"Jerr's Journal"

  

 

KEEPING IT SIMPLE . . .

(May 16, 2013)

  

   We need to tell our stories more effectively.  Far too many of us surround our core services and products with bells and whistles that either distract or exhaust our stakeholders.  We ramble and embellish and tap-dance -- and by the time we finish, everyone’s drifted away.

   We need to strip away unnecessary words and images and find a way to tell powerful, emotional stories that open hearts and wallets.  But before we can even decide what story to tell, we must answer four questions . . .

Click here for more

 

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST . . .

(April 18, 2013)

   The headlines and analyses filled the business pages last week:  "A slow motion trainwreck anyone should have seen coming" (The Wall Street Journal), "worries mounting about the company's future" (CNN), "too much change too quickly" (Forbes), "visionary's blind spot" ( The Dallas Morning News) . . .

* * * * *

    Retail giant J. C.Penney fired CEO Ron Johnson just 17 months after luring him away from Apple. . . . When the announcement came out . . . The Dallas Morning News quickly assembled an "Ouster Hall of Fame" from various wire services that featured six other people who'd also been quickly axed from the top job at major corporations.  The reasons differed . . . but their strategic mistakes offer cautionary tales for social enterprises large and small.

Click here for more

 

LESSONS FROM A HOLLYWOOD MOVIE

(March 19, 2013)

  Actor William Hurt starred in a 1991 movie called The Doctor, freely based on Dr. Edward Rosenbaum's 1988 book A Taste of My Own Medicine.  He plays Jack McKee, an arrogant, prominent heart surgeon with a terrible bedside manner who seems to have it all -- he's successful, he's rich, and he’s supremely self-confident . . . until he’s diagnosed with throat cancer.

  Suddenly his world is overturned:  He becomes the patient, not the doctor.

  He becomes the customer . . .

Click here for more

 

THE INCINERATORS AT DACHAU

  I was one of the first three men in my platoon to qualify on the rifle range.  Me!  An English major from the suburbs.  How the hell did that happen?  Yeah, I was book smart, all right, but I wasn’t life smart, and the war in Vietnam spooked me.

  So I joined the Army Reserves to escape from the draft.  I went through basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood in the spring of ‘67 -- and by the time I’d finished I’d become a crack shot and a conscientious objector.  But I had a cushy job as company clerk at Ft. Snelling two days a month, and I’d heard horror stories about “weekend warriors” refusing to bear arms, so I vacillated.

  Then, three months later, everything changed as I stared into the blackened depths of the incinerators at Dachau. . . .

Click here for more

 

THE WRONG PERSPECTIVE

(January 17, 2013)  

  Bob Cousy was an NBA All-Star 13 times, Most Valuable Player in 1957, and field general for six NBA championships.  He was named to the league’s 25th and 35th Anniversary teams and in 1996 to its 50th Anniversary All-Time Team, one of only four players selected for all three teams.

   So you would think Bob Cousy had few regrets about his playing days . . .

Click here for more

 

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE BORN IN SCANDAL

(December 12, 2012)  

  Many Americans are wondering whether Gen. David Petraeus can redeem himself.  One of the most admired men in the United States -- leader of the country's military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan and, more recently, head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), he pursued an extramarital affair and it ruined his career.  The story broke in early November and he resigned from the CIA November 9.

  Fifty years ago, in a different nation, another man’s behavior created a scandal that convulsed his entire country -- and brought down the government.  Yet he went on to build one of the most successful social enterprises in the world and, in the words of British newspaper columnist Simon Heffer, carried out “the most spectacular act of atonement in the history of our public life since Henry II abased himself after the murder of Thomas à Becket -- and about the most spectacular act of redemption, too.”

  This is his story.

Click here for more

 

FOUR DIFFERENT TYPES OF EMPLOYEES

(November 15, 2012)

  Teamwork is essential to the success of any successful social enterprise, and the people who study organizational development have known for years that healthy organizations must concentrate simultaneously on four interlocking tasks:  Productivity, process, employee satisfaction, and shared goals.

  But that also means each company must have four different types of employees on its team.  For the sake of convenience, let's give them names and describe their roles . . .

Click here for more

 

THE HEART AND SOUL

     OF A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE    

(October 18, 2012)    

  How will you be remembered?

  That question is much on my mind these days.  I’ve just returned from celebrating my 50th high school reunion in Minneapolis . . . and I spent nearly a week in August tramping around cemetery plots in southern Minnesota.

