Managing with Aloha Coaching

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.

When Ghosts Return and Angels Whisper

It is December 6th, and for all of my life, there has been only one person I think about on this day.

When Ghosts Return

“I used to dream about finding my father. I dreamed he moved to the next town over, and one day I would ride my bike to his house and knock on his door and he would tell me it was all just a big mistake. And the two of us would ride home together, me on the front, my dad pedaling hard behind, and my mother would run out the door and burst into happy tears.

“It’s amazing the fantasies your mind can put together. The truth was, I didn’t know where my father lived and I never did find out.”

— Charley “Chick” Benetto, in Mitch Albom’s for one more day

In Mitch Albom’s story, Charley gets to spend another day with his mother “somewhere between this life and the next. With her tender guidance, he tries to put the crumbled pieces of his life back together.”

His father had never figured into his life much, and for one more day he still wouldn’t.

When Angels Whisper

I was far, far luckier than Chick Benetto. Both mother and father figured into my life. The only place my dad ever lived after my brothers, sister and I came into his life was with us and our mom. I knew him very well, and he loved us exceptionally well.

[Update: My sister just sent this photo to me. Mahalo Becca! Can you tell it was taken in the 1970s? That VW bug was my first car; I’m the one at the far right, standing to my dad’s left, and the woman on the far left of the photo is my grandmother Lillian, dad’s mom.]

Loved my grandmother deeply, yet if I were to have the chance to spend just one more very ordinary day with someone, just as Chick did, without a moment’s hesitation I’d choose to spend it with my Dad, and not just because today is his day.

Hau ‘oli la hanau Dad; have a great birthday celebration.

“…And as many stories do, especially when they are told as a way to comfort someone, and help the hurting heart remember another, this one has taken on a life of its own. It has gotten magnified into quite a few variations over sixteen years’ time, for my mom’s eleven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, and for a variety of reasons.”

Read more, at When Children Sleep, Angels Whisper.

‘Ohana, your business and your community

In my book, Managing with Aloha, you’ll find that I mostly talk about community in the chapter on ‘Ohana. I’d like to share a short excerpt with you before we leave the month of August and our study of this value. A mere month does not do justice to the teachings of ‘Ohana, for in its richness it can add so much possibility to the workplace. It is my hope that this excerpt gives you a jumping off place to hatch some ideas of your own in how ‘Ohana can translate for you, and for your company.

Next month we jump to the teachings of another value, but ‘Ohana is one you can continue to learn in your practice of it every single day, where your personal life in the arms of family inspire you in your professional one.

Here is the excerpt:

The literal translation for ‘Ohana is family, however in Hawaii, within one’s ‘Ohana are those who are family, and those you choose to call your family. As a Hawaiian value, ‘Ohana is a human circle of complete aloha.

Like ‘Ohana, community is a sacred concept in Hawaii. Many believe that a community cannot be created without the foundation of a strong ‘Ohana to support it. Likewise an ‘Ohana can only get stronger when its connections include the embrace of the community that surrounds it. ‘Ohana and community are considered intertwined.

History helps us understand this, for Hawaiian families traditionally belonged to an ahupua‘a, a land division that was more than town or village. The ahupua‘a extended from the mountains to the sea, for in our volcanic island environment, different types of sustenance came from these varied elevations. Your ‘Ohana was responsible for stewardship of the land you occupied, and thus the entire ‘Ohana was bonded in work as well: Yours was a family of fishermen, or farmers or tradesmen. You were expected to share the bounty of your harvest or craft with all in the ahupua‘a, as they would share theirs with you, making the entire community healthy and strong. The community needed the ‘Ohana to care for the land that sustained them; the ‘Ohana needed the community’s reach over the entire ahupua‘a if they were to enjoy the best possible life.

As with the family connections to neighborhood, and sense of place, there is so much good business sense in making community connections.

For one thing, it’s terrific marketing. Let’s face it—customers are more inclined to spend a buck with you if they feel you are caring and socially responsible, and often the best way to demonstrate your caring is via community involvement. In addition to corporate initiatives, as a business we must promote and support the volunteerism of our employees within the community as Little League coaches, soccer moms, soup kitchen volunteers, companions for the elderly—wherever their own values drive them to be giving. As Mea Ho‘okipa they thrive with these additional expressions of their Aloha for others.

