I came across this commencement speech on YouTube… It features David McCullough Jr., delivering the “Faculty Message” to Wellesley High School’s 2012 graduating class. Mr. McCullough cuts through the cliche that marks many a commencement speech and gives the newly-minted high school grads something to think about as they prepare to move into the next stage of life. His speech is tight and the messages are on point… watch this video; it is worth your time.
Like every morning, I stopped at my local cafe (Cedar Tree Cafe or Follow them) this morning on the way to work. I decided to snap a photo of this (apologies for the blur)…
I don’t know Anne (or if there actually is an Anne)… or where she makes her love mugs but what I like about her instantly is that she wants to leave a positive mark for others…
* 1/2 proceeds go to the local food bank *
This is what it’s all about! Thanks to Anne’s Love Mugs not just for what she’s doing but also for what she believes…
We’re just about to enter a holiday weekend. Tomorrow is Good Friday, a statutory holiday in most parts of the western world and depending on where you are, Monday may also be a holiday (Easter Monday). This is especially true for most (if not all) public sector organizations. So I thought it was funny when I heard a story earlier today about an IT consultant who apparently told his public sector client that Monday was not a holiday for his company and that he would be working and “billing” that day, even though it is a holiday for the client.
If you’re in the business of professional services, you already know that it’s customary in to take the same days off as your clients… or at least to take the day off from doing work for them (maybe you do some internal project work or something if your own firm is still open). The point? … If your client is closed, then your engagement or project is also closed… there’s no “billable” opportunity when you’re closed. Common sense, right?
So I ask… was that guy being ballsy or just plain stupid? Who are these people?
I just watched a movie called Kony 2012 – about the “invisible children” of Central Africa. Unbelievable! It is a story about the abduction of children by a rebel group called the Lord’s Resistance Army under its leader, Joseph Kony. He turns the girls into sex slaves and boys into child soldiers, whom he forces to kill their own parents. And this is not just a few; there have been over 30,000.
There is one stated purpose for the movie Kony 2012: to stop Joseph Kony. The film’s director, Jason Russell went to Africa in 2003… He met a boy named Jacob. He has helped to rebuild schools, create jobs and give people hope. Now, he’s trying to change the world by changing the course of humanity in Central Africa. If we in the western world ignore this, the children will never be safe and the problem will continue to grow.
The mission of Kony 2012 expires on December 31, 2012. The time is now. If Joseph Kony becomes a household name, people will pay attention and will continue the fight to stop him. Watch Kony 2012 here and become one of the 74,000,000 and counting who are getting involved to leave their mark.
Imagine that you are the head of a public university or college in 2012. You are faced with an incredible set of challenges. While you know how critical your “product” is to the growth and development of society… economically and culturally … you are often a political pawn between the haves and have-nots. The elitists at the top of the hill pitted against the peasants down below. Folks, we’re in this together!
Amid uncertainty about the availability of public funding for post-secondary education when aging populations are starting to demand more health and long-term care, you are caught in the middle — your graduates are the innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders that will create the solutions to our fiscal challenges if only our governments can make the right investments today.
On top of this, your centuries-old campuses are tired. Your organizational structures were designed for a different time. And governance models can make it very difficult for you to change.
So… with these daunting challenges facing you (and your government leaders as well), where do you invest your finite dollars… which come partly from your students and their tuition fees, partly from your generous alumni and other donors, and partly from the taxpaying public in your neck of the woods, through Government funding?
The answer is simple. Invest in your product quality… Invest in the student experience… all else in your universe flows from there.
I sketched out this causal loop diagram to illustrate some ideas about a “transformative student experience” and the positives it creates. It isn’t perfect I’m sure, but you get the point. For a university or a college, the student experience, quite simply, is EVERYTHING. Build your vision around it, tell your story over and over, and get everyone passionate about it. And invest there — in building a transformative student experience. It’s the best investment you can make.
For governments, heed this thinking. While you have very real near-term issues to manage, the economic, cultural and social potential of your citizens rests on the return on the investments you are willing to make for the future.
This week marks the 100th day of school for my elementary school-aged children. My 8-year old daughter’s class was assigned a project to commemorate this milestone — they could do anything they wanted that had to do with the number 100. Nicole is a young hockey player and she wanted to do a video to demonstrate some of the skills she has learned from her minor hockey coaches as well as her coaches at home… myself and her two older brothers, Alec and Sean (most of the latter acquired in the garage or on the backyard rink).
I don’t know how many of you have young daughters or how many are hockey players but I cannot tell you enough about how much I enjoyed helping her to produce this video. It was a great dad / daughter collaboration. Like many kids her age, Nicole has a bright way about her (note: the boys’ soccer coach nicknamed her “Sunny” last summer). She has gigantic blue eyes and an infectious smile. Well, her eyes absolutely lit up when I agreed to help with this video. But there were a couple conditions… While I would provide technical assistance, she was responsible for choosing the skills to demonstrate as well as the music selections… And of course, she (and she alone) was to be the “demonstrator” in the video. She’s the definition of a self-starter so none of this was a problem.
