Where is all the wealth?

A healthy world would undoubtedly have sufficient resources to feed every person, to provide health care and to give each individual a decent living. But success continues to elude the global community.

The situation of poverty in many countries is deplorable and expecting impoverished countries to get themselves out of poverty is an extremely unlikely scenario simply because there is a causal loop. Poverty removes the possiblity of adequate education, health care and proper nutrition for billions. Each of these factors reduces the probability that children of the next generation will have incomes sufficient to allow them to pay taxes. WIthout taxes, the governments are unable to pay back billions in loans that have accumulated over the years. While they strive to provide security and a minimal form of governance, they are saddled with crippling  interest payments on loans of prior generations.

How should wealth be re-distributed?

Many, throughout decades have called upon the World Bank to cancel the loans and the World Bank has refused arguing that it could not based on its own  laws. If the World Bank is unable to cancel the loans, and donor nations seriously want to help, they must give sufficient amounts to help the countries pay off their loans. But donor nations themselves are also struggling with debt, leading back to the original question, where is all the wealth?

It occurred to me that the one place where wealth accumulates is with families in the upper echelon of society. When we think about the reality that being born into this life is a random process, there is no one individual who deserves to be born into wealth any more than another. As such, the passing of wealth to new generations gives an unfair advantage to those who were lucky enough to be born into wealthy families. While ensuring the future of our children is a reasonable goal, it is in no one’s best interest to have vast accumulations for some while other starve.

Some families recognize this injustice and choose to create trusts through which the money is redistributed to charitable causes. This is laudable and a reasonable form of monetary redistribution. However, for those that choose to keep the money in their families, the following generations continue to be advantaged in every way and the money and wealth continues to accumulate in the form of stocks, bonds, businesses and properties. But children of the wealthy aren’t any more deserving than the poorest child.

Should extreme amounts wealth be allowed to pass from one generation to the next? Is this fair?

While it may not be politically popular with the few that have unearned wealth passed to them, or those who have vast amounts that they wish to pass to their children through inheritances, it seems fitting that some share of inherited wealth should be used to create a more equitable life for all children. Redistribution through higher estate taxes would be one of the fairest forms of taxation to raise money. Once a person has lived their life and has had a fair and reasonable opportunity to use the wealth they’ve earned, it seems only fair that more of the money should be re-distributed after their passing.  Funds raised in this way could then be used to meet current donor commitments to impoverished nations.

This would benefit the greater good both within a country and and globally.

While I’m not necessarily suggesting that every family be subject to the same percentage tax, it would be reasonable in the case of estates in the billions to be heavily taxed after each generation has passed. Exemptions could be made in the event that a Charitable Trust has been formed, provided that such trust are confirmed to be genuine. By passing more of the assets of wealthy individuals back to the state, a redistribution of wealth would be possible and donor countries could then begin to look at increasing their commitments to impoverished states to the degree necesssary to meet the Millenium Development Goals. Similarly, it would also be reasonable to formalize legal liabilities for nations to ensure the redistribution from one nation to another to ensure that no country suffers excessive poverty while others benefit.

At very least, it would be interesting to model this approach of wealth redistribution to see how it might impact society as a whole. Far from making countries or people worse off, it is has been proven that equitable wealth distribution benefits rich and poor alike. (Click to see a TED video on inequity)

One might look at donor money as priming the pump of an economy. As long as there is insufficient money in the economy, it is unable to effectively create its own wealth. Insisting on payments of past debt cuts off the priming impact of donor money.

Other possibilities exist.

If the World Bank is unable to cancel the loans, then perhaps they might at least consider cancelling all interest and payments for several generations, long enough for these societies to recover. Once an economy is producing sufficient income through taxation it may be able to pay its debt.

Assessments have also identified tax evation by multinationals as being a major drain on poor nations. Global regulation of multinatoinals needs to ensure proper distribution of taxes to the various countries as well as maintaining standards for environmental sustainability and the rights of workers. (Click here for more information)

The issue of Governance and Corruption

While it may be true that impoverished nations have governance challenges, one might question the source of such challenges. If a police officer, responsible for enforcing laws, is unable to earn a living wage, how can they be expected to do their job? If they are hungry, how will they be able to make sound decisions and keep their emotions in check? While corruption is far from desirable, its likelihood increases when survival is threatened. The sooner the underlying causes of poverty are addressed, the more likely that corruption will be minimized.

Although most of my past articles have been addressed in some way to Business leaders who aspire to create sustainable value in their organizations, my readers have come from a wide array of people, some business leaders, some professionals in various fields, and many others.  I wanted to acknowledge all of you and hope that you continue to enjoy reading.

In my last article, I talked briefly about an organization called Partners for Prosperity. You may remember a Remington Shaver commercial where the President came on the television and said “I liked the product so much I bought the company”.  Well, in my case, I didn’t “buy the company” but when I understood what Partners for Prosperity was striving to achieve I “bought” the message and when they found themselves with an opening, they invited me to join them as their Executive Director and I accepted.

Does that mean the end of my coaching practice? Well, no. There are still individuals and organizations that can benefit from my coaching right here in the Cowichan Valley or in Vancouver or other locations and as long as some of my time is available, I’m still willing to serve those needs. Having said that, I’m very much looking forward to my work with Partners for Prosperity.

Since I’ve started with them, I’ve had a lot of questions about what Partners for Prosperity does and what it stands for. In order to explain that, it’s worth getting an understanding of what we mean when we talk about prosperity.

In the traditional sense, prosperity has been based on an economic perspective. When you run a business, prosperity is usually tied to making money. It means having assets or financial ability and that in turn translates into having the freedom to do whatever one chooses.

For us, prosperity is a little different. It’s still about freedom and the ability to choose but not quite so much in an economic sense. It is more about freedom to express culture diversity, to have food security, descent housing and infrastructure, gender equality, availability to education, fundamental freedom of choice with regard to religious belief (or not) without persecution, freedom to investigate and learn, and freedom to develop and share arts and culture.

While economics does play an important role, there is a much greater emphasis on development of the the higher human nature, the virtues which make us what we are, and building of capacity from within a community itself rather than having one community trying to develop another. When we talk about “developing” vs. “developed” countries, it has the potential to belittle the contribution of the inhabitants of the so-called “developing” country to their own success. Prosperity for us involves recognizing diversity as a positive element of life that contributes to the whole, rather than holding to the belief that our way is the best way. It also recognizes the historical impact of certain cultures dominating others and seeks to heal those relationships through love and respect of all people. It strives to root out influences which have bred dependency on aid, recognizes individual and community rights to self-determination, and believes in our growing, albeit early, collective maturity. True prosperity seeks to demonstrate our collective ability to get beyond the historical abuses of power on the part of individuals, groups or governments which have so often lead to hopelessness for those who have suffered oppression and have likewise destroyed the humanity of those who oppress.

Partners for Prosperity’s goal is not to create development projects independently. Rather, it is to listen deeply to communities that are wanting to develop in their own capacity and in their own way. It seeks to partner with them to understand the environment necessary for that development to take place and it engages participants to facilitate the creation of that environment in ways that are respectful of the capacity of the community to develop itself and to contribute back to the greater good of society.

Our goal in Partners for Prosperity is to work closely with Volunteers to help them to develop new understandings of Social and Economic development which take into account the higher nature of humanity and accompanies them in their own development. When we help others to develop, they also help to develop us. When we look around, we find literally millions of people who are willing to serve others, to give of their time and energies, to try to make the world better place for those who follow in their footsteps, but who lack the skills or the means to apply their generosity of spirit. There are also many organizations who have successfully operated in the realm of Social and Economic Development who have valuable skills but who have limited capacity to replicate their successes. Partners seeks to play a role in creating partnerships with these various participants by developing a systematic approach to learning and expansion through research, outreaching to communities, reflecting, planning and applying our collective learning through action. We are developing a systematic approach for sharing and accompanying new Volunteers, for attracting new partnerships with NGO’s, Governmental groups and Businesses, and to make it easier to establish new programs of development lead directly by the communities we are working with.

