Kenny Moore

Making the Game of Business More Sustainable

 

I just came back from another one of those workshops on helping business folks effectively compete in today’s marketplace.  I was struck when the person next to me whispered with professional insight: “This is the same crap I’ve been hearing for the last 20 years.  And I’m working longer and harder, and still don’t have a life I can call my own.” 

Perhaps the way we do business is too aggressive and depleting.

Maybe it’s become woefully neglectful of the common good.

It’s time to explore alternatives.

Hierarchical Institutions and the Divine Right of Kings

Before coming to corporate life, I spent 15 years in a monastic community as a priest.  Today’s business organizations have some disturbing similarities to that of the Catholic Church.  Male dominated; stuck in a medieval paradigm; mired by a belief that the past is sacred and immutable; and steeped in the conviction that those in authority retain an aura of infallibility that comes directly from the Divine.

When a male mindset rules an organization, whether secular or sacred, the softer aspects of life have a way of getting lost.  In this Father-Knows-Best world of paternalism, winning becomes more important than playing.  Differences get eliminated, not embraced.  Power outstrips influence.  And brute force trumps diplomacy. 

This masculine model is inherently flawed and contrary to the gifts of the feminine.  For a growing number of us, this is no longer a way that we want to work or worship.

It’s All Just a Game

As we are continually reminded, business is a game.  And the prevailing model of gamesmanship is that of “Organized Sports.”  You compete; build muscle; endure pain; use strength to gain advantage; work to outperform.  And, most importantly, you strive to win.  In this testosterone-laced model, winning is everything.  Playing is not for fun, it’s for victory.  There’s no reward for losing.  

Is it possible to create an alternate approach?  Can we play, yet not conscribe to the traditional male “sports model” of business?  Might we compete and use our talents yet expand the rules of engagement?  Could we create ways of working that result in profit as well as pleasure?  Can we sidestep the dilemma of either playing by the prevailing rules … or taking our ball and going home? 

In short, might we be able to stay in the game of business, yet redefine how it all gets played out?  Can we make it more nourishing and respectful of the common good?

Many business professionals no longer want to play by the prevailing paternalistic rules.  They want a more enjoyable and enlivening game for their work lives.  The drudgery of playing more aggressively and competing for a scant number of trophies all have a way of taking their toll. 

For many of us, this violent form of play is a type of exploitation.  It’s clearly not fun; and it’s truly not a form of recreation. 

It harms families, communities and us.  And ultimately, our business institutions.

It’s not that we don’t want to play.  It’s not even that we don’t enjoy competing.   It’s just that the way business is presently getting played out is draining the human spirit. 

Redefining the Game: An Alternate Model

I think there’s a need to revisit the rules so that playing the game of business can persevere in a constructive fashion.  It’s also time to broaden the boundaries so the vast expanse of talent that’s out there gets to play.

 One of my favorite books is Jim Carse’s Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility.  In the world of “Finite games” there are strict rules, with clear roles and responsibilities and the sole purpose of the game is to win.  A few chosen ones get to play; everyone else gets to watch.  Upon winning, the fun of the game ends.  It’s a world of winners and losers, players and spectators, have’s and have-not’s.  Much of business presently gets played as a Finite game.

 Another type of play is something Carse calls “Infinite games.”  Here, the rules are ever-changing, with ill-defined roles and responsibilities insuring that the most number of people can join the game and relish the fun of playing.  The purpose of an Infinite game is not necessarily to win, but rather to keep the game going – since when somebody wins all the fun ends.  Infinite games are about inclusiveness and fostering freedom.  Playing always proceeds and never comes to an end.

 When my friend Lee was a small girl, she loved playing the board game Monopoly.  She was good at it and usually won.  Lee remembers one dreary summer day when she was playing with her friends, and as the game proceeded, it became more and more obvious that she was going to win.  “What struck me,” Lee says, “was the fact that as soon as I won the game, we’d have to end and everyone would go home.”  But she was having great fun; Lee didn’t want it to end.  So she changed the game. 

 “New rule!” Lee announced.  “Everybody gets $500 from the bank.”  With that infusion of additional cash, the game continued, the fun endured and the boredom of a rainy day was held in abeyance.

 What Lee did was turn a Finite game into an Infinite one.

The Finite game of business is also in need of becoming Infinite.  That means the world of work becomes less about the game and more about the way we play it.  Less about winning and more about promoting play.  Less about individual desires and more about the common good. Less about athletic elitism, and more about expanding eligibility. 

