perspectives

Reconsidering LEADERSHIP from Gandhi's Perspective

In recent years, with our 24-hour news cycle and the advances in social media, all of us have witnessed disappointing leadership behavior on many fronts. For some, lives have been deeply impacted by it. It does seem we are overdue for an overhaul of the standard of conduct for leaders at all levels of business, government, and society. The twenty-first century brought with it a reality that has changed the whole landscape of leadership --- regardless of our position or status, we all have opportunities to lead every day by our example. Technology has also made it possible for leadership to be as local as our cell phones and as far-reaching as technology will take us around the world. With all the issues needing our attention, opting out really isn't a responsible option, is it? To create a better world, it is clear we all own our part of it. 

So, how do we begin to renew, revitalize, and recommit ourselves to standards of conduct as leaders in our own right --- so we are ready to respond to the needs and challenges of this new time --- as well as to the people within our spans of influence in the marketplaces, workplaces, neighborhoods, and communities where we live and work?

In considering this question, I immediately thought about Gandhi as a great study and role model. He believed in self-examination and analysis of one's behavior and actions. He did it often. In a cherished book, A Higher Standard of Leadership: Lessons from the Life of Gandhi (Berrett-Koehler 1997), the author Keshavan Nair writes about Gandhi:

"Gandhi demonstrated that personal reflection was a practical endeavor... He analyzed his actions in the weeklies he edited...and in his correspondence with colleagues. None of these time-consuming activities diminished the amount of work he put in; indeed, they sustained him. It is not necessary for us to emulate Gandhi's level of reflection, but we can benefit from the direction he set for himself. ...Disciplined reflection does not take time away from work; it sustains the spirit and increases the intensity and quality of work."

Ongoing Self-REFLECTION IDEA:
We all have to find our own ways to renew ourselves. I share one of mine with you...

In several places in my home, I have small framed signs with one of Gandhi's messages strategically placed to catch my eye during the day, "My life is my message." It is interesting how those five words have shaped so many days --- so many actions --- so many decisions. They place the question of rightness to every action and decision. It is humbling on many days to realize that my humanness has kept me from living up to this proclamation in the way I wished I had.

The Story Behind GANDHI's Words
The story goes like this...
Gandhi remained silent one day a week. He was traveling on a train on the one day a week when he did not speak. When the train made a stop, a journalist rushed up to his window, screaming out to him, "Do you have a message for me to take back to my people." Gandhi scrawled a few words on a piece of paper and put them up in the window... "My life is my message."

 

Over the years I've thought about the commitment this self-imposed standard demands. I've imagined each of us measuring our behavior by it every day with a new kind of consciousness about all we do --- we could change the world in short order, don't you think? How many things would be different throughout the world? Think about it.

In my book, Putting Our Differences to Work, I recount Gandhi's warning to us about the traits that are the most perilous to humanity. We could reverse the realities he warned us about with a collective change in how we think, behave, and operate and by measuring our behavior and actions against the higher standard of leadership he established. Think of it...below I've restated Gandhi's warnings in the affirmative as QUALITIES. Imagine the impact of each of us living up to these QUALITIES:

• Wealth with Work
• Pleasure with Conscience
• Science with Humanity
• Knowledge with Character
• Politics with Principle
• Commerce with Morality
• Worship with Sacrifice

How does your life contribute to fulfilling these virtues?
I leave you as I reconsider this question myself.

Warm regards...

Debbe
 

Debbe Kennedy
founder, Global Dialogue Center
author, Putting Our Differences to Work

Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership and High Performance
** 2010 Axiom Business Book Award Winner  **
Bronze for HR/Employee Training

ORDER a copy at AMAZON.COM

 

Lessons from JOHNNY APPLESEED

These are sobering times --- yet, there are signs of hope, new possibilities and opportunities standing right in front of us. A new and different path for mankind must be forged, don't you think? A new global consciousness among all people would be a big start.

Where do we begin?

A while back, I happened on an amazing read =====A copy of the original story of the real Johnny Appleseed, an American pioneer hero written in Harper's Magazine - November 1871.

I always thought he was just a guy that planted apple trees and wore a funny tin hat. He was much more...

---- as a matter of conscience he never purchased a pair of shoes. When given a pair, he passed them off to a boy in a needy family moving westward who he felt needed them more.

---- he purchased animals that he saw were being abused and found them good homes.

---- he wore the tin pan he used to cook his meals as his hat, adding an innovative pasteboard visor to shield his eyes.

---- he was loved by moms, dads, grandma's, the Indians because of his kindness and interest in them.

---- he believed in eating only food from the ground and was a strenuous opponent to wasting it because it was a Gift.

---- he was well educated and took time to read to others in such a way that he created pictures for others to understand.

---- he respected all forms of life.

---- he was trusted by all...and courageously warned his neighbors of British and Indian attacks saving many lives with his prophetic message.

---- he gave his money away.

He lived a good life as a loving neighbor and friend.
When he was near death, it his recorded that his features were all aglow with a supernatural light.

If we could just live our lives with a little more care for our neighbors and our world ---- a little more like a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, the world would be much different.

What do you think?

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
author and founder, President and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

New Book!
Putting Our Differences to Work:
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance
Video BOOK Review by futurist Joel Barker  

Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com 

HONORING OUR VETERANS: Do We?

This year, Veteran's Day comes with a more sobering reality for me for a variety of reasons. The stakes are higher. The reality of two wars and its impact on our soldiers, veterans, and their families is gripping. The weight of continued years of war on our nation isn't sustainable.

"Happy Veterans Day!" Sarah Palin wrote today. "God bless them all. May we never forget the sacrifices made to secure our liberty."  Do we forget? The airwaves, Internet, and Twitter were alive with such words seemingly delivered by rote with waving flags in shiny perfect places to celebrate our men and women who have served and sacrificed for our country. At the same time, the deeper TRUTHS lurk in the shadows. We do FORGET or stay uninformed by choice ---and the TRUTH is haunting, disgraceful, discriminatory --- and I would wager unknown to most Americans. It's much easier to turn our heads or to count our ceremonial tributes on November 11 as enough.

The Shameful TRUTH
We don't need to look far see the shameful TRUTH about our veterans. Consider just this one example of how we honor them: The Veteran's Administration estimates that 107,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. Over the course of a year, approximately twice that many experience homelessness. Only eight percent of the general population can claim veteran status, but nearly one-fifth of the homeless population are veterans. About 1.5 million other veterans are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing. 

History Repeating Itself?   Click on photo above to see larger view. 
This is not a new violation of our promises to honor our veterans. History repeats itself. In what seems a similar time, Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler, once the most decorated solider in America, shares a story in the introduction to his now famous book, War is a Racket.  Below the excerpt is a poignant VIDEO clip from 1932 that brings the story to life. Do you see any parallels with today?

