Say it Better

Blessed Unrest: Not So Strange Bedfellows

Want to read about the largest movement that the media has not covered?

In (his book) The Ecology of Commerce Paul Hawken was “among the first writers who tied sustainability to commerce,” notes Elizabeth A. Evitts in her interview of Hawken in Metropolis magazine.

Responded Hawken, “ I didn’t get a lot of support at the time. But this week’s cover story of Business Week is called ‘Beyond the Green Corporation’ and the first line is, ‘Imagine a world in which eco-friendly and socially responsible practices actually help a company’s bottom line.’

That’s the opening line of the lead story of Business Week. Fourteen years after The Ecology of Commerce was published. When it was published, not a single business publication here would review it. It was reviewed, by the way, but editors wouldn’t publish the reviews.

When Evitts asks Hawken, “ Why did it take so long for American business to catch on?” he answers:

“They saw it as a threat: ‘We have a business to run and this is the government’s responsibility.’ This is the same businessperson that would vote against the government doing anything. They would offload the responsibility, they had a very narrow sense of responsibility. It was to the bottom line, to shareholders. ‘If we obey the law than that’s all we have to do.’ That has pretty much been abolished.”

Hawken’s newest book is one that we will all be talking about. It reflects a global tipping point. I strongly recommend that you pick it up – even if you don’t think you are interested in the environment, human rights –or business. This is about a trend that affects us all.

His book will be released in May: Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came in to Being and Why No One Saw it Coming.

The book’s release will coincide with the launch of a website, Wiser Earth, “an open source social network with a database of more than 100,000 organizations.” It may inspire you to read Natural Capitalism too.

While Tom Friedman has predicted, “Green is the new red, white and blue” Hawken shows you the context in which this is happening and gives insight about how it will unfold – and what your role can be in it.

This movement is emblematic of our times in that it is not led, as most movements are, by a charismatic leader, although Hawken by vividly encapsulating it could easily become the leader. Rather it reflects the growing Power of Us theme of this era, dubbed The Age of Engagement, where so much happens from the ground up – where like-minded people can find each other more easily and harness their collective talents better and faster.

Hard to ignore.

Difficult not to be transported by the collective energy for a most worthy cause.

As Hawken explains in his book, “It’s time for us to have our Rosa Parks moment.”

Happy Face?

Apparently when we are happy the facial muscles on our right side are more active than those on the left side. Those change more often when unhappy.

So next time you are talking with someone important to you and you try to figure out how that person is feeling you might get so absorbed in figuring it out that the poor dear you are staring intently at may wonder if he has a piece of egg on his face.

When dogs are happy, their tails wag more to the right side of their rumps. When they have negative feelings, their tail wagging is biased to the left.

Its all about the “emotional asymmetry in the brain,” according Richard J. Davidson, director of the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin - where he has pursued research on meditation, through his longtime friendship with the Dalai Lama.

Read the rest of the story in Sandra Blakeslee’s article in the Science section of The New York Times.

Discover more tantalizing tidbits about reading faces by reading Paul Ekman’s groundbreaking book, Emotions Revealed and Telling Lies.

How would you

get the word out about a fledging new San Francisco Bay Area business that provides a triple way to do good?

That’s what Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound with over 30,000 avid newsletter subscribers, is asking people on my behalf. If you just want to get two newsletters on what I broadly dub "outreach", I recommend this one and Marcia Yudkin's.

Even though you seem to prefer sending me emails rather than commenting here, this time you might want to share your ideas here and at Joan’s idea-packed blog.

Here's a bit about LaborFair ...

Find Reputable Household Help Faster Whilst Doing Good

Those seeking work for a fair wage and ready-to-hire people can find each other, using the first online, direct person-to-person, job referral community - LaborFair.com.

Find reliable household help quickly, using the first online, direct person-to-person, job referral community - LaborFair.com.

Because LaborFair.com provides worker profiles, photos, references and reviews, ready-to-hire consumers can find the right, reliable person they need faster than on other sites, such as Craig’s List. Further, once they find a likely candidate to hire, consumers can click to contact someone directly by email or mobile phone.

But it gets better.

Good workers can get more jobs and build their reputation through the online reviews they receive from people like you. They can stop papering neighborhoods with promo flyers or going through agencies that take a chunk of their pay.

Thus, with LaborFair, those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder can work their way up to a better way of life.

In collaboration with worker centers, collectives, and worker coops, microfinance institutions and faith-based organizations LaborFair.com is creating a growing network of community organizations to provide people with more training, then listed on the site.

Think of LaborFair as an eBay for household services with fair trade built into the business.

See LaborFair as a triple “do good” business – good alternative for ready-to-hire consumers, good for quality workers and good for keeping a local economy thriving.

