Gearing Up for Another Class
Last week I wrapped up my Leadership, Justice & Forgiveness class (ORGL532). Next week I fly to Spokane for a three-day intensive workshop on the Gonzaga campus for my next class ā Leadership & Imagination (ORGL502). The course description is somewhat intriguing:
An examination of creativity in leadership through an analysis of imagination, especially in the arts and science; emphasizes the role of imagination in forming cultural images and perceptions of leaders and their functions
Of course, the description is just an abstract ā where the rubber meets the road is in the course material, so ā¦ whatās in store for the upcoming eight weeks?
Richard III
And other materials ā¦
Not a bad variety of materials, I must say. Even though I love to read, I shudder every time I see a 400-page book on the syllabus because I know itās going to be a slog to get through it. This list looks quite manageable, and even enjoyable. On to the syllabus itself and the course requirements ā¦
Well ā if I look at the syllabus, 30% of the grade is attendance at the on-campus sessions. So those 30 points are in the bag. 20% of the grade for online postings describing, analyzing, and evaluating various interpretations of Richard III. Again, those should be fairly painless points. 30% for overall online forum participation. Basically, four decent postings a week ā one annotated question, two responses (in question form more than likely) to other studentsā questions, and one additional question, response or comment. Fairly straightforward. The last 20% is for a Leadership and Imagination project which is described as āSynthesis of leadership and imaginationā. OK, weāll come back to that later.
Letās dig into the on-campus workshop and online forum topics ā¦ looks like there are six sessions for the workshops:
- Imagination and Art
- Imagination and Drama
- Imagination and Film
- Architecture and Imagination
- Imagination and History
- Community Dinner and Discussion
Other than the Dinner on the last day, each of the sessions is between three and four hours long. And the first one runs till 9pm Pacific time on the first night. Yikes! That one might want some rethinking ā for those of us flying in from other time zones, 9pm Pacific could be as late as midnight back home ā¦ I certainly hope theyāre springing for drinks. If not, this could be an expensive three days at the vending machines!
The forum topics donāt look so bad:
- Reflections on the campus experience
- Richard III (week of March 29)
- Rule of Benedict (week of April 5)
- Imagination and Film (week of April 12)
- Architecture and Imagination (week of April 19)
- Leadership and Imagination Project (due by May 5)
This looks deceptively straightforward ā¦
Off to Amazon.com to do some book ordering ā¦ look for updates from the Pacific Northwest late next week!
March 10, 2010
Tags: Gonzaga, leadership & imagination, organizational leadership, orgl502 Posted in: Gonzaga 
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Catching Up and Looking Back
Iāve been remiss in updating my blog. Itās been a busy time at work, trying to get ramped up in my new role and preparing for our Global All Hands meeting and team off-site meeting which both took place last week. This is really the first time in three weeks that Iāve been able to take a step back and decompress. Itās certainly been a fun time, but incredibly hectic. Unfortunately, this tranquility will be short-lived as I still have to write my final paper for my Leadership, Justice & Forgiveness class by tonight. Next week is the last week before Spring Break, so I have to prepare for Michaelaās trip, as well as my own trip to Spokane the same week. The week after that will be a full house here in Dallas since both Christa and Michaela will be in town, followed by another group off-site sometime during the fortnight after that. Busy, busy, busy.
Iām definitely not complaining though ā Iām having fun. The PQO Global All Hands meeting was both fun and educational. Given how much we rely on email and instant messaging in our daily work lives, itās definitely fun to be able to make that human connection and put faces and names together and enjoy one anotherās company. Of course, it doesnāt hurt when the off-site meeting is held at a luxury resort either. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words ā so hereās a mini-essay on my trip to Tulalip, WA for the 2010 PQO Global All Hands Meeting ā¦
  Arrival at Tulalip |
 Exterior of the Tulalip Resort & Casino
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Luxury Room ā¦
ā¦ an amazing view ā¦
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 ā¦ even a pool with a waterfall ā¦
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| ā¦ so much amazing artwork ā¦
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ā¦ and beautiful lounges ā¦ 
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OK ā so in between taking lots of pictures and spending a few hours in the Casino (OK, I left Tulalip up around $500 so I was really happy!) there was plenty of serious business (and eating!) taking place. Thereās one thing you should never forget about off-site meetings. If theyāre done well, the food is awesome. If theyāre not ā then you wonder if it wouldnāt have been more appropriate to have had the catering done by McDonaldās.
