Tag Archives: Success

In the End

In the end, organizational strengthening is all about respect, care and love.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve departed a bit from my usual observations about our work in Nicaragua and focused instead on some of the content from The Gathering of Games, the national open-book management conference in St. Louis.  The themes from that conference- knowing the organization’s numbers, broad participation of all members and the power of people working together- are so basic and essential that I thought they were worth the amplification.  So if the essays here of late have sounded a bit academic or instructional, well, I confess that they should have!

In the end, though, building a successful organization is not about any specific leadership methodology or magical program that will cure all organizational ills; organizations are far too diverse for any single strategy to fit all of them.  But if we could take the time to examine the most successful approaches to organizational strengthening, to “peel away” the layers of public relations and hype and esoteric terms, we’d most often find three elements: respect, care and love. Continue reading In the End

Culture, With Three C’s

I referenced here last week in my entry, “It’s All In the Game,” that The Gathering of Games Conference is one that is full of energy and, frankly, full of joy.  It sounds strange to refer to a business conference in those terms, but I think they’re appropriate descriptions.  First-time attendees like my Nicaraguan colleague Rene Mendoza recognize it immediately and cannot help but comment upon it.   In fact, I overheard one participant ask, “Where does all that energy come from?”

The answers to that question could take many forms, because there are many ingredients that constitute such a sense of excitement, including the personalities of the attendees themselves.  But one of the conference break-out sessions provided one perspective that I thought stated the organizational reality pretty well.  It’s not a formula, but wisdom seldom presents itself that way.  In this case, the insight comes in the form of three C’s:

CHARACTER

However one might try to define it, character is the glue that holds organizations together.  Even if an organization is temporarily performing acceptably, that performance will be negated in the presence of motives that are personal to its leaders.  Leadership lack of character cripples organizations.

Some leaders simply love the power or their position and the ability to manipulate others with it.  Some seek their own self-promotion.  Others might recognize the chance to leverage their authority for the sake of a few.  And within these instances, the seeds of mistrust, doubt, fear and indecision take root to destroy organizational hope.  It may be assumed that leaders will deeply respect the responsibility entrusted to them, but character is not always sound or automatic.

The character of an organization- its sustainability and chances for positive impacts- is shaped by the character of its leaders and followers alike.  Where members seek to serve as good stewards of their authority and resources, their organizations have a much better chance of surviving and thriving into the future.  And good stewardship simply means the motivation to nurture and protect the the interests of all members and the community-at-large.  It’s the care exercised when members have entrusted to their leaders their economic, social, cultural and community futures for safe-keeping.  Character is the measure of how any of us cares for such precious matters.  “Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.”

COMPETENCE

Of course, organizations must possess the intellectual and energy resources to accomplish their objectives.  But before anyone dismisses this need as too obvious, consider the kind of competence needed.

First, there is the need for the personal competence of the organization’s members.  In a corporation or non-profit entity, members are hired according to the specific knowledge or experience they can contribute to the institution’s success.  In a cooperative or non-profit, members are added according to the specific knowledge or experience they can contribute to the organization’s success; the members must be added on the basis of their common objectives with the other members, and their willingness to contribute personally to the strength of the group.  Too often, organizations are weighed down by the tonnage of unwilling and therefore incompetent members, people who have joined only for the benefits and none of the work.

Secondly, the organization itself has to demonstrate competence.  Throughout its ranks of members, the organization has to ensure that every player is is clear about what is expected.  In successful enterprises, organizations are specific in emphasizing the needs for everyone’s contributions, that without each member supplying his or her piece of the puzzle, the picture can never be completed.

Competence also builds upon the need for the right character.  Character, and all of the expectations of it, can be a learned attribute like any other.  When individuals and their organizations become clear about the need for certain competencies, a high level of ethical behaviors rises to the top of the list.  Such actions only become the norm when the organizational culture expects it.