I’m inviting everyone to participate, whether you are a:

• Business Leader who wants to develop a socially active business or are willing to contribute financially or through your resource pool,
• Volunteer who is willing to take on a development role while adopting an attitude of humble learning,
• Student who seeks to expend your energies while learning new skills, developing deeper insights and creating your own future world,
• Community member or leader wanting to celebrate and share your culture and uniqueness, while developing new capacities and sharing with us,
• An NGO already working toward a better society and have skills or partnerships to contribute,
• Friend willing to share this message with others and you believe that we can create a prosperous world together,

Initially, we are aiming to maintain and develop our projects and capacities in Haiti and Ghana, to maintain existing partnerships such as OUR Ecovillage and others, and to establish or share in other projects on Vancouver Island using these as our learning ground. But we also need to expand and have many connections elsewhere. As we further establish our methodology, we will have many opportunities to help facilitators across the globe in assisting groups of Volunteers in their own locations to establish their own Social and Economic development projects, all of which will be designed to develop the richness and capacity of the communities and individuals involved.

Please take the time to share your interested in helping us or learning more about Partners for Prosperity. Please contact me at  garth@partnersforprosperity.org . Share your vision, your experience, your learning, your hopes and your offers of time, resources or even money and please, share your name and phone number so I can call you back. I look forward to sharing our goals and working with you directly.

All the best,

Garth Schmalenberg

Since arriving here, I have also had the great privilege of participating with and offering my assistance to a wonderful organization called Partners for Prosperity which I’ll speak more about later and provide a link to for those who are interested in learning more.

It is said that when you set an intention, pray to God, and put your intention out to the world, in some mysterious way it the world assists you to achieve your goals. For me, my personal goal in life is this; that in my work and in my personal activities, in my building of relationships with people of capacity (and all have capacity), in my prayers and in the depths of my soul, that my focus may continue to be on bridging gaps in understanding; between people and organizations, between countries and leadership, between those who find themselves in conflict who are unable to resolve issues on their own, between those who are privileged in the material sense and those who, though needing assistance, share their own wisdom and the hope of a peaceful and prosperous world, between those who believe the world is crashing down with issues related to sustainability and those who see the marvelous possibilities of the future. My efforts to connect with business, community and religious leaders, my personal studies which range from social and economic development to research papers on practical application of high tech solutions to current human challenges, my future aspirations of a Masters Degree in Human Security and Peace building, my recent visit to Vietnam and my earlier visit to India to develop business relations and link foreign opportunities with North American businesses, my keynote presentations to various organizations on developing a culture of Sustainability, my service on various Non-Profit boards aimed at building business, spiritual and community capacity, my aspirations of sharing knowledge and learning through my services, my work with organizations aimed at building a culture of learning and development of leadership capacity, my continued goal of linking those who are involved in business and community leadership and those who are involved in social development, my desire to connect good hearted privileged individuals with those who would benefit from their assistance; all these efforts are aimed at developing human capacity and building a more peaceful and prosperous world. 

My intention is to continue learning, growing and sharing by offer my services (keynotes, workshops, facilitation, training, building connections and coaching) to business, community and social development leaders, or anyone else who would like better understand the forces that are shifting a rapidly evolving world, whether they share in this vision of the world or are simply curious and want to gain a greater understanding from my experience and the experience of the many people that I’ve met along the way.

Now that my own intentions are “out there”, I’ll say a little more about Partners for Prosperity.

Partners for Prosperity is an organization the is in the business of building partnerships. Whenever a need is perceived, be they local or overseas, Partners for Prosperity begins the process of engaging their growing list of partners who are able to share expertise, learning, experience, material goods, and, in some cases, funding. Partners for Prosperity isn’t just another NGO or Charity. They are somehow a little different than any organization I’ve seen before. They’re like glue to Social Development in the world.

They see a very specific need in development. There are literally hundreds of thousands of aid organizations in the world who are spending billions of dollars; funds which are provided by government and business partnerships, but which often end up in “traditional” aid efforts. In other words, the organizations fly in, do their work, consume their funds and eventually leave. As much as their work is necessary and valued by the recipients, it often leaves the beneficiaries in a situation, which though better off than before, have little in the means of capacity for creating a sustainable future. They end up dependent on future aid.

Partners for Prosperity seeks to build capacity of the aid recipients so that they are able to support themselves.

How do they do this? They find organizations who have a very specific approach which are already building capacity on the ground, who have specific experience in developing the local skills and talents. These organizations are deeply involved in educating people not only from a material perspective but from a whole life perspective, building intellectual, spiritual, emotional and material capacities used in community development and infrastructure, agricultural development, commerce and business development. Once they find organizations who are successfully building the capacities of local people and communities, they find out what their needs are and then look for other partners who might benefit from supporting them and who will also benefit by learning from them. They facilitate the conversation, share knowledge through providing direct connections, hold conferences on building capacity and venture out to find new projects, new partnerships and new opportunities for sharing experience. Partners for Prosperity is like glue that helps social development organizations to become less necessary and more beneficial by helping the local communities to become more self sufficient. If you want to contribute to a long lasting solution, either financially or by offering skills, services, expertise or material goods, Partners for Prosperity may be one of your best choices.

Please share this article and blog site with friends, family, business associates, community members and others you feel might benefit.

All the best,

Garth Schmalenberg
http://hbi-leadership.com

Among the many brilliant presenters was a young lady who is working on her PhD thesis whose presentation was entitled “What Can Justify Duties of Global Economic Justice? Individual Responsibility, Human Consciousness, and the Oneness of Humankind”. Her name is Shahrzad Sabet. In asking the question, she began by sharing with us the globally accepted UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights. She the began to dissect the responsibilities for the implementation of these rights. To be fair to Shahrzad, I will state that the remaining text is my perhaps feeble understanding of the arguments she so simply and brilliantly presented and perhaps, at some point, I will have a chance to speak with her further to clarify or to refer on-line to her thesis work, but I can only say that after hearing what she had to say, I was completely overwhelmed by her convincing arguments recognizing that there really isn’t a minute to lose in beginning to bring this argument forward on a wide basis, and I am also quite convinced that someday this young lady will be amongst the Nobel Peace Prize winners because these same arguments will force all nations and all people of conscience to take action. Such action will come in the form of adopting laws and practices which will require all citizens of the world (or at least those who have the freedom to vote or make buying decisions), all business leaders and all government leaders to act forcefully in upholding these Human Rights by taking practical, direct and personal responsibility for implementing Global Economic Justice through their votes for responsible government representatives, those who will make the necessary revisions in government institutions, and in turn, through laws which will require all people to make these Human Rights a reality.

In nations such as Pakistan, Haiti, India, Indonesia and many others, billions suffer under the oppression of poverty, the lack of a suitable infrastructure, and through catastophic environmental impacts, while much of the world continues to enjoy their freedoms without paying much attention and governments pay immense amounts of money towards military spending and the expansion of environmentally destructive practices which only serve to further human suffering.

Her arguement goes something like this:

The majority of all nations on earth have accepted the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

A “Right” as opposed to something else (e.g. an idea or a privilege) is essentially the entrenched global and national liability of society to provide something to each individual. As the majority of nations, and their electorate, having elected their representatives, have accepted that this right exists, then the responsibility to implement this right also exists.

She then asks the question “whose responsibility is it to implement these Human Rights?”

Since it is ultimately the responsibility of global agreement and therefore global and national institutions, including national, (as well as regional and local governments) and global (as well as national and local) businesses, and since those government and business institutions are made up of individuals who have power to vote, to make their voices heard, to individually make decisions within businesses, and to take actions such as deciding what goods to purchase and what institutions to purchase from, thereby supporting and upholding these institutions, we also must understand that as individuals we have a legal liability to make decisions which support Global Human Rights (including our own).

While I may not do full justice to her argument, it was too powerful to ignore. And, while it would certainly be better to hear this argument directly from her, owing to the fact that, while my statement of the argument probably has holes in it, she covered off these holes masterfully and it is a message that needs to be heard by everyone and it needs to be heard now, especially by business and government leaders who have yet to act on this responsibility. Any human being who enjoys these essential Human Rights must also acknowledge that if, for some reason, they lost the benefits which are bestowed by these fundamental Rights, they would very quickly be calling for own government to impose laws and regulations to restore them. Since these institutions are the result of our personal choices, we also have the legal and ethical responsibility to make the appropriates choices on behalf of those who have not had the benefit of these Human Rights.

Practical Applications

In writing this article, I am making an appeal that all readers contemplate what they are reading to the depths of their heart, with full consiousness, to recognize their own nobility of spirit and to understand the very real obligation it imposes on them. The responsibility for Global Human Justice is as much yours as it is mine.

