In recent weeks, The Source has carried a series of exceptional opinion pieces by Donna-Frett Gregory (“Why Hope, Backed by Action is Key to Our Future”), Janelle Sarauw (“The Quiet Exhaustion of Virgin Islanders”) and Hadiya Sewer (“Building a Resilient Virgin Islands in a Time of Conflict”).
These columns ranged from the physical environment to the social and normative, and the impact of global events on the Territory. If you consider them as a “package,” they can be seen as an action agenda for the future of the Virgin Islands.
Taken together, the columns are an invaluable guide to the “what” and “why” of a better future for Virgin Islanders. What follows is not an “on the other hand.” It is an “in addition to.” These are thoughts about the hard part of securing that brighter “what” and “why” future. The “how.” How do you get from what we “should” do, to execution, the discipline of actually getting things done.
What follows is grounded in two big assumptions. The first is to accept the sad wisdom contained in Tolstoy’s quote in Anna Karenina, that “There are no conditions to which a person cannot become accustomed, especially if they see everyone around them living in the same way.” The success of the action agenda will depend on the difficult process of Virgin Islanders getting unaccustomed to a number of things, a prevailing pessimism about the possibility for significant change being a critical one.
The second big assumption, the “in addition to” the substance contained in those important Source columns. That assumption is that any success in any of these areas will only be achieved through solid execution. Success = Execution.
If success = execution, here, from the 2002 book Execution, is the checklist for what success will require if the changes that the columnists foresee are to become a reality. The starting point, the “front end,” is a clear and effective strategy for change, one that is broadly shared and that mobilizes people. Mobilizes them in the sense that there is an emotional commitment, well beyond “This makes sense,” that will sustain action over time. And, along with that strategy, a vision for what we want to be and look like in the future.
Then the hard part, the keys to successful execution. Here is the execution checklist.
– Do we have a solid strategy for change?
– Do we have the right people in the right roles/jobs?
– Do we have effective systems and work processes?
– Do we have solid internal and external communications? and, finally
– Do we have core values of trust, clarity, mutual accountability for achievable goals, problem solving as opposed to blaming/blame avoidance and a set of short-term visible wins, the fuel that sustains progress?
It should not come as a news flash that the Virgin Islands needs improvement in each of these critical areas. Or that, without these improvements, substantive change, whatever its value, is unlikely. Addressing these execution requirements is — must be — the starting point for substantive positive change.
Positive change will also have to be achieved in an age of reaction, during which, at least for the present, the government of the United States has become openly racist and white supremacist. A nation in which cruelty and its attendant violence are accepted norms by a significant portion of the American population. At least for the immediate future, that means that Virgin Islanders will be on their own in seeking to do positive things.
Returning to Tolstoy and what people naturally become accustomed to, a critical issue on any agenda for the Territory’s future is reducing the extraordinary levels of violence that currently exist. And that, like many other things, have become normalized. Applying the execution equation to this challenge would seem to be a natural. (Note: A television interviewer once asked a football coach whose team was losing 49-0 at halftime what he thought of his team’s execution. The coach’s response: “I’m in favor of it.” Just to be clear, that is not the “execution” we’re talking about. Once again, it’s the discipline of getting things done.”)
Whatever the issue, social life, the economy, the environment/climate change, or education, the starting point is that the execution equation represents the pathway to success. The first indicator of success will be a willingness, as part of an effective strategy, to address the deficiencies identified in that execution checklist.
That means making difficult, often uncomfortable choices, setting clear priorities, and avoiding the French formula for change: We demand fundamental improvement, with only one condition, that everything stays the same for me.
An achievable vision for the Territory’s future. Using the goals identified in these recent columns, along with the execution goals, to be able to look back and say, “We did it.” Going back to Tolstoy, the good news is that people also become accustomed to — and take great pride in — “We did it” and “We can do it.” Healthy, peaceful, thriving, trust-based communities can become the new thing that everyone becomes accustomed to.
Another way in which execution = success.
— Frank Schneiger has built and led three public sector organizations: The City of New York Assistant Health Commissioner and first Director of Prison Health Services; Executive Director of the HEW/HSS Region II Family Resource Center; and as the organizer and first Director of Department of Children and Family Services in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, each recognized as national leader in its sector. Co-founded and built a $20 million specialty health care organization, and founded and sustained 40-year management consulting firm devoted to planning and execution, organizational change and building and sustaining healthy organizations. Frank holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and dual Masters Degrees and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.
Editor’s Note: Opinion articles do not represent the views of the Virgin Islands Source newsroom and are the sole expressed opinion of the writer. Submissions can be made to visource@gmail.com.