Often there are many rewards we gain back indirectly, such as their continuing education, their recognition of good service practices in other organizations, or their participation in fun and social outlets that de-stress and energize them. We may also gain the opportunity to lead and influence community changes that are healthy for both the community itself and thus for our business climate as a whole.

This is all part of ‘Ohana, the human circle of complete Aloha.

‘Ohana helps us see the tremendous worth held within community. A business cannot be all things to all people, and community is there to fill the pukas (the holes, the opportunity) and bridge the gaps. Community involvement promotes inclusiveness, open-mindedness and the willingness to seek a better way to live with each other harmoniously, teachings that are all promoted by an ‘Ohana.

Establishing healthy community networks that include your business concerns can counteract the fear of evolutionary change that neighborhoods are destined to go through. ‘Ohana is the most secure and comfortable support we have for facing truth, for ‘Ohana never loses hope. And with community involvement in particular, the lines between benchmarking new ideas, networking with divergent groups and education in general can become very pleasantly blurry; they all seek more knowledge. Knowledge brings hope, and ‘Ohana promotes it.

Community involvement also gives prospective candidates the opportunity to interact with your employees in a neutral environment. The reality of any job market is that the employees you really want to work with you are probably already employed. You need not resort to tactics aimed at stealing them away when they initiate the effort to seek you out because you have offered evidence to them that you can deliver great job satisfaction. The evidence? Your present employee, the one active in the community who is happy and speaks well of you and your business goals and ethics.

Are you taking the same risk by exposing your staff to other companies in your support of their volunteerism? Only if your own house is not in order. Only if your own company is not a healthy ‘Ohana in business. If it is, what they will see is how good they have it working with you; all they will feel is your support, your Aloha. They won’t give that up.

--- Managing with Aloha, Bringing Hawaii’s Universal Values to the Art of Business

A full index of this month’ articles:

1. ‘€˜Ohana, Community, and The ‘€˜Ohana in Business
2. How Strengths and Performance Coaching Intersect with Managing with Aloha
3. The ‘Ohana in Business is a Place for Business Partners
4. The Purpose-Finding of Ho‘ohana and Wabi-Sabi
5. Sunday Mālama: A Beginning
6. Every employee a Business Partner? Yep.
7. How good do you feel about working in business today?
8. 4 Things Managers Can Do to Bring Managing with Aloha to their Company Culture
9. An expression of Ho‘ohana: The Plastic Spork by Shawn Chambers
10. Sunday Mālama: Aug12'07 Spirit Spilling
11. Branding fame, the ability to provoke, and degrees of follow-up
12. Living the value of ‘Ohana in a disaster
13. MWA Success Stories! The Daily Five Minutes®
14. Coaching Debrief: Do with, not for, not instead
15. Sunday Mālama: Aug19'07 A Ma'alahi Persuasion for Calm
16. Blind Faith is not part of Unconditional Aloha in an ‘Ohana in Business
17. For an ‘Ohana in Business, work on Role, Behavior, and Consequence
18. Sunday Mālama: Aug26'07 Morning Pages, Artist Dates and Rhythm
19. ‘Ohana, the value of Family, and Hānai interpretations for Business

‘Ohana, the value of Family, and Hānai interpretations for Business

If we were to reduce the value of ‘Ohana to its purest intentions, I would say it this way: The Hawaiian value of ‘Ohana seeks to open up family. Besides those blood ties that bind us by birth, we can choose who we consider our ‘ohana to be, enlarging our human circle of aloha.

There is an exceptional article this month in the August/September 2007 issue of Hana Hou! (the magazine of Hawaiian Airlines) called Hānai Tales, Hawaiian Family Values. Hānai is the word for adoption, and as the storyline conveys, “The Hawaiian form of adoption reminds us that love, not genes, is what truly defines family.” The four-page story was exceptionally written by Paul Wood, recipient of the 2006 Elliot Cades Award for literature, and the author of two story collections, and within it Wood demonstrates his skillful weaving of stories, these being of those who are children of adoption, or who have chosen to adopt. Hana Hou! is sold at newsstands and in bookstores, thus the online archives are purposely delayed an issue or two, but I will be tracing the article to link here in a future update. [And here it is!]