How a Military Hero Blew the Whistle on Corporate Malfeasance
Excerpt from Introduction by Adam Parfrey, General Smedley's War is a Racket

"The U.S. government thanked the efforts of World War I soldiers with a "war bonus" of approximately $1,000 to be paid late as 1945. But as Great Depression and the Dust Bowl misery touched the continental states, unemployed veterans desired to have their bonus paid sooner. In May 1932 out-of-work vets arrived in Washington D. C. to impress their bonus pleas to Congress. A pro-bonus bill sponsored by Wright Patman [Congressman (D), Texas] was threatened veto by President Hoover and overturned House passage by a Republican Senate. As tens of thousands of Hooverville-occupying vets demonstrated their discontent in a "death march," Generals George Patton and Douglas MacArthur moved in on the veterans with a fresher contingent of the U.S. Army. Two died, including an infant, and hundreds of veterans were injured, in MacArthur's successful attempt to "gain control" of D. C.

The Bonus Marchers' primary upper ranked supporter? Smedley D. Butler, the Brigadier General who was twice awarded the Medal of Honor and one the so-called "Brevet medal," when the Medal of Honor was not given officers. Known for his fair play to soldier's regardless of rank, Butler's support of the "Bonus Marchers" helped boost the desperate foot-soldiers' movement..."

The video chronicles this account. It is somehow shocking to imagine this happened in America.

 

I highly recommend General Smedley's book. When I was growing up, somehow these stories were never told. He provides a view of many things about WAR, GREED, and profoundly CURRENT REALITIES. You won't be able to put it down. You won't forget it. He sets the stage in the first chapter this way:

"WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
 
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

This is far from a "happy" Veterans Day. For me, it seems like a day for prayer and appreciation to those who faithfully serve or have served; a day for recommitting ourselves to GET INVOLVED in the business of our country, so we don't contribute to repeating history and we rid country of its shameful TRUTHS.

Get Involved:
While researching this article, I learned of a small group of citizens, GETTING INVOLVED. Visit the Obama's Achievement Center. It is described "A Crowd Sized Compilation" of achievements by the Obama administration, including a list of action-directed steps taken for our Military Veterans/Families. There is much more to do to make things right for our military and their families. However, it was uplifting to to discover this positive labor of love being done by nearly a 100 dedicated citizens, leading by example as they work to put the spotlight on significant achievements you may not yet know about. 

Your thoughts,

Debbe

 

Debbe Kennedy
founder, Global Dialogue Center
author, Putting Our Differences to Work

Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership and High Performance
** 2010 Axiom Business Book Award Winner  **
Bronze for HR/Employee Training

ORDER a copy at AMAZON.COM

 

TRIBUTE TO MY DAD

I accept he's long gone,
but I always miss him just a little.

He made me feel very safe and very special.
Yellow was his favorite color.
I learned to love yellow dresses and flowers
and ribbons in my hair.
He was exciting to be with,
always reaching out for the new and different.

My time with him was limited.
I never counted it in years or by worldly methods,
but by its influence on my heart. 
He was simply woven in and out of perfect places in my life.
That is how I see it now.

I remember days when he spent a whole day with me.
He took me places to explore things.
He could do magic tricks, pulling quarters from the air.
He could dream big dreams and taught me how.
He always had a poem to share...or a funny story to tell;
and sometimes a spiritual truth to tuck away for keeping.
We laughed.
We talked.
We shared things.

He called me his "honeybear".

He was decorated with two U.S. Army Bronze Stars for his heroism that saved lives; and earned many other achievements in life for which he was very modest... He didn't talk a lot about them, but they were important to him; I loved his humility.

But of his most treasured achievements, if you could ask him, I think he would tell you, there were two: He was our dad...my dad. He always made me feel this way when I was with him. ...and he was also PLUTO in costume to many sick kids at Shiner's Hospital, which he loved.

I've always loved this picture of him.
I wasn't born when it was taken.
But it looks like the gentle side of
him that I remember.
It's in his eyes.

When I have a tough day, I look at him and he seems to say,
I know. I know.

Life brought us several unexpected partings.
When he had to go, it was sad.
But being his daughter? It was the best!

Maya Angelou had the perfect words. I'm sure she will forgive me for being inspired by them enough to edit them just a little for this tribute.

I don't remember everything he said; or much of what he did, but I do
remember how he made me feel during the perfect times we were blessed to be together.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedyfounder, president, and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

Twitter: @debbekennedy  @onlinedialogues

 

 

 

Book:  Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance 
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com 
2010 Axiom Business Book Award Winner - Bronze
for Human Resources and Employee Training

The ART of REWARDING KIDS or BRIBING THEM?

My big brother was one of my heroes as a little girl. My dad left when I was about five and he was eleven years older. He earnestly tried to step in to make things okay for my mom, my brother and me. He didn't always handle things perfectly, but one thing I remember most is how he taught me to begin to believe in myself --- to see that I had talent --- that I could do almost anything if I put my mind to it.

I remember his first attempt. He had an old camera that his best friend, Andy, had given to him. As I remember, it had a tan leather case and a piece of white bandage tape holding it together on one end. He told me if I came home with straight A's (that would be 12 A's) that I could have the camera as a present. Oh, I immediately dedicated myself to every subject. He cheered when I aced every spelling test or came home with some other good report.

For a whole semester, my big brother was tuned in to me and I really loved it. His acknowledgment motivated me to try even harder. The more I put into my studies, the easier the achievements seemed to come. The better grades I received, the more my confidence seemed to grow too. At the end of the year, I came home with 12 A's on my report card. My big brother was very proud of me!! My mom was too.

The camera? Well, it never really worked. That tape holding it together was because it didn't close right, so it ruined any film put into it. Funny, it never really mattered. I got the reward I wanted most. His love and acknowledgment. I also got a prize that stayed with me for a lifetime --- a belief in what I could do if I truly wanted to do it badly enough.

This story came up for me today, because of an article in TIME, "Should Schools Bribe Kids for Grades?"It carries all kinds of controversy around whether it works or is harmful to kids. I personally thought it was interesting how the word "bribe" was used --- when it might have been incentive, reward, prize, or a number of other more positive words or ways of thinking about it. Bribery seems like a word indicative of these times --- when anything and everything seems to have a negative spin or it doesn't make the news.

With kids living in a world with so much uncertainty, adult violence, lack of attention, and a scarcity of positive influences with increasing demands for them to achieve in school, I think our attention and incentives can have a positive influence. I experienced it. It endured. I would say, it's all in how it is presented.

What are your thoughts?

Would love to hear from you...

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy

founder, president, and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

Twitter: @debbekennedy  @onlinedialogues

 

author, Putting Our Differences to Work:
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance

What are our CHILDREN seeing and hearing?

Increasingly, there are many days when the light is cast on another example of what our CHILDREN are seeing as they watch us day-to-day --- each time setting the example for them as adults. It makes me shudder. How about you? Have you noticed? Has it always been this way? Am I just waking up to the gross reality of our sometimes shameful behavior?

