He had no shoes!

There's been a story going around social media about the famous Native American athlete and 1912 Olympic Gold Medalist (rightfully restored just in 1983, nearly 30 years after his death) Jim Thorpe.  Thorpe's story is perhaps less well known today, but I remember reading stories about him and watching the 1951 movie Jim Thorpe All-American starring Burt Lancaster (playing Jim Thorpe) when I was young (please note that I watched the movie on television more than two decades after it was first released). 

Basically, Thorpe was one of the greatest athletes in history.  He was a two-time All American college football player at Carlisle College, coached by the legendary Glenn "Pop" Warner.  He led Carlisle to the national football championship in 1912.  In one notable game against Army, Thorpe ran 92 yards for a touchdown, only to have the play nullified by an offensive penalty.  He ran 97 yards for a touchdown on the very next play.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower played against Thorpe that day on the Army team and said this in a 1961 speech:

Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed. My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw.

Thorpe also starred in Track and Field at Carlisle College, eventually leading him to try out for the 1912 U.S. Track and Field Olympic Team.  He made the team (easily), and he would go on to win the Gold Medal in both the pentathlon (5 events in a single day) and decathlon (10 events over two days) at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden.  King Gustav V of Sweden gave him an additional award at the Olympics, saying "You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world."  Unfortunately, the two Gold Medals (and the award from King Gustav V) were later nullified and taken away because Thorpe had played semi-professional baseball for two seasons in 1909 and 1910.  It seems silly now, but back then there were very strict rules about amateurism in Olympic sports (upon reflection today, the whole controversy appears racially motivated, as Thorpe was a Native American).  Thorpe would go on to play professional baseball (sporadically, for the New York Giants, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Boston Braves), basketball (for a traveling pro team, but never for the NBA), and football (in the early days of the NFL - he was one of the 17 charter inductees of the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963). 

The story circulating around social media more recently involves a legend (more or less true, in most respects) and an old photo of Thorpe at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.  Here is the photograph:

Look closely at the photo on the right.  Thorpe is wearing two different shoes and two different socks.  Apparently, as the legend goes, Thorpe's track shoes were stolen on the morning of one of his competitions.  He borrowed one shoe from a teammate and found another shoe in a garbage can.  One of the shoes was too big for him, so he had to wear an extra sock (hence the mismatched socks in the photo). 

The photo and accompanying texts is used as an example of how not to let excuses dictate your behavior or performance.  It would have been easy for Thorpe to miss his event (after all, he had no shoes!) or show up with an old pair of shoes and not do well.  Rather than making excuses, Thorpe went on to win.  He succeeded in spite of his situation.  To quote one of the posts that I have seen:

Whatever you woke up with this morning; stolen shoes, ill health, failed relationships, financial challenges, crippling debt, lost momentum, it's a new day, new month, new year.  Don't let it stop you from running your race.  Besides, you have no chance of winning if you're not in the race.

It's a great lesson for all of us to remember.  Incidentally, the story is more or less true! The details are not quite exactly known, but according to a Thorpe biographer and founder of the Jim Thorpe Foundation, Bob Wheeler (no relation to me), Thorpe's shoes went missing shortly before the start of the 1500-meter race portion of the decathlon.  He went on to win the race in borrowed shoes!  

"I Had to Survive"

As I mentioned last month, I am going to review some of my favorite books (all with lessons on leadership) that I have read in the past year or so.  Today I would like to review a really amazing book by a pediatric cardiologist named Roberto Canessa.  Dr. Canessa is from Uruguay and continues to practice pediatric cardiology there still today.  I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Canessa speak at the 2018 Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) meeting in Toronto, Canada.  PAS is an academic conference bringing physicians and scientists from a variety of different subspecialties in pediatrics united in a common mission - improving the health and well-being of children around the world. 

So far, you are probably saying to yourself, "Okay, I get it - he's a famous pediatric cardiologist.  So what?"  Chances are that you may have heard about Dr. Canessa for a different reason.  He was a candidate in the 1994 Uruguayan presidential elections, but he only garnered 0.08% of the vote.  So unless you are from Uruguay, or at the very least familiar with South American politics, that's probably not the reason you should know who he is either.

