Managing with Aloha Coaching

Looking For the Sources of our Values

MY MANA‘O ~ ~ ~ If you are new to MWAC, Sunday Mālama is when we mix it up here. I may offer an extreme tangent to our current value of the month (for April: Mellow Maintenance Mālama), or write about something completely different. My very first Sunday Mālama was this one: A Beginning and this click gives you the full index to page through. I call Sunday Mālama my mana‘o meaning that it shares a deeper view of my thoughts, beliefs, and convictions with you, my Ho‘ohana Community. Thus, Sunday Mālama is also an invitation to share your mana‘o if you wish to.

A question arrived in my email yesterday morning, for which a short answer just wasn’t possible.

I am also very aware that I do not have a great answer for this question, and certainly not a complete one. Yet I am going to try my best here, for I think the query makes for good Sunday Mālama reflection for us, and I could use your help!

The question sent also could not have been asked of me at a better time, for as I am reminded of by this month’s value, Ha‘aha‘a, it is a question I must be very humble about answering. It is a question which makes me feel somewhat small and unworthy, and presumptuous even in my trying. The answer is one I can easily think about, and there are answers I believe to be true, but I cannot say they are answers I would claim to know.

The question was from a gentleman who does not live in Hawai‘i, who is making his way through the reading of my book, Managing with Aloha. Michael wrote,

“Rosa, can you tell me anything about the history of how Hawaiian values developed?”

Oh my. Could there be a bigger question?

I was born and raised in Hawai‘i, and have lived here my entire life save for just short of two of my teenage years in the Philippine islands. Ironically that puts me at somewhat of a disadvantage, for I have been immersed in local values from as far back as my memory goes, and in many ways must work with diligent focus to be scholarly or historically correct with them: Local living in Hawai‘i is not necessarily Hawaiian.

When people ask for such references, that is, the scholarly or historically correct ones, I will normally point them to Dr. George Kanahele’s book Kū Kanaka, Stand Tall. Yet even Dr. Kanahele was careful to add his humble subtitle, A Search for Hawaiian Values.

Many in Hawai‘i today, me included, will tell you that we may still be searching.

I was one who started my own ‘better informed search’ with Dr. Kanahele four decades ago, and living within the shifts of more recent years has been utterly fascinating —and the subject of a good number of debates.

I think of values as universal and as timeless as principles, virtues, and planetary laws; it is unimaginable to me that anyone but the Lord God Himself could claim authorship of these things. To say that values are Hawaiian, or European, or Asian, or of any other ethnicity, is just to say that we have shaped their interpretation with our place-connected contexts and ancestrally shared beliefs. Therefore, in answering Michael’s question, the best I can hope to do, is share what I believe have been strong influences in the shaping of the values that we call “Hawaiian” today. (Another tidbit: ‘Hawaiian’ is a western word, and not one of the ancient language.)

To be most accurate, it would be best to divide our answer in certain time periods, for the Hawai‘i of old before Captain Cook arrived is quite remarkably different from the Hawai‘i of today, and different from plantation Hawai‘i prior to World War II and our Statehood in 1959. However I am not using a chronological time-line to keep this as an article, and not an entire white paper or book draft!

So I will list a few things as I would first tend to include them (i.e. as I have been taught and have learned), and perhaps those of you reading who are also of our Hawai‘i nei could help me and add your feelings as well? Let us think of this as an essay of exploration in progress!

Finding 8: Coincidence or Makawalu Opportunity?

There is another reason Michael’s question seemed to be so opportune: This past Thursday and Friday I attended a tourism conference on O‘ahu sponsored by the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association (NaHHA) called Hō ‘ā ka Lamakū, Keep the Torch Burning.

NaHHA was founded in 1997 by Dr. George Kanahele, PhD, and Kenneth Brown, a renowned leader in Hawai‘i business and health systems, formerly state senator and chair of the Queen’s Health Systems. As native Hawaiians, both these gentlemen had serious concerns about the direction of tourism and its impact on our local communities. In particular, they were concerned about the misuse and lack of respect for Hawaiian culture, values, and traditions. NaHHA’s mission to protect and perpetuate these assets today is accomplished through consultation and training, developing and implementing effective communication tools, conducting research, and providing project support.