I've never seen myself as a moralist --- hardly --- but Ralph Waldo Emerson's words seem more real and relevant than ever before..."What you DO speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say."

Unfortunately, many of the wonderful leadership examples are more often than not over-shadowed by the dramatic ones the media picks up and plays over and over.

I guess what has made me most sad recently is the state of our politics. When we have such serious problems to solve --- and President Obama appears to earnestly be working to solve them --- the daily parade of partisan attacks that holds up progress and solutions is disheartening, don't you think? I find it almost embarrassing to watch our politicians lie and cheat and mislead, and tell half-truths and refuse to show up and talk and talk and talk.

As woman leader, this week it hit me hard to watch Sarah Palin so joyfully mock the President of the United States, while standing on a world stage, especially in such a personal way. In the days that followed it played over and over again. These questions have been echoing in my mind...

• What message does this give to her children and our children about RESPECTING others?
• What message plays across the world about how we respect our President in the U.S.? 
• What message does it leave about EXCELLENCE that Ms.Palin seemed to so casually mock...while other adults cheered and jeered?
• What message does it leave about the character of women leaders when it is so unnecessary to be so mean-spirited in one's rhetoric about anyone, especially for personal gain?
• Shouldn't we be expecting more from our leaders at all levels and the examples they demontrate day-to-day for our kids and those looking to them for leadership?

In my leadership training at IBM at a very young age, I was taught two things about EXCELLENCE that have stayed with me:  EXCELLENCE speaks for itself. It is not necessary to disparage others if EXCELLENCE is your mark of distinction. It was a business conduct practice.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
In my book, Putting Our Differences to Work: The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance, I introduce Five Distinctive Qualities of Leadership. Two of them seem perfect to heal this current reality if we all applied them to our lives and work:

4 Hold personal responsibility as a core value.
This quality acknowledges the shift from “institutional loyalty” of the past to the reality of being “free agents,” or perhaps other more fluid, mobile kinds of arrangements we’ve not yet imagined in the marketplaces, workplaces, and communities that are in a continual state of churn. What is added to our way of operating as individuals is the essential quality that Nelson Mandela affirmed, “With freedom comes responsibility.” It is a sense of personal responsibility that needs to be part of our portable portfolio that goes with us when we move from one job to another, to a new company or within an organization, out in the community or in some new region of the world. Putting our differences to work is greatly enhanced when personal responsibility is a common thread woven tightly into everyone’s fabric. The focus here is what is right to do.

5 Establish mutualism as the final arbiter for all actions.
This quality builds upon the definition of mutualism: a doctrine that mutual dependence is necessary for social well-being. It is also essential for organizational well-being. This quality applies this concept to all aspects of work and life in all types of organizations, institutions and entities. It creates a new definition of success that has a clear “yardstick” that serves as the final arbiter of all plans, innovations, decisions, products, services, programs, profit-making, et al: Everyone benefits and no one is harmed.In other words, it creates win, win, win – I win, you win, we all win. Building the future on a foundation of mutualism changes everything we do. It asks more of us, but the benefits are significant. It demands that we consciously make a routine practice of first evaluating our actions, behavior, decisions, thinking, and new ideas with a thoughtful inspection of the implications and benefits to all concerned. It adds a new element of consideration to every strategic plan or action.

What would you suggest?

Would love to hear from you...

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy

founder, president, and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

Twitter: @debbekennedy  @onlinedialogues

 

author, Putting Our Differences to Work:
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance

Dear President Obama: Considering MORE War

Dear President Obama,

It is the eve before your Afghanistan Policy Speech. Like millions of other Americans that supported your election and have put faith in your leadership judgment, I remain hopeful. However, I am saddened about what is to become a new phase of US aggression, if press reports are correct. We didn't elect you to be a new "war president," and I agree with many others that you will wear this mantle, if you proceed as it appears you are planning to do with an expansion of the war, risking more lives of America's men and women --- forever changing the lives of their families. President Eisenhower made it clear, "...War never solved anything."

I also know we are not the only ones bracing ourselves for the delivery of your policy message. The whole world is watching. Many of them, who have believed in your leadership and continue to look to you to deliver on your promise of change are waiting. I can't help imagining the Afghan people --- mothers and fathers --- children old enough to understand whatever rumors are meeting them --- worried and scared at reality that the US once again is staging to show its military might, destroying more of their homeland and killing more of their innocent men, women and children. Collateral damage we have rarely even acknowledged in this war.

Why? There must be a better solution than more WAR.

Last night, I read a passage from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I wish you could read before you deliver your message from the podium at West Point about expansion of the War:

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
(A Time to Break Silence, April 1967)

"A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: 'This way of settling differences in not just.' This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense... War is not the answer..." 

I remain grateful for not personally knowing the experience of WAR in my lifetime... However, I admit I'm also haunted by a message left by someone with a credible opinion, Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler, well-known as America's MOST decorated soldier. He told us...

"WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in life."

With great hope we await your message. Bring our troops home, save lives, save money we don't have, and STOP THE MADNESS of WAR. These are my greatest hopes. Please do the hard, more courageous act of doing what is RIGHT for our country, our troops, and for the world.

Respectfully,

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
founder, president, and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies
author, Putting Our Differences to Work:
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance

PHOTO CREDITS: An Afghan man looks on as he stands at a bus stop in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi)

HEALTH CARE REFORM: Why the ruckus?

It is undeniably clear that HEALTH CARE in the United States is broken. It is out of whack and unfortunately, many of our citizens are blinded by their fears, the hype of the lobbyists, political rhetoric, and special interests, many of which have been lining their pockets for years, fueling a system off-track with far-reaching implications on our health, economy, and well-being of our nation.

HOW DO YOU BEGIN CHANGING HEALTH CARE... (or anything else)???
Think about the changes you've headed up or participated in. They all have the same beginning. You get up in the morning and you START. You believe in something bigger than yourself. You look UP and out with resolute FAITH. You PLAN a first important STEP in the right direction. You take a LEAP. You RISK. The START is a new beginning. IMPERFECTIONS will be stepping stones. You learn as you go, but MOST IMPORTANTLY, the way will be OPENED for other steps to follow. President Obama, with an unwavering BELIEF appears focused on the START--- that critical first step toward reform of our broken system --- and it essential for all of us to see the significance.

Unless things change, they stay the same...or get worse.

One management principle I learned early in my career is that unless things change, they stay the same or get worse! It is scary to imagine the status quo with so much at stake and so many related things spiraling out of control. Rising premiums are just one symptom of our problems. I don't know about you, but my health care premium more than doubled in recent years --- I've never been sick, had a surgery, or put in a claim for anything more than a $30 prescription. ( for which I am deeply grateful! ). However, I wonder what has happened to those who have had to use their insurance policies?