And on that note, Iām off to write my final paper for this class ā¦
March 6, 2010
Tags: PQO, Tulalip Posted in: Life At Microsoft No Comments
The Existential Vacuum
Itās hard to believe that there are only two more weeks left in this class. Iāll admit that when I first saw the reading list, I wasnāt thrilled. But, through the first six weeks of the class, Iāve come to appreciate the readings, even if they havenāt really resonated with me. The readings for this module (shown below) could not have been more different ā sexual abuse and forgiveness on one hand, and a psychological exploration of the human condition on the other. Last week, I wrote about my thoughts on the Fraser book, so I wonāt be going anywhere near that book this week. I got into plenty of trouble with my classmates with my āextremeā views on how we should treat people who sexually abuse children ā¦
ā¦ man is a being in search of meaning. We have seen that today his search is unsatisfied and that this constitutes the pathology of our age. The time has come to ask ourselves, What is the therapeutic approach? In order to answer this questions we must focus first on another one; namely how does this meaning-seeking being search for meaning, and also, how does he manage to find it? There is no doubt that meaning must be found and cannot be given. (Frankl, p.112)
That sentiment absolutely captures the current state of modern society. Weāre so addicted to Facebook and Twitter, to email and blogs, to instant news and instant messaging that we have become a nation suffering from self-induced attention-deficit disorder. Letās be honest ā if weāre not being constantly bombarded with information, then we feel lost and disconnected. And Iāll be the first to raise my hand and admit that Iām as bad, if not worse, than most. As Iām typing this up at work (where I am truly a testament to the notion that you can never have too much information – see below for what my desk used to look like. Iām down to three monitors at the moment) Iāve got my blog editor up on one screen, email up on a second, and as always my web browser up on a third monitor ā just so I have instant access to both my Facebook account and my Amazon.com account. As Iām writing, I sneak a peek at my email inbox to see if any new messages have arrived in the last thirty seconds, and then take a quick look to see if anyone that I need to talk to has logged on to Facebook ā all without breaking the rhythm of my typing. Iām pretty certain that in another era Iād have been burned at the stake ā¦
Getting back to the topic at hand (see, thereās that ADD kicking in again), I think the most telling statement in the Frankl quote above is that āmeaning must be found and cannot be givenā.
Can we really search for meaning in the regurgitated swill of mass media and information overload? Frankl calls this āthe existential vacuumā ā a sense of meaninglessness, emptiness and futility. Are we all eternally chained to the treadmill of our everyday existence and go through the motions because thatās what is expected and thatās what we know? Or are we capable of finding deeper meaning in our lives without it being fed to us by religion or through someone elseās actions?
February 17, 2010
Tags: existentialism, organizational leadership Posted in: Gonzaga No Comments
Some Things are Unforgivable
Weeks Five and Six of class are underway. The texts for this week are below. So far, I’ve only made it through the Sylvia Fraser book because it really wasn’t a book to which I could honestly relate, and it really took a lot of effort for me to work my way through it. In hindsight, although it was probably a good thing I did read the Fraser book first, I really wish I could purge what I read from my mind. I suspect that my post below really wasnāt what my professor had in mind (after all, Iām supposed to be discovering my inner servant-leader, my forgiving zen).
There is no way you can empathize with the trauma and horror, unless you yourself have been the victim of sexual abuse as a child. 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will have experienced an episode of sexual abuse before the age of 18 (Botash, A. MD, Pediatric Annual, May, 1997). Most children are abused by someone they know and trust, although boys are more likely than girls to be abused outside of the family. A study in three states found 96% of reported rape survivors under age 12 knew the attacker. Four percent of the offenders were strangers, 20 percent were fathers, 16 percent were relatives and 50% were acquaintances or friends (Advocates for Youth, 1995).
OK – if you’re a parent (assuming you’re not in one of the categories listed in the paragraph above), those numbers should make you sick to your stomach. If they don’t, well … thereās really not much I can do for you. What is as terrifying as the numbers, is the fact that children are afraid to report the abuse because they fear angering the offender, or may blame themselves – "I’m afraid to complain because daddy won’t love me" (Fraser, p.9). Iāve spent my entire parenting life teaching my kids that there is nothing, and I do mean nothing, that they should be afraid to tell me. Ever.
