The Challenge of Change

AIR DATE: Tuesday, November 18th 2008
What's the secret to successful transitions?<>p

All eyes are on Washington as President-elect Obama and his 450 member transition team plan for a new administration to take office in January. They have 77 days total (including Christmas and New Year's Day) to review the major federal agencies, create dossiers on potential appointees, and plan future staffing.

The Obama team is preparing to begin quickly after the inauguration. This week they're coming up with a list of Bush policies that could be reversed by using the executive power of the new president, without Congressional approval, as soon as Senator Obama takes office.

So as the country prepares to transition from Republican leadership to Democratic... from Bush to Obama... we're going to explore the idea of transitions. We want to hear stories of people who have stepped into new positions and really turned things around. Or people who have tried, and failed.

What are the keys to a successful transition? To go in with guns blazing? Or to sit back and observe for a few weeks, or months, before making real change? According to change guru, Michael Watkins, the first 100 days in a new role are the most important for energizing people and focusing them on solving big problems. Do you agree with this?

What experience do you have transitioning a company, school, government department, or non-profit from one team to another or from crisis to calm? How have you dealt with big transitions in your life -- from staying at home to working full-time, perhaps? What is the secret to successful change and to getting other to change with you?

Tagged as: change · obama · transition

I have no experience of change like you are requesting, but I wanted to participate a little.
I think Obama should go in blazing, restoring the constitution, habeas corpus, posse comitatus, reversing signing statements, instating campaign finance reform, instant run-off voting and end election fraud and caging, ending corporate personhood, requiring "the news" to avoid the conflict of interest and to tell the truth preserving the forth estate, ending big business's influence of foreign and domestic policy as Eisenhower warned about.

Lets get the money back that have been taken from the tax payers for things like the war in Iraq by taxing those that make money from the war like big oil who probably used their influence to make us attack Iraq, and make crime not pay, investigate 911 before we go after Bin Laden, get manufacturing carbon nanotube solar PV panels and carbon nanotube super capacitor batteries up and running.
Feel free to paraphrase any of this that is relevant.
ShodyRyon —
The International Energy Agency had a draft of their "World Energy Outlook 2008" leaked a few days ago, and the figures are fairly startling--they project a 9% decline in world oil production next year, which corresponds with what many who follow oil production data have suspected for the last two years. The peak in global oil production has happened and, rather than simply experiencing a "financial crisis," we are entering a new historical epoch.

Our economy requires growth to function*, and it requires fossil energy to grow (the data supporting this statement are unequivocal). The change we need--in a world with declining energy availability--is a socioeconomic system no longer predicated on growth. Such a transition may be more than this program had in mind when soliciting remarks, but it is the most important issue facing western civilization right now--and no one is even discussing it.

*Though growth does not mean everyone's incomes are increasing; incomes for the bottom 60% of wage earners in the US have been stagnant since 1974.

Seth Crawford
Ph.D. student
Department of Sociology
University of Oregon
seth crawford —
Hi,
As an organizational development consultant, executive coach, and practicing therapist, I work with groups and individuals undergoing change all day long. In fact, I can't listen to tomorrow's program because I'm leading a change and transition workshop for employees at Metro during the broadcast.

What is successful change? I think it's change that is meaningful, and that can be sustained over time. With all due respect to Michael Watkins, successful change requires more than preparation and commitment. It requires recognition that change is a process that begins with the ending of the old, and a re-orientation of identity before the new can be fully embraced. Change processes that don't make allowances for grieving the loss of the way things have been and adjusting -- which takes time -- are often undermined.

All of us in this country -- whether right, center or left -- have grown accustomed to our stances in relationship to the realities of the Bush administration. And if we're really going to become the change we wish to see in the world, the change that Obama's election promised, we're going to have to change our behavior and some of our beliefs. It's going to involve discomfort, and we need to be patient with ourselves and each other along the way.

Adela Basayne
Conscious Change LLC
Portland, Oregon
adelab —
The most essential ingredient to change is to shake people out of their habitual patterns. They need to change how they do things so they can change how they see things.