What might our actions be?

For one, we can all be making these responsibilities known to every elected government official that we know by writing to them, by speaking to them, by holding sessions with them and by educating them. We can tell them that we expect them to implement these rights Globally. How otherwise can we truely protect our own Human Rights? We can simply present the same arguments to them as were presented to us. The implication of this responsiblity is profound. It would require that all Governments meet together, not just about global economics and not just about global security as in G8 and G20 meetings, but about informing all citizens of the world about their legal responsibilities. Our Government officials would be morally obliged tell the world’s electorate that they are also ethically responsible to vote for those who are best suited to implement these Human Rights regardless of which party affiliation they may hold. The elected officials might in-turn, take efforts to share these concepts with their fellow officials, and to encourage the position of their respective governements to also begin making these Global Human Right their top priority and to initiate a global discussion on how to most effectively implement them.

We might also invite our neighbors to share this message so that each person has the opportunity to deeply understand the implications and to begin to take action on addressing this liability and acting with ethical responsibility. We can do so using all our resources, in our homes, our schools, our government council halls, our churches, mosques, synagogues, temples and other centres of faith.

For those who have the skills to do so, we can speak in public or in business gatherings inviting consultation on the implications for each of us individually and collectively. For those who have the skill to invite, we can invite others and host meetings. We can call upon our business leaders to invite speakers to speak about this approach to every employee.

We might begin to insist that our tax dollars be spent on the reconstruction of our global society by first addressing the most serious Global Human Rights infringements. After all, some day those infringements may be against us. As I am currently sitting on Vancouver Island, which is beautiful but which at some point is destined to experience a severe earth quake, I can only contemplate the rights which have been denied the people of Haiti as a result of a similar force or, perhaps more potently, the Human Rights denied the millions that have suffered at the hands of climate change, and for which we all share the burden of responsibility. What would it mean if all the world’s available resources were spent in solving the most grievious problems first? How quickly would we be able to address our relatively minor local concerns if the world’s government and business leaders would learn how to work together? And at the same time, rather than placing the responsiblity of our relatively minor local concerns on our elected officials, we could work together as neighbors to begin to address our local concerns in service of each other, and encourage our elected leaders to think globally to address the most serious of our personal legal liabilities (i.e. the oppression and poverty of countless millions) on our behalf.

We might insist that our elected officials vote on laws that require our countries’ taxes to be diverted away from military spending, to require that military only serve the purpose of implementing Global Human Rights rather than causing violations of Human Rights. Imagine, for example, that only 50% of global military expenditures went directly into implementation of these legal responsiblities to relieve Human suffering, provide education, protection of personal rights, provide the right to work and to provide adequate food and shelter. How quickly would things change? And in finding global agreement on our personal resposibilities, how quickly would governments be able to jointly resolve issues such as terrorism?

We might ensure that, until these rights are imparted in action to every citizen in the world, we would continue to insist that this be top priority for all governments and businesses that we support.

We might take some time to educate ourselves on the causes and sources of these violations and expose sources that we are aware of (e.g. environmental and other violators of human rights), not for the purpose of condemning them, but for the purpose of raising the awareness of those involved in either actions or through neglect of action, that they (and we) are responsible and help them to make the necessary decisions, providing all assistance we can muster, to rapidly revise their course of action. It is not so much that people wish to do harm, rather that due to human weaknesses, a lack of awareness of the harm we cause, and a lack of discipline (i.e. the lower part of human nature), that we fail to make the efforts required of our higher nature (read that again, it is “required” of our higher nature for what is is after all to be “Human”?)

This is a very deep topic and, I can only hope that others will go deeper than I have and present this arguement with more accuteness and more forcefully than me. I am deeply hopeful and recognize that inside each of us is seed of a higher nature which can grow and which through our collective efforts will grow into a fruitful and beautiful tree bearing many fruits.

I’d love to hear your comments and questions.

Please spread this message in any way you can, by e-mail, by your voice, by inviting people, by speaking on it, by letters, by referal.
Please call if you have any questions.
Please invite me to speak to your group or organization on this vital subject.
Please keep your eyes open for the brilliant potential of the higher human nature wherever it may arise.

My best wishes to you all,
Garth Schmalenberg

http://hbi-leadership.com
http://twitter.com/gschmalenberg
Ph: 416-919-6598

It’s fairly clear that people are just not ready to give up their holidays, their retirement freedoms or their independent modes of transportation. Even those of us who are aware of the severe issues have difficulty giving up our carbon habit. A book called “Right Relationship” by Peter G. Brown and Geoffrey Garver discusses how we have, for the most part, failed to maintain a right relationship with the planet and suggests how we might re-establish such relationships. But if we are going to maintain “Right Relationship” with our planet while maintaining “Right Relationship” with our friends and our families (who often live some distance from us) and our own sense of well-being which requires exercising some level of freedom, we will need to take a different “tack” than just sitting at home. For those not familiar with this use of the word “tack” it is a method used by sailors when sailing against the wind, whereby they zigzag diagonally across the line of the opposing wind in order to reach their up-wind destination. Ironically, the other way of going up-wind is to motor. Even though sailboats for the most part are powered by the wind, most have on-board diesel motors for travelling in harbors where using wind power is unreliable. Yet another source of CO2.

If we imagine Sustainability as our up-wind destination (i.e. the wind of our personal freedoms seems to blow in the opposite direction). What are the “tacks” we might take in order to reach our desired destination? We want to arrive at a place where we are in “Right Relationship” with our planet and where we have the freedoms we desire. We want to get their without having to motor all the way and creating a problem for the planet and for future generations.

One thing that sailors learn is that if they have to tack, it will also take longer to arrive at the destination. If you’re a business owner or someone who would like your business to be more sustainable, ask yourself some questions:

What would it mean for a company, a city or any service or manufacturing industry to find a “tack” that takes them to their sustainable destination without motoring?

It might imply slowing down and it might also imply using more manpower and technology. Sailboats use a lot of technology in the design of their hull, their materials, their sails, and in their navigation systems. They also use solar powered fans and panels or wind generators for charging their batteries. But sailors who rely on the wind must still develop patience and find serenity in stillness. If the wind stops blowing, sometimes they just wait and enjoy the view. True, if they have no food on-board, they may not have a choice other than motoring, but they prepare for these contingencies by stocking up and many also learn to fish so they can live along the way.

What are the lessons for business leaders? As a business leader, imagine that you have to plan to survive for 1 day without oil (metaphorically: fully under sail).

• What preparations might you make?
• What are the things you would need to store up if you were to take a small leg of the trip under sail?
• What new navigational skills would you need to learn? 
• What heading would you take?
• What kinds of attitudes might you need to adopt in your organization and leadership styles that would help you to relax with the potentially slower pace of progress and yet still find ways to compete?
• What might you do with the stillness when the winds of sales disappear?
• Who would you be competing against?
• Would your market change?
• How might you elicit support and “wind power” from your market, your customers and competitors?
• How might you learn to ”enjoy the journey”, and not be entirely focused on the destination?

If we where all metaphorical sailors in our businesses (i.e. powered by wind or solar) how might we share the ride with others who know less about sailing but would like to learn? After all, once under sail, there is very little cost to keep going.

Don’t get me wrong, sailing is expensive. Similarly, moving towards sustainable solutions costs money in the beginning and it may potentially represent a tremendousshift in pace. But if we do it correctly, that shift in pace will be a welcome one. One of the most amazing parts of the island culture is that it takes the time to enjoy life and the bounties of nature, music, arts and creativity. From that perspective alone, it has something to teach company leaders.

What is one “tack” any company or organization can take as a starting point to becoming more sustainable? Hire a CSO (Chief Sustainability Officer)! Alternatively, and here’s a little shameless self-promotion for a good cause, you can outsource the CSO function by hiring a company like HBI Leadership (and btw, I’m now supporting and speaking to mainland BC and Vancouver Island businesses and organizations) where experience with leadership development and an understanding of sustainability already exists.

Enjoy your summer,

Garth Schmalenberg

Please share any thoughts or ideas from this article with friends, colleagues or other business/organizational leaders that might benefit from insights on Sustainability.

Conflict, by it’s nature, signals a need for change. But underlying the existance of conflict is a deeper and more distressing issue. The fact that we accept conflict as a tool and allow conflicts to flourish signals a lack of maturity in human creativity and development. If not handled with extreme care, conflicts are destructive, either physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially, socially or environmentally. The larger the dispute, the more destructive.