Finally, if the organization has acquired or developed essential competencies, it can begin to work on business competence.  In short, the members must know, truly understand, how the organization will succeed.  Members have to know the “business equation,” what actions will drive success, what each of them must contribute.   If each player in the game does not have such insight, they might well be playing a different game altogether.  And when members are playing by different rules, seeking different outcomes, the organization loses.

CONSISTENCY

As if the first two matters of character and competence weren’t demanding enough, it turns out that when our organizations have finally experienced success, it’s not enough.  Exercise of stewardship character and personal/organizational competence have to become the habits of a successful organization, practiced, repeated and refined consistently by its members.  Habits are no more than repeated patterns of behavior, and every act by every individual every day has the potential to become habit, good or bad.  Strong organizational consistency is the ability to reinforce the strengthening habits and eliminate the weakening ones.  The best organizations have discovered the importance of teaching its members the differences between the two.

Like competence, consistency builds upon the issue of character.  The strongest organizations maintain a reliably consistent posture with regard to issues of integrity; there are no “situational ethics” which permit decisions that are not in keeping with the organization’s character.  And the greater the consistency of character, the easier it becomes to demand the same of every member.  There are no exceptions to what is right.

The three C’s described above constitute a big part of the high energy experienced at The Gathering.  People become naturally enthusiastic in environments where there is trust, where members can be confident that their teammates have accepted their responsibilities, and that such behaviors can be counted upon day after day.

It’s true for organizations in the U.S. and ones in Nicaragua.  It’s true for businesses and non-profits.  It’s true for secular and church.  It’s true everywhere because it resonates with the human soul.  Organizational environments like these free people to become more than they may have thought possible.  That awakening creates energy, and makes the hallways at The Gathering alive with dreams….

 

 

It’s All In the Game

I’ve just returned from a particularly interesting business conference, “The Gathering of Games,” with a colleague of mine from Nicaragua.  Rene Mendoza is the Interim Director of NITLAPAN, an institute specializing in research on and the creation and publicizing of new, local, rural and urban development models and methodologies.  We thought that the themes from the Gathering- teaching financial transparency, broad participation, engagement of an organization’s people- fit closely with the development workshops that Rene and his colleagues have undertaken recently with rural coffee cooperatives supported by Winds of Peace.  We were not disappointed: the wide range of organizations and speakers represented at the conference of over 400 participants provided story after story of transformational success, with results to make even the skeptics say “wow.”

The Great Game of Business is the title of both a book and a movement.  (If you haven’t acquainted yourself with the concept and the company, I urge you to do so.)  But it also stands for some of the most basic needs of organizational life and development, whether in a business, a government agency, a non-profit or other organizational model.  Come to think of it, they’re pretty good guides for personal life, as well.  And within the simplicity of these basic ideas lies the unqualified success of the concept.  In short, they change not only the organizations that people inhabit, but the lives of the people themselves.

Rule Number 1: Know and Teach the Rules.

Every organization- every organism, in fact- has a formula for success.  There are certain things that have to happen in order to experience surviving and thriving into the future.  For all too many organizations, those rules, those keys for success, are known to only a few.  Maybe it’s because it’s because things have always been done that way.  Perhaps access to such knowledge is regarded as a “perk” to a select few in the organization, a sort of “special secret” made available as a badge of honor to high-ranking members.  Or just possibly, these essentials are simply unknown to the majority of people in an organization and there has been no perceived need to know them, that they are, in fact, the province and concern of others.

Whatever the reason, when organizations reserve the understanding of the success equation to only a few, the organization has limited itself, and sometimes fatally so.  To play any game, the entire team has to know the rules, what strategy is being followed and how to score.  It’s not enough for only some players to know, because they’re not always the ones who are capable of scoring.

If I don’t know the rules, it’s essential for me to learn them.  If my colleague doesn’t know the rules, it’s essential for me to teach him/her.  We only win together.