You may have heard about Dr. Canessa as one of sixteen survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972.  The crash was the subject of a book and a 1993 movie, called Alive, which starred Ethan Hawke as Roberto's friend, Nando Parrado.  Both Roberto (a second-year medical student at the time) and Nando were members of a local rugby team in Montevideo, Uruguay and were heading for a tournament in Santiago, Chile when their plane crashed.  Flight 571 crash landed on a glacier at an elevation of 11,710 feet in a remote area of the Andes Mountains.  Of the 45 people on board, 28 survived the initial crash.  The book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors (which I have also read), written in 1974 by Piers Paul Read tells the harrowing story of the subsequent 72 days spent on the glacier before they were rescued.  Only 16 of the 28 initial survivors would survive to be rescued. 

The survivors of the crash found out fairly quickly (all of the communications equipment on the plane was destroyed during the crash, but the survivors were able to listen to news coverage of the crash on a transistor radio) that rescue attempts were stopped on the tenth day after the crash.  Faced with starvation (the supply of food on the plane was very limited, and there was nothing edible to be found at that altitude either), the survivors made a pact that if any of them should die, the others would consume their bodies in order to live. 

On the seventeenth day after the crash, an avalanche filled the rear of the plane's broken fuselage with snow, killing eight more survivors (1 additional survivor had died from injuries suffered during the crash).  The remaining survivors lived for the next month and a half by honoring the pact that they had made with each other - consuming the bodies of the passengers who had died in order to live. 

Sixty days after the crash, Nando and Roberto, neither of whom had any mountaineering experience or gear of any kind, climbed from the glacier to the mountain peak (15,320 feet) and found that their way was blocked.  They climbed back in another direction and walked through the mountains for about 10 days, covering 38 miles, before they ran into a Chilean arriero named Sergio Catalan, who gave them food and rode for 10 hours to find help.  The remaining survivors were rescued on December 23, 1972, more than 2 months after they had crashed.

I remember that my son read the book, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors in his high school religion class.  I read the book after watching the movie, so I knew of the story when Dr. Canessa came to speak at my academic pediatric conference.  I actually did not know that he had become a well known pediatric cardiologist, and when I learned that he had written a book about his experiences and subsequent life, I immediately ordered it at the library.

In his book, I Had to Survive: How a Plane Crash in the Andes Inspired My Calling to Save Lives, Dr. Robert Canessa tells the story of the details before, during, and after the plane crash that he and his teammates experienced in 1972.  His book goes into a little more detail about some of the experiences of some of the family members (primarily Nando Parrado's parents and Dr. Canessa's parents and girlfriend) in the two months after the crash.  Compared to the book, Alive, which was written by someone who did not live through the experience itself, Dr. Canessa's book provides a more personal description of the events that occurred in the aftermath of the crash.  He uses the story as a backdrop for why he chose to go on to practice medicine and why he became a pediatric cardiologist.  Throughout the book, Dr. Canessa infuses personal stories of patients that he has cared for over the course of a very long and illustrious career.

During an interview with National Geographic magazine, Dr. Canessa was asked to talk about how his experience with the crash related to his work as a pediatric cardiology.  He had this to say:

When I see a baby in a mother’s womb, with half of its heart missing, looking through the window of the ultrasound machine is like seeing the moon through the window of the plane that night. But now I can be the shepherd who can make this child survive. It’s my revenge on death. I tell the mother, “You have a big mountain to climb. I was there before. I know how you feel. But the joy and happiness that awaits you on the other side is spectacular!” This book is a manual of adversity dedicated to people that suffer—and don’t think that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

What were the lessons that he learned on the mountain, and what lessons does his experience have for us today?

That if you have sleep, water to drink, and decent food, you are lucky. Don’t wait for your plane to crash to realize how lucky you are. Be more grateful for life. You can wait for the helicopter, but don’t wait too long. 

