Slow Down. Feel. Practice. Pt 1

Crouching next to the fire, Pappy Conpelo held a cup of coffee in his left hand. "The sad news is we are trapped by the very technology that was invented to liberate us. Video games become tomorrow's killing machines. On the whole the consequences of our actions no longer touch our muscle let alone our olfactory systems. At best, we are emotionally distant. We connect only on a temporary basis, and when we do we have no idea where the trajectory of our ill-conceived practices will take us. The samurai faced similar conditions, and they were not alone in history. You think we would learn. But then again, our schools rarely test for anything more than a regurgitation of names and dates and places. We study only to get a grade. But the real tests are not about achieving a score. Once you've made your mark, once you've obtained that desired income level and you own that certain car or have that dream home - then what? You think life is about success? Ha!"
(from The Life and Times of Pappy Conpelo)

Friday morning. October 1, 2010. San Francisco.

It's almost noon and time to board Flight 930. Again.

First boarding was yesterday. But four hours after settling into Seat 24H, an unsolved "mechanical" meant a few hundred of us headed off to overnight stays - sans baggage - courtesy of the airline. Security requires international flights retain already loaded luggage. We've returned now, our little neighborhood. Same folks. Same seats. Same clothes. What to do for the next twenty-four hours between in-flight movies, meals, snoozes, walking the aisles galley to galley, airport coffee shops, people watching and duty-free gazing?

My destination: Cairo via London. The mission: deliver a second round of leadership training at Alcatel-Lucent's new management school, dubbed "University", in the Mid East Africa region. My host, Mohamed El-Haw, is waiting. I'll meet him in time to shake off some of the jetlag and serve those assembled.

Mohamed is an intern, a candidate apprenticing for certification as a Samurai Game® facilitator. He will be the first Egyptian so certified. We met in 2006 in Amersfort, Ntherlands, then a year later at Ain El Sokhna, Egypt; both occasions for the AIESEC International President's Meeting. He, as part of the Egyptian contingency. I was the "external" leadership trainer for AIESEC's annual week-long event with 90 nations represented.

Recruited by Alcatel-Lucent, Mohamed El-Haw is now their Employee Learning Manager, MEA Region. Studious and Type-A, he sometimes gets ahead of himself. I relate. Last month he told me that he wanted me to bring three of the books about samurai or aikido for his study regarding the simulation. But he failed to get back to me about which three. And, in all fairness, I failed to call him back and ask.

Now on the way to the Gate 96, I stop at Pacific Gateway News for some hopeful shopping. Not one book about the samurai or a martial art. I do, however, find two of my otherwise favorite non-fictions: My Stoke of Insight (Jill Bolte Taylor) and Tuesdays With Morrie (Mitch Albom). Not only will these do - They Are Perfect!

A Saturday Morning. Summer 2006. Glendon Way, Petaluma.

It's a warm sunny day and I'm home from China. I stand out back of my tiny recently rented house. My last place (ten years on Daniel Drive) has been sold by the trust that owned it. I got word three weeks ago that I had to move. The pressing China trip gave me only forty-eight hours to scramble and locate another. Transitioning from 2,300 square feet of living space to 788 has been interesting, with two young sons under roof, each needing his own space, manage ongoing work, outfit the office into this cracker box.

This morning I hang laundry on a clothesline. A luxury not afforded on Daniel Drive. Luxury? Absolutely! Because I can linger in fresh air and meditate while dropping into a repetitive practice of pulling, stretching, hanging, clothes-pinning - each shirt, each pair of socks, every towel and every washcloth. ("The secret to a happy life," said Marcus Aurelius, "is all within yourself - in your way of thinking.") I slow my pace to attend item by item. My mind slows and attends thought by thought. Luxury. I won't use a dryer. Luxury. I recall (and somewhat relive) being a youngster, when backyard clotheslines were the drying technology-of-the-day. In those days our family clothesline was also the place dad stretched onto cloth strips of venison flesh, freshly cut to make jerky - the hardened dry nourishment we carried on our hunts.

