“That is the question, isn’t it George…?  Now don’t look so surprised.  Just because I got my wings doesn’t mean we’re done with each other.”

George stared.  Clarence went on.

“Last night I showed you what would have happened if you hadn’t lived.  Your older brother would have died young; Mary would have never married; Potter would have taken over the whole town.  Pottersville—can you imagine?  But you did live—and you did make a difference for so many…”

“And I didn’t even know I was doing it.  I wasn’t really trying.  I was just reacting to things that happened in front of me—just going on instinct.”

And your instincts were good, George.  You made a lot of good decisions in the moment.  But George, I am here to tell you some hard news.  You can’t go back to living the way you did before.” 

“I think I know what you mean, Clarence.  I know I was a jerk sometimes, not really appreciative of everything—well, much of anything—but I won’t make that mistake again…  Isn’t that what you mean?  That I can’t go on being on the ungrateful jerk that I’ve been too often?”

“That’s a part of it, George.  But really only a small part.”

“What’s the rest of it?  What’s the big part?”

 The big part, George, is that you’ve started what some in my business call ‘The Grand Transition.’  Once you start that, there’s no going back.  And I’ve got to tell you now, George, this can get pretty rough.”

George turned away.  Clarence paused and then said softly: “Do you want to hear more?”

You remember the Jimmy Stewart character, George Bailey, in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  If you’ve seen the movie—maybe this year, again—you remember the gist of it.  George grows up in Bedford Falls, a small town he never quite manages to leave, despite his avowals to “shake off the dust” of that town and see the world, to embark on a big adventure and make something of himself “out there.”

What he winds up doing is inheriting his father’s perpetually struggling business, Bailey Savings and Loan, and serving customers that Mr. Potter, the greedy banker villain in the story, would never touch.  George gives them the loan they need to finance their dreams, however modest, of a fresh start, new career, small house, whatever.  Although he never admits it consciously, George has also inherited his father’s values, his fundamental respect for the dignity and dreams of the average person. 

And therein lies the near tragedy of the film—George’s lack of consciousness.  He nearly commits suicide—not really because of Mr. Potter’s thievery—that’s the surface trigger, a plot device, if you will.  The deeper cause?  He lacks consciousness of at least two things: his deeper values and his real impact on other people and on the town itself.  The “angel” who appears helps him with the latter, but what of the former? 

We never really know if George connects the dots—that it was his “living out” of his father’s values and his “providing for others that which he so valued for himself”—the opportunity to pursue one’s dreams— that led so many to come to his aid in the end.    

Suppose he did come to connect the dots?  And suppose he actually chose to consciously, deliberately, intentionally live his values in every domain of his life…including his business? 

What do you suppose would have happened?  For George?  His family?  Bailey Savings & Loan?  Bedford Falls?

I get a kick out of imagining a sequel to the movie.  And I’ll share my musings in a subsequent post. 

For now, though, I’m sitting with a different question: What might happen if I were to live more fully my own deeper values, my essential convictions?  For me?  My family?  My business?  The community?

If you’re so inclined, I invite you to take a few moments and consider the same this holiday season: What might happen if you were to more consciously, deliberately, intentionally embrace yours? 

What kind of wonderful might that look like?  What kind of wonderful might emerge?

 I once asked the estimable Oscar Robertson what he thought of Michael Jordan, then in his third year in the NBA.  Oscar said, “He’s not great yet.”

Why not, I asked.

“Because he hasn’t learned how to make the worst player on his team good,” Oscar replied.

Want a standard to assess yourself as a leader?  To gauge the cultural health of your organization?  Ask yourself (and others): Does working in our organization help everybody—at every level, in every role—grow?  Does it make them better?

If yes, terrific.  What are you doing that makes it so?  How will you enhance and enrich your efforts, while protecting against possible threats?

If no, why not?  What do you need to be doing differently to raise your organization to a championship level?  What needs to be different within your culture?

Oscar Robertson’s criterion for greatness reminds me of Robert Greenleaf’s seminal piece, “The Servant as Leader,” in which he set forth his now famous “test” for servant leadership:

The best test, and most difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons?  Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?  And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society: Will they benefit, or, at least, will they not be further deprived?

TD Industries is a successful Texas-based HVAC commercial contractor; its late founder and subsequent generations of leaders were and are devoted to the practice and teaching of servant leadership principles.  On a corporate video made some years ago, a tough looking employee was asked what difference it had made in his life to work for a company that took servant leadership seriously.  “It has made me a better daddy,” he said.

What does working in your organization do for your people?  Are they really growing? 

Are we great yet?

Today these words were spoken in Egypt by an American President:

“For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. When one nation pursues a nuclear weapon, the risk of nuclear attack rises for all nations. When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. And when innocents in Bosnia and Darfur are slaughtered, that is a stain on our collective conscience. That is what it means to share this world in the 21st century. That is the responsibility we have to one another as human beings.

