Our time together is drawing to a close, and it's been such a pleasure to walk with you through the ideas we've presented in this teach out. The news continues to bring darkness to our horizon. The virus continues to spread, as do losses, isolation, illness, and fear. At the same time, we can see glimmers of light. Here in California, the maple tree has just unfurl its leaves, bringing the harbinger of summer, and maybe you can hear the children playing in the yard next door. In myths of all this darkness woven in with glimmers of light, I want to introduce you to one more of my colleagues, Bob Quinn, one of the co-founders of the Center for Positive Organizations and an inspiration to me for many years. Bob has always called me to think bigger, do more, and look for the light. In this story that he shares with you, I want you to hear that in his own words. I'd like to tell you two stories. Story number 1, a while ago, I met with a woman who was a first-line employee. She describes something that had happened the year before. One day she went to work, everyone was called into the foyer and a list of names was read. Everybody whose name was on that list was asked to stand up. They were met by security guards, ushered to their desks and ushered to the parking lot. They were downsized. That's a pretty typical story. That's a conventional way to handle a difficult problem. Now, here's the part of the story that no one saw. A year later, this woman's telling me the story and as she tells the story, she's trembling and she's in tears. It's a year later and she's still traumatized. She says to me, "I'm looking for a job. I've been looking for a job for 12 months." Now, here's the contrasting story. I have a friend named Ricardo Levy. Ricardo is a successful entrepreneur. In building his first company, a recession hit. He had to cut 25 percent of the people, he did. He describes the meeting in which he announced the downsizing. He said at the end of the meeting, the people he fired stood up and gave him a standing ovation. That's an incomprehensible image. When I'm with a group of executives and I tell them that story, they go like this. I say, "Okay, you have three minutes. In groups, I want you to figure out what happened." At the end of three minutes, they say, "Oh, he had a history." He was a man of integrity and respect. In the process, he looked at every alternative other than a downsizing. He was totally transparent with these people. When he was in that room, he showed respect, he showed love. He set up mechanisms to help them find jobs afterwards. When the downsizing was done, while the downsizing was done, those people felt respected. Now that's three minutes. At the end of three minutes, they go from here to the exact right answer. You see right here below the chin is an unconscious theory of leadership and management. It's a conventional theory. It's the one we learned in business school. It's the one we teach each other every day. It says, "You are widget and I'm a widget, and we're here to play a game." Down here, way down here is another theory. It's a theory of social excellence. We sell them access it. In those three minutes, those executives found that theory. That's the theory Ricardo was living by every day. Now, here's the consequence. A year after the first downsizing and a year after Ricardo's downsizing, what do we have? In one case, we have a company with a broken culture, people still looking for jobs. In the other case, we have survivors who are proud of the system they're in, they know they're respected. They're fully engaged, they're giving all they have. They relate to each other effectively. In dark times, you have the opportunity to live from this theory or this theory. You have the opportunity to be a light and other people can follow. Dark times are a time of great opportunity to create a new and better culture. What I find myself thinking about these days are the ways that Bob's second story is the same and yet so different. In the midst of a similar hardship and loss, we can take actions that imbue people with worth and dignity. We can hold onto cultures that honor contributions. We can take roles and infuse them with care and compassion to keep us connected. We hope out of all the ideas we've shared, a few of them are glimmers of light in your difficult time. Stay safe. Be well. Thank you for joining us.