What’s worse is that conflicts tend to be destructive long after the disputing parties find a way to stop the dispute. They continue to cause challenges as long as bad feelings linger, until learning occurs, mindsets change and reparations are completed. Some disputes unfortunately last centuries.

But there are better and more creative solutions that using conflict to find solutions. Let’s look at a few impacts of conflict and consider alternatives.

The Impact of Conflict on Organizations
Although organizations are emotionless in one sense, the individuals and leaders who make up those organizations are not. They can be directly injured by the events surrounding a conflict and they may sustain those injuries over a very long period. This impacts both internal team work and relations with external community interests. Perspectives may be severely impacted. Leaders who take a stand for their organization may find themselves repeating “the company line” and be grounded in a sense of righteousness even if the justifications for their perspectives have long since been proven false.

The organizational approach often reflects the attitudes and emotions of it’s leaders. Effective leaders communicate their perspective with influence and those who are influenced support and reflect the concepts of their leaders whether they are worthy of such reflection or not. Such is the nature of organizational culture.

The power to influence gives leaders both the capacity to do tremendous good when openess and learning are encouraged, or to inflict tremendous harm and stunted progress as when conflict arises. It is this fact that compels organizational leaders of all types to rethink the concepts surrounding conflict.

Conflict on the World Stage
Another interesting potential for conflict is how we think about national sovereignty.

An interesting case in point is the recent over-flights of Russian planes in Canadian territory. From the perspective of a Canadian, and what I have always personally held as true, according to the history that I’m aware of, the waters and islands north of Canada’s main land mass to the North Pole have always been considered part of Canada. I hold a specific bias. Now that there’s less ice, this perspective is being challenged by Russia and other countries. Until there are more compelling arguments presented, or a contrary decision by the UN (or another universally recognized voice of the international community), I will continue to believe this area to be Canadian and hold a “Canadian” perspective. That is the view that our sovereign leadership would want us to hold as well, so they make bold assertions on their “ability” and “willingness” to “defend” their territory and engage in conflict if necessary.

The reality, however, is more complex. Land and resource claims are rarely simple. Many wars have proven that they are seldom solved by unilateral declarations of one party over another. While Canada may very will have a valid claim, it is highly unlikely that engaging in conflict would actually benefit us as a solution. 

And while it is true that all nations must guard against putting the world in the hands of individuals who would usurp the human rights of others, in the end, it is the world at large that must decide on issues of sovereignty by international mechanisms of justice. If these mechanisms were to decide against Canada’s claim we would ultimately be forced to comply.

A friend of mine who is a foreign diplomat once told me that his country makes firm claims of sovereignty on disputed lands, not necessarily because they are unwilling to share the resources in a fair and equitable way, but that if they fail to make that strong claim, there would be questions at the very start of negotions regarding their right to share anything, even though from their own perspective, the land is historically theirs. While he saw defense of his country as an essential right, he acknowledged that, ultimately, what’s best for the world is also what’s best for his country and his hope was that an international tribunal would be held to facilitate an equitable outcome.

Another case in point is the Spratly Islands, Pratas Islands, Paracel Islands and Macclesfield Bank in the South China / East Vietnam sea which are all claimed by several countries. The Arabian / Persian Gulf and disputed Israeli/Palistinian territory are also hotly contended. As long as there are no strategic advantages, these situations tend to remain somewhat dormant. But as soon as countries become aware of valuable resources (e.g. oil under the northern ice cap) or where these claims represent strategic military positioning, they are hotly disputed and these disputes can be exceedingly distructive.

So we have to ask the question: Has the time for independent claims of sovereignty passed? Are we not at a stage where the world would be better served by creative negotiation around what is best for the world?

New Problems demand New Thinking
In the world of business, claims are eventually settled in courts, but even there, there are many companies that engage in conflict against local interests simply to satisfy their shareholders. Rather than seeking reconciliation and creative solutions, they deepen their rehtoric and strive to influence their own agenda even when it is widely accepted as harmful by those who are directly impacted by their actions.

As we face an ever worsen global situation, engaging in conflict as a means of solving problems is out-dated.

In a world that is struggling under the massive influence of climate change, accelerating population growth, destruction of oceans, potential threats to food, water and energy supplies and which possess almost limitless destructive capacity, the future of leadership demands that we re-think our methods, that we strive to find common solutions and that we avoid conflict at all costs by learning how to systematically build understanding and act based on global wisdom vs. individual or group interests.

If we want to reach a world which has all the attributes we want, clean, carbon neutral, abundant with food and clean water, equitable for all people, peaceful and which provides an opportunity for each individual to reach their ultimate development, we need to start thinking bigger.

Reflective Consultation and Discourse as an Alternative to Conflict
People are fundamentally good at heart but often find themselves trapped in their own mental patterns. We repeat endless retoric to ourselves and create neural pathways which help us decide right from wrong and good from bad. So when it come time to submit to a higher authority, we find it difficult because we like to believe that we know better. But our thoughts are always incomplete and most likely one-sided.

In a world of competing interests, the leader of vision is the one that encourages discourse and consultation to solve claims and document agreements and then abides by and supports the majority decision, not for the good of the country or their business or shareholders, but for the good of the world.

The irony is that, as the world begins to slowly accept fundamental human rights and is slowly forced to address the enormity of the global issues we are all facing, all countries will begin to converge on the same methods, approaches and realities anyway. In the end, our choices will be limited to those that will ensure our survival.

We see this convergence in the global economy, how all nations work together on policy, and how all nations are involved in some form, albeit not enough, in thinking about how to address issues like climate change.

While making threats of  “ability and willingness to defending sovereignty” or defense of business interests may be necessary when we feel threatened in the light of no clear decision mechanism, we also need to recognize that such threats are ulitmately idle until all claimants have been heard and decisions are made in the court of international opinion or, even better, by international tribunals created for the settlement of all important claims. The UN and world court are a start but education is required.

Learning the skills of frank and respectful consultation coupled with an attitude of detachement are essential in today’s businesses and political environments. Let’s hope that our leaders begin to appreciate the benefits of this approach and strive to educate themselves and their organizations accordingly.

All the best,

Garth Schmalenberg,
Web: http://hbi-leadership.com
Blog: http://sustainabilityculture.com
E-mail: garth@hbi-leadership.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gschmalenberg
Linked-In:
Phone: 1-416-919-6598

Ideas are to be shared. Please feel free to comment or to share these ideas through your favourite bookmarking site or by e-mail.

Benefits of Carpooling

What are the other benefits of carpooling? First, you make friends, get to meet someone new and get to know them well because you see them on a regular basis. Second, you get to share costs of commuting. If you still have a car, at very least you save on gas. If not, you may get to save on repairs, insurance and other costs. Third, if you’re riding with someone else, you may get a little more time to sleep before getting to work. Fourth, in many cities you save time because you get to use designated carpool lanes. Fifth, if your company supports carpooling, you get to leave at a regularly scheduled time(and for reasons I’ll explain later, this is also good for the company). Sixth, you help to save the planet. In the battle against climate change, you get to reduce carbon emissions by sharing a ride directly (more riders is better) and by reducing average commute time for everyone, you help every vehicle on the road because all of them enjoy a slightly shorter commute time. Yes, as even one car comes off the road, there is just a little less congestion and every other car benefits a little and contributes a little less carbon.

Getting your Company Involved

There are many ways to participate in car-pooling and there are many direct and indirect benefits to the company for doing so, not the least of which is your company’s contribution to reducing CO2. But before you roll-out a carpool plan, it is like many other projects, you need think about how to inform staff and management on the benefits to them and to others. Following are a few steps to consider:

1. Have a sustainability speaker come in to do lunch and learns.
   (Most of us who are involved in developing Future Oriented Leadership and Sustainable Cultures would love to speak to your organization)
2. Have a sustainability speaker at a sustainability program roll-out meeting 
3. Find other ways to educate employees on the urgency of reducing their CO2 contribution, and guide and encourage employees to activitely participate.
4. Have a means to measure and report on impact so that you can promote the benefits to others.
5. As with all other organizational changes, this change is behavioural and requires some adjustment. Train managers ahead on the benefits to the organization and to the planet so they will support the plan and deal with any minor inconveniences appropriately (e.g. like having to let employees go home at scheduled times in order to meet their rides). Employees benefit from less stress commuting so are more productive during working hours. Managers benefit from being more organized and respecting their employee’s time rather than randomly overworking them.
6. Speak to other businesses who have successfully implemented Carpooling plans.
7. Post your own carpool sign-up lists and promote car-pooling internally.
8. Promote car-pooling by giving incentives such as prefered parking spots to those individuals who make the effort.
9. Sign your company up on a Carpooling site.

