Decision Makers and Community

What's a Spoiler?

Muttlee never quite figured out the difference between spoilers and trailers….

If you, as a Decision Maker or Business Stakeholder, are genuinely interested in these areas and overall direction, any wonderings on Rethink topics are fair questions.

Rethink drills down further and is more like a Think Tank with a Twist. Reimagine is the hub and core to Community. We invite you to continue in Reimagine before clicking over to Rethink.

Since you might wonder on website direction for Rethink, a few thoughts follow.…

Decision-Makers and Legacy-Makers

Authority and Resources

You have authority and resources.

So what provides the greatest potential benefit? How do you shape policy? How do you provision most wisely to meet high-level objectives?

We believe this world is heading into some challenging times.

At the time of writing content for this webpage, IPCC just released its challenging climate report (August 9, 2021). As well, COP26 in Glasgow has convened and spoken.

Climate is just one hurdle we face. But it is a significant hurdle.

High-speed trains are difficult to stop on a dime. There is a lot of stored “power” in the moving train (momentum). It is also not particularly in the “mood” to change (inertia).

Considerations

Momentum and Inertia

Just like a long train, there is a lot of stored “power” that exists within current policy and provisioning streams—both capital and operating.

Key concepts: precedents, ways of doing things, societal patterns, habits, expectations.

Also known as “roast beef on Sunday.” Which is now Tofu Tuesdays for all we know.

It doesn’t matter if we are talking Public or Private sources, or a coalition in a PPP (Private-Public-Partnership).

Philanthropists also face momentum and inertia issues in their pondering on how to make a lasting difference.

Then there is the “mood” of politicians, stakeholders and citizens … a bit of sociological and psychological inertia, perhaps? We will defer to a very well-done EDS commercial (Cat Herding) for the answer to that one.

Or are there other factors? Of course there are, but this is just a hint….

System Resilience

For good or for bad, systems exhibit degrees of resilience and resistance to change.

As a content author, I am not a tea drinker, but I have friends that are. My palate and body, as surely as the south-polarized end of a compass seeks its opposite (north), hunts down that morning coffee. Try to talk me into tea first thing in the morning! I exhibit momentum, inertia and even some resilience to coffee. I like certain types of coffee, but I give way when visiting to what the host serves!

A lake or stream will put up with some pollution abuse for a while. It will cleanse itself of minor intrusions. Places like the Greenland ice sheet may put up with some heat for a while and appear “normal” (more or less)—replacement ice appears to equal the melted ice.

Gyroscopes will maintain their spin on an axis and will resist change.

Large ships are slow to start their turn when the captain moves the rudder. But once the ship turns, it won’t readily return to the original course, even if the helm thrusts it in the opposite direction.

But once we apply enough consistent force, systems will change and find a new state. Once they move in new directions, it is very difficult to change that “on a dime.”

Climate and dependent systems (agriculture, transportation networks for supply and delivery, workers) permit certain levels of intrusion and imbalance.

But there are always limits.

When society set rudders centuries ago, and the ship turns, it will not revert to its original state, direction, or equilibrium without intervention. Significant intervention. That means secondary effects caused by society’s direction cannot change “overnight” without massive forces being applied.

Elasticity and Breaking Points

Whether it is the tensile strength of a section of rope or wire cable, or a child’s toy, all systems permit levels of elasticity. Some more than others. Glass doesn’t give as much as rubber bands, and rock only flows when elasticity is birthed in high temperatures (magma)!

Societies and people are similar. Be it physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual, there are degrees of “elasticity” and breaking points. Take a powerful and stable soldier (mentally and emotionally), throw enough war at him, and the soldier comes home with PTSD. Abuse a person enough and they will break. Stressors apply to all aspects of a person—not just the physical aspect.

Throw enough stress and challenges at police officers, ambulance drivers, nurses, care workers, educators, doctors, or firefighters. They all have limits. Each one of us has a limit.

We know our list has gaps—there are many more industries and services we didn’t name.

Then there are people in the marketplace. Moms and dads. Bullied teens. Solitary confinement. People stuck in wards. The homeless. Individuals who can’t make changes because of their financial situation. They too have limits.

