This isn’t the first time that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has gone on a star search.  Remember last year’s fawning over Geoffrey Canada, the founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone?   What was the matter with Milwaukee?  How come we don’t have a Geoffrey Canada?  Why aren’t we having phenomenal success educating low-income, African American kids?  What’s wrong with us?  If the education establishment knew what it was doing, it would replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone in Milwaukee.

Now, about a year later, the new subject of adoration is Mario Drummonds, leader of the Northern Manhatten Perinatal Partnership.  Like Mr. Canada, Mr. Drummonds is a charismatic figure whose zeal, commitment and talent organized a blitzkrieg of activities on a single housing project, the 1,500 unit St. Nicholas Houses in Harlem.  (See “Milwaukee infant mortality rate still high, despite years of effort, millions spent,” in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/7/11))  http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/121449039.html

Immediately, the conclusion is drawn that if Milwaukee had its act together, our infant mortality rate would plummet.  If Milwaukee would marshal its resources and not have 112 different initiatives working throughout the city (a list which, by the way, seems to include every parenting program, research project, and child development effort in the city in addition to programs specifically addressing infant mortality), then we could beat this problem and get out from under being one of the worse places in the U.S. to be a baby.  In essence, if we could replicate Mario Drummonds’ program in Milwaukee, we’d have it made.

It doesn’t work like that, folks.

Because it’s not about Mario Drummonds’ program.  It’s about Mario Drummonds.  Just like it’s not about the Harlem Children’s Zone.  It’s about Geoffrey Canada. Each of these men is what is called a Monomaniac on a Mission (MOM), a very technical term for the one person who is willing to move heaven and earth to achieve something and can convince other people to leave their cars running in the street to come and help.

There are a million things that are different about the places where Mr. Drummonds and Mr. Canada developed their projects.  History, politics, access to wealth, receptiveness to innovation, diversity, and culture of challenge and confrontation are some of the elements to be considered.  Their programs were shaped by the environment, by opportunities that were presented, and by their own personal ability to convince others to invest substantial resources — millions of dollars — in achieving the desired results.

Rather than blaming the hundred small, shoestring agencies that are trying to help young parents do a better job, maybe we ought to look at what kind of environment Milwaukee provides for budding MOMs.  When one comes along, do we listen or tell him/her to sit down and wait their turn?  Do we get behind big dreams or resent them?  Embrace vision or write it off as tilting at windmills?  Do we recognize community anger and frustration as the growing power of change or run away from it?

Like 99% of things in the world, “it’s complicated.”  Replication of programs from other cities rarely works unless virtually all of the environmental features are the same.  The adult drug court model is an example of a very successful replication process throughout the country.  Programs that have been shaped and developed around a single personality usually fall flat.  It’s not a committee that makes those innovations work, it’s one absolutely electric person at the center.

We’ve got those live wires in Milwaukee.  We really do.  Time to let them loose and see what they can do.

There are a lot of people I know – or know of - who  just can’t wait to get the hammer.  You know the type.  You’re sitting in a meeting, get up to sharpen your pencil, and by the time you get back, the nuclear option is on the table.  Times are tough, people not doing what you want?  Let’s knock ‘em upside the head with something extremely heavy. 

Why talk when you can put a gun to someone’s head?  Which is, I think, the reasoning of the stick-up guy at the gas station who declines having a conversation about his personal unemployment issues in favor of jacking a guy out of $20 right now. 

There seems to be a lot of this hammerhead thing going around right now.  If I was a political analyst, which I’m not, I’d say that Scott Walker has made kind of a fast leap to the heavy tools.  What bothers me about this isn’t what you might think.  I’m not a big defender of public employees or unions for that matter.  Public employee pensions really irk me – probably because as an independent business person, I pay a huge amount of social security tax and have no pension.  But I realize that pension benefits were a negotiated benefit and that the government and the unions agreed to this stuff fair and square.  It’s not like the unions crawled through a window and stole these benefits off the kitchen table.

What irks me is this:  the hammer wielder’s presumption that his opponents are unreasonable, selfish, and unaware of the community (or in this case, the state’s) crisis.  Another shade of that is his presumption that he  absolutely knows the right thing to do and there’s no point in discussing it with anyone who doesn’t agree.  No dialogue. No listening.  No allowing for a spark of genius or creative solution.

I really can’t stand that.  It’s a level of arrogance and dismissiveness of other interests that irks me a lot more than enormously fat pensions ever could.  Not cool.  Not smart.  Not in Madison or right here in our fair city.

There aren’t a lot of lessons from the corporate world these days but there are some.  I was struck by the profile of Oshkosh Corp. retiring CEO, Robert Bohn that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel over the weekend.  “CEO to stand at ease, Oshkosh Corp. has thrived under hands-on leadership, 12/5/10, http://www.jsonline.com/business/111307789.html

Here’s the sentence that caught my eye:  “One of Bohn’s first moves (when he took over management of the company) was to put a desk on the factory floor, where he learned the operations and production issues.” 

From this birdseye view, Bohn restructured the production line to be more efficient and offer a more interesting and challenging work environment for employees.  While much of Oshkosh Corp’s tremendous growth over the past many years is the direct result war (Iraq and Afghanistan) and the aftermath of 9/11, it was Bohn’s connection to the day-to-day that created the company’s ability to successfully manage that growth.

There’s a lesson here for nonprofit and government managers, especially those in human services.  Having a desk on the factory floor is a little harder for them but the idea is the same.  Staying connected to the day to day lives of line staff, hearing firsthand what clients want and need, and having a solid understanding of the complexity of the work all add up to smarter leadership and a better team.  I also think it leads organizations to the nonprofit equivalent of profit — better outcomes for the investment. 

Just something to think about.