In life there is a moment to wait and see what happens, but there is also a moment to get active. Walk out and search for your own helicopter, otherwise you will succumb. Don’t be seduced by your own ego and think you’re better than other people, because that’s the beginning of being unsuccessful. Every day, try to do something positive, so that when you put your head on the pillow you can ask yourself if you are a good person or not. The next day, try to do better. Every day, when I look at myself in the mirror, I thank God the same old jerk is still staring back at me.

I can't think of a better lesson than that.  Thank you, Dr. Roberto Canessa. 

I once knew a gold robot with a silver leg

This past Monday, my wife and I chose to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr Day by going to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.  It's really a very cool place, so if you are ever in Cincinnati, Ohio, it's well worth a visit!  There is an exhibit there on Nelson Mandela, called "Mandela: The Journey to Ubuntu" that we both really enjoyed.  There are a lot of leadership lessons to be learned from studying Mandela's life (I highly recommend his autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom", as well as the 2009 movie Invictus starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela).

Anyway, the visit jarred my memory of a conversation earlier this year with two of our daughters.  They were both telling us about something called the"Mandela Effect" that has absolutely nothing to do with our visit to the Freedom Center (my mind works weird that way).  Basically, the "Mandela Effect" is a kind of false memory, in which an individual recalls something that either did not happen or at the very least happened in a different way.  What makes the "Mandela Effect" different from the typical "false memory" is that a number of people share the false memory - the "Mandela Effect" is an entirely different scale of false memory!  The effect is so-named because during the 1980's, a large percentage of the public believed that Nelson Mandela had already died (he, in fact, did not die until 2013).  A number of individuals even claimed that they remembered watching his funeral on television!

There are a few other notable examples.  Do you remember reading a series of children's books about a family of bears when you were little?  What was the series of books called?  If you said, "the Berenstein Bears" you are absolutely incorrect!  Most individuals, in fact, think that the book series (and the children's television program based on the books) was about the Berenstein family.  The series is actually about the Berenstain Bears! 

There was also a 2010 study about the Bologna Centrale railway station in Bologna, Italy.  Apparently, the clock at the railway station was damaged in a 1980 terrorist bombing.  Most individuals (92% of those surveyed, in fact) remembered that the clock was permanently stuck at the time of the incident.  While the clock did stop working at the time of the bombing, it was repaired shortly afterwards.  Only years later, after the clock stopped working again, was the clock set to the time of the terrorist bombing permanently:



Finally, and perhaps best of all (prepare to have your mind completely blown away!!) is the case of the robot, C3PO in the original Star Wars trilogy.  You probably remember that C3PO was metallic gold in color.  Do you remember that one of his legs was silver?  It's true!  See the pictures below:






The actor who played C3PO, Anthony Daniels, recalled a time when one of the still photographers came up to him on the movie set and said, "Why are you wearing a silver leg today?"  It seems that even people on the set every day failed to notice the subtle difference.

So, what is my "leadership takeaway" here?  It's really quite simple.  As leaders, we need to be cognizant that the "Mandela Effect" exists and watch out for it in our daily work.  It's highly likely that someone in your organization (or even a whole group of people, for that matter) will recall specific events or conversations so strongly and so vividly that they will swear up and down that they are right, even if they are completely wrong.  

Unsung Heroes

A few years ago, it seems almost forever ago, President Barack Obama made a comment during the 2012 Presidential campaign that caused somewhat of a controversy.  Basically, he was responding to a speech that Elizabeth Warren (yes, the one who is currently contemplating running for President in 2020) made during a speech in Andover, Massachusetts in August, 2011.  She claimed that no one in America grew rich without depending somewhat on the government services paid for by the rest of society. 

Here is what she said exactly:

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own — nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory — and hire someone to protect against this — because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless — keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

Later, on June 13, 2012, President Obama said the following in a campaign stop in Roanoke, Virgina:

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me – because they want to give something back. They know they didn't – look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something – there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business – you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.