My son Nick is rousting from bed. I ask him outside to introduce him to the clothesline; something he and a gazillion of his American generation have never witnessed. The wires and clothespins greet him as the screen door slaps shut. "Cool Dad. But, how does it work?"

I respond that yes, it is cool but - well - it actually doesn't do any 'work', though it is both effective and efficient at getting the job done. Nick cocks an eyebrow and speechlessly looks on. It will take a while for him to understand my meaning.

Friday mid-afternoon. Returning to October 1, 2010. Aboard UA flight 930

We've been airborne for some time, and arcing north over Midwestern US. Am taking in Tuesdays With Morrie a couple or three pages at a time. I've read it before. But you never know what was missed or forgotten. It's definitely worth reading again, before it becomes part of Mohamed's library. I'm on page 38.

One afternoon, I [Mitch] am complaining (to Morrie) about the confusion of my age, what is expected of me versus what I want for myself.

'Have I told you about the tension of opposites?' [Morrie] says.

The tension of opposites?

'Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted.'

'A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle.'

Sounds like a wrestling match, I say.

'A wrestling match." He laughs. "Yes, you could describe life that way.'

So which side wins, I ask?

'Which side wins?'

He smiles at me, the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth.

'Love wins. Love always wins.'

My eyes close. I drift back a week to my own September 25.

Saturday Morning. September 25, 2010. One week and a small lake ago.

I went fishing today. I have tons of things on my "to do" list. But today I went fishing.

Actually, I went watching and laughing. Granddaughters, Ava (she's 5) and Leia (she's 3) did the fishing. Well, actually, they did line tangling - which is just as much fun as fishing, maybe more. Grandson, Jack (he's 1), came too. He did mud balling.

Line Tangling. Swirling fishing poles in water, and stirring up weeds, branches and gunk, making wonderful messes. Followed by jumping up and down, and screaming "I got a bite!"

Mud Balling. Scurrying to the edge of the lake on legs new to walking. Find the biggest, most available patch of brown goo; plop down, roll around and become - well - a mud ball. Done repeatedly and with mindful practice (must be so to him, cuz he's one big giant smile) equals: mud balling.

Doesn't take a lot to have a great time. Pick up a stick along side a trail and it becomes anything you want it to be. Three poles, a few feet of mono-filament line - magic happens. Walk to a patch of abundantly water-soaked earth with plenty of weeds - Pure anti-bath! Add sandwiches, and, voila! Gravity and creativity do all the rest. You save some dinero otherwise spent on some have-to-have-had expensive micro-chipped-obsoleted-internetted-camerated-and-touchscreen-covered gizmo and you have some self-generated entertainment and amusement. And guess what - it will be remembered and loved forever. What could be better?

I imagine hearing someone's say that he has to check on some important email. And as I do images of Sir Kenneth Robinson float by as he (Sir Ken) admonishes us that something's killing creativity in our children. Google search "TED Talks and Kenneth Robinson" and watch something that will grab you good. But don't you dare do the viewing in lieu of Line Tangling and Mud Balling. Take time to do 'em both.

Friday evening. October 1, 2010. Still aboard UA #930

Somewhere over the Labrador Sea, off the coast of Greenland.

Just finished the in-flight film selection, "One Week". Netflick it. Not an action movie - so prepare to go slow. Canadian production. Young man. Discovers he doesn't have much time left. Decides to spend a week motorcycling across country. A quest to understand his life. Touching. My whimsical self-talk (given what I'm to be delivering in Egypt in a few days plus the book I'm reading that sits nearby), "Synchronistic - Eh? And me reading Tuesdays With Morrie, a few pages at a time. Eh." I'm now at page 84. Morrie is making a point about living to the fullest, and using his own soon-to-be-completed life as the example.

