The Cropley's Flow: An Ode to T-Street

“Watching someone in flow gives the impression that the difficult is easy; peak performance appears natural and ordinary.”

-          Goleman (Emotional Intelligence, 1995)

As a young boy growing up in Southern California in one of the surfing capitols of the world, San Clemente, I spent hours on the beach at T-Street during summer. Days melted one from the next; I picked the sleep from my eyes, poured a bowl of Life cereal, grabbed my board, and climbed down the cliffs to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. There, I carefully watched the tourists, the local surfers, and the waves as they gathered there and played.

The tourists always showed up at the beach with lots of stuff. Each group was dominated by stuff. They had stuff in bags, in their hands, and even in the coolers they pulled along behind them. Trudging through the soft sand just beginning to soak up the sun, the ladies pulled their children while their grunting husbands lugged the load which had so lovingly been packed just an hour before. These visitors wouldn't compromise, wouldn't listen either to each other or to the nature of the place. Everything was conflict. And, perhaps because of the transient nature of their presence in this place, everything was always a struggle, a battle. By the end of the day, these tourists walked across the sand dragging their children, their stuff, as their slippers tossed up little explosions of sand which stuck to them, frusterated them, caused little fuck words to slip off their tongues. Their parent's voices, tired by the end of the day, were jagged edges, ready to cut. The children, sad because they had to leave and sadder still because of the drive home, whimpered at the bottom of the stairs as the shadows stretched across the divots in the sand.

The benches at Cropley's and the shade under the stairs always stashed away a few surfers, like me. We were a motley crew. Some of us would hide, spending the entire lazy afternoons with our heads under towels, furtively sneaking one hit tokes of Mexi dirt weed. Every once in a while, a head would peek out, red eyes itchy, asking if anyone had another lighter or a walkman with fresh batteries or –and it always made me smile- whether the lifeguard was looking. Some of us were quiet, shy; some of us talked loudly and slapped our hands in silly ways, affecting the closeness of a brotherhood sealed in a heady combination of sand, sun, and the bursting sexuality of full-blown puberty. There, we discovered the lithe bodies of the young priestesses of the sun god. Coyly, they posed for us. They were discovering their power, as well. Their eyes drew us away from the moment and only into themselves. Others, like me, sat like gargoyles, eyes clad with sunglasses, staring out at the sparkling sea. We sat, watching the sun drip into the water; we were mystics, there, in that moment, in that time, looking into our future. Eidetically, we deftly played with an idea which we barely understood, words that have hung for an eternity preparing all for the entrance to the oracle at Delphi. Know thyself.

Looking past the sun-kissed bikini girls stretched out on the beach and the eyes of wary fathers watching us watch their daughters, the languid blue coolness of the ocean water undulated endlessly. The water would smooth itself around deep and shallow patches. Gathering power in each of these curves, a wave would well upwards, cresting, breaking into a bouncing foamy expression. I loved to linger there, in the presence of all that movement, day after day. I remember recognizing for the first time in my young life that these were peak experiences breaking up against me like the surf I duck-dived to get under and through each time I paddled out to linger there in the coolness, the only place where earth truly becomes the sky.

I knew the waves and the waves knew me. The wind knew me. The seaweed knew me. Each of the grains of sand deposited on that beach was a part of me. These were the seconds of my life manifest and strewn sloppily about. The nature of the place loved me in a way that it didn't love the tourists. It whispered secrets. It shared with me, as with anyone who listened, that there is no structure. There is no meaning, just a never-ending intertwining playfulness which simply seeks to express the nuances of interaction with those exhibiting the quietness to stop, listen, smell, touch, taste, and see, to reveal in our humanity. When we do this, we know without understanding and live, even if for a just a second, in the flow Goleman speaks of in his seminal work, Emotional Intelligence.

A Global Mirror

“Life outside can’t be trashed and made to look worse than it is. And life inside can’t be propagandized and made to look better than it is. Thanks to the democratization of information, we all increasingly know how each other lives – no matter how isolated you think a country might be.”

