Imagine it.  You’re in a hurry.  You need this one thing, or a set of things, and you don’t know the store layout.  Instead of wandering around wasting hours in a store a la IKEA, people could just walk to the kiosk at the front of the store, type in “aerators” (or, whatever) and be shown an array of products (only those in stock) that match the search.  Choose a product, and it gives you exact instructions on how to find it.  The iPhone app could simply geolocate it for you based on store layout and guide you to it.

Or, simply click ‘buy now’ and have the item brought to the front for you, without struggling through the (early) spring home improvement crowd?

In the past, innovative solutions like this that save consumers’ time may have been shunned by companies looking to increase the time you spend in the store, but today?  Today everyone is busy, no one has time to waste, and a whole generation of buyers have grown up expecting such conveniences.  I’m amazed it’s not out there yet.

Could some rich person please invest in a company that makes the app and kiosks and get cracking on that?  Thanks.

In light of today’s big election events, I find myself looking more closely at a nation in crisis – a nation with, as one senior leader in our company put it, ‘a leadership crisis’.  He wasn’t referring to a crisis with leadership in government (although that is implied in the discussion as well.) No, he was really speaking more about the crisis around personal leadership – the ability of each one of us to lead in our daily lives.

As he aptly put it, we’re a nation of people who are, for the most part, looking to others to solve our problems.  We talk a lot about how things ‘should’ be, but we do little to realize those improvements through the sweat of our own hands or the tightening of our own belts.  No, we look around and say ‘businesses’ or ‘government’ should do such and such.

How often can we really trust either one to make right decisions for us?  How often has government been right about anything?  At least businesses have a model that is outcome focused (an unsuccessful business fails, while an unsuccessful government just gets larger).

Isn’t it time each one of us reached out and found that place within our own sphere of influence in which we can make a positive change?  Shouldn’t we ‘little people’ be the ones demonstrating our power – not through the loudness of our voice or our ability to protest the government – but through the real day to day interactions we have with our world?  Shouldn’t we be creating that imperfect but best system of democracy in which maximum opportunity – not maximum entitlement – is the measure of success?

It’s not up to the government.  And it’s not up to business.  And it’s not up to religion.  And it’s not up to science.

It’s up to us.  Every day, in every moment we’re granted, we make things better, or we make them worse.  We either increase understanding, intelligence and compassion or we decrease them.  That choice is ours – not the politicians.

Think about all of the problems people complain about:  Long wait times, incompetent doctors who need to take a full life-history every time you go to see them, expensive and time-consuming visits for simple problems, etc.  A really good, consitent system, up to date at all times could reduce the cost of healthcare significantly.  Sure, make competition for the specific software used, otherwise it’d never improve — but use an open standard and require that all data stores be accessible over the internet immediately.

Come on, Congress!  There are so many problems we could solve if they’d just worry less about re-election and more about efficiency.

If that’s the problem, what are the root causes?  How do we fix it?  All I have are opinions, but I hope you’ll find them educated:

Root cause #1: Quest for Power

Power, at its heart, is the ability to make others do what you want them to do.  To be in charge, of as much as possible.  The craving for power is much different than the craving for influence.  We all want that, but it takes a special breed of ugly to crave power.  The problem is that most people who seek influence too much, even if they want it for benign or beneficial reasons, tend to develop a taste for power.  How many of us would be comfortable with the thought that a politician wants power “for our own good?”  No, we want our politicians to lead well.   We want them to represent our values and our ideals, to have the highest of ethical standards, to be strong against temptation even when we are not, to be willing to be unpopular if necessary to do right things.  We don’t want the rule of the mob or the rule of the minority – both are usually flawed.  We simply want people who will put the good of the country above the good of themselves – people who have great respect for the awesome responsibility placed on them who carry out their duty to our nation with great emotional intelligence.  They must seek facts, not curry opinions.  They must consult history.  Above all – they must work for the good of the nation, not the good of a party.

So why can’t we find these people?  They would abhor our system for campaigning, for one.  Perhaps they wouldn’t be rich enough or powerful enough to even enter the race.  It takes a ridiculous amount of money to run a campaign.  It is big business, which brings me to…

Root cause #2:Greed

“The love of money is the root of all evil,” said someone long ago.  Another article I recently read touched on the distribution of wealth in America.  Even though I’m generally considered fiscally conservative, and I champion a properly regulated free market, I was astounded at the data.  It showed in staggering detail just how small the middle classes have become, and just how outlandishly wealthy the wealthy really are.  A benchmark for a health society is the size of its middle class.  One of the biggest problems with capitalism is that it is much easier to make money when you have money.  Depending on your level of greed, this means that the richer you are, the richer you become.   The vast majority of us who are in the middle and lower classes are astounded by the wealth of some of the people in our country.  As much as I believe in a person’s right to pursue happiness, even if that’s big bags of money, I think with that success should come a huge dose of responsibility and sober, conscious caring for others.  The purpose of great wealth should never be opulence.  It should be to enable the capable leaders of tomorrow to be chosen via merit, rather than heritage.  Somehow, the wealth has to be better utilized (not necessarily redistributed.)  That could be a big challenge, though, because…

Root cause #3: Power and Greed Are Mutually Enabling

That’s right, folks, the more money you have, the more influential you are, and the more likely your influence will turn to power.  The more powerful you are, the easier it is to accumulate material things that drive a hunger for more material things.  Power and money are a package deal.  The combination of power and money also increases the ability of the powerful and greedy to perpetuate their control of others through many means.  One of the most dangerous could even be considered….

