Working Toward Positive

Problems. Big ones. Complicated. Discussions and arguments about them. How to handle them. What is most important, what least? Who has the power to manage them? What resources are available to work out solutions? How many possible solutions are there? Which is the best one? More arguments? Over which solution to employ?

Welcome to 2021. Yes, it is built on 2020, 2019, and a host of preceding years.

We have lots of troubles. Many are years old. With examination, history of the troubles point to causes and a whole lot more. But those thoughts dig deeper issues to argue over. We are not making progress. We are regressing.

This state of affairs is encountered just about everywhere. In our families (dysfunction anyone?). In our churches (who are we and what are we about even with the Bible telling us?!). In our governments – state, municipal, county, and federal. Lots of discussion and growing ire. Solutions never quite get fully aired.

Even in our interest groups, hobby organizations, and nonprofit charities we have conflict. And this quickly turns personal. Nasty, even. Like a plague – a pandemic? – interpersonal relationships become unmoored. Strife and anger seem to rule the day.

The opposite of this may be the answer.

We have our interests. We have ideals. We have hopes and dreams. Perhaps sharing these with one another will help? At least focusing on the positive is an escape from the negative. Visiting the positive also gives image to possible.

That is what I want to focus on today. What is the ideal outcome we hope to see from any one problem? We know what we have. We know the problems and the disagreements. But what would we have if all that went away and we actually accomplished having programs and an organization that produced the ideal outcomes?

Let us focus on just that, the outcomes. Define what the outcome would look like. What would be happening? How would things be working? What working relationships would be necessary to keep it working just like that? Not perfection, but improved, more fully functioning and beneficial to everyone involved? What would that be like? What needs to be in place to keep it that way, indeed, to get it that way?

Knowing the positive gives distance from the negative. Is that distance enough space to change how we get things done? Might tempers and personalities cool off enough to get out of the way of progress?

In that operating environment we ought to determine what problems are homemade and easily discarded so we have a better chance to work on the problems that matter.

Nasty personalities have no place in our workplace. Neither should they have a home in our circles of government. We should focus on what we are about for the good of the most people. Whether a company, a charity, a government or whatever, the mission is the thing. The vision is the dream.

Now, let us make the outcome a reality.

February 8 2021