I keep telling myself that I will swear off making references to the good works of W. E. Deming, the only truly great management consultant who actually challenged business leaders to think beyond their next feeding opportunity, but that has proven easier said than done.
The launching point for Deming’s theory for doing business was to develop clear aims and then pursue those aims with what he called, a “constancy of purpose”. Among the aims he advocated was for a business to profit by way of creating valuable products and services, as defined by customers, and to create jobs, and stay in business — long-term. It’s not about what the world out there is, it’s about the world as you intend to make it.
“Long term” and “constancy of purpose” go hand-in-hand. Without long term constancy of purpose, we can only react to the momentary vicissitudes of the marketplace — the ever-present variation that signals nothing of great importance. In constancy, we give ourselves the time to refine our aims and methods, not in manner that guarantees “success” but in a manner that guarantees that we will make forward progress. It is by asserting a steady and constant pressure that challenges, even those that seem the most intractable, can be overcome. Without constancy of purpose, the varying winds that buffet us daily, drive us along a random course, further and further from the solutions to the problems that we deem most important.
The idea of a constancy of purpose in the American enterprise is an anathema to corporatist oligarchies who feed off a perpetually confused and increasingly apathetic citizenry. This is why they are so quick to champion less government, less regulation, less organization, less critical thinking, and less constancy.
Today, the polls are signaling the resurgence of the political philosophy so loved by predatory corporatists — every man for himself. It is fast becoming the common wisdom that the Senate will turn Red and the Congress will turn Redder. The explanation for this is that the winds that have been buffeting our nation over the past year have been fanned by corporate interests to such an extent that the herd is stampeding — the predator’s dream.
I am probably pissing in the wind when I suggest that you, the American electorate, need to settle down and think about your aims and the constancy of purpose needed to make forward progress regarding those aims. The havoc wreaked on the American purpose over the past 30 years cannot be undone in one year. The resurrection of the great American middle class — the land of the free and home of the fearless — will take more time and dedication than that.
It’s time to start thinking about the November elections and toward turning out the vote of all who believe that the United States of America is about a nation united in a constancy of purpose despite the buffeting winds. We are here to make a better world.
I persist in thinking that one of Obama’s aims is to expose to the American electorate to how dysfunctional their government has become. Certainly, any thinking person has to be alarmed at the unholy mess that Washington has become.
But part of the problem is that there would appear to be, as you suggest, a shortage of thinking people. I am beginning to wonder if this is really the case or if it is yet another of the myriad mirrors (love alliteration) erected by the media.