“This is a difficult responsibility to embrace. For human history has often been a record of nations and tribes subjugating one another to serve their own interests. Yet in this new age, such attitudes are self-defeating. Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners of it. Our problems must be dealt with through partnership; progress must be shared.”

It’s a small boat world.  Ready or not.  It’s a small boat world.  

Does your organization operate like it lives in that world?  Do you?

I don’t recall much about my day in the office, either. Pretty standard stuff. What I do remember is that the two Frito Lay fast trackers who took me out that night arrived at my hotel in a top down convertible clutching “roadies.” Strike one. The whole drinking and driving thing…

Then they took me to a nightclub that featured scantily-clad women dancing in cages above the crowd. Strike two. The whole women in cages thing…

The entire evening they spoke to me as if it were a given that I would be attracted to this kind of scene. Strike three. The whole “you have no idea who I am or what matters to me—and no interest in finding out” thing…

Not that it was a great loss to Frito Lay or Pepsico, but I chose to work elsewhere.

Today, of course, if I were a soon-to-be business school graduate with an offer from Pepsico, I would check out their web-site before my recruiting visit. I would see their emphasis on “Performance and Purpose” and examples throughout the pages.  And I would see their CEO, Indra Nooyi, speaking with great dignity, eloquence, and passion regarding Pepsico’s work in the world.

Who knows, maybe during my visit I would still be “treated” to a women-in-cages night out… I don’t think so. With double digit percentages of graduates from some Ivy League schools now applying to work for Teach for America, I think Pepsico knows that, today, organizational purpose works better than roadies, convertibles, and cages.

So, what if your company doesn’t know what Pepsico knows…?  Or hasn’t thought much about it? And what if a competitor in your industry gets the concept—or already has it? Are you more or less likely to attract the best talent? Build a great culture?

Just how do you plan to win in the years ahead? By outmaneuvering the competition? Or by inspiring high levels of commitment, creativity, and performance from talented people?

Which game do you want to be playing in the future?  What about now?

Regarding the need for corporate America to re-build trust, Indra Nooyi, the CEO of Pepsico writes:

“I believe the financial crisis has companies facing an interesting fork in the road.  One direction may lead to a short-term, performance-metric focus, an unsatisfactory and unsustainable position for the good company of the future.  The other direction, as a matter of necessity (underline added), may be for companies to take the road that the best companies have been following as a matter of choice.  That is making sure that their financial performance and their ability to be a force for good in the world—their purpose—are facing in the same direction.”  

                                        (Fortune magazine, May 4, 2009)

I think she’s right.  Purpose has become a matter of necessity.  To corporate leaders, I would ask:

Ø    Do you want to get the best people to work for you today and tomorrow?  Want to get their best efforts, their “discretionary energy,” their full measure of commitment and creativity? 

Ø    Do you want customers to trust you?  Want them to choose your products or services based on something other than price?  Want them to experience a real and enduring sense of connection with your company?

Ø    Do you want to create a genuine legacy?  Want to leave a sustainable and sustaining institution that you would be pleased to have your children and grandchildren work for someday?  That you would trust to inhabit and keep inhabitable their world?

For all of the above, your organization needs to possess and live a genuine, make-the-world-a-better-place purpose that grows out of its deeper values and strengths—as well as the needs of its customers and contexts. 

Examples abound if you care to look.  Consider Pepsico, for heaven’s sake.  The “Pepsi Challenge” today has less to do with proving x percent of people prefer the taste of Pepsi to Coke and more to do with solving water problems in the developing world and creating healthier products and eating habits all over the world.

In a poem entitled “Loaves and Fishes” (from The House of Belonging), David Whyte writes:  

This is not the age of information.

This is not

the age of information.

Forget the news,

and the radio,

and the blurred screen.

This is the age of loaves

and fishes.

People are hungry,

and one good word is bread

for a thousand.

I believe the “one good word” for businesses is their purpose, if they have a real one beyond “making money.”  Does yours?  Can you articulate it?  Do you and your company intentionally work at living it? 

If you do not think purpose matters in business, please re-consider.  Look.  Read.  Ask.  Talk.  If you are inclined, pray. 

Do not let the shortcomings of companies who profess to be purpose-oriented stop you.  No organization or leader gets it all right.  But great companies and leaders engage the question of organizational purpose or “vocation” (Why are we really here?  What are we called to do with our particular capacities in our particular place in the order of things?) in a deeper, more integrated way.  The question is: What are you doing in your organization, with your leadership and life?

If you cannot or will not shift your thinking, please make plans to step away from corporate leadership and elevate others who do.  People are hungry…for meaning…for purpose…for a sense that they are making a real difference as they make a living.  And some people close and far away are hungry…literally. 