Businesses who are interested in the environment can sign-up on one or more of these software packages including the one offered by the local communities (in Toronto and surrounding area, Smart Commute) and make their offices as destination points, making it easier for willing riders to find each other.

Getting Involved as an Individual

Many Cities including Toronto and surrounding communities make carpooling software available for free to users. You can sign-up and get matched to someone with a similar route and time automatically. If you live in the extended GTA or Hamilton area, you can sign-up for free through http://www.smartcommute.ca. For individuals in other locations, it is well worth your time to do a little searching to find carpooling web-sites.

If you’ve never done it before, give carpooling a try. You may actually enjoy it.

A few other ideas for reducing carbon related to communiting.

For some companies, another easy option for contributing to carbon reduction is by permitting flex hours, which allows employees to drive at non-peak communing hours, thereby reducing congestion, travel times and CO2 emissions.

Tele-commuting is an even better option which gets cars off the road entirely. As with all other changes in employment practices, implementing tele-commuting will require some thought and possibly new equipment and tools but it can work very effectively with side benefits for employees and it can also be a tremendous retention tool for keeping forward thinking employees.

Encourage biking to work. This is not only good for reducing carbon, it can help to promote health of employees. Providing showering and change facilities is helpful but not always required. Definitely providing a safe place to lock bikes is helpful.

Government Involvement

For Governments, besides providing access to carpooling software, they can consider implementing tax breaks for companies that can demonstrate CO2 reduction by either actively working towards helping employees travel at non-peak hours, engage in carpooling, promoting carpooling plans and enabling telecommuting.

Some governments have also paid individuals for traveling at non-peak hours by charging other commuters congestion charges for traveling during peak hours.

Many governments have created special lanes for carpooling and of course for bicycles.

The Car Pooling experience

Not everyone who tries car-pooling has a great experience, but most do. At this momemt, most of my work is done at off-peak hours or from my home, However, every car pooling experience I’ve had has been very positive and well worth the effort. If you haven’t tried it, make the effort. In almost all cases, the benefits easily outweigh the negatives.

All the best,

Garth Schmalenberg
web:  http://www.hbi-leadership.com
e-mail: garth@hbi-leadership.com
Phone: 416-919-6598
twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gschmalenberg

If you find these idesas valuable, please share them through your favorite bookmarking site or by e-mail. Also , please share your comments and any links to carpool web-sites that you’ve found helpful.

A Harvard study Global Warming’s Six Americas looked at Americans to gauge their attitudes toward climate change. The study determined that 18% of the US population are alarmed about Climate Change issue, 33% were Concerned, 19% Cautious, 12% Disengaged, 11% Doubtful and 7% Dismissive, which means that they actively oppose work towards elimination of GHG (Green House Gas), viewing it as wasted money and effort. In the words of Kofi Annan, “Climate change is a silent human crisis, yet it is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time.” Looking at the figures alone, we might feel somewhat discouraged about the possibility of achieving universal sustainability. But, there are also other ways of looking at sustainability which might make us more optimistic.

Encouraging a cooperative view of Sustainability

After reading the Six Americas report, I wondered what the level of support for “Sustainability” might be if the Harvard study had asked a slightly different question which concerns the level of support for sustainability when viewed it in its’ simplest and most individualistic form. For example, “Do you agree that you are entitled to food, water, shelter, education, jobs, health care and a clean environment, rights which are essentially enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the constitutions of most progressive countries?” My hunch is that there would be almost universal support. But that’s really what Sustainability is about.

The challenge that we face in gaining higher levels of acceptance and participation lies in the fact that most of  us are not directly confronted by the impacts of our behaviors on a day to day basis, even though in many countries, the impacts are becoming more obvious. As we look out from our windows and live our lives, our own world might already seem relatively sustainable, and, from that perspective, there is little urgency to make it any more sustainable.

In much of the world, especially in northern or southern climates, we see sunny days, breath seemingly clean air, have ample supplies of food and water and have no major problems other than finding work, or perhaps stress from working too much. We can’t see the CO2 levels rising, and other than what we see in the media, issues such as poverty, water shortage, starvation are literally a world away.

For those of us who live in cooler climates like Canada, the prospects of global warming seem almost inviting. After all, who wouldn’t want it to be a little warmer? And there are many other countries that face a similar dilemma. It isn’t that we don’t understand climate change as a potential threat to our way of life, it’s that we have precious little energy either during or at the end of our work day to think deeply about the inherent opportunities of taking action, or the potential negative consequences of in-action. As long as we don’t see immediate and severe consequences, we will tend to take the road we are most accustom to.

A Scheme to Encourage Involvement

After speaking with many experts on the subject of sustainability, looking through many organizational schemes which are designed to promote, educate and encourage support of the sustainability movement and contrasting the countless efforts and billions of dollars spent by these organizations with the progress that has been made to date, most proponents of sustainability still conclude that the rate at which we are adopting and acting on a vision of sustainability, through our contribution to environmental, social or economic initiatives, and our movement toward a “net zero” world is painfully slow. Many would agree that it’s too slow.

Among the many global initiatives, the UN Global Compact , the Global Reporting Initiative, S – bar (the sustinability rating group), and the various Green Building Councils are a few that I’ve had time to investigate in some detail. There are also thousands of private initiatives such as Al Gore’s initiative, the Inconvenient Truth, The Clinton Foundation, and others each of which have generously contributed to the world effort. And even the many corporations and government entities who have been forward thinking and dutifully jumped aboard the sustainability band wagon are only really started along the path.

Without devaluing the many efforts, there still appears to be some missing links, at least one of which is a simple shared vision of sustainability and a mechanism that will help us all to measure the steps along the way.

Based on my own assessment, what appears to be missing is this:

1. A mechanism of tying the good heartedness of people to informed, simple and progressive action.

After doing just a little investigation, it’s easy to see how complex of an issue we face. As individuals, we are unable to unravel the complex web of possible solutions with the little available time we have. But it occurred to me that people would be happy to participate and show their support if there was a simple, beneficial, and encouraging means of participation. No one wants to be dragged into a new culture out of fear, threats of disaster, or by being told that they would need to give up their old and comfortable way of living.  But if we can start to show our support by simply stating it, I suspect, most of us would be willing to do that. A statement like “I support working with others to make the world a better place to live.” would be a fairly easy first step and yet would enshrine the most fundamental principles and values of sustainability. It also incorporates an agreement to “work cooperatively” towards that endeavor. Once we know who the supporters are, we can work with them to make their life better as well as our own.

2. A simple mechanism of sharing the message with others.

Generally, when we get involved in something that we feel is helpful to others, we like to share with them.  Social networking is a good example of how we involve others in our personal cause.  Viral marketing is another example of how good ideas spread through an exciting message. While both of these methods may be used to encourage others to participate in good causes, the question then becomes “participating in what and how will that help solve the problems we’re facing?” Simply stating our good intentions is great, but it’s not enough to actually accomplish anything. By slowly engaging those who are willing to support the initiative, it is like starting a flywheel. Once spinning, it’s hard to stop. And we reward the effort of sharing by acknowledging their higher level of contribution. More about this later.

3.  A simple, encouraging, solutions oriented approach

Much of what we see in media focuses on the parts of sustainability education that look at the negative consequences of in-action. Although these are important messages for informing us about what’s happening, but these types of educational programs eventually have a numbing effect and rarely help us to envision more clearly the future that we are moving towards. Not all initiatives are negative though. There are many educational initiaves that are geared toward building theoretical and practical knowledge of sustainable solutions. MBAs, LEEDs building programs, model building initiatives, sustainability tours and courses are just a few. While there are many incredible initiatives for sharing the solutions, there is still a disconnect on the ground level without a centralized and systematic means of sharing and diseminating information about practical steps on a large scale. As we become more educated on the subject of sustainability, we also need to know how to share this information in relatively simple understandable steps.

