Five hundred years. Such a vast expanse of time. Is it really possible for us to think beyond this quarter - or even next weekend?
When I'm puzzling over life's big questions, I find myself drawn to poetry. Poems remind me of what's important and satisfy my need for brevity (soon 140 characters will seem too long!). To whit, US poet laureate Kay Ryan's lean, keenly-observed work (from The Best Of It, Grove Press, 2010):
CHOP
The bird
walks down
the beach along
the glazed edge
the last wave
reached. His
each step makes
a perfect stamp -
smallish, but as
sharp as an
emperor's chop.
Stride, stride,
goes the emperor
down his wide
mirrored promenade
the sea bows
to repolish.
This poem was running through my head when I sat down to interview Joel Solomon. Joel has been making his mark on Canada's west coast for decades, quietly, methodically, and not at all emperor-like. His work as President and CEO of Renewal Partners - a Vancouver-based organization that provides investments and grants for social change - is coming together in the most interesting way. This the first part of an edited version of two long conversations.
Julia Moulden: I want to talk about your work, of course, but let's begin with how someone from Chattanooga, Tennessee ended up on Canada's west coast.
Joel Solomon: I grew up in a liberal, Jewish, Democratic-party-involved family. For instance, my parents were early supporters of civil rights. My dad was a successful businessman building shopping malls, and, as a young man there was considerable pressure on me to follow in his footsteps. My out was to get involved in politics, which was acceptable to my parents. I worked on Al Gore Senior's campaign, then with Jimmy Carter, as national youth co-coordinator for Carter's run for the White House - an experience we've just seen replayed with Obama's young team. By the time Carter got to Washington, I'd decided that I was too young to choose a career path, and needed time to think about what I wanted to do. I walked away. Not long after, I was diagnosed with the genetic kidney disease that runs in my family. That was the big trigger point - I had no idea if I would die tomorrow or live a long life, but I knew I had to find my own path.
JM: So, what did you do?
JS: I went traveling and ended up on the west coast of Canada, in British Columbia. Got a job working with a guy who had an orca research lab. So, there I was, all alone in the wilderness.
JM: Pretty much the opposite of a political campaign. Where did your self-imposed exile lead you?
JS: This is the condensed version, of course, but I read a lot, dug deep and came to a couple of big conclusions for my young self. That I wasn't going to care about what other people thought, but do what mattered most to me. And that I wanted to find a way to make a difference. In my head, I was thinking, "OK, here's the legacy you have, your natural skills and your passions. How can you turn that into something useful?"
JM: Great, so you've had your wake-up call and your a-ha moment. Now what?
JS: I started to wonder if I couldn't re-embrace business (he laughs). Business had been, in many ways, this destructive force, even though many people in business didn't want it to be. Maybe there was a way to see it as a neutral force, and then to use it do something good.
JM: Pretty radical thinking for the 70s when we were all hippies.
JS: Yes, but you could see signs of this kind of thinking starting to pop up. At the same time, I got involved with the Threshold Foundation, a group of mostly inheritor philanthropists who were struggling with what it meant to have money and what they should do with it. Some of these folks spun off and started Social Venture Network, looking at how business might be for the good of the community as well as making money. The late 70s and early 80s were an amazing time, with all kinds of new organizations springing up, like what Ben Cohen [Ben and Jerry's] and Anita Roddick [The Body Shop] were doing.
JM: Did you think you might join one of these companies?
JS: Yes. And then I met Carol Newell. She was a new member of the Threshold Foundation. I was president of the organization by then, and when I saw her application and that she was from BC, immediately offered to interview her. And that was the beginning of a 17-year partnership.
JM: How did you decide to work together?
JS: It seemed so natural at the time. Looking back, it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. We met on this little island off the coast, pulled together a visioning session for others in the Vancouver area who were thinking similar thoughts and asking themselves the same questions about how they might use their lives in a positive way. And we just talked and talked and talked. It happened that we were meeting on the 500th anniversary of Columbus' discovery, and so it occurred to us to think about what had gone wrong in the last five centuries and what we could possibly do that would have a positive impact on the next 500 years.
JM: Wow, 500 years.
JS: Yes, we realized it was pretty ambitious (he laughs). And that maybe we needed to be thinking in terms of 50 years, too, the average working life.
JM: And how did this perspective shape what you set out to do?
JS: A 50-year timeline frees you. We found that we could think outside of all kinds of boxes and believe the impossible. And it was a good fit for someone who was living with the thought that death was nearby. We decided on a 500-year vision and a 50-year strategy. We gathered a team, created a model, and began to work in a way that we hoped would have an impact on the region and create a ripple effect.
My conversation with Joel continues next week. Learn about what he's been doing, how you can plug in, and where it goes from here. In the meantime, please share your story with us. How did you get started on a path for good? How did you become a New Radical (New Radicals are people who've found ways to put the skills acquired in their careers to work on the world's greatest challenges - for more, please see archived articles)? Whose work inspires you? And are you thinking long-term?
Julia Moulden is talking about the New Radicals. Her new book - on boomers and meaningful work - will appear in 2011. Check out a feature article about Julia on tempotoronto.ca (a terrific new website for women 50-plus).
Follow Julia Moulden on Twitter: www.twitter.com/juliamoulden
Then one day the Smithsonian called and asked me to do some work for them. That helped a little - to feel socially useful - but it didn't seem to make the world a better place, just to have people just looking at my art on museum walls. I then found myself in a discussion with the buyers at their gift shops, because they were acquiring most of their inventory from cheap overseas sources, while dropping merchant accounts with living American artists to save more money by just reproducing copyright free art. It left me speechless, which was probably a good thing at the time.
