Twenty-Year Itch
There are very few enterprises that can maintain their edge after more than a generation or two. That's why Thomas Jefferson suggested that in order to stay healthy, let alone sharp, a country needs a revolution every twenty years.
This truth obtains not only to governance but the corporate world and civic organizations, academia and news outlets. Think about television stations, for example, and even the networks, because goodness knows they haven't had a revolution in twenty years and the quality of their productions underscores the truth most dramatically.
The problem with trying to keep minds open and fresh to changes in circumstances, and different benefactors and beneficiaries of the enterprise is that it is usually managed by people who are intrinsically paid to maintain their positions. That means that they stay with what they know, in most cases, and that doesn't augur well for updating or upgrading, or generally expanding the consciousness.
This is not to say that all traditions and styles should be summarily evacuated according to a calendar, but it does mean that presumptions need to be re-examined on a regular basis, and new imaginations contributed to the reformative process.
Adopting such an approach that shifts the primary purpose from keeping the same people in place to producing the finest goods and services for a discerning marketplace doesn't favor concepts such as tenure or long-term contracts with top decision makers. It also calls for boards of directors and advisors to be chosen on the basis not of quid pro quo but of having ideas to invest.
A great many of our institutions -- universities, government entities, charitable organizations, major industries -- have ossified and fallen behind international alternatives. Where once they led, now they are drowning and they're taking us with them.
We don't want to throw out the baby with the bath water, which is a converse metaphor, but nor do we want to be stuck in the fetid sludge of anachronism.
©2010 SetonnoteS
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