There are hordes of leadership consultants out there offering advice, and a lot of the advice is pretty much the same: Set a goal for the result you hope to achieve, and make a plan to focus all of your future efforts toward achieving the goal. Duh. It’s not a unique insight, but it does work.
Therefore, as the incoming DFL-controlled Legislature prepares its agenda for the 2013 legislative session, I have some mind-numbingly stale advice to offer them: Think about the one sentence reply that you want to be able to give when 2014 swing voters ask “Why should we re-hire you?” Then build your 2012-2014 legislative workplan around that reply, and stick to the plan.