 * * *

  . . . . As I prepared to leave for the 50th, I received an e-mail from one of my classmates.  She’d been attempting to track everybody down and invite them to the three events we’d planned over a long weekend.  There were only 57 students in our class and as I read down the list she sent me, two words jumped off the page:  “Deceased” (eight people).  “Missing” (five others).  And I wondered:  How are those 13 people remembered?  Is it the way they’d hoped?

Click here for more

 

GLOSSOPHOBIA . . .

(September 20, 2012)

  If you’re afraid to speak in front of an audience, you aren't alone.

  In an online interview with WebMD, assistant professor of communication studies Paul L. Witt of Texas Christian University says that for most people public speaking is “even scarier than rattlesnakes.  The idea of making a presentation is the number one fear reported by people in the United States.”

  But, hey, anybody who starts a social enterprise or winds up leading one has to give speeches.  It’s just part of the package.  And here’s even worse news:  Witt and his research team found that anxiety strikes almost every time we present our ideas in front of other people.  It doesn’t have to be a formal speech.  "Any time people make verbal remarks that need to be clear and persuasive,” he said, “we find widespread reports of stage fright and nervousness."  It’s called glossophobia, from the Greek glōssa, meaning tongue, and phobos, meaning fear or dread.

Click here for more

 

FINDING THE RIGHT PARTNER

(August 16, 2012)

  September 1947:  Two couples sit down for a friendly game of bridge . . . and 40 years later they rise from the table after 790 sessions.

   Playing cards came naturally to my parents, as it did to me years later (I “majored” in bridge during my first year in college -- and hid my grades from my parents).  Mom and Dad courted by playing three-handed pinochle with Mom’s father in a tiny North Dakota town during the mid-1930s.  Dad helped manage the local bank and when my grandfather spotted him walking up Main Street every day after closing he immediately called for his cards and his daughter . . . .

Click here for more

 

ACHING TO CHANGE THE WORLD . . .

(July 17, 2012)

    Sometimes anticipation is almost unbearable.  The young people I see around me every time I teach a class or give a speech about social enterprise are palpably vibrating, aching to change the world . . .

  I know that hunger.  I felt it once, long ago, with all the passion of youth . . . and the other night I felt it again when the intoxicating music of The Doors erupted from my speakers shortly after midnight . . .

Click here for more

 

THE RIGHT LEADER AT THE RIGHT TIME

(June 19, 2012)

   In 1975, two friends and I decided we had a great idea for a business.  We sold our homes in Minnesota, stuffed everything we owned into a U-Haul truck and a couple of ancient cars, and headed for San Francisco.

   As our departure date loomed, we became increasingly jazzed, feeding off each other in an ever-soaring circle of excitement.

   Meanwhile, a third friend watched as we disappeared into fantasy land.  She’d already successfully launched two businesses herself, so she knew what lay ahead.  While we were becoming more and more dazzled by our prospects, here’s what she was doing:

  Rolling her eyes.

Click here for more

 

THE FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE . . .  (May 17, 2012)

   More than one nonprofit or social enterprise Board member has approached me after a briefing session or retreat, perplexed by the same topic.

  Their questions frequently come down to this: What is the dif­ference between vision and mission -- and why is the difference so important?

  Some organizations have both a vision statement and a mission state­ment.  Some have only one statement and try to cover the waterfront.  But most make a fundamental mis­take:  They think their vision statement should be about themselves.

Click here for more

 

                          BLINDSIDED                              (April 12, 2012)  

   Social entrepreneurs frequently have no idea where their toughest competition will come from -- or what emerging forces will affect their competitive position.

   I watched it happen to one of the most heralded social enterprises of the 1990s.

Click here for more

 

RIGHT OUT OF A JOHN WAYNE MOVIE . . .(March 12, 2012)

   When I was about eight or nine, I hoarded comic books. Didn't we all? War stories, alien invations, romantic adventures, superheroes, westerns . . .

   Of the hundreds I devoured, two left lasting impressions

   One had such a horrific ending that any plot based on mistaken identity infuriates me even today and scarred me for years.

   But the other absolutely inspired me, and still does . . .

Click here for more

 

IT'S ALWAYS THE LITTLE THINGS . . . (February 8, 2012)

   My grandfather lived to be nearly 103. Or it might have been 102. We were never quite sure. All we knew was he crossed the "Little Water" (the Black Sea) and then the "Big Water" (the Atlantic Ocean) at the age of 11

   He was at various points in his life a farmer, an entrepreneur, a pinochle savant, a lay leader in his church . . .

   And a bootlegger.

   Which would have worked out fine except for the smudge of coal on his brother Joe’s nose.

Click here for more . . .

 

“HOW DOES IT

  LOOK NOW?"