Now, we all have worked very hard to get to where we are in life today.  I know that I have worked hard.  At times, I have made sacrifices so that I could get where I am today.  But that doesn't mean that I have got to this point on my own.  It doesn't mean that my achievements have all been because of how hard I've worked or the sacrifices that I have made along the way.  It doesn't mean that I pulled myself up from my own bootstraps.

So, today, I would like to thank everyone - the unsung heroes in my life - who have helped me get to where I am today.  There are far too many individuals to name all of them, but certainly I would like to thank my parents, my wife, my children, and my family.  There were always teachers and coaches who challenged me to be better.  There were mentors throughout my life, many of whom I continue to rely upon even now. 

I also need to thank all of the neighbors and friends growing up.  They certainly helped make me the person that I am today.  I benefited from living in a great school district.  I am also thankful that my parents had good jobs so that they could afford to send me to college to further my education.  I would also like to thank the government for providing me with a low-interest student loan, as well as a Navy scholarship so that I could afford to attend medical school. 


There are many, many more individuals that I could thank.  They are the unsung heroes who made a difference in my life along the way.  Thank you.

You see, no one gets to where we are in life without a lot of help.  The myth of the self-made individual is just that - a myth.  We are all in this together.  We need each other.  Only then can we all succeed.


So, what is the connection to leadership here?  In a word - everything.  If you are in a leadership position, chances are that you got to that point by working hard and aspiring to be a leader.  But it's a good chance that you were given opportunities by individuals who wanted to see you succeed.  There's a good chance that you had mentors to help you, give you advice, challenge you, and encourage you.


If you are a leader, you can pay back all of the individuals who contributed to getting you where you are today by paying it forward.  Mentor someone else.  Give someone an opportunity.  Challenge and encourage.  Be the leader that you had earlier in your career. 


Celebrate the unsung heroes by paying it forward.  Be an unsung hero to someone else.

"I have a dream"

Today we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  He gave one of his most famous speeches on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 during the "March to Washington."  You can watch the speech here.  Alternatively, you can read the speech below.  Either read it or watch it.  The words are as powerful (and as necessary) today as they were in 1963.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

"If I do not stop to help this man..."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929.  Tomorrow in the United States, we officially celebrate his birthday.  President Ronald Reagan signed a bill in 1983 marking the third Monday of every January as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the first national holiday honoring an African American.  It is right that we celebrate Dr. King.

Last year, on the fiftieth anniversary of his assassination on April 4, 1968, several civil rights leaders were asked what would Dr. King say about America today.  NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had this to say:

America, we all have shared the hope of the American dream – but some of us have had that dream deferred.

We all have been inspired by the idyllic vision of a colorblind America, an America in which justice is a reality for everyone.

But, America, some have conspired to stifle that dream.

Some of us see life as a crowded footrace in which the only way they can win is to hobble the other runners – particularly runners who don’t look, think, worship, dress or talk like them. Some are under the impression that not everyone deserves to have an equal shot at their dreams.

America, we are in a shameful condition. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr helped us to acknowledge that, 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, “the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land.”

It’s now 155 years since emancipation, and our national shame continues. We have an administration that targets the very people for whom King envisioned justice, whom the constitution is meant to protect and to help thrive.

People of color, women, the LGBTQ community, immigrants and others feel as though they are in an abusive relationship with this frightened faction of America. Those who perpetuate the abuse keep saying how much they’ve improved, how many fewer broken bones and bruises there are. That we should be grateful.

Fewer bruises is not our dream.

Our dream is to run as hard and fast and far as we can with only the wind and gravity and our own inertia to overcome. And not to have that dream deferred for another 155 years.

Dr. King gave his final speech in Memphis, Tennessee on April 3, 1968.  The city's sanitation workers were on strike.  He had traveled to Memphis on two previous occasions in March of same year to support the striking workers, leading a march on the second visit that ended in violence.  He had returned seeking to end the violence and restore peaceful demonstrations.  He gave a speech (called his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech), which contained the famous words (eerily prophetic):

"We've got some difficult days ahead.  But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop...I've seen the Promised Land.  I may not get there with you.  But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land."