Rule Number 2: Follow the Action and Keep Score.

The only way to know whether we’re winning is by keeping score.  In a cooperative, it might be measured by how much harvest is produced, or how much is paid for it.  In a business, it could be the total sales made, or what kind of profit was generated.  For a non-profit, it ought to be a measure of the impact made in the lives of its clients, however measured.  Whatever the enterprise, it’s not really worth undertaking unless there’s a means to measure the outcomes.

But it turns out that those final outcomes are also made up of many smaller actions, activities contributed by every member of the organization, in some way, big or small. And before we can expect to measure positive outcomes on that final scoreboard, we need to be tracking those smaller, individual contributions that make up the final score.  That’s the responsibility, the duty, of every organizational member to every other member.  It’s the fabric that holds the organization together, that makes it strong or weak, that allows it to grow into the future.

Sometimes it’s hard for individuals to feel personal responsibility for an organization populated by many others; it’s easier to let others take on the obligations.  But that’s like asking a teammate to do all of his work as well as yours, while expecting the same rewards in the end.  It’s not fair, and it doesn’t work.  Being engaged- following every bit of action- is the price that each of us must pay in order to win.  It’s what feeds the scoreboard.

Rule Number 3: Everyone Needs A Stake in the Outcome.

There are no hangers-on in successful organizations (or at least, not many or for long).  That’s why a stake in the outcome is critical to organization strength.  And that stake in the final score comes about in at least two ways.

First, a stake comes about by an individual and all members investing themselves in the organizational group.  It requires a commitment, a pledge, a willingness to do the things that must be done in order to succeed.  If all the planning, or all the financial support, or all of the field work is done by someone else, it’s hard to feel any sense of ownership of an enterprise.  But it’s that sense of ownership, the pride in having something that belongs to you, which drives people through the difficult times and allows for no quit.  Care for an organization only happens when its members have invested a piece of themselves in it.

Second, a stake comes about in the form of rewards, the reason that people invest in the first place.  And on any team, if anyone wins, everyone must win.  If a World Cup soccer or World Series baseball team paid only a few of its members after victory, that team would dissolve in chaos and anger.  Other organizations are no different. It’s neither just nor sustainable to allow only a few to reap the benefits that have been created by the many.  And there is no more certain way for a team, a coop, a business or any organization to fall apart than to allow an individual or group of leaders or a family to be rewarded with benefits that belong to the entire group.

It turns out that organizational development is the great game.  Behind the three basic rules above, there are a myriad of techniques and methodologies designed to build trust and values and genuine caring for one another, and I’ll address some of those in the days to come.  But for starters, the week just ended has affirmed for us that it all begins with the three very simple and wrenchingly-difficult tenets above.

As is true for many games, sometimes it comes down to how badly one team wants to win….

 

 

A Legacy for the Common Man

I haven’t written here lately.  Over the past several weeks I’ve been preoccupied, thinking about a guy who has been fighting a serious health condition; as a result, I’ve traveled to visit him, spent time with his family and generally worried about his prognosis.  Finally, the end which is inevitable for each of us closed in and he perished last week.  So I traveled once again, this time to attend his funeral and offer my final good-byes.  More than that, I was able to put his life into a perspective that should teach any one of us a great deal.

