One of the arms of the Mercer Consulting Group provided high-level management consulting to large companies. As an account manager, I was required to learn about their services and to introduce their consultants to my clients, when appropriate. So I could learn more about their services, I read a lot of general management books and several of them were on change management. The two core thoughts I learned from those books were that change is inevitable and it is difficult process to implement change, particularly when there are major, fundamental changes required.
The reason I comment about the need to change is that another of my friends in the car is, in my opinion, "stuck in the past". He remembers the days when high school graduates without any special skills were able to get high-paying factory jobs and make high wages. He fails to realize that there are people in other parts of the world who are willing to do those same jobs for much lower wages.
His solution is to increase the number of US manufacturing jobs by boycotting firms, like Walmart, who purchase goods or services from other countries. Also, he would impose tariffs on goods produced in other countries. Even if such tactics were successful, all it would do is raise prices for US consumers.
Are we willing as a nation and as individuals to take those jobs away from the people in other countries and not let them improve their own standard of living? I am not willing to do so. I have traveled to a number of different nations and I have personally seen the living conditions in these countries. Many live in abysmal conditions that not even the poorest US citizens would be willing to tolerate.
It is human nature to want to improve the living conditions of your family. If the world is not able to raise the living conditions of all its citizens, in my opinion, the results are inevitable--strife in the form of economic and physical wars.
What does this have to do with change as a nation? In my opinion, our leaders must:
- Establish a cohesive vision as to what we really want to become as a nation and our role in the world. With our present divisive atmosphere and the unwillingness to compromise from party positions, I think this will be a very difficult process, if not impossible. Where are the leaders who can develop a common vision such as "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"? I'm afraid I haven't seen that quality in our current political leadership.
- Effectively communicate that vision to our citizens and help them through the difficult change process. Again, I haven't seen those skills in our present leadership.
So, it all starts with political leadership and doing what's right for the nation, not my particular political party.
Enough moralizing for the day.
