The Blog

When do we know, or what are the signs, that a community is actually maturing socially, economically, and politically? What are the attributes, characteristics, and qualities of a community that is on a path toward becoming better today than it was yesterday? This reflection is not written from an either-or perspective. A community is neither completely infantile nor fully mature. Instead, communities exist along spectrums and continuums. It is helpful to think in terms of trends. What direction is our community moving? Where is the inertia taking us? What needs to occur for momentum to...

Appearing on The Sterling Spin Podcast, Mike Butler, co-founder of the School of Statesmanship, Stewardship, and Service, discussed how communities can cultivate statesmanship, stewardship, and service through intentional civic education. Butler emphasized focusing on collective potential, goodness, and long-term generational impact rather than short-term political cycles, highlighting SOS’s growing series of free courses now offered in Longmont and soon online. Watch Full Episode

I have heard considerable language and talk recently about how we have to “fight,” “battle,” “win,” “become more powerful,” “increase our odds,” “get rid of whoever is in power,” “become more forceful,” and “devise ways that are more influential along a specific line of self-interested thinking.” For me, what I am hearing harkens back to an age-old but now tired and worn-out concept that might makes right. It also speaks to a multi-generational cycle of egoic dogmatism, self-righteousness, and personally owned hard edges. How do we move beyond this cycle? Do we want to move beyond this...

Our nation was founded by stoic individuals who had the optimism that we could succeed, in fact prosper without a crown.  We should not forget how revolutionary that thought was in the world at that time.  Although democracy was known, it had not been a foundational part of a government without a sovereign since the Greek and Roman Republics. The earnestness to not only shed the crown and colonial government was remarkable enough, but to seek a government of the people, by the people, and for the people was stunning.  The British King and fellow regents in Europe were not only...

During September, the School of Statesmanship, Stewardship, and Service (SOSSAS) will sponsor and present a series of classes titled “Rights With Responsibilities.” In our “Rights With Responsibilities” series, we will discuss the concept of social maturity and what needs to occur to bring about a more enhanced model of collective or cultural maturity in a community or a country. During our classes, we will endeavor to discuss questions like whether communities are willing to relinquish ease-promoting standards brought on by established beliefs and conventional ideas for the unsettling and...

In preparation for our Awakening Democracy series presentation to the Longmont community, we created guidelines for conversation. We did this beforehand knowing the participants who attended the presentations would bring many differing perspectives.

This week, Vogue published an exquisite piece titled “Meet the ‘Mwani Mamas,’ a Group of Zanzibari Women Changing Their Lives Through Seaweed Farming”. The expertly written and photographed article unveiled the moving story behind the batch-created luxury skincare line called MWANI Zanzibar, macroalgae & plant-based skincare made by the ocean, in nutrient-rich micro- batches, by the Mamas of Zanzibar. (This is not a sales pitch for the skincare line, though I have no doubt its efficacy is remarkable.) Rather, it illustrates what can happen when individuals seek to shift culture if they...

As we rethink the cultures we find ourselves in, whether that be professionally, personally, or communally, it is imperative to have a vision that expands the horizon for what is possible. In an attempt to cast such a vision, I am suggesting a list of characteristics we hope for as we transcend the present culture. It is by no means exhaustive, but it is a start. Goodness and kindness prevail A soft place to land People deeply care about each other Polite and respectful There is a spirit of natural generosity Adult-like behavior where people want to contribute to the good of the whole People...

During my time as Longmont’s Public Safety Chief, I shifted my department’s philosophy, policies, and practices to embrace the activation of the common good. I believed the reality and the perception of safety were mostly the responsibility of citizens, both individually and collectively. The department would identify neighborhood connectors, citizen activists, cultural brokers, heads of nonprofits, along with others who wanted to be involved and bring them together to talk about what role they could play in surfacing, activating, and coordinating the social capital in their neighborhoods,...

Are you satisfied with the current culture? What would motivate you to explore ideas and strategies for shifting culture in your family, workplace, neighborhood, community, state, nation, and the world?  SOSSAS is excited for our new classes coming in April and May that will expand your mind, knowledge, and skills in creating the COMMON GOOD. Research shows that 83% of Millennials in the workforce identify the culture of an organization of people (humans) as the most important aspect when choosing a position, more than pay and benefits. But what is culture?  Where does it come...