My plan this weekend was to debrief with some of the learning I was able to gain at the conference, and this has been a wonderful way to begin doing so. To my past learning from Dr. Kanahele and others, I add some very current wisdom shared at the conference by Kumu Tommy Kaulukului, Kumu Ramsay Taum, Kumu Peter Kamamo Apo, Dr. Pualani Kanaka‘ole Kanahele, Dewitt Jones, Andrew Te Whaiti, James Koshiba of Kanu Hawai‘i and others. The conference was one of intensive learning, and our Sunday Mālama today turned out to be an unexpected opportunity to seize my Kuleana (responsibility) with teaching what I continue to learn.

Makawalu is a new Hawaiian word for me, just learned on Friday: Maka is the word for eyes, and walu is eight, thus makawalu means to look for eight ways or facets of thinking. It stems from a belief that our intelligence is infinite: For each of the eight perspectives one might come up with another eight will be possible, and on, and on, and on to infinite possibility.

When I had written my first draft for this, it my list of first thoughts came to walu, eight, not by design, but just by arrival of thinking...

Humility in the Workplace

Preface: This was an article I had originally written in September of 2006 for Lifehack.org. I have newly edited it for our value study this month on MWAC on Ha‘aha‘a, the Hawaiian value of Humility. Our Day One Essay kicking off the month was Ha‘aha‘a means Humility Laughing.

‘Humility’ is a widely understood word. It’s not one of those words people will pause to look up the meaning for. Generally, people love the thought of humility. It’s one of those ‘good’ values we strive for; one we admire. Yes, most people feel they know what it means to be humble.

Demonstrating it however, is a whole other matter.

For instance, a person distracted by their Blackberry or cell phone, unable to focus on the conversation you are having with them face to face, is so filled with self-importance, they cannot possibly claim to be humble. Humility is the lack of self-importance, is it not?

The person who impatiently shakes their head as you explain a new idea you are presenting to them, finally breaking in to say, “We’ve tried that here before, and it just doesn’t work,” cannot claim to be humble. Humility is being open-minded, and realizing that no matter how long you’ve been around, you couldn’t possibly have experienced everything there is to experience, right?

Then there’s the person who just got a promotion, and the first purchase order they write is for new business cards, despite the fact that the have a box left of the old ones with the same mailing address, email address, and phone numbers. Never mind that they mostly attach v-cards electronically these days, and that’s why the old box lasted so long.

In new product development, there’s a discussion going on about complaints customers have with existing products, and someone says, “Well, they wouldn’t have that problem if they followed the instructions in the first place.” That can’t possibly be humility, when we stop listening to what our customers are asking for, and assume they just don’t ‘get it,’ right?

If some of our common behaviors in workplaces are an indication, we don’t understand humility very much at all.

Those who are humble, feel the rest of us are pretty interesting. Those with humility have a genuine desire to discover what other people can offer. They are intrigued by how others think, and how others feel differently from them.

We can be confident, and we can be self-assured; humility does not call for us to be meek, or consider ourselves lower in stature. We do not require less of ourselves, and we take our role and our responsibilities seriously. However what humility does, is create a sort of receptacle of acceptance in us, so we are open to being filled with the knowledge and opinions of others. Humility is a kind of hunger for more abundance. The greater our humility, the greater our fascination with the world around us, and the more we learn.

To have inner drive, to want to be successful is a good thing. I do believe that part of humility is believing in those possibilities which presently may be larger than life for you.

However humility also speaks to the demeanor and attitude we must have as we seek our success, so that our inner drive and desires are in balance with our composure, and our conduct with those who interact with us. After all, they could factor into being a big part of the success we eventually will enjoy.

