Managing with Aloha Coaching

Get Started on Twitter the Value-Based Way: 5 Tips

Preface:
This is part two of two postings on Twitter for the three-day weekend. Part one can be read as the previous posting, Learning Twitter with Hawaiian Values.

Why Twitter?
It has become our newest challenge within our Brex initiative for 2008: Brave Experiments with Digital Learning.

Have I convinced you to give Twitter a go?

If you have already been tweeting, are you clear on what your own value parameters are?

As a practical matter, most of us do jump in and experiment with new learning for a while before we make our final decisions on keeping and integrating the subject of our learning into our lives; we get our hands nice and dirty with it! Identifying our key value drivers, and deciding our “for the sake of what” mentioned in part one can come later, within the analysis of our results thus far, and as will organically reveal itself within our into-our-life blending.

So let’s say you are willing to give Twitter a try as a pilot project for part of your own 2008 Brex agenda (you can always opt out again later). Here are some start-up tips, and they do end with the value piece so you aren’t waiting too long to get there!

Ekahi (One). When you sign up, keep your ‘handle’ short. I lucked out on this by default… including a space at the end, @rosasay for me only takes up 9 of those 140-characters others are limited to in a tweet they send me, and I don’t get too many misspellings that I won’t catch (interesting ones for me have been rosassy and rosary!) Two of the co-founders of Twitter are @biz and @ev …they had an advantage with anticipation that should have clued us all in!

If not your name, remember that obvious (or easy to type) for you may not be that way for the others tweeting you directly, especially if your native language is one where a lot of vowels or consonants run together well locally, but look like Greek to others globally.

When I want to send tweets to someone with a long Twitter name, I rely on those good old keyboard shortcuts for copy (ctrl-c) and paste (ctrl-v), especially when we are conversing and I want them at the ready in my clipboard for the same-person tweeting repetition to follow.

Elua (Two). When you start, go “all in.” I think the best way to learn most digital apps is one at a time and completely going for it, resisting other new-learning distractions until you have nailed a good habit you’d like to keep. That’s right – forget that Twitter has been called a distraction, and think of it as the main deal to which other things are distractions!

Another reason for this is that once you get in your groove with Twitter you can multi-task while webbing it, with Twitter open in a desktop client or another browser tab. However there is a difference between multi-tasking and multi-learning, and what I am recommending here by saying go “all in” is that you resist the urge to multi-learn different digital agendas at first. You will also find that there are a ton of APIs (application programming interfaces) connected to Twitter, and you will end up multi-learning to some degree as it is, though you intended to concentrate on just the one learning.

An example: A recent one I found that I think is great for tracking your @replies when they are not at the beginning of a tweet (and thus, will not show up on your replies tab) is summize.com: You type your user name into the search box there, and this comes up. That is how I found this tweet from Wendee when I otherwise would never have seen it so I could reply. Also a good app to keep in mind when Twitter disables the replies tab in their maintenance fixes.

Ekolu (Three). I would recommend you start with a community you already know personally (you can find a lot of people already there) and it may surprise and delight you to discover who in your existing network are early adopters! Not only that, jumping into Twitter with some friends to learn with is fun, and it will encourage you.

Allow your follow-network to grow organically, versus taking the approach of following a lot of people right off the bat, and finding you cannot keep up with your conversations; why give them a poor (and unfortunately inaccurate) first impression of the star you really are!

Then, throw in a few follows for “thought leaders,” people you may not yet know personally, but want to learn from, and introduce yourself to.

If you still find you’d like to be more ambitious with your follows as you get started, take a look at the follow icons we have @JJLhui, the twitter feed we have set up for Joyful Jubilant Learning, for those are the thought leaders on our JJL Advisory Board.

Eha (Four). Don’t game it. Be authentic and willing to be vulnerable. While it is true that people can get a picture of you having no life at first (especially if you take my “all in” advice), to worry too much about appearances isn’t going to serve you as well as investing in the one-time/first-time learning strategy. The other thing to keep in mind is that if they are following you through-out your learning, you are also easing them into a rhythm of knowing when it is best for them to interact with you too: You’ll both win!

