Tole's Take

"Ask not for whom the bell tolls" when it comes to US healthcare

"No man is an island.  entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were;  any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." - John Donne, Meditation XVII

Never were truer words said when it comes to the current healthcare debate in the US.  Watching the action from afar, a few things have emerged over the past month:

• Town hall meetings are a good thing and a healthy way to encourage debate in a thriving democracy (contrast with the situation in Iran, post-election)
• It doesn't matter if the "opposition" is organized (Astroturf, rather than grassroots, in Washington parlance) - that what organizers are supposed to do, and see above.  More debate is better
• It is ironic, however, that the purpose of town hall meetings between constituents and their congressional representatives is being flipped on its head; instead of bringing people together and encouraging them to talk more, opposition groups are being sent forth with the express purpose of stifling debate and shouting down anyone who does not agree with their point of view 
• Will there be a backlash at some point - will the public want to at least hear from those they have elected to represent them?
• It is amusing to see the accusations being tossed about ("read the bill!", "tyranny!", "Obama care") by both sides - while the two most important players in the game, the White House and the GOP, have not put forth a single plan (it is all Dems in the House so far) ...

Conservatives need to realize that the current system is unsustainable.  No one thinks that a healthcare system run by for-profit insurance companies that leaves fifty million uninsured people in the US is acceptable, either from a moral or economic perspective - we are paying for them already in our current emergency room setups, like it or not.

Progressives need to drop the utopian vision of the public option and universal health care.  As Matt Miller phrased it on Left, Right and Center, it would be a major victory for progressives to forge a system in which individuals' health care was not tied to their employers, as the Swiss and Dutch have successfully done.  

Every news article, every photo, every YouTube video of town hall meetings that lack any discussion over the future of the US healthcare system is not a scoreboard of who is winning and losing the debate in the public forum - it is another bell tolling, for each of us as a society, and we should all listen up.

"Convergence" is coming to a home near you

A friend's son who was graduating from college recently asked for my thoughts on what would be growth sectors in technology over the next 5-10 years.  I started by telling him that if I could predict the future, I'd be in another line of work, but he insisted ...

The three areas I came up with (leaving aside cleantech and biotech, which I know nothing about) were:

• mobile
• the connected home
• rich, brand-focused online advertising - where are all those offline dollars for brand ads like "Drink Coke" going to go online?  No one has cracked the code on how to engage users with ads that yield offline dollar levels yet. 

It looks like the first two are coming via Google Android, even faster than you'd think:

The New York Times reported in April that T-Mobile plans to sell a home phone and a tablet computer early next year, both running Android. Now, microprocessor company MIPS says it is moving forward with plans to help design Android-based set-top boxes, digital TVs, mobile internet devices, and home media players. In an interview with the Times, MIPS vice president of marketing Art Swift described Android as a “great platform” for connecting home electronics to the internet. The first non-phone Android devices could ship as early as this year, he said, starting with digital picture frames. 

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From two master motivators: Where do you want to go ... and how to get there

   This question has come up a lot in recent conversation given the current economic climate.  Either someone has been laid off, or they are concerned they may be in the near future, and it has forced them to take stock of their current job situation.

Here's what I tell people when the question arises, borrowing from two master motivators - Johan Bruyneel (director for 9 Tour de France victories) and Mike Singletary (coach of the San Francisco 49ers and Hall of Fame linebacker).

First, frame the issue and your goal succinctly (per Bruyneel):

• Don't ask yourself: "What do I want or what are my goals?"  
• But [rather]: "What would excite me?" 

Then, make a plan to achieve your goal (per Singletary):

• "When I look around the NFL, I'm amazed by how many people have a dream and how few have a vision"
• The difference is that a dream ends up being passive, accommodating disappointment.  A vision "captures the imagination.  A vision is something that consumes you like a fire, won't let you eat, won't let you sleep until that vision comes to pass."   

Sage advice, indeed, on pointing yourself in the right direction and then staying on course for the long term.