He never had it easy.  For some people, breaks always seem to fall either a step ahead or a step behind, and in his case he often seemed out of step.  While he was raised in the relative affluence of the middle-class, his life seemed to present more than the usual number of travails.  He was a quiet, introspective fellow, and not very social.  He would be far more comfortable in the loneliness of the north woods than with a group of friends, a fact which by itself limited the number of close acquaintances in his life.  As a young man he was a very average student, despite great discipline for study, and he even dropped out of college for a short time, so overwhelmed was he with the rigors and anxieties of university life.  During these years he experienced his first bouts of depression, a disabling affliction that would subsequently haunt him at every stage of his life.  He faced the certainty of being drafted into the Viet Nam war by the U.S. Army after college, a stark prospect that forced enlistment as a preferable alternative. Whatever horrors he faced in those years, he rarely spoke of them, either from obedience to confidentiality or an aversion to his remembering.  His subsequent careers moved in fits and starts, as his aspirations for pursuing advanced education were always vexed by the need to create an income sufficient to meet the needs of a growing family.  There were times when he sold his own blood plasma for the additional income that it could provide.  One of his adult sons was struck and nearly killed by a drunk driver, creating a need to provide special and long-term care at the very moment of expected parental independence.  And the final hit was the most egregious: his love for the outdoors and running shirtless in the summer sun translated into a fight with skin cancer.  While odds of recovery from topical treatments are generally good, his were not and he underwent surgeries.  While odds of recovery with surgery are generally good, his were not and the cancer metastasized in more than twenty sites in his body.  And while the odds of recovery with chemotherapy can be generally good, his were not and within ten weeks’ time he was transformed from health to death.  To me, it seemed as though he just never caught a break.

But at his funeral last week, the life story told by those who knew him best were quite different from the perspective that I had.  His work colleagues and neighbors spoke of one who always presented a calming air of acceptance, even in the midst of crises.  Each remembrance that was offered included recollections of his patience, kindness and generosity for others, in spite of his own needs.  I heard reflections about his commitment to learning, to accessing new ideas as a means of personal growth and spiritual stewardship.  I came to know about the people he touched through his personal generosity, often at times in his life when, by most measures, he could not afford such largesse.  I learned about his passion for teaching others, his gift of being able to make complex issues more simple.  And I witnessed for myself the deep love and high regard of his wife and children for a husband and dad who demonstrated only love and patience for his family during the whole of their lives together; each expressed their own stories of a man who not only taught high virtues, but who lived them, as well.  Ironically, it was these commonplace traits which made for the uncommon man.

No, the endowment under review last week was not that of a powerful or controlling master.  It did not even reference the unlucky circumstances of a sometimes troubled life. The legacy instead  described the caring and loving life of a “peasant,” a humble and gentle man who refused to give in to either the struggles of a stressful life or the temptations of an alluring life.  In the process, he remained true to the values of faithful stewardship and kindness of character.

In the end, no one recalled the marginal grades of high school.  There were no reminiscences about crippling depression or serving in an unwanted war or aspirations that were never achieved.  What mattered at the close was that my brother, Skip, was a common man who loved his family, treasured the gifts that he had instead of belaboring those he did not have, and who cared about others generously.  He taught, he fought to learn and sought to give.  He did so quietly and with deliberation.  It’s a legacy that has been wonderful to receive, and that is required for each of us to give in turn….

 

Universal Truths

One of the hopes that I had held during my years at Foldcraft Co. was that some day we might be able to compete successfully enough to acquire one of our local competitors, Waymar.  We actually engaged in conversations with the owner of the company who was contemplating his own retirement, but we never could advance the conversations in any substantive way.  You might imagine my sense of satisfaction, then, when last month Foldcraft completed the process of acquiring that company and its subsidiary in Seattle, Washington.  Some good things just take time to develop.

The acquisition wasn’t free, of course.  The employee owners of Foldcraft have their work cut out for them in order to make a success out of this acquisition.   They will have to learn new things.  They will have to familiarize themselves with the way that Waymar conducted its business.  They will have to envision changes that can be made to blend the two manufacturing operations.  They will have to learn about an entirely new set of customers and their demands.  They will have to make Waymar a profitable enterprise if they are to cover the debt incurred from the purchase, and almost certainly surprises will be encountered along the way.  The two cultures will have to be blended into one, and a collaborative workforce will have to be fashioned out of two previously competing ones.  A great deal of education within both companies will be required.  When you stop to consider all of the hurdles that exist in such a transaction, it sounds downright risky.