Moving on from the fact that the abuse is so rarely reported, the effects of the abuse last well into adulthood. Memory gaps and dissociative coping mechanisms (becoming numb, or taking on an alternate persona for example) are just a couple of the ways in which the victims cope with the abuse. In Sylvia Fraser’s case, she developed a completely different identity into which she would retreat – an identity that stayed with her the rest of her life.
Now, this class is supposed to be about leadership, justice and forgiveness – call me closed-minded if you will, but I see zero possibility for restorative justice where the sexual abuse of a child occurs. I see zero possibility of forgiveness – especially in cases where the abuser is entrusted with the well-being of the child (a parent, relative, guardian or older sibling).
Call me extreme, but in cases where the sexual abuse of a child has taken place, stick a needle in the offender’s arm, and good riddance. That may sound barbaric to some of you, but as a society, are we not morally bound to protect children using any and all means at our disposal?
February 10, 2010
Tags: forgiveness, organizational leadership Posted in: Gonzaga No Comments
The Morning After …
The 2009 NFL season is finally over. The ā72 Dolphins are still the only team in NFL history to have run the table on a perfect season. The Saints won, the Colts lost. Damn. I was pulling for the Colts because Iām a Peyton Manning fan. I firmly believe that he is the best player in the game today, and will retire as the greatest QB to have played the game. OK, let me pause for a second while devotees of Brett Favre, Tom Brady, Dan Marino, Adrian Peterson, and the New Orleans Saints go into collective apoplexy and sputter their objections. Iāll be back in a moment.
All done? Good. If you watched the game last night, there was a surreal inevitability about the fact that Manning threw an interception towards the end of the game that sealed the victory for the Saints. Letās face it ā we generally donāt expect Peyton Manning to make mistakes. After all, he is a four-time NFL MVP and routinely dismantles opposing defenses with ruthless precision. Oh well, guess heās only 99% machine. Fate it seems is not without a sense of irony.
Speaking of fate, can all those people blathering on about how the Saints are a āteam of destinyā, or how we were āwitnessing history being madeā last night, please put the crack pipe down and go play in rush hour traffic on the freeway for a while? After a while, all this waxing rhapsodic about Hurricane Katrina and ādestinyā simply makes me want to vomit ā¦ all over the person spewing such unintelligent babble. Following their logic, does that mean that we should expect the Haitian soccer team to win the World Cup in 2014? Seriously? After all ā what makes them any less deserving to be a āteam of destinyā than the Saints? By the way, if your answer to that question comes within ten city blocks of regurgitating Pat Robertson, then please take my earlier suggestion to heart and go find a busy highway on which to play. Seriously.
Now, as a somewhat neutral observer, the game itself wasnāt all that much of a spectacle. Come to think of it, neither was the halftime show. Since CBS was broadcasting the Super Bowl, was the halftime show meant to be a plug for their CSI franchises? All three shows feature theme music written by The Who. If so, well then, mission halfway accomplished. On second thought, no ā just fire whoever came up with the idea. Roger Daltrey looked (and sounded) like heād been recently exhumed from a sarcophagus, and Pete Townshend was about as energetic as a coma patient. Oh, and for the record, adding spectacular lighting effects doesnāt make your music sound any better.
I donāt see the Saints repeating as champions. Too many free agents in a league dominated by parity. They should make the playoffs at the very least though. Either way, the fewer times I have to hear the mindless masses repeating āWho Datā as if it were some sort of mystical mantra, the better. I also donāt see the Colts making a return trip to the Super Bowl next year either. Thatās a pity. Since the Super Bowl will be played at the Jerry-bowl next year, I would certainly love to see the Cowboys and the Colts square off. I guess I can hope. Let the planning for next year begin ā¦
February 8, 2010
Posted in: Dallas Cowboys, Sports No Comments
Are you kidding me? Bedlam DL3 … again?!?
