We’d be a lot better off if the people impacted were the ones making the decisions.
Just as it goes with work, love, and war, Lived Experience is more valuable than Academic Training and Self-Researched Theory when you’re in the trenches.
But for some reason…
People who don’t have to work at all make decisions for people who do.
Residents of big cities make up the rules for people in rural areas.
Wealthy people decide why poor people are poor and middle class are middle class.
Men define what it means to be a woman.
People of privilege explain what it is to be oppressed.
These are the formulas that ensure the majority of us will never be happy on our own terms, will never self-actualize, will never know our potential.
As I’ve learned from years as a coach…
A good leader creates policies that benefit her employees.
A great leader invites her employees to build the policies and commits to learning something new.
Communities always know what’s best for them because they have the biggest stake in the outcome, which means they’re going to work hardest to figure out a solution that benefits the most people in the best way possible.
One person, however smart, confident, well-trained, well-intentioned, and carefully appointed, cannot possibly do a better job.