Hire a worker and change a life.

Like FreePledge, Juma Ventures, Enterprising Kitchen, zaadz, Longfellow Clubs, Ideal Bite and Hinda Incentives, LaborFair is dedicated to making the world better as it makes money.

These companies are introducing innovative and efficient ways to “do good.” And they’ve captured the interest of two very successful Bay Area entrepreneurs who are avid supporters of such ventures: Jeff Skoll and Pierre Omidyar.

The “Long War “ …. Gone?

Linguistically at least it appears so.

And, hopefully, the real long war may be soon, too, with increasing pressure inside and outside the U.S.

The term Long War", previously called the Global War on Terror, has been used by President Bush and team to prepare American for a never-ending battle against “terrorism.”

Yet the term is being retired, it seems, at least (in a bit of foreshadowing of what may be to come) by the U.S. Central Command.

Gen. John P. Abizaid was the among the first to use it yet his successor, William J. Fallon "quietly retired the phrase," according to journalist Michael R. Gordon.

The change "is a product of our ongoing effort to use language that describes the conflict for our Western audience while understanding the cultural implications of how that language is construed in the Middle East," writes Lt. Col. Matthew McLaughlin, a spokesman for the command.

"The idea that we are going to be involved in a 'Long War,' at the current level of operations, is not likely and unhelpful." Will the White House follow the lead of Central Command?

Whoever most vividly characterizes a situation usually determines how other see it in their mind's eye, discuss it and eventually act on it. So this is a notable shift.

Timeless Quote for Today:

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Vanity asks the question - is it popular?

Expediency asks the question - is it political? But conscience asks the question - is it right?

There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, popular, or political; but because it is right.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Halberstam. Speaking Truth to Power

As a reporter I held him in awe. We all did. He was the standard bearer to which we all aspired.

Where’s the action? You’ll find David Halberstam there. What’s the truth? Read Halberstam’s article or book to find out.

Whether it was the early days of the civil rights movement, the collapse of the car industry, how the East Coast establishment determined foreign policy or the culture of the 1950s, Halberstam reported what Bill Moyers calls “the verifiable truth,” and he was often the first to do so.

Jon Meacham wrote today, “He changed history, for he helped change how America saw not only the war in Vietnam but the ways of Washington.”

Apparently Halberstam was in a car on the way to interview Y.A. Tittle, the former New York Giants quarterback, when his car was broadsided near the Dunbarton Bridge in the S.F. Bay Area. For once, the action literally came to him. It was the last way I’d see him dying.

There wasn’t a lazy bone in his body,” said Ted Kopple this morning in an NPR interview.

“He was just raw energy, you just saw the man in constant motion. I picture him at one or two in the morning looking over the last proofs of the paper before they went to print,” said Arthur J. Langguth, Jr., who was president of The Crimson when Halberstam was managing editor.

Speaking truth to power, Halberstam led that new breed of reporters in the 1960s to write as eyewitnesses. “He is likely to be most remembered for an unquenchable desire to describe what he saw in war,” writes Roy Peter Clark, Senior Scholar, Poynter Institute.

Clark reminds us of Halberstam’s view of that new role in a 1965 article in Commentary magazine:

"No one becomes a reporter to make friends, but neither is it pleasant in a situation like the war in Vietnam to find yourself completely at odds with the views of the highest officials of your country. The pessimism of the Saigon press corps was of the most reluctant kind: many of us came to love Vietnam, we saw our friends dying all around us, and we would have liked nothing better than to believe the war was going well and that it would eventually be won. But it was impossible for us to believe those things without denying the evidence of our own senses.... And so we had no alternative but to report the truth...."

His books often defined an era or the subject about which he was writing – and his book titles often labeled those topics. He was, for example, the first to label the Vietnam war as hopeless with his 1965 book (increasingly referred to these day when discussing Iraq) “The Making of a Quagmire.” I write this as soldiers are speaking up about the hopelessness of the war in Iraq, where one anonymous soldier who is interviewed refers to Halberstam as a source of inspiration. Bet it would make David grin, knowing that this soldier was probably not born when David was covering Vietnam.

"Because, in a world where too many of us use our mouths, David used his mind. In a world where fast and ignorant are celebrated, David was slow and cerebral," writes Mitch Albom.

"Uttering a word is like

striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination," wrote Ludwig Wittgenstein and doing a radio interview sparks that feeling for me more than a TV interview.

Yes, it was fun being interviewed today on LikeAbility by someone with such an infectious laugh and quick wit over at Greenstone Media. Thank you Rolanda Watt. I hope we cross paths in person one day.

Ready?

Want some tips for understanding others, handling criticism, managing a crisis, making a change, deciding, exhibiting or attracting profitable partners?

