Micro is the way to Go!!

Small pilot projects can result in big results

This is the first in a series of blogs where I’m trying to offer some solutions, alternatives and observations to vexing problems instead of the usual ranting in echo chambers. That’s not to say that I’m not repulsed by the polarization, narcisism, racism, sexism, extremisms and all the other “isims” that pollute social media platforms. It’s just that I’m more interested in dialogue and feedback concerning some alternatives, creativity, new directions and forward thinking.

That said, here is my proposal that MICRO is the way to Go!

Define micro…..It’s trying out new approaches and innovative “outside-the-box” methods on a small scale before launching on a large scale. 

Conservatives who are advocates of “states’ rights” and Libertarians who favor limited government should be on board with this. Fiscal conservatives should like this because it’s a “look before you leap” approach to funding. Micro tactics encourages doing what works and tossing what doesn’t. Likewise, liberals and progressives who like to see social change, reform and social justice/equity should also be on-board with experimenting on a micro basis in the hopes of duplicating success on a larger scale.

A few examples of how building a track record of success on a micro level includes the following categories:

Education

Build no more schools that warehouse children like cattle in a stockyard moving from class to class at the sound of a bell. No more fights in hallways and on playgrounds. No more shuttelling them around in school buses wasting precious time and resources. No more gathering students in large groups on a daily basis making them targets for mass shooters and retribution shootings. 

Instead, design micro-schools with clusters of students intensively mentored and tutored in an immersive, experiential setting in a neighborhood-based environment. Spend the morning in learning pods with small groups led by motivated, knowledgeable persons sharing their practical experience and their love of subject matter (i.e., social studies, STEM, trades, etc.). Speaking from personal experience, I’m exuberant over subjects such as history, politics, and international relations, so I would love to share my passion for these subjects with students. Afternoons could be spent going on field trips, participating in experiential learning and community service projects. Internship type experiences would connect theoretical knowledge gained in the morning with “real world” experience in the afternoon (or evening if , for example, the topic is civics requiring attendance at a town meeting). Model this micro-teaching, micro-experiencing based upon the traditions of the journeyman, tradesman, and craftsmen of past years while fast forwarding to today’s educational, vocational needs and circumstances. 

Reflecting on my own life experiences as a city planner and community organizer, I would enjoy sharing insights with the students in real time providing them with a meaningful experience. Now wouldn’t that be preferable to falling asleep reading textbooks, listening to lectures and regurgitating data on tests. This scenario might be more costly and labor intensive in the short run. However, in the longer run, it’s more cost-effective reducing time and energy on class management. Shorten the learning curve since there’s a direct connection between the theoretical and the practical. I postulate that four years of mindless shuffling through high school hallways and trapsing from building to building on college campuses could reduce time logged in high school and in college by at least one year at each of these institutions thanks to immersive, dynamic experiential learning. Remote learning and tutor/mentor guided open-source education could also provide students with intellectual underpinning without hours spent in the costly bricks & mortar of school campuses in front of egotistical teachers and professors pacing back and forth enamored with the sound of their own voices. Penny pinchers and accounting types might like this scenario given the chance that there may be less administrative overhead and there certainly would be less costly physical plant expenses (athletic fields, amenities, frills, creature comforts, security, etc.). The physical fitness and social development aspects of education could be more effectively addressed using the previously described coupling of mentors with smaller groups of youth. Assign personal trainers, life coaches and counsellors to customize programs that meet the needs and circumstances of the students while achieving maximum results within minimum time. Utilize the existing community infrastructure of gyms, comunity centers, organizations, non-profits and good causes to create cost-effective, win-win situations. Students experience the “real world” people, places, companies and orgnizations while those “people-places-companies-organizations” benefit from interaction and assistance from students. I envision this micro-education proposal as a version of home-schooling and vouchering on steroids and ultimately duplicated on a macro basis if it’s successful on a micro basis. In sum, micro-education means less chance of bullying, assaults in bathrooms, social alientaiton and unsupervised down-time (aka, hanging out).

Law Enforcement & Criminal Justice

Reduce the “patrol footprint” while still providing a limited police presence reassuring the community and neighborhood. Re-deploy staffing and re-configure training to expand the investigative functions, prosecutorial functions and judicial functions thereby increasing case closure rates. Give real meaning to the expression “do the crime, do the time”. Get back to the notion of “swift justice and speedy trials”. Focus on the “criminals” in the criminal justice system. This will appeal to law & order advocates who focus on clamping down on perpetrators. This will appeal to the cost/efficiency advocates (fiscal conservatives) seeking the best bang for the buck. This should appeal to the practitioners (the cops, prosecutors, judges, etc.) since they should get a greater sense of satisfaction capturing criminals, bringing some sense of closure to victims and achieving sentencing that better protects society. Aren’t those reasons all the cops, prosecutors and judges work in the criminal justice system? This proposal does not call for de-funding the police but shifting the focus to micro-policing with a laser focus on “catching the bad guys”. Ask any police chief of any community about what proportion of the community is engaged in criminal activity and taking up their time/resources. They will tell you that it’s the repeat offenders who are a small but very active subset causing all the trouble. So, engage in micro-focusing at all levels of the criminal justice ladder. Focus on the criminals where there is credible threat of violence to persons (probable cause) and damage to property. With the laser focus of micro-policing, all the players in the criminal justice field (cops, prosecutors, judges) will be freed up to be more effective and less likely to experience career burn out (just like teachers will avert burn-out if allowed to micro-teach rather than be overwhelmed with classroom management and administrative overhead).

