Blind People Can See

Part 2

BaldOpinion 12 c

08 May 2013

“Morning Cynthia”

“Morning…” is her soft reply. I have never understood what follows when she says morning; it is something though…, more than “morning.”  She mumbles. You see, I greet first because in my perceived simple mind it is “the small things that are important” – Tolstoi.

For the rest of the day we pass each other in the office, passages and in the garden. At lunch-time I step out, find her: “You can eat Cynthia”, to which she whispers a reply, “Yebo” followed by a softer sounding, “eat.” I’ve been trying to fatten Cynthia for the longest time. To be skinny must be how she is.

Weeks would go by and the same routine repeats.

One day though, and without thinking about it much; Cynthia and I were in the kitchen when I asked, “What do you think of President Nelson Mandela – Madiba?”

“I love Madiba” was her quick, loud and very decisive reply.

That reply was not what I expected. Prior to this I’ve not heard Cynthia speak that loudly.

On returning to the office there was a feeling, one not dissimilar to embarrassment – it was my thoughts, perhaps also my negative expectation.  See, I expected Cynthia to mumble, “Madiba…” rather than be so definite.

Though they hail from the same region Cynthia has never met Madiba and; though they share the same language and traditions, Cynthia never saw Madiba in the flesh - for when Cynthia was a girl Madiba was in jail.

Madiba is not a hero to Cynthia.  He is more - he informs her sense of pride.  Do we need a reason to be proud though, or is it our pride, the self-worth, that shapes our destiny? This is a big question.  This article is riddled with big questions.

We need jobs and a purpose in order to earn dignity. We also need pride, to emulate and; we want inspiration so that we can always do better.

To some Madiba is a role model, a mentor. People want to be like him - forgive, and believe that we are at peace with the past.  “Without peace you cannot enjoy the future” – Nelson Mandela.

•         Can one be a mentor to others without ever meeting;
•         maybe I conflate mentorship with people who are role models;
•         are mentors not invariable role models too?

The Greek anthology of mythical characters includes one named Mentor. It is said that Athena used the decoy of Mentor as a disguise to hide herself from the suitors of Telemachus' mother, Penelope. Why, I wonder?

Yes, they were a bit odd, but the character of Mentor and modern day mentoring is derived from the Greek character reference that represents the sharing of wisdom.

Does one need an interpersonal relationship in order to share wisdom?

What is a teacher then?

Is a teacher one who shows how something is done and coaches to near perfection?

How do we learn to think, I again wonder, and; do teachers teach us to reason instead of to think? How does the ability to reason inform the way we learn to think? This is woo-woo stuff to me and as a result I have no answers. I was at university for too long, but I never studied psychology.

Some say that we go to school in order to learn thinking skills. Others claim that we need only be alive in order to acquire thinking ability, but the majority feels that we go to school in order to get information. My view is that thinking evolves as determined by how much you challenge yourself – the sense of dignity and pride (= class) too have a role to play. 

Organisations, businesses – everything becomes different all the time.  The reason for change is determined by factors that we have no direct control over. When there is no longer a demand for pairs of black shorts, then those who manufacture will be out of business if they continue to produce only this item. The producers have to diversify in order to meet and create new demand.

Leadership therefor includes having the foresight to change before it becomes an inevitable requirement.

“Create a new demand, or become extinct.”

In order to harness opportunities rapid change is required.  Breaking away from the past / accelerated difference / transformation / a revolution, these are labels we attribute to conditions that result in doing things differently quickly. 

The other day, whilst tagging along in a curios shop, I read a notice: “Unaccompanied children will be given an espresso and a puppy!”

If the usual plan, notice, or warning is no longer effective then get one that attracts better attention.

Don’t take too long to introduce difference, but also note that haste is very often the reason why new approaches fail. The reality is not only about white or black, but more about grey.

Frequently we use fashionable phrases instead of those that say what we really mean.  Words have differing connotations to those who hear, compared to those who speak them.

The creation and application of rules serve to pre-determine how we behave.  If we want to change behaviour then we have to create and apply different rules. In business we constantly prepare to meet the demands of ever changing global expectations. We try to do so without losing our identity.

In one instance we use supply chain management tools in order to make businesses more effective and sustainable. Supply chain techniques are derived from a series of wisdom imparting initiatives. A history of best practice is contributed to by experience. Supply Chain Management is therefore a combination of wisdom imparting mentoring - together with practical strategies to implement and coach / teach. That is one way of attaining the illusive best practice. Others use more elaborate words to define, but is it understood and; is this definition understood?

Some old ideas and experiences do not flow today as they did yesterday.  The answer resides in the act of leadership. Each person is a leader – each therefore has an obligation to understand how past experience can influence the decisions we take today. I refer to this ability by coining the phrase “lateralism” - but there is no term like that in the dictionary!

No worries, someday I shall write a Cape based dictionary. It will probably be banned, but shall contain a number of very interesting new words.

