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Notes for
the by Paul Pribbenow, Ph.D. |
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Philanthropy is a journey. Let JGA be your guide. Johnson, Grossnickle and
Associates LLC
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Volume
Three, Number Five (June 2002) ****** "What we have loved, others will love, and we will teach them how." (W. Wordsworth, from "The Prelude") NOTES FROM READERS >>What you think<< Summer greetings to
all. I enjoyed a
conversation—still ongoing—with new subscriber, Carole Rylander (a
consultant in Dallas) about how we combine the philosophical/spiritual
aspects of our work with the very practical elements of philanthropy.
It is the abiding challenge of reflective practice—to make
sense of the links between the “why” and the “how” of our work. Dianne Johnson, J.D.
from St. Louis wrote to say how meaningful she found the Parker Palmer
interview excerpts in our last issue.
She sent me the following glimpse into an interview with Ken
Blanchard, commenting on servant leadership: “Q: What is the
greatest challenge you have confronted over the years? A: The same challenge
everyone faces: my ego. When
you put yourself in the center of everything, your life is run by fear
– of rejection, of losing power, of losing affection, of change.
When your ego is out of the way, you begin asking, ‘How can I
best serve?’ Every day,
my ego pops up to steer me in the wrong direction.
Combating it is a continual process.” An insight we all must
grasp – and an aspect of leadership that I have been exploring in my
reading the past few months. More
in the next issue of Notes. Laura Rittenhouse,
president of andBEYOND Communications
in New York (and the LJ Rittenhouse who conducted the interview with
Palmer) wrote with greetings and news of the assortment of places where
the interview was featured. She
also indicated that the issues of leadership and integrity are much on
her mind—details on her new book about CEO integrity are included
below. Occasionally, I (or my
colleagues) refer to items from previous issues of Notes.
If you have not been a subscriber previously, and wish to review
our conversations, past issues of Notes are available on-line at www.jgacounsel.com.
The website version of Notes also includes helpful hyperlinks to
sources for purchasing or subscribing to the various publications
mentioned in Notes. I
thank my friends at Johnson, Grossnickle and
Associates for their abiding support for our reflective practice. ****** REFLECT
ON THIS >>The
vices and virtues of organizational life<< I carry a card in my
wallet on which is listed the classical vices and virtues—categories
of human behavior and character (like the sins of pride, gluttony and
lust…and the virtues of prudence, charity, and patience) documented
millennia ago by some wise humans.
I was taught the value of such lists by my friend and teacher Robert
Payton who always reminded us that the moral dilemmas we face today
are forms of similar dilemmas faced by our foreparents.
Every time I think I’m up against some irresolvable quandary, I
remember that many others have met similar challenges and found ways to
go on. Though the vices and
virtues are meant primarily to describe the character and behavior of
individuals, I have had good fun considering how organizations also have
character and are contexts in which vices and virtues are practiced.
Allow me to propose a group activity: what follows are the vices
and virtues listed my wallet card.
Can you list examples of how they are present/are practiced in
organizations you know? What forms do the classical vices and virtues take in your
experience? I’ll compile
our various answers in a future issue of Notes. The vices
The virtues
Think of concrete
organizational practices that illustrate these broad categories of
character and behavior. And if you don’t know what the words mean, try this
wonderful website: www.deadlysins.com. >>Keeping vigil<< My mother, who is a
most remarkable woman, has been battling cancer for the past several
years, and, now having made some difficult decisions about her treatment
alternatives, is in a time of peaceful and faithful waiting for the
disease to run its course. Her large family—I am the oldest of six children, all
married with children of their own—makes frequent visits to see
mom/grandma, valuing the time together and with her. Our visits strike me as
instructive for all of us as we “keep vigil” with and for mom.
I wonder what we might all learn from those times when we band
together with family, friends, co-workers, fellow citizens to pay
attention, to wait for, to mark out the time in preparation for some
impending moment.