Barack Obama has the advantage that main street has been forced to change because of recent economical and social perspectives. Now he needs to shake up the house and senate. They need to be removed from the "business as usual" mindset and taken into a new direction. I suspect that he can do this by the removal of the lobbyist from our political process. A legislture that operates under their own conscience without the benefit of backscratching and kickbacks would be such a change as to force our lawmakers to operate (hopefully) with a degree of moral courage.
bsickles —
I've conducted business war games, strategy simulations, and crisis simulations for 30 years around the world. What I've seen about change is this.

We humans don't change if we think what we're doing is working. Unfortunately, many of the measures of progress that we use are backward-looking; it's like driving with the rear-view mirror. For some comments on how we fell into that trap and got into the financial crisis, please see my blog post "It's Working!" at www.whatifyourstrategy.com.

We humans do change when we believe that we must. Often it takes more than analysis and persuasion; it takes [i]feeling[/i] that there's a problem. For comments and stories, please see my article "Feeling is Believing" at www.whatifyourstrategy.com.

The trick is to experience the need for change as early as possible, and the best way to do that that I've seen is through simulation. Simulation comes in many forms, such as the war games and computer simulations with which I'm familiar. There are other techniques too. Google finds about 15 million pages about simulations. For more, see my blog post "When I Was Wrong" at www.whatifyourstrategy.com.

Perhaps the best news is that people actually do change. In my career I've seen major, 180-degree changes. It takes a shared belief that change is necessary (that's the hard part) and a safe environment to explore ideas for solutions. Once people believe change is necessary, they are remarkably imaginative and constructive.
MarkChussil —
As someone who lived as a homeless addict for many years, then found recovery and realized a great deal of financial success during the early part of the 2000's...owning three homes, having a high-powered sales job, perfect credit and lots of money...and now having lost it all again...the job, the homes, the credit...I am familiar with change. I feel communication is the most important part of making a change or transition. Even if the future is uncertain, being able to communicate that uncertainty and to talk about what you are planning is helpful both to yourself and to others who are concerned about your welfare.

With regard to Obama's presidency and the first two years, I feel it is critical that he maintain in close communication with the American people. I really feel he should take a page from FDR's "Fireside Chats" and have national addresses on a regular, scheduled basis. Updates about what is happening, what is working, what is planned. After the largely autocratic Bush administration, one of the things that needs to be healed and changed is opening up the "black box" of the executive branch of our government. This will allow Americans to feel they are actually participating in their government.

J.S. McDaniel
Portland, OR
jsmcdaniel —
Greetings Peyton from your old diggs Madison!
Change is never just policy; it is a human endeavor. I firmly believe that what we change, or are willing to change is closely connected to our values and beliefs, and these are deeply held. When we make connections there is when we achieve buy in on the change.
Madison has plenty to look at for change, as Peyton knows. I'd like to personally thank her for all her support in my study of school administration, much of done under her guidance. For me, I continue to teach and not pursue administration for now, because it is okay to take time with change. Waiting is not in conflict with my values and beliefs.
Mr. Grobey
totopos —
"The Challenge of Change"

Hm, let's reframe that into:

"The Challenge of Opportunity"!

If I understand Joseph Campbells' "The Power of Myth" correctly, The religious metaphor of the "death and resurrection" really applies to human change. A person comes to a point in their belief system, their world view, that no longer works for them, they go through some period of intense and nearly unbearable suffering, and then their old belief system dies and they are "reborn" into a new belief system.

It is said of people with addictions that they have to "hit bottom" before they realize they need to change, and perhaps that also applies in ways to our national belief systems, for example what Bush admitted is our "addiction to oil".

We need for our old belief system to die and we need our nation to be "reborn" into a new belief system that will serve us better, we need a national "death and resurrection"!

Our current national crises provide us and Obama the opportunity to change, because we have hit bottom!

Yep, "The Challenge of Opportunity", works better for me!
Tom D Ford —
STOP THE GM-CHRYSLER SERIAL ECONOMIC RAPE OF AMERICA - PART I
--GM ate it own child and spit-out a most efficient battery.
By Jim Miller

Problem

General Motors ate it own child, the very successful electric cars, the EVA-1 and -2. GM also first suppressed a revolutionary battery, then sold the rights to Chevron which killed it. Let's not reward GM's capacity to defraud America on the electric car issue. Kill the proposed Bush Bail out of GM and Chrysler. We have better plans for Chrysler.

