Raising the bar

The first time I saw the “Fosbury flop” was during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Up until that time, high jumpers used the straddle technique by either diving head first, or taking off with their inside foot and then swinging their outside foot up and over the bar with their chest and head passing parallel to the bar.

Watching Dick Fosbury make his fast run to the jump, take off with his right (outside) foot, twist his body in the air and then clear the bar backwards with his legs kicking over last was somewhat comical to watch at the time. However, no one was laughing when most of the Olympians were eliminated, and Fosbury kept clearing the height. The Mexican audience would shout, “Olé” as he made every height through 2.22 meters without a miss. Then the bar was raised to 2.24 meters, and Fosbury cleared it to achieve a personal record, and win the gold medal.

Richard Douglas Fosbury revolutionized the high jump, and other jumpers quickly adopted his style because they realized they could raise the bar to exceed their personal best height using his technique. It became a favorite approach, and by 1980, 13 of the 16 Olympic finalists were using the Fosbury flop.

“Raising the bar” is an expression that means to raise or improve the standards and expectations. Athletes and high-performance organizations and individuals are always looking to improve upon the status quo. Total Quality Management and the Japanese concept of “Kaizen” are based on making continuous improvement.

With this in mind, we have noticed lately that the CNMI seems to want to distinguish itself by setting new standards. However, instead of raising the bar, it aims to drop the minimum requirements so that more people can qualify for positions or jobs.

A recent article was titled, “Lower bar sought for PUC,” and it discussed a new bill that seeks to lower the requirements for appointees to the five-member utilities commission. This comes on the heels of other government positions where the requirements were lowered to accommodate a shoo-in candidate for the post.

We learned from a source that the CNMI has one of the lowest, if not the lowest, ASVAB test score requirements for an individual to join the Marines. In addition, there have been numerous articles lately about almost half of the public school teachers not passing Praxis. With the commissioner’s latest comment to lower the bar so more teachers could become “highly qualified teachers,” it seems that a trend is taking over on the islands.

With a few U.S. states having lower passing scores for their teachers than the CNMI, PSS can’t stand by and tolerate that. Let’s drop that bar down to the bottom, and open the floodgates for more people who could not make the grade in their home state. This philosophy could be applied in many other areas, and not just with teachers and government positions. We could attract low-quality doctors, lawyers, and accountants to work here.

If the business community got on the bandwagon, we might turn around the economy by attracting a whole new group of people to visit, do business, and live here. A popular New York Broadway song states, “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” Well, our new theme could be, “If you can’t make it anywhere, you can make it here!”

Just imagine all the riffraff and underachievers in the world that would be attracted to this place because it would be a refuge from a high-performance world. We could even create a catchy slogan or name—like the “Saipan shuffle,” or even the “CNMI flop.” The term would become synonymous with a place, person, or organization that has lower standards, or little or no expectations.

Seriously, unless we are doing the limbo dance, we should be raising the bar and expecting more from each other, our children’s education, and government officials, workers, and politicians. If we accept a “good enough” attitude, and slip into a malaise right now, we might as well do the limbo because we will flop flat on our backs. Expecting anything less than the best for our customers, children, and those we serve will only exacerbate our critical situation.

The quality of life on the islands depends on the quality of people that live and work here. It is time to make the jump to a higher standard by making continuous improvement in our personal and professional life. Raise the bar high and others will work hard to meet or exceed the height, setting new records and bringing home the gold to the CNMI.