Joy on the Baskeball Court

When I speak of creating a society where as many people as possible can contribute to the fullest extent of their abilities, this is what I mean. The video speaks for itself. You can never be sure who your greatest asset will be if you don’t give everyone a chance to show what they can do.

Remembering 9/11

Ten years ago today I awoke to a call from home insisting that I “turn on the TV!” Like so many others I sat in horror as the World Trade Center towers fell. The difference was that I had been on American flight 11 on September 10 and had been scheduled to fly on 9/11. It happened to be that my trip was moved a day because of when the Jewish holidays fell. Such a mitzvah for a goyem like me.

I had two people who worked for me as well as my client on flights out of New York that morning. There were several tense hours before we ascertained that they were safe. Nothing like the agony of people who had lost friends or family that day, of course, but an intense realization that bad things happen to good people and that much less is under our control than we imagine.

I remember the uncertainty, the need to make decisions about others who were due to travel to join us, and finally to the realization that those decisions were out of my hands. I remember an intense desire to get home.

The lessons I have taken away: be present for every day, take nothing for granted, and make your contributions now for no one knows what tomorrow brings.

Metaphors and Meaning

Will the next 007 be schooled in analytics? Perhaps. The U.S. government is reportedly making a nine-figure investment to better understand how language shapes worldviews with the goal of improving its ability to glean intelligence from non-English speakers. It’s known as IARPA: Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity.

In an article on The Atlantic‘s web site, Alexis Madrigal describes a “metaphor project” which it is hoped will allow intelligence agencies to understand the implicit meaning in what is written and said in a wide variety of languages. This is an interesting exercise to explore how we say what we mean even when we don’t realize it — or perhaps not,  if we don’t think through the metaphors we choose. Language matters — which should make literate people everywhere smile.

Read my full post at the International Institute for Analytics blog.

Idealism is…

I had the great good fortune to interview Michael Brown, co-founder and CEO of City Year, for a forthcoming book on meta-leadership. City Year is a volunteer service agency that deploys corps of young people to assist with worthy projects in 20 cities. It gives these youth the chance to garner valuable experience and share their invaluable energy and spirit. It was an inspiring 90 minutes.

You’ll have to wait for the book for the real skinny on the full interview but I have to share this one nugget: Brown said that inspiration is a skill set, not a mind set.

What he meant was that idealism is attitude in action. It is not simply optimism or a dreamy-eyed reach for the stars: idealism involves a commitment and concrete steps toward realizing the potential of one’s vision. Idealism is doing.

I have more than 10 pages of notes that are going to be great additions to the book. One of the things that I liked best about Brown was that he offered the books that inspired him, and his co-founder Alan Khazei, without having to be asked. Among them was Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth (both the PBS series and the book). I’m going to revisit that one.

I have long been a City Year enthusiast and a believer in national service. I’m sorry that I am too old to have taken advantage of the program but am happy and proud to be a supporter.

Leadership in, or Rather on, a Cup

Sometimes you never know from whence wisdom will leap: I was reading the back of my cup of iced tea from Chipotle Grill and found this quote from Wes Jackson, founder of The Land Institute: “If your life’s work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you’re thinking too small.”

I recently spent a great four days in Atlanta working with my co-authors on a forthcoming book on meta-leadership.  We wrestled with many issues but one that I think we need to go back to is, “What is the purpose of leadership?” In short, why care? Why go to all of the work to develop the capability? Why buy our book? I got caught up in thinking back to Burns’ definition that leadership is the achievement of desired objectives — nice, but rather dry and academic (and a great over-simplification of Burns’ work). One my co-authors, Lenny Marcus, likes the simple “you’re a leader if you have followers” but that doesn’t speak to leadership.

But Wes’s words really hit me between the eyes — reminding me to think deeply about both about my own life’s work as well as the life’s work of the many (we hope) people who buy the book. It is too easy to assume that everyone knows why they want to be — or should be — a leader. Leadership is aspirational and a worthy calling but one can’t take its value for granted or wear it like a merit badge for basket weaving.

We started into a discussion on legacy though there was push-back that legacy is too airy-fairy. I think that’s wrong. I think that what may truly differentiate true leadership from other activities that seem to fall under that name is impact: Will the impact last after you are gone? Will you have had a deep enough impact on other people that they will change what they do and why they do it significantly enough that you can claim to have led that change? Will others take forward what you have done, shape it, and pass it on?

I think that this will be an ongoing discussion. What do you think?