The Innovative Good

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Dr Newton

Tuesday, 26 June 2012 02:30

By Dr. Isaac Newton

What’s in jeopardy when we accept “the necessary evil” and reject “the innovative good” in matters of national advancement? Public messaging should be relevant, positive, and different so that the people can connect with what our leaders say.

Ah! Negative messaging on policies that create angry disputes will only deliver us to evil. The prayer of Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe could help us contemplate on our condition:

Disturb us Lord, when we are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true, because we dream too little,
When we arrived safely, because we sailed too close to the shore,
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wilder seas.

Implicit is a whispering hunger for better change and deeper contribution, not the need for feel-good words. Keep in mind that our words house our destiny and our destiny feedbacks our faith. Daring faith is needed to move us beyond this trying period.

The pretext for inventing excuses is not of hard facts, but of self-disbelief. We destroy our future by the words we use to act it out. We undermine our creative endeavours by narrowing our choices. Without denying the reality of “the valley of the shadow of death,” we don’t have to see our fate in terms of “another one bites the dust.”

Our messaging must sell benefits to the people. It should not promote the odds in favour of their pain.

Against Doom

In our proclamations of managing fiscal challenges we readily opt for the lesser of two evils. Perhaps brainstorming pause is needed to help us figure out what is our nation-building goal, how best to get there, and what messaging will make it come true.

Think on it. All along our spine, facing hard times is not the same as being handcuffed by tough circumstances. We must break free from endless rounds of doom speaking.

I know it’s tempting to excuse ourselves from the internal work of value proposal, from thinking and applying wonderful but simple ideas that makes us better than the competition. Communicating dreams of grandeur reshuffles our approach to brutal situations. It’s better to convey contagious passion to solve the people’s problems than to justify fabulous failure!

The choice of the innovative good over the decision to accept the necessary evil, will at every turn, apply uncommon solutions to the people’s basic needs.
Inspirational leadership sounds out what is, but emphasises what is yet to come.

Leaders need to articulate our internal value. But they must not frame the message to impose dark nights and bitter days while ignoring sunshine and sand castles.

For Innovation

Innovative good messaging is believable. It defines ideological differences in ways that mainstreams the Caribbean away from feelings of being bloodied. It captures undertones and connotations of positive attributes, which permits political discourse to highlight good management, creative solutions, personal freedom, and collective prosperity. It creates desire and interest in what we have to offer.

Drawing on our collective consciousness, leaders must ask and answer: What’s the remedy? Is there a better way? Perhaps a new idea is waiting to be born by simply turning an old idea inside out. Yes! Let there be light is the story behind Christianity’s creation. Once spoken, there was light!

I think by playing around with the chaos as a kind of marching orders may inspire break through performance in the private sector and effective good governance in the public sector.

I would prefer to hear, “we are down but not out,” than “we chose the lesser of two evils.” The first statement shows a willingness to experiment and conveys a challenge. The second message offers little direction, avoids solutions and stays clear of results gained.

For example, the desire to keep our economies moving forward does not necessary mean imitating painful tax regimes. The gist may be found in incentivizing entrepreneurs by using public resources to turn frustrations into experimentations.

Our people will be far more motivated by the opportunity to generate revenue as a strategy to drive local economies than by paying choking taxes under financially stricken times.

The right people

The kind of messaging we send can help us build a great nation. But we must first ask:  Do we have the right people working in the public sector helping to unlock the magic of the wider population?



This magic gets everyone to link personal benefits to collective interests. A conscious collective will do nothing to damage the nation. All efforts will be devoted to enhancing the common good. And all praise and honour will be measured by how lives are transformed on the personal and communal levels.

The right people will find the innovative good. They will be committed to messaging that encourages us to see wonders in worries and discover focus from fumbling.

That’s how they’ll arrive at the practical from the disastrous, and that’s how they’ll discover potential through pain. That’s how they’ll prison-break from the vicious to the victorious.

The right people will see our economic difficulties and social stresses as good challenges to have. Coarse circumstances present them with a great moment to find durable solutions to age-old problems. They will use disappointments and bad times to choose the innovative good. The worse things get, the more they see patterns of possibilities and communicate new openings.

Our mess frees them up to take responsibility and to work through unavoidable turmoil. I suspect we will take some time to get pass the benefits of political propaganda. There’s no national pride in alienating the people with the eloquence of straight-facts agony. Speaking that functions as social glue and makes the people agree with your choice is more persuasive.

I am against seductive slogans that appeal to raw optimism outside of reality. I want us to use our values as a prism to articulate the big picture. We can take action to improve the holistic wellbeing of every Caribbean person.

Messaging the innovative good is not talking points or word plays that require verifiable evidence. It’s public discourse that opens the door to real answers in terrible times and keeps leaders out of mischief.

It will take tenacity from the grassroots population to denounce “the necessary evil” as the only way forward. Gripping messaging could save us from the misery of what we say in anxious moments of panic outburst.

All kinds of extraordinary transformations could happen when messaging is filled with  simplicity, innovation, and achievement-based metaphors. Once you leverage the “wow effect” and people can identify, they will feel inspired to perform, and they will embody the unique value you have to offer!

Do you have a message that is both enlightening and worth sharing? Anticipate the people’s doubt, and move them to action!

Dr. Isaac Newton is an International Leadership and Change Management Consultant and Political Adviser. He specializes in Government and Business Relations, and Sustainable Development Projects. Dr. Newton works extensively, in West Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America and is a graduate of Oakwood College, Harvard, Princeton and Columbia. He has published several books on personal development and written many articles on economics, education, leadership, political, social, and faith based issues.      

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