- Thomas Friedman (The Lexus and the Olive Tree - Pg.67, paragraph 3)

********Post provided by B. Jefferson*********

        From CNN to the homepages of Yahoo and AOL, it seems that we are always being updated with not just the happening of our own country, but the happenings of the world. Whether it be giant sink holes in South America or protests in Cairo, Egypt, today's mass information system allows us to get a glimpse of what is underneath the superficial front that so many countries try to uphold. Unfortunately, this uncovering is universal; this also means that other countries are able to see past our superficialities as well. I think this is what Thomas Friedman described in his book The Lexus and The Olive Tree, when he wrote, “Life outside can’t be trashed and made to look worse than it is. And life inside can’t be propagandized and made to look better than it is. Thanks to the democratization of information, we all increasingly know how each other lives – no matter how isolated you think a country might be.” 

Over the past year or so I have come to wonder if being globally aware is a two-edged sword. Yes, people need to know that other countries have it worse than us and our constant debate over our “liberties” and, yes, we also need to be aware that some countries run more effectively and have procedures that we can learn from and implement to be more effective. For example, we are currently going through a healthcare reform. What can we learn from other countries that can help us make the best reforms possible? Should we follow what Switzerland does and make policy so that everyone has to buy insurance, instead of receiving it as a benefit from their jobs, and make it so that health insurance companies compete which in turn will drive down cost? Or, should we maybe follow Austria’s example and have everyone pay into the healthcare system? The price that each citizen pays into the system will be determined by their income, because let’s face it, if we, the people of middle class America, can buy a new IPhone, IPad, or 62’ flat screen TV, and are using the excuse that “healthcare is expensive”, we are being irresponsible. The money we spend on fancy gadgets could have paid for our healthcare or better yet, our children’s healthcare. 

The problem that I have with this new sense of global awareness is that, unfortunately, there are many people in our country who can tell you the political structure of the Middle East and what they need to do to sustain “democracy”, along with people who can tell you exactly what caused the riots in Greece and how the people were trying to effect change in the Grecian government. And yet these people cannot even begin to examine some of the key discussions concerning what we need, as Americans, to manifest the future which we truly desire.

Ultimately, I fear that the very information that links us together with the world and allows us to think past our superficial understandings of what happens in different parts of the country could cause us to down play what happens in our own. For instance what are we doing to make our future generations more competitive? Have we made it easier for our children to get quality education? Or, are we making it more difficult to give them the tools that they need to succeed? Are we creating viable jobs for our children or are we outsourcing everything we can to technology and other countries? Lastly, and more importantly, I daresay that we are not holding our government accountable for its actions and not holding ourselves accountable for thinking that we are blameless in the doings of our government considering that, cough, we participate in a democracy. I hope to see you at the polls, whatever your position is -politically- in the coming months as we move through election season.

Efficiency is Great, but...

Humans, unlike machines, easily use something called case-based reasoning. We consider the current set of circumstances, compare them with situations that occurred in the past, and determine what we can take from those experiences. This is a kind of flexibility that's very hard to teach a machine.

-          Jeffrey Kluger  (Simplexity, p. 121)

******Post provided courtesy of M. Rodriguez******

Although in the 21st century, we are living in a technologically dependent world, humans are still an integral part in communicating any business' mission, vision, and product/service. Customers and shareholders are major players in whether or not a business will survive, and they need to be fully taken care of to solidify their loyalty to a business. Throughout the years of innovation, businesses have found ways to provide customers with situational responses using technology.  This includes computerized phone survey questions based on consumer responses, as well as Internet surveys that alter the questions that follow based on responses.  

Based on my experience, the most utilized technology providing customers with situational responses are self-service machines like ATMs and self check-out counters in grocery stores. To withdraw cash and to check out at a grocery store for oneself is considered a convenience to many citizens of the 21st century working class. To maximize the availability of time is a goal that many workers representing other times and places could only wish to have. These machines do just that but at the cost of personalization. Numerically, these machines can do the calculations and provide the services needed; but the machines are not capable of case-based reasoning. They do not have the ability to be flexible in their responses based on situations that have occurred in the past.