The sordid and sad tale of GM's best and only electric cars, the EVA's as they came to a tragic death. GM recovered ALL of the EVAs as their leases ran out, then crushed them, then had them chipped into thousands of pieces. GM learned some lessons from the EVA, namely that the plug-in only electric car, equipped with a state-of-the art set of batteries could run 150 miles between charges. The second lesson was that because the cars were cheaper to build and had very little maintenance over a ten year or longer period, the car would obsolete the vehicles powered by internal combustion engines, which needed constant repair and adjustment. These eclectic electric cars would hit the new and used auto dealerships also, since as large portion of their income depended on engine tune-ups, repairs and replacements.

A fairly large number of documentaries and video clips challenge GM's decision to kill the EVA cars and also documents the efforts of Toyota, Honda and others, to suppress their electric, plug-in vehicles. GM will offer the Chevy Volt as the ?replacement?. The Volt is hydrogen powered (thus requiring hydrogen fuel ? not commercially available at the ?pump? and preserves some of the high cost repair profiles of the internal combustion engine.

These videos as summaries, does not do justice to the value of the lessons learned, but are important ?points of entry?. Go to YouTube and type in ?who killed the electric car? in the search box to get the list of videos.

Watching the clips should energize the viewers to take action to prevent the GM-Chrysler bail out as currently proposed. The best use of US Treasury money would be to buy a controlling interest in Chrysler and turn it over to a really green management team which would rename it as the Chrysler Electric Auto Company (CEAC). CEAC would make only electric plug-in and electric plug-in hybrids. Over time, it would repurchase the older cars and trucks and convert them to electric vehicles. The full story can be read at a mock website of Chrysler: Chrysler Electric Auto Company,

Summary of video clips and films

Who killed the electric car?(not the batteries) Who killed the advanced technology battery for the electric car? Story of GM's purchase and suppression of the new battery and it's death at the hands of Chevron. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J5f9x_RfHI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw6R2j3OTXQ&feature=related

ECD Ovonics : Make It Happen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nC2HmcLCSo&feature=related

?Who Killed the Electric Car? Haunted by the ghost of the electric car. Trailer for ?Who Killed the Electric Car?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGG4rNMuMac


Alternative Energy and the Americas; Center for Latin American Studies; Stanford R. Ovshinsky, UC Berkeley; April 8, 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DYxoacwuxg&NR=1 Background of Stan Ovshinsky, self-taught physicists and is responsible for discovering the fundamentals of the persistent state of changes leading to the invention of the transistor and CD.


wktec crush electric car ev1 Story of GM crushing the EV-1s Listen to the lies told by a GM representative
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEIJrdoDmyw&feature=related

Review of ?Who Killed the Electric Car?? Two gals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk81OUcmhYo&feature=related


Killing the Electric Car - USA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AU3_2IT8k8&feature=related


Who Killed the Electric Car? You did http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlAbj6N9nA0&feature=related

EV1 rises from the dead: how long will GM let it live? http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=UjKG5bVeCDs&feature=related


Cheverol Volt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgTcdfkihE4&feature=related

Chevy Volt, Scuderia Spider, BMW CS -Fast Lane Daily-05Sept http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3j1t3yCnS0&feature=related

Chevy Volt Eflex system, fuel cell, ethanol, gasoline http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM4F1qtAEyI&feature=related

Unlimited car range ? the Electric car. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0SB5psrVCM&feature=related

Dodge electric Li-ion Car http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSgX_2csdKE&feature=related

Honda EV Plus http://www.honda.com/ev-plus/?

ef_id=1097:3:c_da2897f72add63b2d75562127d12afa6_841615528:XMddmdB6B2YAABWzB-0AAAAK:20081029215111

Honda EV Plus home made vido http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8XbuzD9oog

Dodge Zeo electric car ? close up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbCSXwaKM7w&feature=related

Opel Unveils the Flextreme Electric Concept at IAA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4k8S3lCyYU&feature=related

Mitsubishi i MiEV electric car http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euKMi3APHP8&feature=related

Electric Car in-wheel motor Siemens eCorner http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPSoNfmuBXc&feature=related

The Volvo electric hybird, flex-fuled genset http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmJTsHcZMFQ&feature=related

Electric car beats Ferrari ? a real kick-ass car. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsGeQby7Jnw&NR=1

Tzero car powered by laptop 7000 laptop batteries beats 500 hp Dodge Viper http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsGeQby7Jnw&NR=1

