"The Other America"

I have been thinking all day about what to post in my blog tonight.  Unfortunately, words cannot adequately describe what I am feeling right now.  I really just don't know what to say.  How many more black men and women must die before our country finally understands? 

I am not naive enough to realize that I am part of the problem.  I wish that I could tell you that I have lots of minority friends, but I don't.  I wish that I could tell you that I have stood shoulder to shoulder with others to protest what is going on in our world today, but I can't.  I wish that I could tell you that I have always stood for the rights of the minority, but I won't tell that lie.

The truth is, I have lived a life of privilege.  While I have worked hard to get where I am today, the honest truth is that I got a head start because I was born white.  It's also true that I am safer in this world tonight because I am not a black man. 

I have a lot to think about tonight.  There is a lot more that needs to be said.  There is even more work ahead of us.  We have to set this country on the right path forward. 

One of my former Leadership Cincinnati classmates shared a post that I thought was really poignant.  The late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr gave a speech (check out a video recording of the speech here) at Stanford University on April 14, 1967, which he called "The Other America".  I don't care whether you watch it or read it, but please do one or the other tonight. 

Dr. King speaks of two America's.  One America "is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies; and culture and education for their minds; and freedom and human dignity for their spirits. In this America, millions of people experience every day the opportunity of having life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in all of their dimensions. And in this America millions of young people grow up in the sunlight of opportunity."  This is the America that I grew up in.

Dr. King speaks of another America too.  "This other America has a daily ugliness about it that constantly transforms the ebulliency of hope into the fatigue of despair. In this America millions of work-starved men walk the streets daily in search for jobs that do not exist. In this America millions of people find themselves living in rat-infested, vermin-filled slums. In this America people are poor by the millions. They find themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."

It's sad, and more importantly, it is unacceptable that we still have two America's today.   Dr. King's words ring true today, "racism is still alive in American society. And much more wide-spread than we realized. And we must see racism for what it is. It is a myth of the superior and the inferior race. It is the false and tragic notion that one particular group, one particular race is responsible for all of the progress, all of the insights in the total flow of history. And the theory that another group or another race is totally depraved, innately impure, and innately inferior."

Some of his words are even more haunting.  He goes on about something he refers to as "white backlash" - "What I'm trying to get across is that our nation has constantly taken a positive step forward on the question of racial justice and racial equality. But over and over again at the same time, it made certain backward steps. And this has been the persistence of the so called white backlash."

You probably have heard several of the next few passages in the past 24 hours or so.  Dr. King says, "Let me say as I've always said, and I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. I'm still convinced that nonviolence is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and justice. I feel that violence will only create more social problems than they will solve. That in a real sense it is impracticable for the Negro to even think of mounting a violent revolution in the United States. So I will continue to condemn riots, and continue to say to my brothers and sisters that this is not the way. And continue to affirm that there is another way."

But what has been frequently left out is the rest of this passage - "But at the same time, it is as necessary for me to be as vigorous in condemning the conditions which cause persons to feel that they must engage in riotous activities as it is for me to condemn riots. I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation's summers of riots are caused by our nation's winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention."

It is an amazing speech, for it is as timeless today as it was over 50 years ago when he first gave it.  We have two America's.  Until we address that fundamental issue, we will never have progress.  Dr. King's words speak to all of us tonight - the question is, do we hear them?

"Our finest hour"

There's nothing like a crisis to bring out the best in (some, but not all) leaders.  Last month, on April 5, 2020, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom did something that she doesn't do very often - she gave a televised speech broadcast to the British people. Hers was a message of hope.  She expressed gratitude to the British health care workers and essential workers, and she offered words of encouragement and resolve to everyone else.  The speech was watched by nearly 24 million television viewers and was apparently only the fifth time that she has given a speech on television in her 68-year reign.

Vogue magazine called it "the hopeful message that the world needs right now".  One of my favorite lines in her speech was this one - "The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future."  The line is reminiscent of one voiced by then Prime Minister Winston Churchill during some of the darkest days of World War II, "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’ ”

Here is the full transcript:

I’m speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time, a time of disruption in the life of our country, a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all. I want to thank everyone on the NHS frontline, as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all. I’m sure the nation will join me in assuring you that what you do is appreciated, and every hour of your hard work brings us closer to a return to more normal times. I also want to thank those of you who are staying at home, thereby helping to protect the vulnerable, and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones.

Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it. I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge, and those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any, that the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet, good-humored resolve, and of fellow feeling still characterize this country. The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future.

The moments when the United Kingdom has come together to applaud its care and essential workers will be remembered as an expression of our national spirit, and its symbol will be the rainbows drawn by children. Across the Commonwealth and around the world, we have seen heartwarming stories of people coming together to help others, be it through delivering food parcels and medicines, checking on neighbors, or converting businesses to help the relief effort. And though self-isolating may at times be hard, many people of all faiths and of none are discovering that it presents an opportunity to slow down, pause and reflect in prayer or meditation.

It reminds me of the very first broadcast I made in 1940, helped by my sister. We as children spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety. Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones, but now as then, we know deep down that it is the right thing to do. While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavor. Using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal, we will succeed, and that success will belong to every one of us. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return. We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again. We will meet again. But for now, I send my thanks and warmest good wishes to you all.

We do have better days ahead of us.  There are still difficult challenges to be faced, but we will face them with resolve and grit.  We will get through this pandemic.  And we will be better for it.  Our generation will be remembered for what we do today.  And many years from now, our grandsons and granddaughters will read about COVID-19 and say that this was our finest hour.

Hungry, hungry hippos

I don't do this very often, so please indulge me at least this once.  I would like to re-visit one of my old blog posts - in this case, a post entitled from Did he really say "Shut up and listen"? way back on November 30, 2016.  The developmental economist Ernesto Sirolli (and founder of the Sirolli Institute) wrote a book called "Ripples from Zambezi" about the lessons that he learned while working with over 250 communities in Africa, Australia, and North America over the course of his 30 year career.  The book can be summarized by the sentence, "In the same way that you can't lead a horse to water, you can't force economic development on people who don't want to be 'developed' according to someone else's ideas."

Sirolli gave a wonderful TED talk in 2012 ("Want to help someone? Shut up and Listen!") in which he tells of an early experience working in an Italian non-governmental organization (NGO) in Zambia in the 1970's.  As he tells it, "Every single project that we set up in Africa failed."  As I posted in 2016:

He tells one particularly poignant story of an early project that involved teaching the local African population how to grow food.  The NGO brought Italian seeds to southern Zambia in order to teach the locals how to grow Italian tomatoes and zucchini.  The area was located along the Zambezi River, and Sirolli tells how the tomatoes grew to two or three times the size of even the best tomatoes in Italy.  He goes on to say how the locals really weren't that interested in learning how to grow tomatoes and zucchini.  They tried paying them, which did work for some, at least on occasion.  Sirolli and his team were obviously very frustrated with the Zambians, but "instead of asking them how come they were not growing anything, we simply said Thank God we're here!"  The Italian aid workers were really proud of how well the tomatoes and zucchini were growing - "just think what we can accomplish here!  We will save the Zambian people from starvation."  But then, overnight, 200 hippos came out from the river and ate all the tomatoes and zucchini.  "And we said to the Zambians, My God, the hippos!  And the Zambians said, Yes, that's why we don't try to grow things along the river."  The Italians asked why the Zambians didn't warn them of the hippos.  "And the Zambians said, You never asked!"

Sirolli tells the story much better than I can - just check out the TED talk.  But here's my point.  The quickest way for any change initiative to fail is to ignore the perspectives and experiences of the experts on the front line (see HRO: Deference to Expertise).  These front line experts understand the contextual factors that will greatly determine whether the change initiative succeeds or fails.  

Context is defined in general terms as the collection of individual, organizational, and environmental factors that both directly and indirectly impact the success of any change initiative.  Context can encompass things such as the willingness of the organization to change, as well as the organization's ability to adapt to the new change itself.  It can even include the leadership skills of the organization's leadership team, as well as their expertise in quality improvement and change management.  Some of my former colleagues at Cincinnati Children's Hospital published a systematic review of research articles that show that context is critically important to the success of quality improvement initiatives in health care (see article here).  Using this background information, they developed what they call a Model for Understanding Success in Quality (MUSIQ) and, perhaps most importantly, showed that their model could be used to significantly increase the chances of successful improvement (see here and here).

