In the 21st century, the agility of talent, technology, and strategy determines the success of movements. Within the African-American community, our people have lacked serious technology/strategic agility to pursue and realize our political goals. African-Americans are operating their politics based on emotions and Black-identity politics and over and over, we get nothing of value for our people, our communities.

ADOS United, a non-profit Super PAC was created as a platform vehicle to drive the political agenda of African-Americans around the country. ADOS is an acronym for American Descendants of Slavery as the national origin of Black Americans who came from the legacy of American chattel slavery.  We have prepared an organization that will facilitate teams, technology, and value streams to deliver true results and want to give you an introduction in this article.

The Realization of ADOS

It can be argued ADOS is not a movement, ADOS is a realization. It was the realization “Black identity” in America was being hijacked by so-called global citizens from Africa or the Caribbean moving to First World nations, rent-seeking off Black British or Black American identities and gains. It was the realization liberals and progressives from Hollywood, Democratic Party and Wall Street were propping up Africans and Afro-Caribbean as their “cheap import Blacks” to avoid reconciliation and reparative work to address structural racism and inequality with American Descendants of Slavery.

The biggest realization discovered is within our own ADOS community. The phony, made-up ideology of “Pan-Africanism” romanticized by African-Studies university academics wearing kufis and dashikis – over 40 years old still in college deferring their student loan payments. When ADOS demand reparations, these ineffectual American-based Pan-Africans showed their true colors they were never interested in seeing African-Americans get proper reconciliation and want ADOS to be a permanent victim-class to continue their academic Pan-African cosplay charade.

The straw that broke the camel's back realization is our own African-Americans politicians, celebrities and social class revealed themselves as self-serving for attention during the critical hour of ADOS. Rappers, celebrities, influencers, blue-checks, Black organizations, and politicians who the Black community looked up to focus instead on protecting the status quo establishment more than progressing the agenda of the ADOS people.

It was a wake-up call ADOS had no one but themselves and saw everybody trying to come for ADOS. Now is the time for ADOS to step up and focus on making progress happen for ADOS – now is the time to start the formation.

Storming, Forming, and Norming

Bruce Tuckman in 1965 identifies 5 stages to group development – (1) forming, (2) storming, (3) norming, (4) performing, and (5) adjourning. ADOS has been (1) formalized by Yvette Carnell and Antonio Moore on their respective platforms. However, ADOS has been in the (2) storming mode for a long-extended period where interactions have been chaotic, toxic, disagreements, distracting, and divisive with detractors trying to create virtual alternatives to ADOS or trying to suppress ADOS from having political influence.

There have been some missed opportunities in 2020 and some missteps by ADOS still being stuck in the (2) storming phase. I will not go into them at this time but will say you cannot make progress by keep reverting backward talking up Disney movies or talking about Africans portraying Harriett Tubman when there are real work and momentum that need to be manifested. In 2021, it’s time for ADOS to focus on forwarding the (3) norming, (4) performing, and (5) adjourning. That’s where ADOS United comes into the picture.

Agile-Driven Methodology

Tuckman model of group development is part of the Agile process methodology. Storming should be expected for things to be chaotic as ADOS finds their groove, but now is the time to normalize, perform, and eventually adjourn. To understand Agile, the ADOS movement will be repeating the 5 stages of forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning on every little and large project or venture we pursue – it will be how Agile works and how we mature as a real organization.

The Agile process is a story-driven process. The goal of Agile is to fulfill user stories and this is how ADOS United is structured. Every ADOS community and people have their own story they want fulfilled and the goal of ADOS United is to facilitate the fulfillment of those stories into a value stream or a solution. It is important there is a cadence or consistent delivery of story fulfillment to gain trust and engagement from the community.

When the ADOS movement consistently fulfills user stories no matter how small, we gain trust and credibility among the people. If we accomplish establishing value streams delivering solutions and value to ADOS communities, ADOS will gain support no other political group has ever achieved or attained. Winning the hearts and minds and trust of our people is a critical primary mission of ADOS United and why we are committed to the Agile methodology. 

Teams, Not Chapters or Enigmas

ADOS United do not recognize “ADOS Chapters” or ADOS figures. The only thing we recognize for the Agile process is teams creating value streams and the customer which is our people, our community, and their stories.

