On The Streets Where We Live
By Peter Block
Currently there is a lot of
interest in the idea of community. Yet, I am constantly surprised at the
futility and resignation we seem to feel about the place where we live.
We have endless energy to improve quality and find meaning within our
organizations, but when it comes to our town, we become passive
witnesses to our local government, changes in our neighborhoods and the
fortunes of our cities. At best we become involved when our immediate
self-interest is affected.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg County
in North Carolina, recently held an election to determine their county
commissioners. This council will make the most of the critical funding
and policy decisions about the quality of life for the city. These
officials will have an impact on the arts, transportation, parks and
recreation, economic development and the safety of the citizens. There
is daily controversy about these issues on T.V. and in the newspapers.
Yet 15 percent of voters showed up.
On the same day we stayed
away from the polls, we were busy complaining about the government.
Bureaucratic. Too costly. Inflexible service. We think of government as
filled with people who spend their days with their feet on a desk, cigar
in their mouth, waiting for the junket weekend to touch elbows with the
rich and infamous.
We have forgotten that the
government is ours. We are the investors and yet, we are content to wash
our hands of the investment. It is stunning how little we know about
government and how alienated we are from it. We don't realize that our
personal lives and our organizations cannot be successful if the city
does not work well. And it cannot work well without our engagement - our
choice to become active investors.
Becoming Active for our own
Learning
Besides the impact government has on our lives, we need
to get involved because it is doing things that can teach us something
about quality, empowerment an d partnerships. In Charlotte, for
example:
- The Adams District police
are in the business of organizing the community. Deacon Jones is the
deputy chief of police and he has eight community coordinators who
have the task of bringing citizens and community groups together. They
know that the whole system has to be involved for any one of its
elements to work well. The police are engaged in quality improvement
and organizational development that will touch the lives of children
and families much more powerfully than any bank's effort to help its
customers realize their financial dreams
The command structure of that district wants us to ride
with them for an evening. If we do, we will learn a great deal about
meditation, leadership, and teamwork. If we want to learn about
ritual, tradition and commitment, we walk with the police in memorial
services that honor those that have given their lives in the act of
doing their jobs. The police in Adams District want us to join them as
friends, not as strangers.
- If we want to learn about
creating common vision and alliances across organizations, talk to
Jerry Fox, the county executive in Charlotte. He has decided
that the task of government is to create partnerships, rather than
simply maintain public assets, implement regulations and enforce
codes. He has convened 10 agencies to create an alliance and one of
their goals is to eliminate poverty in the country. This alliance
includes education, health care, the faith community, business as well
as government. It is redesigning, in fundamental ways, how
services are delivered in that city. They are creating a common
database of at-risk citizens. They are planning to organize services
citizens, ignoring organizational boundaries and committing to
something larger than their own institution.
Too often we patronize
government by thinking that they need us to fix them. We have it
backwards and it is we that need the help. The public sector offers
something for us to learn as well as a place for us to contribute. The
old image of bureaucratic, politicized government is not so accurate any
more.
If the public sector is a
place of worthwhile purpose and innovation, what keeps us on the
sidelines? I think it is our own cynicism. We each have examples of
indifferent and unresponsive service from the government. I have often
complained in public about the rigidity of the motor vehicles
department. While I have been right in the details, I have been wrong in
my conclusion. Maybe it is my contempt that keeps them frozen in the way
they operate. If I chose good faith towards the motor vehicle
department, they might stop seeing me as a problem, and be inspired to
structure their services around my requirements. If I imagined them
wanting to change the way they provide their service, it might create
the opening for the service to change. After all, what you se is
what you get.
Democracy on the Line
We have come to think that democracy is defined by the
act of voting, but something much more is required than to pull a lever.
Voting is a long distance form of participation. It simply gives consent
for someone other than ourselves to be responsible. What is required of
us is to show up, not with a complaint, but with a willingness to
engage. What is at stake is the experience of democracy. While we
are finding it on the job, we have lost it in the community. Once we
have driven down a street in a police car, we will stop seeing that
neighborhood as a foreign country to pass through, but as a place for us
to stop, once in a while, and help create.
When we struggle with
building alliances to end poverty and engage citizens, we start to
belong to place where we invested. In a culture that mistakes technology
for understanding and thinks a new strip mall is a sign of growth and
development, joining the government in the work of community is a way
for us to find the purpose and commitment where we live, that often
eludes us where we work. What we have to gain is not just better
government service, but the comfort of enlarging the boundary of what we
call home.
This
article appeared in
News for a Change published by AQP in June 1998
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