"Mitch," he said, laughing along, "even I don't know what 'spiritualdevelopment' really means. But I do know we're deficient in some way.We are too involved in materialistic things, and they don't satisfy us.The loving relationships we have, the universe around us, we take thesethings for granted."

He nodded toward the window with the sunshine streaming in. "You

see that? You can go out there, outside, anytime. You can run up and

down the block and go crazy. I can't do that. I can't go out. I can't run.

I can't be out there without fear of getting sick. But you know what?

I appreciate that window more than you do."

Appreciate it?

"Yes. I look out that window every day. I notice the change in the trees,

how strong the wind is blowing. It's as if I can see time actually passing

through that windowpane . Because I know my time is almost done,

I am drawn to nature like I'm seeing it for the first time."

I lean back and drift back - eyes closed - again to one week prior.

Back to Saturday. September 25. But, now it's a late post-fishing afternoon.

After all the fishing, mud balling, and line tangling I arrive home.

It's time for something on the never ending "to do" list: mow the lawn with a recently sharpened push mower. Push what? Push mower. Had it since long before moving to and then from the cracker box house on Glendon Way.

I'm in my front yard twenty minutes later. Job almost done. A faint voice over my left shoulder cuts above the clacking blades, "Hello. Excuse me. Hello? Helloooo!" I turn. There, across the street in neighbor Lynda's yard, stand five teenage girls - waving and grinning and curiously looking on. I stop.

Me: "Hi"

They, all together: "Hello"

"What are you doing?" asks the one who first spoke.

I look at the push mower and then back at them, "Mowing the lawn." They stare, somewhat aghast. Then turn to each other and start giggling. Then back at me. One sheepishly asks, "Can we come over and see?"

"Sure."

They skip across the street. Staring down at the ground at this antique contraption, they are totally baffled. No gas engine. No electric motor. No throttle. No powered wheels. What the heck?!?

"How does it work?" queries one.

"Well, you just --- ah, push it. Want to give it a try?"

In unison they jump up and down. "YES!" (no kidding this actually happened exactly the way I'm writing it) "OK," I say, "But (they are all barefoot) gotta keep your toes out of the way."

One grabs the handles and shoves. But mower budges not. Again she shoves. Still it stands - not one inch give. And then again; more of the same.

"Let me do it", demands another. Same. Then another. Then another. All the same. Finally, one gal gets it going. She's an instant heroine. Away she goes. Everyone else stands in awe and watches. Now they all suddenly want another go at it. I turn to the one who first managed to move it (she's now laughing like crazy) and ask, "Did you ever read the Adventures of Tom Sawyer?"

"Yes! We just read it as a summer assignment before starting the school year."

"So," I inquire, "who are you today? Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn? And whadaya think - should I charge you for mowing my lawn?"

They complete my work. All are laughing. Truly, a novel experience.

Push mowers. Cut the grass. Get good cardio workout. Create low carbon footprint. Meet neighbors. Look foolish? Maybe. Recall the genius of Mark Twain? Absolutely! What fun.

Saturday afternoon. October 2, 2010.

A soft morning landing and a nine-hour layover at London's Heathrow are now complete.

I'm aboard Egypt Air Flight 778. Fully loaded, we've been airborne for some time. Tuesdays With Morrie rests in the seat pouch. My microwaved meal has been delivered. The high tech touch screen video display on the seatback forward of me has at least fifteen options to chose from. I think, "Different airline, different films, I'll eat and watch."