The photos which accompany Wood’s article, by well-known Hawaii photographer Linda Ching are absolutely perfect, not only in capturing the precious faces of family, but in conveying the emotional intelligence of Wood’s article. Here is what photographer Linda Ching said, about taking up the challenge of illustrating the complex and often abstract concepts of Paul Wood’s story, as shared on the contributor’s page of the magazine:

“I wanted my pictures to illustrate the bonds that I feel are the truest part of hānai, which I see as love without boundaries. It was like trying to capture love in a bottle, daunting at first, until I met these children who were so lovingly bonded to their kūpuna [elders], and Hōkūlani, whose smile is the essence of aloha.” A hānai child, Hōkūlani Holt-Padilla, calls it “the best of all worlds. I never felt unwanted.”

Hānai is what we refer to as “open adoption.”

According to Wood, the government does not allow adopted people to know where and to whom they were born in forty-five of the fifty U.S. states – including Hawai‘i. [Not even where – I didn’t know that before reading the article.] This is in stark contrast to the traditional Hawaiian practice of hānai, which is very inclusive; hānai children do know who their biological parents are, and often they are close by; sometimes hānai children live in both homes at different times. They feel they are very loved, and haven’t really been given away; elders have simply decided where, and with whom it is best they live, and where the responsibility for raising them well can best be fulfilled. Often there is no paperwork involved, just an agreement between parents; two are giving, two are receiving, four are sharing the life of a child. Where ever they are, and like any child, a hānai child brings new life to a home, to a heart, to a family, to the circle of human aloha. Hānai ends loneliness.

Hānai may very well be the very best way we can learn about the inclusiveness, giving, and unconditional acceptance of ‘Ohana. Now just imagine what happens when someone in the thought-to-be professionally cold world of business, brings these concepts into a company ... a family entrusts one of their own to a business, that company receives and fully owns the responsibility for raising and caring for that person, so that all, including the community, can share in the best possible expression of that life. Wow.

Wood includes a story of how the hānai parents of Auntie Leimamo Lee of Hāna, Maui, asked her birth parents if they could have her before she was born, because “My [hanai] parents never had any children of their own, but they loved children, and they asked for one.” Wood writes,

“One might wonder how any parents could give up their newborn with such apparent ease. So it’s important to remember a key element to all true hānai agreements: No one loses.”

No one loses. You can also say that the world does not lose. More in Wood’s words:

“In deep Hawaiian tradition, the first-born (hiapo) girl was dedicated to the maternal elders, the first-born boy to the paternal ones. Auntie Leimamo of Hana tells me, ‘Reason was, the grandparents will show the grandchild the way to go in life and take the secrets of whatever they know and pass them on to the child.’ … the point of [her] generational story is to illustrate one great value of hanai adoption – it helps ensure that the knowledge of the old folks will pass on to future generations. The child hānaied by the grandparents becomes a conduit of culture.”

Now consider if these kinds of ‘Ohana values were brought to the conventional ways we think of succession planning in a company, where cross-generational bonding (think ‘mentorship’) ensures that the wisdom and skills of the “elders” and any ‘organizational culture’ they represent, is never lost. Again, wow.

Footnotes and Helpful Links:

1. This is how Hana Hou! describes their editorial mission: “As the island lifestyle magazine of Hawaii‘s premier airline, Hana Hou! strives to provide fresh, insightful views of the people, places and cultures that make our island home so special. Whether you‘re a resident or a visitor, we hope to offer exciting new perspectives through our commitment to outstanding writing, photography and graphic design. We consider it a privilege to be able to present the work of some of Hawaii's finest writers and artists.” They do an excellent job, and I highly recommend browsing their archives, or getting a subscription for the stunning photography they showcase. 
2. Those story collections authored by Paul Wood, are False Confessions and Four Wheels Five Corners, Facts of Life in Upcountry Maui. He has also done a number of botanical books.
3. Photographer Linda Ching has often had her work presented in Hana Hou! and when I get on a Hawaiian Airline flight, see a new issue waiting and open it up, hers are photographs that leap off the page at you with startling human connection. Her exhibits include showings in the US Congress and at the China National Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing. Visit her website for samples: www.lindaching.com

For an ‘Ohana in Business, work on Role, Behavior, and Consequence

When we speak of being an ‘Ohana in Business, one of the things that is critically important for a company’s visionary clarity and the execution predicating success, is answering this question:

In an ‘Ohana in Business, how does a manager

“conduct oneself with distinction” (Ho‘ohanohano) with both

the personal intimacy and unconditional acceptance of family values (‘Ohana),

AND the professionalism and growth potential of Alaka‘i (great management and leadership)?

