I wrote a book called Mastering the Art of Creative Collaboration a decade ago. One of the best chapters in the book was a story on the Oslo Peace Accords including an interview with Shimon Peres, the legendary Israeli statesmen who has the Wisdom of Solomon. Mr. Peres was captivated by the whole idea of collaboration and told me how vital it was for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to meet face-to-face.
Read more →Political Leadership
Dear Mr. President, I know you may feel discouraged, but we’re still rooting for you!
There have been three great waves of USA domestic transformation. The first was FDR with the New Deal and the second was LBJ with the Great Society. You represent the Third Wave and have picked up where the others left off—healthcare reform and making America competitive in the global economy.
The issue, Mr. President, is that while people want these reforms, the economic climate at this time is such that they are not ready to pay for them.
My Advice to Pres Obama and Congress on Healthcare Reform
Design Legislation based on “First Principles.” Our work at Masterful Coaching is to coach leaders who seek to make a difference in their world. I would love to have the opportunity to coach President Obama or the leaders of Congress in charge of passing a healthcare bill. The first thing I would talk about is an Impossible Future of affordable healthcare for all. Then I would talk about basing the health care system legislation on “First Principles.” For example, people and families getting the healthcare they need, not doctors and insurance firms getting rich.
Read more →Eliciting a Leader’s Greatness
The furor in America around President Obama winning the Nobel Prize was really maddening and saddening. Instead of cheering for our leaders to elicit their greatness, many American’s tend to foolishly diminish them. Rush Limbaugh said when President Obama got elected, “I hope he fails.” My view is that right or wrong, he is the President and that those who do the tearing down seldom do the building up.
Read more →The Success of China’s One-Party System Confounds the Western Visitor’s Belief In a Two-Party System
As you drive down Shanghai’s Nanjing Road, you can’t help but notice what a high-tech, modern nation China has become. To the naked eye, China looks as successful, well-managed and orderly as countries like the USA, France, or Belgium. Pudong Airport makes JFK look like a flashback from the 50’s. There are skyscrapers shooting up everywhere, expats from global 1000 companies in every Starbucks and Chinese fast-food joint, and traffic wardens on every street corner. Yet, there is one pivotal difference.
Read more →We Need Nation Building in America, More than We Need It In Iraq
I read an interesting column by NYT Columnist Thomas Friedman. According to conventional wisdom, says Friedman, Barack Obama would need to choose a hard-core national-security type as his vice presidential running mate to compensate for his lack of military experience and John McCain would need a running mate who is young and sprightly to compensate for his age.
Read more →Korean Newspaper Reports that President Lee and Masterful Coaching Might Make History Together
I am sitting in my room at on the 18th floor of the Seoul Plaza Hotel in South Korea around 10 pm watching about 3000 Koreans stage a protest rally in front of City Hall below with shouts to impeach Korea’s President Lee. Seoul reverberats with antigovernment slogans. While people march by candlelight, loudspeakers blare the songs South Koreans sang during their struggle against the military dictators of the 1970s and 1980s. One of the reasons?
Read more →I Intend to Start Anew, President Lee, South Korea
A few days ago in this blog I talked about the difficulties President Lee of South Korea was experiencing in part due to selecting a cabinet whose backgrounds reflected an abundance of self interest vs. public service. During my stay in Seoul I was amazed by the massive protests rallies again President Lee not only for his cabinet selections but lifting the ban on USA beef—feared to possess Mad Cow Disease (Mad Cow Disease?!!!! Huh????)
Read more →To Become a Master Politician, Broaden, Don’t Narrow the Base
Leaders in government, business, education, and other domains who have a vision of a brave new world have often wound up frustrated because they cannot manifest the political and economic will to bring transformational change about. Examples: Woodrow Wilson’s failure to get the United Stated Congress to ratify the League of Nations, Jimmy Carter’s struggles with driving through a national energy policy to relieve us from dependence on Mid East oil, Bill Clinton’s failure to pass a national health care program. The same kind of things happen in corporations every day.
Read more →My Spring Trip to China
Letter about my China trip to my nephew Will Hargrove who is serving as a Midshipman on board ship at the Maine Maritime Academy and who is currently on a large vessel somewhere off the Canary Islands.
Hello Will, great to hear from you. I very much enjoy your ship board blogs and thus let me return the favor. I am in China now. Last week there was a huge earthquake in China. The Chinese President, Hu Jintao, unlike Bush went to the earthquake area right away and sat on the bare ground in his suit and talked to the people like he was having a real dialogue.
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