Root cause #4: Mass Media Manipulates Public Opinion

The powerful and greedy need to be able to control public opinion.  It is the primary method for ensuring they stay comfortable.  Either as politicians or through politicians or as media moguls or through media moguls, they easily manipulate the crowd.  They ensure that there is a spin to every story.  They ensure that we all feel the need to take sides.  They stir up the masses to support their goals, for example, the democrats often appeal to the poor and disenfranchised.  The republicans are known for stirring up rich and middle income people.  One author wrote that the rich ensure the poor are dependent and that the middle classes are too scared of losing what they have to affect real change.  When we allow media to influence our opinions, not only on the issues, but about our neighbors, we are being utterly controlled.  They are teaching us to hate and despise the other party, not just disagree with their ideas.  They want us to be unable to work together to find real facts and solutions.  They need us to see each other as enemies, so that we will perpetuate the culture of negativity and division that keeps our nation from truly prospering, and that brings me to…

Root cause #5 Fear Is Big Business

Keeping people afraid is one of the largest money makers and tools of the powerful on the planet.  Look at any dictatorship in the world.  How do they stay in power?  Fear.  Fear sells magazines.  Fear sells newspapers.  Fear gets high ratings.  Fear motivates voting.  Keeping the public in a constant state of fight or flight creates a steady stream of money into the pockets of people who have no fear – or shame.

There are many other factors, of course, but I think it really comes down to power and greed enabling people to manipulate public opinion and keep us in fear.  Is there anything we can do about it?  Perhaps.  If Twitter and Facebook can be used to spread revolutions around the world, it can certainly be used as a platform for getting our nation’s problem solving network together to hold discourse on these issues.

As I mentioned, I’m a bit opinionated, so take or leave these thoughts on solutions:

First, define what we are looking for.  If we don’t all agree on at least some basics, it becomes harder to see people with opposing views as people.  Here’s a short list of things that should bind us:

• We all want to maximize opportunity for ourselves and our children, for financial security and to pursue dreams and passions.
• We all want to pursue our lives without fear of attack, terrorist or otherwise.
• We all want our nation to be filled with educated, literate, and thoughtful people.
• We all want to preserve our natural environment so that it will continue to provide us a place to live and prosper.
• We all want to minimize suffering here and around the world.
• We all want our nation to bind with other likeminded nations to help ensure the peace and prosperity of our globally connected world.
• We all want to recognize the strength of our diverse population, respecting the differences that should make us strong.
• We all want to ensure all people are as free as possible to pursue their spiritual beliefs, in safety from others whose opinions may differ.

If we can find other things we can all agree on, then we can create a body of principals upon which we all stand – even if our methods for getting there may be different.  We will know that as a people we are connected by our common interests.  We will not hate others for thinking there are different ways to achieve our common goals, but will recognize that we have commonality.

That said, I think there are some things we can do, individually and in groups, to help turn things around.

Thoughts on Solutions:

If our campaign system could ever be changed into something that was perhaps crowd-sourced, or at minimum removed all financial incentive, we might be able to lessen the problem of rich and powerful people having exclusive access to government office.  How about a system that crowd-sources local candidates with no identifies at first, just their views, peer promotes them, then reveals identities and with standardized background checks.  After peer reviews, promote a smaller number of people and give them each a television channel to make their arguments on.  Hold debates on the issues.  Tell the media companies that if they want to keep their FCC licenses, they can add a few dozen channels for free. Completely limit campaign finance to a set small amount, paid for by all taxpayers.  In short, level the playing field and take money out of the equation when selecting our leaders.

Restructure the pay for elected officials.  Instead of getting a salary, they should be provided lodging in Washington, provided meals and other services that would ensure every second of their time was spent working on solving the problems of the nation.   In addition to taking care of all basic living expenses, they should be paid a set amount for incidentals.  In essence, while they serve us, we’ll take care of all their basic needs, but they cannot profit from the office while serving.  If they are successful, after serving, they can do lectures, publish books, etc. – but not during their time in office.  We could even give them retirement benefits, accrued while in office – just like any other job.

Make it far easier for the public to recall a candidate who is revealed as lacking character or underperforming.  Politicians should be held to at least the same high standards as a middle manager in any company in America.  Allow these recalls to be based on direct vote, not on a congressional procedure.