Our family’s vigil
continues—may it never end as we honor folks like my mom who make life
worth living. ****** PRACTICE
THIS >>Special
events and philanthropic accountability<< A most
distressing article in the May 19, 2002 Sunday New York Times
detailed the practices of various New York charities as they organized
fundraising events and reported to attendees the portion of the ticket
price that was deductible for charitable purposes.
Based on the assumption that the bulk of the ticket price was
going to support the work of these charities, most event attendees
gladly pay upwards of $1,000 per ticket to a gala dinner.
With the common statement that all but $150 of the ticket is
tax-deductible, the Times wonders whether these party-goers realize that
the true cost of the event is often three times the stated value. Putting aside the
exigencies of the New York social calendar—and the all too common
practice of setting the non-deductible portion of ticket prices at a
level that does not reflect overall costs (the IRS will catch up with us
sooner or later!)—perhaps the most distressing message the article
conveyed was that there is a great divide between organizational
practices and donor understanding.
In other words—as the article illustrates by reporting
disparate opinions—there is a communication gap between donors and
beneficiaries that does not bode well for the well being of
philanthropic activity or public trust. Ah, the fragile bonds
we threaten with our efforts to maximize profits for nonprofits. >>Practicing
resilience<< Resilience is a
characteristic much on my mind these days.
What does it take to persist, to stay with a cause or a project
even when the going gets tough? What
does it mean to stay the course when it gets lonely or seems futile?
Much has been written (and some reported here) about the dynamics
of resilience. A fine
recent article by Diane L. Coutu (Harvard Business Review, May
2002) entitled “How
Resilience Works,” suggests three characteristics of resilient
people. Resilient people have
very sober and down-to-earth views of those parts of reality that matter
for survival. It is not that these people lack optimism or hope, but
they temper optimism by asking themselves whether they truly understand
and accept the reality of a situation.
When we accept reality, we make preparations that ensure that we
are ready for what that reality portends.
Fire drills, for example, can be valuable
practice—preparation—for a potential disaster. If we don’t believe
a fire will ever happen to us… Resilient people also
are able to make meaning out of difficult circumstances.
Meaning making is a way we build bridges from difficult times to
a more constructive and positive future.
If we can’t make sense out of our crisis or difficulty, then we
are destined to remain mired in it.
By finding meaning even in the disaster, we begin the grueling
work of rebuilding. Meaning
is grounded in strong value systems that give resilient people the
scaffolding they need to reconstruct an organization. Finally, resilient
people also practice what Coutu calls “ritualized ingenuity,” the
capacity to make do with whatever is at hand.
Anthropologist Claude
Levi-Strauss called this skill “bricolage,” literally
‘bouncing back.’ Coutu suggests that inventiveness and improvisation are the
skills that allow resilient people to bounce back. To improvise is to use what we have been given for purposes
originally unimagined or unintended.
This doesn’t mean that everything is up for grabs in a crisis.
In fact, our resilience best may be grounded in sets of
organizational practices and rules that ritualize our
resourcefulness—in other words, give us permission and support for
being flexible. If the
practices and rules work when times are good, they will be a helpful
foundation when the going gets tough. For example, Ritz
Carlton hotel employees are told that whenever they address a
customer complaint or problem, they have permission to use up to $2,000
to fix it. Seldom does it
take $2,000 to fix a problem, but the permission to do so sets a
foundation of trust and flexibility that supports inventiveness and
improvisation no matter what. >>What
we gain from alumni<< I am a strong believer
that alumni of colleges and universities are a remarkable resource for
their alma maters. Their
abiding support, engagement, counsel, and advocacy are crucial for an
institution that intends to be true to its legacies.
