“Has your company discussed its direction in 2017?” Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister asks in his latest column. “What about asking our new mayor and Metro Council—or our governor and Legislature, who are now in another special session? Does it feel like we are often going around in circles and asking the same questions?”
McCollister points to another question poised by neuroscientist, New York Times-bestselling author and leading high-performance business strategist Robert Cooper: “If you had to become the business that puts you out of business in the least time, what would you do different or better?”
Answering the question can prove to be an interesting exercise for any business, McCollister says, adding it can apply to any government agency, school, university or nonprofit, too.
“If you had no limitations and intense pressure to survive, how would you answer this? Necessity is the mother of invention,” McCollister writes. “If businesses lose money or don’t perform for customers, they will pay the price themselves—and potentially be eliminated. Why is that not the case for all who fail?”
Cooper points out that our brains—while capable of being amazing—are often not our friends. He says our brains avoid change, magnify the negatives, play small, defer and lean away from the possibilities.
“Are we guilty of that approach when facing major challenges, as we do today in business and government? Do we do it ‘the way we have always done it before?’” McCollister writes. “Over decades, I have found that is often the case in Louisiana, partly because 80% of our residents are native—the highest rate in the country. Our familiarity with ‘the old way’ makes the status quo dominant here. It doesn’t work anymore. Times have changed forever.”
Technology has made the impossible possible, McCollister says, and the speed of change is amazing.
“Unfortunately, in Louisiana we have not let go of the relics of the past like civil service in government or tenure in education. Like union rules in police departments. Or pension systems designed decades ago. And having far too many four-year colleges versus two-year colleges,” he writes. “These traditional systems have not changed with the times; they stifle innovation and do not reward productivity or best performance. They also escalate costs and pay folks just for showing up—not for results. They are like anchors around our necks, but who has the guts to tackle them?”
Also in his new column, McCollister praises the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as our country’s new secretary of education and says he enjoyed watching the Feb. 8 Senate hearing.
“I laughed at the political speeches, rants by union bosses, social posts and protesters trying to demonize DeVos as they witnessed their slimy grip slip away on what had been ‘their DOE’ under former President Barack Obama, worried that their monopoly worth billions might be in jeopardy,” he writes. “I smiled as I read their B.S. about the future of children, knowing that to them this is all about money, power and protecting union jobs. I have seen it up close for more than 20 years. The teachers unions are not about children.”
McCollister also says it was no surprise to learn that former U.S. Sen. David Vitter is becoming a Washington lobbyist—and says it’s best that he stays in D.C.
“I suspect he will make a lot more money there than he would have coming home to Louisiana after his debacle in the governor’s race,” he writes. “I have heard nine of 10 Republicans lay the blame for having a Democrat in the governor’s chair squarely on Vitter. His past, along with his mean, brash, vindictive and bullying style made him the one Republican candidate who could be beat by a Democrat.”
Read the full column. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
