This idea of volunteerism is a nice one. It suggests giving of yourself
for the benefit of others. (Were Christ and other enlightened souls
volunteers? Is Mother Teresa a volunteer?) However, let me put a twist on
it. If one starts from the perspective that we are one, that we are all
part of the system, then volunteering in a proactive sense just makes
sense. Why? Because we can only look out for ourselves by looking out for
that of which we are a part. The charitable acts we participate in are
simply that point taken outside of our own organizations. Yet, since we
are part of everything else, undertaking acts of charity are just ways we
come to occasionally acknowledge that. You may have noticed that when you
do participate in charity, you will feel good about it. It is very
life-affirming. That's no accident. That's our bodies affirming that by
doing good for others, we are doing good for ourselves. We may, then,
eliminate such terms as volunteerism and charity, which suggest sacrifice.
It is no sacrifice to be good to others, it is simply intelligent,
logical, self-aware behavior.
If leaders within organizations realize that their best interest is
directly tied to their looking out for others, and volunteerism helps
bring that home, then I'm all for using that idea. But I would suggest
using it only as a bridge to a more self-aware understanding that "we're
all in this together." I think that such an understanding is at the heart
of what being a leader is all about. Leadership helps imbue the
environment with the understanding that by looking out for others, I look
out for myself. Every great leader has created such an environment, and
it is at the heart of the systems approach to organizations and every
enlightened model of organizations and their behavior.
With warm wishes for the holidays, Friends,
John Woods
jwoods@execpc.com
> I wanted to test a thought, on the subject of using new paradigms to establish
> a shared vision with company executives. As I have previoulsy noted, I am
> emersed with helping to build People Strategies and a cultural definition with
> our company Presidents and I am always looking for fresh ideas. I am also
> finding that building a shared vision with the people is paramont to achieving
> business excellence.
>
> A little history. In our work we have defined cultural principles and a set
> of preferred behaviors. Yet there is no passion, no fire. Just a "recovering
> of old furniture". We needed to explore other paradigms and discover what
> makes people bring their hearts and minds to work.
>
> My thought comes from a weekend of volunteerism. I ran a basketball camp
> this past saturday for 150 children ages 5-12. I used high school basketball
> team members to coach the kids while I performed the cheerleading and acted
> as super coach. What I found is this. The high school students exceeded all
> of my expectations and those of the viewing parents. They worked together to
> put on an exceptional program while fostering a lasting relation with their
> younger peers. What caused this success? Why would the high school students
> come in on saturday (at 8:00am no less) and work all day without pay? It
> definitly wasn't cool.
>
> While shopping, later that day, I couldn't help noticing the people ringing
> their bells in front of their kettles by the store doors. What makes them want
> to stand there ringing that bell?
>
> Voluteerism may be my answer. If we could treat each other as voluteers
> we may see more of each other's hearts and minds. This would require a
> drastic change in most business cultures. People would need a common vision,
> would need to be asked rather than told, be given responsibility, supported
> for success, and be rewarded as a member of the team. We would feel as though
> each of us played a part of the total success. I couldn't have put on the
> basketball camp without the help of the high school students and they wouldn't
> have been successfull without each other.
>
> Is that my answer; volunteerism? Is it too theoretical or can it be made
> pratical? Thoughts?Comments?
>
> ** HAPPY HOLIDAYS **
> David Reed
> (206)655-3245 M/S 11-40
> Internet: dpr9989@kgv1.bems.boeing.com
-- jwoods@execpc.com (John Woods)