Legislative hearings won’t fix the power grid. Lawmakers need a fresh approach

This op-ed is part of a series published by The Dallas Morning News Opinion section to explore ideas and policies for strengthening electric reliability. Find the full series here: Keeping the Lights On.

Texans were angered, saddened and frightened by the unexpected massive, multiday power and water outages across the state. Relief felt by consumers seeing lights come back on and water run again is undoubtedly offset by dismay among those who receive astronomical utility or plumbing bills. Some feel no relief at all, having tragically lost loved ones in the storm.

What do we do now? Yes, accountability matters. But, looking ahead to next winter, repair and reform will matter more. For Texans to get the healing and the future they want, they need a say in both.

For too long, lawmakers in Texas and many legislatures, including Congress, have assumed that carefully stage-managed hearings, with invited witnesses and limited or no public testimony, demonstrate leadership. In relatively few cases, members of the public speak for brief moments, but they require such brave souls to trek to the Capitol and wait hours for those precious minutes, an act out of reach for nearly all Texans.

It should come as no surprise that when elected leaders don’t involve the public in major decisions, the public often looks unkindly at those elected officials the next turn they have at the ballot box. Some even take to circulating recall petitions or mount efforts to overturn and reverse policy decisions via a public vote, which drastically oversimplifies a complex matter into a “yes or no” question.

This complex matter that now lays before Texas, how to deliver basic necessities like water and power and respond to the threats of climate change, requires a complex solution, and it would be folly to assume that only experts or politicians can devise the winning formula.

Those with subject matter expertise and those with popular support do need seats at the decision-making table (or videoconference). But this matter needs the voices of the people and those of key stakeholders, including local and regional power and water utilities, environmental organizations, advocates for the disadvantaged, farmers and other irrigators, industrial power users, solar and wind power providers, hospitals and health care providers, boaters and fishermen, and many more.

In essence, this moment requires a different paradigm for leadership than what Texans may be used to. The top-down model feels woefully inadequate, since it seems to have, in part, brought us to these dire straits.

We’re ready for facilitative leadership, which, in the words of scholar Ingrid Bens, is built on the ideas that “everyone’s opinion has value, regardless of rank or position; groups can make better decisions than individuals acting alone; people are more committed to the ideas and plans that they create; and people will take responsibility and assume accountability for their actions and can become partners in the enterprise.”

This is second nature for some elected officials. But it can be frightening for some leaders, particularly those who believe an election represents a mandate to take certain actions, to release full control of outcomes. But facilitative leadership does not require total surrender to the whims of a few or an oversimplified vote. It allows leaders to craft a thoughtful conversation with key stakeholders and affected populations and listen and reflect before acting. Such a process often needs neutral third parties to help those of differing and even conflicting viewpoints feel comfortable participating in the dialogue, and to help the group, be it a task force or other body, find consensus, a path forward that all members of the group can support.

The leaders of Texas have an opportunity to lead through this extraordinary moment in the state’s history, which requires an out-of-the-box approach; recognizing that they do not have all the answers, or that some of their answers were incorrect; and showing that they can still lead especially if they also listen. The deep pain and suffering Texans have faced requires empathy and understanding from their leaders. Just identifying whom to blame will do relatively little to heal and repair damage done.

Friends don’t assume they know how to help; they listen to find the way.

Larry Schooler is a lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches conflict resolution and facilitative leadership and is a fellow at the Center for Public Policy Dispute Resolution. He wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.

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