SOSSAS is a non-political organization working to create unity, accountability, respect, and compassion in our society among citizens, leaders, and organizations by educating all stakeholders on civility, servant leadership, civil discourse, and much more.  As we have been working on the programming and development of our course offerings, we have heard time and again how much the world needs this education and movement. It seems that we, as a society, have hit the breaking point from the ill-effects of the ever-increasing divisiveness between different groups. SOSSAS courses are...

The word ‘transparency’ is often utilized when characterizing the attributes of a good organization or perhaps as a component of integrity. Transparency was certainly a part of what was important for us in our police department in Longmont, but what really helped us emotionally connect with our community was our evolving vulnerability. I think back to those early days of first becoming a police chief and the meetings with citizens in the community, the media, representatives from other organizations, and our own staff. Almost to the person, people expressed a variety of feelings and...

Your transformative journey began in the SOSSAS Level I courses as you were introduced to the idea of what Effective Communicators can do. The first five courses focused on you learning how to cultivate a leadership presence, foster empathetic listening and communication skills, conduct civil discourse while continually honing your critical thinking skills. While all those courses may sound quite lofty and idealistic, they are attainable with practice and adopting a new way to interpret your life’s journeys.   My life’s journey taught me that lessons, moments, learnings all start...

Have you ever been in a room where several different people had persisting divergent ideas about how to move forward, solve a problem, or respond to a set of circumstances? We all have, and we tend to know that it happens much more frequently than it used to. Name a political, social, or economic issue, and one will discover multiple potentially polarizing perspectives with any of them.   Did you wish you had the skills and the internal wherewithal to harmonize the contrasting perspectives or to somehow integrate all the perspectives into one overarching idea that accounted for each...

If the media, the pundits, the columnists, the podcasters, leaders at all levels, and each of us talked of the prevailing and abundant goodness in our midst instead of any one personality or partisan politics, our country would feel much differently. Let’s speak of what’s working, what we want to see more of, what’s good, for that which we have gratitude, and for the better nature of our angels! It’s not about overcoming partisan politics, divisive personalities, or even evil. It’s about recognizing the amazing gifts we have. Goodness, when acknowledged, will expand and crowd out what we...

Imagine, for a moment, a world in which police departments act not only as enforcers of the law but also as healers of the woundedness in their communities. Envision social and health issues being addressed in a much more comprehensive way where tens of thousands of people offer their gifts, talents, expertise, generosity, and goodness to respond to those who are less fortunate and willing to learn. What if police departments and communities could work in partnership like this so that healthy interdependence prevailed? What if police departments and communities awakened to the perspective...

Our School of Statesmanship, Stewardship, and Service’s (SOSSAS) teaching curriculum instructs students on the nature of goodness in our midst. A specific class teaches that we can transform communities and organizations based on leveraging the goodness that already exists in those communities and organizations and that goodness is the most sustainable and powerful fulcrum for making wanted shifts. While goodness as a force is invisible, we can readily see its effect with and on the visible. Goodness resides within people, as well as between and among people. The ideal of goodness extends...

It's that season again. Elected officials and those who want to be elected officials are kicking off their campaigns at the local, state, and federal levels. So far, the campaign messaging is about the same as it has been in the past. Candidates let us know they have the solutions to our issues; they let us know what and who we need to be afraid of; they try to convince us their party is more effective than the other party; and they let us know we, as citizens, would be far better off if they were in office. This kind of patriarchal and scarcity-like messaging leaves us thinking leaders have...

One of skills we discuss in our School of Statesmanship, Stewardship, and Service is how to design a culture of accountability in either an organization or in a community. At one time, and annually, the police department in Longmont, Colorado had 125 formal internal affair investigations, many of those complaints from citizens in our community. Accountability in the Longmont PD was top-down characterized by phrases like “How do we hold our police officers accountable?” The internal affairs process was driven by Police Chief’s Office and it was believed that accountability within the...

This article was written by Mike Butler and was originally posted on Times Call. To read the original article, please visit this link. There are several attributes of statesmanship, sometimes hard to define but known when we see it. They are adept at harmonizing contrasts. They have the internal temperament to reconcile and integrate often complex opposing ideas, including their own, by helping those who are in opposition envision something greater than their personal perspectives. They are those who bring life to the phrase, “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” They transcend...