Tag Archives: constitution

12-Step Program for America: Step 1

By Jim Selman | Bio

I work with organizations that are attempting to change. At the beginning of working with a new client, I point out what’s missing for any organization that has recurring or seemingly intractable problems: what’s missing is a different way of observing. Whether we’re talking about a company, a community or a continent, a new perspective always gives us an opening to create new possibilities, have new choices and take new actions: a new way of observing the world effectively gives us a different future than some variation of ‘more of the same’. =&0=&. When we do, we begin to realize that we have a paradigm problem. Until we deal with that, none of our seemingly intractable problems—from staggering debt to unending war, climate change to the underlying causes of the mortgage crises—can be solved. Albert Einstein expressed this concisely when he said that sometimes our problems cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them.

Paradigm problems are like addictions. They are ‘self-referential’ structures that, at some point, disconnect us from a larger ‘reality’. Once disconnected, we begin to follow self-destructive patterns of behavior until we ‘hit bottom’ or have some form of crisis that ‘breaks the paradigm’ and opens possibilities for making other choices. In AA and most ‘recovery’ literature, the self-destructive behavior is understood to be the symptom. The ‘disease’

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Obama’s Big Day

By Jim Selman | Bio

It’s been a long 8 years and now we begin again, but with a lot more on our plate. The list of challenges grows daily, the costs keep rising, the numbers of jobless and homeless Americans and others throughout the world are growing. And yet, the mood today is very festive and enthusiastic. I am in Buenos Aires and, judging by the mood in most of the coffee shops, you’d think that Barack was their new president. I cannot remember an inauguration with so much pageantry and expectation. The planners have outdone themselves to create a sense of inclusiveness, even at the risk of pissing off some of the hardcore ideologues that are still more committed to being ‘right’ than to having a united America that might just pull together enough to dig ourselves out of the current hole we are in.

I remember marching in January 1961 as a young cadet in JFK’s inauguration. It was the coldest winter in memory. Between the ice and the blowing snow, I didn’t get to see much except the back of the guy in front of me. Even so, I can still remember the sense of pride and patriotism I felt being a part of what was to become a time of renewed hope and inspiration. Those were the times when the ‘best and the brightest’ sought public service. JFK’s challenge to “Ask

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