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Check out my wine, food and spirits blog: The Silk Road of Wine

The Cheney-CIA waterboarding issue is starting to smell very bad

The issue over waterboarding and who knew what & when has been hashed over repeatedly.  That said, I can't recall another prominent elected official - in this case, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi - get into a public pissing match with a major bureaucracy (the CIA) and actually come out on top.

Coming on the heels of current CIA director Panetta's testimony this week that the nation's top spy agency concealed information and misled Congress repeatedly over the past 8 years, today we learn that former VP Dick Cheney gave the direct order to conceal the existence of the secret counterterrorism project from the House and Senate.

For a long time, I favored turning the page and simply moving on from the Bush administration issues.  As more facts seep out about torture as an official government policy and the extraordinary efforts to conceal it, however, it forces one to think long and hard about a full-fledged inquiry (perhaps as a South Africa-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission so we can finally move past the issue).

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Check out my wine, food and spirits blog: The Silk Road of Wine

Great Communicators are Great Explainers

 

If you have ever struggled to communicate your thoughts, passion or vision to others (and marveled at how easily some people like President Obama are able to do it), then this HBS article by John Baldoni will really resonate.

Communicating well is hard work.  A leader needs to ensure he or she delivers straightforward explanations to the twin questions the troops' minds: "what does it mean and why are we doing it?" 

Baldoni lays out three ways to become an effective explainer:

Define what it is. The purpose of an explanation is to describe the issue, the initiative, or the problem. For example, if you are pushing for cost reductions, explain why they are necessary and what they will entail. Put the cost reductions into the context of business operations. Be certain to explicate the benefits.

Define what it isn't. Here is where the leader moves into the "never assume mode." Be clear to define the exclusions. For example, returning to our cost reduction issue, if you are asking for reductions in costs, not people, be explicit. Otherwise employees will assume they are being axed. Leave no room for assumptions. This is not simply true for potential layoffs but for any business issue.

Define what you want people to do. This becomes an opportunity to issue the call for action. Establishing expectations is critical. Cost reductions mean employees will have to do more with less; explain what that will entail in clear and precise terms. Leaders can also use the expectations step as a challenge for people to think and do differently. Your explanation then takes on broader significance.

It's a good, concise article and a nice roadmap to use the next time you need to prepare for a key presentation or communication session.

Barcelona FC "Gladiator" video - if you ever want to inspire the troops

This is awesome.  Check out the Gladiator-inspired video that head coach Pep Guardiola put together to get his squad fired up before they took the pitch against Manchester United in this year's Champions League final.  We all know that Pep's tactic worked to perfection (Go Barca!).

Pep gives a little pep talk (all puns intended) for the first 2 min, then the video really gets going.  You can also buy a commemorative t-shirt on Objectivo.com.

US Soccer - good start to World Cup campaign

Even though the US team lost 3-2 to Brazil in the Confederations Cup final today, fans of Sam's Army should feel good about the team's progress.  I watched nearly every game the US played, and after a rocky start to their Cup campaign (epitomized by a hapless 3-1 loss to Italy), the Yanks finally started to play loose and benefit from some good luck.

Consider the murderer's row that the US had to get through to get to the finals: 2006 World Cup champs Italy, South American champs Brazil (twice) and European champs Spain, all in the span of two weeks.  The match against Spain, a shocking 2-0 win that sports historians have already ranked as one of the top five greatest team upsets in US international sports, showed the US defensive strength up the middle by continually disrupting the devastating Spanish midfield's touch passing game and not permitting them any space to operate.

Brazil was another story, as they are a team unlike past Brazil teams that developed the "beautiful game" (which, ironically, Spain and not Brazil plays today) and one that wins with quick counterattacks and set pieces - witness the final goal, a perfect header off a corner kick.  While the US ultimately could not keep up with the pace of the South Americans, the final showed that we could switch styles and play the current Brazilian game as well - Landon Donovan's searing run from midfield as part of a two-man counterattack for the second US goal was a thing of beauty.

Looking forward to seeing the US in action in South Africa next summer in the 2010 World Cup (maybe in person, making it two World Cups in a row ...). 