Business as an Infinite game allows us to show up on the field, compete and play, but bend the rules.  Even change them.  Continually.

Many would readily give up trying to score the big win in favor of keeping the game of business going for the long haul.  We’d like to participate and compete, but not lose our soul in the process.  We want to fulfill not only our corporate responsibilities, but our social and family ones as well.  We’d like to expand the boundaries to include the masses in a more satisfactory style of play.  In short, we’d like to play the game of business as Infinite, not Finite.

What To Do?

How might we begin playing this way?

The good news is that we don’t need to wait for senior management to get their act together before making progress.  We don’t even need to once again revamp our Performance Appraisal Program.  There are actions we can take today that start moving us in an Infinite direction.  Here are just a few:

- stop being serious; start being playful.
- stop being helpful; start being curious.
- stop mandating; start inviting.
- stop reading; start experimenting.
- stop playing within boundaries; start playing with the boundaries.
- stop trying to win; start prolonging the game.
- stop seeking answers; start asking questions.
- stop recruiting professionals; start playing with spectators.
- stop being consistent; start being rambunctious.
- stop trying to control; start embracing chaos.
- stop waiting for leaders; start doing it alone.
- stop living in the future; start celebrating the present.
- stop working on deficiencies; start focusing on gifts.
- stop keeping score; start counting blessings.
- stop being critical; start being compassionate.

We don’t need a large number of followers to begin this effort.  As we already know, most revolutions start with small groups that are under funded and working at the margins of our institutions.  We’re invited to cease allowing past practices of paternalism to define the game of business and start re-writing the rules so it becomes more sustainable.

What’s before us is a chance to change the game by hosting a different conversation.  It’s no longer simply about winning, that’s the testosterone model and a dead end.  It’s about playing the game in order to keep it going; creating a softer way of earning a living, one that’s revitalizing, renewing and reinvigorating.  It’s likewise about expanding the rules so that those who have been on the margins get invited into the fun of competition. 

The Business Imperative

 The game of business is no longer simply about money. It’s also about meaning.  Elbert Hubbard, the business guru, used to say that we work to become, not to acquire.  While earning a living, we’re no longer content to lose our lives.  We want to retain some sanity as well as the leisure to be with family and friends.  We long to relinquish back to the medical profession the craziness of a 24/7 lifestyle of always being “on call.” 

As business becomes more global and enmeshed in diverse cultural norms, we are being forced to reconsider the template upon which we play and compete.  In many cultures, aggressiveness is contrary to the way our global partners want to play.  The Finite rules of extreme competition may no longer work.  There are wonderful opportunities to reconnect business with the deeper longings of the heart.

 Even though some executives will continue to focus solely on winning, an increasing number want continuous growth for the long term.  Astute business leaders, like my friend Lee, don’t really want the game to come to an end.  They want to structure it so it keeps on going.  They want to turn business into an Infinite game.

 For this to happen, the rules need to change.  We have to let go of our love affair with the elite few and seek ways of bending the boundaries so that more people get to play.  We need to invite the talents of the many into the marketplace.  We have to create different ways of working, competing and succeeding, so that as business succeeds, so do families and society.  We need ways of orchestrating many small victories instead of one big final win.

Even the Pope, who happens to be in the competitive business of Religion, has his work cut out for him.  In his role as “CEO,” he’s also being invited to reconsider some medieval ways of playing the game. Watching his Church lose substantial market share in Europe and the United States and seeing some of his better people leave and look elsewhere for opportunities is disconcerting for any executive.  If things don’t change, The Catholic Church risks not only losing its competitive standing in the marketplace, but also its ability to play in a game that’s increasingly becoming Infinite: a quality of gamesmanship that the Church should know something about.

Where We’re Heading
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Choosing to move forward into an uncertain future requires some moral depth of character.  Even though we don’t have final control, we still have an obligation to show up and try.  And, as with any new venture, we won’t get it perfect at the outset.  When engaged in any societal shift, mess will be everpresent – something to be regarded with gentleness, compassion and an overarching degree of forgiveness.

St. Thomas Aquinas was fond of saying that without work, it’s impossible to have fun.  We need to be in the business of redesigning the game of business.  We need to make it more nourishing and more Infinite.  In the end, we need to make it more refreshing and revitalizing for the human spirit.

P.S.  If you’re thinking about writing me, give in to the temptation.   I love getting mail ... and being influenced by what you have to say.  Please e-mail me at kennythemonk@yahoo.com.