One of the best definitions I have ever heard for humility came from one of my employees when I was still in corporate management. Short and sweet, it’s one I have never forgotten. He was talking about a new supervisor we’d recently hired into the department, explaining how she listened to everyone on staff in such a great way. Like they mattered. Like everything they did and said mattered. He had said she seemed very humble to him because as she demonstrated it, “Humility is an act of courtesy.”

I like that.

We were not put on this earth alone. Frankly, others have to live with us, and our own practice of open-minded, fill-me-up humility can make it a much more interesting and pleasant experience for all of us.

Patty gave us a great example in her comment:

My office is full of hard-working people who run around like chickens with their heads cut off. They move frantically but effectively from one task to another. But given the pace, we sometimes mess things up. And, of course, it happens in a public way. The best part: the whole office comes together in support of that person, and, after the fact when the mistake is fixed (usually, in record time), we have a few good jokes at our staff meeting about it, and we all laugh together. It reminds us that we're human, and that our work is important but not at the expense and harm of good people.

Optimist that I am, I believe there are a ton more great examples of humility practiced every day in our workplaces. Will you tell us about one in yours too?

I am Confident in Being Me...

...Even when I look like you.

Thank you for sharing that...

I am confident in being me and looking like you too.

Yes, this is quite nice.

Happy Ha‘aha‘a Humility :)

Photos found on Flickr by Roberto F. He called them “That’s love :)”

New MWAC White Paper: The Role of the Manager Reconstructed

Aloha dear readers,

Making this available only here and just for you to say mahalo!

thank you so much for reading...
thank you for talking story with me here via your comments...
and thank you for subscribing to Managing with Aloha Coaching!

A new white paper for The Role of the Manager Reconstructed, downloadable as a free PDF you can print and share.

I have just newly edited it from the article I had previously written here about the Role of the Manager, to attach it as an addendum in the classes I do locally on the Managing with Aloha curriculum. Thought you might like to use it as a reference too, or as a discussion starter for your own workplace reconstruction the Managing with Aloha way :)

“This is your mission, and should you choose to accept it...”

Managing with Aloha is not a Mission Impossible at all! Highly do-able!

All I need is you... all WE need is you. Here is our WE: What I have learned from the People we collectively call “our employees”

I hope you join the movement to Reconstruct the Role of the Manager with me, for we Ho‘ohana together!
—Rosa

What can a Humble Wave do for you?

MY MANA‘O ~ ~ ~ If you are new to MWAC, Sunday Mālama is when we mix it up here. I may offer an extreme tangent to our current value of the month (for April: Mellow Maintenance Mālama), or write about something completely different. My very first Sunday Mālama was this one: A Beginning and this click gives you the full index to page through. I call Sunday Mālama my mana‘o meaning that it shares a deeper view of my thoughts, beliefs, and convictions with you, my Ho‘ohana Community. Thus, Sunday Mālama is also an invitation to share your mana‘o if you wish to.

It is amazing how a simple, humble wave of our hand in acknowledgment of another human being can make such a huge difference.

red earth V - self portrait by BotheredByBees on Flickr

I have turned into a waver ever since I worked at Hualalai Resort and we decided that waving would be part of our value culture. It started back in 1996 from the moment I was employed there (the resort was still under construction then), and the habit now feels like it is set in stone with me.

I wave at people I know, and people I don’t.

I wave at people the moment I sense I may catch their eye; I no longer look down or away.

I wave to trigger some magic connection to my face so I will smile within the same fraction of that moment I wave.

I wave to feel open, connected to hope, and expectant of our humanity.

I wave to feel safe. When I take my exercise runs and arrive at intersections, I don’t take another step forward unless I have waved to an approaching or stopped driver and am sure they have seen me. (They wave back, or at the very least will nod— good thing to teach your kids.)

When I travel, the culturally correct way to wave as a friendly and welcoming gesture is one of the first things I am careful to ask about, for there is simply no stopping my hands anymore, there is only the careful training of them.

Once, in asking that question, I had an older gentleman explain to me how to reach my hands out to animals in the right way, so I that I’d never get bitten, and so I would know if they’d allow me to pet them or not.