(January 12, 2012)

  One of my favorite social entrepreneurs lived more than 500 years ago . . . and his career is filled with ingenious strategies for meeting customer demands . . .

  When you enter the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, you turn left and pass through a doorway, then glance down a large room to your right.  When I did that three years ago I began to cry . . .

   I simply do not understand, and I will never understand, why one work of art will move me and another will not.  Why do I always weep at the first movement of Mozart’s Prague Symphony?  Why am I entranced by Monet’s Terrace at the Seaside, Sainte Adresse and Van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Crows?  And why did the sight of Michelangelo’s David bring me to tears when I first glimpsed it from 50 yards away?

   I was 22 when I discovered Florence and the David, but in 1967 I had only a wisp of artistic sensibility.  I knew the statue was special, but I didn’t know why, either intellectually or emotionally.  The only thing I remembered, for years, was its height -- 17 feet from base to crown.

Click here for more . . .

 

"WAY TO GO, KID!"

(December 5, 2012)

   Shortly before she died earlier this year, Russia’s legendary social activist Olga Alexeeva sadly observed that too many people are trying “to save the world in 45 minutes.”

   She was talking about wealthy philanthropists, but her words apply to social entrepreneurs as well.   People are suffering – and we want to help them YESTERDAY!  But it takes time for social enterprises to put down roots and begin to thrive.  And I know there are moments when each of you wonders whether you will EVER make a difference.

   So let’s find a way to replenish ourselves.  Let’s look away from the forest for a while and walk among the trees, stop obsessing about the big picture.  Let’s concentrate instead on the impact we have on the people around us – our families, our friends, our employees, our casual acquaintances . . .

Click here for more . . .

 

A CAUTIONARY TALE

. . . IN FIVE ACTS

(October 5, 2011)

   Anton Chekhov and I wrote a play together 15 years ago.  I know, I know, he’d been dead by then for more than 90 years, but wait for it, okay?

   This past summer my wife and I attended a performance of Chekhov’s last and greatest play, The Cherry Orchard, starring Zoë Wanamaker and a stellar supporting cast at the National Theatre in London.

  It was a live production -- but we weren’t in England.  We were nearly 5,000 miles away, in a suburb of Dallas.  Saved us a lot on airfare . . .

   We were able to attend the play because two years ago the National Theatre boldly introduced a new way to bring drama to the masses worldwide.

Click here for more . . .

 

TEACHING GEORGE TO COUNT

(August 20, 2011)

   The legendary John DuRand (1934-2008) started Minnesota Diversified Industries (MDI) in 1968 with $100, a circular saw and a sewing machine.  He had 14 employees between the ages of 18 and 24, all of them developmentally disabled.

   When he retired in 1997, MDI had become a $68.5 million nonprofit business employing more than 1,000 people of all ages, 600 of them with developmental challenges

  John often claimed it was possible to break down any task to the point where even the most severely disabled individual could be productive.

  I once asked him how he learned to do that – and he took me back to something that happened during the early years of MDI. 

  He told me about teaching George to count . . .

Click here for more . . .

 

THE MAN WITH THE DOUBLE LIFE

(July 20, 2011)

  I see him every four or five  weeks.  Took a while to find him.  I had the same barber for 35 years, then the headhunters came after my wife and we wound up in Dallas.

   The first Texas barber I tried put me through an assembly line of hair washers, hair rinsers, hair cutters, hair trimmers and hair blowers, then turned me loose.  Never went back.  The next guy did fine, but retired after six months.  The third one took the entire 35 minutes we spent together complaining about her boss.

  So when I finally found Marv I latched onto him . . . "

Click here for more , , ,

 

OF PREDATORS AND PREY

(June 20, 2011)

 

  Our guide wasn’t about to brook any nonsense.

  We were ready to depart from Thornhill Safari Lodge for a late afternoon/early evening plunge into South Africa’s Kruger National Park two months ago.  Nine of us were perched in a three-tiered Land Rover without a roof.

  "Do NOT get out of the Land Rover at any time,’ he thundered.  ‘And do NOT stand up."

  The wild animals we were about to stalk with our cameras had long ago become comfortable sharing their turf with Land Rovers and their seated passengers.  But Reckson wanted to be sure we understood the stakes.”      

Click here for more . . .

 

CHANNELING PROF. BROWN

(May 9, 2011)

   Prof. Huntington Brown taught me this lesson during my sophomore year at the University of Minnesota in the spring of 1964 . . .

   He was an elderly English professor with abundant white hair and a bristling white mustache.  Tall and stooped, he seemed to hover over the classroom.”