Seek to add value for others from the get-go, and any vulnerability you may initially feel will quickly segue into a sharing of the good stuff! Learn to use www.tinyurl.com or www.snurl.com (less characters, but more downtime than tinyurl) and then tweet urls for your best blog posts, not all of them, and for the great stuff you find online. Be generous, and re-tweet what others have shared. Help people celebrate their special days.

Elima (Five). Compose your own set of value parameters sooner versus later. You can build a habit very quickly on Twitter, true to that 21 to 28 days productivity peeps tell you it takes (yep, I’ve hawked the habbit riddle with you too:-). And remember: Those 21 days build not-so-good habits too, another reason to go “all in” (#2 above) and be authentic (#4)! So much easier to keep up with the truth than with a façade!

Twitter for me is extending my conversations; others want to lurk and listen, same as they silently read blogs. Define what your “for the sake of what” is all about, and then pick your personal values which will help you in your own decision-making process along the way. When and if that day comes that you want to converse, your followers will be the right ones already, eager to follow you back because you have so much in common: You will recognize each other by the values you share.

Now, as promised, Bonus Learning Links you can cruise through if you are so inclined:

Learning Twitter with Hawaiian Values

A short preface

You may recall that I declared 2008 our year for the Brex Initiative.

Our online expressions of the MWA Ho‘ohana Community have always been centered on ‘Ike loa, the Hawaiian value of learning since our beginnings in 2004. Two years later, Joyful Jubilant Learning (JJL) was born as a community “home base” for explorations in learning that would embrace more than Managing with Aloha (and thus, more than we might be able to fit in here, on MWAC).

We have monthly learning themes on JJL just as we do on this site for our value study. Here on MWAC I have chosen one biggie for learning which we will revisit all year long: Brex, short for our Brave Experiments with Digital Learning. That last link will take you to the index of what we have done so far.

This is the first of a two-part posting, an update to my newest Brex project: Twitter.

Back in February, I wrote,

I've just joined a new social network on Ning in the past week. Have been on LinkedIn for a while now, have a Tumblr lifestream, but I'm not a Twitterer and have said no to Facebook on purpose (Yeah, you can say no. What's hard is to stop second-guessing yourself about it.)

...from our Brex Kick-off: Who is the Digital Learning Coach in your company?

Well, that was then, and I am a Twitterer now! Love it, and you can follow me there if you are too :)
If you aren’t on Twitter yet, perhaps you’ll think about it?

Why should you? For Brex, and your own digital learning!

Today: Learning Twitter with Hawaiian Values

Tomorrow: Getting Started in the Value-Based Way with 5 Tips
Also: Bonus Learning Links

Tweet Surprises

As of this writing, I’ve been on Twitter for eight weeks and two days. For you seasoned tweeters who may be reading and can relate to these numbers, I’m following 149, being followed by 193 (I am behind in my follow-backs), and have tweeted just over 1460 updates because my learning curve has been a highly conversational one. Talking story is right up my alley!

And that was but the first of the surprises in store for me: Twitter is not just about their own prompting of  “What are you doing?” I have found it is also about “What has your attention right now?” and “What do you think about it?” It has been fascinating.

Thus far, and I still consider myself somewhat of a newbie there compared to many, my introduction to Twitter has proved to be jam-packed with digital learning on 21st century social communications... very Brexy!

According to my strengths profile done via the Gallup Organization, being a Learner is one of my signature strengths. Essentially that means that I am drawn to the process of learning, even more than the subject matter itself.

SIDEBAR: Gallup really nails me on this as one of my strengths... I share it here in case it sounds familiar to the Learner in you!

"Whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered - this is the process that excites you."

From JJL: I have posted a simple highlighter exercise on this there (with a longer version).

The downside to being a Learner defined in this way? I can eagerly jump down rabbit holes with complete abandon. Knowing this about myself, I’ve used the Key Concept of value alignment in MWA to give myself some parameters. Today I will share the ones I have come to develop for my learning Twitter.

Listening Alone Does Not Equate to the Humility of Ha‘aha‘a

My coaching business generally falls into two distinct areas; consultation (teaching and training in MWA and its business/culture modeling) and coaching (mentoring in response to the specific challenges that managers are having, and coaching them through it).