Businesses have recognized that these technological solutions are useful, but are not a sufficient way of communicating with customers. Humans need an actual person to listen to them, to personalize their experiences, and to see and feel even a little bit of empathy. It seems that this quality that Jeffrey Kluger, the author of Simplexity, calls "case-based reasoning" is an important difference that is present and palpable when humans engage one another. Unfortunately, many large corporations have submitted themselves to utilizing technology instead of human labor due to its theoretical lower long-run cost.

In terms of business processes, the cost of substituting technology for human labor is supposedly less than paying salaries and hourly labor costs. Recently, a major hotel chain on Oahu let go of most of their parking attendants and replaced them with parking ticket machines. When this major change occurred, there were many aggravated customers. No one knew how to use the machine. Now, this machine walks you through the whole process of paying for parking, but the monotonous, robotic voice can get a little irritating.

By the time one reaches a parking exit, drivers just want to leave. We expect what we know. Driving up to the parking attendant, handing over a ticket, being told a price, and paying the cost is what we know as normal today. Human interaction is what we are accustomed to. When a machine takes that away, this service becomes impersonal. What if we want to question the cost of the ticket? What if we don't know how to use the machine because we can't follow a machines direction? What if we just want to have a short conversation or hear a parking attendant say, "Thank you" and "Have a good day"? Even the smallest "Thank you" being voiced can make a person's day.

With this change in technology taking over human labor, we lose a part of communication with our customer. Only a human being should do marketing and personal selling because humans still have the corner on the ability to adapt responses and behaviors based on context, complex and nuanced interactions emerging in real-time with endless permutations.  Based on previous experiences, if the customer seems to want everything done for them, then we can make that happen. If the customer seems to want to figure everything out for him or herself, then we can leave them alone. This adaptability to case-by-case scenarios is something that no technology can replace.

We Can't Preach Value

“A vision cannot be established in an organization by edict or by the exercise of power or coercion” (Bennis & Nanus, 1985)

            Vision is the driving force behind leaders. Without vision, a leader is not a leader. Leaders need to know where the company or organization is headed. They must peer into the future, make predictions, and put their organization on a path to be successful.  Vision is essential to a leader's worth.  Probably the one thing a leader does not want to hear is that they lack vision.

            Leaders attain vision through many lenses.  They will look at a history of an organization, the goals for the organization, and where they see themselves in the future.  The leader must align their vision with the mission of an organization. An effective leader cannot force their values on an organization, but work within the organization to effectively achieve its goals.

            Using coercion in the vision process can lead to devastating results.  The effective leader needs to communicate their vision at the beginning.  The leader will also need to assure that their vision is aligned with the mission of the organization.  You cannot have a leader who wants to do one thing, but it does not fit within the organization mission.  Finally, the leader must not be afraid to make a mistake.  Mistakes are just another way of doing things.

            Power can be used to make decisions, but this is probably not the most effective way. A leader would like to have most of the company/organization on board.  Yes, everyone will not agree, but as long as the leader has communicated their vision effectively, people will follow.  The use of power should be used with caution.  Not effectively presenting a vision will seem like a lack of leadership.

            The use of power and coercion in the vision or decision making process is not the best way to lead.  The one thing a leader cannot afford to do, is not have their managers on the same page as them.  Yes, the leader will be task with making decisions that at times may not be the most popular to digest.  This is where the communication aspects and self-awareness will kick in for the leader. Power and coercion should not be used, instead communication and awareness should be fostered.

Rueben A. Ingram

Argosy           

Thinking Outside the Cereal Box

“Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of and since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.”