Kenny Moore (www.kennythemonk.com) is co-author of The CEO and the Monk: One Company’s Journey to Profit and Purpose (John Wiley and Sons), rated as one of the top ten best selling business books on Amazon.com.  He is Corporate Ombudsman and Human Resources Director at a New York City Fortune 500 company.  Reporting to the Chairman, he is primarily responsible for awakening joy, meaning and commitment in the workplace.  While these efforts have largely been met with skepticism, he remains eternally optimistic of their future viability. 

Kenny has more than 20 years experience with managing change, developing leaders and healing the corporate community. He’s been profiled by Charles Osgood on CBS Sunday Morning News and interviewed by Tom Peters, the Wall Street Journal and Fast Company magazine regarding his unique leadership style.  Kenny is the recipient of Notre Dame University’s 2006 Hesburgh Award for his significant contribution to the field of business ethics.

His business practices are based on those of Louie Armstrong who said: “I am here in the service of Happiness.” Louis died a rich and beloved man; his voice still rings in the ears (and hearts) of millions.

Prior to his work in corporate America, Kenny spent 15 years in a monastic community as a Catholic priest.  Several years ago, he had the good fortune of being diagnosed with “incurable” cancer, at its most advanced stages.  He underwent a year of experimental treatment at the National Cancer Institute and survived.  Kenny came away from that experience recalling the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes: “Most of us go to our graves with our music still inside us.”  Kenny’s lifetime goal is to spend more of his time playing his music.   Having dealt with both God and death, Kenny now finds himself eminently qualified to work with senior management on corporate change efforts.

Kenny is a watercolor artist, poet and photographer.  He is Founding Director of Art for the Anawim, a not-for-profit charity that works with the art community in supporting the needs of terminally ill children and the inner-city poor.  His poems have been published in several anthologies; one was selected as a semi-finalist in the North American Open Poetry Contest.  Kenny lives in New Jersey and is married to the “fair and beautiful” Cynthia.  Together, they are fighting a losing battle of maintaining their mental stability while raising two growing boys. 

Kenny has recently expanded his work to include Stand-up Comedy. This is driven largely by the sneaking suspicion that when the Divine returns, He will find a more receptive audience in bars and comedy clubs than in our Houses of Worship. He can be reached at kennythemonk@yahoo.com or (973) 956-8210.

Finding a Job - 21st Century Style

 

The economy is down. Outsourcing is up. Globalization is in. And college grads are soon to be let out. This has placed a great number of unemployed people on the streets looking for work. Some timely advice is warranted.

For the past 20 years, I’ve worked for a heavenly CEO (figuratively speaking) in a New York City Fortune 500 company. Prior to that, I spent 15 years working for another heavenly CEO (literally speaking) as a Catholic priest in a monastic community. Oddly enough, the work remained similar in both jobs, but the incentive plans varied greatly.

Here’s my practical list of worldly and otherworldly advice for getting that perfect job:

1 – Suicide is no longer an effective strategy for initiating a job search;

2 – Employers continue to remain more interested in your personal passion than a PowerPoint presentation;

3 – The ability to manage anxiety, ambiguity and uncertainty is more valuable than a MBA in Finance;

4 – Developing a greater sense of humor and openness to surprise gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace;

5 – Selling your soul to gain employment is bad for business and prolongs your stay in Purgatory.

The Sacred Side of a Job Search

Getting a job also has divine implications because it’s tied into our vocation. We show up on this earth with a host of talents and personal gifts that are meant to be used. Not only in the service of ourselves but also for the betterment of others.  Aristotle said that where the needs of the world and your talents cross, therein lies your vocation. Our ultimate happiness is connected less to making wads of money and related more to cooperating with our divine calling. We can also expect to undergo some suffering in living out our destiny, but the price is worth paying. As the corporate mystic, Elbert Hubbard, reminds us: “God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas - but for scars.” I anticipate that in our final performance review we will be compensated copiously.

Finding one’s vocation is not an easy task, so here are some helpful hints from a former monk to serve as a guide:

1 – Pay attention to things that you naturally do well, skills for which you’ve received no particular training. These “charisms”, gifts from the gods, serve as an indicator for your future role in the world;

2 – Give closer scrutiny to childhood memories. At an early age, well before parents and educators interfered, you intuitively knew why you were here and what you were meant to do. But very quickly it got socialized out. This wisdom is never lost, just stored in your soul for future reference and recall;

3 – Listen to your dreams. Write them down and host a dialogue with them regularly. Angels are sent nightly to reveal divine wishes, offer counsel for personal decisions and provide preparation for pending challenges. Spend time improving your skill set for dealing with the sacred realm of the night;

4 - Understand that luck and serendipity are intentional events that are sent for encouragement, insuring that you continue to show up and cooperate with a divine master plan;

5 – Strengthen your interior life. Spend ten minutes a day in silent reflection. No prayer is required; no mantra needs recitation. Simply sit in silence and listen to your lungs breath and your heart beat. Wisdom will be dispensed, the work of your life will be revealed and your vocation will slowly be made manifest.