The most frequent subjects which come up in the second arena, the responsiveness coaching I do, can be summed up as helping managers to work with people they don’t understand, whether that person is an employee, a peer or boss, a vendor or customer. Managers will usually start our conversation with something like, “How do I deal with someone who…” because they feel they have tried everything they can think of, and are still feeling thwarted and are frustrated: They are searching for an answer which eludes them, and not because they aren’t trying hard as they can.

As I listen to the situation they describe to me I am listening for clues that tell me

a) what value drivers the employee brings to the situation or to their day-to-day working relationship

b) what value drivers the manager deems most important, (and prefers to have in their day-to-day working relationship) and then

c) where the disconnect is between those two things, (and between them as proud individuals) so we can reconcile it.

Communication breakdowns often loom large as the probable causes in these disconnects. A sentence I will often hear at some point is “I know they hear me and understand me, but they don’t listen to me.”

We managers revere listening: It has repeatedly been drummed in our heads that listening is the grown-up sage to the stubborn youngster called hearing. However there are good listeners and not-so-good listeners, and how we normally define that difference is this way: To a manager’s way of thinking, A good listener takes the desired action we want. A not-so-good listener doesn’t.

What we define as “good listening” is very relevant to what we personally want to happen, and someone else needs to be the one doing it.

Now here’s something important to understand: We aren’t looking for listening alone. We actually get the listening in both those situations, and something else is missing. What we are hoping for and not getting, is Ha‘aha‘a, the value of humility. It’s the whipped cream and cherry on top.

Consider some of these things we have already said this month about humility:

“Humility is exhibiting strength and confidence in the process of adding value to others.” —Tim Milburn

“When I aspire to be humble, I realize I have a lot to learn.”—Stephanie

“Humility is what makes us grow and helps us truly help others.”—Brad Shorr

“Humility is the ability to submit to daily growth and learning and maintaining a healthy sense of humor about it all.” —Karen Swim

There are such gems in the sharing of our Ho‘ohana Community here, aren’t there?

Listening is just the beginning. What humility adds to the process is the acceptance of what we have heard, and the willingness to use our new learning about it.

Once I am able to coach a manager toward asking for those two things (because they cannot force them), and doing that asking when they themselves are aspiring to be humble, accepting of another’s challenges, and willing to work with them in meeting those challenges, those once-difficult, once-frustrating situations become golden opportunities.

Weekend Learning Project

I know that many of you who are managers catch up with me over the weekend when you raise your heads up from the day-to-day. Here is how we can use this coaching reflection:

1. Nānā i ke kumu (look for the source):
Revisit and reconsider any situation at work where you have been frustrated because you felt that listening was present but it fell short somehow.

2. ‘Ike loa (seek new learning):
Think about how you might need to coach another (or self-coach) in a) open-minded acceptance and b) the willingness to take new and different action.

3. Ho‘ohiki (make a promise to yourself):
Resolve and commit to solving your listening or communication by integrating specific actions into the coming week’s Strong Week Plan, i.e. make this process part of your Weekly Review.

4. Ha‘aha‘a (be humble):
Use humility as your value-driver through-out this process.

5. Kākou (be “we-minded”):
When another person is involved, be willing to ask, not just tell with new directions! Enroll them in your goal to improve honestly. Do not inadvertently try to manipulate them by doing this alone: Openly ask them to learn with you.

Let us know how this works for you! For remember, we Ho‘ohana together!
~ Rosa

Yummy photo of “Cookies and cream with a cherry on top” by fd on Flickr.

Looking to the Source of our Hawaiian 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, for it is a question of Nānā i ke kumu, itself a value, meaning “look to the source.”

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. (A good timeline-in-brief can be seen here.) 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 Kaulukukui, Kumu Ramsay Taum, Kumu Peter Kamamo Apo, Dr. Pualani Kanaka‘ole Kanahele, professional photographer 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 (making 64), 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... just as the voyagers who first came to Hawai‘i would initially give us names for eight of her largest islands...

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.

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.

How are those values working for you, hmm?

We are well into the third week of our value study: Ho‘ohanohano can be pretty powerful, don’t you think?

I gave you this gentle coaching back in January as the year started: Say No to Resolutions: Choose your Values instead.

“That is the core belief of Managing with Aloha: Values drive behavior. So get the behaviors you want by keeping the values you revere front and center at all times… You will best get things done through others by incorporating the values you share with them, values that embrace collaboration, and values that also are fundamental good practices… and Aloha is the most universally held value of them all.”