When you have a broken system --- continuing to do the same thing you are doing that isn't working is insanity as Albert Einstein told us ---- investing more years of NO ACTION, NO CHANGE isn't tolerable --- and it is up to us at this point. We have to get involved and speak up. This first BOLD STEP may not be perfect, but we've got to start heading toward REFORM. Even if we get a few things right or get heading in a reform direction that will serve our citizens, our economy, and our country, we will be ahead. Change will be in the works. If you don't do anything else, get informed.

Why the ruckus?
MUST SEE VIDEO: Regardless of your current beliefs, take the time to watch this PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) program on Bill  Moyer's JOURNAL. You will learn why there is such a ruckus. Put everything away. Give this video your undivided attention and a beginner's mind. Take a closer look at the big picture of HEALTH CARE from the inside out.

"Profits Before Patients"   WATCH Video Now.

After you watch it, it's hard to imagine you won't want to share it with others. DO IT! We all must get informed, so we can objectively work to shape health care reform --- not scream about it or at one another. Instead, we need to invest our time, intellect, and hard work in ensuring the first critical BOLD STEP forward happens, accepting the personal responsibility we each own for forging this path. Ultimately, we have the power to shape the debate and the result --- and we have a President trying to help us do it.

Whenever, I am challenged by dramatic change, I look to people for counsel, who have actually achieved it. Nelson Mandela offers us encouragement with this piece of wisdom:

"It is always impossible until it is done."  --- Nelson Mandela

I would love to know your thoughts after watching this critical video conversation.

Regards,
Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
founder, Global Dialogue Center
author, Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership,
and High Performance | Berrett-Koehler 2008
www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com

Buy a Copy of Putting Our Differences to Work

Facebook  http://profile.to/debbekennedy/
Twitter@onlinedialogues and @debbekennedy
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/debbekennedy 

GRATITUDE: Seeing the GOOD in Crisis

This morning quite by chance, I ran across a poem that opened me up to see new meaning in all that life brought my way. It came to me long ago at a time of growth...a time of sorrow...a time of renewal...a time of deep questioning.

I am grateful for my studies of Jalal al-Din Rumi. He has been a mentor and friend. I pass his message on to you as a treasured family heirloom one friend in the distance to another.

As each of us work to put our fingerprints on this time of trials and crisis --- to make things better ---- this poem helps us learn to embrace the privilege of our generation and all that comes your way. Within it there is always GOOD.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest-house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture.

Still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for
some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

I welcome what you see in this poem through the eyes of your life.

May we be Blessed as we work together to open the new way...

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
Author, Putting Our Differences to Work

TORTURING DEMOCRACY: Making things RIGHT

There is a new sense of OPTIMISM that seems to be emerging and it is so WELCOMED. I am so pleased watching President Obama bring a fresh perspective and a powerful action-directed cadence to his plans and actions. The job he holds is daunting. The brilliance he brings to it makes me want to contribute more---to be part of change.

However, on some days, it's hard to overlook that all the things that we've neglected for a long time have not gone away --- even when we stopped thinking about them. Even when we want to move forward. So much is left to fix and make right for us and for all who look to us for leadership. 

The other night, I watched a remarkable documentary, Torturing Democracy. It was shown in part on PBS. Its story is sobbering and highly recommended viewing. I watched in disbelief. History collects all the small details we never caught in all those biased sound-bytes we barely listened to amidst our busy lives. I remembered the same sinking feeling four years ago as I watched an unjust war unfolding in ways one could not imagine. Helpless. Trying to make sense of it all. Unless things change; they stay the same.

MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL 2005
How did the world end up in such a mess?
A little knowledge is so painful.
It makes every news report suspect.
It makes government policies seem absurd.
It turns all that I've known into a farce.
It shines a spotlight on the little lying, the little cheating
culture we've learned to helpless accept.
It picks and pokes at you to make a difference.
Don't just sit there, do something!
In quiet desperation of what to do,
I come here to think.
Be kind.
Love all.
Stand up.
Take action.
Do what next?

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.
---Maya Angelou

I suppose it is in TRUTH where the Light will come to guide us --- to make things RIGHT.
Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
Author, Putting Our Differences to Work

PEACE: Person-to-Person

I read the news on several sites across the world this morning. I am always amazed how differently, events are perceived and reported. Reading between the lines and beyond the hype, it difficult to see where the truth is. It is always serving someone's interest and rarely the good of all. There is a helplessness about taking in this reality. Once caught up in its web, which I so easily seem to do from time to time, I am reminded of Mother Teresa's wisdom, Don't wait for the leaders, do it alone person-to-person. This insight has redirected my thoughts many times. How do we start doing this as a practice, letting our lives be a beacon for good and peace?

• Look for opportunities to be supportive of others.
  Small bits of kindness can make a BIG difference to someone else.
• Resist our human nature to judge others.
  What we say and do can hurt. Wrap your words and action in dignity and respect. Love your neighbor.
• Pray for peace. There is power in it.

If a bunch of us focused on these just these three things, imagine the difference we could make to restore our nation and create a better world. What else needs to be added?

Best...

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy, founder
Global Dialogue Center
www.globaldialoguecenter.com
author, Putting Our Differences to Work

Welcome the unexpected

Recently, I have found myself again reflecting a lot on how I arrived here and asking, now what? What do I have to contribute at this important time in history? How can I use what I have learned to add my fingerprints in some meaningful way? I've learned one needs confidence for the next frontier of life. As I have sorted through a lifetime of achievements, big and small and tiny, in many aspects of my life, I see a pattern in what it took to achieve a goal. These things always seem to surface...

• a vision of success that ignited some passion inside me.
• a lot of hard work, learning, risk and mistakes.
• supporters I greatly appreciated and dissenters I had to convince.
• a firm belief in possibilities in the face of passing adversity.
• a deep sense and drive to make a difference.
• a thrill in the victory, but rarely a cheering crowd. Instead a quiet celebration inside saying,
  "I did it!"

In the end, fulfilling a goal has more often been a new beginning not a finish. New hopes seemed to lead to the next challenge. ...and today, we have both the challege and opportunity resting at our feet.

If we could meet and talk about your accomplishments, I assume we would find a similar pattern in your experience. In fact, I feel almost certain that if we looked closely at accomplishments of those who changed the world or even just their own lives in some way, we would also find common ground.
Why? Because this is the journey of the problem solvers, change leaders and difference makers, past and present.

Welcome the unexpected.
Watch for the uncharted path that bears your name.
Look for the signs that lead to the verge of differences.
Lead the Way!

I can, I will, I must...

How about you?
What calling do you here?

 

Best...
Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center and
Leadership Solutions Companies
www.globaldialoguecenter.com

author, Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance
Berrett-Koehler 2008 -- See Video Book Review by Joe Barker

Personal Responsibility: Changing the World

Reflective Audio Program:
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY:
It's Role in Creating a Better World
...a virtual online dialogue with nine Berrett-Koehler Authors

News Flashes...
St. Valentine's Day 02/14/09
Afghanistan: DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Staff Sgt. Marc J. Small, 29, of Collegeville, Pa., died Feb. 12 at Faramuz, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion...

