The Long and Short of Hard and Soft. Thanks Wes!

Based on a flood of recent experiences I'm writing to share my perspective on the line between Hard and Soft. When it comes to directing imperfect humans, unfortunately it is only imperfect humans who can guide the way, and depending on how much needs to be achieved, different levels of pressure and discipline compete with the status quo. What I say aims to be universal for life in general, but take into consideration I am looking through an MBA filter. Apply what I say to management at your own risk, thought it's a risk I happily share.

This post opens with a sketchbook image from July of 2002 that serves to contrast between the hard and soft. After returning to the US from the trip across Asia and Europe that changed my life, I studied "Christ Presenting the Ring to Alexandria" by Peter Paul Reubens in contrast with a Mastodon skull, both on display at the Museum of Texas Tech University while I was visiting my parents back in Lubbock, Texas. I thought the contrast between the ultimate empathy of Christ and the skull of a prehistoric beast was fitting.

As we all attempt to transcend our inner prehistoric beast to achieve the enlightenment of Christ's teachings, this blog post will take you from a quote from the Dalai Lama to the closing chapter of Social Entrepreneurship: New Models of Sustainable Social Change by Alex Nicholls. Then we jump into the priceless American Express ad by Wes Anderson as a metaphor for what a potential solution looks like.



"If the basic human nature was aggressive we would have been born with animal claws and huge teeth - but ours are very short, very pretty, very weak! That means we are not well equipped to be aggressive human beings. ... So I think the basic nature of human beings should be gentle." - His Holiness the Dalai Lama
(sketch above from the Dalai Lama's talk in Sydney, Australia, December 3, 2009 entitled "Our Future: Who is Responsible?")

As the Dalai Lama points out, it is not in our nature to be violent. Fair enough. But where do you draw the line between a productive sense of assertive dominance and its negative twin, violent energy? I'm reminded of how Giorgio Vasari describes the expression Michelangelo gave to the face of his David sculpture. The expression on David's face is known as terribilitá. It is a savage expression of focus and determination. It is the look of someone's sheer will, held up as heavy artillery against the opposing odds.



Now that we are talking about Michelangelo's David, I can bring Gianlorenzo Bernini's David into the conversation. If Michelangelo's David has terribilitá, Bernini's David has verriterribilitá. Keep in mind that David is facing down Goliath. Michelangelo's David looks like he's trying to pick up at a gay bar, while Bernini's David looks like he's in the middle of fighting the odds and actually battling a giant. The point is that there is classical beauty in the ferocity of determination, and that I have a preference for Bernini. I struggle with the first part (you rock, Bernini!), as I decide when to express my own inner ferocity or terribilitá.



As much as the religious right may hate to admit it, often there are shades of gray, and I think that's the answer to how terribilitá can be expressed. As Alex Nicholls compiles in Social Entrepreneurship: New Models of Sustainable Social Change, there is a sliding scale between hard and soft when it comes to business. As much as my American mush-mouth makes it harder for me, it remains true: money talks and bullshit walks. Money can shout or whisper, but bullshit is just bullshit. Whether the energy regards the soft edge of a non-profit business or the hard-edge of a financially driven hedge fund, shouting may carry substance, and a whisper can hold great value. If the business isn't sound, then a shout becomes a tantrum and whisper a zephyr.

In David's case, terribilitá expresses the business of defense. And when it comes to the general business climate in the world today, it's a war zone out there. If I don't defend myself and my ideas through vigilant action, someone can overpower me and determine my reality. Those who work the hardest and create the most give the rest of us something to consume in our relative passivity.

To show you what I'm talking about without wasting more words, you gotta see the American Express commercial with Wes Anderson. I love this man. He has the ferocity of someone on a mission from God, and is surrounded by creative people who take his call to action seriously. This is terribilitá at its best. You can see the hard and the soft in a brilliantly orchestrated balance of creative bliss. Thanks for pointing the way, Wes.

Australia Day for Americans Like Me from Texas, North Carolina, New York, and California

As Australia Day on January 26th is the equivalent to the 4th of July for Americans like me, I wanted to celebrate Australia in a way to share with you, my Universal friend, who has taken the time to read this blog. And so, in a cozy blanket of sweeping generalizations, I attempt to frame my Australian experience for you, wherever you are coming from, in order of appearance. Whether you relate more to Texas, North Carolina, New York, or California, I aim to draw you closer to my current home.