I reach for the earbuds. They fall to the floor. This being the last seat in the very rear of the aircraft, up against both window and rear bulkhead I'm stuck - too jammed in to move - no wiggle room to find them. What now? So I open my window cover and my jaw drops, because there below me ---

(Continued in November's newsletter)

©Lance Giroux, October 2010

Take Time For Foundations

A friend of mine recently asked me for input on a strategic planning meeting he had scheduled with his company. His plan was to conduct a nine-hour meeting that would accomplish the following: Establish goals, review company mission, reflect on clients, review the effectiveness of their team, examine the economic model, clarify corporate values, review corporate mission, discuss “brand” identity, identify key questions regarding strategy, solidify strategic objectives and strategies for future growth, and gain thorough understanding of the competition. This was to be accomplished in eight hours … with a one hour lunch break included! Then the agenda called for one more hour as follows:
First - 30 minutes to build an effective team – which was to include (a) what it was going to take from everyone to deliver on the strategy, (b) uncover the “team norms”, and (c) establish how they would work together; and
Finally – 30 minutes dedicated to coming up with “next steps”.

My input was … “Hmmmm … this is an awful lot chew on in one day.” “In fact,” I said, “Two full days could easily be spent working with a group to uncover how they are and what it’s going to take to be effective with each other as a good team so that they might have a chance to begin moving from concept to the initial stage of effective team practice.

Years ago my mentor used to talk about the aspects of development. He would stress that, like a building, the most important to thing to focus on … the most important thing to work with is … foundation. Consider the effects of erecting a house or office building, yet hastily attending to the foundation. With such an approach it doesn’t matter how well engineered and sturdy the walls, windows, ceiling and roof – unless adequate time, energy and expense go into a good foundation any structure will collapse.

A client of mine lives about four hours south of Denver. His main business for thirty years has been constructing “undergrounds” for cities, dams, schools and community developments throughout southern California and southern Colorado. When his employees get done with a job just about all that anyone can see is … well … flat dirt. And getting to that (flat dirt) takes enormous time and energy and effort. A casual observer looking at a completed project of his might claim, “Doesn’t look like much has been done.” In fact a tremendous amount has been done; but it’s hidden from plain view.

Take a leaf from Mastery by George Leonard, one of our nation’s most accomplished teachers in the field of human potential. In Mastery, Leonard writes:

“The courage of a master is measured by his or her willingness to surrender. This means surrendering to your teacher and to the demands of your discipline. It also means surrendering your own hard-won proficiency from time to time in order to reach a higher or different level of proficiency.”

We all need to consider what Leonard calls “the demands of a discipline.” Quite frankly the primary demands of any disciplines include: adequate TIME and adequate PRACTICE.

One thing the past five years of travel abroad has shown me is just how addicted we, in the US, have become to attitudes, beliefs and actions aimed at the quick fix. We yearn for immediate results with such a passion (actually an obsession) that we have are sadly addicted to - I Want What I Want When I Want It! “What’s wrong with that?”, some may ask. Well, if nothing more, it’s somewhat unrealistic and juvenile. If not attended to the art of surrendering to the “demands of discipline” – the art of practice – is lost by many and not developed by others.

A master aikido teacher, Mitsuge Saotome, was preparing to lead a class one day, and asked me and about 30 other students, “Would you like to learn this martial art fast?” We all answered with a resounding, “Yes!” He paused and responded, “Ah … good answer … then practice slow.”

Invest your time in the foundations.

The Game IS Preparation and Practice

It's a Monday morning. Gray, drizzly and wet here in Petaluma, California. A parade of kids, moms and dads are making their morning march - umbrellas bobbing like so many flowers down Walnut Street past my front office bay window to Saint Vincent's School just down the street. They (the umbrellas) relate the fact that, yes it is winter. Yet they herald news that Spring is just around the corner ... and like buds and blossoms beginning to appear on the trees the umbrellas bring their cheery hues - yellows, reds, purples. Life goes on. People are learning. Things are changing.