Zero emission electric motorcycle drag race http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3LZUPGo7JM&feature=related

RAV4-EV Secrets: Plugs into solar, instant Volt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peW8kl-jpHc&feature=related

Never aired GM commercial on EVA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjKG5bVeCDs&feature=related

EVS23: GM barely two years after killing ev1-Tape 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rauG9YWmmg&feature=related

wktec crush electric car ev1 Story of GM crushing the EV-1s Listen to the lies told by a GM representative http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEIJrdoDmyw&feature=related

SERIES:

Who Killed the Electric Car
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA2u_KbCs6A&feature=related
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oyOJzvhZFo&feature=related
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQkU24hUC44&feature=related
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW_jrdT5klQ&feature=related
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BMJ9U3TMg4&feature=related
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0JAW20HUOc&feature=related
Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrsrbp_k7MM&feature=related
Part 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRbvLL5ANHc OPEC dropped the price of oil to keep the oil junkies hooked up. OPEC succeeded in suppressing the electric car.
Part 9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f3jKZVEDIY
Part 10: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICkQzoO_r5A&feature=related

Where are we in the Green Revolution with Charlie Rose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9ngECk1FQk&feature=related

Stimulus? Charlie rose interviews Paul Krugman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qckyUhjjJQA&feature=channel

Solution

Suppose the proposed merger between GM and Chrysler goes forward. Thousands of jobs and many plants will close. Towns and cities which supported the Chryler labor force will encounter deep misery. GM will apply to the Feds for say, 120 billion so they can pay extended benefits to ?buy-out? union contract employees. GMAC will seek additional billions for this corporate welfare. Is this what we want? Not only NO but HELL NO.

There is a perfectly sensible alternative which will not cost the Feds any net loss and probably a profit. Here it is:
Congress authorizes the U. S. Treasury to purchase the controlling interest in Chrysler. Usually a five to ten percent interest is sufficient to control a NYSE listed company.
Congress authorizes the U. S. Treasury to change the name to Chrysler Electric Auto company and loan CEAC up to 100 billion to retool as a manufacturer of both pure plug-in and plug-in hybrid vehicles from small, single passenger micro-cars to tractors for 18 wheelers.
This retooling includes the manufacture of kits which can be sold to folks who will use the kits to convert their Chrysler vehicle to a either a plug-in or a hybrid plug-in.
The loan would also be used to purchase a license for the Volvo all-wheel drive, electric wheel technology.
The loan would also include money with which to purchase licenses or develop patents for lithium-ion batteries.
Congress would specifically empower the Department of Justice to bring an eminent domain action against the owners (Chevron) of the battery patent holder of the battery developed by Stanford R. Osviskinsy.
The loans would also be extended to Chrysler dealerships to add to their service departments, bays and equipment to service the EV's.
The loan would also empower Chrysler to use some of the proceeds to buy-back older vehicles, convert them with the kits to EV vehicles and then resell them.
An independent loan program would be enabled so that buyers could obtain low cost loans directly from an agency of the federal government for a loan with which to buy a new or reconditioned EV or a conversion kit.
These loans would all bear interest and be secured by liens on suitable assets of the borrowers. This way the U.S. Taxpayer suffers no loss, the Chrysler plants keep running, the town survive and the workers keep their jobs. Chrysler would also run a retraining school for their workers.
Congress would prohibit GM, its officers and suppliers from owning any of the Chrysler shares.

The Department of Energy should be in charge of the progam in consultation with EPA, Labor, Commerce and Transportation. Public hearings should be mandated on proposed regulations to implement the DOE regulations for the plan and all major contracts.

Jim Miller
jimmmiller5417@yahoo.com
October 29, 2008
jimmiller5417 —
DEFINE THE ISSUES OF SUSTAINABILITY FIRST
--Think, then take action: hit the Start Button
By Jim Miller
November 17, 2008

The real issues are:

