Five Degrees of Connection
You’ve probably heard many examples of the now-famous “six degrees of separation” phenomenon, wherein nearly everyone seems to be linked together (and to actor Kevin Bacon!) within no more than six steps. (For instance, I know a Twin Cities attorney, who is president of a local chapter of a national organization, and he knows the organization’s national president, who is the law partner to an attorney who has represented actor Kevin Bacon.) It’s a cute little game to play and usually illustrates the truth behind the six degrees notion. Perhaps the intrigue comes from people playing the game to remind themselves that they are not so far removed from celebrity or power after all. But the real truth to be found in the process is that we are all linked together in ways that we generally don’t think too much about, for whatever reasons of our own.
I suppose I’ve always believed that notion, having experienced too many occasions of “what a small world.” And yet I find myself more amazed every day at the universality of our lives, and how we are so incredibly linked, regardless of where or who we are. Much to my continuing amazement, thirty-one years of Foldcraft Co. corporate life and employee ownership has a great deal to do with my past two years working for Winds of Peace Foundation in Nicaragua. I know that some of you may have heard me speak to this in either the grassroots speaking I’ve been doing on behalf of The Employee Ownership Foundation or in chapter presentations I’ve made, but I wanted to emphasize the point again in light of my upcoming trip to Nicaragua next week.
I’ll be visiting communities and organizations that week, as is normally the case in my travels, which seek to strengthen themselves economically, socially and sustainably. What some hope to access through the Foundation is a methodology or mindset to employ for this developmental process. So consider the potential topics that I will be sharing with the disenfranchised poor as possible training topics: Ownership- The fundamentally different mindset in people when they own something as opposed to leasing, renting, borrowing or any other relationship; Participation- The importance of having involvement from every participant is that each person possesses a piece of the puzzle; Open Books- How can anyone truly understand their survival when they aren’t provided with the rules of their game?; Holistic Wellness- Every organization is made up of dimensions that define its health and sustainability, including intellectual, social, emotional, spiritual occupational and physical components; Lean Enterprise- Every human undertaking is made up of processes, and every process has the opportunity to be improved.
One might surmise that I’ve simply taken my 25-year agenda from an ESOP company and intend to impose it on unsuspecting partners in Nicaragua. But that is not the case. The topics to be explored are ones that have grown out of trial-and-error activities by Nicaraguans themselves, subjects that they perceive to be critical to their understanding for survival. I was amazed to hear it upon my first visit back to Nicaragua in 2006, and am still incredulous to be bringing my own experiences on these topics to a new and enthusiastic audience.
Whether North American, Nicaraguan, Hungarian, European or any other background, we all share basic, fundamental needs. The need to be part of something bigger than ourselves, the need to contribute, to be regarded as having value, to recognize all the facets of our being, to be able to work for success in something: these are attributes that connect us. It’s true within our companies, our nations, our world. The sooner we recognize and accept this fundamental truth, the sooner we begin to unlock the potential and magic that resides in us, individually and collectively.
I’ll be thinking of you in the ESOP and corporate communities next week as I travel the rural stretches of Nicaragua, comfortable in a venue I’ve served for longer than I thought….
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