in the future. By focusing on competing in new market sectors, America can remain a world leader, but it must invest wisely in new infrastructure, improved education and training, and technologies that will make it more responsive to the global economy.

Much of what this important post strikes to the heart of what ails America. Perception is everything, and as the final paragraph in DeAngelis's post states.

Hope is the clarion call needed to re-instill the kind of values that made America great in the first place. People immigrated to America with nothing but hope in their pockets and they managed to build a great nation. We've gotten lazy as we've wallowed in our success. We have assumed that the good times would always roll and that we could continue to live large without working hard and remaining innovative. We need leaders who can make the clarion call and motivate a new generation to greatness. On that point, Friedman is right, "nothing else matters."

Important words from a man who has a deep commitment to leave a lasting legacy in the people his company is helping to stand on their own. His purpose in writing, is not to offer up new business opportunities for Enterra. This message has been championed by others, like John Kao at Innovation Nation. The majority of American's believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Direction of the country. Polls, posted on www.pollingreport.com/ show that more that between 70 and 84% of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction. The direction we think we want take will be tried by whoever becomes president in November.

Page 2.

Another post by Dan at tdaxp.com links to a scary article that describes an incident that had the perpetrators been from any country other than Mexico, it would have led to a call for a new front on the War on Terror, be opened against the country disgorging the killers.
Mexican Cartels and the Fallout From Phoenix Stratfor. After reading Dan's comments, please take the time to read the full article, and ponder what we have lurking in our midst. This followed by revelations about the City of San Francisco running its own foreign policy and immigration program in violation of United States Law. Young illegal immigrants lose their San Francisco sanctuary. No matter how hard the Mayor tried to distance himself from this growing scandal, the record speaks for itself. Newsom pledges to make SF a sanctuary for illegal immigrants.

Anyone who reads this blog, or is a first time visitor who takes the time to read my earlier posts, know that I am a strong supporter of legal immigration and the rich benefits that our country reaps from assimilating new Americans from every corner of the world. But, if one breaks the law, they loose their ticket to ride, and they should be sent home, after paying their debt to society.

Final thoughts, one quote by Steve DeAngelis is worth repeating.

We've gotten lazy as we've wallowed in our success. We have assumed that the good times would always roll and that we could continue to live large without working hard and remaining innovative.

If we as a nation don't wake up and get back to the business of working hard and remaining innovative, we will whither on the vine of nations for lack of new leaves and the sap to make us grow. We must be willing to roll up our innovative sleeves and get back to the basics. Frank words, for a people grown fat and lazy, on the milk and honey of being the World's rich kids for half a century.

Immigration+Diversity+Assimulation=Innovation

Several of my posts have been about the future. Studying history, is useful in gaining a threshold from which to offer ideas for the future. Much of the world has spent the last milinium working out the rule-sets that have led to the lowest levels of poverty and violence in the history of the world. This level is still not acceptable to reasonable and caring people. But, I sense a new awareness is springing forth from this nation. The past decades have seen the largest precentage of foreign born citizens in the United States in one hundred years. What does this mean for the United States?

Tom Barnett has a post today, pointing out that immigration has gone global,Heightened immigration is a global phenomenon. He goes on to ask.

Key question posed for demographically moribund Old Core states: do you encourage integration or just circulation? Make them citizens or keep them guest workers? We seem to focus on citizenry, the Middle East on guest workers, and Europe seems somewhere in between on the subject, yes?

Picking up on this question, the United States has always opted for assimulating immigrants and making them citizens.One hundred years ago, strict immigration quotas were imposed and the flow was cut to a trickle in order to process and assimulate the millions of new citizens. Historians will argue that it was either pure nativism, or common sense to stem the tide. Those new citizens went on to help build the American Century. Now as the grandchildren of those immigrants and those who proceeded them by centuries begin to retire and die, the need for an infusion of legal immigrants becomes all to apparent.

I recently read John Kao's book Innovation Nation, (Kao’s site is here) he addresses the need for the United States to regain it's role as the most innovative nation on earth. Another book crossed my path this week that fueled some thought about how this all comes together.

Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect has it availible for download on his web site for free, http://www.themedicieffect.com/. I took advantage of this fine offer and found the book dovetails nicely into ideas that John Kao writes about. It also speaks to some of the same issues addressed in the post by Tom Barnett.