Towards the end of his speech, he repeats the story of the Good Samaritan from the Bible.  If you are not familiar with the story, it goes something like this.  A traveler (a Jewish man) was attacked by robbers on the road.  The robbers left the man to die on the side of the road.  Several individuals (including a priest and a Levite) soon walked by, but no one stopped by to help the man.  They just crossed to the other side of the road and kept walking.  Finally, a Samaritan (the Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies apparently) stopped and helped the man, taking him to safety and paying someone to continue to care for him while he recovered from his injuries.

Dr. King offered several theories about why the priest and the Levite did not stop to help the man, a fellow Jew.  Perhaps they were scared that the robbers were still in the area, and if they stopped to help, they would be the robbers' next victim.  Or perhaps they were worried that the man on the ground was faking his injuries and was waiting to trap them. 

He goes on to say, "And so the first question that the priest asked - the first question that the Levite asked, was 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?'  But then the Good Samaritan came by.  And he reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'"

That question is just as relevant today as it was back then in 1968.  If we don't help our fellow humans, what will happen to them?  There are so many ways that we can help - so many ways that we should help.  Tomorrow, we would do well to remember Dr. King's words.  And we can best celebrate his life - we can best honor his life - by living his words.  "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

The Alabama Paradox

I'm still not talking about Coach Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide losing to Clemson in the National Championship College Football Game a few weeks ago.  Plain and simple, he was outcoached and the team was outplayed.  It still doesn't make it less painful.  So, for all of you Alabama haters, today's blog has absolutely nothing to do with football or the Crimson Tide!

The so-called Alabama Paradox was first described by C.W. Seaton, chief clerk of the United States Census Bureau shortly following the 1880 census (making it just slightly older than the University of Alabama football team, which first started playing in 1892).  Basically, the issues at hand involve the rules of apportionment, the process by which seats in a legislative body (in this case, the U.S. House of Representatives) are distributed among the different administrative divisions (in this case, the individual states).  Apparently this is not as easy as it sounds, as various methods of apportionment have been suggested and employed since the signing of the U.S. Constitution (in fact, President George Washington vetoed one of the original apportionment bills passed by Congress - just one of only two times when he actually vetoed a bill).  The method that was used after 1852 (which was the method for apportionment that Alexander Hamilton had originally suggested and that President Washington had vetoed) went something like this:

1.  The proportional share of seats that each state would receive (i.e., the fair share - remember that we can use fractions when it comes to actual individuals representing the states) if fractional values were allowed is determined.

2.  Each state receives as many seats as the whole number portion of its fair share determined above (i.e., if they were to receive a fair share of 8.56 seats, then they would receive 8 seats).

3.  Any state whose fair share is less than one receives one seat, regardless, as required by the Constitution.

4.  Any leftover seats are distributed, one at a time, to the states whose fair shares (fractional share) have the highest fractional parts (i.e., the numbers to the right of the decimal point).

So, for example, say there are 10 total seats to be distributed among three states, A, B, and C, with a fair share of 4.286, 4.286, and 1.429 seats each.  The apportionment method described above would give 4 seats to both A and B and 2 seats to C (the remaining fraction, after the whole number, for state C, 0.429 is higher than either the remaining fraction for state A and B, 0.286, so state C receives the additional remaining seat).

The problem was that Seaton noted that for all House sizes between 275 and 300 seats, the state of Alabama would get eight seats with a House size of 299 and only seven seats with a House size of 300!  Pretty strange, right?

As it turns out, there were similar paradoxical issues with just about every other apportionment method tried.  Even more interesting, in 1983, two mathematicians (Michael Balinski and Peyton Young) proved what is now known as the Balinski-Young theorem, which states that any method of apportionment will result in paradoxes whenever there are three or more administrative divisions (in our case, states). 

So other than being just really cool, what is my point?  What does the "Alabama Paradox" have to do with leadership?  I would say that the "Alabama Paradox" has two lessons for us, both of which are important for leadership in any organization. 

My first point is that nothing is simple.  There are just no easy ways to resolve certain issues, so we shouldn't really try to find an easy solution.  Complex problems (like apportionment in the U.S. House of Representatives) usually require complex solutions.  Most high reliability organizations have already learned this lesson, and "Reluctance to Simplify" is one of the five bedrock high reliability principles.