Five Tips For Being Happier

From Michael Wiederman’s recent article in Scientific American Mind, ”Why It’s So Hard to Be Happy” you get five tips for being happier.

Here’s one key takeaway for me, living in Marin County where the extremely wealthy live among some who are barely getting by in homes they bought long ago and immigrants who stand on street corners, waiting for a pick-up job:

“…. the greater the income disparity within a community, the less its residents were satisfied with their lives, ” discovered Michael R. Hagerty of the Graduate School of Management at U Cal Davis.

Wiederman concludes, “When we are aware that others are better off than we are, our own satisfaction suffers.”

Thank you Steve.

Now take free test to find out how happy you really are -then build a more resilient, joyful life for yourself by reading the groundbreaking book, Learned Optimism by Marty Seligman.

Suppose You Have Little Time Left

Here’s a stop-you-in-your-tracks story that just might inspire you to put away that Blackberry and that elegantly small cell phone for a moment and really listen to the world around you, to the person right in front of you.

During his last few months before passing away from brain cancer, the former head of the accounting firm KPMG, Eugene O’Kelly wrote his memoirs, “Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life.” 53-year old O'Kelley was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in May 2005 and died less than four months later.

In her review of O’Kelly’s book, Maggie Jackson, columnist for the Boston Globe, wrote this:

“In particular, he sought to restore to his life several qualities he had shunned as a businessman — spontaneity, patient acceptance of the uncontrollable, and an uncluttered awareness of each moment. To his surprise, this new mindset seemed to slow time down. Rather than rushing through life fixated on goals, he gained a richer perspective from savoring the present, especially uncluttered small, everyday times.”

Steve Shapiro the remarikable design process expert who wrote Goal-Free Living, shared this quote in his newsletter.

As Janet Maslin notes in The New York Times, "Mr. O'Kelly .... was a controlling, orderly, privileged and powerful man who sometimes felt like an eagle on a mountaintop. Then, to his astonishment, the mountain disappeared."

"As for those considering taking the time someday to plan their final weeks and months, three words of advice," he counseled: "Move it up." In his case, that meant trading a schedule of nonstop business appointments made months ahead of time for no clue about what each new day would bring. He had to leave his job, abandon thoughts of the future and jettison the habits of a lifetime. But he was determined to create new habits and to turn his death into one last success."

Go slow to go fast.

"Drink your tea reverently
as if it is the axis on which
the whole earth revolves
slowly, evenly, without rushing
toward the future. Only this
actual moment is life."
- Thich Nhah Hanh

Better Biz Networkers. Women or Men?

Mongolia-born, Bat Batjargal is a lecturer in social sciences at Harvard plus he’s an Oxford-trained political scientist. And he’s been studying intercultural business networks for over 12 years in China, England, Germany, Japan, Russia, the Philippines, and the United States. And he teaches and consults in Boston, Moscow, Tokyo, and Beijing, where he is on the faculty at Peking University.

So, he sure seems to be a credible expert. In February he reported differences between female and male entrepreneurs with one culturally - expected study result:

1. “Women entrepreneurs have larger social networks for advice and resources.”

… and two other findings that may surprise some people:

2. “Men have larger 'emotional' networks - the complex of associations that provide warmth, praise, and encouragement.”

3. “Men apparently profit more from these emotional attachments than women do.”

Wow. Well, remember this is about building relationships for business, not for one’s personal life, yet those are murky boundaries these days. For many men and women entrepreneurs, there may be few boundaries between their work and their life. But back to that at the end of this post.

Even more fascinating to me: In this first part of his wide study, he was observing, not Americans, but entrepreneurs in China and Russia.

Read more in Corydon Ireland’s article for the Harvard News Office that I discovered via this goldmine of a site.

Here's more highlights. Perhaps amusingly, Batjargal told Ireland that, “Men who are entrepreneurs have a lot in common with their female counterparts: They are young, energetic, and focused to the point of being obnoxious.”

According to Batjargal, women entrepreneurs develop large networks, but these connections not only hurt profitability, "They are not only useless, but even toxic and harmful," said Batjargal.

The bigger the networks are for female entrepreneurs, the more they seem to drag down revenue growth. Women have big networks, he said, but they include "lots of the wrong people, and people who have no useful resources."

Notes Ireland, “Batjargal, a self-described ‘survey guy’ who loves numbers and tabulation, hopes that his study will point women entrepreneurs in a different direction.

The research is not meant to perpetuate old stereotypes about gender and business – ‘Our aim is more noble,’ he said. ‘We want to give tailored advice to women. That means finding those conditions and nuances in which women might outperform men.”

Batjargal speculated that "women network for the sake of relationships, and men for utility."