Politics: The Palin Problem, part II

First thoughts on the Palin problem are here, a much longer post. Now the defenses of her record are getting laughable - why not just say what Clinton, Reagan, and other governors have said, notably that governors have a record of executive experience, not foreign policy experience? Maybe it is because the McCain camp painted themselves into a corner by making foreign policy and national security experience the paramount issues in their messaging ...

From today's WSJ:

"In an interview with ABC News, Sen. McCain defended his running mate and cast her as a change agent who will shake up Washington. He said that she was "by far the best candidate" for the job.

He was asked if felt comfortable with her foreign-policy experience, given the dangers the U.S. faces abroad. "Alaska is right next to Russia. She understands that," Sen. McCain said, echoing a point delivered by his supporters this week. Regarding her support for teaching creationism in schools, he said she wasn't running for the school board." (emphasis added)

Huh? The Alaska-Russia analogy is so strained it deserves its own South Park episode. And with respect to the school board logic, I guess a candidate's abortion stance doesn't matter because he or she is not running for Secretary of Health? National security experience doesn't matter since he is not running for Defense Secretary?

In litigation, they teach you a very important lesson when you evaluate the case before you. If you have the law on your side but not the facts, pound on the letter of the law. If you have the facts on your side but not the law, pound on the extenuating facts of the case. And if you have neither the facts or the law on your side - pound on the table! Feels like that's what is going on here ...

Politics: you couldn't make this stuff up

This has to be the strangest political season ever. Imagine a story in which:

- The first African-American would be nominated for president by a major party (and that when he started his campaign, he would be a relatively little-known first-term senator)
- Along the way, he knocked off his party's heavyweight, who herself was the first woman to ever win a primary contest (many of them). And she happened to be a two-term senator, who also happened to be the former first lady (another first).
- His opponent? Another senator (first time two sitting senators have ever opposed each other for the presidency - sensing a theme here?), a former Vietnam POW and war hero who, if elected, would be the oldest person ever sworn in to the White House (another first)
- His running mate? The first woman to ever be nominated as vice-president by the GOP (the theme continues), and the current governor of Alaska (one of the last states, but first time with a player on the national presidential stage).

You would have been laughed out of Hollywood if you presented that script 18 months ago ...

With all this Fear around, McCain's going to need a cape and tights

The first full night of the Republican national convention struck a theme that really bothers me, beyond just politics - it was all about Fear. So much of what we hear and see in society these days is marketed to us based on Fear, whether it is the products we buy or the politicians we vote for.

Off the top of my head, the following products all use fear-based advertising to differentiate themselves in the consumer's mind:

- Insurance
- Medical products
- Financial opportunities advertised in infomercials (worried about being able to pay the mortgage? Our proven home-based business opportunity offers financial freedom, etc.)
- Pharmaceuticals
- Autos (think crash-test ads)
- Republicans

Why Republicans? Last night's speeches were filled to the brim with fear-mongering: "we live in a dangerous world," "the stakes are too high too risk turning things over to inexperience," "only Republicans can keep us safe," "if you are not a Republican, you don't love your country," "only McCain learned the lessons of 9/11, that we have to stay on the offensive," etc.

This sounds disturbingly like "you're either with us or you're against us." We know how that turned out.

There wasn't a single mention of jobs, the economy, financial crises, mortgages, even though the economy is in meltdown - are they out of touch or out of ideas? The closest mention was to trot out the old bromide about making the Bush tax cuts permanent (you'd think this was the apotheosis of financial thinking based on how frequently it is cited as a cure-all for what ails our economy).

Instead of hearing about the economy, listeners instead came away thinking that we need a superhero to come along and save us from this dangerous Gotham we live in - hope McCain is getting fitted for a cape and tights right now ...

My sense is the country turned the corner a couple of years ago in the 2006 congressional elections, and in the contest between Fear and Hope, we've decided to embrace the optimistic side of our nature. The country is still deeply divided, as was evident in the anger in both conventions, but the tide of the undecided middle seems to have shifted.