You really can’t go wrong with Aloha; working with Aloha basically comes down to being true to who you are, where ultimate transparency = finely attuned self-mastery. ‘Working with Aloha’ is honoring your own spirit.

However Aloha is the foundation; it is the fertile ground in which all the other values thrive and prosper with ‘root caused’ authenticity too. So which are the others you have kept front and center?

Thus far for 2008, we have studied Pono in January, Kuleana in February, and are currently immersed in Ho‘ohanohano this month. You may have decided that these values work for you too, or you may have used them to draw parallels and connections with other values.

Value Alignment in Practice

Need an example? Well, there is nothing easier to write about than a personal one… Back in January, within that same “Choose your Values instead” posting, I had shared that in my company, Say Leadership Coaching, I would be working with…

Pono, for a newly designed Rightness and Balance as a solo entrepreneur. My “we”s will steadily become “I”s.

As I had shared with my SLC newsletter subscribers this past summer, I am transitioning our 'Ohana in Business where every single person becomes a solo entrepreneur, and April 1 is the transition date where everyone is officially on their own.

Pono will continue to be my year-long self-reckoning, where I can continually ask myself, “Is this action Pono for me, and is my new business model Pono for my customers and all other stakeholders?”

Well, as of this writing, I am twelve days from that April 1 target. I made the “solo” part ahead of schedule, and SLC is down to me, myself, and I, with the partners that I do still have working with me as independent contractors who have started their own businesses: In essence, I am one of their clients in whatever capacity I may still be using their services.

However life is not meant to be a completely solo journey, and as I had anticipated, the “rightness and balance of Pono” will indeed continue to be a self-reckoning for me on the quality of all the relationships I hold with others (including you who read this site!)

Then, in February…

Pono the Judge

"Pono, in comparison is demanding. Expectant. Pono is the ultimate test of value alignment. Brutally black and white at times, and without compromise. That's the way integrity and rightness is."
~ Pono and the Why of Right

How do you know when something is right to you or not?

You just know, don't you.

I think that sense of just knowing is your value sense of Pono. Pono is our personal judge and jury, ever wise, and never hesitating to pass judgment on us pretty quickly - and very decisively.

When you contemplate different courses of action, and if you ask yourself, "Will this be the Pono choice?" the voice of your values collectively answer you. That rallying together of all your values into a decision that is right for you, is potent stuff. It strikes a match that seems to fire up all your other senses.

~ Aloha, your sense unconditional love for others, will assure you have not dismissed anyone in selfishness.

~ 'Ike loa, your sense which gathers knowledge and wisdom, will speak into any lack of your options.

~ Kuleana, your sense of personal responsibility, will speak into what you fulfill, and what you shirk.

~ Ha'aha'a, your sense of pride and humility, will speak into your integrity with the decision you choose.

~ Ho'ohanohano, your sense of respect and dignity, will speak into the way you execute your decision.

~ Ho'ohana, your sense of meaningful work, will speak into your true, honest, pure intention.

I could continue to list them all.

Ironically, this high standard for judge and jury is where your contentment will ultimately come from though, isn't it. Meet those Pono standards and your confusion and questioning, your concerns and worry, your stress and anxiety all melt away like magic.

We learn from Pono, just as we learn from all judges who time after time prove their wisdom. Isn't it comforting to know that you have Pono the Judge living in you too?

---

Aloha! If you are just joining us, our value of the month is Pono, the Hawaiian value of balance and rightness. These have been our January discussions so far:

1. Pono and the Why of Right
2. Pono and our 5 Beat Rhythm: A Beat 1 Example on Decision Management
3. Say No to Resolutions: Choose your Values instead
4. Is Pono where Integrity goes?
5. Perfect Pono Partner: Positive Thinking
6. Balance? What Balance?
7. Pono is a Value you can See

New Resource Page: Why Choose Values?

I have created a new resource page on www.ManagingWithAloha.com, one you may find helpful if you would like some help in explaining to your team — or your boss! — why you have decided to bring Managing with Aloha to your workplace.

This page explains why I believe in value-based management, and why it makes so much sense to me:

Why Choose Values?