That’s one of the realities about being in business of any sort: every one has both its risks and rewards.  It’s never any different.  If success was guaranteed in any particular economic undertaking, everyone would be doing it.  But the tensions between the risks and rewards are what make the success stories so compelling to us.  We marvel at the obstacles that successful enterprises have overcome, and we listen longingly to tales of financial success, often concluding that we should be able to accomplish as much.  Whether a cooperative in rural Nicaragua or a factory on the plains of Minnesota, we love to hear stories that affirm the notion that unlikely- even miraculous- things can and do happen despite the odds.

As a member-owned company, Foldcraft will tackle the challenge in the manner that best assures success, a process that will draw upon some truths and methodologies which pertain to organizational life everywhere.  The first thing that management will do is to recognize that people need to know.  Leaders will ensure that members understand clearly the risks mentioned above and what exactly will be required to counter those risks.  Truth will not be a luxury but a necessity, because where information is lacking, rumors will fill the void and success cannot be built upon innuendo.  There will be nothing automatic about success in this venture, and the owner-members absolutely must know the truths of their new organization, good and bad.

Engagement will require that the members of the organization- Foldcraft and Waymar both- become educated in the new organization’s success equation, those elements that must occur in order for the new business to succeed.  Unfortunately, in all too many organizations even today, members simply do not have knowledge about what creates success for their business.  They only know that they perform certain activities which they have been directed to do, without knowing why or how those activities synchronize with the efforts of others in the organization.  As in any game, the objective is to score, and the players need to understand how those points are made, how certain actions and reactions mesh within the company to reach the goals.  They want to know how to win.  In the case of Foldcraft, principles of open book management will teach members exactly what needs to happen for success and then will track success (or failure) so that members know whether they are winning or losing the game.

Foldcraft will create ways for its members to be involved.   The transition difficulties encountered simply won’t be able to absorb people who not fully engaged in its success; that’s a reality of any business.  Participation of every member becomes magnified in an undertaking such as this.  The company will continue to assemble teams and special project groups to address issues, and for at least two reasons.  First, even when members are excited about contributing to change and improvement, they may not fully recognize what role they should play or where to begin.  The leaders of Foldcraft can help with that by “positioning the players.”  Second, sustainable and effective change needs the wisdom and experiences from as many sources as possible, and that means broad member involvement from all areas of the organization.  Foldcraft has already utilized this approach as it was performing its evaluation of Waymar as a possible acquisition.  Teams of Foldcraft people were involved in assessing factors such as financial health and transparency, company ethics and integrity, employee safety, production methods,  opportunities for improvement, marketplace strategies and more.  Members of Foldcraft shared the responsibility of gathering and evaluating this information under the belief that “no one of us is as smart as all of us.”  As a result, the evaluation was performed more rapidly and thoroughly than it would have been with only a few involved.

Finally, success of the new organization requires that there is a reward for all of the effort and responsibility-taking exhibited by members at both worksites.  In addition to strengthening their job security by forging a stronger company, the members of Foldcraft are owners of their enterprise.  By participating in the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) of the firm, the members are the ones who benefit from stock growth.  And that wealth accumulation can have a major impact on those members who remain with the company for many years.  The incentive to make this acquisition successful is firmly in place, for those members who want the chance to make a better future for themselves and their families.

Of course, Foldcraft knows that success is not fated.  It’s only an opportunity, as any enterprise is.  The good news is that the truths and methodologies mentioned above are ones that resonate with most of us.  They feed a human need to belong, to understand, to contribute, to succeed, to be part of something bigger than ourselves.  It’s a truth that transcends national and cultural boundaries because it touches something deep in our psyches, something innately human.

Some organizations allow opportunity to slip through its hands, whether through leadership power struggles or greed or lack of transparency or too few members being seriously involved; good ideas die every day at the hands of ignorance and self-centeredness.  Success stories, though, emerge from the foment of universal truths that absolutely lie within our reach when we’re willing to stretch….

