I’m on a roll with wanting to understand economics differently. I must admit, I gave up counting in third grade, never liked numbers, and preferred the messy world of emotions to the precision of math.
However, as I research the impact of money on our lives for my new e-book (soon to be ready “Ka-Ch’ing! How Family Patterns Play with Your Money Mind), I am becoming more and more fascinated with those who have new ideas about how to distribute and divide our global wealth.
I recently happened upon a Cambridge University economist (the U.K. is certainly in my consciousness these days) who has some exciting ideas about what we are doing and what to do about it. Her name is Noreena Hertz and she is a bright light in a complex and often unwieldy academic science.
It may be that her message, one that has been whispered about in organizations, rarely said loudly and boldly, is that markets need to serve the interests of people as much as they serve companies and shareholders. Check out her book “The Silent Takeover” (2001) about how unsustainable laissez-faire capitalism is and the idea that markets are stable.
As I keep a pulse on trends, one that is staying loud and strong, is about radical transparency. It may be because the internet tracks things in the blink of an eye, it may be that enough individuals in the younger generations are asking better questions, it may be that we know we can’t survive with underhanded deals and power struggles as a major form of business transaction.
Hertz is a voice that is bound to become louder and stronger. She makes a case for rights and responsibilities that are part of free trade. Rights and responsibilities; sounds like we are talking ethics here. Maybe, just maybe, we should start teaching about rights and responsibilities in school, from primary through senior high, and perhaps we should have parenting courses that include an ethical component. Then by the time high potentials have entered esteemed leadership development programs around the globe they will have a strong foundation upon which to discuss adaptive business models and financial structures that take both profit and larger social goals into account.
What does it mean for the world that President Obamais receiving theNobel Peace prize? Maybe, just maybe it means we are in a turn the corner place for deeper thinking. Maybe, just maybe, we can find ways to care about each other rather than continue to set up polarizing, frozen perspectives.
My curiosity is peeked. How will theRush Limbaughtypes of the world respond to this news? I expect with their same old rhetoric, their same old blaming, judging, and attacking. It is the pattern of communicationthat has garnered them millions of dollars, fame, and a place to talk and talk and talk.
What I do not see in these loud and negative folks is a thought, ever, about conciliation, giving the other side credit, new thinking about how to solve old problems. I listen to them to stay in touch with all perspectives. Often, when I turn off the radio or television I have a sour taste in my mouth, a knot in my stomach. It’s not so much what they say; it’s the anger that is at the core of their commentary.
In studying the lives of people who are making big sounds in today’s market place, be they politicians, in the media, in education, or in business I am struck by how so many who are angry, who lash out to hurt, who need to find losers so they can be winners, are those who have had childhoods where the pain still seems evident today.
While Obama did not grow up with a silver spoon, he did the hard work of researching his past and making peace with it the best he could. In my work with leaders I am convinced that those who are able to include others, to show compassion, to create connections rather than dissention, are those who, regardless of where or how they grew up have done the hard work of reclaiming the positive patterns from their past and transforming the negative pattern to their healthy opposites.
Observing, understanding, and transforming patternsis the work of 21st century leaders and maybe we can make this a priority for all of us. Then, we can really begin the task of weaving together our human family and begin to bring everyone together in new creative, proactive and collaborative ways.
In our leadership programwe teach, first and foremost,” We’re all in it together and no one wins unless we all do”! Congratulations toPresident Obama, great work in difficult times!!!
I have been running around the country (actually flying to be really clear) and what I find interesting is that similarities seem more similar than they ever have before. This economic downturn has hit the whole country and I am finding people in Texas, California, Oregon, New York and Boston all using the same words and expressing the same concepts about their work and personal lives.
There is a strong desire to redefine success. It looks and feels different from the high flying last decades of the 20th Century. The word downsizing is being used both in business and in personal settings. We spent time talking with realtors in all these towns and went to see some fabulous homes that were all for sale. In each big, beautiful house, the ones that would have made everyone salivate in the past, there was a story about jobs lost and a need to downsize and other stories about a conscious decision to find smaller, more efficient quarters.
In the past these houses were like badges of honor. They were signs of having made it to the good life. They yelled out “I am here, I am a success”.
Now, I have nothing against large, lush structures. Yet, I have always wondered how a house (or a car, or any type of trophy) can sustain a feeling of unlimited success. Bricks and mortar, even flashy statues with names inscribed can only take us so far in our deeper feelings of self esteem.
So, maybe during these times success is being recalibrated. Maybe it means helping a neighbor in need. Perhaps is means learning how to sew or garden to save money and become a creative artisan at the same time. Maybe success means leaving less of a carbon footprint.