Say āBedlam DL3ā around Microsoft folks, and youāll be able to tell the true old-timers.Ā If they reply, āMe Too!ā, or try to stab you in the eye with a nearby implement, then theyāve been around for quite a while.Ā A quick disclaimer ā I wasnāt at Microsoft when Bedlam occurred the first time, so I was spared the nightmare ā¦ once.
Anyways, some quick history on Bedlam – way back in the day, the Microsoft IT department were working on a new tool to manage communications and they created a whole bunch of Distribution Lists (DL) named Bedlam DL <number> with upwards of 10,000 users on each one.Ā Well, someone sent an email to the DL saying, āWhy am I on this list?Ā Please remove me from it.ā which started the nightmare.Ā Almost everyone on the list used the Reply All command and replied, āMe Too!āĀ If you want more technical details, check out the post from 2004 on the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog.
Well boys and girls, the joys of the Bedlam DL are back ā different alias, same effect.Ā Weāre nearing the release of Office 2010, and as with all new software, when people have questions (especially if theyāre beta testing it) they want to ask an expert.Ā Well ā¦ someone unwisely posed a question to the entire population of the Office 2010 Dogfood DL inside Microsoft.Ā Oops.Ā Bedlam DL has been reborn.
One thread has become many.Ā What I find particularly ironic is that people are using āReply Allā to tell people to stop Replying All.Ā Thankfully Outlook 2010 has a wonderful new feature that allows you to ignore email threads in which you have no interest.
Itās called the āIgnoreā button (shown below).Ā Learn it, use it, love it.Ā And stop Replying All to several thousand people ā¦ please!
February 3, 2010
Posted in: Funnies, Life At Microsoft No Comments
Is it possible to grant Forgiveness on behalf of a Group?
Module 2, Week 2 of Leadership, Justice & Forgiveness (aka ORGL532). The material for this may have been the most disturbing in terms of content – Holocaust literature is never a "fun" read. Just a quick reminder, here are the books for this module:
Last week, I wrote about Elie Wiesel, despair, and recognizing real suffering all around us, as opposed to what we see on television. This week, I read Simon Wiesenthal’s book. Forgiveness is an intensely personal experience. Wiesenthal was asked to forgive a dying Nazi soldier on behalf of the Jewish people. From my own viewpoint, I don’t believe that Wiesenthal should have struggled with the question of whether or not to forgive the soldier. As his fellow prisoners pointed out, Wiesenthal did not speak on behalf of the Jewish people. Where, therefore, was his authority to grant absolution to a single soldier on behalf of all Jews, who were still being persecuted and murdered? Although the Jewish people as a whole endured terrible suffering, each person suffered in their own way. That suffering cannot simply be rolled up into a neat package and then forgiven as part of a blanket amnesty. Or can it?
However, Bolek (the almost-priest) raises an interesting question. When all the people that you have wronged are dead, to whom can you turn for forgiveness? Although your repentance may be sincere, is there any real way to perform any acts of contrition? Turning specifically to Wiesenthal’s situation, how can a single individual, regardless of whether or not he is recognized as an authority, grant forgiveness to another individual (or even a group) on behalf of a group? Would the leaders of the Israeli and Palestinian people be morally capable of granting the other side blanket absolution? Would a single Native American tribal leader really be able to grant general forgiveness for the suffering of his own tribe, let alone all of the other tribes?
Wiesenthal’s book raises more questions than answers. I will admit, I set aside the forty or so responses in the second half of the book, because I believe that we each have to reach our own conclusions – based on our own ethical, moral and spiritual baseline, colored by our experiences and worldview. Rather than try to pose a single question this week, I’ll just open it up for the group to let the discussion develop in its own way – without trying to direct or guide it in a specific fashion … after all, there are plenty of questions above to choose from.
February 2, 2010
Tags: forgiveness, organizational leadership, simon wiesenthal Posted in: Gonzaga No Comments
Human Suffering and Evil in the World
Going into Module 2 for my Leadership, Justice & Forgiveness (aka ORGL532) class, I have to admit, I was intrigued ā especially when I saw the topic for our first posting:
Talk about human suffering, describe its influence in your life and describe the understandings that are influencing you in this class regarding human suffering. Human evil exists, this is definitive, what remains to be explored more fully is our response to this evil, in ourselves, in our organizations, and in the world. Give a hopeful response to the depth of learning you are experiencing in this regard. As you read the texts and view the film, and engage the ideas of leadership practitioners and theorists post at least one "annotated" question: i.e., a question you ask that elicits dialogue from your fellow classmates, and is based upon your readings as well as your own experience in personal, organizational, or global facets of community life.
