Saul Kaplan: A Simply Better Way

My dream for the future is that we can come together as a connected community with a shared purpose for a simply better way.

It is both a blessing and a curse to always think that there is a simply better way.   It is part of our human heritage and culture.  It is our DNA. It is who we are.  There is always a better way.

Our whole lives we incessantly design a better way in our heads.  We redesign the process while we are standing in a long line at the supermarket.  We redesign the way we receive information when we are stuck in traffic that we could have avoided.  And we redesign entire companies when we are experiencing infuriatingly bad customer service.  If you are like me it bothers you that the screens on your phone, computer, and TV aren’t connected and that one company department or government agency has no clue about your experience with the one right next to it just three days ago.  Please tell me that there is a simply better way.

Now that I have entered my fifties, admittedly entered a profound mid-life crisis, and finished my stint as an accidental bureaucrat, I ruminate over some of the more important issues of our day, little things like healthcare, education, and energy independence.  Don’t you wonder, like I do, with so much new technology available to us why we haven’t made more progress in the areas that matter the most.

I can’t help but wonder why our doctor isn’t connected with the entire healthcare system and the best information available in the world to keep our children healthy.  It is hard to believe that in a world where we can get a real time sports score, stock quote, or IM from our children, emergency responders are unable to communicate with each other during tragedies like nine-eleven and hurricane Katrina.  And the one that actually makes me cry is to see first hand what has happened to our urban public school systems.  A simply better way is not a matter of consumer convenience our future depends on it.

It is not the technology that is getting in our way.  It is us, we humans, and the institutions we are part of that are both stubbornly resistant to change.   We are vested in the way things work today.  Change is not easy and it is only possible when we are open to trying new ways and when we are willing to collaborate across boundaries, disciplines and organizations.  We all intuitively know there is a simply better way and yet we have real difficulty doing more then admiring the problem.  From the comfort of our own silos we point at other silos both public and private as the reason more progress isn’t made.  The big “aha” for me from my time in a public leadership role is that community matters.  Progress on the issues that really count will only happen if the community collaborates to make them happen.  It is not someone else’s fault that we don’t have better healthcare, education and public safety systems.  It is our fault.  Community matters.

I came to this realization late.  Throughout my career in the private sector I watched the importance of community decline in the board room.   It happened quickly as companies repositioned themselves to compete globally.  I just never thought about it from the perspective of the community.  I think about it a lot now.

Globalization has affected board rooms everywhere and communities continue to feel the impact of declining resources and engagement.  The question for community leaders is how to make the community strategically relevant in a global economy.   It has become easier to connect via the internet with someone on the other side of the world then it is to connect with the rich diversity of citizens and institutions in our own backyard. Despite all of the networking technology we have become surprisingly disconnected from our own neighbors.  We must become a more connected community.  Reconnecting the dots into purposeful networks focused on healthcare, education, and energy independence is the path towards prosperity and a simply better way.  Community really does matter.

I believe in the value of stewardship.  The simple but powerful idea that any community we are fortunate enough to be a part of is stronger when we leave it then when we found it.    My dream for the future is that we can come together as a connected community with a shared purpose for a simply better way.  If we fulfill our stewardship responsibility we will leave behind a better community for our children and grandchildren.