The New Normal

We lost Walter Cronkite last week . We started losing newspapers a couple of years ago. We're losing good old page-turning, paperback books to these newfangled things called "wireless reading devices."

Things are changing. Talk to most of my boomer buddies. They don't like it. They don't like text messages, Facebook pages, or tweets from Twitter. They want pages made of paper that they can turn and fold and use to scribble their notes. They want people they can trust like Uncle Walter. They want things back to normal. The way they used to be.

Get a grip fellow geezers. Pull up those relaxed-cut jeans. There's a new normal coming to town.

Over the last few years, I've spent some time at Camp Esperanza. That's a week long summer camp for 140 children battling cancer through Camp John Marc and Children's Medical Center in Dallas. Those kids can teach us a lot.

A common denominator for every one of them and their families, is that they had to adapt to a new normal. Cancer is an equal opportunity disease. It offers a complete change to a "normal" family life with chemo treatments, surgery, rehab, and more. If it affects your family, the only choice you have is whether or not you'll adapt to change.

Change is coming to the way we read. The new normal for readers will be the use of wireless reading devices. An easier name is "ereaders."

Amazon leads the way with its Kindle. Sony is running a strong second. This week, Barnes & Noble announced their intention to enter the market with an ereader. AT&T announced they will play in this game. Newspapers are scrambling to save themselves.

It's just a matter of time before a group of newspapers find their own hardware vendor to produce an inexpensive ereader tuned to their newspapers - and a few hundred thousand electronic books. The pitch? You can have our cheap ereader - maybe for free - if you subscribe to one of our newspapers for a few years.

It's worked before. Mr. Gillette got rich selling razor blades after he gave away the razor.

The ability to adapt to change - even embrace it - is invaluable. The publishing business will adapt. The public as a whole will gripe - then gradually change. Some faster than others. When you have money, it's easier to adapt to change.

What about the folks without money? What about those living in poverty? Yes, they still read. Maybe not as much, but they are more interested than we might imagine.

Earlier this month, Jenna Russell of the Boston Globe wrote about a book club for the homeless. Her article gives insight into a group of people many want to ignore. It's a heartwarming story about a man who buys books for one small group in Boston.

But what about the homeless and near homeless across the nation? If the move to digital print has the momentum that I expect, where will the poor get their news, sports, and current events? What will nonprofits who serve the poor do to help those poor adapt to change?

How will the nonprofits themselves adapt? This is the first question to answer. If the nonprofits don't adapt, the people they serve will fall further behind.

Yes. There will always be books and newspapers made of paper. Probably even an uptick in donated books. Classics endure. But current events are timely. If it starts costing more to read the news, the poor will be left out even more.

As the digital divide grows, how will nonprofits help the poor stay in touch with the world? How can nonprofits encourage self sufficiency if the poor cannot afford to read what's happening around them?

These questions don't have to be answered right now. But they do need to be considered now. It is early, but now is the time to start playing with the new tools of the 21st century. The more you understand, the easier it is to adapt. The more you are able to adapt, the more you can help others adapt.

The good news with these newfangled ereaders, you won't have to worry about where you left your bifocals. Just crank that font size up to 44 on your ebook or enewspaper, sit back, and enjoy your read.

Brobdingnagian Vision

It's easier to call it "BV."

Brobdingnag is that imaginary land that Jonathan Swift claims Lemuel Gulliver discovered in 1703. It's any fictitious place where everything is enormous in size or quantity and especially in scope or extent.

Does it sound familiar? In your own non-fiction world, what is the extent of the problem you're trying to solve? Aids in Africa? Homeless in America? Foster children in Dallas?

Whatever it is, there's a pretty good chance that it seems overwhelming ... completely daunting ... almost unimaginable that it can ever be solved. But are you dreaming big enough?

Kids (and their parents) in the 50's dreamed of rocket packs and space travel. I loved going to Tommorowland at Disneyland. I thrilled at the rocket launch to the moon. It was terrific fun seeing all the time saving devices in the House of the Future. Just 20 years later, we actually got a microwave oven!

All that stuff is so blase now. From jet packs to instant communication, we've made absolutely incredible technological progress in the last few decades. Many of those dreams from "back in the day" have come true or will be realized in just a few more years. (Seth Godin talks about this in his terrific book of thoughts, Small is the New Big - The Future Isn't What It Used To Be. Thanks again, Seth, for stimulating my mind.)

So today, do we dream more or do we worry more? It's probably the latter given that the world is getting smaller. Anyone's problems can affect everyone. It seems that our dreams are not quite as grand as they used to be.

What about you? Are you thinking about just existing, getting along, making it to the end of the year? Or are you dreaming about solving big ... really big ... problems??

You cannot afford to forget the here and now, but if you're not already doing it, I strongly encourage you to use your BV. Brogdingnagian Vision is a multi-syllable way of alluding to "BHAG" (big, hairy, audacious goals).

Between BV and BHAG, I'm pretty sure I know which acronym will stick. Jim Collins (the Good to Great guy) and Jerry Porras coined BHAG for their books on Building Your Company's Vision and Built to Last. I love big thinkers. I'm no Jim Collins, but I do know people who are setting bodacious goals to address some of our nation's ills.

Interfaith Housing Coalition has been addressing the needs of homeless families in Dallas since 1985. They do a great job of helping accountable families break the cycle of generational poverty and transform themselves into contributing members of the community. They do it at a remarkable cost of just $25 per resident per day.

But given the increase in the number and needs of very poor families (the fastest growing segment of the homeless population) and the significant decrease of government safety nets over the last 10 years, something big needs to be done. And it needs to be done fast and cheap.

Interfaith Housing has a big idea. Based on programs in their own residential model that have been replicated nationally, they have launched a prevention model using best practices from their 23 years of experience and three other nationally known nonprofits. They strongly believe that by proactively working with very poor families before they become homeless, they can reach nearly triple the number they have in residence, avoid the huge disruption to the families (especially the kids), and do it for less.

Beyond that, the Interfaith folks think this new program will be an easily replicable model for use across the nation. That's a LOT of people getting some help.

Can they do it? Will it work? Will it catch on with others? Will it really make a difference to a lot of people across the country?

Stay tuned. The potential is enormous! Thank goodness we still have some people dreaming big ... really big.