its all about perspective....... this morning my five year old daughter was upset with her twin brother for doing something she did the day before.... I looked her in the eye and said, see what I told you, two wrongs don't make a right. Her brother ran to her side and said yea, but three lefts will make a right.

I think we should do the math.....
if we are paying more for education than ever before....
if our teachers are being paid less and less.....
just maybe we have way to many high paid administrators.
Who is managing the managers of our education systems?

Here is the road-map to a renew the American economy, government and education! http://ping.fm/xDWIB

After more than 50 years, "Systems Thinking" is driving change. Don't miss this - Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer will speak about "The Gardens Of Democracy" this Wednesday evening at 7:30 at Town Hall in Seattle.

I just started a petition on the White House petitions site, We the People!
Will you consider the idea and sign it? http://wh.gov/T6g

Steven Paul Jobs, you have been my hero for many years. There can be no doubt, the world is a better place because you made a difference.

As many know, over the years I have volunteered for programs that are focused building the capability of women helping women. There are so many great causes, but serving those in need and trying to raise money at the same time is difficult at best. Inspired by Sarah McLachlan and the pioneers of Lilith Fair, I have been working on a new idea for a non-profit.

Right now it is called – The WOW MOM! Project – and it stands for Wisdom of Women, Music of Mothers. Like Lilith Fair, it’s about women working together to make a difference. WOW MOM! Is focused on helping the givers get as much out as the receivers – a real win-win. To learn more, or help develop this idea, drop me a line – Michael.ervick@ervick.com

A business, even a family business, driven by loyalty alone will not hold together. A business dominated by loyalty becomes extremely political and rips itself apart. The same is true for a family driven by competency, it will not hold together. A family dominated by competency becomes extremely competitive and again, rips itself apart. Yet, a business without loyalty, like a family without competency, will suffer the ills of a closed system. In other words, for the survival of the business unit or the family unit, balance between loyalty and competency is needed. The key is knowing how much of each.

Organizations are comprised of individuals; therefore they are social entities first. A family and a business are both organizations. The purpose of a family unit is socialization, which is a term used by to refer to the process of inheriting norms, customs and ideologies. In order to fulfill the purpose of family, the unit must develop a core behavioral glue – loyalty. The purpose of a business unit is to provision service in exchange for value. In order to fulfill the purpose of business, the unit also develops a core behavioral glue – competency.

If growth is an inrease in size, and development is an increase in capability, should we balance the relationship? What happens when we sacrifice development for growth. What happens when short cuts of "how" are more important than than the theory of "why".

Our companies, our government, our communities all share the same systemic failures. Have we become a culture that would rather learn-by-doing, than learn-by-thinking? Is our culture driving our competence?