My second point is that life is not always fair.  Regardless of which apportionment method is used, some state will always lose out and have fewer seats than their so-called "fair share" (again, we can't divide seats into fractions).  Whatever solution we find, someone is not going to be satisfied.  You can't always make everyone happy, and some times you just have to find the solution that is the most acceptable to everyone.

All of this, from a paradox named after the 2018 college football national runner-ups!

Send the right message

The whole family recently went on vacation to (where else?) the beach!  The weather was perfect, and we really had a great time.  Aside from the intra-family touch football scrimmage (our three on three game ended up in a tie, of course), we did absolutely nothing, which is how we would define the perfect vacation.  Neither my wife nor I brought work with us, though I have to confess that I did check e-mails at least once a day. 

I may have committed one of the most common faux pas, at least according to a recent article in the journal, Harvard Business Review.  According to the article, e-mailing while you are on vacation is one of the sure-fire ways of ruining company culture.  Did I send out any e-mails to anyone on my team?  Nope.  Did I answer any e-mails?  I don't remember for certain, but I don't think that I did.  So what is the problem here?

The problem with checking in via e-mail (or worse yet, by telephone) while you are away on vacation, especially when you are in a management position, is that you send two really bad messages.  First, you are basically telling your direct reports that you don't trust them enough to be able to do a good job without your direct oversight.  Second, even if unintentional (and even if untrue), you are sending the message that you expect the members on your team to be available, all the time, every day.  Even when they are on vacation!

Vacations are meant to get away!  With all of the technology available today, workers are never truly disconnected from work.  There is no "off hours" in today's busy work environment.  Vacation time should be sacred in this regard, if for the very reason that evenings and weekends are not.  Unfortunately, according to a recent study referenced in the Harvard Business Review article, approximately one-fourth of all employees check in with work at least once a day during vacation.  Importantly, employees who check in with the office while they are on vacation are less likely to actually take vacation.  These are the same employees who need the time-off the most - they are the most stressed and the most likely to feel less valued at work.

As I have said a number of times, leaders lead.  Managers and leaders should model the correct behavior.  Unfortunately, only about 14% of managers "unplug" when they are on vacation.  Even at the most senior levels of leadership, the vast majority check in with work at least once per day.  We, as leaders, need to send the right message.  Don't send e-mails or call the office when you are on vacation.  Don't reply to e-mails either.  Better yet - don't even check e-mail!  Vacation time is "me time".  Vacation time is family time. 

If leaders can model the right behavior, they send two messages.  First, they let their teams know that they trust them and that they can hold down the fort while the manager is away.  Second, they let their teams know that vacation time is important to disengage from work.  Send the right message!

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Former President Barack Obama frequently cited a quote by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.  Apparently, he liked the quote so much that he had it woven into a rug in the Oval Officer during his time as President of the United States.  Apparently, Dr. King used the quote a number of times as well, though he first used it in a 1958 article for "The Gospel Messenger" in the following:


Evil may so shape events that Caesar will occupy a palace and Christ a cross, but one day that same Christ will rise up and split history into A.D. and B.S., so that even the life of Caesar must be dated by his name.  Yes, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

The quote comes from a Unitarian minister and prominent abolitionist named Theodore Parker, who first used the quote in a 1853 collection of sermons called "Ten Sermons of Religion" (the quote appears in the third sermon, entitled "Of Justice and the Conscience"):


Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

The important point to realize, however, is that even though the arc bends toward justice, it doesn't do so willingly or automatically!  It requires effort.  It requires dedication and commitment.  And it requires perseverance.

What can we do to bend the arc?  Register to vote and vote.  Help with “get out the vote” efforts.  Educate yourself on the key issues of the day - there are many.  Become politically active.  Write your local, state, and government officials. Find an organization that does work in an area you are passionate about.  Donate money to the cause. Or even better - volunteer!  Encourage others to volunteer.  Advocate.  Do whatever you can do to help.  Remember - leaders lead.  Together, and only together, can we bend the arc of the moral universe back towards justice.

"Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers..."

I think that I have said this before, but just for the record, I like to read.  I always have liked to read.  Not everyone likes to read, but here's the thing.  Reading is fundamental to leadership.  As Harry Truman once said, "Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers."


Reading makes you a better thinker.  Reading broadens your horizon.  Reading teaches you new things.  It doesn't matter how many degrees or certifications you have - it doesn't matter how old or how experienced you are in your profession, you can always learn new things. 


Many of history's greatest leaders and thinkers were active readers.  For example, when the innovator Elon Musk was asked how he learned to build rockets, he simply replied, "I read books."  Oprah Winfrey once said, "Books allowed me to see a world beyond the front porch of my grandmother's shotgun house... [and] the power to see possibilities beyond what was allowed at the time." 


Bill Gates had this to say about reading: "Reading is still the main way that I both learn new things and test my understanding."  Gates is an avid reader, and he frequently publishes the list of his favorite books or the ones he is planning to read (see his list of recommended books for 2018 here).


Barack Obama, another famously avid reader (see his 2018 list of favorite books, movies, and music here) said, "Reading is important.  If you know how to read, then the whole world opens up to you."


I read for fun and enjoyment, but I also read to learn new things.  I tend to pick up whatever interests me, but I also like to get recommendations from friends, family, and co-workers (as Abraham Lincoln once said, "My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.").  Some leaders require a more regimented, formal professional reading program.  For example, each of the branches of the United States military has a professional reading list (see the link here), and the Navy has a formal, well-developed professional reading program.  Many of the books on these lists are geared more towards military professionals, but there are several excellent books on leadership in general.


I don't know too many physicians who don't read.  It is sort of an expectation.  We read to keep up with the latest clinical evidence and scientific advances.  Unfortunately, I, like many physicians (and other health care professionals too, for that matter) I know, focused too much on reading almost exclusively in my own specialty.  My professional reading was too specialized.  With age and experience comes wisdom, and for the past several years I have read more broad topics.


It doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you are reading!  Winston Churchill recommended, "If you cannot read all your books...fondle them - peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are.  Let them be your friends; let them, at an rate, be your acquaintances."


As I mentioned in my last post, I am planning on reviewing some of my favorite "leadership" books in 2019.  If you look on the blog's main page, you will notice that I listed the books that I will plan to review under the heading "2019 Leadership Reading List."  These are books that I have read within the past few years (all of them are superb) and have not blogged about yet. 


I look forward to doing something new this year, and as always, I welcome your comments and feedback.  Happy reading!

Top 10 Leadership Reverie Blog Posts for 2018

Congratulations on another year in the books!  Thank you to all of my loyal readers.  I have enjoyed writing this blog, and I am looking forward to more posts in 2019.


Here are the top 10 "Leadership Reverie" blog posts for 2018:

1.   "Do we need a National Women Physician's Day?" (February 3, 2018)

2.  "Patients come second..." (March 4, 2018)

3.  "Don't go anywhere with ""scary," "spooky," "haunted," or "forbidden" in the title... " (October 31, 2018)

4.  "It's not about the coffee..." (February 18, 2018)

5.  "Beware the NAG" (October 28, 2018)

6.  "Dunbar's Number" (January 10, 2018)

7.  "A Big Red X" (December 16, 2018)

8.   "Addition over subtraction, multiplication over division" every time..." (April 15, 2018)

9.  "Hatred corrodes the container it's carried in..." (December 30, 2018)

10. "A rising tide lifts all boats..." (May 2, 2018)

In addition to my usual scheduled posts (I try to be consistent and post on Wednesdays and Sundays), I am planning on reviewing some of my favorite "leadership" books in 2019.  If you look on the blog's main page, http://leadershipreverie.blogspot.com/, you will notice that I listed the books that I will plan to review under the heading "2019 Leadership Reading List."  These are books that I have read within the past few years (all of them are superb) and have not blogged about yet.


Best wishes to all of you for 2019!