1. Transportation. Our national planning has been built on the internal combustion engine which was built on cheap oil. Our society followed this model to produce a ?dumbbell? layout of our cities. Dumbbell Planning versus Integrated Community Planning: http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/DUMBBELL+PLANNING+VERSUS+INTEGRATED+COMMUNITY+PLANNING
2. As need for housing grew, cheaper land in the urban fringe was developed, increasing the driving distances. The mass transit systems fail to solve the ?last mile? issue. How to Get the Right Answers to the Right Questions: http://masallp.wetpaint.com/search/everything/HOW%2BTO%2BGET%2BTHE%2BRIGHT%2BANSWERS%2BTO%2BTHE%2BRIGHT%2BQUESTIONS.?contains=HOW%2BTO%2BGET%2BTHE%2BRIGHT%2BANSWERS%2BTO%2BTHE%2BRIGHT%2BQUESTIONS .
3. Job location became disjointed from living locations. Hard-Wired Traffic; http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/HARD-WIRED+TRAFFIC
4. So too have shopping, schools, health centers, financial, government, and other centers.
5. More and larger roads did not ?solve? the problem of vehicles clogging the travel arteries.
6. Housing: City planners, oblivious to this trend, continued to segregate living space from the other centers. They designed cities for the benefit of vehicles and not for the benefit of people. Planning as if People Mattered: http://leaguedemorepub.wetpaint.com/page/PLANNING+AS+IF+PEOPLE+MATTERED ;
7. Rural towns died as rural wages fell, farm family?s needed second and third incomes, which meant longer commutes. More cars, more fuel, more pollution resulted. The Evisceration of Rural America: http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/THE+EVISCERATION+OF+RURAL+AMERICA
8. Farm families sent their children to college and the military, who found higher quality of life elsewhere. More farms were sold to developers.
9. Food: The food chain continues to grow longer, riding on a bed of cheap oil. The average food product travels 1500 miles from the producer to the consumer,
10. More and bigger shopping centers, big box stores selling slavery wage goods produced offshore, added to the massing of vehicle use. We became more of a ?throwaway? society, stoking our landfills.
The solutions are:
1. Cut the number of trip miles in half.
2. Switch from internal combustion engines to electric motors.
3. Grow our own food and fuel. Algal Oil Diesel: http://algaloildiesel.wetpaint.com ; Mutual Aid Society of America, Mondragon and More: http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/MUTUAL+AID+SOCIETY+OF+AMERICA%2C+MONDRAGON+AND+MORE
4. Stop or greatly reduce importation of foreign oil.
5. Build clustered eco-villages and they will come. We will work where we live and live where we work. Cluster Development; http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/CLUSTER+DEVELOPMENT
6. Self-sufficient, sustainable eco-villages will grow most of their own food using biodynamic agriculture (permaculture). The Econo Campus: http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/THE+ECONO+CAMPUS . Most of their needs will be met on-site: food, housing, jobs, education, health care, energy production, networking in person and via the Internet, child care and elder care. A Coherent Community: http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/A+COHERENT+COMMUNITY
7. We will need good soil, good water and clean air. Instead of burning straw, we will harvest it and make syngas and biochar. A Place in the Country: http://www.ruralstrategies.org/projects/place.html
8. We will be energy independent, but will sell any of our excess energy production using as local Peoples Utility District which sponsors production of green electricity distributed locally using the MESH network technology.
9. We will build energy efficient straw bale houses: http://strawbalebuilders.wetpaint.com/
10. We will turn-in our old and worn-out gas guzzlers to the scrap yard and convert our light trucks and cars to hybrid electric-diesel plug-ins.
And the above is just some of the starters which can be accomplished inside of one year from hitting the start button.
jimmiller5417 —
I think the way to produce lasting change is to never give up. I am in the process of trying to change the culture of marriage in Oregon from a 60% divorce rate to one where people train for marriage and learn the skills necessary to keep families together. It starts with the way people think, and for some reason people think that marriage should just happen, yet we train for the other important things we do in life. My school is starting with 38 different workshops for parenting and living life as a couple.
sherireland —
Regarding "change" in general, I would recommend Alvin Toffler's Future Shock, a very relevant early 1970's book about the increasing pace of change in our society. His basic thesis is we will have to deal more and more change at a more rapid rate, primarily due to technological advances, which impacts many aspects of daily life. How well we embrace, manage and control change affects our quality of life.
As the "change treadmill" keeps turning faster and faster and we run harder just to keep up, we come to expect a certain level change and if it doesn't happen, something seems to be wrong.
Given this subtle expectation, I hope who we vote for is not solely based on the ability to promise "change" but instead a deeper discussion of the underlying issues.
Salemite —

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