Good information to know.

Then: Waving and the value of Ho‘okipa

Though easy to gain entrance onto the resort, and one which includes a Four Seasons hotel, Hualalai is essentially a gated residential community of multi-million dollar homes. While I could work there and eventually became a corner-office exec there, it is highly unlikely that I will ever be able to afford living there.

Calvin’s Mamaki Tree

I stood at the ocean’s edge with a large group of people. We had come together to say aloha and a hui hou (until we meet again) to a gentleman whose life had ended much too soon.

Those of us there had worked with Calvin at two different workplaces for a succession of four different owners. Throughout all that change, we were the same; we were his ‘ohana, adopted work family. I was among a smaller group within the whole who had not seen many of the others for several years, and many more never at all: Still, the new-to-me faces were as comfortable and family-familiar as the others I did know, for the days of Calvin’s life strung us together in lōkahi ke ‘ike, a harmony of shared knowing. Conversation flowed easily as we waited for the service to begin. Hugs were freely given, and voices joyful, with the ocean’s brisk breezes doing their part to keep us respectfully quiet in comparison to the sounds of her bigger majesty.

Mamaki is native to no other place in the world but Hawai‘i, and is best known for its refreshing herbal tea and medicinal uses. Leaves can be eaten raw or cooked, and the mamaki bark was used by the Hawaiians of old to make Kapa (cloth).
[Photo credit: “Forest & Kim Starr (USGS)” via Wikimedia Commons copyright free]

After his “real” family was introduced to us, Kahu Billy Mitchell started the talk story of our gathering by saying what we all seemed to know about Calvin; “I have to be honest here gang; Calvin could really irritate me. He was just too smart, and had an answer for everything.” We all smiled or chuckled with a memory of our own.

For me it was how Calvin would stop me on one of the pathways at Hualalai as he did his spraying, confident that whatever that moment, my being able to learn from him about his pesticides was crucially important and connected to every other order of important business I might have for the resort while wearing my VP’s suit. Somehow, Calvin always connected everything in his analogy to his plants. Somehow, he was always right.

There was more speaking, more memories shared, and then Max explained about a hundred seedlings he had brought for us to take home, one by anyone with space to plant them, for they would indeed become trees. He explained the difference between four different types, each for a different climate and elevation, each with a story of how the Hawaiians had used them and honored them. These were facts we were all certain Calvin would have known of too— and then some. It would be a legacy that Calvin would have wanted, to simply have trees that will continue to grow with his belief that they are good for us.

I was awestruck in that moment.

“To just have trees continue to grow.”

Legacy enough for a man who within all his justifiably proud knowledge had remained as humble as a man can get. Though man can sometimes help, trees grow because of God and because of Mother Nature, and because of the life stored within them. Ultimately that is what Calvin really knew, and he was fine with that. Calvin lived serving them all; God, Mother Nature, and that plant, and through them, all of us.

Calvin lived within a degree of humility that I may never be able to achieve. I know that about myself, and have to learn to be okay with the greater ego I have. I am every bit of that author who imagines her book will live forever in another bookstore, in a home-town library alcove, or at the very least in my great, great grandchildren’s attic, but hopefully in the heart of every reader that opens it. 

I am quite sure that Calvin on the other hand, is perfectly fine with the legacy of trees growing because of God, because of Mother Nature, and not because of him. His name is not etched in each tree’s bark the way mine is embossed on each book’s cover. He may be looking down from the heavens feeling he could have lived longer quite happily among us, but not with an ounce of regret for any legacy not left behind.

This afternoon, I planted the mamaki tree seedling I brought home, perfect for the mountain elevation at which I live. It will grow tall, sure and strong, it will give back to me as Calvin knew, giving my family healthy mamaki tea, thriving in the beauty of its dark red veined leaves, and I will know that it is Calvin’s legacy. I will know.

~ Rosa

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Humility is our value study for May. Read more about Ha‘aha‘a, the Hawaiian value of humility in my Day One Essay: Ha‘aha‘a means Humility Laughing.