I do sense that this tough time is one that will give us new guidelines about what it means to be human, what it means to share, what it means to be successful. Perhaps we will be happy to have a car to drive no matter its age. Perhaps we can spend time with family and friends just talking and laughing together.
I met some of the folks who are leaving those large McMansions for smaller dwellings. Interestingly, most were relieved to have the burden of caretaking lifted from their shoulders. Most were in a middle place of rethinking life values and what it means to be a success. From our talks I was sure that most will be at the forefront of defining the new meaning of success, less about what is out there to show and more about what is inside to share.
It will be an honor to post them on my blog. In our “Total Leadership Connections” program I have had the privilege of hearing many life changing stories. The second of the program’s four sessions is dedicated to Sankofa mapping. This is a time when business executives, high potential employees, leaders from both the profit and non profit sectors come together and learn about the patterns passed from generation to generation that helped form their inner core. The stories are all of our stories filled with courage, laughter, fear, betrayal, dissention, and transformation. Truth, we know, trumps fiction every time.
Sankofa, a word from Ghana means, “Clear the past to free the present”. When we do this we are able to be better leaders, better stewards of those who are in our employ.
Our stories are needed now, more than ever before. We are all going through a revision of who we are and what really matters. We are being more finely tuned to participate in a world that is being redefined by technology, earth changes, and global connectedness.
If we all begin to tell our life changing stories perhaps we can have an impact on the media. Hollywood, in particular, is losing the war on clichés. They are so intent on financial success there is a need to stay with stories from the past that have worked. They tell only those that are predictable. Most of us can predict the ending before the first third of the film is over.
What our overfed and undernourished culture is wanting are some new insights, some originality of thought that will make us see ourselves and the struggles of the times differently.
Let your story be told. It will help you redesign your thinking and help all those with whom you work and those you love.
I was noodling around the net looking for some interesting info on resilency, one of the most talked about topics this year. We are starting resiliency workshops at various companies based on our work with pattern repeating behaviorthat gets in the way. Non resilient work enviroments lead to stress in the workplace, and an inability forconflict resolutionto occur. There is also residual “guilt of survivorship” that is almost never talked about when colleagues are laid off. I found the following video and want to share it with everone, job or no job.
Sylvia Lafair
Aug 25th, 2009
Lemonade Productions brought tears to my eyes. As I grew up my mother would always give the lemons to lemonade speech to me until I would screech “Stop, I just want a Hershey Bar!”
I have not been laid off in this round of fiscal mess. I own my own company that consults with organizations around leadership and resiliency. Years ago, right at this time of year I was told funding was cut for my soon to be fabulous job in the family therapy department of a major medical school.
I walked the streets on sunny days, the mall on rainy ones figuring out my next step. That was all the energy I had. Funny how each step leads to the next if you breath, walk and don’t panic. And I finally realized my real dream, to write a book. “Don’t Bring It to Work” with its blue cover is out there for the world to see. Thanks for the reminder that lemonade can taste great. I’m sending clip to my clients, whether they have a “safe” job today or not.
Senator Ted Kennedyis an example of a life well lived. Filled with bumps and valleys he is an example of courage and determination. A perfect life? Hardly. A complex life? Yes. A respected life? Often.
What can we learn from a life well lived? First, there are always “mosquitoes in paradise”. The Kennedy’s were the Camelot family. Wealthy, handsome, privileged. Yet, there were relationship difficulties, health issues, accidents, hurts, and disappointments.
Next, is how the traumas and discomforts were handled. Earlier in his life Ted ran from an accident where a female companion in the car died. At the time it tarnished his reputation and seemed to end the possibilities of a life in public service.
Then there was the plane crash that caused him physical pain for the rest of his life. And for a devout Catholic, there was divorce from his wife Joan. Think about how you might respond to daily public scrutiny. Think about how you would take each setback and make something positive come from it.
Ted was an example ofleadership in action. His life was truly a leadership development course. He ended his career as an esteemed Senator who was able to connect people with each other and with ideas of merit. He was an impassioned champion of right choice and good deeds.
The furor over health care points to a core concern in our society; the way we discuss and decide important issues. Learning how to talk about and resolve contentious subjects should begin at home and in school. It rarely does.
Last weekJohn Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods created uproar when he wrote about his perspective toward health care. He has a stake in the game and did comment about the difference healthy food makes in maintaining health. He also took on the present administration for its views. Is there something to learn from his thoughts?
Many who disagreed with him were ready to boycott his grocery stores. They wondered why he would alienate shoppers like themselves, Obama supporters. So, what is free speech? What does it mean to dig down, way down and look for new, innovative answers to old, frustrating questions? Why is it so hard to talk and so easy to polarize?
Philosopher Krishnamurtionce said, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”. Is he talking about US? Is he talking about the U.S.?