As a matter of necessity, business must lead the way to a more sustainable future across many domains—environmental, social, economic, to name several.  The age of organizational performance without purpose has surely passed.

In a 2006 interview, Ray Anderson, founder and Chairman of Interface, the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet, recounted the personal epiphany in 1994 that ultimately led to his company’s vision to become “the first company that by its deeds shows the entire industrial world what sustainability is in all its dimensions.”  Below are a few excerpts from that interview and a question from me: 

We’d begun to hear this question from customers that we’d never heard before, in so many words, “What’s your company doing for the environment?” for which we had no answer…

I was not an environmentalist.  I had never given a thought to what we were taking from the earth or doing to the earth to make our products…  But I was attuned to my customers, and when I found a subject they were interested in, I got interested…

When I found Hawken’s book [The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken], it was a spear in the chest experience; and I read it and wept because it laid out so clearly the problems of the industrial system, the system of which my company, my creation, this third child of mine was an integral part…

Step by step we began to get traction and move up that mountain [“Mount Sustainability”]…

And the goodwill in the marketplace is just astounding.  Those same people that were asking that question 11, 12 years ago—“What’s the company doing?”—have embraced the company for what we are doing…

It’s turning out to be a better way to make a bigger profit…

Today I would say that pioneering this new way of doing business is the ultimate purpose of Interface.  It goes beyond the bottom line to a purpose, a higher purpose, that all can subscribe to, be part of, be motivated by and be challenged by.

So what is your organization’s purpose “that all can subscribe to, be part of, be motivated by and be challenged by?” 

Do you have one?  A real one?  (Not just some nice-sounding words for your walls, web-site, and employee handbook…)  If not, why not?

You don’t have to be the first one up Mount Sustainability, but don’t you want to play a bigger game?  And win bigger, too?

                               ——————————————————–

You can view the entire interview with Ray Anderson at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2769291606811106137.

Check out the company at www.interfaceglobal.com. 

                              ———————————————————-

*In a completely subjective and idiosyncratic way, this blog will recognize people whose thoughts and/or actions reflect a “small boat ethic” as described in earlier posts. 

Film critic Roger Ebert wrote this shortly after the 2009 Academy Awards broadcast, which he enjoyed watching.

“Snarking is cultural vandalism. I have arrived at this conclusion belatedly. I have been guilty of snarking, and of enjoying snarks. In the matter of snarking, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But it has grown entirely out of hand. It is time to put away childish things. I must restore my balance, view the world in a fair way, hope to inspire more appreciation than ridicule. No doubt there will always be a role for snarking, given the proper target and an appropriate venue, and I reserve the right to snark when it is deserved, as in certain movie reviews. But in general I must become more well-behaved.

“This process of reevaluating snarking has been good for me. It is easy to snark, and I am a clever writer. I must resolve not to take cheap shots… 

“It’s important sometimes to be reminded that it’s okay to admire. To praise. To enjoy yourself. To admit to having a good time. To not care about what other, snarkier, people might say.”

Roger Ebert’s Journal: Chicago Sun Times, February 25, 2009

*In a completely subjective and idiosyncratic way, this blog will recognize people whose thoughts and/or actions reflect a “small boat ethic” as described in earlier posts. 

 From an earlier small boat post:

Your ultimate goal?  To have your people know the system in which they operate so well that they can imagine the impact of their actions before they act and adjust accordingly.  You want them as alert, as conscious as they would be on a small boat in big water.  That’s the managerial challenge…

So here’s a way to get started.  It’s not the only way, but it is a way.  (Feel free to improvise on this or come up with something else altogether.)  Get your unit together (literally or virtually) and ask them about their experiences in actual small boats.  Ask them: “What was the best experience you ever had in a small boat?  The worst experience?  The most surprising experience?” 

Ask them:  What’s different about being in a small boat versus a larger boat?  What’s different about the way you need to behave?  The way you need to relate to other people?”  

Basically, you’re looking to elicit from them at least these two ideas: (1) “On a small boat your actions can have an immediate and potentially serious impact; you can sink the boat if you don’t watch what you’re doing” and (2) “On a small boat you have to really pay attention to the environment around you because it can impact you very quickly.”

Now shift the focus of the conversation to your unit:  “How does this relate to our unit?  What are the connections between small boats and our unit today?  How do our actions affect others in our company?  How do they affect our customers?  Each other?  What happens when we don’t do what we’re supposed to do?  What happens when we do? 

“What do we need to pay attention to in our environment?  What could sink us?”   

You could move right here to come up with two or three principles or rules for behaving in a “small boat way” in your unit.  Or you could say: “Let’s investigate this further; let’s see how our behavior really does impact others.  Then let’s see what we might do in light of what we learn.” 