We all have different “breaking points.”

Climate and the biosphere are elastic, but only up to a point. Push climate too far and watch out.

At a certain point, pursuing of an entitlement or ROI in the marketplace (debt, equity, or investment “deals”) pushes the boundaries of permissible system elasticity. Attempts to prop up money supply (or investment or wealth accumulation) by undue extraction and ownership of global resources—in the earth, within nature, or the labor pool—imply a reckoning. Shortcuts or profitability enhancers—be it in agribusiness, plastics, artificial foods, plastics, supply chains, poor product quality or abusive manufacturing and management—always await times of reckoning. The reckoning may seem to be long in coming. But it will surely come.

Likewise, excessive taxes seeking to counterbalance already unbalanced systems create whipsaw effects in societies.

Taxes come in many forms and not just through income, hidden or consumption taxes. Inappropriate systems and burdens on the masses form other quieter and more subtle forms of “taxes.” Burdens is a more useful term with burgeoning bureaucratic and taxation systems coupled with many laboring under rising costs of living.

Life is more involved than turning the taxation knob to a fresh setting.

Systems will always rebalance in due time. You can call it God, karma, the wheels-of-justice or cause-and-effect. The love of money and power will always encounter competent opponents. Opponents with greater power. History is clear on that point, as it is on societies failing from within. None of this contributes to the larger pictures of societal stability or wellness. This diminishes Community.

Even nature has her say when she holds the “talking stick.”

Turn on the air conditioner, please.

Community-focused solutions must seek to address these issues.

So must creative solutions.

New Thinking and Approaches are Fundamental

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Albert Einstein

"Amen."

Mr. Whoot

Creativity and innovation, expressed in Community, must be sensitive to the above considerations.

This applies to both capital and operating provisioning streams, as well as considerations for ongoing sustainability.

Renovation or Teardown and Build New?

An experienced house builder will often recommend, based on experience, “his gut” and some hard data and numbers. Decisions to bulldoze and build new—or just renovate—often incorporate both data and instinct.

When cities and countries struggle with everything from the electrical grid to food supply to cities threatened by the oceans, we must ask fundamental and probing questions. Dated infrastructure can be a challenge.

Top-level strategy, coupled with creative solutions, is mission-critical for everything from food supply strategy to supply chains for product. JIT (Just-In-Time) Inventory is a double-edged sword built on a certain set of assumptions in pursuit of shareholder-value optimization. Watch out when circumstances arise that challenge those foundational assumptions!

Points of Provision and Economies of Scale

There are many factors impacting urban, semi-urban and rural locations.

For example, there may be larger land holdings (private or government owned) that can aid with solutions. But, sometimes, policy in current zoning and land usage models constrains options. Or cities may require a certain approach to transportation and housing.

For the record, we are pro-agricultural. All of us need to eat and to drink water. As climate impacts arable land and fresh water, we must keep creativity and innovation in focus.

Creative models also permit additional leverage through economies of scale and unique forms of provisioning.

We need new paradigms.

Holistic

While a holistic approach to the land, food, supplements and medicine is smart, we are using the term “holistic” in a broad sense.

Creative models can help solve some of the rather knotty (or naughty) problems. Large urban populations living in coastal areas or areas of excess temperature is only one of many symptoms. Solutions require incorporation of holistic thinking.

It is pointless to point fingers at a wood stove when the rest of the dwelling and lifestyle are rife with plastics, long commutes with significant fossil fuel consumption, and massive energy requirements across many industries and sectors.

Our global situation demands new thinking that embraces humanity’s diverse requirements.

Unless most of the global scientists of merit (in the IPCC and elsewhere) are smoking something, our choices are rather simple.

Change or die.

We don’t think they are smoking something.

They are pointing at a smoking gun: the evidence and data.

Go to the Hub First: Reimagine

Reimagine is the Hub that drives Rethink.

Go to Reimagine first and discover creative juices through Reimagined thought processes.

Discover the creativity and new thinking needed for the problems and opportunities before you and those with whom you journey.

Yes, it is a bit of a journey. We are encouraging you to pursue personal creativity, to imagine, and to reimagine, before focusing on the usual forms and processes of thought.

You and your team can do it!