Ha‘aha‘a means Humility Laughing

Actually it doesn’t. Not exactly.

Ha‘aha‘a is indeed the Hawaiian value of humility, however the word alone does not mean humility laughing. That is my kaona about it.

The kaona of a word or phrase refers to the hidden meaning the speaker may have in choosing to say it.

Sometimes kaona hints to a long and involved story, and other times it is as simple as mine with Ha‘aha‘a.

Ha‘aha‘a ~ I think the Hawaiian word we have for humility simply looks like another very creative way to spell those Ha ha ha! belly tickles of laughter, and I love thinking about that.

May will be the month I explain it a bit more, and then some.

Photo on Flickr by tarotastic: “Is It Really That Funny?!”

Hopefully it won’t just be me! Laughter is so much better with company :)

May will be our month to talk story about whatever kaona we each may have about humility. Life is dishing up some difficult times for us right now, and I have chosen Ha‘aha‘a because of the positive expectancy it gives us. When we are humble we learn quickly and completely. We adjust however we need to, and we are okay with it.

Join me?

As we usually do, we start with the definition within Managing with Aloha, just as a start we can build on:

MY MANA‘O (what I believe to be true) About Humility ~ ~ ~ Ha‘aha‘a Humility. Be humble, be modest, and open your thoughts. Ha‘aha‘a. Have humility. Ha‘aha‘a teaches us to groom our own character with humility in respect for others. There is nothing noble in being superior to someone else; true nobility is in being superior to your previous self. Ha‘aha‘a helps us understand that no individual can satisfy every need. All in the ‘Ohana are needed. All are to be respected and supported for the talent and uniqueness they offer. Be humble, be modest, and open your thoughts. This is Ha‘aha‘a.

What about you?

When you hear the word humility, what do you think about?

Is there a difference for you when you think about humility as a human value?

Let’s talk story, shall we? As we do so, we can value our month, and value our life.

We Ho‘ohana (work intentionally) and study Ha‘aha‘a (Humility Laughing, and more) Kākou, together, for together we are stronger, together we are better (and together, we do laugh!)
~ Rosa

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If you have arrived at MWAC for the first time, ALOHA and welcome!

This is what MWAC is About, and Ha‘aha‘a is our value study of the month for May 2008.

You are warmly invited and encouraged to subscribe and become part of our Ho‘ohana Community.

Ho‘ohana with us!
~ Rosa Say
More about me here.

Mālama in our 5-Beat Rhythm: What can you sustain?

I received an email over the weekend from someone who has a birthday coming up in the next few weeks. They wrote (yes, I am escaping any “he” or “she” hints on purpose!) to let me off the hook, saying, “Rosa, you cannot possibly continue to do these birthday postings on MWAC for everyone in the Ho‘ohana Community; are you really intending to do so?”

They are right, I can’t sustain them in the way I’ve done this month, for the Ho‘ohana Community is too large at this point. I will need to celebrate your birthdays to come in other, manageable and sustainable ways. I didn’t even get everyone in April done!

Since it was our value study for the month, I picked April as an example of what Mālama for birthdays can be: It’s the month of my own birthday (and I don’t shy from celebrating it), and it was a good opportunity to share some thoughts I have on how we adults need and deserve to have our big day celebrated just as much as children do— it’s important.

When I think about our theme of “Mellow Mālama Maintenance” over the past month, the question, “What can you sustain?” is a good one for our wrap up these last three days of April.

Let’s look at the 5th Beat again:

BEAT 5: Manage well! Great managers and those who self-manage create their future, and they don’t settle, or wait for things to just happen to them. Self-coach going forward, by making note of your future follow-through.* Create a strong, intentional weekly plan with your Calendar and Weekly Review. Integrate specific actions into Dailies and/or other parts of your Trusted System. Create your 2-Column Chart to help you with final decisions and commitments: In Column 1: Actions to Keep In Column 2: How I will Keep Them: NEW HABITS *That follow-through link is new, and not on the original template --- from March: The 1 List That Every Manager Must Work With --- perhaps another (or preferred?) tool for you to integrate?