As a boy I was very fond of Dorothy Smith. I had five aunts. Each aunt presented differently. My Aunt Martha could knit the most complex embossed cable-stitch garments; she taught me too. I must be one of a few bald men who can knit - image that!

My Aunt Dotty though, she smoked Lexington cigarettes and had a pellet gun. Back then, like now, it was okay for adults to do stupid things. The Lexington advert - “…After Action Satisfaction, Lexington, That’s The One!” Maybe that is why she had need for a pellet gun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzUArvNm_u0

Well, during my early formative years I often would sit on my adopted Aunt’s knee. It was okay; she did not feel my weight, for all five my aunts were paraplegics.

There was a series on the radio each weekday afternoon. Springbok Radio was a national radio station in South Africa when I was a boy. My Aunt Dotty had a transistor radio. The PM 10 battery was bigger than the radio it powered. At three fifteen, all five my aunts would park their chairs in a tight circle formation around a little coffee table.  The radio sat on the table. Their formation resembled a rugby scrum as they sat poised to get the next installment of the radio story.  I could never understand. It was too complicated. Yet, my Aunts were excitable and Aunty Dotty gave advice to those radio people when she disagreed with the direction the story was headed.  Something must have happened, or was about to happen, I’d think; or maybe the plot finally unraveled?

At a quarter to four my aunts debriefed each other about the radio story.  The way they spoke, sounded like these radio people were coming to dine with us that night. “I best bath first. Wheelchair people spend a long time in a bathroom. I never had shoes, but I could hide my feet under the table and sit quietly, then the radio people wouldn’t know”, were among my thoughts.

Jet Jungle followed, or a radio series named “Hospitaal Tyd” (Hospital Time) presented by Esme and Jan. I could not understand that either - on discovering my lack of comprehension Aunty Dotty took to storytelling.  The vibrato of her Lexington voice had a timber, an almost baritone sound when she spoke, but her stories… they taught me to think, I think.

Some years later and I could no longer fit on her knee.  In any event, by then Pettles, the staffie, would growl when I came near that wheelchair.

Much later and I was a factory worker at an electro-plating plant in Voortrekker Road, Salt River.  I bought a car. At the time my Aunt was convalescing in the Conradie Orthopedic Hospital, Thornton, near Pinelands in Cape Town, South Africa.  I visited to show her my first car. It was an old car, but it was my first and I felt like sharing it with Aunty.  I parked opposite the water towers outside the hospital ward where she was in traction. Inside, with the help of the nursing staff, we strategically arranged mirrors so that Aunty Dot could see my new wheels. She approved, “That’s a nice car my Boy, congratulations.” 

By then the Lexington and pellet gun had long gone and the wireless was replaced with a TV. The stories though, no… they had not left. That night Aunty Dot moved the four fingers on her right hand in a familiar gesture. It meant, “Come hither and sit up.” I knew it was story-time! Even then, I continued to get excited, like the Aunties did when they scrummed around the Springbok Radio:

“You know Boy,” she started “there’s a constant battle inside all of us.” I nodded whilst she continued. ” The battle is between two wolves.

One wolf is Evil - It presents as anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” Then she paused – long enough for me to take it all in.

“The other wolf is The Spirit - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

All the while I sat alongside her on the hospital bed waiting for the conclusion and wondering how my Aunt, who did not have much schooling, how she could remember all those big words – I knew that Aunty Dot always had a curious turn of phrase and she’d wish for the pellet gun should I interrupt. This night though, it was a Maundy Thursday night, I remember - the night before Good Friday.  Aunty Dotty did not look good.  It could have been her last, I thought. I held her hand and caressed her set hair.

Eventually I said, “Aunty, those battling wolves inside all of us, which of the two wins?”

“The one you feed..."

Aunty Dotty is no more, but I remember.  I remember the hours spent playing table tennis, basketball, many other board games, particularly during the winter when it rained like it does in Cape Town. She taught me to ride a wheelchair like few can. “We can listen to music”, she would say – the Beatles, Elvis, but Jim Reeves was her favorite. “Jim Grieves” she would say – “his songs are always sad!”

‘These were a few of her favourite things…’ and I thought that as this is my last BaldOpinion article that I should share her with you.  Aunty Dot loved The Sound of Music and together we watched the film screening down at the De Novo Community Hall many times over.  Afterwards I’d push and sing my way down the dirt road to the worker house we lived in near Stellenbosch. Neither of us knew the lyrics much, but it did not seem to matter, for the journey was always too short.

However, when mentoring and coaching happens at work how do we determine whether the imparted ideas / methods are current and relevant to the challenges today in preparation for tomorrow?

What about learning to think, or does this ability dawn when we look at the world through the filter of our own experiences – our literalism? Does coaching and mentoring lend itself to innovation and is innovation the serum applied when preparing for tomorrow? 

  

I think that swimming pools can become self-sustaining. It can generate its own electricity; clean and self-heat. Spurred on by my own excitement I tore out to meet engineers and tell my story. After all, why would you want to consult a dentist if you have a heart condition?

