Monday, March 09, 2009

And What a Breath It Has Been...

From my last post to this one, the world has undergone a sea-change not seen previously in my lifetime. No need to describe the particulars, save to say that community is more critical than ever, and President Obama appears to be one leader who can pull people from various walks together in common purpose.

It isn't a given that he'll successfully "reach across the aisle," but more important is the work he is doing to develop a shared vision among citizens as to the status and prospective world role of the U.S. And the emphasis he's placed on demonstrating our core values complements the country's efforts to engender a world-wide sense that can be areas of mutual cooperation and agreement.

Taking the U.S. economy as a context, what I'll do beginning this week is to examine how the actions of this president may be evaluated according to the 11 dimensions of community: shared vision, shared values, shared purpose, trust, caring, respect, recognition, communication, participation, teamwork, and incorporation of diversity.