Looking back at Ernesto Sirolli's story - what were the contextual factors that were important to the success of their change initiative in Zambia?  It seemed that the Zambians weren't willing to change, at least at first.  As the Italian NGO learned later, the Zambians knew that the NGO's workers were making the wrong assumptions.  They forgot the very important contextual factor of the hungry, hungry hippo.  "Why didn't you tell us?" - "You never asked us!"  

Don't make the same mistake in your next change initiative.  Ask, and more importantly, listen to the experts.  Learn about the important contextual factors BEFORE starting any new change initiative.  And most importantly of all, never, never forget about the hungry, hungry hippos!

The chimes of freedom

Yesterday, I referenced a famous poem by the 16th Century English poet John Donne called "For Whom the Bell Tolls".  Today, I want to continue along that theme.  The poem's first line says it all, "No man is an island."  We are all connected in this world.  What happens to the people of China has a direct impact on what happens to the people of the United States.  The last line of the poem drives home the message that we all have value, no matter who we are or where we live.

COVID-19 has had worldwide impact, both in terms of the number of lives lost as well as the overall impact of the response to the pandemic on the global economy.  COVID-19 is certainly unique in terms of how much impact it has had on all of us - we are experiencing something that hasn't occurred for over 100 years (at least since the 1918 Influenza Pandemic that killed over 50 million individuals).  COVID-19 has not been unique in terms of how it has disproportionately impacted certain segments of our population.  According to the latest statistics from the CDC, Blacks, Hispanic/Latin X, and Native Americans have significantly higher rates of COVID-related hospitalization and mortality compared to Whites.  Unfortunately, these kinds of data are not new or unique to COVID-19.  Across a number of health-related measures, including life expectancy, infant mortality, teen birth rates, and HIV diagnosis, Blacks and Hispanic/Latin X fare far worse than Whites.

The American singer/songwriter and winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, Bob Dylan, wrote a song called "Chimes of Freedom".  Dylan apparently wrote the song shortly after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  The song tells the story of how Dylan and a companion sought shelter from a lightning storm in a doorway at sunset, and through the song he expresses solidarity with the downtrodden and oppressed.  It is absolutely one of the most beautiful songs ever written, at least in my opinion, and it has been covered by a number of famous artists, including The Byrds, Bruce Springsteen (who called it, "one of the greatest songs about human freedom ever written"), U2, Youssou N'Dour, and Jefferson Starship. 

Dylan's chimes of freedom toll for the rebel, the rake, the luckless, the abandoned, and the forsaken.  They toll for "the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed".  They toll for "the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse."  They toll for "for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe."

The freedom bells ring for all of us.  White, black, brown, yellow, and red.  So tomorrow on Memorial Day, please remember that we are all one in this great big world.  And perhaps, as we remember the ones who have died for our country, maybe we will remember that they have died for all of us.  Not just the ones who look like us, talk like us, or live like us.  They died for all of us.

The tolling of the bells

This coming Monday, May 25, 2020, we will honor all of those who gave their "last full measure of devotion" to lay  "so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom".  We recognize all of those men and women who died in the service of their country.  This year, perhaps more than any other in recent memory, words like "service" and "sacrifice" take on a fuller and greater meaning for all of us.

As of this morning, according to the World Health Organization more than 300,000 men and women have died of COVID-19.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been more than 1.57 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States with just below 100,000 deaths to date.  Some of the men and women who have died became infected with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 while taking care of patients with COVID-19.  We may never know the exact number of health care workers impacted by COVID-19, but we do know that in the month of April alone, there were at least 133 COVID-related deaths among health care workers in the United States and United Kingdom.  So, this Memorial Day, we honor their service and sacrifice as well.

There is no question that the vast majority of individuals infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus have a minor, self-limited illness.  It is also true that the last major worldwide pandemic that was at least comparable to the current one (the 1918 Influenza Pandemic) was much more severe in terms of the number of individuals infected worldwide (500 million, representing around 1/3 of the entire population at the time) and number of deaths (50 million).  But we cannot ignore - we should not ignore - the staggering loss of human life that has occurred since the beginning of this pandemic.  Can you recall any time in recent history that 1,089 deaths on a single day from any single cause was considered "reassuring"?  People are still dying, every day, in staggering numbers.

