Leading VI out of crisis & surging forward will not occur accidentally
The VI is in a social, political, and economic existential crisis and teetering on and into perhaps falling into a more debilitating hyper-crisis.
Moreover, the VI way out of the crisis will not be accidental. It requires strategic planning, organizing, directing, controlling, and unifying forces consistent with the Seven Generations Principle, based on the ancient Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) process, which stipulates that decisions made today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future.
Planning, Organising, Directing & Controlling
In the universe of management science, i.e., problem-solving and decision-making, the basic tenets are planning, organising, directing, and controlling. Planning entails setting goals and objectives, organising frames the structure around attaining planning aims, directing selects the staffing needed to execute the plan(s), and controlling monitors and measures the progress toward achieving the plan goals. Moreover, moored to history, the past, the VI path forward out of crisis is tied to the past.
Experience is the best teacher if we don't make the same mistakes others did in the past and wisely benefit from their achievements. Further, Edmund Burke notes, "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." George Santayana: "Those that cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill: "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat." Finally, William Shakespeare in the Tempest:” what’s past is prologue,” i.e., in contemporary use, means everything that has taken place in the past is preparation for the opportunities to come.
Closer to home in the VI, results flowing from The Great March of November 24, 1949, led by Theodolph Faulkner, i.e., restoring of suspended Legislature, rolling out of a new constitution, direct voting for local Virgin Islanders, etc., attained through skilled planning and organising. Moreover, Noel Lloyd and the Positive Action Movement (PAM) planning and organising actions were instrumental in reversing Wickham's Cay and Anegada agreements, returning the lands under the control of the VI and Virgin Islanders. Similarly, effective planning and organising were critical factors to Former Chief Ministers Hamilton Lavity Stout, Dr Willard Wheatley, and Ralph T. O'Neil OBE, among others, moving the VI from a little sleepy hollow and off its perch as only useful as a bird sanctuary into having one of the highest standards of living, quality of life, and per capita income in the region.
Setbacks/Unifying Forces
The VI growth and development train forging ahead on the progress track derailed, thrusting it into an existential crisis. Consequently, getting the VI back on track will require effective planning and organising, as employed in the past. It will require an all-hands, on-deck collective, cooperative, and collaborative effort. The VI and Virgin Islanders must lean and fail forward, embracing and acknowledging its failure, learning from and capitalising on it.
Moreover, unity among Virgin Islanders is critical to the VI emerging out of crisis. Disunity could thrust the VI into a hyper-crisis. The people must come out of their highly polarised and divided corners and cohesively work for the public good. The conquerors and colonisers used a divided, rule, and controlled self-serving playbook to rule. Adopting that same playbook will repress VI's progress.
Emerging out of crisis is not self-executing, nor will it be by accident, luck or chance; it will require strategic, planning, organising, directing and controlling and unity.
Edgar Leonard is a native Virgin Islander and an amateur freelance writer.
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10 Responses to “Leading VI out of crisis & surging forward will not occur accidentally”
[Let’s lead like eagles, not careen off the cliff like buffaloes)