You can highlight it, select and print it, or send the link to them via email. Once this post slips into the archives, you can easily find the page again as the first link under my list of Hawaiian Values in the sidebar of the site (and you will see that the new page ends with a list of all 19 values with short definitions).

A tip for your conversation:
Remember that whomever you talk to will already be fully vested in their own values. I know you get this by now, but for those hearing about MWA for the very first time, assure them that you are using MWA Coaching to revisit the values you already have through a fresh lens, and that you aren't replacing others, or suggesting they be abandoned. In truth, you are respecting them with a newfound admiration and language of intention.

And as always, let me know if I can help. Don't be shy about suggesting any edits: I put this together for you!
~ Rosa

Is Pono where Integrity goes?

I received an email about my Day One Essay for Pono, and the HCer (Ho'ohana Community member) who wrote asked,

"Is Pono where integrity goes Rosa? I will talk story with my staff about Pono this month, for I think it's a great value to kick off our year with, and I am thinking that I'd like to describe it as the value of balance, rightness, and integrity, where those three things will result in contentment for us both individually, and as a team when we openly talk with each other about what it will take to get there."

Those are the kind of deductions that make for great mantras in a workplace! Love it! What a terrific value formula to drive desired behavior with:

Balance + Rightness + Integrity = Contentment

“Forget mission statements; they’re long, boring, and irrelevant. No one can ever remember them — much less implement them. Instead, take your meaning and make a mantra out of it. This will set your entire team on the right course.”
~ Guy Kawasaki in Art of the Start

To answer our HCer's question, yes, I agree that Pono can correctly be called the value of personal integrity. I think of integrity as telling ourselves the truth, and acting in the way that feels right according to that that truth. Here is an MWA excerpt that sums it up in my mana'o (my thoughts, beliefs, convictions).

This is found on page 20, in Chapter One on Aloha:

Our values drive our beliefs, and often they give our thoughts clarity. When we are true to our beliefs, the decisions and choices we make come to us naturally and easily, especially when we have a goal or objective in mind. It is easier to act on that which you believe. I am a strong advocate for the writing of mission statements, as you will discover when we reach the chapter on ‘Imi ola (to seek life). Our mission defines our goals, and our goals drive our actions. And actions taken, true to clear beliefs that have been borne from good values, give us our integrity. Acting with integrity makes things right for us; it feeds our hunger to be intelligent, ethical and morally just.

It is human nature that we will often justify not doing certain things that we know, deep in our heart, mind, and soul, is the right thing to do. Our justifications - I'm too busy, this is not a good time, etc., serve as a kind of self-preservation instinct that we are still good people inside, there are just these extenuating circumstances out of our control.

For me, the truth-telling of personal integrity is a more diligent self-questioning: Are those circumstances really are out of my control or not? To be sure, this self-talk (and self-reckoning) is more difficult, but it is so necessary if you are to get to contentment! Acting with integrity can be difficult in the moment of those actions; it can be downright unpleasant. However in the long run — in that goodness within us we feed and nurture — we always emerge through that "light at the end of the tunnel."

To be content, your heart cannot ache, your mindfulness cannot be dismissed, your gut intuition cannot be dishonored, and your soul cannot be kept restless, all without what we usually refer to as "peace of mind."

Crystal Being Etched on Flickr by dlkinney:

Photo caption: This is a close-up of a crystal bowl receiving its markings. You can see how the markered lines are used to provide the worker with guidance as to the size and location of marks. The trick is to make the cuts deep, but not so deep as to reduce the structural integrity of the piece -- or cut all the way through. Like the glass blowers, the etching artists are paid for the number of pieces that pass quality inspection. A bowl like the one in his hand can take two to four hours to complete.

 

 

 

A very thoughtful and deliberate man, my dad used to tell us that you get peace of mind with just about anything you do from going the distance. Integrity is telling yourself the truth and "nothing but the truth" about what that distance is, and the role you need to play.

Then there is the action part, for as I like to say, wishing and hoping alone is not a very effective strategy. The part of the email that made me smile from ear to ear was the last phrase: "and as a team when we openly talk with each other about what it will take to get there."

Big mahalo for the email, and keep them coming HCers: Don't think I could have set myself up better than you did for an article about integrity!