Immigration leads to diversity by causing intersections of ideas to cross when different cultures meet on a middle ground. Johansson writes that stepping into those intersections is where the fusion of ideas occur. He writes of four things that will break down one's associative barriers, and by following at least one of them, will lead into an intersection of innovation.

➣ Exposed themselves to a range of cultures
➣ Learned differently
➣ Reversed their assumptions
➣ Took on multiple perspectives

The above is a snapshot of what has been occuring in the United States and much of the world for the past century. When a country avoids that intersection, out of fear or tribal prejudices, it will being to fade and loose ground to places where the above conditions are fertile. Today, there are over 38 million foreign born legal residences or citizens in the United States. Their children are growing up to be Americans with all the values we hold dear.

Anyone who has read my blog in any detail, will understand that I am of the much maligned "Boomer" generation and grew up with most of the notions that are characteristic of that cohort group. For much of my life I was the average over-consuming self indulgent boomer. Then I stepped into an intersection, when I met my wife, and came to know and love her family and the people of China. Later I really jumped into the intersection when I returned to school and conected with a new cohort group, made up of the children of people born in countries that I had only dreamed about. My interest expanded, from thinking just about U.S. history to include the history of the World. The ideas that fuel my thoughts now come at me like wheel-spokes, converging in an intersection of ideas. I am now enriched with new concepts, and I will spend the rest of my days exploring and sharing them with all who will listen.

This intersection of ideas transends to the political arena. I think a lot of the appeal that Barak Obama has for young people of all stripes, is that he is a product of the intersection of cultures, which allowed him to learn differently, and gain multiply prespectives. I do not agree with most of his positions, but the fact that we all take him seriously, and show him respect, is a testament to the strength of our system to grow by assimulation, which will lead to innovations.

Today's blog is somewhat comtemplative for me. I am humbled with the pride of knowing so many who are poised to make a difference in the future. These people know who they are, I have written about several of them here, and others who have read this blog and sent me personal comments are no less well thought of, readers of this site will come to know of your talents in future posts.

Metacognition on OODA and Innovation

The past week of postings have covered a diverse field of subjects, from emerging generations, to a changing America, and an examination of the OODA loop strategy, and how it relates to all aspects of life.

All of the above posts are linked to innovation and the adopting of new ideas and tools, that will effect human interaction. Steve DeAngelis adds to the ongoing discussion on innovation on his blog today entitled; Innovation Takes Hard Work. A most interesting innovation was shared by Steve with his readers, it came by way of an email.

"Speaking of intersectional innovation, I received an email from Frans Johansson with some interesting news for those of you who might not have read his best-selling book The Medici Effect. His publisher, the Harvard Business School Press, provided him with a pdf of the entire book, which can found on his web site www.themedicieffect.com. Anyone can download it, post it, and share it with a It's the first time HBR has ever done anything like this. It's pretty innovative in its own right.

This all leads back to is metacognition, thinking about thinking, it is how we learn to, visualize and adopt those innovations to survive and flourish. When a society, or a person becomes complacent and feels that all their needs are met, they begin to stagnate. In a nutshell, this seems to have aflicted the United States, we seem to have let ourselves go on a binge after the end of the Cold War. We were on top, secure, rich, and envied by most of the world. Now, we are waking up to find we've spent our savings on a 18 year self-indulgent party. This can happen to people too, they become secure in their enviornment and allow themselves to be emotionally drugged by the ease of life.

Take for example someone who gets a great education in a field they truly love. Then they take a job that provides a good income, but it's boring and mundane. That person soon finds themselves drugged by the paycheck. The chance to make a contribution fueled by their passion, is delayed and takes a backseat to having a secure life. One day, that person comes to work and finds that their position has been eliminated. They are faced with the reality of reinventing themselves. The fear of surviving kicks in and they observe their situation, then orient themselves to their choices, and then decide what action to take. Failing to do this leads to economic and social destruction.

Human nature when faced with these circumstances, will find a way to succeed. I myself was a product of this complacency. It took a system perturbation, to make me see my world through a horizontal lense and act.

Examples can be found in Dr. John Kao’s book, Innovation Nation (Kao’s site is here) of how businesses and countries when faced with dire futures found ways to adopt and innovate their way to success. His book is more than a primer on telling America how to regain it's position as the most innovative nation in history. It is a lesson to everyone who reads it, that the true source of innovation is ingrained in our common heritage as humans. It is up to each of us to think about our own OODA loop and how to use it.