The fact that I will have to somehow adjust my birthday celebrations is fairly easy to explain.

However there is something else I have decided is not sustainable here at MWAC: The 5-Beat Rhythm in its present form.

I practice what I preach here each month right along with you, and in short, after several months of trying to, I have realized that I have not been able to arrive at my own Mellow Mālama Maintenance with the MWAC version of the 5-Beat Rhythm.

The 5-Beat Rhythm works wonderfully well in two other contexts

Hau‘oli la hanau to Tim Milburn!

Please join me today in wishing a Happy Birthday to Aloha spirit spiller Tim Milburn.

“Tim Milburn is one of my heroes. Has been ever since I’ve known him. Tim inspires me.”
—Add Value to People, Talking Story, March 2007

Tim is the artistic and creative soul who gives his talented eye for design to Joyful Jubilant Learning for us with images like these, and the learning templates and banners you have seen there over the past two years;

You can see more of what Tim does at his own two blogs,studentlinc and College Students Rule. You can buy the brilliant resources he produces and download some value adds for free.

It will not take long for you to realize that though Tim's graphic art is what can pull you in, what makes you fall in love with him is his writing.

As he says so succinctly on his Twitter profile, Tim is a leadership junkie.
[Tim, I gave you my first Twitter nudge just now--- have no idea how that works yet!]

“When I want nothing but complete happiness, I read Tim. Tim is infectious joy gone wild, and he is incredibly smart! His optimistic and enthusiastic writing is a kind of leadership food for me. Tim Milburn is a man on a mission, and he will not be held back; he is focused on student leaders, however he sees potential in everyone and everything, and he inspires me to be a better person than I am.”
—Sunday Mālama: Spirit Spilling, August 2007

I first met Tim when he had left a comment for me at my first blog Talking Story. It was July 3rd 2005 (take that link and you will take a walk down our Ho‘ohana Community memory lane!) When I followed the link he left behind, I arrived at a site that was nothing like the studentlinc we see today; there was no art or graphics at all, not even pictures within his posts. However I was in love with Tim instantly, for his warm and witty writing reached out and grabbed me. It still does. Me and so many others: On Joyful Jubilant Learning, we bow down to Tim as our artistic director and graphics guy (and with good reason), but we start throwing kisses (and reading in entirely new ways) when he writes for us.

“Early on, I began to understand that people want to be a certain way, but they often act in ways that go against their desires.  It's the difference between actual values and desired values.  A person may have a desired value of honesty, but in reality, they may cheat a little, lie a little, and act in a way counter to the value that they speak so highly of.  It is a subtle issue of character.  A person can begin to live with a perceived self (fantasy) that is actually different than one's real self.  A leader is one who can enter a situation and point out the differences between hoping to act with certain values and actually implementing those values.”
—Tim Milburn

On Joyful Jubilant Learning, Tim really personifies each word of that name we have chosen for the site. I marvel when I look back over the time I have known him, and realize what a learner Tim really is. I am in awe and profound gratitude for his giving nature, and am continually astounded by what he does for me within pure heart. I dedicate today, this Sunday Mālama to Tim, fully realizing just how much Tim is the one who Mālamas me.

On this, his birthday, Tim Milburn is a gift to all of us.

Hau‘oli la hanau Tim :)

Know you are loved today. You are admired for your work as student leadership mentor, and as the learner, artist and author that you are for us, but you are loved because of the good soul and man you are.
Me ke aloha kaua pumehana ~ Rosa

• About celebrating birthdays: Keith is right, and lucky me, you know it too.

Civil Responsibility in 2008 for Hawai‘i and for you

“By its very definition, civic responsibility means taking a healthy role in the life of one's community.”
—Senator John Glenn

Worldly social media is fascinating learning (Joyful Jubilant Learning), great for connectivity (LinkedIn) and fun (Twitter), but what’s up locally?