In short, by working on these Constant Goals of Behavioral Consistency:

a) ROLE: Everyone’s role (role, not only “job” to be done) must be clear, and accountability in those roles must be clear.

b) BEHAVIOR: There must be exceptional modeling of “living and working with aloha” by top level managers before there can be any “managing and leading with aloha” at all.

c) CONSEQUENCE: There must be consequences for poor, mediocre, and status quo performance and desirable rewards for great performance. In other words, good enough CANNOT BE good enough!

These are constant goals. I am certain I can find work to be done on these three goals in every single company on the planet, even in those that are exceptionally successful, for change will happen for them too.

What these three things have in common is clarity in expectations. In the work I do as a workplace aloha coach, something becomes more and more apparent to me every day: Great leaders must be obsessed with making all expectations clear, with roles, jobs, decisions, communications, measurement, results, time – with virtually everything you can think of.

Be a broken record of the right messages. Err on the side of repeating yourself. Ask questions that help you figure out if there is clear understanding, and make it safe for people to give all answers – the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. Don’t spoon-feed; challenge thinking and then verify that you have arrived at the same best answer. When there is any communication breakdown, be adamant in following up to discover the root cause so it doesn’t happen again. Never blame; coach for “the next time” and expect improvement.

Pursue clarity relentlessly in roles, behavioral expectations, and performance consequences, and you will leapfrog significantly no matter what the rest of your strategic goals might be.

Living the value of ‘Ohana in a disaster

As I sit and write this, we have “battened down the hatches” finding that the Big Island of Hawai‘i, where I live, will get the brunt of Hurricane Flossie (thankfully now downgraded to a category two storm) should Mother Nature decide we need to pay her more respect. We have tied down what we could and have stocked our hurricane kits in preparation; now we just sit and wait to see what will happen.

This sitting is not a luxury I had for most of my working life, and I keep thinking of the scores of people, including my husband still, who work in our island’s hospitality industry, for what I can most vividly remember about all the different hurricanes I have experienced while in the hotel business, is the scrambling we did for our guests each and every time; nothing becomes more important than safety precautions taken for human life. Nothing.

It is very fitting that ‘ohana is our value of the month, for when disasters hit, every human being becomes ‘ohana in its basic definition of someone you pull into your circle of aloha. Profits, business plans, operational efficiencies, sales and market capture, missions and visions all take a back seat —as they should. What trumps everything else are the values which make us human. Everyone becomes family; it doesn’t matter if you speak the same tongue or think in the same way, or if you have ever known of each other before, for you do now.

This is my memory and today’s reflection;

Whether hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunami’s or camaraderie in the shared shock of an event like 9/11, whenever there was a disaster in any business I have worked for or been associated with, ‘Ohana became the value that I discovered resonated with people at a very elemental level. I become proud of being associated with the world of business at these times; for overwhelmingly business owners will step up to the plate and marshal every resource they have available to them so they may be good hosts to their guests, good employers to their staff, good partners to their associates and competitors, good neighbors for their communities, and great people of integrity and aloha.

‘Ohana. Let’s take it apart.

HA: the divine breath of one’s life

HANA: the work we devote our energies to, and breathe our ha into

‘O: the ‘part of the possessives which mark a subject,’ in this case, our collective breath of life, given freely to each other, in the in-spirit work of a human circle of aloha

ALOHA:

ALO: for our outside demeanor

HA: for our breath,

ALOHA: so we may live from the inside out with authenticity

Remember our three primary colors for splendid mixology? Ha: RED for the passion of life’s expression within us, Hana: BLUE for the endless possibility of the sky, in the work we can share and live, ‘O: YELLOW for sunny brightness of optimism that colors our human possibility. How wonderful that this is what we can think of when a storm threatens. It helps us know everything will be fine.

An Update: Hurricane Flossie remained a strong category two hurricane until she came within about 150 miles of the Big Island; then our trade winds nudged her further south where she quickly dissipated in colder ocean waters. Mahalo to those of you who have written with concerns: we are fine!

This month, we learn about ‘Ohana: ‘Ohana, Community, and The ‘Ohana in Business

The ‘Ohana in Business is a Place for Business Partners

In my Day One essay for August, I wrote that I think of three primary concepts within ‘Ohana; family, community, and chosen form. That “chosen form” we talk about in the Managing with Aloha philosophy is what we call the ‘Ohana in Business. Let’s talk about that today.

