The Environment and Managing with Aloha

Leo Babauta wrote, “When I sat down to write my Blog Action Day post, I tried to figure out what the “environment” has to do with some of the main themes of Zen Habits: simplicity, frugality, health and fitness, happiness. In what way are these ideas related to the environment?”

I thought this was a great idea. What say we try to figure out what the environment has to do with our main themes of aloha, values, work, business, management, and leadership?

Aloha: Aloha means we look for the beauty in people, seeking to connect with their inner spirit, getting it to come out and play with us, to be with us. How does this help the environment? In so many ways! It keeps us with people, learning to engage with each other with a greater fascination, instead of the more materialistic pursuits which add more clutter and waste, filling our landfills with the temporary diversions we soon tire of. Aloha on the other hand, is timeless and endlessly intriguing.

Aloha keeps giving and giving back: You could say that Aloha is the star recycler.

Values: In Managing with Aloha I offer you nineteen to start with, however you can look to your own heart, mind and soul to come up with the list toppers which create your true convictions (your mana‘o). We have a little of each value which appeals to us, and the entire list would be quite lengthy (there are 42 listed on a worksheet I use in my class exercises).

Similar to Aloha, I would bet that those convictions which ring true to you reveal beauty all around you, for you ‘see’ them with eyes of respect and appreciation. I would also bet that they somehow relate to your sense of place, and your Mālama ‘āina, care for the land. Take gratitude (Mahalo) as but one example, “living in thankfulness for all the elements that make our lives so precious.” What are those environmental elements for you?

Work: There are a myriad of ways that our work leaves a lasting footprint on the environment, sometimes good, sometimes not so good. Is this something we are mindful of? Take this day to make your own assessment.

My work mantra is Ho‘ohana, to work with purpose and intention, and thus it has much to do with connecting intention to just about everything; no 9 to 5 attitude, and no sleep-walking through the work day, going through the motions with busy-work versus on-purpose work. On-purpose work leaves a much better ‘footprint on the environment’ for it is the work we choose to do for the good it brings to our lives.

See Celebrate your Work and some old fashioned Values.

Business: We who have chosen the world of business have so many advantages which enable us to be activators who make things happen. Compare the quick decisiveness of free enterprise to the bureaucratic snail’s pace belabored through in government and the public educational process.

And I include non-profits: Ho‘ohana Community member James Koshiba, is co-founder of Kanu Hawai‘i, a nonprofit organization that works to create a more sustainable Hawai‘i, and he speaks of our “island intelligence” being a heightened awareness and understanding that resources are not boundless, that ecosystems are fragile, and that cultural diversity is to be valued and respected. Kanu Hawai‘i exists to be the ambassador of this message, however it is one that can be repeated and internalized in every business.

“If every person in the world lived as Americans do, consuming as Americans do, it would take more than six-and-a-half earths to sustain the human race.” —James Koshiba

Management: How does this internalization of ‘green responsibility’ and care for the environment happen? Through the creation of a work culture which embraces the message and seeks ways to walk the talk, by connecting sustainability initiatives to company values and strategic objectives. This is what great management does: Create corporate cultures which matter, and which feel Pono, good and right to all who work within it.

This is the Role of the Manager as seen through the MWA curriculum:

MY MANA‘O (what I believe to be true) ~ ~ ~ If I were to reduce it to its essence, I would boil management down to four things. 1. People: Managers concentrate on strengths and make weaknesses irrelevant. 2. Place: Managers create great workplaces where people thrive. 3. Mission: Managers get the work to make perfect sense. 4. Vision: Managers expect and promote the exceptional. 2008 Update: I expand on this here ~ The Role of the Manager in Managing with Aloha: The case for a better way to work.

Leadership: Leaders think bigger. Leaders inspire. Leaders help us see future visions with more clarity, describing it in a compelling way, and tooting their message until we feel we can see it, hear it, and feel it too. Leaders know that just about everything can be done, and it’s just a matter of who will take action to make it happen first. Leaders don’t wait for probability, they charge ahead when they get their earliest glimmers of possibility. And when it comes to our precious environment we no longer can afford to wait.

Again, think deeply about the values of your company and how they are expressed. Think deeply about Kuleana, and your responsibility for Leadership, and ask yourself what you can do, and do best.

See Branding fame, the ability to provoke, and degrees of follow-up: As asked there, What are the values of your company, and what ability do they give you to provoke masterful follow-up?

Read Leo’s posting at Zen Habits for 5 Ways [to] Save the World, While Getting Fitter, Saving Money, Simplifying, and Becoming Happier.

In reading through some other Blog Action Day postings yesterday, I found these to also be good examples of how our very creative writers within the Ho‘ohana Community connected respect for the environment to their Ho‘ohana (the work they do): So clever!

• Tony Clark: 5 Reasons Why Home-Based Entrepreneurship is the Ultimate Eco-Friendly Gig
• Joanna Young: 20 ways to cut your words and help to save the planet and How to recycle your words.
• In addition to her own Ho‘ohana connection of Brain-Based Business, Robyn McMaster also illustrates how leadership matters: Ram Shrivastava, CEO, Walks the Talk of Sustainability!

Here is the Blog Action Day Wrap Up. Truly an illustration of how powerful a single idea can be.

Comments

[Joanna Young]

Rosa, I enjoyed this piece so much, thank you.

One of my past lives was working as one of those bureaucratic snails (we did our best you know!) in the area of sustainable development. It's a remarkably hard concept to put across - and a remarkably important one if we're to find ways of living and working that don't use up all the resources of the planet.

The main thing I learned from immersion in that area was that change must come from within, must reflect our values - as individuals, as businesses, as a society, as a global community - and that it means learning to think, work, learn, educate, play, breathe in different ways.

Although it's therefore a more challenging concept - it's also more appealing, because it opens up the possibility of changing some of the other things about our modern day life that are so negative, difficult, distressing, unhealthy - and creating a more positive future.

Anyway, long way round to get to the point - you have found a fantastic encapsulation of sustainable development here, and I'm sure all those in that global movement could learn from the values of aloha. I hope the Hawaiian NGOs that you work with are taking the message and singing it loud!

Joanna

[Rosa Say]

You are right in this Joanna: "change must come from within, must reflect our values - as individuals, as businesses, as a society, as a global community - and that it means learning to think, work, learn, educate, play, breathe in different ways." Well said.

The excerpt I included from James Koshiba was from a speech he gave at Punahou, a local private school (I am an alumnus) challenging students, faculty and staff to become champions of sustainability. Here is another quote from the report in our latest alumni bulletin:

"Director of Physical Plant Randy Overton '80 recently remarked that his team could easily handle the initiatives set forth in the challenge [dubbed "Ready, Set, Green!"] without involving a single student or teacher - "but how is that going to change people's habits? This initiative is not for my generation; it's for the students' generation. This is all about educating students and changing mindsets."

"Diane Anderson, director of instruction and the head of the Sustainability Initiative steering committee, expressed a similar sentiment. Beyond the five challenges [in the school's sustainability campaign], she suggests, "there is a sixth implied initiative: to achieve these goals not through institutional action but through individual choice, through individual behavior."