For investigative purposes, then, assign volunteers from your unit to spend quality time with those to whom your unit connects in some way.  Have them report back with the following information on these stakeholders:

Ø    Here’s their situation…and 2-3 things we didn’t know about their world today.

Ø    Here’s what they really need from us now.

Ø    Here are the little details that make a big difference.

Ø    Here’s what happens to them (how it rocks their boat) when we don’t deliver.

Ø    Here’s what they want our relationship to look like going forward.

Ø    Here are some initial ideas for what we should stop, start, and continue doing. 

As you get these reports, and ideas emerge for improvements in your systems and processes, ask for volunteers to implement them.  Keep track of progress and measure the impact.   As discussed in a previous post, immediate and compelling feedback drives small boat behavior.  So involve your team in figuring out how to elicit continuous, real-time, compelling feedback on the impact of your actions.  (The standard monthly or quarterly survey just won’t do the job.) 

Now you might have a conversation about behavioral principles or rules.  Say: “By themselves, changes in our systems or processes won’t get us where we want to go.  What are the two or three principles or rules to which we need to hold ourselves and each other accountable?  Two criteria for making the short list: it will make a real difference if we live it; and it is easy to understand and remember.”

After coming up with your behavioral principles, ask your team how they want to “do” accountability…and how they want to keep things fun, too.   Maybe keep using the small boat concept as part of your approach.  Maybe your team passes around a little “small boat” trophy to members when they do something that exemplifies good small boat behavior—and a miniature “cruise ship” when they don’t.

[Great teams or units are intentional about the way they impact others…and the members hold themselves accountable with a “be better everyday” attitude.   (The “leader” doesn’t have to do it all.)  Not-so-great units are unconscious regarding their impact…and members put more energy into evading accountability and passing blame than discovering their real impact and making responsible changes.]

At some point in the process (there’s no magic to this; you and/or your team decide the timing) you might want to create a purpose statement to go along with your 2-3 behavioral principles.  This statement would answer the “Why do we exist?” question in a way that’s meaningful for your unit.  It would set forth a “noble intention” for your group—how your unit intends to make things life better for those it serves and/or those with whom it interacts.

So there might be some possible phrases or images for your unit’s purpose that arise as you go forward.  Your job is to capture those emergent articulations and see what resonates with your team.  Or you might want to ask them directly for their ideas.  Or you might have your own idea that you test with some folks.  Just don’t make it too much of a formal, wordsmith-type exercise.  That will kill the spirit of the thing. 

And if your company has some kind of purpose or mission statement, try to link with that, but don’t get too hung up on it.   If your unit is performing, senior management likely won’t care if you use their particular formulation or not. 

Two other things: I would also encourage you to work with your group to establish one or two stretch goals related to your purpose as a kind of star toward which you can row (or sail) together.  And keep studying your systems and processes to understand the leverage points and vulnerabilities.  Rotate people into different assignments (or do some kind of cross-training or “shadowing” program inside your unit) to ensure that everybody knows how the systems works and can fill in where needed when needed.  The best crews do those things.  Their purpose is too important to them to leave things to chance. 

Going forward, keep a spirit of adventure and experimentation.  Don’t be afraid to try something new or drop something that isn’t working.   Keep your star in sight, but adjust your sails, reset your rowing cadence, or chart a revised course according to conditions and feedback.  

The dynamics of small boat travel create certain ethical imperatives, as discussed throughout these posts, but riding close to the water with a committed crew on a purposeful expedition can offer some extraordinary compensations.  And since technology will no doubt continue to shrink all boats, we would do well to adapt intentionally to small boat disciplines now.  Bon voyage.

The last “small boat” post encouraged you to pay extra attention to your impact on others.  Did you do it?  What did you notice?

 If you’re like me, you may have been surprised—sometimes pleasantly, sometimes not—by what you observed.  I’m a Dad of two young children, and I paid extra attention to how my mood affects them.  When I was relaxed, rested and ready to engage with them, we generally had great encounters.  We took delight in each other and everyday circumstances (bath time, for instance) as you often can with small children (not always, but often).

 When I was not rested and relaxed, and I treated our interaction (bath time, for instance) as something to finish quickly before I could move onto something else, I generally led us toward our worst behavior.  And storms that didn’t have to happen, happened.  My behavior triggered them.  The small boat that is our family rocked (and not in a good way).

 Whether you’re a parent of small children or a manager in an organization, you set the tone.  If you want small boat behaviors from those around you, you need to model the way.  And you need to take care of yourself so that you have the wherewithal to do that.  (That’s a developmental edge for me.)  It takes energy and conscious intention.  And sometimes it takes a fresh realization of how your unconscious behavior, your “default mode,” can shape the reality of the voyage for everyone onboard—and even send ripple effects across the water.

The next post will have some further managerial tips for eliciting small boat behaviors.  I needed to write what I wrote above and leave it here for now.