 

 

 

Servant Soul

This past week has been filled with stories about holiday shopping, special deals, the frenzy demonstrated by consumers and whether this year will be “better” than last year as measured by dollars spent per shopper.  It can leave me feeling a bit jaded about the holiday season, wondering what happened to the way it all “used to feel.”  And then, the story about New York police officer Larry DiPrimo hit the news, and my season has taken a decidedly different turn.

Officer DiPrimo is the cop who noticed a homeless, shoeless man on the streets of New York and bought the man socks and winter boots to ward off the freezing temperatures.   The event was captured in a photograph taken by a passer-by, a picture which has added a breadth and certain longevity to the act: it has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people by now and the photo itself is already a classic thanks to the Internet.  It’s a story which feels good for obvious reasons, but there is more to this lesson than what appears at face value.

Even more remarkable than the caring act itself was that Officer DiPrimo paid for the items from his own pocket, without expectations of any reimbursement or even any notice.  That the officer would stop to assist a homeless man is a nice story; that he would do so out of personal concern and charity makes it a unique tale.  The civil servants in our lives- police, social workers, counselors- have learned early in their careers that they cannot personally resolve all of the issues in their clients’ lives.  Normally, the most they can do is to facilitate assistance by agencies or others.  But Officer Diprimo felt otherwise.  He decided to solve this one issue for this one homeless man.  It makes all the difference in this story, not only to the man but also to the officer.

Another element to this story which differentiates it from other feel-good tales is to be found in its intended anonymity.  Any of us might be moved to assistance when the glare of camera lights, the suggestion of YouTube fame and instant hero status is at stake.  But DiPrimo acted in the fringes of the lights, unaware that even a single photograph had been taken or that anyone had noticed his gesture.  The motive was selfless and gives life to the adage that “character is what we do when we think no one is looking.”  DiPrimo’s act had a rare purity to it.

Finally, this story contains the element of DiPrimo himself.  Helping vagrants on the sidewalks of New York could be regarded as DiPrimo’s job.  His generosity could be seen as the act of a generous man in sympathy with someone less fortunate, but an act that many of us would like to believe is within us, too.  But DiPrimo not only bought the items but spent his own money for them.  In the giving of the gift he offered himself, as well.  He did not simply leave the newly-purchased items with the man.  DiPrimo actually knelt beside him and helped him to put on the socks and boots, and in that act of giving DiPrimo moved this story to a higher level than it might otherwise have been reported.  The officer’s personal ministrations to a homeless man elevated the narrative to one of heroic proportions.

That’s the reason so many of us have been attracted to the photo and the story behind it.  It resonates with something deep within our hearts that we cannot always identify or explain, but which moves us as surely as any emotion we might ever feel.  We immediately recognize the rightness of the act, the caring that it reflects, a true story which ends- at least on that one night- with the power of love in triumph over despair.  In Officer DiPrimo we want to see a bit of ourselves, we yearn to feel the same compassion and urge to action that we see in him. We know that DiPrimo is no saint, but a man who felt what we sometimes feel. We feel good about this story, as if we had done the act ourselves.  We suddenly recognize- if only for the moment-  that the possibilities for such service are alive and well, somewhere within each of us.

The good news of this seemingly simple news story is that a homeless man was made more comfortable by someone else’s act of caring.  The bigger news is that the servant soul lies within each of us, waiting for its own encounter in whatever streets we may walk….

Useless Things

Part of my recent travels to Nicaragua included participation in a workshop on cooperatives, the most recent in a series of workshops focused on the rural coops in the northern coffee region.  Winds of Peace has been sponsoring these workshops over the past two years, allowing tier one coops to meet and discuss issues with tier two groups, buyers, funders, technical assistance organizations and more.  These have proven to be unique opportunities for these groups to assemble for several days, discuss production and commercialization issues, to learn of each others’ concerns, and hopefully to create alliances among one another  that will strengthen all.  The sessions have proven to be enormously popular among the participants;  other, non-invited cooperatives have consistently inquired about the possibilities of their own participation.  Time will tell whether the organizational strengthening work that they are doing will create significant development, but the early indicators are positive.