The role of cops, probation officers, prosecutors and judges all enter the process once the crime has been committed. To put it another way “the horse or in this case the criminal is already out of the barn”. So how can my micro approach to solving vexing problems be applied to crime prevention? That segues to my next proposal.

Counsellors & Social Workers

Like the teachers and cops, persons in these professions suffer from burn out. 

Why?

 Because their caseloads are overwhelming. They get no sense of accomplishment given the revolving door of clients. If we were to infuse micro-counselling (aka, intensive, long-lasting counselling) with a sense of consequences and responsibilities on behalf of those receiving (and needing) the counselling, it would be much more cost-effective. 

The bean-counting fiscal conservatives would applaud this. Likewise, the practitioners working in the field will find their efforts more rewarding. Those being counselled will be confronting the root causes of what ails them. 

So, what needs to be done to effectuate this change? 

A healthy mix of compassion (i.e., intensive, sustained counselling not just the perfunctory time-limited appointment with the counselor) with consequences for non-participation. In sum, tough-love is the only way to get off this ‘not-so-merry-go-round” of good money after bad with inconclusive results. Micro-counselling with a focus on root causes requires consequences for non-participation. Stop treating symptoms offering short-term band-aid solutions ignoring the elephant in the rooms. Given societies spiral into chaos (mass shootings, addictions, road rage, gun violence, hate, suicides, etc.) mandated treatment and requiring consequences for our actions (or inactions), may be the only way to break this downward cycle.

Housing and affordability

Auxiliary Dwelling Units (ADU’s), tiny houses, rowhouses, housing cooperatives and an overall shrinkage of the housing footprint are all ways to minimize both space and costs. Personally, as a minimalist, I would be fine with living the rest of my life in a 300 square foot area with a kitchen galley, bathroom, bed and desk area where I can churn out these wonderful blogs. I would prefer this lifestyle in a cooperative housing setting so I don’t live out my life in fear of rent increases or taking out another mortgage.

Why?

I spent over 30 years concurrently working two and three jobs paying off the mortgage pursuing the American dream in a speculative, monetized housing rat race. I sense that I’m not alone in this bitter sentiment and thirst for simple, safe, durable, affordable housing. I see micro-housing as an option since I’m an aging boomer. I also envision it for my children who suffer under the crushing debt of student loans coupled with increasing housing prices and increasing interest rates. Now if only the zoning gods and the unholy alliance of realtors-developers-financiers would get out of the way.

Uniform Basic Income and Poverty

If ever there was a place where there should be experimentation as to what works best, it would be with the implementation of UBI (Uniform Basic Income), social services delivery and poverty eradication (or at least poverty reduction). Sample groups and test cases could be monitored and evaluated over time to determine the most cost-effective, long-lasting and rewarding policies. Persons from all segments of the political and philosophical persuasion would likely be on board with this, especially if the data documents effectiveness. 

Adaption of UBI (Uniform Basic Income) policies could be implemented in a wide range method depending upon the following set of questions, goals and circumstances:

For example:

Randomly select the participants based on a lottery or automatically apply UBI payments to every adult age 18–65 in the sample group.

Set income caps and means testing (for example: 1 person household making $100,000/year or greater is ineligible, 2 person household of $200,000/year or greater ineligible, etc.) or have no income caps for participants

Funding sources for the UBI can vary. Example: Alaska has had a UBI type system for many years automatically providing residents with $1,000 check every year funded by oil revenues from that oil rich state. 

UBI payments could augment existing social service benefits (i.e, welfare, WIC, Food Stamps/SNAP, etc.) or it could be implemented in lieu of these benefits. There are pros/cons to this scenario depending upon the mixture of benefits and implementation circumstances. For example: The simplicity of implementation with cost savings due to removal of bureaucracy could be a major advantage. Additionally, the stigma of applying for the myriad of government programs and confusion concerning all these programs might be a major advantage for UBI following the KISS model (Keep It Simple Stupid). On the other hand, UBI in conjunction with some variation of existing social service programs might be more cost effective. Only if we implement UBI on a micro basis in a variety of circumstances will we be able to decide what’s best.

Some final, overall recommendations and caveats:

Most of the aforementioned proposals for micro-experiments would likely (and most quickly, efficiently) be implemented with private, non-profit, foundation, and philanthropic sources of funds. This enables the “experiments” to be conducted with the greatest flexibility allowing for criterias and conditions so as to best measure outcomes. 

This would apply to all proposals with the exception of the Law Enforcement & Criminal Justice category. It’s probably not a good idea to run off privatizing the police, prosecutors and judges. However, if we could start to privately fund the counsellors/social workers supporting the cops-prosecutors-judges, then the whole system might run more smoothly and cost-effectively. Crime fighting budgets (cops, probation officers, prosecutors, judges) might remain static while privatization experiments concerning counsellors and social workers would generate better results without busting budgets. In sum, we don’t defund the police but we do not expand their footprint while we get more creative and effective in the prevention and treatment arena.

My goals concerning all of these proposals are highlighted as follows:

Offer something that everyone can support whether they are liberals, conservatives, progressives, libertarians, fiscal conservatives or whatever.

Offer micro-opportunities to experiment and tryout alternatives. These proposals could be comparable to start-up ventures where success is encouraged and failures are chalked up as learning experiences. 

As always, I encourage feedback and further conversation concerning solutions and alternatives. I can also be reached at www.dunnwriteswell.com

© Gregory Dunn 2024

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