Volunteer Event at the Ronald McDonald House

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by a Pathwise member, Robert Koester.

A four person team that manifested from Pathwise went on to do something simple.  One night, at the Ronald McDonald House, create a dinner for families that just spent the day at the hospital with their children.

  

After arriving at the RMH at 3pm, we were off to the races in creating our meals for the families.  Because of the many dangers with children having a low immunity, the cooking process had to have sanitization top of mind at all times.  In keeping in the rules of sanitization, gloves had to be switched out for almost every activity so as to not spread germs.  In essence, our experience was like cooking in an operating room.  The process was a bit of an inconvenience but not a bit of trouble when thinking of the “why”.

Our four person team never stressed and never became cross with one another – not for one minute.  The whole experience on a personal level was as smooth as pumpkin pie. It was never about us, it was all about the kids and families and serving that need.

     

The “why” – A testimonial in their own words that should move any soul to action:

“I would like to thank you all for your wonderful spirit of hospitality and love. This was our first stay at a Ronald McDonald House. You all made us feel so welcomed and loved. This is truly a home away from home for families with sick kids. Because of all of you and your generous spirits, my daughter was able to concentrate on healing and she didn’t have to worry about mom and if I was safe, warm, and fed.”

All that can be said is that it was a splendid time and we hope to do this again with our four-person Pathwise manifestation along with new comrades.

Boardroom in our head

A concept we often talk about in our classes relates to our tendency to believe that we are thinking, when in reality we are actually recalling.  Not that recalling is intrinsically bad, but rather that we don’t see that our “ideas” come from past experiences or training and rarely take in the unique circumstances of this particular moment.   By coming at a problem from the position of “not knowing” and passing through the tendency of my ego to tell me I already do this; I may then experience the tension of not knowing. On the other side of this tension I may find myself open to think of something new, or find the openness to listen curiously to others out of which something new can arise. How can something new come when I already know?

I was teaching a class in the boardroom of a publicly traded company the other day and I imagined all of these hardened and stressed out faces “recalling” and “I knowing” over strategic matters. Then I pictured all of these board members with puzzled yet curious looks on their faces. The second picture might just be of a board or leadership team that really could innovate instead of just talking about it.

I realize that I too have a boardroom in my head with a lot of recalling and “I knowing” going on, and that this keeps me just as stuck as those imagined board members in companies all over. I see that I am tempted to go with the loudest voice, and this keeps me from hearing the more tentative, and yet somehow more knowing voice beneath.

Over the Precipice of Innovation

Recently a member of Pathwise shared an interesting experience common to scuba divers that directly relates to the experience of ambiguity—which is a common experience for leaders.

He was sharing what happens to scuba divers when they come upon an underwater precipice. Under the sea there are shelves or shallow areas that may only be a hundred feet deep or so and then there will all of the sudden be a drop off that could be 1 or 7 miles deep. He shared that even though, logically, the diver knows that he or she is at the same depth, when embarking out over a precipice, there is a sense of ones relative size and importance in the face of this great void. This causes them to be compelled to scurry back to where the bottom is again visible.

The anxiety is existential. In other words we lose the sense of who we are without the form we are used to seeing or using.

This is the same as when we find ourselves in a new difficult situation, we feel anxious, fall back on rely or justify the old way of doing things, even when it may not be working. This old “form” is no different psychologically than the form of seeing the shore again.

So to be able to work in ambiguity without holding on to old ways of doing things; or to be able to “not know” in a situation where one is accustomed to knowing, is very much like this going out into the abyss. Logically it may be no big deal; however we have difficulty because it is “existentially” hard to do.

So how to do this? More to follow. But first how does this idea strike you? Please share.