Are you a team? Or are you ‘Ohana?

As you might imagine, I’ll often have to explain to people outside Hawai‘i how we bring MWA to their sense of place without depending on the Hawaiian words I use for our values within the philosophy. What may surprise you, is that we can encounter some resistance right here in our islands as well.

Values ARE universally held. They are familiar, and at first mention in a conversation about them, we seek to understand what people already consider them to mean. The value that people in Hawai‘i seem to be most sensitive to is ‘Ohana, for the word has  strong gut-level, emotion-charged, and assumption-ridden connotations to it, just as does the English word it is commonly translated to mean, family.

For instance, just yesterday a gentleman on Maui called me to book a session in our Ho‘okipa Summer 2007 series, and he said, “There is one word in your book we are a bit sensitive to, and please, don’t take this the wrong way, but we prefer to think of ourselves as a team here, keeping ‘Ohana to strictly mean your family at home.” He is not the first one to ask me about this, not by a long shot.

In one sense, I agree with him, for vocabulary and word choice is important; it adds to the clarity in your communication. I also use the word ‘Ohana (when said alone) to mean family. However in trying to explain himself more fully, my caller then said, “We think that team is better for us, for the expectations are higher and more professional without the familiarity of ‘Ohana.”

Now that is an opinion I don’t share with him, and I think that most people who have worked in family-owned businesses would likely dispute it too; more familiarity does NOT necessarily mean lower expectations. On the contrary, it is usually the other way around.

What do your employees think?

If they are to perform well, employees must feel good about who they are to you and your company.  They must always know where they stand with you, and they must feel they are valued.

It is highly likely that people have hired on with you wanting the very same things you do. They too do not expect the familiarity and intimacy of family at work, nor do they want it; they have families, and seldom need you to fill that place in their lives. They want a professional association in the workplace just as much as you do.

That is what the ‘Ohana in Business gives them; a professional association in which they are expected to be —and are treated as— business partners.

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.”
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Those of you who have a copy of MWA will find the words in my next paragraph familiar: They are repeated within the chapter on ‘Ohana, with a bit of editing here for new readers;

“With belief in the teachings of ‘Ohana as a business value, there is a very natural progression toward the concept of an ‘Ohana in Business. Employees become business partners. They have joined your company because they identified their Ho‘ohana (the work they are driven to do by their own passions), and wish to work on it with you.

Remember ‘Imi ola? Your employees have enrolled in your vision. They write mission statements with you, talk strategy, and set goals. They share in problem solving, and work toward efficiencies. They give you the feedback needed to make better decisions, they take care of business assets as their own, and they propose change and initiatives. They are respected for their intelligence, and their full involvement is expected. They know it, and they give it. As business partners do, they share in the work it takes to make your business successful.”

MY MANA‘O (what I believe to be true) ~ ~ ~ We expect staff to perform as partners in our business goals; we should therefore give them the respectful acknowledgment of calling them “Business Partners.” I would much prefer being thought of as a business partner than as an associate, an employee, or just “staff.” Wouldn’t you? I would perform better if I knew I was regarded as a business partner, and treated as one, and that those were not empty words. Wouldn’t you?

You do not want employees to think of your business as “THE company” but as “OUR company.” You want them to speak the Language of We (Kākou).

The ‘Ohana in Business is part of the Business Model

We’ll talk more about what regarding employees as business partners really means as our study of ‘Ohana continues; it impacts your business model with some direct hits, and I think that’s a good thing; it keeps the business owner intellectually honest.

For now, here is an example as close to home as I can give you. This is the paragraph that appears in the “About Us” section of our collateral at my company, SAY LEADERSHIP COACHING:

‘Imi ola is a Hawaiian value in the Managing with Aloha philosophy, which means “to seek life in its highest possible form.” In teaching and coaching others on this value, we at SAY LEADERSHIP COACHING accept our own responsibility to lead, and to demonstrate how we ourselves seek our best possible life in business. Therefore, our business model is one in which all who are considered our “staff” are not employees, but are independent businessmen and women. They are our business partners, and we are an ‘Ohana in Business, living within and leading what we feel is a needed reinvention of the workplace today with our own example.”

My SLC business model must make sense to everyone who partners with me. It must serve our mission and our customer, and it must assure that all in our ‘Ohana in Business understand they work for profit and not paycheck. That will not happen if it does not also honor and recognize them as the business partners they ARE.