As we advance, we need to know where we can find effective and reliable solutions. We need to have systematic ways to know who needs help, we need to know what to share and how, and we need to know who can help us as we also strive to get to the next level. By systematizing the approache, we reducing the amount of effort required in gaining the knowledge we need. One of the most powerful ways of multiplying this effect is by helping businesses to gain capacity in both doing and in sharing. And if there are additional rewards and recognitions for taking these steps, we are likely to feel more encouraged to take them.

4. A simple way of introducing rigor to the process which gives the participant a supportive means to ramp up their efforts

Participants first need to know they are part of a community who wants them to succeed.  We are all in this together and, in all other respects, we may choose to compete. But in this one, we need to cooperate.

Much of the challenge in getting companies to participate in reporting initiatives in the past has been the unintended consequence of exposing corporate weaknesses. But until you start seriously thinking about your impact and start measuring it,  you never know how far you have to go. Any successful approach will need to encourage transparency without any initial penalty, either monitarily or in reputation. Exposing weaknesses must be viewed by all participants as a step in the right direction, however ugly the initial exposure. The weakness is essentially a request for guidance and assistance from more capable organizations.

By providing the tools to do self examination first, and educating businesses on the process of becoming more rigorous about measuring sustainabity, and by providing tools and assistance, each participant slowly builds the capacity to know what to do next.

And by participating in a cooperative sustainabilty endeavor a business is rewarded with both the assistance of other participants and the many unforseen benefits of becoming progressively more capable in adding sustainable value through their services and products. But as participants, they also share the responsibilty of helping other organizations to attain that capacity.

That leads to the next question: “Who should we help?”

At earlier levels of the process, it’s enough to measure ourselves and our own corporate contribution to the value chain. Later, we begin to look at our suppliers and expect that they also participate at some level. And finally, as we become truly mature in the process, we are able to choose and assist suppliers who are willing to make the effort to becoming sustainable themselves. The rigor comes in imposing this level upon our own company but the rewards are also great. By introducing truly sustainable approaches, our organizations become well recognized for having acheived the higher levels of capacity.

Just as in school, we want to advance to the next grade level. If we think of sustainability as a cooperative learning effort, we know that progressing to the next level requires us to have more rigor and more capacity. Within each grade, we are scored in different ways. Just as we cannot expect someone in kindergarten or grade one to be as wise to the world as a university student, we cannot expect newly enroled participants in this process to adhere to the same rating schemes as those who already adhering to the Global Reporting guidelines and who may have the financial capacity to devote entire departments to the sustainablity issue. At the same time, as we first join the process, we need to feel that once we have joined the community, the community is there to support us, not to scorn us for being late comers to the process.

And once we have joined this community, there are ample opportunities to think about what it means to be 100% sustainable and to get a better handle on the larger implications. For example, I may be sustainable in my own part of the value chain, and in my businesses contribution to the world, but if I continue indefinitely to buy from suppliers who have no interest in becoming more sustainable, or if I’m not aware of their activities, I inadvertently contribute to an unsustainable situation. Similarly, if my rating only reflects my part of the value chain, my clients don’t really have the whole picture either.

Getting to the next grade means that we self impose a more rigorous rating approach. The approach needs to provide the tools to be able to examine our own suppliers, and our supplier’s suppliers, and be able to assess their impact on the world as well. And at the highest levels, our own rating need to reflect the ratings of all of our suppliers. Only this way will we be able to make informed decisions and know which of our suppliers are most in need of assistance.  As we are more able to find out how suppliers are doing, we are able to choose those with the best track record and we are also able to encourage and support suppliers who are not yet at the levels that we would want.

5. A view of 100% Sustainability as a step in the process

Achieving a net zero impact will be a challenging task for a world that has long been accustomed to exploiting the resources of the earth with little regard for the long term impact.  But we are changing and it is only through having a unified and clear vision of what a sustainable society looks like that we will ultimately achieve this goal. So the highest level of participation and the highest level of rating would be given to a company that adds its value with a net zero impact and which uses only suppliers who also have a net zero impact.  While this may seem like an impossible task, it is through 100% participation that we will begin to see the emergence of companies with this level of achievement.  We can envision that clusters of companies who depend upon each other will become the first to achieve this level.  Others will undoubtedly follow shortly.  As there is an expansion of the number of suppliers who are rated as 100% sustainable, it will become significantly easier to achieve this rating.  The challenge we face now is that what ever supplier we use, we ultimately depend upon organizations that have not achieved this rating.

A Graduated Solution

In devising a scheme to encourage participation in sustainability efforts, I was deeply aware of some of the current reporting and rating initiatives. Rather than introducing yet another rating scheme, it seemed prudent to share these ideas with other rating organizations who might choose to join together and adopt them.

Ultimately, if we can come up with one single connected rating approach for all companies, all nations, and all people, we will have achieved something truly significant. Recognizing that such an approach will require immense amounts of Data Storage, this endeavor requires the assistance of an organization with global reach and one which is already established and funded. While the underlying ratings will increase with the size and complexity of the organization, the approach for sharing this information need not be too complex.

My hope is that a few of the more well known organizations: the Global Reporting Initiative, the S-Bar sustinability rating organization, the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, CIES and others work together to implement a creative system such as the one proposed.

The system I suggested to S-Bar works on the following basis:

To attain level 1- supporter, you must simply sign-up and there may (optionally) be a small fee. For that fee, you get a web-site listing as a supporter. Perhaps your employees get a sustainability pin of a certain color (e.g. a black star with the main dimensions of sustainability as its points and no rating at first)

To attain level 2- sharing, you must document on the ratings web-site, all of your suppliers even if they are not participants. Second, you must share information about the program with them. You must also learn and understand the self-rating system and prepare for a self-assessment and self-rating. At this level, you must agree that your goal is to help supplier companies to participate and to improve. The associated star color might be brown.

To attain level 3 – committed, you must ensure that all of your suppliers are at very least at the 1 – supporting level. You must have completed the self assessment and given yourself a rating. The rating would have different levels for each component of sustainable behaviour. S-Bar already has a system under development for this purpose. The associated star color at this level would be yellow.

To attain level 4 – complying, you must ensure that all of your suppliers have reached the committed level and have self-rated themselves. Your proposed rating becomes a calculation based on the proportion of your revenue spent on each suppliers multiplied by their rating plus any rating that your own company has for itself. The concept of this rating is that you only rate that part of the value chain that you are directly responsible for. These two rating may appear separately at first. The color at this level would be orange.

To attain level 5 – reporting, you must report and begin setting goals for achieving a zero impact. At this level, you are also preparing for an audit by following specific rating guidlines and you must have a schedule in place for achieving sustianabilty goals. The reporting may be done according to the Global Reporting Initiative or other accepted standard. Specifics of the report method may vary by industry, however, the translation of ratings for the global ratings guideline would still need to hold. The color at this level would be red.

To attain 6 – audit level,  you must have an audit to confirm your assessment. All of your suppliers must be at least at the 4 – complying level. There is an encouragement at this level to either help your suppliers to become compliant or to seek other suppliers who are compliant. The star color at this level would be violet.

To attain 7 – optimized level, each of  your suppliers must have been audited and each must have a clear plan for reaching zero impact including changing suppliers, energy sources, and a plan for social contribution, etc. I would like to suggest here that we cannot allow the concept of social injustice to continue on, so at this level, there needs to be methods of bringing developing nations and people to the table and helping them to become participants. I haven’t worked this out exactly yet but there are others who would be able to contribute to this idea. The color for this is a blue. Your rating on each part of sustainability would be available on the ratings web-site.

To attain 8 – sustainable level, you and all of your suppliers must reach this together.  The color for this level is, you guessed it, green.

Summary

Although the details of any plan would need to be discussed with participating organizers, the underlying philosophy of contribution, consultation and connection would need to be up-held. After all, we are in this all together and if we take on the responsibility for our own part of the value chain and all encourage all of our suppliers to do their part, eventually, we all reach the goal of sustainability together. I’d love to hear your comments and would be happy to participate in any effort to implement such a plan. Also, if you like this idea, please share it with others.

All the best,

Garth Schmalenberg, B.Eng. CPCC

Corporate Leadership Services: http://HBI-Leadership.com
Sustainability Culture Blog: http://SustainabilityCulture.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gschmalenberg

44 Bambi Trail, Bolton, On, Canada L7E 2G3
Ph: 1-416-919-6598

The speakers before and after Susan told of their life stories, how they came upon some incredible personal hardships, how they overcame their hardships, what they learned, how they had subsequently built successful businesses and how they could help us in doing the same. They were terrific speakers and I truly enjoyed them.