Iraq: U.S. Confirmed Deaths
Reported Deaths: 4243  |  Confirmed Deaths: 4242   |   Pending Confirmation: 1
DoD Identifies Army Casualties (4 of 4) --- Pfc. Jonathan R. Roberge, 22, of Leominster, Mass...died Feb. 9 in Mosul, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle.

Source: http://icasualties.org/ Thank you!

The news today in Afghanistan and Iraq and places around the world paralyzes the mind with disbelief.

Oh, I want so much to be a part of changing this world, don't you?

Leaving just a little imprint on creating a world that works for everyone.
If we just thought more about each other;
About people we don't know or can't see.
If we just became a little more conscious and aware
About what is happening around us every day;
Across the world and in neighborhoods we can't even imagine.
If we listened more; objected more; paid attention more;
Spent more time thinking through the implications of our actions
and behavior day to day, choosing what's most right for a better world.
If we took time to be informed and to teach others.
If we were committed to loving our neighbors...

What difference could these small changes make?

It overwhelms me sometimes---I feel helpless and worried.
The small acts of one person seem so insignificant when
you look on at the mess we are in --- a mess we all collectively
shared in creating...


Then I recall this story...

The Starfish Story
by Loren Eiseley

"I awoke early, as I often did, just before sunrise to walk by the ocean's edge and greet the new day. As I moved through the misty dawn, I focused on a faint, far away motion. I saw a youth, bending and reaching and flailing arms, dancing on the beach, no doubt in celebration of the perfect day soon to begin.

As I approached, I sadly realized that the youth was not dancing to the bay, but rather bending to sift through the debris left by the night's tide, stopping now and then to pick up a starfish and then standing, to heave it back into the sea. I asked the youth the purpose of the effort. "The tide has washed the starfish onto the beach and they cannot return to the sea by themselves," the youth replied. "When the sun rises, they will die, unless I throw them back to the sea."

As the youth explained, I surveyed the vast expanse of beach, stretching in both directions beyond my sight. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation. The hopelessness of the youth's plan became clear to me and I countered, "But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot expect to make a difference."

The youth paused briefly to consider my words, bent to pick up a starfish and threw it as far as possible. Turning to me he simply said, "I made a difference to that one."

I left the boy and went home, deep in thought of what the boy had said. I returned to the beach and spent the rest of the day helping the boy throw starfish in to the sea."

What small difference will you make today? tomorrow?

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
founder, Global Dialogue Center
author, Putting Our Differences to Work:
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance

Inauguration Week: Remembering Where We Were

I suppose that millions of people in the United States and around the world will remember where there were on January 20, 2009 when President Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. Will YOU? For many, including me, it marked an end of an era of greed and tragedy--- and a new beginning that brings HOPE and PROMISE of creating a better world that works for all. With it also came a new call for personal leadership from each of us. Are you ready?

What I loved most was seeing people coming together --- every sort and type --- an estimated 2 Million people gathering in peace and harmony for the world to watch. I heard yesterday that there were no problems. Doesn't this prove we can do the impossible if we truly want to invest ourselves and love our neighbors?

Today in the New York Times, a wonderful photo essay was shared by photo journalist, Bill Cunningham entitled On the Street: The Fabric of History. It tells our story in a way one can not express in words. See it now.

Earlier in the week, I read a passage from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that served to encourage us at this time of change, war, economic crisis and opportunity. His wisdom is fast-forwarded into this new time:

"...faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born." 
(Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, 1964)

May God bless our new First Family, our nation, and the people of the world.
May our personal leadership usher in a new era marked by us putting our differences to work to change the world and make it a better place than we know today.

What contribution will you make?  See Pledge Video. Make one! 

Best...
Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
founder, Global Dialogue Center
author, Putting Our Differences to Work

Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership and High Performance
by Debbe Kennedy ▪ Berrett-Koehler ▪ 2008 – Hardcover
ORDER a copy at AMAZON.COM

As seen in futurist, Joel A. Barker's 2009 landmark film, Innovation at the Verge.
Click on the link to see a preview. See Joel Barker's commentaryon Debbe Kennedy's Putting Our Differences to Work

Learning from Gandhi

In several places in my home, I have small framed signs with one of Gandhi's messages strategically placed to catch my eye during the day, "My life is my message." It is interesting how those five words have shaped so many days --- so many actions --- so many decisions. They place the question of rightness to every action and decision. It is humbling on many days to realize that my humanness has kept me from living up to this proclamation in the way I wished I had.

GANDHI's Message
The story goes like this:
Gandhi remained silent one day a week. He was traveling on a train on the one day a week when he did not speak. A journalist came up to his window, screaming out to him, "Do you have a message for me to take back to my people." Gandhi scrawled a few words on a piece of paper and put them up in the window... "My life is my message."

Over the years as I've thought alot about the commitment this message takes, I realize that if each of measured our behavior by it every day with a new kind of consciousness about all we do, we could change the world in short order, don't you think? How many things would be different throughout the world? Think of it.

In my book, Putting Our Differences to Work, recount Gandhi's warning to us about the personal traits that are the most perilous to humanity. Imagine how we could change the realities today by changing and measuring our behavior and actions. I also introduce Five Distinctive Qualities of Leadership and propose each of us add them to our portfolio. The one that seems to embrace all the others is "make mutualism the final arbiter" for all actions and decisions (e.g., behavior, products, services, profit-making) measured by just six powerful words:

Everyone benefits; no one is harmed.

With this conscious shift in our thinking and actions, we could reverse those personal traits that caused Gandhi worry. Think of it...

• Wealth with Work
• Pleasure with Conscience
• Science with Humanity
• Knowledge with Character
• Politics with Principle
• Commerce with Morality
• Worship with Sacrifice

How does your life stack up and contribute to these virtues?
I leave you as I ponder this question myself.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
founder, Global Dialogue Center
author, Putting Our Differences to Work

new book!
Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership and High Performance
by Debbe Kennedy ▪ Berrett-Koehler ▪ 2008 – Hardcover
ORDER a copy at AMAZON.COM

Putting Our Differences to Work was selected as as among
"the very top business books" for review in August, 2008.
Read it!

Also available in DIGITAL DOWNLOAD at Berrett-Koehler

President-Elect Obama: Together we are changing!

It would be hard to deny that this hasn't been a week of great promise for our Nation and the world. For one clear reason...we had the shared experience of electing a new President with the whole world watching and cheering with us --- a President for all of us with a family that mirrors our diverse and inclusion ideals in the US. Even with all the uncertainty and harsh realities of our economic meltdown, having a new President-elect Barack Obama with a mandate and a vision of a new direction for our country has left me elated. Having a beauitful, young First Family-elect with Michelle, Malia, and Sasha (and the new puppy) is a boost for a country --- a relief from years of what seemed at times to be overcome with the utter darkness of war, greed, division, injustice, disrespect of our neighbors and neglect.