Perhaps most important? For employees to think of themselves in a certain way, the owner and visionary of that business must think that way first. You can’t fake this; you have to genuinely believe in it.

Links which may be helpful;

1. Our Day One essay for August on ‘Ohana: ‘€˜Ohana, Community, and The ‘€˜Ohana in Business
2. The classes I referred to, in speaking with my Maui caller: A Ho‘okipa Summer 2007
3. My feelings about business models which must make sense came to me the hard way; when I found I was promoted to the top of an organization that had a seriously flawed one. I wrote about my experience in the manifesto I wrote for ChangeThis.com.

August 2007: ‘Ohana, Community, and The ‘Ohana in Business

Our value for the month of August 2007, is presented in Chapter 7 of Managing with Aloha;

‘Ohana Those who are family, and those you choose to call your family. ‘Ohana is a human circle of complete Aloha. ~ ‘Ohana is family. Our ‘Ohana includes those we have always known as our family, surrounding us with love at the time of our birth. ~ However ‘Ohana also includes those we choose to call our family, for the connection we share with them enriches our life. ~ ‘Ohana becomes a sacred form for sharing our lives with Aloha, for it gives us the unconditional gifts of love, understanding, forgiving, and acceptance. ~ ‘Ohana is the most secure and comfort-filled support we have for facing truth, for ‘Ohana never loses hope. ~ The bonds of ‘Ohana are strong yet supple: They flex with giving and with the love and acceptance of Aloha, yet they are made rigidly secure by those same supports. These bonds may be tested, but they cannot be broken. ‘Ohana is a human circle of complete Aloha.

‘Ohana is the word for family in Hawaii. From culture to culture we share the commonality of being human beings, and humans need to be in family groups of other human beings: The history of humankind repeatedly has shown us that we were not intended to be alone. We need connection to each other, it nurtures and sustains us.

Families can take on different forms, and they can embrace whomever they wish to include in their circle. The Hawaiian culture is one of those in which family may have nothing to do with bloodlines; If you are considered part of one’s ‘Ohana you are their family, plain and simple. Since ‘Ohana does not necessarily include birthright, you can easily belong to more than one ‘Ohana, and many people do.

‘Ohana gives us a feeling of belonging. And that’s something we all need.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ah, what a month this will be! There is such immense possibility for workplace reinventions within the value of ‘Ohana. I’ve been licking my chops for our arrival at this chapter. Hmmm ... how to start ...

Remember when you learned about primary colors in school? It may have been one of the earliest lessons we had, in which art and science blended so pleasingly well. It was back when we felt at our most creative and free-spirited selves, and this color lesson was one that made us so hopeful.

Messy? Messy was art!

There were crayons, pots of poster paint, and those magic prisms that our teacher would hold up to the sunlight to dazzle us with. Remember? The primary colors could mix for secondary colors, and my goodness, we’d blend, blend again, and blend again. There was so much experimenting we could do, and we did it tirelessly.

The teacher mentioned black and white, but she (or he) understood our impatience with them; they were boring. Those impressions were left to learn later in a different context, and in a different age. Our three primary colors of red, blue, and yellow were all we wanted, all we needed.

Similar to those bright and cheerful primary colors of infinite mixology, I think of three primary concepts within ‘Ohana; family, community, and chosen form. That “chosen form” we talk about in the Managing with Aloha philosophy is what we call the ‘Ohana in Business, and I will honestly tell you that I take supreme delight in the workplace mixology it creates.

As usual, our canvas is the biggest one possible, one that swaddles us heart, mind, body and soul; the canvas of our aloha spirit.

These are the subheadings of my chapter on ‘Ohana; do let me know if there is any section in particular you’d like to discuss as our month unfolds:

• ‘Ohana is family.
• ‘Ohana is form for the sharing of one’s life.
• Acceptance in ‘Ohana is unconditional.
• ‘Ohana is all-inclusive.
• The best human circle you can bring to business.
• Work is personal: a story.
• Bringing the customer into your ‘Ohana.
• Bringing community into ‘Ohana.
• Managers create their own ‘Ohana.
• Who are those you choose to call ‘Ohana?

This month, we strive for ‘Ohana, the human circle of complete Aloha.

‘Ohana gives us a feeling of belonging. And that’s something we all need.

Join us; let’s mix colors. Let’s create. Let’s get messy. And let’s Ho‘ohana.
~ Rosa