Ed.'s note: This
week is the third installment of Michael J. Brennan's series, "The
Seven Disciplines of a Community of Progress: Creating a New Path."
In it, Brennan, the president of United Way for Southeastern Michigan, explores how our region has and can continue to move forward.
A defining quality of a community of progress is its capability to lessen self-interest and increase the collective interest – the ability to take other people, places and things into account. Simply, are we capable of extending our care to one another – and finding the fundamental force that unites us?
... in the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all
inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish
our children’s future and we are all mortal.”
— President John F. Kennedy
Society has often shaped issues or decisions around either/or. Either this or that. To embrace the genius of the “and” does not mean that we stop caring for ourself, family, institution, or group.
Rather, it calls upon us to include others – a wider “us” – for whom we consistently demonstrate a genuine concern and understanding. The frame of a “wider us” — “all of us” — provides a necessary lens for a community of progress to look through. This wider view is the very place we find our shared commonalities — along with our differences — the two spectrums vital to collective work.
Sadly, too many have lost sight of the fact that, in the end, we’re all in this together. This is Detroit we are talking about, whether we refer to the city itself or the region that surrounds it. We go up or down together. If Detroit does not succeed, Michigan will not succeed. Those who believe that they can prosper adjacent to a failing Detroit are wrong.”
— Governor William Milliken’s 2005 address to the Mackinac Regional Conference
The price of our independence is the responsibility to steward our interdependence. That is to say – we must be willing to support our independence by always thinking of the greater good.
No one person, family, corporation, unit of government, elected official or neighborhood can do it alone. The power of building local strength AND regional strength together puts wind into our sail. I am part of a family, which is part of a neighborhood, which is part of a city, which is part of a county, which is part of a region, which is part of a state. Each builds upon the other. Each is dependent upon the other. When one falters, the whole boat loses speed.
We have skillful leaders in this city, this region and this state. It’s time for those leaders to demonstrate the courage needed to seize the opportunity to change things for the better. I include myself in that challenge.”
— Kwame K. Kilpatrick, 2006 Inauguration
The economic winds are now forcing many leaders and institutions to a level of pain that cannot be endured. Thus, for all sectors the time has come to align the individual and institutional strengths to the possible. Our success will be dependent on finding the places which do not pit one against the other, but rather, embraces the ‘genius of the and.’
Discipline Two in Action Babies in Michigan are dying at a higher rate than those in most other states, especially black infants in metro Detroit’s suburbs. For every 1,000 black children in suburban Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties, about 19 will not survive their first year of life. For white children, the rate is about five deaths for every 1,000 births. Simply, black infants have been dying at a rate two to five times higher than white babies.
This trend alarmed communities throughout Michigan. Recognizing that there are many factors that lead to infant mortality and that no one organization could dent the issue alone, a partnership was formed as part of the Success by Six Initiative
(http://www.uwsem.org/sb6/) in Oakland County. The partnership is working to reduce the rate of infant mortality for all babies with particular emphasis on the cities of Pontiac and Southfield.
The partnership includes hospitals, local municipalities, and area nonprofits. Clear strategies were put in place, roles identified, resources shared, and institutional credit was set aside to further the collective interest and results. Key strategies included transportation, access to prenatal care, acute care, community outreach, a messaging campaign, and new cribs to promote safe sleep practices. Recent statistics show that combined efforts across organizations and sectors are working. The latest available data shows that in Pontiac, infant mortality rates among blacks have dropped from 21.4 deaths per 1,000 live births to 9.8 deaths.
This wasn’t viewed as just an issue for the local hospital. Or a single city. Or a single county.
Instead, the progress was made when “genius of the and” was embraced. While the current mortality rate is still higher than anyone would like, community progress has been made through combining individual AND institutional actions towards a common cause.
Previous installments:
• Creating a New Path
• Believe it to be Possible
Next month: "Discipline Three: Pass the Torch of Leadership."
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