Have you noticed the numerous contests offered by social sector causes?  Many are being generated from social media platforms or via organizational websites.

A very quick web search delivered the following contests:

Under what motivations would an individual get a tattoo of a Fortune 500 company on their arm?  Which corporate seal would you be willing to walk around with to display every time your bare arms were visible?  How much would you need to cheerish their product?

What if you could not even own the product?  Would you get the tattoo then?

The company needs to represents something greater than its products, perhaps a movement.  The next time you see a Harley-Davidson tattoo on an individual, ask them why they felt compelled to advertise for Harley-Davidson for the rest of their life.  My guess is that their answer will not be about their ‘hog’.  It is what the motorcycle represents.  It is a movement.  It is about freedom.  It is about patrotism.


Would anyone put a tattoo of your organization’s logo on their arm?  Is your logo representative of your programs and services or a movement? Is the logo tied to a static enterprise or a cause in motion?  Is there a point of entry where I can align my reasons with your enterprise’s purpose.

Why would tens of thousands of people walk around with a yellow rubber band on their wrist?  Why would politicians and heads of state add this accessory to their wrists?  The LIVESTRONG campaign provided a perfect opportunity to align a cause in a public manner and bring one’s own story.  It was a symbol of solidarity and support with those who were fighting, survived, or been lost to cancer.  But more importantly it allowed the wearer to bring their own story.  To be part of the movement and represent the personal.  The wearer could share their connection to somebody impacted by cancer and yet be part of a cause.

What is the point of engagement for those seeking to intersect your cause with their own stories?

“Cortez resorted to a simple but drastic expedient. Once he and his men landed on the shores of Mexico he burned his ships.”

Allen Weinstein and R. Jackson Wilson, Freedom and Crisis, 2nd ed., 11.

 I stumbled upon a post by James Stripes about the historical accuracy Hernán Cortés‘s actions.  Mr. Stripes points out that the boats may have been grounded instead of burned but the legacy of the moment continues to have an impact on our language and motivational planning today.  Perhaps the incident is most memorable for how extreme Cortés’s actions appear.  To reach a foreign destination and immediately destroy any chance of retreat typically gets people’s attention.  Today’s equivalent would be tossing your passport, iphone, wallet, and email addresses overboard (physically or virtually).  To underscore the seriousness of his commitment to the exploration and demonstrating this a public manner, Cortés destroyed the ships.  Change became reality, the exploring party’s charge was clear and survival could not be debated.

Society sends mixed messages on change.  Marriage is proposed but a prenuptial agreement is signed.  Two airline companies merge but they remain in their respective headquarters, flying under their pre-merger logos for months.  New software is rolled out but you can regress to the old version if you wish- consider the two versions of Microsoft’s control panel with a classic and new display.  New Coke was launched but apparently somebody thought they should keep the recipe for Classic Coke just in case thing did not workout.


Sometimes change needs to be cautious and prolonged but the motivation for commitment stagnates with the passage of time.  When I was a trip leader in the Wyoming wilderness change took place the moment the van drove away from the trail head and the group was left with what it could carry in its backpacks.  A successful trip became contingent on everyone’s participation.


When a common focus is built on the foundation of a compelling purpose and the right team is gathered, change is possible.


How have you addressed change?  Do you stay in a lifeboat by a sinking ship or seek shore?  How do you secure a group’s commitment to seek a common goal?

No entries, a dying blog, abandoned, left for another to do list, no more ideas, new projects, time crunch, no readers, new medium, got a book deal, asked to stop, forgot to post, traveling, working, lost…..


Although many of these could have been true, the reason for the long stretch of no activity was simply a holiday sickness that turned into a medical adventure.  Recovered now and finally able to speak and type slightly more coherently than the daze of meningitis and other fun, I resume with a sense of appreciation for sharing, a hope of adding value and living in balance…

Yesterday, I caught an NPR radio interview of a class of primary school children.  The radio journalist was asking the students what question they would ask Martin Luther King Jr. if they had the opportunity.  The clip played a succession of the student’s responses.  The last response caught me as remarkable, “what are you going to do next?”  I first I thought it was cute.  Then I found it profound.  An civil-rights leader who dies in 1968 has a living legacy that continues to be molded and adapted to the current times.  So much so that an elementary student today can ask “what next.”  Where is your legacy going to take us tomorrow, will it lead the way?  To me, that sense of presence and context is remarkable.  Unlike a fading sports stars who finds their statistics frozen in time and re-count their best years at trading card shows, a movement transported Martin Luther King Jr. like a bookmark through a novel.  As we read the pages it appears that his presence was able to follow along in real time.  The cute question made me ponder.  Who in our respective lives has moved along with us and not been left as a time stamp in a history book.  My father who died suddenly and unexpectedly when I was in my twenty’s has certainly been as present today as when he passed away in the mid 90’s.  What makes these individuals and their impact so transportable?  Do we carry them forward or were they so remarkable that some force sweeps them along?  Is it legacy or do they continue forward because their work is not done?

No need to add commentary.  This will feel like the fastest 6 minutes of your life.  I’ve watched this six times trying to follow different positions.  I have an idea for a project from this which I will share soon.

Problem Bank List (Unofficial) Oct 9, 2009

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