            -Viktor Frankl

For those of you not from Hawaii we have several versions of cockroaches of all different sizes and shapes. On of my favorites is the B-52 cockroach with which I’ve had several encounters throughout my 8 year blissful stay in Kailua, Oahu.  My first encounter was a warm sunny day as I dried off from my long day at the beach.  I had just come back from my swim in the pristine turquoise waters and was relaxed from reading a wonderful book about happiness. I truly enjoyed the clean beaches, the smell of the salt sprayed air, and the feeling the warm sand caked to my skin. I was whistling and excited from my lovely day as I was rinsing off the sand at home.  I reached for my towel to dry off my face.  As I was drying, I felt something engage in a sprint from my shoulder, to my ankle and off the left side of my body.   I looked just in time to see the giant cockroach scurrying off my leg. 

No one had warned me about the colonies of roaches that at times even come out during the day. Although, I was well aware that cockroaches spread disease as my mother and many others had passed this information to me through time. I did not want to smash it with my shoe because I was afraid it might take my shoe and slap me back- it was so big. I normally do not kill bugs, cockroaches and mosquito’s being the exceptions; so I grabbed the can of raid and sprayed it. Due to the lack of ventilation, I inhaled some of the chemicals which immediately numbed my throat and mouth.  I watched the cockroach hiss and experience what seemed to be an inhumane death.  In that moment, I felt incredibly bad to have made something suffer.  Recently, I researched the roles of cockroaches in our ecosystem, disease spread by these pests, and the effects of chemicals on their systems as well as humans.

            In my research, I could not find record of direct transmission of any disease from a cockroach to a human being. There is record that they leave feces trails in order to navigate. This could lead scientists to infer that our little friends could spread disease to humans.  Let me point out that cats stand in their litter boxes and walk on the counters and we are not eradicating them for spreading disease in our homes.  I found many fascinating facts about cockroaches that you may be interested in reading.  I was able to see many different points of views on which seemed like such an insignificant topic.  

  I found a problem with my ability to think outside what I read on a cereal box or hear from trusted resources.  I am working on changing the way I think about the world around me.  I am learning to find the significance in everything.  Because when I make uneducated decisions like using Raid in a unventilated room to kill a cockroaches. In another perspective, I was choosing to inhale poison that I did not understand in order to kill something that I knew nothing about.  I believe this type of thinking is the same ignorance that caused Hiroshima and the Holocaust. 

In the Holocaust, people stated that they had no idea that heinous actions were occurring.  People did not know because they did not educate themselves of the truth.  They did not seek to understand the reality occurring to their countrymen and women.  I am not saying that we should save the cockroaches and ban bug spray. I am saying every time we do something, no matter of insignificant the action may seem to take a moment to be completely aware of what we are doing.  It is our ability to think from different angels even in the smallest or what seem to be most insignificant situations.  I believe Victor Frankl warned us that it is our aversion to the truth and the lack of desire to truly understand any given circumstance that leads to much demise.  Dr Frankl concludes his book with a startling quote “Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of and since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.”

Amber Stubbs
Honolulu, 2011

Burning is Learning

What is to give light must endure burning.

            -Victor Frankl-

            It was the last day of math in which I was calculating no more numbers for life!  This is a lie I tell myself even today.  Algebra II was the course and because it was algebra II it was a cold, stormy, and dark night.  I walked in the dreary room which resembled a mental hospital thinking that I should be able to pass this class with the intense effort I had put into it through the tutoring sessions and marathon study sessions I had endured the entire semester.  The teacher handed out the test, I took a deep breath, reached into my bag, and I pulled out my pencil silently saying to myself:  “you can do it” in my most sarcastic Adam Sandler voice. I understood the importance of securing the happiness in math class.  I reached down for my calculator and my heart dropped into my stomach.  It was not in my bag where I had left it?  Panic set in because I know that my professor would have no mercy.   

I reported this news to the professor and he stated “Well that is too bad, Amber, it looks like you will be taking this test without a calculator.Maybe next time you will listen when the professor tells you to be prepared”.  There was no possible way I could have passed the test without a calculator. I made an attempt to answer the questions but failed.  I failed the course!  I was devastated!  My dream was to finish a doctorate degree and yet the my degree plan showed, on that day, that I would never even finish my AA.  I was 19 years old, living on my own with no financial support from my family, and I had to figure out how I was going pay for a doctoral degree when I could not pass or pay for math. Everything seemed hopeless as I drove home that night and it burned.  I found that my roommate gave my calculator to a friend to borrow for his test.  You see, he could not afford a calculator so my roommate felt that I was so much smarter and his friend needed it more.   

