Leadership, Thursday, Period 1, Class 3 (9/18/08)

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

"You're in charge, congratulations," Nathan said. "Now what? Implicit in being a leader is that you have somewhere that you want to go. You have a vision, a goal, and that's what you're leading everyone towards.

"Successful leaders have a solid vision. They know what they want, which helps them figure out how to get it. It also helps you stay on course. If your goal is to see a movie tonight, you know that heading to the beach is not going to help you accomplish that.

"Visions can be adapted, but you have to have one to start with." Nathan looked around. "For today's class you'll work together to start forming one. I've split you all into groups. Imagine that your group has the power to make society be whatever you want it to be. What is it like? What do people eat? Where do they work? Where do they live? What do they do for fun? What is the population like? Be specific. For example, maybe your ideal society includes people who walk instead of using cars. Maybe your society values poets more than sports figures. Use your imagination. Once you have that figured out, try to narrow it down to simple, declarative sentences. As an added bonus, these statements make for good campaign slogans. 'A chicken in every pot' may ring a bell for some of you.

"Good luck. I'm here if you need me."

Groups:

Group One:
Summer Roberts
Jaina Solo
Andros
Andrew Wiggin
Teyla Emmagan

Group Two:
Tabitha-Ruth Wexler
Momoko Akatsutsumi
Meg Powers
Agnes Nitt
Ben Skywalker

Group Three:
Teddy Altman
Dor
Joan Girardi
Bender
Hinata Hyuuga

Group Four:
Lucas Scott
Evey Hammond
Tony Foster
Alex Drake


[ooc: OCD is up! Credit for class exercise goes here]

Comments

Group up and vision!

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

In the appropriate thread.

Group 1

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

...

Re: Group 1

[absolutesnark]

Summer waited for the rest of her group.

Re: Group 1

[solo_sword]

This was sort of a weird assignment for Jaina, given that if she somehow managed to survive the war, she was going to end up watching people do just this. "So first off, what kind of government do we want?" she asked, before she even sat down.

Re: Group 1

[absolutesnark]

"I hear sometimes a democracy works," Summer replied, going with what she knew.

Re: Group 1

[endsthegame]

Ender hadn't done much during the lecture. He hadn't said much yet, either, but he added a, "Sometimes," in response. He didn't even know what he wanted to do with his own life right now, but he could see a problem as well as anyone.

Re: Group 1

[solo_sword]

"The problem with democracy is that you let the people elect who they want, but the same people they voted for will usually just do whatever they want with no regard for the people when they get there anyway," Jaina shrugged. Idiot Bothan.

Re: Group 1

[athosborn.livejournal.com]

"If the person in charge is benevolent, then the people do not need to elect them. They merely need a way to remove the leader from power if they do not treat their people well, or do not do a good job," Teyla said.

Group 2

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

...

Re: Group 2

[meg-powers.livejournal.com]

Meg started making notes about what would work. For some strange reason they sounded a lot like her mother's domestic policy initiatives.

Re: Group 2

[momslilassassin]

Ben looked a little uncomfortable with the assignment.

Molding a society in the image he wanted kind of smacked of the Sith to him.

"Hi," he said quietly.

Re: Group 2

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

Turtle gave the other members of her group a bright smile. "Hi." And, never one to waste any time, she jumped right into it. "Did you guys have any ideas? Personally, I think we should pick what sort of government we have before anything else, because that's going to determine a lot of other things, don't you think?"

Re: Group 2

[momslilassassin]

"If we're deciding everything for people, doesn't that lend itself towards a dictatorship?" Ben asked.

Re: Group 2

[meg-powers.livejournal.com]

"No," Meg said. "We're just putting in place things that will benefit people and help them live their lives. But we're not about to tell them how to live those lives."

Re: Group 2

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

"Which," Turtle offered, gaining a slight bit of a grin to sense some fire in this group, "is why it's important that we go for, first and foremost, a democracy. That way, it's not a government just for the government, but for the people. The freedom of choice is one of the key elements I think our society should have. And then, the most we can do, is show them why what we think is what will benefit them and trust them to see it, agree, and live it."

Group 3

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

...

Re: Group 3

[joan-notjane.livejournal.com]

Joan waited for her group members and tried to think about what she might want in a perfect society.

Re: Group 3

[shiniernyours.livejournal.com]

"Longer opening hours and a ban on pre-packed build-it-yourself furniture," said Bender loudly. Because even if he was building an ideal world for everyone, Bender had to look out for himself.

Group 4

[1petrelli1.livejournal.com]

...

Re: Group 4

[wantstodirect]

"Everyone gets food, clothing, and somewhere safe to live," Tony said. If it was imaginary, why not go for the jackpot?

Re: Group 4

[futureclone]

"No more crime," Alex said decisively.

It was his actual goal. Plus he thought it would go a long way toward that other stuff.

Re: Group 4

[wantstodirect]

"How would you define 'crime'?" Tony asked.

Re: Group 4

[futureclone]

Alex looked at him like he thought he might be crazy. "With a code of law...?"

Re: Group 4

[wantstodirect]

"So anything that's currently illegal you want to eliminate totally?"

Re: Group 4

[futureclone]

"I don't know about 'currently,'" Alex said. "I'm from the future; I'm not entirely clear on how the code of law in my time stacks up to this time's. And different countries have different legal codes now, right? Heck, even different states and counties and towns and--it's crazy. You need a universal code of law before you can really get anything done." Thank God for SPD, but that was still a few years off. "But once you've got that and the proper authorities have agreed something is wrong and should be made illegal then yes, it should be eliminated."