Keith Forest spoke in our class Tuesday night and I have to say he was by far my favorite presenter so far this semester. Right from the start his enthusiasm and strong tone of voice captivated by attention. It reminded me how critical confidence is to leadership and how I want to continue practicing my presentation skills.
He provided us with such a strong example of how a leader relates to his audience. From the start he was vibrant and open. He interestingly acknowledged his age and perhaps more importantly he pointed out his age difference from us. To some audiences this generation gap could be an inhibitor for connection, however Keith Forest flipped this on its head and used it to his advantage. He made jokes about us “young people” and he overall set the tone that he could relate to us and understands while simultaneously acknowledging that he is older and has wisdom to share. This caught my interest and I paid attention the entire class.
Furthermore on top of Forest’s charisma, he had a lot of knowledge. I will admit I have never taken an economy course and cannot say I take the time to learn about it on my own. When I first saw the rather thick packet of papers filled with statistics,I was a little intimidated. However Mr. Forest had an organized and engaging way of teaching basic economics to people have never seen it before. This is a skill not to be overlooked. I think it is one thing to be specialized in your field but it takes that much more effort to understand it to the point to make it simple for the general public.
My big picture take away from his class was RISK. I think we all think about risk a lot but may not meticulously calculate it. Bringing it to light and providing a variety of definitions was effective and got me questioning. Reflecting, I think a huge leadership tool is being able to calculate risk and make the correct decisions accordingly. Sometimes as a leader, you need to take a risk, and other times you must take a more cautious approach. Knowing how to make the distinction between these circumstances is critical for leadership.
Relating to this, the specifics of Keith’s presentation focused on health care. I think as we acknowledge in our class discussion a few weeks ago, health care is a complicated “grey” topic. For this reason, I thought it was imperative that Keith broke down the Affordable Care Act into easily understood objectives. He explained that there were 5 key objectives for ACA:
- Provide millions more Americans with Insurance
- Expand Benefits
- Bring Insurance Premiums down
- Bend the cost curve down
- No addition to budget district
After providing us with these insights, Forest explained which objectives were currently being met and which were not. 1 and 2 were an easy check yes, while 4 and 5 were facing complications. He went on further to explain that many people tend focus on the idea of health care and overlook the actual financial aspect and risk. As he explained this, I have to admit that I am one of those people. The concept of healthcare for everyone is hard to argue with. If I have the opportunity for healthcare when I am sick, why shouldn’t my neighbor as well? Health in my opinion should not come down to luck of your privilege. However I am realizing I cannot ignore the financial aspect of healthcare because in order for it to succeed and help the maximum number of people, it needs to be funded.
Forest explained that the initial plan for funding came from the idea that people young and old would buy health care. Health care spending happens primarily for the old and in the moments before death, therefore young people would basically be funding the older population’s health care. The symbiotic relationship between young and old is critical for the success of the system. However the problem we are now facing is that not enough young people are signing up. This opened my eyes because I am a so called “young person” and I did not think I was necessarily playing an impactive role within the health care issue. I think if you asked around my peers may also have felt that same way. I began to question that if I really wanted to support the ACA then maybe my first step would be to get health care from the system myself. I also began to further question how we can incentify that system because as Forest pointed out, currently there are major flaws and loop holes that are hindering its success.
Overall and hopefully you all can tell from reading this post, Forest’s presentation made me question and think a lot.
11
Nov 13
Commenting once again
Mitch,
We are creaturea of logic but we are also creatures of emotions. Where does that come into play and how do we overcome our innate emotional side in this mental game? Will people always have this gravitational pull to “belong”, even when it is on the most superficial level?
As someone who frequently challenges and questions social norms and struggles with that same pull, a lot of what you wrote about resonated with me. I thought the example of a diet is particularly unique when challenging social norms, because it is one of the only categories where you may be given clear instructions on how to go against the majority. For example, if you wanted to go against the “norm” of higher education and instead not attend college, generally speaking there is not a detailed day by day outline of what you should do instead.
In a lot of other way though, as you pointed out, an unconventional diet is representative of the entire mental game one must play in order to go against the majority. It definitely initially feels uncomfortable to going against the majority, and I think it takes a lot of confidence and internal questioning to step up and lead those movements. It seems to me from this blog post that I should expect some sparking social movements from you in the future and I am looking forward to it.
Also Aiden,
I really appreciated your blog post, “The Haters Matter” not only for the catchy title, but for the depth of your reflection. I think it is critical that we consider the “outside opinion” when moving forward next semester with our proposals and policy papers. To me, part of being a leader is being able to connect with a larger audience and make a positive impact on the largest number of people. After reading your blog post, I do not think it would be in our best interest to isolate PLA and march on against opposition. Especially when we will be trying to help the Penn State community, I think we should take the time to listen to our community members. Even if we disagree with what their oppositions and still believe our efforts will better the community at large, at least listening to them will ensure that we are progressing with knowledge instead of ignorance. Overall, your presented a lot big questions that we should all make sure we revisit next semester.