Can't We Get There Faster?

Two threads that I'm sure few, if any others are going to connect:

Number One:

Ontario PCs are saying they weren't consulted by the central campaign/leader's team over the whole 100,000 job cuts thing.  They were given a message to sell, which they did - knowing that anyone who went against their leader didn't have much of a future.

The plan failed, the Party fell.

Number Two:

Ontario has committed to eliminating wait-lists for developmental services.  The focus is on autism, but other "developmentally challenged" groups will benefit.  Lots of money is being spent on reducing the problem - more day-care, more group homes, so on and so forth.  Employers will get subsidies for hiring kids or adults who, you know, just don't quite measure up in the social way they should

Not consulted in this program, I would imagine, are high-functioning autistic world-changers like Temple Grandin and Jacob Barnett.  They might have suggested that something a bit more involved would have been in order.

There are plenty of people out there with "developmental disorders" who don't need make-work projects or expensive programs to keep them busy; their perspective on life gives them valuable incites and, in many cases, the ability to innovate solutions that escape others.

The challenge these people face isn't their ability to add value, but their ability to communicate socially.  In person or in interviews they may come across as rude, distracted, overbearing, disconnected.  Employers looking for personality fits will disregard them, regardless of potential skill sets - losing out on the process.

Jacob Barnett was non-verbal and was assumed to be a lost cause before him mother decided to buck traditional wisdom and support her son in ways that worked for him.  Now, he's revolutionizing physics.

What does this have to do with the PC Centre messaging to their caucus?

We have seen, time and again, that solutions aren't formed at the top and trickled down, but are facilitated from the centre and come from everywhere.

There is no one with better insight into their own problems than people themselves, but better than that - they might just provide solutions that other people are looking for.

It's time we stop looking at policy as fixing problems and start recognizing its potential to catalyze opportunity.  The only reason we don't already is that there are too many people in the system who are overly confident in their own solution-generation capacity to think outside-the-box consultation is necessary.

Innovation is supposed to be the rage these days, isn't it?