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Again, Eve is a latent genius!
She sez -
While I agree that handouts are not the answer, but a problem (which I
knew prior ot this year), I do belive that certain people, because of
circumstance, history, etc do not have the skills, know-how, or
motivation to go out there and get somethign for themselves. they do
have a personal responsibility fault there, but their struggle goes
much deeper than perhaps you or I...but its all very complicated. I do
see where youre coming from...maybe having nothing would be motivation
to go get SOMETHING, but maybe it would just deepen a cycle of despair
or disillusionment...no idea over here...
anyway, im not at the center today, im reading up on soccer coaching and drills.
Talk toyou soon
Eve

On 7/22/06, russ wrote:
> EVE -
> Your insight is startling for one so young. The intercine warfare between
> various special interests (yes social sector groups have special interests
> too!) over budgets is nothing short of criminal. There is indeed a distinct
> lack of co-ordination/collaboration between activities with common focus
> that dilutes the overall effort. Business concern have this problem too, and
> it comes down to eliminating “turf” battles. The ONLY way I have seen work
> in this area is the intervention of a clearly charismatic leader in a
> particular area, that can rally the differing, divergent activities into one
> force, concentrated on a single goal. Unfortunately, this leads to a
> “cult-of-personality” situation. The problem, alas, is an all to human one.
>
> Because of your experience at e7center, you have seen first hand the effects
> of a demographic existing “so far into the problem they don’t know they have
> a problem” -itis. Again, an all to human condition, but I heard some thing
> (believe it or nor, on NPR) about an engineer whose company makes a manually
> operated irrigation pump, that can be repaired with no tools. The
> interviewer made the comment “why don’t you get Bill and Melinda Gates to
> buy a million of them and give them away?”. I laughed when I heard the guys
> answer, because it would have been my answer...”If you give something away,
> people just hang around waiting for the next handout. If you make them BUY
> it, they understand that they OWN it, and will USE IT.” Capitalism to the
> rescue again.
>
> How do you motivate the un-motivatable? If they KNOW the next handout is
> just around the corner, how do you get people to ACT? You see EVE, this is
> why life (real LIFE) involves Struggle. When you have to get out there and
> scratch, you appreciate what you have. Now. I’m not totally Darwinian here,
> but being compassionate does NOT mean giving away everything to those who
> have nothing. You destroy both parties when you do that. You cannot make
> everybody equal by making them equally miserable.
>
> Anyway, take your time with the lessons learned survey; I have a meeting
> with the small business center Tuesday abut getting some funding for a
> center of excellence for non-profits. I sent you and K my rough draft
> proposal, so look at that and get your feedback to me your soonest.

My friend Eve is very young and naive, but she is clever and is trying to be a complete person. She will succeed. She just completed a HELLISH tour of duty for an unnamed social sector activity, and this is what I told her highness -
Eve -

Well, your long national nightmare is finally over...congratulation. Now the real hell begins. I have attached a document I have found very useful in the past, and I hope you do too. It is a Lessons Learned Survey. I first started using these in the military, as it is useful to review an operation to see where you messed up, and to see how you can improve. Toyota and other companies that practice Six Sigma, Total Quality Management or Kaizen-based management use something very similar to improve the way they do things, and explicitly learn from their mistakes.

Socrates said that "an unexamined life is not worth living", and I too believe this. The exercise of reviewing what you did at e7center may seem trivial, and even silly and pointless, but if you do it (after taking a few days off, of course) I think you will find it useful, as I have.

Some tips - Don't do this all at once... Let it flow out more or less naturally, over 2 or 3 weeks. Put it away for awhile, then get it back out. When you are "done", keep it somewhere for safe keeping. Review it from time to time and fill out a new one every once in a while.

Print the thing out, then fill it in. Don't do it on the PC. What I do is scribble on separate sheets of paper, with the appropriate numbering for the exercises.

Share it with someone...Keith would be a good choice. Write down the feedback. There is something about the act of committing thought to paper that is clarifying in the deed. Lou Reed wrote that "Between thought and expression lies a lifetime", so take advantage of the opportunity to improve by using this simple tool. I really believe you will find it a truly spiritual experience.

russell