But Susan took a very different approach. She started her presentation with just a sentence or two about her own background, quickly brushed past that part of the presentation, and went on to the story of her work as a PR specialist with her company Babble On Communications.

What struck me was that during her whole presentation, she directed her attention entirely to the causes she was working on and kept saying how fortunate she was to be able to work with these wonderful people. Her focus was entirely outwardly directed and she expressed her excitement and passion about the people or causes she was associated with, whether they were clients or not. Her stories were about their contribution to the world, not hers.

Her story stood out for me because it was so different from the other two talks. Since I hadn’t met a lot of PR specialists I thought perhaps that’s just the way they work. But after recalling the few PR specialists that I had met, her talk still seemed very unusual. Besides having incredibly compelling causes, she got my attention because something in the way she communicated the story told me that she was a much bigger part of the story than she was saying. And I got the very distinct impression from her knowledge of details and activities, that she took these causes very personally, not just professionally.

I was convinced there was more to the story and decided that she would be a good candidate to interview for my series on Business Executives who promote sustainability.

As much as I want to say more about Susan, and I will later in the article, I don’t think she would be very happy unless I first say a little about a few of the causes that she has dedicated her life and work to, and for which she shows so much passion. Besides which, they are stories that help to fill the picture of who Susan is and how she spends her time.

The James fund

The James fund was started by a six year old boy, James Birrell from Peterborough Ontario, who was suffering from Neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a very rare and painful form of cancer which strikes primarily young children and which destroys their nerve endings. Children with Neuroblastoma, at least when the story began, rarely survived more than a few years and, due to the rare nature of the disease, at least the time James was diagnosed, research on Neuroblastoma was virtually non-existent. There were just too few cases to make research for a treatment commercially viable for drug companies. Susan noted that even the equipment for treating cancer is primarily designed for adults and often difficult to use with children. But little James Birrell, who was destined for a life of extreme suffering, didn’t let that slow him down. With assistance from his father Syd, he decided that he would start a fund to raise money for research. At the time James was diagnosed at the age of 4, Syd was also raising two other children and caring for his wife, Pam, who was herself was just recovering from breast cancer.

Susan described the cancer research situation and the challenges of the medical industry in a fair amount of detail and it seemed from the comments she made, that she had spent quite a lot of time directly involved with the project. I’m not sure about this so I’ll ask next time I speak with her. She told me that research done on adult cancers do not necessarily have a great bearing on treatments of childhood cancers whereas research on childhood cancers apparently has tremendous relevance to adult cancers, the difference apparently as a result of the rapid growth of cells in children. Susan commented on how funding for research is focused on the same corporate criteria of quarterly results that influence most business decisions and like so many decisions in corporate world are designed to win the tiny battles but tend to lose the war.

James was a very active child and his favorite saying was “Ya can’t let cancer ruin your day”, and so he decided to live his life that way. During the course of his fund raising efforts, he gained the attention of many celebrities including Mr. Dress-up and Fred Penner and astronaut Chris Hatfield. He also enlisted the help of an engineer, James Muit, who helped him build a soapbox car to race in soapbox derby. James took a serious spin in the final race but it was all good. You can see the clip of James’ race on W5. And James used to spend time with the cast and crew of the Kratt brothers’ program Zoboombafoo, a children’s program for which Susan is the PR agent.

James also managed to attract the attention of actor Tom Hanks, who later became a patron sponsor of the James fund. James wanted to talk to Tom Hanks because of his role in the movie Apollo 13, a movie which James loved because it was all about space and overcoming the odds, two of his favorite themes. James and his family spoke to and corresponded with Tom Hanks on many occasions and Tom Hanks sent the gift of a toy Astronaut to James.

Susan talked about the many selfless efforts of Tom Hanks in helping James to raise money and how he continues to contributes directly to the fund through dedicated acts of service. He wrote the forward to the book written by Syd Birrell, aptly named “Ya can’t let cancer ruin your day”, and dedicated his time to many events to help the fund raising effort. Among them, Hanks generously gives James Fund signed merchancise from many of his films to help in fundraising efforts, including the da Vinci movies and Cast Away, donating countless signed volleyballs for the cause. And Susan remarked that he did it always on the quiet, never in a very public way.

James died at home 7 years ago just after his 8th birthday. But he remarked prior to his passing that he would always be fighting cancer. No doubt that through the efforts of the many he inspired he always will. James left an enormous legacy of courage and contribution that few of us will match. And he still lives on in the memories of the people he touched and through the James fund which has now raised over 3 million dollars for Neuroblastoma research and through the lab at SickKids named in his memory.

His father’s book “Ya can’t let Cancer Ruin Your Day” is a collection of e-mails that were written during the course of James’ short but powerful life on this planet. The book is available nationwide in Chapters, and copies of the book were purchased by a number of philanthropists and donated to many paediatric oncology hospitals throughout North America including 17 here in Canada.

In addition to raising funds James’ case attracted the attention of leading researcher, Dr. Kaplan to work at sick kids. Dr. Kaplan’s approach was if you have a theory and some science to back you up, try it. Susan commented that Dr. Kaplan enjoyed working in the Canadian system because it fosters greater cooperation between doctors whereas the US system fosters competition.

In her own very humble style, Susan spoke very little about her own contribution, but it was clear that all of these activities were far more than just business for her. She was part of the story even though she never really said much about what she did.

The Kratt Brothers connection

Susan went on to tell of her admiration for the Kratt brothers (her clients), and the amazing work they were doing in the world. The Kratt brothers had pitched their ideas with a number of US television networks and weren’t getting very far. They were told that their program was too complex for kids. But they we persistent and not about to give up. They believed that kids had the capacity to learn more complex ideas about the world and nature than we generally acknowledged. The Kratt brothers hired Susan as their publicist and with her help they were soon spreading their message, educating kids about the environment and nature through their hit TV program Zoboombafoo. They went on to do a series on the National Geographic channel and another on PBS and they started the Kratt Brothers Creature Hero Society at the request of kids who were desperately looking for ways to help the animals they love. The first project under the KBCH Society banner was ”Grizzly Gulch”, a program to purchase a vital piece of land in Montana where the Grizzly mothers learn to take care of their young. They expect to have the necessary funds to complete the transaction by August.

I asked about the Kratt brothers and their connection to James Birrell. Susan said the Kratt brothers just wanted to connect with someone who needed them and helped out of the goodness of their heart.

And finally, a little more about Susan

Susan started out as an actor and was part of actor unions including Actra, UBCP and CAEA. She did on stage and on-screen work, but soon realized that she suffered from stage fright and it wasn’t what she wanted to do. Susan was under contract to Paragon, producers of Lamb Chop’s Play-Along. Paragon also owned HandMade, which is best known for some of its earlier works, including Time Bandits and Life of Ryan. As a reader for Paragon, she wrote the Reader’s Report for the Kratt brothers first show Kratt’s Creatures ultimately ended up as the Brand Manager for the Kratt Brothers at Paragon.  Babble On’s brand was developed while at Paragon, launching a more fully rounded roster when Paragon dissolved.

And here is where we get to the heart of Susan and why she’s so passionate about her work.

Susan made a conscious decision to work only on projects that she truly believes in. She says she’s a realist and knows that she has to pay the bills and workers, but she’s clearly not all about money and she generally finds more than enough work with companies that are serious about preserving the planet and bringing about social justice. She says she has much less interest or patience for companies that are simply trying to promote themselves as doing good without actually backing it up with action.

Susan works with her husband Mike Erskine-Kellie. Her husband Mike does creative work and Susan does the PR.

Babble On Communications has done work for SickKids, The Childhood Cancer Foundation, Make Poverty History, SoChange (a not for profit), TV Ontario and CBC. They’ve promoted documentaries and/or events with luminaries such as Stephen Lewis (about social Justice), David Suzuki and Ralph Nader.

She talked a little about “Vote out poverty”, an event which Stephen Lewis headlined, and when I asked about Stephen Lewis, she commented that “(for him) it’s not just about AIDS or any one disease, it’s about injustice. He gets the bigger picture”.

What is her biggest learning?