This week is a prep week, as many weeks are. But this one is bigger than usual. Thursday, February 15th, is departure day for College Station, Texas where, on Friday and Saturday, will be the second annual delivery of a leadership program for the Texas A&M University Fellow. My host will be Fellow's Director, Dr. Tim Peterson. Readers of past Allied Ronin newsletters will recall that he and I presented at the Gallup Leadership Institute Summit a few months ago. Tim brought me and Samurai Game® to Oklahoma State University (where he was a faculty member three years ago) after participating in the Game at the Organizational Behavior Teachers Conference. He left OK State in 2005 for bigger challenges at Texas A&M. I've been kidding him that if he's not careful somebody will draft him to join Robert Gates (past President of TAMU) at the Department of Defense. Tim just cringes and says, "No way!". Anyhow ... we will co-facilitate the Game for about fifty (50) TAMU Fellows this coming weekend.

Sunday I depart TAMU for Kansas City, MO, and meetings with my client and friend George Hersh, CEO of GMJ and owner of the Sports Associated Companies. Sports Associated exclusively handles all North American expositions of motorcycles and small watercraft for Suzuki, Yamaha and Ducati. George is the individual most responsible for the creation of the Allied Ronin Leadership Retreat. The next Leader's Retreat will be July 14-18.

Monday will depart Kansas City and head east through Chicago and London to arrive in Cairo, Egypt on February 21. There I’ll attend the AIESEC International President's Meeting (IPM). The IPM is a 10-day long event. My involvement will be the delivery of a full day leadership program which will include the Samurai Game® for approximately eighty (80) newly elected AIESEC Country Presidents.

AIESEC, the world's largest student organization, is the international platform for young people to discover and develop their potential so as to have a positive impact on society. In addition to providing over 5,000 leadership positions and delivering over 350 conferences to a membership of over 22,000 students, AIESEC also runs an exchange program that enables over 4,000 students and recent graduates the opportunity to live and work in countries other than their own. February 2006 was my first involvement with AIESEC when I traveled to the Netherlands to present the Game. As a result I toured Poland, Hungary and Slovakia in November delivering the Game for hundreds of "AIESECers" in their own countries.

So this is a prep week ... and a big one. It, along with the moms and dads and kids and umbrellas, got me thinking this morning about how just important preparation really is. When I was a kid I participated in Boy Scouts. We had a motto then; it was "Be Prepared." Years later I met Jack Cirie, a highly decorated combat veteran and former lieutenant colonel, in a brief encounter that changed the direction of my life. I recall his voice admonishing me and others to - Stay Alert! - a motto frequently echoed these days by George Leonard, president emeritus of Esalen Institute, and author of a dozen books including: Mastery, The Silent Pulse, Education and Ecstasy, Walking on the Edge of the World, and The Ultimate Athlete. My friend, Richard Strozzi-Heckler similarly reminds me of this as we part company especially when I am about to travel internationally. With him it's, "Watch your six o'clock”. Maybe you’d have to have served in the military or on a police force to understand the importance of that one.

Here's what's on my mind. I'm going off in a few days to facilitate a Game, a leadership simulation. One hundred thirty people on two continents will participate in these Games. They will represent almost 100 nations from around the globe. During the fourteen days that follow my involvement, those 130 individuals will directly impact the lives of and bring their learning to over 15,000 people. By day 28 following my involvement the energy of those fifteen thousand will then ripple out to touch over 1.5 million people. Sound like a bit of an exaggeration? Not really. This is a realistic, calculated, statistically sound and even conservative estimate. So given this, how important should my preparation be? With what kind of attitude should I live the next few days knowing what the potential impact could be?

One of the bigger lessons that I try to impart with college level students ... and this is who I'll mostly interface with over the next two weeks ... is that any game (football, basketball, soccer, etc.) does not just occur on the playing field between the referee's beginning and ending whistles. A track and field athlete's race does not just occur between the moment the starter's pistol fires and the instant the runner hits the tape. The Tour d'France does not just occur for only a few weeks in France ... just ask Lance Armstrong. Attaining a certain level in a martial art – especially for black belt - does not happen on the night of the test. It happens during warm up, it happens when one is training with partners you really don’t like, and it happens when you leave the dojo and walk out on the street or into your home and live the lessons of the art that remain in your muscle memory. The "real game" is what happens off the court, off the field, off the track, off the mat … away from the stadium … as one prepares. The Master's Tournament does NOT happen in Augusta, Georgia! That’s where it ends. The Master’s Tournament happens every time the golfer takes a swing … and every time the golfer thinks about taking a swing. Good leaders understand this concept.