Even if you cast your vote differently, what we know for sure is that what we're doing hasn't worked. We need a fresh new approach and through the millions of votes by United States citizens, we boldly opened the way for a new beginning. 

It has been a week that I never imagined that I would see in my lifetime and I am so grateful to have had my family experience a sense of unity across the US that we just have not seen on this level in my memory. There have been signs since election night that we are coming together. Emails have flown in to congratulate the U.S. on this incredible achievement and mandate for change. For example, check out these "love notes" from blues to reds each reaching out to make peace.

I was especially moved by the Time magazine article. The first paragraph said it all. "Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope. Barack Obama never talks about how people see him: I'm not the one making history, he said every chance he got. You are. Yet as he looked out Tuesday night through the bulletproof glass, in a park named for a Civil War general, he had to see the truth on people's faces. We are the ones we've been waiting for, he liked to say, but people were waiting for him, waiting for someone to finish what a King began."

...and we have a new song from Will.I.am. It's a New Day debut on Oprah.

I end this week deeply grateful for this new day. May we work to ensure that by putting our differences to work, we live up to the promise of our actions this week.

Your thoughts?

Best...

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
author and founder, President and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
Berrett-Koehler - BK Business

 

Obama: Fired UP and Ready to GO!

Tonight there seems to be an almost silent calm. Even the spammers aren't spamming. It's like we are collectively holding our breath. There is sense of our nation and our global neighbors being in a kind of unity. If the World Could Vote and Bridges for Obama demonstrate this phenomenon.

Our collective hopes seem to be coming together even in small ways. Today I was walking down the street and I met the smile of a Latino restaurant worker taking a break outside. I said, "One more day!" and then we traded thumbs up and beamed each other a big grin, knowing we were engaged in the same promise.

Before I cast my VOTE tomorrow in person at my polling place, I decided to write down my thoughts on why I am VOTING for Barack Obama to be our President. From a leadership standpoint within this long two years, I say "ditto" to the brilliance, vision, and approach to governing and other specifics that Colin Powell outlined when he announced his endorsement of Senator Obama. I also couldn't say it better than Fareed Zakaria in his compelling endorsement. Beyond these specifics, I also believe what we've witnessed and experienced from Senator Obama in the last two years is the most telling in how he plans to govern our country at this critical time in history.

Here is a summary of my observations about Barack Obama:

1. He proved that his "community organizer" experience mattered. He built a magnificent team and  highly innovative approach to his very disciplined campaign that has engaged our nation and the world in ways we could have never imagined. I love thinking about having a President again that can learn from their experiences and apply their knowledge to complex problems, using innovation and brainpower to redefine what has been done before.

2. He led an inclusive campaign inviting us all in, building a sense of unity among us, and stretching our own limitations to reach for goals higher than any party affiliation. I want our president to care and respect all people. We've got to move beyond dividing our country and the world with hurtful labels and exclusion.

3. He has been steady, clear, and unruffled by the constant stream of "McCain Palin" mud, challenging them at each turn with bigger ideas and focused attention. "You don't need to boo; just vote!" he told us.

On the other hand, John McCain seemed to sell out and it was both sad and disappointing from a man with a distinguished career of service. His mean-spirited, angry, disorganized, dishonorable, and dishonest campaign didn't reflect the temperament and qualities I believe we need in a President for the twenty-first century. We need new language --- "fighting" is not the strategy that will heal the world. Without discounting Sarah Palin's accomplishments in Alaska, McCain's choice of her for Vice President of the United States of America has proven by her own behavior and actions to be a choice that would put our country at risk because of her lack of readiness for this level of office. I admit she is a good campaigner, but I don't personally believe this translates to qualifications for Vice President and President of the United States when our country is in crisis and war. This was clearly a reflection on Senator's McCain poor judgment.

Tonight  Senator Obama in his final campaign rally before 100,000 people in Virginia, reminded us that we are less than 24 hours away from voting in the change we need.

May God grant us the will to live up to "Yes, WE CAN!".

I am fired up! ...and ready to go!

MOST OF ALL...VOTE!

Politics of Hope, Original Oil by Sally K. Green - www.sallykgreen.com

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
author and founder, President and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
Berrett-Koehler - BK Business

 

BE the CHANGE

I'm sad as I watch the tearing down vs. the lifting up in the political process. I'm know much of it is part of what we have allowed to be "customary" in our politics, but it doesn't make it right. I can't believe what we have watched the last few days as Sarah Palin has stood at the podium at McCain's campaign rallies. The hate-filled words she says against Senator Obama, with a syrupy smile, do not cover-up the racial overtones and inferences --- and the visible hostility and harrassment it is creating. As a governor of a state in the United States or any other goverment official, it must be a violation of their oath of office. At the very minimum, it is dangerous and it is not becoming to any leader to set such an example for others. How shameful for all the young people that are watching. It lacks basic decency, respect, and humanity. It is heart-breaking to see the "pitbull" in sheep's clothing" from a woman, especially when so many worked so hard to make the possibility happen.

It is a time for leadership. Being the change you want to see in the world asks more of us. It means stepping out of our comfort...for some, stepping out of indifference...for others, stepping out of silence. There is no time for mocking each other or scorning one another. This time requires not just hovering to take in...but also doing what you can to bring your own personal Light to a troubled world. It means exericising your right to vote to a whole new direction. It means standing up and moving out together.

This morning I again came across a poem of Rumi's that I had humbly adapted from another translation long ago. It is a call to action for us all.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Come out from under your fear, you so
   so fond of hiding and running away.
Don't cover your face.
The world is reeling,
Its heart so sick,
And you are one who can serve
   as an influence for good.
Don't hide the candle of your clarity.
Be with people.
Lead the way.
Be a teacher of souls by example.

---Rumi
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Put your mark on this time in history. The world needs you! Do your part.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
founder, Global Dialogue Center
author, Putting Our Differences to Work:
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance
Learn more... www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
Blog... www.globaldialoguecenter.blogs.com/differences

First Presidential Debate: Obama

With our country screaming for our attention on every front and the world looking to us for leadership, the long awaited First Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and John McCain was a top priority for this Friday night at my house. Seeing them side by side affirmed for me that we need fresh new thinking and a whole new style of problem-solving and approach to the presidency.

Even Pat Buchanan described McCain's style as mean, contemptuous, angry and a tough character. Other descriptors of McCain's body language were hunched, "look 'em in the eye," snarly --- yet, he never found the "big leadership" moment to give Barack Obama the courtesy of looking at him. McCain came across as rude and disrespectful --- Enough! We can't afford another "rough around the edges" president not at this time in history with so much at stake and so many relationships to repair around the world.

In contrast, Obama brought a whole new approach and leadership command of issues --- a fresh, visionary leadership strength that we've not seen in a long time in this country. He is emerging to a new height as the Change We Need to lead our country!