Let me preface my post with a disclaimer. This is a long post, because of events of the last week. I felt obliged to share them with you as part of our learnings because it moved my experiences from the abstract to the real. Our texts for this module are below. I read Elie Wieselās book in less than two hours. I promise you it will move you.
Most of us live sheltered lives. We have a roof over our heads, food on the table, and clothes on our backs. We live in relative comfort and ease. We don’t really know what true suffering is. We occasionally mouth formulaic phrases about the latest global tragedy, or perhaps even donate some time and money. Then, with our social duty done in this regard, we go back to watching "American Idol" and "Lost", and our comfortable lives. In the last couple of weeks, the world’s humanitarian focus has been on the earthquake victims in Haiti. Pat Robertson’s idiotic comments aside, the consensus response has been that the Haitians are the victims of geography – somewhat similar to San Francisco in that regard. Until we are personally affected, our involvement is almost surreal. I grew up in the MidEast during the 70’s and early 80’s. We visited Iran and Iraq before they were torn apart by war. My mother was in Washington DC on 9/11, and on the beaches of Sri Lanka when the tsunami struck in 2004. And to me, despite that, those events still seems surreal. We talk about the horrors of Somalia, the plight of the Kurds, and the conflicts in Darfur, Chad and Kivu in abstractions – we cannot possibly relate to, nor intelligently discuss and understand the true depths of human suffering.
As a society our attention is drawn to the most sensational tragedies, what makes the biggest splash in the news headlines. Today, it’s Haiti. Two weeks from now, who knows which corner of the earth will hold our attention. And yet, in the midst of all of this global suffering, we somehow remain largely oblivious to conditions much closer to home. I’m certainly not going to compare some of the things I’ve seen, or my experiences to those of Elie Wiesel – to do so would be both glib and disrespectful. However, there are certainly parallels that can be drawn between the abstract way in which we regard human suffering and how the people in Wiesel’s hometown of Sighet mentally walled themselves off from Moishe the Beadle’s accounts of what he had witnessed.
Realistically though, to really understand human suffering, we have to look much closer to home. This week, while doing groceries, I had occasion to visit two different grocery stores. The first was a Wal-Mart near my home. It is a "Super Wal-Mart" that services the southern part of Irving. Set aside for the moment any preconceived notions you might have of Wal-Mart as the epitome of the evil and exploitive retailer, as well as any stereotypes you hold about the Wal-Mart patrons. I prefer not to shop at peak times (especially Saturdays), because I do not enjoy waiting in long lines. In addition, peak shopping times is when the shelves (especially in the produce section) tend to be bare. Instead, I stopped in very early on a Sunday morning. The first thing that struck me about many of the patrons was that this was not a typical group of shoppers. Many appeared unkempt. Even though grocery shopping is a chore for many, there is still some semblance of energy, in the activity of anticipation of putting food on the table – the decision-making process. Not so in this case. So many seemed to be living dead. There was no light in their eyes. Instead, there was almost a sense of hopelessness. Clearly they were shopping within a constrained budget – bargain foods, and bulk items filled their carts. You could clearly see both the frustration and sadness at not being able to get "that little bit extra" for their kids, having to say "No" every time one of the children asked for candy, a treat, a soda, or a special dessert. As I watched them anxiously watching the total add up as they checked out (and in some cases, paid with food stamps), I was reminded of a quote from one of my favorite TV shows, The West Wing, "If fidelity to freedom and democracy is the code of our civic religion then surely, the code of our humanity is faithful service to that unwritten commandment that says, ‘We shall give our children better than we ourselves had’". One in five children (19%) live in families that are considered officially "poor". One in twelve children (8%) live in families that we would consider extremely poor. (Source: National Center for Children in Poverty). In other words ā as a society – where is our faithful service to that commandment today?