A good executive knows that the most important part of any negotiation happens long before she or he arrives in a conference room for the "important meeting." A good attorney knows that the trial will probably be won or lost long before the courtroom bailiff proclaims, "All Rise!" A good pilot knows his or her safety can depend on the important, yet mundane practice of frequent touch & go landings. A good soldier or police officer knows that how she or he is being with squad mates and potential squad mates during off hours can dramatically shape reality under fire. How he or she is being in the classroom or off duty, can be a matter of life or death later, not only for themselves but for members of the public they sworn to serve.

The "real game" is what happens during practice and preparation.

What's your practice? What do you put into your preparation?

When it comes to your attitude, when it comes to people and how you treat them, when it comes to your family, when it comes to your profession, when it comes to your mission, and …

When you think that no one is watching you …

What's your game?

©2007, Lance Giroux

Notes from Beijing

Landed in Beijing yesterday, January 24. The Top Human conference here has a much larger scope than what I expected and than what I've seen done by any other training company... not in size ... rather in scope. Eva Wong (Chairperson & President) and Lawrence Leung (CEO) of Top Human are hosting their Third Eastern Summit for Corporate Social Responsibility and Branding.

The conference opened this morning with Eva and Lawrence delivering the keynote presentation, outlining Corporate Social Responsibility as the path of best practice for businesses here in China and throughout the world. Their presentation set the tone for 48 CEOs, business owners and executives representing 48 companies from throughout China in attendance - stressing an alignment of western business thinking with ancient Chinese wisdom & values (Ru) by creating a central code of trust between business leaders and their stakeholders - employees, shareholders, customers, community and partners. (So ... without saying "bushido" that's what they declared the conference would be about ... very conscious of the impact that leaders have on people and the environment.)

Their presentation was followed by Dr. Li Han Jun, CUFE and then by Dr.Li Zhi Neng, of the Research and Development Centre for State Council. These were followed by Corporate Social Responsibility case studies delivered by Ms. Kelly Lau, CSR Director for Nike (China) and Ms. LiuXiaowei, Director of Communications, Shell Oil (China)

Tomorrow ... Friday morning before lunch ... Mr. Esmond Quek, CEO, Hill & Knowlton, China will deliver a presentation on CSR and Branding; andMs. Erika Helms (Executive Director) and Ms. Zhang Zhe (ProgramDirector) both of the Jane Goodall Institute of China will deliver a presentation on Environmental Conservation.

Then for the next five hours Andre' Wai and I will deliver the SamuraiGame® as the conference's experiential centerpiece to raise awareness of leadership, responsibility, trust, warriorship (battlefield =marketplace), honor, respect for people/planet, etc.

Saturday morning following our reflection piece tieing participant experiences from the Game to concrete practices within their organizations, the conference will again revert to "stand up" presentations... as follows:

Saturday Dr. Chen Tian Quan, Party Secretary at Renmin University will present on Confucianism and Management.

William Valentino, GM, Corporate Communications for Bayer China will present a case study on Corporate Responsibility; andForrest li, Managing Director of Debt Capital Markets, China will present a talk on Debt Financing.

Sunday the Summit will end with remarks again from Eva Wong and Lawrence Leung.

This conference is a huge leap from what I have seen other training companies doing in general and vis a vis the Samurai Game. In fact it is quite a spectacular leap for the Game (here called The Warrior Game for cultural & political reasons) as it has taken a place as an experiential tool for organizational awareness and leadership with a focus on how both impact real human beings and the environment (i.e. our planet) especially for the 48 senior executives attending.