I am starting to read our Hawai‘i newspapers again to find out, and I’ll explain why.

Values-based management starts with self-management

The short answer is that my values of Mālama (stewardship) and Kuleana (responsibility) are self-talking in loud voices lately, and I am feeling I need to be a better local citizen than I am.

The world-wide web connectivity we have is fantastic, however I cannot help but wonder if I should be coming home more often.

Right now you have to be living under a rock in America if you are not hearing about the deeply serious and troubling state of the airline industry. The proposed merger of Delta and Northwest, who seek to combine to create the world’s largest airline, is the story of a business model which must be radically redesigned to overcome a 2008 year-to-date loss that adds up to $10.5 billion dollars.

Yep, no typo there --- $10.5 billion.

Compare that number, just from two carriers in four months time, with this: The Air Transport Assn reports that the airline industry’s biggest annual loss came in 2002 in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, when all carriers reported a combined loss of $11 billion.

According to an Associated Press story, Delta and Northwest both blame their losses primarily on exorbitant fuel prices and write-downs of their companies’ value, however anyone who knows how business models work in total knows that almost always, “primarily” is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. (And I stand by what I previously wrote here: Working Beyond Their Means).

What does this mean for my home?

This was reported in that same Associated Press story, and is alarmingly true right now:

“Hawai‘i visitor industry sources said higher fares [which are inevitable] would impact that state’s major industry, tourism, which came of age with the advent of jet travel and is wholly dependent upon the airline industry.”

Wholly dependent is painfully accurate. There is a saying here in the islands that when tourism catches cold everyone gets sick. From fuel for the airlines to the second highest national average paid at our gas pumps (California is more expensive), everyone in Hawai‘i has the sniffles and we are starting to hear an awful lot of coughing.

Our dependence on the airline industry is easy to understand. Even if you are on another island within the Hawaiian chain, a mere speck in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, I cannot drive to pay you a visit. Boat travel is usually unrealistic if it is possible at all. Tourism is one part of the picture: Most of what we purchase as consumers is flown in.

This is truly a time to think about our lack of self-sufficiency and how we have been both working and living beyond our means. [See How is Your Workplace affected during a Recession?]

So why my return to the newspapers?

I am wanting more empathy with my neighbors and local community. I struggle to understand why some local thinking is the way that it is. The AP story I have been quoting above was on the front page yesterday, and panic is setting into the Hawaiian economy.

I am wanting to help be a voice of reason and more confidence however I can. Things do sound pretty awful, but I am an optimist and always will be. I do believe in that saying that goes, “Where there’s a will there’s a way.”

Personally I read and interact as much online as I can, boycotting more paper anything in my home and business, other than the blank kind you journal or draw on to release your creativity (and my precious books). In that regard I am far, far, FAR from being your normal Hawai‘i citizen in my habits.

They say that people in Hawai‘i are among the most web-connected in the nation, and we are indeed a hub of national and international business. Our largest employer is not tourism, but the U.S. Government. Yet when I go to the grocery store, to a carnival or community town hall meeting —even workplaces in business— I would guess that the way 70% or more of the people I mingle with learn of issues, and are connected to the rest of the world, is through the newspaper and our local news broadcasts, NOT online.

Much as I would love my neighbors (and even many of my customers) to do so, they do not read JJL or this site religiously, they are not on LinkedIn, and they do not Twitter. You can only engage with the people who are there to engage with you!

The influence and insularity of the newspaper and the gullibility of our population is beginning to worry me in that panic never helped anyone all that much, and calmer voices must prevail, but they must be voices proposing some solutions and conveying confidence and positive expectancy.

This is all leaving me with much to think about. What degree of Mellow Mālama Maintenance will still allow me to sleep well at night, knowing I am also being a good citizen?

“A generation that acquires knowledge without ever understanding how that knowledge can benefit the community is a generation that is not learning what it means to be citizens in a democracy.”
—Elizabeth L. Hollander, Author (1817-1885)

Flickr photos by KellyB. and Paulo Prabo.