So tonight I celebrate Barack Obama debuting a beautiful new original oil painting (24x30) by Sally K. Green, Bay Area Artist. Learn more at www.sallykgreen.com.

Reflections the day after the night before...

• Grading the First Debate - Time
• Canadian Perspective - Toronto Star
• The First Debate: A Win for Obama - New York Times
• Sharp Jabs Mark Debate - Kansas City Star
• European Perspective - BBC

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
author and founder, President and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work (June 2008)
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com 
Berrett-Koehler - BK Business

BUSH's BAILOUT: $700 Billion in Bush's Hands?

Do you realize what Bush's "emergency bailout" means? This was the frightening description the New York Times offered to American taxpayers:

"The Bush administration on Saturday formally proposed a vast bailout of financial institutions in the United States, requesting unfettered authority for the Treasury Department to buy up to $700 billion in distressed mortgage-related assets from the private firms.

The proposal, not quite three pages long, was stunning for its stark simplicity. It would raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion. And it would place NO RESTRICTIONS on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, granting the Treasury secretary unprecedented power to buy and resell mortgage debt." 

Bush was quoted: “I will tell our citizens and continue to remind them that the risk of doing nothing far outweighs the risk of the package, and that, over time, we’re going to get a lot of the money back.”

KEY QUESTIONS??
Assuming we all agree that we need to do something drastic to stabilize this financial fiasco, there are some serious questions we need to consider:

• Why would anyone in their right mind, give the failed Bush administration $700 Billion, especially without restrictions? What has this administration done that would give us the slightest indication that this would be a wise decision?


• Why is $700 Billion in Bush's hands presented as an all or nothing proposition? Based on the failed policies, practices, and administration characterized with its greed, incompetence, poor judgment, mismanagement, and corruption, shouldn't we more thoughtful about how we implement any solution and with whom, especially when we're told it is a "crap shoot" whether this proposal will work.


• Shouldn't there be a targeted shared responsibility for those who have already took their "profits" on the front-end of the meltdown? If the taxpayer has to bear this responsibility for this "emergency bailout" for generations to come, shouldn't the corporations and banks and others involved, also be charged with helping to pay back the bailout with their future profits?


• Shouldn't the failed leadership in the government, banks, and corporations that created this financial meltdown have their severance packages trimmed down? Shouldn't this bailout be built on accountability of those in charge all the way to the top where BUSH sits? Shouldn't the bailout make severance packages for the executives in parity with what the thousands of employees will get for their abrupt layoffs, eliminating the "golden parachutes" for unsatisfactory performance and financial and business misconduct.

This is what kept me awake last night.

What are your thoughts?

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
author and founder, President and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work (June 2008)
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com 
Berrett-Koehler - BK Business

GOP POLITICS: A Dissenting View Palin's Introduction

I think it started with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's speech last night at the GOP convention. I found his vicious words and blood-thirsty mockery more disturbing than at other times. I wanted to yell, "ENOUGH!"

Watching and listening to the display that followed said a great deal about him, McCain, Palin --- and all we've all become as a nation living under the "Karl Rove Playbook" of hate and fear and intentional culture wars and mean-spirited attacks on others for political gain. Even seeing Sarah Palin come on stage, looking sweet and beautiful, then transforming into a "smiling snake" with venom spewing out at key moments in her introduction to the nation with thousands cheering the distortions, the put-downs and the sarcasm of personal attack---another "wolf in sheep's clothing" in a female form.

Based on the morning headlines, hailing the "success" of GOP convention program last night, I am in the minority in my view. Of Palin, the headlines read, "She hit the ball out of the ballpark..."

What I know for sure is ...

• we can't heal a nation with these techniques.
• we can't lead in the world modeling this kind of leadership behavior.
• we can't be a beacon of peace with leaders stooping to this level of rhetoric.
• we can't teach our children by setting the example we witnessed last night.
• we can't repair our standing the world with this kind of thinking and behavior.

Funny, as I watched, I remembered a young friend, age 8, a purple belt with green stripe in Karate, who mentored me by teaching me his daily mantra:

Watch your thoughts, for they become your words.
Watch your words, for they become your actions.
Watch your actions, for they become your habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.

I have personally worked to advance and support women and think of myself as a pioneering women executive. This morning women have been saying, "She's just like me!" She's just like us!"  Isn't this what we swallowed when we chose George W. Bush --- a real regular guy and look at the devastation we are left with as he exits.

Somehow, in my vision for who would breakthrough the glass ceiling, my hope was for a women of substance, one mastered in the human dimensions of change; someone with knowledge and know-how about all the issues and pressing  problems we face. A woman willing to respect and protect women's rights that so many worked and sacrificed to achieve. A leader who's behavior is above reproach; a beacon of strength, integrity, and goodness.

Sarah Palin doesn't fit this bill and I recognize she is not just like me.

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
author and founder, President and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work (June 2008)
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
Berrett-Koehler - BK Business

POLITICS: Putting Our Faith in Lies?

I think I am writing out of sense of helplessness as a citizen of the United States. It is a long way until November, but I don't think there has been an election that was more critical and the process more scary. We are so beyond party politics. There is much at stake and the United States must get itself heading in a new direction with engaged citizens and a leader with a vision and imagination to mobilize our people to solve our pressing problems.

This morning's headline proclaims "McCain takes the lead over Obama: poll".

Do you ever wonder who they poll? Have you ever been called? What is most disturbing is also reading the article to discover what has resulted in this lead. It is not McCain's leadership or policies. "There is no doubt the campaign to discredit Obama is paying off for McCain right now," pollster John Zogby said. "This is a significant ebb for Obama."

Wow! What is wrong with the American people? Are we so addicted to negative spin and unethical people and campaign tactics that we are willing to be snookered again and sacrifice our future and the stability of the world for more of the last eight years?  Are we so risk averse and change resistant that we can't trust ourselves enough to follow a leader with a greater vision?

I used to think that McCain was truly an American Hero, but a hero that lies, tells-half truths, surrounds himself with the likes of "Karl Rove handlers" and works to dismantle his opponent one-lie-and-character assassination-at-a-time is not the American Hero we need for the leader of the free world and our country. He has already broken his promise to run a clean campaign with weeks of negative, proved untruthful propaganda and innuendo, as well as spewing out appeasing "buzz words," empty promises by the barrel full, and distortions of his own record and accomplishments. So what is a vote McCain mean?

With all due respect to his military service, I can't understand why no one has the courage to call him on his missteps and lying and pandering.

TWO QUESTIONS:
There is a two fundamental questions that I would like to ask Senator McCain:

1. LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS: If you are so experienced and influential in getting things done as you say you've been and are --- and handling our economy and "winning the war" as you claim, then why is our country in such a mess? Where have you been?  What results can you point to that demonstrates NOT YOUR EFFORTS, but your effectiveness as a leader in the last eight years?

