SwampFox

What's the right vision for the future?

If you haven’t seen the video introducing New Carolina, you should. It contains a powerful message and is very well produced. We used the video to close InnoVenture 2006, and I encourage you to show it at organizations where you participate.

It begins with a statement, though, that created some interesting conversation this week about the vision for South Carolina going forward. The introductory statement is:

We, the tenacious people of New Carolina, declare independence from mediocrity.

I think the main thrust of the video is right on point. ‘New Carolina’ is genius. A bright, positive future. A name that is us, but a new us.

But I have a concern about the phrase, “declare independence from mediocrity” as a vision of what we are trying to accomplish. This does not really capture the challenge we face in this state. What recently brought this to the surface was two conversations I had last week.

The first was with someone from Research Triangle Park who attended InnoVenture. He saw firsthand examples of the best-in-the-world talent and resources we have in South Carolina: the Michelin Americas Research and Development Corporation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina, the Savannah River National Laboratory. And he also saw some of the visions we have for future excellence: the Clemson International Center for Automotive Research and the USC Innovista Campus. This visitor to the state was struck by the fact that in the midst of all these world-class resources, “Everyone in South Carolina seems to walk around with a chip on their shoulder about their problems,” when what he saw at InnoVenture were incredible assets and momentum. I agree with him. One of our greatest challenges is that we have a horrible self-image in this state we can't quite shake.

This really hit my front burner, though, when a talented young professional in South Carolina sent me the following note:

“’Declare Independence From Mediocrity!"
Not sure if this is something up for debate in the future, but I think by introducing the word 'mediocrity,' it frames the idea very poorly. Like the old example of when Nixon said, "I'm not a crook" he was immediately seen as a crook. He said it. He made the juxtaposition.
In this case, there's almost something good about the honesty and not denying the facts, but it just doesn't seem helpful for morale.
At the very least, it's kinda insulting to me as a resident--and hopefully someone who isn't mediocre.”

The problem with the line "Declare Independence From Mediocrity!" is several fold.

First , focusing on “mediocrity” either woefully overstates or understates the problem. Aggregate statistics, such as those used in state by state rankings, will lead us to the wrong conclusions. In some places, SC institutions are world-class, and those are assets we can celebrate and build on. In other places, SC institutions are on par with third world nations. These will require a Manhattan Project effort to fix. On average we may be mediocre, but that isn’t much of a guide to solving the problems we face.

Second, saying we are “mediocre” implies that we have not been trying hard enough. In many cases that may be true, but it hides a much more difficult challenge we face. In many cases the world has changed significantly, but we have not changed with it. Many segments of industry in South Carolina which were competitive a couple of decades ago now find that the global economy has changed significantly and their business models are obsolete. North Carolina and Georgia have focused more than we have in recent decades on knowledge based economic development models, and about twenty years ago their per capita income began to accelerate at a greater pace and pull away from South Carolina. Perhaps the best example of a broken business model is public education in many places in this state, where over half of ninth graders fail to graduate on time. There are many dedicated teachers in South Carolina and we can pound on them with high stakes testing all we want, but until we fundamentally change how public education is delivered we won’t get substantially better results.

Most importantly, I am very concerned when talented, young professionals don’t see our messaging as an inspirational vision of what we can become and why they ought to stay here and help build it. South Carolina is a net exporter of talent, and one of the most important things we must do to build a successful future is retain and develop the best and brightest young talent we have. The last thing we need to do is to feed the negative self-image we have in this state so young people feel they need to leave to have successful careers.

So, given all that, what do you think is the right vision for the future?