Still Waiting: Stepheny’s Thought-When Leadership Is Measured by Outcomes

The Organization Building Shalom Begins a New Year – 2026

I have written before about a friend who told me he thought my job in writing the Main Street Blog was to help people see ‘the painting on the wall differently.’ This is what I hope for.

This is why I write about another conversation with my daughter, Claire Greer, who explained a concept that translates well into my work about preservation, restoration and repurposing in Rocky Mount, NC. I hope this new term helps you look at the revitalization going on, or not, differently.

In education, particularly in Claire’s work around literacy and learning, there is a concept known as emergent understanding. It describes understanding that becomes visible over time, not through explanation alone, but through evidence.

Long before a student can articulate what they know, understanding reveals itself through actions, through progress, application, and change.

That distinction matters far beyond the classroom. It helps explain the growing gap between two ways of operating in our city.

I want to be clear about one thing. Whenever I write about the Rocky Mount City Council, I am not suggesting that every member operates with the same priorities, judgment, or agenda.

The Rocky Mount City Council is not defined by ignorance, lack of information, or even lack of concern. When the forensic audit finds the money and the culprits, the real question is…..

Whether the Council will choose to reject further self-serving agendas and be judged instead by actions taken solely for the good of the community.

By contrast, the organization, Building Shalom in Rocky Mount, operates with an assumption the Council too often lacks: that recognition carries responsibility. When a problem is seen, a plan is formed, and action follows.

Building Shalom is doing the slow, faithful labor of restoring homes, and lives, in our city’s neglected neighborhoods.

Their understanding is not just talk. It is visible through outcomes, work completed, needs addressed, and lives affected.

In education, we know that understanding has not taken hold until it produces results. The same is true of leadership. Awareness without action explains why on Main Street we have roofs caved in and facades boarded up.

Both the City Council and Building Shalom see the same city.
Both are aware of the same challenges.
Both have access to information and resources.
The difference is not what they know.
The difference is what they do.

Emergent understanding reminds us that leadership is revealed not by how clearly problems are described, but by what improves because they were understood.

And it leaves us with a persistent question, if we truly understand the challenges before us, why do our outcomes remain the same with deteriorating, silent, buildings?

I am proposing that moving to an all-city voting system allows voters to elect council members who serve the entire community, not narrow interests shaped by low ward turnout, but leaders committed to addressing the real challenges facing our neighborhoods and businesses……

A council that acts for the common good.