The result is the video you see below. I can’t even describe the pride in her voice when she told her brothers and mom about it and asked if they could watch it… NOW. She was beaming when she walked out the door this morning in anticipation of presenting it to her class. I hope it went well (I’m sure it did).
And I must say, when I watch the video, I notice that she’s a pretty darn good little hockey player. She currently plays mostly with boys (because they dominate the sport in numbers) and she keeps up very well. If you’re a mom or dad wondering whether or not to put your daughter in a hockey program, my advice is to do it if that’s what she wants to do. My daughter has tried basketball, volleyball, and even dance… but none of those stuck. She wants to play hockey (just like her bros) and when I see the pride she takes in playing and practicing… how could I ever say no?
Today, there was a great article in my local paper, the Daily Gleaner. Check the full story out at Talk about 5,000 reasons to smile.
A young woman was walking downtown in Fredericton, New Brunswick when she spotted a Hong Kong Bank envelope lying on the ground. In it? Five thousand bucks. Yikes!
And what did she do? Well, to start… When she got home, she told her father and they counted the money – I’m sure they had the same WOW reaction that any of us would – and he simply said to her, “I’m going to leave the decision up to you. Do what you feel is right.”
Fortunately, there was a cheque (or check if you prefer) in the envelope of cash so the woman was able to make a couple calls and connect with the rightful owner. As you can see from the article, the owner was very grateful to have had an honest person find and return the money.
In a world where “finders keepers” can often rule the day, this is a great example of someone doing the right thing for someone else… a complete stranger no less. We are absolutely surrounded but lots of good people and every day, there are people, a lot them anonymous, doing the right thing, making a difference and leaving a positive mark.
Doing good feels good. Just ask Erica Myshrall of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the future… Heady questions have been the order of the year in 2011. It’s been a year of introspection and thinking for me.
I grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick. After moving away (briefly to attend McGill University in 1987 and again in 1993, after graduating from the University of New Brunswick, to pursue my career in Halifax and Toronto… then graduate school and more “experience” – plus three kids – in Boston… yes, this is a truly horrible run-on sentence), I returned ‘home.’ If you know nothing about New Brunswick, you can read here.
I’ve been thinking about how New Brunswick can become better. By better, I mean prosperous and more sustainable (or self-reliant). We have historically been a disadvantaged region, and quite frankly, I’m tired of it… We need to be better if we are to see future generations build their lives here.
So what does it take for a province like ours to become “better?” What can we be the very best at? We need to discover our “hedgehog” to borrow from James Collins’ “Good to Great.” Finding the intersection of what we’re absolutely passionate about, what we’re capable of being the best in the world at, and what drives our economic engine…
Enough academia for today…
I think we can be the smartest province in Canada… highly educated people who are fit, healthy, and happy … have an incredible capacity for research and development … are hard-wired to be entrepreneurial… are starting more companies and social enterprises than anywhere else… and want to leave a positive mark on society… and change the world. While daydreaming during a meeting, I wrote the storyboard for this simple video …
I can imagine that kind of future. Can you?
I read an interesting blog post today at B2C – business 2 community – published by Jim Clemmer (find it here). In his post, the author recounted a leadership workshop that he had facilitated and the discussion surrounding the importance for organizations to “change rather than be changed.” In the post, the author refers to a video called “Shift Happens: Did You Know?”. I had not seen it before but found it quite interesting. I did a quick search on YouTube and found the one below (it looks to be the original, and I prefer the music so thought I’d show it here). The research in the video was conducted by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Jeff Brenman.
Making a difference. That’s what it’s all about. That’s why we’re here. It’s not to make money. It’s not to amass power or might. It’s not to achieve celebrity. Each of us, no matter where we live, have a responsibility to make a difference in this world… to make it better, to make it nicer, to make it more sustainable, to make it more enjoyable.
I just came from the Richard J. Currie Center at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Canada. Today was its grand opening. It is a beautiful, state-of-the-art athletic and convocation facility that is among the best in North America. And it is thanks to UNB’s Chancellor, Dr. Richard Currie, a Canadian business icon, who generously donated approximately $20 million towards its construction.
Few of us can afford to make these types of financial donations. But everyone has the ability to give time, give energy, give passion, and do things that truly can have an impact on someone else. When someone says something as simple as “thank you”… that leaves an impression. It leaves a mark. The recipient feels good. When someone holds open a door, offers a seat on a crowded bus, teaches or coaches our kids, opens a business, or fights for a cause… each of these leaves a mark… makes a difference.
We each have a duty to leave our mark. We each have it in us.
So what are you doing to make a difference… To leave your mark?
Ambiguity is your friend 