Between Sessions with Freddy

In this most recent workshop, we heard presentations on topics of innovation, and primarily from the youth of the region.  In turn, each of the nine stood before the other sixty  participants and carefully described the business plan of an economic initiative of their creation.  The plans were articulated with detail, enthusiasm, and realistic expectations.  They ranged from a regimen of plastic bottle recycling to the raising of honey bees.  PowerPoint presentations brought the ideas to life as each innovator spoke to issues such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to their plans.  Each had thought through the myths and misconceptions that might have prevented others in the past.  And the plans examined the initiative from a full range of perspectives, including intellectual, social, emotional, spiritual, occupational and physical dimensions.  I was impressed; frankly, I have read business plans in the U.S. that were not nearly as well-crafted and holistic as these.  I noted in particular the confidence exuded by each entrepreneur as he/she laid out the plan of attack.

Abraham Cruz

One idea caught my attention in a big way.  Abraham Cruz is an impressive, young family man who has been raised within the GARBO cooperative lands beneath the towering presence of Peñas Blancas.  His life and worldview in that beautiful natural environment have clearly shaped his thinking, as he presented an idea unique in my experience: he outlined the development of a “colibrario,” a preserve, or sanctuary, for hummingbirds.

Within the restricted confines of his own yard, Abraham decided to act upon his interest in these tiny creatures.  He began learning more about their habitat, the types of plants that attracted the various species- five found within Nicaragua- and commenced a regimen of planting and cultivating around his yard.  In fact, he spent a great share of every day developing this environment, sometimes to the derision and even unhappiness of others.  “Why do you plant flowers all day?” people would ask.  “Who cares about these hummingbirds, anyway?  This is lazy work.  You are interested in useless things.”  Conventional thinking regarded Abraham’s commitment to this small aviary a waste of time.   Fortunately, Abraham was far more attuned to his own inner voice than the noise surrounding him.  He persisted in cultivating his yard space to attract and nurture the proliferation of the tiny birds.  And the endeavor has worked.  As Abraham toured us through his densely-packed yard, he pointed out one dazzling aerial acrobat after another.  As we enjoyed the array, Abraham talked about the future plans he has in mind to attract even more birds, to invite more  of the native species into view, to document their habits and behaviors, and to introduce tourists to this amazing world of laser-like flight.  Abraham is nothing less than a self-made ornithologist.

You-Know-Who

For me, personally, hummingbirds occupy space in that niche of wildlife that commands a deep awe and attention.  Like giant pandas, penguins and porpoises, there is something intensely attractive about hummingbirds, a quality that captures our imagination and love for them.  We set out all kinds of devices to attract these kinetic creatures: sugared water cones and brightly flowered feeders and large flowering plants.  Maybe it’s due to their tiny size that we recognize their vulnerability and feel instinctive desires to feed and protect them.  Like newborn puppies, hummingbirds are nearly irresistible.  And in this visit, I was able to be as close to these creatures as I have ever been.   I had the opportunity to feel the communing experience that Abraham described in his earlier presentation, an up-close and personal connection with a part of nature which somehow fulfills us in ways we can’t always explain.     But that space is an essential one for each of us, whether we always recognize it or not, whether the world at-large sees it or not.

At the end of our two days in the workshop, as the youth from the various cooperatives prepared to set off on their varied project journeys,  I found myself hoping that they had found the time to visit with Abraham at his home and to experience the project that was already unfolding there.  I know that they heard his story about his hummingbird dream.  I know that they understood all too clearly the hurt that comes from derision of new ideas which don’t comport with conventional thought.  I even thought for a moment about offering the famous quote from Albert Einstein, when he said, “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”  But in the end I can only hope that they share the same resilience that Abraham has displayed in remaining true to his own muse and that they, too, continue in their pursuit of useless things….

