Health Care Summit

Last week President Obama hosted a Health Care Summit at Blair House in Washington, DC. The president invited both parties to get together and discuss the health care issue while the whole thing was streamed on the Internet. This open approach was an effort to 'communicate' more clearly to the American people. A recent Harvard Business Review blog post by Morten Hansen highlighted five ways in which the president failed to demonstrated collaborative leadership during last year's health care debate. Last week's summit was a step in the right direction for Obama. It showed his willingness to act on his desire to see bipartisan collaboration on the health care issue. Can this same sense of collaboration be demonstrated on the issues of the economy and jobs as well?

The president's collaborative leadership style will need to extend beyond the political leadership in Washington. He must embrace the American people as well. Americans need to continue our role in the collaborative process by sending our elective representatives ideas and suggestions for solutions to these difficult issues. And the electorate must hold our officials to account for the way they (do or don't) handle these issues.

When faced with a crisis America has proven time and again that it can come together, set aside disagreements, and make a difference. The current challenges facing America are no different. In A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr's wrote about how Adlai Stevenson prepared the way for JFK by shifting the democratic party's motto from 'you never had it so good,' to 'stressing peril, uncertainty, sacrifice, purpose' (p.23). Obama has repeatedly stressed 'peril, uncertainty, sacrifice, and purpose.' I fear to many Americans have been distracted by current hardships to realize that the difficulties they face are part of the reshaping of America. Hansen points out in his commentary an uncertainty about the president's efforts to clearly establishing health care as his 'moon goal', to unite people and parties. If we realize that the world had fundamentally changed and that the hardships we currently face are part of restructuring society, we might find it a little easier to let go of political ideologies for the sake of making the fundamental change that the country needs—in the areas of health care, the economy, and jobs—to name a few.

References

Schlesinger, A. M. (2002). A thousand days: John F. Kennedy in the White House. Boston: Mariner Books. (Amazon)