She said that it was all about trying to think about everything through the eyes of others, learning to look at the bigger picture, picking your battles and timing and keeping in mind how you think about the universe. She gave me the example of how she looks at others on the other side of the world and asked how can we allow people on the other side of the world to live in utmost poverty and yet not do anything about it? “What if the paradigm shifted and we were living in squalor? What would we want others to do for us?” If we know the answer to that, then we know what we should be doing to help them as well. When she talked about it, I sensed her frustration with the fact that others continue to suffer. But Susan’s a hopeful person and doesn’t dwell on the negatives.

How do we get others involved?

“Attraction, not preaching” It’s about getting others to want to do what’s right. ”If you say this is good for you and you should do it, you’ve lost the battle.” And while it’s about attraction, she also said it wasn’t about sugar coating either.

She talked about an example with the Kratt brothers. The network was telling them “You can’t use big words like predation” but the Kratt brothers insisted “kids are smarter than you think”. She recalled when one child came up at autograph session, and remarked that the brothers hadn’t been fair. They said what do mean? He said “I was having so much fun that I didn’t realize I was learning”. They try to get the right message out.

I asked how to get people to want to come to you. She said people connect to others through their own story. It comes back to thinking through the eyes of other (do they have good reasons for resisting what you’re saying)? Everyone has their own battles, paying the mortgage, food, raising their kids. You won’t know until you look at life through their eyes.

And she advised that we should get outside of our traditional comfort Zone. Spend some time twittering to the world and listening to what others are twittering about.”

Other observations about Susan

What I also noticed was the intensity of her passion for her work. And I realized at that moment that it was really all about capturing that. If you see someone with that kind of passion and love for the world, you automatically get a feeling that working towards the same thing is a source of joy and meaning and you automatically want that in your life too. You want to help out.

And it’s more than just passion. There are a lot of passionate people in the world. Some who are passionate yet self-interested and some who are passionate because their afraid of what’s going to happen if we don’t do something. Susan’s kind of passion is really contagious because she sees the positive in what others are trying, then she gets personally involved, contributing her own skills and then she tells everyone else. As she helps others to make a difference, you know that’s where she gains her own joy and contentment. She doesn’t have to tell you what it does for her, you just feel it.

Keeping out of the Muck

I asked Susan what she does to keep from getting mired in the muck and negativity of the world. She said that she keeps an open mind and recognizes that some companies and corporations throw around the right terms but don’t always show the right actions. When she sees this, she stays clear of it because she wants to make sure that she always learns something from her clients.

And she also acknowledged that once in a while she starts working with someone and gets caught finding out that their not really what they profess to be.

Philanthropy and Work

I asked her how much of her own work is philanthropic. It seemed a little hard to separate the two because it seems everything she does is for a good cause and one seemed to flow into the other. She said sometimes she gets paid for her work, sometimes not. And she said that sometimes even when she starts off doing something philanthropic, some foundation will see what she’s doing and they’ll invite her to do the same for them, and, of course, they’ll pay her for her work. But she’s realistic. She said in times like these, sometimes the money is there, other times not. “You can’t do much for the world if you’re bankrupt.”

She said she enjoys working with promising young people and that she loved to mentor them believing that they will remember her when they hit their stride. She gave an example of Brandon Schupp who was 13 and on Canada AM and in Globe and Mail from the top of the mountain that he had climbed. He was Readers Digest hero of the year. Susan remarked that she never saw someone with so much humility. And she felt so good about the fact that Brandon still comes by each year and takes her for lunch as a thank you for her help. She said that when Brandon applied for a camp counselor position, he gave her name as a reference. When the camp called her, she realized that Brandon had neglected to mention all his major accomplishments and interview with the media, focusing rather on other skills he had learned about counseling, typical of his humility.

She gave other examples of young people she worked with including Cancer survivors who went across Canada on a bike and one of whom had lost a leg to cancer and more recent work with Cloe Whittaker and Tyson Jerry of Driven to Sustain (http://driventosustain.ca) who are attempting to raise funds by setting a record for the longest journey in a vehicle driven 100% on waste vegetable oil.

She talked briefly about a Disney celebration where Disney had distributed 75 life size Mickey Mouse dolls to celebrities to dress up anyway they wanted. Tom Hanks decorated his in space uniform and held a fund raising event in honor of the James fund. She mentioned that she had gone there to support the initiative and it slipped out that she had travelled at her own expense. After telling me the story, she seemed a little embarrassed for even mentioning it and she said she didn’t like to toot her horn. That was already obvious, but I assured her it was OK for me to toot it for her.

She also said she loved to work with people who created a story out of their life and people who wouldn’t take no for an answer. And she was thankful that her organization was small enough to be able to choose who it works for.

Sustainability and Social Justice

I asked Susan about her view of Sustainability. She remarked that she’s been working in the area of sustainability for more than 12 years, long before the term became popular. Pretty much all of the causes taken on by Babble On Communications are about making a difference in the world. And Susan said she plans to continue on that way as long as she can afford to.

What’s Next for Susan?

She said the Kratt Brothers will be at Dollywood, she would be doing more fun work with sochange (www.sochange.ca) and helping the James’ fund go to an international level. Her Husband is writing a fun classic Arabian internet series to foster cultural understanding, she’s working on Spellz (PBS), and continues blogging on babbleoncom.com (they both have blogs, her husband’s is called “Sick days”), and her husband also has a web site about the character Avery Ant which is themed on Social Justice and has been selected for inclusion in Library of Congress. Avery the Ant runs for different positions including the Pope and Prime Minister of Canada. She mentioned that she had handled PR for a “quasi-spoof” site http://canadianalternative.com which was a web-site for Americans who wanted to leave US to move to Canada when President Bush got elected for the second term. She said that there were actually a lot of Americans who left the US during that period. “We forget that Canada is a country of immigrants.” She also continues to promote foundations such as the Good Neighbors Club.

At that point in the interview she was called away for a trip to New York and I still never got to learn about her direct involvement on many of these causes. What I do know for certain is that she’s incredibly well connected and she uses those connections to make a difference in the world.

I feel pretty certain I’ll be keeping in touch with Susan periodically and I’ll do an update next time I talk to her.

I thank Susan for her time, her passion and her dedication for promoting good and seeing the best in people. She’s an inspiring person.

Till next time,

Garth Schmalenberg

Web:http://www.hbi-leadership.com
Twitter: @gschmalenberg

Shai Agassi, CEO of Better place, rather than trying to convince us that it’s  the right thing to do from an environmental perspective, wants to convince us that it’s a much better thing to do from a commercial perspective.

Going to Electric cars and electric infrastructure, using his plan, will revolutionize the way we think about travel, cost of cars and the price we pay to get where we need to go. And at the same time, we will use clean sustainable energy, clean quite electric cars, and we don’t have to wait 20 years.

Aggasi has been invited by a number of Governments to start working on his infrastructure immediately.

Supporters of his approach include the Government of Israel, the Government of Australia and a number of other nations. In Canada, Premier Dalton McGuinty has also endorsed the BetterPlace approach for Ontario, which hopefully means that we will start to begin seeing electric Vehicles roaming our streets within the next few years.

Shai Agassi, has also gained agreement from major Automotive manufacturers to build electric vehicles, presumably with a common swappable battery pack that can be quickly swapped from the car. His claim is  that the swap can be done even more quickly than filling the car with Gas. While I’m not sure of his design proposal, it seems feasible if the car is built with that objective in mind. After all, just think how fast pit crews work on formula 1 cars. Presumably some type of battery hanger, a release clamp, slip one one, and slip a recharged pack right back in. Not sure how well self-serve would work.

Agassi claims that by 2020 we could have the price of energy down to 2 cents per km and immediately at about 6 cents per km. Not bad considering that even at hybrid rates 5L/100km which is about 20km/$.80, at current prices, we are still at about 4 cents per km. And this, as he points out, is during a serious economic downturn. When the economy starts revving again, you can bet our fuel prices will start skyrocketing.

And rather than paying for the expensive battery pack, we just pay for the car and the pack belongs to Better Place. That way we never have to worry about when the pack wears out. It’s built into the cost/km.

If we can get some innovative thinking around other types of fossil fuel consuming industries, we may be able to make even more significant gains.

Automobiles consume approximately 25% of the worlds fossil fuels and contribute accordingly to the CO2 levels and climate change.

Related Links

• Shai Agassi’s workable plan for electic cars now on TED.com

• Who killed the electric car series (part 1) on youtube.com (you can find all 10 parts)