The Secret of Wisdom

I spent some time last week with the Founder of Winds of Peace, Harold Nielsen.  As usual, we had plenty to talk about: what’s happening in Nicaragua, the state of the global economy, progress on several Foundation initiatives, the presidential campaigns here in the U. S., and more.  It may not seem unusual for two people to engage in conversation about such items, but I always regard my discussions with Harold as somewhat unique opportunities to learn, since he is now 96 years of age.  The breadth of his experiences and perspectives grows more valuable every day, and his views of the world and human behaviors in it are lessons rich with insight.  Whenever I’ve had the chance to sit with Harold and engage in such discussions, I find myself speculating about where Harold gained all that wisdom. I’m reminded of how infrequently we in the U.S. look to our most seasoned citizens for wisdom.  All too often we see our elders as being out-of-date. out-of-touch or irrelevant to modern-day issues.  Too bad; there’s a lot that we need to learn and in many cases they’re just the ones to teach us.

 

There were any number of perspectives that Harold shared with me last week worthy of reflection and consideration.  But perhaps the most valuable of all came not from something he offered, but rather from something he asked.  (It’s not unusual for Harold to bring me to a salient realization by asking a question rather than stating an opinion.)  We had been talking about our education initiative in Nicaragua when he quite unexpectedly changed the subject.  He asked me to describe what it had been like to work for him over the years, what his strengths and weaknesses had been, what he could do in the future to be a better leader, mentor, and influence, and how he could become better at seeing those characteristics in others.

I was startled for several reasons.  First, I wasn’t prepared for a question that required such a personal, candid response.  Second, even though Harold and I have worked more as collaborators than as employer-employee in recent years, my response required me to think back to his earlier roles in my life, when he was company owner, CEO, foundation patron, and I was his employee.  Third, in my work experiences, Harold turned out to be, by far, the easiest and most effective “boss” I ever had; analyzing his weaknesses and areas for improvement never occupied much of my thought.  While I am rarely at a loss for words, his questions left me speechless for the moment as I tried to formulate a response that was both candid and useful.  Unfortunately, I doubt that I offered him anything that he regarded as helpful.

Long after our time together, I was still thinking about those questions and wondering what there was about them which continued to hold my attention.  I’ve been asked the same such questions many times over my managerial career, but never before did the query strike me with the same degree of surprise as this time.  But I finally figured out what was so different.  The difference was that the question came from a 96 year-old man who, well after most people have ceased to breathe let alone ask piercing and introspective questions, still seeks to learn about himself, still aspires to know more about his relationship with others, still wants to know how he might become better at life.  What startled me was the recognition that his questions revealed the source of the wisdom that I have respected for all of these years.  That source lay in the unquenchable thirst for learning that Harold has had, a never-ending curiosity about himself and others and the world around us.

Far more than simply a function of advanced age, true wisdom is cultivated in the continuous drive to ask and understand, not only for one’s own edification, but for application to the circumstances of the world at-large.  Wisdom eschews the notion of retirement of any kind, giving no quarter to withdrawal, forbidding us to stop the flow of natural inquisitiveness that spurred the younger versions of ourselves.  The answers to the contemporary questions facing the youth of today might well be discovered in the curiosities of their elders over a lifetime of seeking.  And those of us in-between are in the best position of all to benefit from the realization if we can allow ourselves to do so.  Maybe all of this is well-known to psychologists and gerontologists, but it’s a first-hand observation to me.

How does a 96 year-old man expect to effect change in the way that he is perceived by others, the way in which he interacts with them, the extent of his positive impact upon them?  I’m not sure of the answer, but I love the question.  And I may have unwittingly affirmed a secret to real wisdom….