Frederick Dubois in 1924 told a gathering of Fisk
University faculty and staff that any great institution of higher
learning must be led by its alumni—and I couldn’t agree more. Now come Cem Sertoglu
and Anne Berkowitch, corporate executives, writing in the June 2002
issue of Harvard Business Review with the contention that a company’s
alumni (i.e., its former employees) can yield intelligence, new
business and superior recruiting. Alumni relations
programs for companies help to ensure that ex-employees can be rehires
and referral sources (for new employees); sources of intellectual
capital (new ideas and intelligence); ambassadors, marketers and
lobbyists, carrying the good news far and wide; and investors. And a good alumni
relations program for companies begins with: an enlightened exit
process, encouraging alumni to stay in touch and capturing valuable
knowledge as an employee departs; a two way value proposition, promising
some sort of reciprocity for ex-employees that stay in touch, like
special programs, incentives for ideas, and so forth; and personalized
communications, keeping in touch with substantive updates on company
plans and needs. I know many colleges
and universities that could take a lesson from their for-profit cousins
when it comes to effective alumni programs.
If alumni are going to lead our institutions, surely we owe them
best practices in alumni relations…wherever they are found! ****** PAY
ATTENTION TO THIS >>Some
new resources<< A few new sources for
your reflective practice. Laura J. Rittenhouse
has recently published Do
Business with People You Can Tru$t (andBEYOND Communications,
2002), which explores the presence or lack of integrity in CEO
communication, specifically CEO shareholder letters.
There are lessons here about how our communications reflect the
authenticity of our values. College presidents
receive all sorts of publications intended to help us navigate the
exigencies of campus life (!) A
recent issue of Educause Review (Exploring the Impact of
Information Technologies on Higher Education, www.educause.edu,
May/June 2002) provided a very helpful framework for strategic thinking
about technology. It
posited six topics that you also might find helpful as you seek to
integrate technology into your organizational life:
Sometimes an
institution creates a publication that powerfully captures and
communicates the essence of its culture and commitments.
Such is the case with my alma mater, Luther
College, which publishes a wonderful journal entitled Agora:
Luther College in Conversation, which includes lectures, chapel
talks, reports on sabbaticals, and so forth, that give you a genuine
sense of what the faculty, staff, and students are thinking about and
acting on in their daily lives. If
you are interested in being included on the mailing list, contact editor
Mark Muggli at mugglimz@luther.edu. >>Forgetting<< Rockford
College colleague, Karen Tibbetts, knowing of my interest in poetry,
sent along a November 2001 article by U.S. Poet Laureate, Billy
Collins, entitled “The Companionship of a Poem” (The
Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/23/01).
In the article, Collins talks about the state of higher education
in our country and suggests that poetry has an important place in
teaching even the most basic of skills.
Listen in: “To study poetry (is)
to replicate the way we learn and think.
When we read a poem, we enter the consciousness of another…we
see the connections between surprise and learning…we experience the
packaging of knowledge…we slow down…we learn the continuing
importance of memorization as a foundation for understanding who we
are.” Collins confirms his strong feelings about memorization with this wonderful poem: FORGETFULNESS The name of the author is the first to go followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of. It is as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain, to a little fishing
village where there are no phones. Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses good-bye, and you watched the quadratic equation pack its bag, and even now as you
memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an
uncle, the capital of Paraguay. Whatever it is that you are struggling to remember it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, not even lurking in
some obscure corner of your spleen. It has floated away down a dark mythological river whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall, well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those who have forgotten even
how to swim and how to ride a bicycle. No wonder you rise in the middle of the night to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war. No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted out of a love poem you
used to know by heart. [From Questions About Angels, U. of Pittsburgh Press, 1999]
>>Subscription
information<< Subscriptions to Notes
are simple to establish. Send
me an email at paul_pribbenow@rockford.edu,
ask to be added to the list, and you will receive a confirmation from
the mail server at Wabash College that you are on the list. Please feel free to forward your email versions of Notes to
others—they then can subscribe by contacting me. The current and archive issues of Notes are available on-line
at www.jgacounsel.com. >>Topics
for the next issue (August 2002)<<
(c) Paul Pribbenow, 2002 |
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