We see “ADOS Chapters” as the same gatekeeper structure other organizations like the NAACP, Urban League, and others created. These organizations filled with self-appointed people engage more in defending their made-up turf, ego blocking others from progress and playing favorites and creating cliques and excluding people from their so-called chapters. We will not acknowledge any of this in an Agile-driven ADOS movement.

ADOS United does not acknowledge “individuals” that are celebrated for creating or contributing – this is enigma worship and always the downfall of movements and nation-building. We see certain people's names being mentioned as having academic work on reparations and those individuals started quietly distancing themselves from ADOS movement, not mentioning ADOS in their conversations for reparations. We even seen the ADOS founders support a so-called billionaire and his Supreme Court case who did nothing to return a favor by helping create a structure like ADOS United. I had a can of tuna with mayonnaise, bell peppers, and crackers for lunch, but yet I had funds to create an ADOS United Super PAC for the movement, what’s that billionaire excuse again?

Agile-based teams are the only entities ADOS United will fund from the Super PAC. Agile teams have no geographic boundaries. There will be scenarios where a value creation team good at creating food banks and shelters within 72 hours will be needed in Oklahoma City and then needed in Raleigh, North Carolina several weeks later – that’s call agility or Agile. There will also be scenarios where we have to “borrow” talent from another organization to form an Agile team to deliver a solution that is outside our scope of talent or technical agility. So ADOS Chapters like ADOS East Saint Louis or ADOS Tacoma have no viable role in an Agile ecosystem.

Please remember, the end goal is to create solutions for ADOS people and communities to advance value creation and political agendas. ADOS United is not here to worship people, create cliques, and repeat mistakes other Black organizations fell into a cycle of serving certain people instead of serving the mission they were originally founded upon.

ADOS United Operate on a Platform

ADOS United is leveraging the Toshikiso platform providing immediate capabilities and scalable growth. Right now, ADOS United already have SMS distribution, E-mail distribution, and postal mail distribution capability. ADOS United already has a media platform for both streaming and on-demand distribution of our messages. ADOS United already have a bank account and merchant processing account to receive funding. ADOS United also have ledgers, datasets, and analysis tools to make quick, smart decisions.

I want to highlight some of the innovations ADOS United will be rolling out that separate our movement from the others.

Ledger Visibility. ADOS United donors and patrons will have full ledger visibility to our accounting ledgers. They will be able to not only see how every unit of money is moved through our system, they will be able to see their own donation move through the system. Furthermore, donors and patrons can even comment on each ledger entry. Ledger visibility and social interactions will be the future of digitized businesses, ADOS United will be one of the first to pioneer this capability.

Social Credit System. We will establish a dossier with deep data nodes of those who are working for ADOS and those who are working against ADOS. In our community, we have too many grifters, turncoats, do for self, rent-seekers, and underminers who like to throw stones and hide their hands. Be mindful our system can also capture social media aliases from Twitter and Facebook as “John Does” and collect data points on them as well. ADOS will stay both offensive and defensive as a movement and not caught slipping against our adversaries - at the same time, we will be able to recognize and identify our allies.

Involuntary Blockchain. This is a documented system where the ADOS community can enter a request/complaint to their local government or politician to our blockchain system. Once the complaint is entered into the distributed ledger, it becomes a record of request, and the politician or government agency is notified. When it comes to election time and voting, we will have “receipts” to show from the blockchain whether that politician or government agency followed up serving the ADOS community or did nothing but sat in office enjoying clout. We will hold all politicians and government agencies accountable to ADOS.

ADOS United Strategy – Be Boring

A Super PAC primary role is to raise funds and distribute funds. Our main operation is managing funds and resources. We have no need to get a lot of followers, likes, popularity, or recognition. We move the money and facilitate the work that needs to be done.

With that said, ADOS United will have a lite online footprint and focus more on a real-world footprint. We have a social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. A web site will be available soon to accept funds and monitor the story fulfillment progress. But most of the real work will be done offline in our communities and within the government.

In summary, ADOS United will accelerate the norming phase of the ADOS movement. Our goal is to raise the funds, teams, and resources to deliver value and fulfill stories using Agile. We have the technical capability to reach our base and will do the work to win their hearts and minds. We are more than confident by the end of 2021, the ADOS movement will be fully normalized and performing as a result.