What are your dreams for our society, children and grandchildren?
By Roger Kaufman…
Political candidates talk to us in terms of policies, programs, projects, and activities but are vague on results and consequences.
Very few are specific about the world they want us to help create for our children and grandchildren.
To hold ourselves and our political leaders accountable for helping to create this better world, here is a practical set of dreams to serve as a North Star for us all….
Like the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. I, too, have a series of dreams.
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I dream that no person regardless of color, race, creed, nationality, gender, age or sexual preference will be known by anything other than their character and contributions to family, community and society.
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My dream includes that no one will be unjustly under the care, custody, or control of another person, agency, or substance and that every adult will be self-sufficient, self-reliant, and have a positive, productive quality of life.
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My dream includes that everyone can walk the streets of their cities without being harassed, molested, or murdered.
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My dream is we have clean water, clean air, and sufficient food to obtain and maintain good health.
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My dream will be enabled by the stirring words of President John F. Kennedy who advised us “ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for our country.”
Finally, my dream has it that we all will take the advice of former Florida Governor Bob Graham when he shared:
“The train is leaving the station. You can get on the train, you can throw yourself under the train, or you can stand on the platform and watch the train depart.
But the train is leaving the station. The choices we make for our personal and collective future is ours.”
Will you share these dreams and perhaps add a few of your own?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Roger Kaufman, Ph.D. is an influential figure in the history of the educational technology (see also Instructional design) and performance improvement fields as well as strategic thinking and planning for public- and private-sector organizations. Regarded as one of the founding figures of the field he is referred to as the father of needs assessment. While needs assessment is such common practice today that many new practitioners may not be able to envision a time when it was not part of the standard process, his work in this area established one of the foundational concepts that sets professional practice apart. The core tenets of his work are reflected in the professional standards for certifying performance technologists, such as the emphasis on system thinking and planning and sound evaluation of outcomes. Over his 40 years of work Kaufman developed what he considers to be his essential work – the Mega Planning model, a framework for adding measurable value to society. In 2014, the International Society for Performance Improvement created an honorary award named the Roger Kaufman Award for Societal Impact honoring the work of individuals or groups who apply this systemic performance assessment and planning process with clear impact on societal outcomes. Kaufman currently works with a variety of organizations around the globe implementing the Mega Planning model for strategic organizational planning, including educational institutions, government organizations, and corporations.
Special thanks to Jack Levine, 4 Generations Institute and Director of the GRANDPartners for GRANDParents program for contributing this piece by Roger Kaufman.