These few weeks before Labor Day are the ones that scream out “STOP”. This is the end point before the next beginning. This is the last of those lazy days before the autumn surge. School soon moves into high gear. Work takes on a more intense flavor, executive leadership programs,business seminars, conferences are all fighting for our attention.
Have you taken a vacation this summer? Have you taken the time to sit and stare…at the ocean or pine trees or slot machines? Whatever makes you stop thinking for even a brief time is what really matters. The root of the word vacation is to vacate, make empty.
We all need time to stop the mind from moving into fast forward. The most common way is to do something, anything that is not the norm, not the pattern. We all need to create apatterninterrupt scenario for ourselves. That is how we can think new thoughts and gather new ideas.
So, be it for a few hours, a day, or a week, take the time to empty your mind. Take time to smell the roses, or the salt air from the ocean. Take time to listen to real birds twittering. Take time to inhale and push out a strong, robust exhale. Most of us really do wait to exhale. So pick your own personal favorite way to empty your mind and then just do it!
One hot sunny day last week we drove two hours east to visit with some human resource executives at Pilgrim’s Pridein Pittsburg, Texas.
You all know Pilgrim’s Prideif you ever think about eating chicken. It’s the nation’s largest poultry company and is consistently on Fortune’s list of America’s Most Admired Companies.
Having lunch with Jane Brookshire, Executive V.P. of H.R. we talked about oil, corn, chickens, and poverty. Until then those concepts never would have come together in my thinking. Our lunch discussion gave me, if you will, food for thought. Using corn to make ethanol means that the price for feeding chickens goes up, and this staple is no longer readily available for a large majority of folks who see this as an important and inexpensive part of their diet. Healthy, low cost and versatile, chicken is good for you. It made me see the trade off we make and ethanol, which seems to be an interim solution, certainly is not the long range answer.
Lunch covered many other subjects and Connie, Donna, and Mike who are at the core of talent management, leadership development, and supervisor trainingtalked extensively about what they do and hope to continue doing in their executive leadership training programs. What impressed me the most was their cumulative desire to permit their employees, over 43,000 of them, to bring “the whole person to work” at every level of the organization.
This is the kind of company that walks its talk and we left for our drive back to the Dallas airport with renewed determination to help make work a place for employees to grow and become the best they can be. It’s exciting to see a company that really knows employees need more than a pay check to sustain health and well being, regardless of the economy.
When I was at Google last month I had the pleasure of hearing Dan Goleman talk about his new book “Ecological Intelligence”. Dr. Goleman has been, and continues to be a pioneer in “new thinking”.
We know enough about the brain in this century to understand its plasticity. This means there is an ever changing possibility that we can grow and become smarter every day of our lives. No more is I.Q. considered static. No more are we doomed to become old and dumber. No more are our ailments meant to be lived with, to suffer in silence.
And now that we know we are masters of change we can do something about almost everything! Thus, “Ecological Intelligence” charges us to think, and think, and think again.
It is time to become more conscious, to stay awake to the world, to own our own power. No, not in a way to claim our power over nature, that is the old way. Rather it is vital that we be stewards with nature. This is the time for all of us to learn about and become proficient in systems thinking.
In his book,Dan Goleman reveals to us how the invisible environment we have been ignoring is causing us to choke on our own decisions. He shows us that “being green” without thinking through what that means is merely a “feel good “marketing ploy.
We need to ask questions, questions that take us up river to the hidden impact of the goods and services we consume. For example, he talks about the sunscreen he used to use, thinking it was environment friendly, until he did some research and found that the very cream that kept his skin from burning has an ingredient that feeds a virus that kills the coral reef.
So what is our responsibility? To make the time and take the effort to go back, to learn and understand how the past impacts the present. In ourexecutive leadership program, Total Leadership Connections, we use a process that takes each individual back toObserve, Understand, and Transformthe habits and patternspassed from generation to generation. This process helps us cast a critical eye on why we do what we do. It puts real power in our hands. It helps us understand the etiology ofworkplace conflictand how to make change quickly and effectively.
It is this same process that Goleman suggests for becoming informed buyers who truly take care of the planet. Its about you, it’s about me, it’s about time!
Yesterday I offered free, signed copies of my book 
The furor over health care points to a core concern in our society; the way we discuss and decide important issues. Learning how to talk about and resolve contentious subjects should begin at home and in school. It rarely does.
These few weeks before Labor Day are the ones that scream out “STOP”. This is the end point before the next beginning. This is the last of those lazy days before the autumn surge. School soon moves into high gear. Work takes on a more intense flavor, executive 
One hot sunny day last week we drove two hours east to visit with some human resource executives at
When I was at Google last month I had the pleasure of hearing 
