You nicely enrich the dialogue!

I appreciate both the principles you’re articulating, and the strong personal point of view – the self awareness you express. My hope is always that Reading for Leading expresses life-long principles, yet each of us has to integrate our beliefs into our lived experience. I say yes too often, as well. So your writing touched me.

And I say no. Wisdom, I suppose is being honest with myself in the midst of each situation.

Thanks again for enriching the discussion!

Dan

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I know that in my http://www.SpeakStrong.com blog, people often point out what I don’t state. It takes a book to cover all the bases… and there are still important pieces that don’t make it into the mix.

If I was part of your cousin’s network I probably would have delighted in the opportunity to help – but I might have helped by creating a project that is useful to my business and that would expand his skill set. That’s what I did when my son was adrift – I got services, he got money and skills, and now he’s happily employed in a career path his work for me prepared him for.

My history is one of overgiving, so I actually regret helping more than not. I relate deeply to the myth of Psyche and how she had to say no to people in great need to accomplish her noble mission. For me, saying yes was and is usually easier than saying no. And it’s simpler to write a check than it is to ask… how can I really serve here?

Thanks for listening!

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Kudos to you for being a risk-taking entrepreneur who feels it in the ups as well as the downs. I hope your sacrifice pays off in the recovery we’re all hoping for. One of the untold stories in the country is how hard business owners work and how they go to sleep with people’s jobs and people’s families on their minds. I am sure there are fortunate people who depend on you and your brothers to keep food on their tables. As a Michiganian who benefits from work like yours, I say thanks.

We could go round and round on this. You recognize a reality that is undeniable: we didn’t compete well for auto jobs in the ’90s (Delta and VW are the only plants I can think of in this decade). Right to Work is one solution to the historical problem we live in the center of. But there’s more to the history for starters than evil unions.

We never would have had unions in the first place had management been bright and compassionate and fair. We still have management that takes ludicrous multiples of average income for themselves. And we have poor management practices that perpetuate mistrust. The better management gets – engaging not caving in – the better labor will be.

In this country laborers have a right to associate, and that is a good check. We fight some bad history in this state, and some bad blood, but I’m not for taking away workers’ rights to organize. There are other ways to get to a better scenario. Hopefully UAW leadership will be sensible (Gettlefinger, as you probably saw, tried to pass the latest round of Ford concessions), and management will be sensible and inclusive, as they tackle ongoing competitiveness issues. There is also a new generation of workers who won’t have the same sense of entitlement (they’ll also have much more education and have competed more heartily for spots), and that will serve as a check.

You put total (?) trust in the market. The market has its strengths. And as we’ve seen with the banking crisis it has its glaring weaknesses as well. The more labor and management work together the better we’ll all do.

And on we go!

Dan

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One advantage of hitting absolute bottom is that there’s no place to go but up (as long as people aren’t shoveling themselves into a deeper bottom with denial, or alcohol, or drugs).

Some of our clients pick up the ball we lay down and run with it, achieving their GED, going on to get a NWLB grant, career education, maybe NCRC certification, and a job. They deserve a lot of credit. They leave the past behind and move forward with their lives.

Yes, tough love is required at times. Sitting on the pity pot waiting for a job to drop in their lap isn’t going to rescue anyone these days. They can wish, but that’s not reality… as we point out, whether they want to hear it or not. If they do what they can do instead of fretting over what they have no control over, things can get better. I think that’s what Depression-era people found. Blaming doesn’t help.

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Graham’s Mother

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No it is not the only issue but this issue never gets talked about by those in power. Right to Work truly is the elephant in the room. Yes the UAW made some concessions but it is my suspicion that as soon as the autos make a profit they will demand that they are made whole even if that means the autos break even leaving very little for future technolgies to solidify their future. The UAW made concessions when it became apparent that they may not have anything if they don’t concede.

So much has been blamed on jobs going overseas when 20 or so manufacturing plants opened up in the SW. Unfortunately for MI this was a lost opportunity and now there is a solid manufacturing base in the SW bc they would not come near this state even though we have a huge amount of talent here.

It is incredible to me that the govenor has not even brought the subject up for debate. It is not like the workers at those plants are being treated poorly. From what I understand they have great wages and benefits. The only differnce is that the companies can operate without the constant threat of the union bosses shutting them down every couple of years. Let the market work in MI like it is working in the south.

By the way, I think it is strange that you are “suspicious” that I might be a wealthy republican. Like it is bad to be wealthy or Republican. To put your suspicions to rest, I am not. My brothers and I own our own business and make less than most UAW workers with less healthcare. I had to put half of my retirment into my business to keep it going and my house is up as collateral so we can keep our loan with the bank. I took a 40% pay cut 5 years ago and I don’t see any of that money coming back anytime soon. I wish I could threaten to shut down the auto industry to get more money for myself but that is only reserved for those UAW workers that are making more than me.

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Thanks for sharing. What a tough and important job you have – to see the suffering and try to respond authentically. The human capacity for denial is too big for our own good sometimes. It’s hard to start over and to quit pretending. Sometimes we just don’t rise to the task.

I’m lifting a prayer for you and your clients. I hope you can be effective with your compassion and some element of tough love. You are right that this world is demanding some big time changes from us – from the individual to the national and even global levels.

Well said.

Dan

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Thanks for the kind words about my mom.

She’s wise.

You offer the yin to my yang, but I suggest this:

I suspect my mom’s like I am (or I am like she): she regrets more the times she wasn’t charitable, even if she might have been used in those circumstances; than the times when she didn’t give, when she might have helped someone.

There are a lot of hurting people out there, who like me overspent and cheated the rainy day fund, but have largely led good and charitable lives themselves, and have been wracked hard by economic winds. To me, it’s a time for compassion to have precedence over cold hard justice.

Dan

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Besides glossing over the potential spiritual power of the experience for Michigan and so many people in it, I think your single sense of cause, and single prescription for change has merit, but ignores so much. The fact is you could have written this when I was a UAW member (in the late 70s) and it would have been largely true.

But despite the recent skeptical votes by UAW workers at Ford notwithstanding, the UAW has made repeated concessions to keep the Big 3 afloat – from Veba’s to two-tier wage structures to radical changes in classifications. You also overlook the fact that the Big 3 have all made commitments to grow here in Michigan. There’s work for everyone, and Michigan has to question its identity – even in the ways you point out. But why pick that and not health care costs or trade policy, or management/quality problems of the past, or consumers slowly looking to domestics? The entire blame and prescription turns on “right to work?” Really?

It mystifies my why some Republican, generally affluent suburban folks, who have never themselves been a part of the working class are so quick to point fingers. Not sure that describes you, but I have my suspicions. To me one of our major learnings through this crisis ought to be that we need to find a little more win-win. Labor can’t think the world is the same as it was 50 years ago. And neither can Republicans (who for example resist EVERY tax, no matter how sensible and no matter the cost, and no matter the fact that we’re now $9 billion below the Headlee limit). Every time you have ever written in this space it’s been the exact same ideological views. Am I wrong? Is there any shading in your vision?

Is the Michigan competitiveness issue really as single-sided as you make it out?

Dan

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