             It is now eleven years later and I am nearing the end of my doctorate course work.  Anyone can guess that I did find a way to pay for school, passed a few more classes, and failed my way to successful moments multiple times. As I write this blog, I am taking a course that involves math, quantitative statistics. Thanks to all my repeated failures in Algebra class and life I am doing okay, but it does not lessen the burn and fear that I may fail or am not adequate to sit at the table with my fellow students.  So where am I going with all this you ask? What does a candle burning and then giving light have to do with some blogster's math story?” 

The point is that in order to achieve anything we have to burn or fail in order to succeed. I know you’ve heard in many times but did you understand it fully?   It is inevitable, but not successive.  The tricky part is that I always thought at some point the burning or failing would stop and I would give light.  I realize now that this is false and socialized thinking because anything that is giving light is currently burning.  Success and failure always occur at the same time, if we choose success just as light and burning occur simultaneously. I’ve found that, when I do things that matter, life does not get easier. I have not found a way to make the burning more tolerable other than giving up.  When I give up, my cognitive development is unchanged; I make very little transformation or development in my mental or spiritual progression as a human being. So I guess what I am trying to say to those of you that are at the end of your ropes is:

 “if you ain’t burnin, you ain’t learnin.”

Amber Stubbs
2011

True Freedom...and the Arrival of Maturity

Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.  In our response lies a place of our growth and freedom.

           

            -Victor Frankl-

            During an accusatory confrontation not too long ago, I realized that the only thing that separates a leader from anyone else is their response.  A leader chooses to see the other’s point of view and understands not only the verbal complaint but the root of the problem.  Next, a leader chooses not to be right, but to make an effort to solve any problem with compassion and opportune timing.  Sometimes, compassion means saying or doing something that could hurt a person or even damage a relationship.  Or, it may mean that the leader may have to seem wrong for a time in order to help a person grow. 

Being a leader requires the acceptance of being wrong when the leader is wrong and even wrong when the leader is right.  To clarify, I used to believe that in order to be respected and viewed as credible by my peers, employees, volunteers, colleagues, and employers, I had to be the best at everything.  This included proving to others that I was intelligent enough to participate in conversations through thorough analysis based on research, self improvement, and working harder than anyone.  I recently realized what my perfection seeking communicated to others, that being right and the best was most important to me.  

I realized that even in the smallest conversation it is better to look for themes in each person’s dialog than enter into the conversation itself. Every moment we are communicating something; this rings true: the most important thing is to communicate that we care. It is not about understanding what people are verbally saying it is about understanding people.  Leadership is about looking for the underlying message that each person unconsciously communicates.  When a leader does this, he or she automatically enters the person’s reality and communicates that he or she cares.  It is the impression that the leader imprints on the person’s unconscious mind that matters.   In the constant dialog of the human mind is where conclusions are ultimately drawn.  Long after the group or individual conversation, situation, meeting, or workday ends the multiple conclusions that matter have yet to be made.  

Leadership is about laying down ego for the greater good.  I struggle with this on a daily bases because I truly want to be the best person I can be so that I may make a difference in this world. However, being the best is not what makes a difference in this world.   It is about seeing the most important thing in life: the personal growth of all individuals.

 A leader does not care to be right or wrong, but sees every response and situation as an opportunity for growth.  A leader sees a bad circumstance as an opportunity for immense positive change and paradigm shifts because a leader has the ability to take even the most heinous circumstance and convert it into something more.  A leader is able to do this because of the realization that everything is a collective action and each individual must feel cared for and have purpose. To conclude, it is the leader's job to help people find their greater purpose without the person knowing they've been helped. 

Amber Stubbs