The rich know just how well money can grow more money under the right conditions.  Instead of redistributing their money to people who will simply spend it and put it back in the hands of the rich or the government, we unleash their money in productive ways to build wealth for others.  We provide incentive for the rich to do things that build wealth and provide opportunities.  Instead of simply taxing them to the hilt, we tax them to the hilt, but give the breaks only for doing things that matter.  And, we leave control of those entities for which they receive tax breaks in the hands of private enterprise, where they can be performance managed.  The more jobs they create, the less in tax they pay.  The better jobs they create, the better their benefit.  It’s the carrot instead of the stick.  And we could lead them down paths that really help build wealth in our nation.  Instead of trying to build wealth by playing the market, hedging, etc. we can do something that actually works:  adding net value to natural resources (i.e. manufacturing).

End the divisive nature of political parties in America.  By reforming the campaign system as described, we also end the need for organizations that would be perpetuated to finance campaigns.  Maybe we could stop trying to force everyone into one of a few ideological boxes and allow us all to start thinking about real solutions to our problems absent some party line.  We should be able, as a people, to hold reasonable discussions on each issue.  We should be allowed to research history, tap into the best economic and scientific minds, temper our knowledge with the wisdom of a thousand faiths and come up with better answers.

The solution to our problems will never lie with the government, or the church(es), or the party, or big business.  The solutions will always come from people united in their common goals, trusting each other, respecting their differences, and doing their best every day in whatever situation they are given.

So what can you do?  Spread hope.  Be thoughtful and respectful.  Seek the facts. Spread a message of unity – especially to politicians.  Vote for people who are willing to say “I don’t know, but I can research it and then give you an opinion.”  Vote for people who are willing to admit when they are wrong.  Vote for people who hold themselves accountable first.  Vote for people who believe in coming to understand rather than blows.  In your daily life, live the values you espouse.  Smile.  Refuse to be afraid.  Refuse to hate.  Refuse to believe there’s nothing positive in the world.  See the beauty in everything, even your enemies.  Treat your spouse to something nice.  Give your neighbor a hand with something.  Volunteer somewhere.

Above all – stop expecting ‘someone else’ to fix the world.  That’s up to us.

If you made it this far, thanks so much for listening.  I’m not looking for donations for a cause or anything like that.  I simply want you to make the message of unity viral.  If an idiotic video can be seen by millions – why not that?

Some of the topics I write about:

• Digital Design
• Web Trends
• Social Media and Social Business topics
• Business Transformation
• Politics
• Philosophy

Hope to see you here soon, my friends.  Looking forward to some lively discussion around some of these topics!

Thanks as always,

Kevin

(I can hear the guns clicking in right-wing compounds as I write.)

There is a world of possibilities.  What GPS and location-enabled apps are doing for us is nothing compared to what global profile RFID apps could do.

The key here, since you’ve all been shouting about it quite loudly since you read the headline, is to avoid the nefarious use of such a technology.  That lies in extremely diligent governance of the model before anything can happen.  One element is that Identification should be completely separate.  We’re not looking for minority report where ads can greet you ‘by name’ or recognize you for who you are.  Your ID number would be the most sacred piece of information you hold.  It would be completely anonymous, and account management would be regulated by several layers of security that the individual controls.  The system would have to be service based, so that anything calling for information must pass parameters in and get back what you’ve allowed.

This is very, very close to what is happening with Facebook, Google, Twitter and the others.  And yes, privacy is a huge concern – because those people are identifying you personally.  They could potentially take that information and sell it to people with your home address, for example.  If you think about it, we’re already opting in or out of these things by our very participation – so it can’t be a mandatory thing, and the government can’t be allowed to (secretly or otherwise) access any information about your profile.  The entire service would have to be built around ensuring the private citizens’ ability to use the system, customize what they want, while disallowing any “funny business.”

Before you go all David Koresh on me, my dear extreme friends, think about some of the possibilities:

• Parental controls that lock or unlock based on your proximity and set the level of viewing based on whether you are alone or with your kids…
• Apps to track children that aren’t based on them carrying their phone around.  No kidnapper would EVER have the chance to hurt our precious ones again.
• Everything, everywhere, personalized to our own preferences. Don’t like sex-based ads?  Put that in your profile.  On a trip and interested in history?  See ads and information everywhere with only things in that area of interest.
• Imagine not having to carry a credit card – just yourself and a pin.  Nothing to easily lose or steal.
• Log in securely to any enabled system, anywhere, on any enabled device, just by walking up.
• Sit down at a restaurant and be asked if you’d like your usual, to pick from a favorite, or order from the menu – before even waiting on a person to come take your drink order.

Those are just what I can think of in a few minutes — I can’t imagine what real app developers could do for us.

And for those of you wondering, no, I would not set my pin to 0666…

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