Some Strange Parallels

Years ago, when I left the monastery and returned to the world, I was looking for a job and seeking a spouse at the same time. These two searches curiously seemed to have much in common and the lessons I learned then seem to still apply today.

1 - In both venues, we are well advised to dress impeccably, put our best foot forward and intentionally misrepresent the facts about who we really are. This bolsters the odds of improving our standing in the community as well as garnishing a better future;

2 - Someone once told me that the closest we get to being godlike in this lifetime is on our resume. From what I can tell, this falsification of our true identity, professionally and personally, continues to remain a viable strategy for getting both jobs and spouses. Unfortunately, the likelihood of staying with one job for your lifetime seems to be statistically less likely than keeping the vows of your first marriage intact;

3 - Showing good form continues to win out in dealing with both prospective employers and potential mates. On the first meeting, good hygiene matters. Also, as Bill Clinton and Eliot Spitzer remind us, taking advantage of another person simply because you can has a way of hurting both your job and marriage prospects;

4 - Surprisingly, keeping your mouth shut and listening on a regular basis makes the other person experience you as a strong communicator;

5 - Lastly, before getting into bed with anyone (literally or figuratively) make sure you protect yourself. Failure to do so leaves you legally and/or physically at risk.

And for God’s sake, when consummating a deal stay away from self-enhancing drugs. Regardless of what Bob Dole tells you, it’s likely to compromise your on-the-job performance.

P.S. If you’re thinking about writing me, give in to the temptation. I love getting mail ... and being influenced by what you have to say. Please e-mail me at kennythemonk@yahoo.com.

 

Work-Life Balance: A Conspiracy of Optimism

 

Work-Life balance is, at best, a fabrication. At worst, a cruel hoax.

It’s time to stop believing all the hype. As adults, we well understand that it’s never been a question of balance.  It’s always been a question of choice. As the Spanish proverb reminds us: “Take what you want, says God, just pay for it.”

 

Living with the Consequences

 

Sharon Edelstein has a young daughter named Rebecca.  Sharon came home from work one day and found her jumping on the bed and told her to stop - she was going to get hurt. “I won’t get hurt” Rebecca said, and continued bouncing. Her mother repeated the warning and added that she might also break the bed. “No, I won’t,” Rebecca insisted. Her mother gave up. “Fine,” she said. “Do what you want. You’ll just have to live with the consequences.” Rebecca immediately stopped bouncing. “I don’t want to go and live with them, Mommy,” she said. “I don’t even know who the Consequences are.”

As the ancient seers stated so well, we don’t get to do everything in a single lifetime. We merely get to make choices. Not all choices. Only some. And we pay a price for the one’s we choose. Sort of like being at a buffet luncheon without your cardiologist. You can eat anything that’s available; you have only to deal with the aftereffects.

Growing old gracefully provides more than ample opportunity to get clear about what we consider important and then make our decisions accordingly. In this journey called life, we’re all free to do whatever we want. And like Rebecca, we need only live with the consequences.

But don’t expect to get balance. What we’ll get is stress: that dynamic tension of trying to creatively live out our lives in a less-than-perfect world. And we’re required to do it all as frail, flawed and frightened mortals.

Want a high-flying business career? Go for it.

Might you desire to get married, raise a family and live in conjugal bliss? Good for you.

Maybe you’d prefer to use your artistic talents and create a world of new possibilities? God bless.

Perhaps you’d want to be independent and care free? I’m envious.

But if you expect to have it all, get ready to play center stage in your own exciting Greek Tragedy.

 

Finding Help in Unusual Places

 

I’ve got a wife who works full time and two teen age boys who are experts at disrupting the status quo. I spend most of my days behind a desk in a corporate job. I haven’t yet found any balance. Mostly, I’ve found chaos. But alas, on a good day, some insight.

I no longer look to Jack Welch or Oprah Winfrey to give much help in discerning life’s mystery. Rather, I look to the poets. Freud got a few things right and he was certainly on to something when he said: “Everywhere I go, I find a poet has been there before me.”