For all of these reasons, and more, this year more than any other, Memorial Day 2020 is a special day of remembrance.  Therefore, I hope that you will indulge me by allowing me to spend the next couple of posts on who we need to remember and why.

We are all connected to each other.  I think that the COVID-19 pandemic has proven that assertion.  I am reminded of a poem by the English writer John Donne called "For Whom the Bell Tolls".  The poem inspired both a Pulitzer Prize winning novel (although controversially, the prize was never awarded) by Ernest Hemingway and a song by the heavy metal band Metallica.  The poem's message is an appropriate one for today:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

In three words, the poem's message is this - we all matter.  Three hundred thousand lives matter.  It matters not for which of those lives the funeral bells toll on Memorial Day, for they toll for you and I.

"When you're ready to quit, you're closer than you think."

Robert "Bob" Parsons is an American entrepreneur, billionaire, and philanthropist who is perhaps best known for founding GoDaddy Inc. in 1997.  He sold approximately 70% of GoDaddy and resigned his position as CEO in 201, and he stepped down as the Executive Chairman in 2014.  Parsons and his wife started The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation in 2012 and joined The Giving Pledge in 2013, an initiative started by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett that requires signatories to commit at least half of their fortunes to charity.

Parsons recently posted what he calls, "My 16 Rules" on his blog.  They are actually pretty good, so please check them out for yourself.  I was particularly impressed with his rules #2 and #3.  Both of these rules state essentially the same thing, and I could certainly summarize both with the well-known quip, "Quitters never win and winners never quit!"

Rule #2 states, "Never give up!" It's important to keep pushing until the job is done.  Parsons says, "If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn't have an opportunity."   

I like Rule #3 even better, which says, "When you're ready to quit, you're closer than you think."  Parsons recalls an ancient Chinese proverb that is absolutely perfect.  It says, "The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed."

I am reminded of the epic boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier on October 1, 1975 (the "Thrilla in Manila").  Ali and Frazier had boxed twice before (Frazier had won the first match in 1971 to become the undisputed heavyweight champion, while Ali won the second match in 1974).  The third match would again determine the heavyweight boxing champion and was called the "Thrilla in Manila" based upon Ali's boast that the fight would be "a killa and a thrilla and a chilla, when I get that gorilla in Manila."  

The fight started early in the morning, but even at 10 AM the conditions were unbelievably poor for a 15-round boxing match (the temperature at ringside in the aluminum-roofed Phillippine Coliseum was estimated to be about 120°F).  One of Frazier's ringside staff members said, "It was so intensely hot, I've never before felt heat like that in my life.  Not a breath of air - nothing. And that was sitting there.  Can you imagine being in the ring? I don't know how they did it."

The fight lasted 14 rounds and is widely considered one of the greatest fights in boxing history.  Ali clearly took over the fight in the later rounds, partly due to the fact that Frazier's eyes had almost swollen shut (Frazier's team was unable to apply ice bags to his face between rounds due to the oppressive heat - the ice continued to melt!).  Both men were exhausted, and perhaps both men were beat.  Unbeknownst to Frazier's team, Ali had told his manager, Angelo Dundee to cut off his gloves after the end of the 14th round, but Dundee refused.  Instead, it was Frazier's manager, Eddie Futch who stopped the fight, telling his boxer, "It's all over.  No one will forget what you did here today."

Ali wanted to give up.  He would tell his biographer, Thomas Hauser later, "Frazier just quit before I did.  I didn't think I could fight anymore."  In other words, he was tempted to quit and tried to do so - his manager simply did not let him.  

Times are tough.  We are all dealing with unbelievably hard circumstances and are being asked to do things that we've never had to do in the past.  Some of the decisions that we are being asked to make are incredibly difficult.  The easiest thing would be to just quit.  But we shouldn't.  Because we are just about ready to turn the corner and succeed.

Shazam!

Before the days of cable television and "The Cartoon Network," "Nickelodeon," and "The Disney Channel," the best time to watch cartoons was on Saturday mornings.  I remember waking up on Saturdays and going downstairs to our family room to watch all of my favorite cartoon shows on television.  Some of my all-time favorites (that I would still legitimately watch today!) were "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?", "Laff-A-Lympics", "The New Adventures of Flash Gordon", "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies", and "Super Friends".  There were other shows too, like  "The Banana Splits", "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters", and "Land of the Lost". 