2. CHARACTER and INTEGRITY: If you are so honorable and hold character and integrity as core values, why has your ambition to be president allowed you to slip into the slime of Karl Rove politics toward Obama? Why are you lying and distorting with such a constant drumbeat? With you holding the responsibility of an elder, it is shameful to watch you work to tear down the next generation of leadership we so badly need at this time in history.

My mother taught me to beware of people who proclaim their honesty and integrity too loudly. "What you do speaks so loud, I cannot hear what you say."  --- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'm ready for a leader with character and change we can believe in and engage in.

How about you? (my private poll question for you)

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
author and founder, President and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work (June 2008)
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com 
Berrett-Koehler - BK Business

BIG, BOLD LEADERS: Learning from our politics

There has been plenty of second-guessing, ridicule, and cynicism from political critics and media show hosts about Barack Obama's "results achieved" in Europe last week. It has been interesting to see so many (a large number of them men) wearing the "mask of envy" as they work to minimize and insult an achievement that is not one they personally carry in their portfolios. (Photo: Associated Press - JC Hong)

It's hard, regardless of your political preference, to overlook the facts that Barack Obama gave us images and diplomacy that reached around the world that we've not seen in many years. He took a risk and he delivered. The pictures brought hope and promise to the future when our minds and hearts have only been filled with hate, greed, war, violence, death, destruction, poor leadership, and the demolition of the United States reputation in every region of the world. Smiling hopeful faces. Waving of American flags (not burning flags). People showing up in the tens of thousands to take a look at one of our potential leaders of the free world, showing interest and respect for the new and different.

My question is... Shouldn't we all be so proud as Americans that one of our American family took a bold leadership step successfully --- a risky move perhaps --- but demonstrated his capacity for positive influence, on behalf of all of us, that America wants to regain our friends in the world?
His performance didn't even need to be perfect in every way to trump contemporary examples of leadership we've all seen in the last near decade. The talk of Obama being "presumptuous" is absurd. Why should we be afraid to watch one of our potential presidential candidates doing his best in this way-too-long job interview? Why should he shrink to the level of the norm in politics when he is putting his heart into being our best choice? When have you landed a job by acting like your competition?

It was even more shameful to see a senior statesman like John McCain, with a laughing smirk, thrash Obama every day with half-truths, put-downs, negative ads, and out-right lies from the "straight-talk express" in a concerted effort to diminish Obama's results...all for his political gain. I admit it, the United States of America deserves a leader with more generosity and self-assurance than we witnessed in John McCain's actions and behavior. Can you imagine McCain using these same techniques as a President, when we desperately need a leader of our nation who can get along with others, has a respectful manner not in words, but in his actions to skillfully negotiate and positively influence strategic outcomes that will impact all our lives?

What seems in short supply are BIG LEADERS --- ones that can find joy in other's achievements. The only one I witnessed was George H.W. Bush, Sr. (Reuters) who in a moment of BIG LEADERSHIP, spoke the truth in words about Obama European trip --- the truth that was written on many other faces of those too small to admit it.

When George H.W. Bush, Sr. was asked by the media whether, as a former head of state who has a sensitivity about protocol, had any thoughts about the appropriateness of Obama's events in Europe, the former 41st President replied with a genuine smiling face, "A little jealous, is all."

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts."
--- Abraham Lincoln

This is what I want to belief is possible...there is magic in believing we can create a better world than we know today...together. What do you think?

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
author and founder, President and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work (June 2008)
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
Berrett-Koehler - BK Business

If I were PRESIDENT...

If I were President of the United States, one of my priorities would be re-evaluate our policies, laws and practices for removing presidential incompetence in a timely manner. Our Founding Fathers obviously couldn't have imagined that we would have allowed our country to be disgraced by poor performance, greed, and disregard for the Constitution and the people of the United States in the way we have all experienced. In a company or corporation, the Bush Administration would have long ago been fired.

Today, I read an Editor's Letter in Vanity Fair by Graydon Carter. He summed up the issues at hand this way:

GRAYDON CARTER - Editor's Letter, Vanity Fair
"It can fairly y be said that politics brings out the worst in people. And at times simply the world people. ...In less than a year, the Bush administration will strut out of office, leaving the country in roughly the same condition a toddler leaves a diaper. The report card on this White House will be a series of F's.

• An optional war that has cost the country dearly
  in lives and resources? --- F
• Our reputation, military, and economy in tatters? --- F
• Wall Street an unregulated disaster? --- F
• Banks in crisis and airlines in bankruptcy? --- F
• A national debt that is through the roof? --- F
• Oil at more than $113 a barrel? --- F
• A tax system that favors the rich over the poor?
• A generation of environmental protections shot? --- F
• Five-year record low in consumer confidence and new lows in "Are we headed in the right direction? polls? --- F
• The loss of a great American city? --- F"

I would have to add to the list an --- F for the heartbreak of watching the disgrace of the Office of the Presidency in ways one could not foresee. The whole thing makes me sad. I would love to blame it solely on BUSH. This would be easy, but each of us seems to bear the responsibility in part for standing by paralyzed, helpless to change anything with a system unprepared for this kind of leadership failure.

If I were President, it would be a TOP priority to make sure this never happened again.

What would you do to change our policies, laws and practices?

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
author and founder, President and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work (June 2008)
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
Berrett-Koehler - BK Business

BEGINNER'S MIND: We need a new approach!

In every direction, it is clear we need a new approach in how we think and behave and interact with each other, our country, our world, and the planet. Some days I ache, don't you? The more you take-in and ponder, the more you see the mess we've created for ourselves by our biases, our inaction, our indifference, our busyness, our closed-minds to anything new and different.

When I watch the highest leaders in the land tearing down each other with violent tongues, lashing out, making fun, doing anything to divide and conquer to win vs. reaching for a new approach. I admit Hillary has been deeply disappointing to me. Not because I would love to see a woman in the White House some day, but because of her approach, her divisive rhetoric that violates all I thought she so whole-heartedly believed in at one time, has taken me by surprise. This is more of the same. More of what we don't need. Imagine what our children are taking in when they watch adult leaders have at it this way --- and we wonder why some are disrespectful, violent, and mean. They are watching us.

My hope is going with Obama. Not just the man and the message, but I'm hooked on gathering of people demonstrating their desire for change, to be part, to take back, to reach for more --- I am willing to work for it, are you? It seems to start here.

I learned one time that Shoshin in Japanese means "beginners mind."
It doesn't mean a closed mind.
But an empty and ready mind.
If one's mind is empty, it is always ready for anything.
It is open to new thinking, new questions, new points of view, new people.
In a beginners mind there are many possibilities.
In the expert's mind there are few.

May this be a day of renewal
A clearing out...an opening up
Each of us in our own right
Unique and different
Beginner's minds.
Hearts beating.
For a moment
All in One.

Hold that thought.

What will renewal mean to you today?
What will it mean to all of us in the months ahead?

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
author and founder, President and CEO
Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies

New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work (June 2008)
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
Berrett-Koehler - BK Business