Now contrast that experience, with what I witnessed at a Tom Thumb store, less than ten minutes drive away, in an affluent area of North Irving. As I entered that store, I saw mostly happy, energetic faces. The quality of products was markedly higher, people were smiling. No sense of hopelessness, despite our current economic climate. Fresh fruits and vegetables, plenty of proteins, whole grains – the hallmarks of a healthy diet – were the order of the day. Interspersed with these were the extras – a special candy bar, box of donuts, or a tub of ice cream. Clearly, although these shoppers may have had financial concerns of their own, their ability to put food on the table was nowhere near as severely impacted as those shoppers that I had observed less than an hour ago.
I’ve rambled on quite a bit here, so I guess I should pose my annotated question – what is it that makes the concept of human suffering and evil in the world "real" for you? None of us can relate to Wiesel’s experience – so what is it that makes you question the motives of your fellow man, and the society you live in?
January 27, 2010
Tags: elie wiesel, organizational leadership Posted in: Gonzaga No Comments
Friday funnies from the bar
Friday afternoon at LC4. There are many people here at the bar. And that means that there will invariably be plenty of socially questionable and inappropriate comments and behavior. So let’s go around the room …
The 20-something Asian gentleman wearing a shirt that looks like it was stolen out of Dale Evans wardrobe who has been checking out his waitresses legs with undisguised lust. He’s praying for mirrrored floors so he can see up her very short skirt …
His wingman is no better, since he took hairstyling tips from Justin Guarini (of Justin and Kelly fame).
There are two women sitting at the bar smoking. Unusually, they are the only two people at the bar who are working on committing suicide in public. you have to admire their generosity though as they are very courteous to one another and are blowing their smoke on other patrons. Etiquette tip girls … the two of you chose to be friends with one another. The rest of us could care less about you. Blow your smoke on each other, or better yet – just do the world a favor and go play in traffic.
Speaking of etiquette, it’s terribly inconsiderate for two people to take up a table meant for six. There are two possibilities – either they are planning to consume so much food that they will expand exponentially to fill the other four chairs or they failed restaurant etiquette 101. Looking at them … this one could go either way …
And it’s still only 5:30 pm … this promises to be quite an evening …
January 22, 2010
Posted in: Funnies, Things that Suck No Comments
Risk-Taking and Forgiveness
Going into the second week of class, we were asked to build on our questions and discussions from the previous week. Remember that our texts for the first two weeks are:
Before I get into the thoughts I shared with my fellow students, I need to pause and reflect on the events of this week.
Iāve recently moved into a new role as a Product Quality Program Manager (PQPM). Essentially, it will be my responsibility to be the āVoice of the Customerā ā their advocate for issues that they run into with our products and services. There are a number of PQPMās, and we each focus on a specific product or area of technology. Since Iām still ramping up, the exact product(s) that I will be responsible for havenāt been fully determined.
This week, weāve had a number of PQPMās in town for a three-day brainstorming session as a precursor to our global offsite next month. Of course, Iām new to the group, so while I canāt dive into specific pain points, or issues related to our group, I do have the opportunity to take a few steps back, and analyze whatās going on from a more detached view, and try to identify appropriate themes in the discussions. Hopefully, my contributions have been valuable! OK, getting on with this weekās post ā¦
We’re all familiar with the old adage, "it is better to seek forgiveness than ask permission". That was certainly my mantra during my childhood (which explains a lot!). On p. 140 of Greenleaf, the opening paragraph in the "Helping Others to Take Risks" section struck me as somewhat telling:
There are many reasons that people are reluctant to take risks, including fear of failure or loss … no one likes criticism, and everyone hates looking stupid, or losing self-esteem and the good opinion of others. Some may even fear that if they do something well they will then be under pressure to do it again.
A quick disclaimer – since I’ve always been a bit of a rebel (sometimes without a clue), judicious risk-taking is second nature for me. In other words, I can’t always relate to the statement above. However – I have noticed that in previous organizations in which I have worked (my current company is all about smart risk-taking, so what follows doesn’t really apply), there has always been lip service to risk-taking, and a thin veneer of management approval of smart risk-taking, but when it comes down to it, managers and other leaders are quick to distance themselves from the person whose idea didn’t succeed.
My question to the group is twofold: first – are you a risk-taker (smart or not) and second – what has been your experience when things haven’t gone quite as well has planned?
January 21, 2010
Tags: organizational leadership, servant-leadership Posted in: Gonzaga No Comments