An Afternoon With Bob Dylan...

I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon with Bob Dylan today; not literally of course, but in my car traveling between client engagements. Maybe it was the fact that it was a beautiful afternoon, a rarity in Oregon this early in the season, my mood or whatever. It gave me a opportunity to listen deeply to someone I believe to be one of the greatest poets and storytellers of this century. One of his songs about "Maggie's farm" was especially compelling with the lines "I have so many ideas in my head I think I may go insane" and another "the more you try to be yourself the more they try to make us all the same". Pretty profound stuff, especially if like me you find yourself occasionally traveling to the beat of a different drummer.

My time this week is being spent differently, yet somehow the same.

I spent yesterday morning with a deeply committed executive and community steward who is embarking on a new role to create a system of philanthropic outreach in multiple communities to address the issue of health care costs. Our discussion was about a new paradigm both for the team he will be working with and the communities they serve and the donors they aspire to cultivate. Philanthropy has traditionally been interpreted as charity. We are trying to redefine it as an investment in both a societal infrastructure that is critical and as a potential economic engine to catalyze a stalled economy. It is also vitally important to him that this team see him as a resource and coach rather than an "imposer" of corporate solutions. In his own way he wants to build an infrastructure and relationship based on commitment rather than compliance. An endeavor I applaud.

This morning I had a chance to speak to a group of human resources professionals about "hiring right". I deliberately chose to take an esoteric track and talk about attributes and commitment rather than profiling and skills assessment. I truly believe than technical skills are not enough. When I look back at the model created by Roger Deprey, the Human Resources Pyramid; Paul Hersey's Situational Leadership, and Ron Willingham's congruency models I see a lot more potential about creating engagement and the resulting benefits than I do with DISC or other profiling techniques. I am not saying profiling for skills and attributes lacks validity or value, I just don't think they create engagement. I took the tack this morning that the first step in creating real engagement is your selection process. Hiring "right" is as much about values and cultural fit as it is abouts KSA's, maybe more.

Tomorrow and the next day I am getting an opportunity to work with a cross functional, multi level group including supervisors, union stewards, and executives on conflict resolution. The fact that we are doing it at all and doing it in "mixed" groups is a brave experiment for this organization. The first step of addressing an issue is admitting you have an issue. I am intrigued and excited about my opportunity to work with this group on their "maiden" voyage of a training like this.

Perhaps because I am so committed to it I see all three of these endeavors as people and organizations taking a step towards recognizing and embracing the power of relationships and people as well as the importance of "systems" in addressing the issues that face us as both business people and members of society. Maybe I am just seeing things and Dylan and I have that "insanity" from too many ideas in common. I wonder.

I don't think the current paradigms are going to work, we are going to have to challenge, experiment, "fail", and try again.

In the meantime if you get the chance to spend an afternoon with Bob Dylan I strongly recommend it. If you really listen it will tell you a story and make you think, and I think that is what great poetry and great music are supposed to do......

A Convergence of Thought

So another interesting week. I enjoyed the desert, but I didn't go to Las Vegas. The stock market has been mostly up the last few days. Is this a trend or are we grasping at straws?
I really like the website BNET.com. It typically has great articles on it. Sometimes it is practical advice, sometimes it is just interesting insights. I enjoy the McKinsey Quarterly as well.

This week I had a chance to read two different pieces that caused me to pause and muse. The first was a piece by Jeffrey Pfeffer, the professor of management and author from Stanford University. Professor Pfeffer was lamenting and commenting on the loss of personal accountability in our culture. His point was how everyone from politicians to business leaders don't seem to accept any personal responsibility for either their actions or the impact of their action or inaction on their companies, their employees, and their shareholders. I don't think this is limited to politicians and business leaders. This may be impolitic, but right now it isn't very popular to assign any of the responsibility for the housing crisis to the consumers who purchased real estate far beyond their ability to pay for it in the hopes that "appreciation" would create enough value to protect them. I am not excusing the bankers who made the loans, I am just sharing some of the responsibility.

I kind of see the situation with AIG in a similar light. We have the CEO saying I know that we drove our business off the cliff and the taxpayers have bailed us out for billions of dollars, but we promised these executives millions of dollars in bonuses for "performance" that has nothing to do with reality or share holder value. I have to pay it out.

I hear employees,students, and regular "folks" taking the same approach. It isn't my fault.

I got to read another interesting piece with a woman who runs a philanthropic venture fund. Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of the Acumen Fund, has a perspective I find both intriguing and inspiring. Her position is that traditional philanthropic giving can rob people of their self respect and create a kind of codependency. She actually invests philanthropic contributions in for profit businesses to create a return. She even goes further and suggests giving away services, even basic services is enabling rather than empowering. She uses the example of the slums as an experiment in capitalism. She describes the bartering and trading that goes on among even the most destitute.

Any of you that have had a chance to read my ideas on moving from compliance to commitment know that one of the key principles embedded there is the principle of respect. Respect for your self and respect for others. You need to respect yourself enough to engage and to perform the tasks of your job and your life to the best of your ability. We need to respect others enough not to make excuses for their shortfalls. We all have limitations, but there is a profound difference in recognizing that I will never play in the NBA and my expecting society to take care of me.

My friend and colleague Reut Schwartz-Hebron takes a similar approach with her model of KindExcellence. She feels and I agree that you need to create a balance of the two. They are inextricably linked.

I had a chance to work with my son on a paper discussing Aristotle's concept of moral virtues. Aristotle describes the difference between three different dimensions; faculties which he would describe as innate, emotions, which we endeavor to control, and moral states. His position is that a virtue must be a cognitive choice and it must be on a continuum. We must find the "golden mean". It must be learned and practiced.

All of these things converged for me with the concept of personal competence. They all embed rational, thoughtful behavior and personal responsibility. Aristotle went so far as to say that the pursuit of virtue is really the only thing that distinguishes us from other plants and animals. We are conscious. We make choices and we accept accountability for those choices.

Maybe I am reaching, but we seem to have entered a space where we debate whether leaders are "born" or taught. We seem to want to absolve ourselves individually and collectively for responsibility for outcomes.

Our economy is in turmoil, but maybe Pfeffer, Novogratz, and Aristotle are right. If we look to the government and/or philanthropy in its traditional form to "fix" things have we stripped ourselves of personal competence and dignity. I wonder.