BLOG: The invisible monster devouring the California dream

What if the reason for the wealth gap and sea of intractable issues is so common, we can’t see it? Like fish in water that slowly got polluted, we think it is reality, unchangeable.

The regulatory environment of California is a fragmented, conflicting mess of historical efforts to control, patch and monitor people and systems aimed at treating symptoms.

It is incoherent, expensive, counterproductive and stops people from adapting creatively to what is happening to accommodate what others believe should be happening. Efforts to hold others accountable create mountains of documents few read and prevent people from solving problems.

This system builds bureaucracies of people who can also feel trapped, knowing they aren’t adding value but making life more complicated for those who are trying to educate our children, lift people out of poverty, address a crisis, heal someone or start and grow a business. This workforce, rather than focusing on solving problems, is focused on treating symptoms in fragments when solutions require a holistic perspective.

We blame each other while the monster keeps trampling on dreams and holding others hostage to programs and metrics that don’t work whether you are the intended customer or the staff who are also trapped in the maze.

What would a quantum leap look like? Working harder, longer and faster in the current system is nothing more than running in place. Those anchored to the past, whether they benefitted from it or were harmed by it, are keeping us stuck. Now everyone is paying as institutions have lost the trust of the people, costs keep rising, and tempers tip over into rage. Politics has become a blood sport as power not public service has become the goal for too many.

What if we tackle a few critical issues from another perspective, one that defines the entire ecosystem surrounding an issue? At the community level, we can recruit leaders of each part to participate and commit to a solution whether it disrupts their system or not, and those directly impacted inform and impact the proposed solution. We can embrace an execution approach based upon clarity, transparency, and accountability mapping progress toward both specific and intangible goals — changed lives, increasing hope and trust.

The California Dream and the American Dream are the same. Freedom amid inclusive prosperity and wellbeing. Only informed, enlightened, and engaged citizens can create this. Are you one of them? Do you want to be? Step right up.

Deborah Nankivell is director of the Fresno Stewardship Foundation in Fresno, which is planning a series of workshops in September on civic stewardship for business leaders. For more information, email dnankivell@fesnobc.org .