Besides enjoying the Spike Lee film Mo’ Better Blues and the accompanying sound track, I have always been grateful to the movie for capturing in its title the truth about what people want, even when they have no idea how to get it.

A lot of the public officials and civic activists I talk to on the radio and read about in the paper reveal this fact. They want mo’ better police, and mo’ better schools, mo’ better roads and mo’ better retail stores. They can tell you what they want, when they want it and what it ought to feel like. Many will say they are going to get it done. 

We all want mo’ better everything. The question is how do you get it done? 

Back in what seems like a lifetime ago, I used to teach, and later practice, the art/science of management. One of the absolute cornerstones was, and remains, the definable skill of setting an objective and then putting in place a plan to get it done. The devil is, indeed, in details that are specific, measurable, timely and economically as accurate as possible. Doing this right takes real skill.

Sometimes I chuckle to myself in a bit of guilty arrogance when I hear well-meaning activists talk about this or that march or demonstration, or when a prospective elected officials tells us all he or she will do for a city or town.  Sometimes, I get the feeling that they are like kids asking for the $100 pair of sneakers not knowing the work that will have to be done to pay for them. 

When it is an activist or a citizen, though, I wipe the smile off my face and remind myself that it is not their place or their responsibility to know how to get the thing done. Sometimes, my mood graduates to anger when I realize that those in power manipulate and count on that ignorance. This, of course, brings us to those who have their hands on the tiller, as it were. 

I listened to a local mayor the other day tell earnest residents of his city how important it was for them to be involved if they were to get things done, and that they should come to the relevant meetings and make their feelings known.   He was rallying support for a mo’ better city. This was noble. But I heard not a word about what he would do or, more importantly, how he would do it.  I suspect he really didn’t know. Nice man, no clue. 

As most of us have figured out just from observing national politics, the skills needed to run for office are quite different from running an administration.  Regardless of the party in power, appointed positions made on the basis of patronage or political compatibility have rewarded us with an endless stream of incompetent cabinet level officials and commissioners who waste our money and often embarrass us. That “Brownie” did a heck of a job.

Thirty years ago I made a trip to the UK and was appalled at the laughable way simple things did not work. Phone service was terrible, television reception was mediocre and even the waiters snarled when they asked for your order. Now, here in America, the laugh is on us. Somehow, we forgot that management is a skill and discipline as vital to out success as science and medicine. Running an enterprise is not just the next big job or elected position. It involves managing people and resources towards a clear set of objectives—of knowing what it is you want to achieve and how to get there. It involves vision, courage, people skills and persistence. 

It seems we have become a country of individuals who want the medal without the battle—the corner office without the responsibility. America needs to take stock of this lack of management and leadership skill if we are to make our country mo’ better still.