But feeling compelled to leave the world a better place for my children's children, I became a social entrepreneur and launched a company featuring my art on eco-fabrics as a revenue stream for rainforest renewal in Brazil. The people who value the currency of a mother's passion for preserving life and an artist's compulsion to use their best gifts for social change, tempered by a slower ROI for replanting rainforests are special indeed.
Applauding you Joel. May you live long and prosper even longer...
Alana Lea
http://www.rainforesteco.com
Kudos to Julia for uncovering this story. Joel is planting orchards for future generations - literally and figuratively. So often in our modern age, the visionaries who are playing the long game - the 50 year plan with a 500 year vision - are ignored, overlooked, and/or simply misunderstood.
The short sited and ravenous dinosaurs of the corporate lost world will continue to roam the earth for the foreseeable future. However their environment is changing and unless they adapt they will find themselves unable to access the emerging markets, smarter customers, creative and thoughtful employees, inspiring corporate leaders, and increasingly aware investors. They will not be as fit to be prosperous in the emerging environment as those with a long-term vision and the aligned set of values and behaviors.
Capitalism seems evolving corporations more to occupy the emerging economic and social environment and implicitly are able to generate substantive and sustainable wealth and well-being for the ecosystems of people and natural processes to which they are connected and who they depend upon for their existence.
As an Organizational Ecologist who works with leadership teams who are striving towards and achieving a deep sense of satisfaction in their professional and personal lives by bringing real value, passion, and profitability to their organizations, the long-term vision is the right vision. The result: a life well lived and a legacy of prosperity and deep value for the generations to come.
If you want to do a deeper dive into the sea change that is underway in the journey of capitalism - especially if you are seeking to shift your company, invest in the next wave or starting a new venture, I suggest reading Firms of Endearment by Raj Sisoda, Jag Sheth and David B.Wolfe.
The short sited and ravenous dinosaurs of the corporate lost world will likely continue to roam the earth for the foreseeable future. However their environment is changing and unless they adapt they will find themselves unable to access the emerging markets, smarter customers, creative and thoughtful employees, inspiring corporate leaders, and increasingly aware investors. They will not be as fit to be prosperous in the emerging environment. Those with a long-term vision and the aligned set of values and behaviors will.
Capitalism seems evolving corporations more to occupy the emerging economic and social environment and implicitly are able to generate substantive and sustainable wealth and well-being for the ecosystems of people and natural processes to which they are connected and who they depend upon for their existence.
As an Organizational Ecologist who works with leadership teams who are striving towards and achieving a deep sense of satisfaction in their professional and personal lives by bringing real value, passion, and profitability to their organizations, the long-term vision is the right vision. The result: a life well lived and a legacy of prosperity and deep value for the generations to come.
If you want to do a deeper dive into the sea change that is underway in the journey of capitalism - especially if you are seeking to shift your company, invest in the next wave or starting a new venture, I suggest reading Firms of Endearment by Raj Sisoda, Jag Sheth and David B.Wolfe.
I believe we are in the midst of deep and radical evolutionary process of capitalism and of democracy and the evolution of an economy based on long term strategic thinking, investment and implications of 'right' consumption.
Corporations were originally created with the public good in mind. That is, to take on ventures that were too risky for governments or private individuals to take on. It was not until the last couple centuries that the ethos shifted toward corporations defining their own purpose. While that shift generated some short term and incredible gains in technology and economic prosperity, it did so at great cost to the planet and our overall social fabric in term of life satisfaction.
The financial, environmental and social results are in on the short-sighted executive decisions based on incentives that were driven by quarterly postings and evaluated by short term minded brokers from exchanges all over the world.
In the moral and economic vacuum, capitalism has been quietly generating a more fit long-term oriented corporate form that is set to take greater and great market share from their short sighted predecessors. This leaning towards slow capitalism with long-term benefit seems reflected in the investment sentiment of none other than Warren Buffet, who believes that good and profitable investments are the ones that are for the long-term and are not subject to the frictional transaction forces involved in quick turnover trading and short-term analysis.
___________________________
http://www.bankreviews.org/
I am an American Jew from Los Angeles. In 1998, I was given twelve years to live due to a genetic blood disorder. In November of that year, I moved to Cortes Island, British Columbia.
I am a writer. By declaring myself, all manner of obstacles between me and my chosen goal were made clear to me. I believe that in having the courage to live my truth, I am granted the possibility of effecting change. Self examination has allowed me to identify the causes of my illness, both visible and invisible. As a result of this work, my illness has gone into remission and unimagined possibilities have begun to present themselves.
I find it comforting to know that I don't need to run a country or a company in order to inspire others. I benefit from Joel's experience. Thanks to Julia and Joel for the dose of optimism.
Richard Jacobs
MG
Even the Japanese, advocates of long-term corporate planning, are now using their corporations not to increase overall prosperity, but to increase the overall wealth and power of the few wealthy individuals controlling the corporate entity. The 'hit' to their working middle and upper classes has gone totally unanswered by both the corporations and the govt. Compare that to the early 'worker' models of their Toyota corporation in the 1960s. No contest.
Stories abound of those who are turning this profound moment of history, into solutions for the future. Reason suggests technological fixes, the possibility of engineering our way through. Reason similarly suggests such a poor state of spiritual, psychological, and emotional competence, that
hope is slim. We have destructive power beyond our political, social, and cultural intelligence. We need to convert how we engage together as part of a biosphere. This biosphere thus far appears as the only viable one uniquely able to support life and consciousness.
My interpretation of life purpose, is that we consciously engage in every act that encourages solutions, inspiration, and positive outcomes. Recommitting to right action, self examination, and learning, likewise stretching our leadership responsibilities, practicing imperfection acceptance, and understanding context of our own ignorance, support the possibility sliver of an enlightened future.
A resilient soft landing is possible.
RenewalPartners.com