Charter for Compassion

A conversation for possibility as I distinguish it is a conversation that speaks for a new future. This new future is not a future that is predictable, like a default future - one we will get by extending our past. Nor is it just one of some available scenarios, like an optional future - we could do this, or we could choose that, kind of future.

Some people live their lives from a future they are committed to - and one that is unlikely to be realized except without a transformation. These people live their lives from the future first - they take their actions in the present informed, not by the circumstances of the moment, but by the future they see as a possibility.

One such remarkable person is Karen Armstrong. She was on Bill Moyer's Journal last night (3/13/09). If her conversation, her intentions for the Charter, gather any momentum we will live in a different world. Watch the video.

Leading With Kindness

It is too easy to become jaundiced about the possibility of organizations as places to thrive, to be appreciated, to grow and make a contribution. The media jumps on every example of wrong-doing, greed and irresponsibility. It would be easy to be left with the impression that working in organizations is a soul destroying experience of being taken advantage of by greedy and exploiting leaders.

As a student of organizations and consulting in them for over twenty-five years, after having worked as an executive in them that reality is very unlike the one I know. So it is particularly refreshing to see PBS's special on Leading With Kindness.

Congratulations to Bill Baker, Michael O’Malley and the inspiring group of executives and employees the gathered to tell this story.

On The Subject of Kindness

It not too late to make a New Year resolution. I want to pass this possibility on from Dr Mardy and his inspiring Quotes of the Week. It is simple yet effective:

"If you're in need of a New Year's Resolution, you might want to try an idea that has worked well for me over the years. Every morning, put five pennies in a coat or pants pocket. As the day progresses, each time you pay someone a compliment or engage in a deliberate act of kindness, take one penny and move it to another pocket. Don't consider your day done until you've transferred all of the coins (for extra credit--and extra respect from me--try it with ten pennies)."

The Possibility of Generosity in Difficult Times

We are hearing and reading a lot nowadays about corporate greed and the irresponsibility of senior executives. Everything from huge bonuses to executives who have run up huge losses and are going cap in hand to the government for bail-outs to profligate spending by these same failed executives on jets, office renovations and expensive junkets.

So it is especially encouraging to know that not all corporate leaders are greedy and irresponsible. Take the leaders of Waukegan-based Peer Bearing Co as an example and the generosity when the sold their business to the SKF Group of Sweden. Not only did employees get unexpected bonuses, it looks like they get to keep their jobs too.

So it IS possible to find executives who are responsible, compassionate and generous to their employees and responsible to the customers and communities. Unfortunately, they just don't make the headlines sufficiently often. Unfortunately the media does not thing good news sells.

What Do You Know That Others Don't?

Many of us have been brought up in the belief that knowledge is power. The more we have that others don't the more advantage we have over them. That belief is now as out of date as our first PC's and just as useful.

Here is a way to think that is the exact opposite: What do I know, that I suspect someone else (identify a specific person) does not know, that if they did know it would be useful to them? When you have answered that question, then share it with them? In other words generously give your knowledge away to others who could use it. Don't be scared of this idea. First, with  knowledge, unlike money, you still have it after you have given it away. And, knowledge is not scarce - we are swimming in it.

Conversely, here is a useful question to ask of friends and colleagues: What do you know, that you suspect I don't know, that would be useful to me? And, if need be, gently remind them that they will not be knowledge poorer afterwards.

The advent of the websites like, Google, Wikipedia, Citizendium,  ChaCha , and so on, means that our access to information and knowledge is literally at our finger tips. So much so that we can easily be overwhelmed with unfiltered information - information overload on steroids.

In our private lives, and especially at work, we need to create some practices for information filtering. Some context for ourselves, and for our friends and colleagues, to know what information we want to know about, and what information we want to actively exclude?

Which brings us back to some fundamental questions that most of us are noodling on most of the time:

1. What am I committed to, interested in, trying to move forward - the larger meaning and purpose of my life questions?
2. What am I accountable for and responsible for?
3. What specific projects do I have on the go - with clear outcomes to produce by a specific when?
4. What problems am I trying to solve where I could do with some help? 
5. What stops, blocks and thwarts me?
6. What are my values, my fundamental organizing principles? 

The clearer we are about our answers to each of these questions, the easier it will be to be selective, a) in dealing with unsolicited incoming information, and b) in seeking out the people with information that will help us.

One potential use of networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and so on, is that they create an opportunity for us to say what we are up to, what interests us, what we are at work on and so on. The more we know about other people the easier it is to help them - assuming we recognize the value in helping. And, it is easier to ask for help from others to. An opportunity that most of us underutilize.

That said, one networking site has this as a condition of membership, "TO BE A MEMBER, you must believe that YOU CAN"T SUCEED ALONE - and why would you want to? We are all expected to share freely and often. We agree to make this a place where we extend a hand to each other - our stories, words of encouragement, or advice that will make a difference."

Wow! "share freely and often", and "you can't succeed alone", really? Doesn't that thinking fly in the face of the independent pioneering spirit that is supposed to have made America strong? Yes, yes, and yes! 

Sharing, being generous, helping and being open to be helped, is part of the Web 2.0, Succeeding in Life 2.0, world that is radically changing our view about what works, really works - it is a key element of what it takes to build a network, a community, an organization, ... of supportive relationships in the service of some shared purpose.

Can you imagine what work life would be like if one of the conditions for promotion was you had to give away everything you knew to people who could use it for their growth and development, and you had to reach out and help people to be successful, and you had to demonstrate you were open to being helped by others in your own pursuits. That actually could be an environment in which people would grow and thrive - and, love coming to work.

I was trying to put myself in a bottle...

On June 13 I wrote about Randy Pausch and his last lecture. Unlike many colleagues who gave lectures "as if" it were their last, for Randy his last lecture was his last for real. He was expected to die with pancreatic cancer within a couple of weeks. Though you would never have guessed it judging by his humor and vitality.

Well, weeks have passed and the inevitable has happened. Randy died on July 25. He was 47. He is survived by his wife and three children.

He wrote in his book, "I was trying to put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on the beach for my children", as a way of helping us understand and appreciate his extraordinary courage, vitality, and passion for life.

One person can and does make a difference. He was an inspiring example of being a conversation for possibility.

What are you scared about?

Every now and again an “out of context question”, when asked of us, can reveal some interesting insights into the way we think and the way we behave – if we feel safe enough to answer honestly, at least to ourselves.

For example, you are in a safe environment, with friends, people you respect and trust, and one of them asks, out of context, “what are you most scared about?” You just know that this is not the time, or the place, or the group to attempt a superficial answer. And so you speak about what it is that scares you.

Every one of us at some point in our lives, with some set of people, has realized it is possible to be completely open, vulnerable and truthful – and survive. The outcome in invariably a deeper sense of intimacy and relationship with the group we are open with, and a greater sense of personal freedom – telling the truth about our hopes and fears really is freeing.