After listening to my story the engineers laughed.  When the laughter subsided and, after straightening his back against the rest of the chair one engineer rubbed his chest and said, “Great idea, but it won’t work.”

I gathered myself and smiled politely. One can catch more bees with honey than with vinegar, I thought, whilst nurturing the Cape Flats in me who needed to present.  After shaking hands my car radio and I drove back home.

Some day we will wonder why this simple method of water reticulation was never applied. Today they laugh.  Engineers laugh at the prospect of creating newness.  Here’s my thought - this laughter stems from never having been taught to think.  To understand is not a demonstration of thought. It is about how you apply your understanding.

Experience too cannot be taught.

Who says that we cannot ask what the better solution is?

From time to time we make plans and develop strategies.  Sometimes we fail. If we make the plan then it is not the plan that fails, it’s us – one way to earn experience.

Maybe we should learn to think differently and to utilise our experience so that we can learn how to share it with others.  We have to develop an ability to understand what is relevant and what is not. Leadership must include the act of stepping back, or to stand on the proverbial balcony, look around, ahead and then at the present with informed eyes.  The past is old hat. This is a discipline that each should convert into a habit and apply regularly - directional insight.

Fast-tracking is the root of many evil.  There is no short-cut to competence.  Recently South African Airways sent five fast-tracked aircraft technicians for training in Vienna.  They returned, all having failed.  Why, well, because they lack technical basics. When compared with their fellow students they paled. 

Ok, maybe my use of the term pale is a bit naughty! Of course, on their return it is proclaimed that the Viennese are racists. How bizarre.

By 2014 the bastard, Natural Attrition, is set to claim 300 qualified and competent aircraft technicians when they retire.

Increasingly we live in an instant society. We pour from a bottle and order via the internet. We transpose this reality to impact also on how we skill people. We fast-track and this is the order of today. We forget that short-term gains result in long term losses. Who do we blame when business sustainability dwindles – the Viennese, of course, who else?

Certain leaders of corporate transformation have become business legends. Companies that consistently transform before a crisis achieve unprecedented competitive power and advantage. The consistency of change is an important realisation. Pride in every initiative is an essential ingredient. Set aside enough time for plans to be realised. Outsized returns are frequently a misguided objective when long term goals are exchanged for short term gains.

The leaders of companies in crisis are best placed to consistently create new direction. David Simon and John Browne could transform British Petroleum (BP) from one of Britain's weakest industrials to a world force. After the recent incidents on the American west coast BP again faced imminent ruin.  

Steve Jobs rescued Apple from certain collapse. Had Apple not been in crisis would the recovery have been this successful? At the time of writing Apple again faces similar strife.  Will it survive this time?

Most transformations undertaken when crisis conditions are not evident fail because of poor leadership. Where there is no pressing need for change new plans are often neglected and later abandoned. Such companies are worse off than before. 

When things are going well business leaders become reluctant to undertake transformation programmes - even though they know that failure to act may condemn the company to a slow decline and eventual collapse.  There is need for constant change, but leaders fear the introduction of difference.   “Why…” they say “must I fix something that is not broken - work harder.”   By the way, it is a myth that we have to work smart and not hard because there is no substitute for hard work.

Maybe we should introduce change as a form of maintenance.  People fear change, but are only irritated by the discomfort of maintenance.  Irritation is better than fear, but “Where there is no pain there will be no gain”, said Joe Weider of Gold’s Gym. Regular maintenance makes radical change organic.

Maintenance is an enabler. We don’t fear maintenance as much as we do change.

Change tampers with routine and it is unsettling.

Madiba said that routine was a coping tool he applied whilst in prison.

Oh, and I sang for Cynthia before Christmas – I chose the descant, a tempo of four beats to the bar and a swing from the note C. Like me, Cynthia would have none other than the swing sound to bring on festive cheer:

“… he sent you to give the good news to the poor,

tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more,

tell blind people that they can see and set the downtrodden free…,”

By the time I had finished Cynthia stood aside and just looked at me with glassy eyes. I also do not understand how singing works.  It creates a mood.  Like there’s a God in your throat. The taught me and tell me; they illustrate and explain, but yet I cannot understand how the sound is produced.

Nonetheless, Cynthia wore a happy wonder expression on her simple, yet beautiful older face and I was taken by the moment when she softly said, “sing nice.”

Aunty Dotty Said that my car was nice and Cynthia says that I sing nice. It feels good to be nice. Like the song I sang is Idyllic, so too I wish that I can always be nice.  

Then we wished each other a merry festive season, hugged and off she went to make the Christmas journey from Daveyton to Mvezo in the Eastern Cape, a province of South Africa.

Thank you all for reading the BaldOpinion.  It was a wonderful journey. We laughed, we cried and we had music that some enjoyed. Thank you for allowing me to use many of your ideas. From all the thousands of readers out there, if one has grown then the series was worth the effort. Thank you for the opportunity.

Good Bye.