Making choices and living out the inherent tension it creates requires a focus on “being” rather than “doing.” The ability to be silent, ponder the deeper possibilities and creatively craft a life-response are aspects of maturity more closely akin to the work of a Poet than a CEO.

Fostering this poetic outlook requires a personal discipline that may not be to everyone’s liking. For those not yet ready to embrace it but prefer an addiction to cell phones, e-mails and non-stop meetings, e. e. cummings offers some practical words of advice:

 

Poetry is being, not doing

If you would follow,

Even at a distance,

The poet’s calling,

You’ve got to come out of the

 

Measurable doing universe

Into the immeasurable house of being.

 

Nobody can be alive for you.

Nor can you be alive for anyone else.

 

If you can take it, take it and be,

If you can’t, cheer up and go about

Other people’s business, and do and undo

Until you drop.

 

 

Wasting Time: a Portal to the Divine

 
    There’s been a spate of books about Atheism surfacing of late on the New York Time’s Best Seller list, but I don’t think it’s gaining broad acceptance. For most people, it’s not a practical choice. It seems Henny Youngman’s experience continues to hold sway: “I thought about becoming an atheist, but I gave it up. There were no Holidays.”

    The real threat for modern folks is not a lack of belief. It’s a lack of time. We’re so busy being productive and trying to get balance in our lives that we’re in danger of missing the Divine when He shows up.

Being busy may work wonders for our Professional life, but it wreaks havoc on our Interior one.

If we want to find some semblance of sanity and advance in our Spiritual Journey, we may need to slow down, risk being less productive and indulge in the ancient rite of “Wasting Time.”

In my earlier days, I spent 15 years in a monastic community as a Catholic priest. I remember once reading about “The Good Samaritan Experiment” with 40 seminarians at Princeton Theological Seminary. After waxing eloquently about their dedication to God and all His people, they were asked to deliver a sermon on the parable of The Good Samaritan. For those lacking the rigors of monastic studies, it’s the story told by Jesus about a man who was set upon by robbers, beaten and left on the side of the road. A priest walks by and offers no help. Neither does a Levite, another religious leader of the era. It’s a lone man from Samaria, hated by the local gentry, who goes out of his way to offer assistance - hence the title: Good Samaritan.

In the Princeton experiment, when the seminarians had their homily prepared, they were asked to walk to another part of the campus and deliver their sermon to waiting students. Half were told to hurry, because they were running late. The others were informed there was no rush, they had plenty of time.

As they journeyed across campus, the experimenters arranged to have an actor slumped as a “victim” strategically positioned along their route so that the seminarians were forced to step over or around the man.

So, who stopped to help … and who didn’t? They were all budding “men of the cloth” on their way to deliver a sermon on just such a situation.

What the experiment revealed was that those who were in a hurry passed the “victim” by. Those with time to spare, stopped and helped. It seems altruism and our commitment to our fellow man is less connected to our religious beliefs and more closely aligned with having some free time.

When the Divine shows up, most of us are busy being too productive to even notice His presence. Maybe God doesn’t care whether we go to church, temple or mosque. Maybe He’s already out in the world waiting to meet us, but we keep passing Him by because we’re in such a hurry.

 

Paying a Price for Living our Lives

 

Since leaving the monastery, I’d had two near-death experiences. The first was with “incurable” cancer. The second, a heart attack.  Both were not-so-subtle reminders that my time’s running short.

We’re not going to be around forever, and we’re not able to have it all.  Acknowledging this will generate more than ample disappointment and regret. And we’ll pay a price for it: Guilt.

But don’t be dismayed. Guilt doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ve done something wrong. It’s more an indication that we have said “no” to some larger authority: parent, teacher, boss. Guilt’s an indication that we’ve chosen to live our own lives and not someone else’s.

Stop trying to achieve balance and start learning to enjoy chaos. Discovering and relishing one’s imperfect life sooner rather than later is what’s available.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said that most of us go to our graves with our music still inside. So, forget about work-life balance and let go of the need to please everybody. Rather, get out there and make some choices and let your music resonate.

The guilt won’t kill you and you’ll do just fine if some folks don’t like you.

And you certainly don’t need to have it all. For as Steven Wright reminds us: even if you did, where would you put it?

 

P.S. If you’re thinking about writing me, give in to the temptation. I love getting mail ... and being influenced by what you have to say. Please e-mail me at kennythemonk@yahoo.com.