I remember one show in particular called "The Shazam!/Isis Hour".  The first half of the show was about a superhero named Captain Marvel (actually, there have been two different superheroes named Captain Marvel by different comic book companies - DC Comics' Captain Marvel, also known as Shazam! and Marvel Comics' Captain Marvel, which is why there were two movies starring Captain Marvel characters that came out within the past two years), based upon a Superman-like character named Captain Marvel or Shazam! and his alter ego, Billy Batson.  The second half of the show, "The Secrets of Isis" focused on a female superhero based on the Egyptian goddess, Isis, whose alter ego was a high school science teacher named Andrea Thomas.  Andrea Thomas would become the superhero Isis when she touched an amulet that she wore around her neck and recited the incantation, "Oh mighty Isis!"  The teenage Billy Batson would change into the superhero Captain Marvel whenever he shouted the phrase, "Shazam!"  I loved it!

What I never understood, though, is why Billy Batson traveled around the country in a RV (a 1973 Dodge Open Road motorhome) with his guardian "Mentor" (this story arc was never featured in the comic book).  What was really cool is that "Shazam!" was actually an acronym that explained that Captain Marvel got all of his superhero powers from six immortal elders (see a trailer from the show here):

S - the Wisdom of Solomon
H - the Strength of Hercules
A - the Stamina of Atlas
Z - the Power of Zeus
A - the Courage of Achilles
M - the Speed of Mercury

What a way to encourage a kid to learn about Greek, Roman, and Egyptian (the superhero Isis) mythology!  I had no idea (at least at that age) who most of these gods/goddesses were, but I remember talking about them with my parents and looking them up in our Encyclopedia Brittanica!

Okay, again, I know what you are thinking!  "Where is he going with all of this?"  There are two points actually.  The first point is the importance of having a mentor (just like Billy Batson's "Mentor").  You may recall that the word "mentor" again comes from Greek mythology.  The Greek Mentor was a friend of Odysseus, who instructed Mentor to look after his son, Telemachus, when Odysseus left for the Trojan War (read about this story in Homer's Odyssey).  Mentor's job was to protect and guide the young Telemachus.  If you are familiar with the story, you will remember that the Greek goddess, Athena, appeared as Mentor to help Telemachus during a particular trying time in his life.  Anyway, having a mentor upon whom you can rely and trust is a great thing!  It doesn't matter what stage of your life or how far you go in your professional career, it's important to have a mentor and rely upon your mentor.  I have been fortunate to have several great mentors throughout the different stages of m career, and to this day I often will go to them for advice and support (one of my mentors is now even my boss!). 

The second point I'd like to make is the importance of having role models or personal heroes (just like Billy Batson's "six immortal elders").  As Ryan Holiday wrote in a recent "Daily Stoic" blog post, "It's easy to get busy and get pulled off course by life...we are all influenced by the tempo of our times.  So it's key then, if you want to be good and do good, that you have a kind of North Star in your life that keeps you centered.  A role model who draws you back on course when the events of life or the drift of inertia subtly misdirect you."

The ancient Stoic writer Seneca gave this advice to a friend, "Choose someone whose way of life as well as words, and whose very face as mirroring the character that lies behind it, have won your approval.  Be always pointing him out to yourself either as your guardian or as your model.  There is a need, in my view, for someone as a standard against which our characters can measure themselves.  Without a ruler to do it against you won't make crooked straight."

Just as Billy Batson relied upon his Mentor to guide him along through the daily challenges of life, his alter ego relied upon the six immortal elders for all of his powers.  Moreover, at different parts of the show, Billy (as the teenager struggling with being an adolescent in a changing world, not as Captain Marvel) would speak with the six immortal elders to seek their advice.  We all need mentors, and we all need our version of the six immortal elders.  We may not be able to speak directly with our role models and heroes, but we can read about them and learn how they navigated different challenges in their lives. 

I will end with two quotes (I promise - just two) about mentorship and role models.

"Show me a successful individual and I'll show you someone who had real positive influences in his or her life.  I don't care what you do for a living - if you do it well I'm sure there was someone cheering you on or showing the way.  A mentor."  - Denzel Washington

"When you see a role model, what you see is a person who has the courage to be who you wish you could be.  Stop wishing and just be." - Anonymous