Driving Change in States: Leading and Living Beyond the Coronavirus
by Kaleem Caire, Founder and CEO, One City Schools (Madison, Wisconsin)
If I was the Governor of any state right now, I would create a “Department of Innovation”, and build a team to lead and operate it that would solely focus on developing a new model for governing, leading, supporting and promoting key industries and services in my state. This would be a quasi public agency that would operate with certain levels of independence and protections from the legislative and executive branches of state government to avoid harmful meddling, corruption and silly partisanship, to the greatest extent possible.
This Department would promote and support creativity, innovation, venture investing (through an entity like Wisconsin’s Economic Development Corporation — WEDC — or another entity), constructive problem-solving, project and systems evaluation, and thoughtful decision-making across a number of key industries, systems and functions in my State. This Department would focus on two priorities: (1) our State’s immediate short-term needs to help us successfully navigate our current public health crisis, while working with Public Health and other agencies to ensure a better and faster reponse to other pandemics and challenges that might follow, and (2) devising more effective ways to identify, finance and support our State’s near-term and longterm social, economic, educational, environmental, political and public health needs, innovations and opportunities.
I would have this Department focus on the following industries where many of the changes we are making right now will likely last forever, or, may impact the way systems and businesses operate forever: Judicial and Correctional Systems, Higher Education, Early Childhood and K12 Education, Workforce Development, Health Care, Restaurants and Retail Businesses, Farming, Grocery and Food Production, Banking and Finance, Insurance, Protective Services (Police, Fire, Public Health and Emergency Management), Community-based Services and Manufacturing.
I would focus less on regulation and more on effective, efficient, ethical and sustainable operations and practices. I would also establish divisions within this Department that would be charged with seeking new, better and more cost-effective ways to do business, while also improving the way we support job growth, job creation and living wages across each industry. Tourism, Transportation, Sports and Wellness, and Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability are four other critical areas and revenue generators that would also receive focused attention.
To maximize effective communications within and across State Agencies, and significantly enhance opportunities to cultivate and drive sustainable change, the team I would hire to staff this Department would be aligned with other state agencies that are currently charged with leading or addressing these functions and issues on a daily basis. I would pay for this new Department through new dollars made available by an act of our state legislature, if possible, and by reprioritizing and reallocating funding from existing state agencies and the executive office that are redundant across agencies, and that support outdated and unhelpful work.
It was once said that telemedicine would never really take root in the USA. Now, how many us are having virtual clinic visits with our doctors for a variety of issues and illnesses because of COVID-19? How many satellite health clinics are offering COVID testing and other critical health services in neighborhoods for people who lack access to healthcare? How many of us are going to traffic court online, or watching court trials online? How many of us are ordering dinner from restaurants for pick-up or delivery, and ordering technology, equipment, supplies and clothing from department stores for — pick and delivery, that are not Amazon?
How many of us are educating our children online and finding that there are new ways to support, enrich and inspire children’s learning at home ? How many of us have attended virtual high school and college graduations that were far more interesting and less costly than attending a ceremony in-person would be? How many of us have had a caravan of people drive-by our homes to celebrate our special moments, and realize that most of the people driving by may have never visited our home otherwise? Finally, how many of us are working from home who have learned, as our businesses have as well, that money, stress and time can be saved by allowing some people to engage in their occupations from home? Do contract managers, accountants, lawyers, insurance broker, call center personnel and even bankers really need to work at a building together? Some maybe, but not all.
Without a serious focus on leading change and innovation at the State level in America, our local communities and states will continue to be stuck preparing for a future that is already here. Just four months ago, before the Coronavirus made Zoom and Purell gazillionaires, and hand sanitizer the new product every brand has to have, the United States of America was on the precipice of experiencing another perfect storm: a conjoining of multiple financial calamities facilitated by an ever-expanding pool of low-wage and underemployed workers, escalating housing prices, high student loan debt, a rapidly declining retail industry, pervasive racism, division and inequality, and an antiquated public education system that was preparing young people to play scrabble with Noah, rather than build the new Arc.
If change is here, let’s embrace it. Then, let’s make it happen, and in ways that are truly beneficial to us all.
Do we really want to go back to where we were before the Coronavirus overwhelmed us, or do we want to be better than before? Onward.