For my Texas homies:

As Texas is the Lone Star State, Australia is the Lone Star Country. They call it the Lucky Country, but we know what they really mean. The two Lone Stars share the same pioneering spirit, and with it the strong work ethic of Texans. They have windmills, we have windmills. They have barbed wire, we have barbed wire. Where there is barbed wire, there is cattle, and where there is cattle, there are barbeques! While the 4th of July is centered around the fireworks, Australia Day huddles around "the barbie", and the real firepower seems to be in the advertisement to cook Australian lamb! A "lambifesto" if you will...



Like Texas, Australia has plenty of space (it's quite dense in the Metropolitan areas in both TX and AUS, but the open space mentality is inherently Texan and Australian) and like Texas, this allows a sense of accommodating anyone and the sense that you can get as close as you want to your neighbors, as there is always more space out there that you can put between each other. I love Texas, and as a Texan I love Australia for the same reasons I love my hometown of Lubbock. West Texas reminds me of the Riverina in New South Wales, home to Wagga Wagga, or "land of many crows". With every BBQ sparked up today to cook Aussie meat, I share with my fellow Texans a warm and hearty YEEHAW!

To North Carolina, my Ultimate Bliss:

North Carolina is my home away from home. My home away from home (away from home) is New South Wales. NSW and NC are like geological cosmic cousins. They both have mountain ranges in the west. NSW has the Blue Mountains, NC has the Blue Ridge Mountains. Both have healthy farmland and temperate climates across their heartland, located at about the same latitude, approximately 37º degrees off the equator. Both NSW and NC have appealing and unique coastlines. NC has the outer banks and signature lighthouses located on some of the most peaceful beaches I've known. NSW and the rest of Australia are peppered with beach paradise up and down the coast.



The blend of big city life and rural bliss (dare I say ignorance?) is evident in both places, and I love it all in the delicate balance that makes life interesting. I can't say much for North Carolina BBQ, (sorry), but I can say that North Carolina is light years ahead of other places in racial integration and how this affects tolerance in daily life. I'm mostly talking about Durham here (give yourself a hug, Durhamite!), but it's that racial integration that I want to bottle, sell, and import into Australia. Good on ya, Durham! Australia needs you!

Helloooo Brooklyn! Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten, from the Battery to the top of Manhattan:

Everybody wants to be a New Yorker, and in a sacrificial display of territoriality, I burned my brain cells in Brooklyn. Australia gave their island paradise a mainline injection of NYC highrise and financial business, and the Frankenstein's monster has survived the Global Financial Crisis like no other. Similar to the financial virility NYC will always wield around the world, Australia's highly regulated banking is wondering what all the GFC fuss was about. As New York was being settled between the Five Boroughs by Sam the Butcher, Melbourne was being settled by, get this, John Batman! That's right, the ORIGINAL Gotham City! The work hard / play hard mentality knows the names Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium, just like Moore Park is the central focus of the Sydney Cricket Ground and Aussie Stadium.



To all you New Yorkers, Sydney is your sister city. It's like Manhattan with more sprawl and better beaches. New York is the inspiration for a lot of what goes on around the world. Sydney is no exception, taking inspiration from where it is due, but Sydney does things in an inherently Australian way. There are more running festivals, charity events, and general "mateship" goodwill here than can be found in any other city of comparable size and influence.

California ... knows how to party ... In the city ... of LA

Cali has always held a special place in my heart. Commonly referred to as a progressive country all its own, California in the west represents the US to the political left! Australia's political spectrum has left and right. These political positions are found in the left side of politics in California. The rightwing in the United States stays distinctly east of the Pacific, while Australia, sharing the Wavy Gravy waters of the Pacific, takes our political left as their political right and keeps going left until you reach, well, Perth ;) We have both the iconic California Sun and the slightly more dangerous Australian Sun. Consistent with natural world in Australia, even the Sun is out to kill you! The beaches and hills and red tile roofs are ubiquitous in both places, and the Wine Country! Let us not forget about the Wine.



The Hunter Valley, Barossa Valley, and Yarra Valley are just a few Australian Wine Regions to make Australia the fourth largest exporter in the world behind France, Italy, and Spain. I don't understand it entirely, but California Wine would be the fourth largest global producer if it were it's own country (and a bankrupt one at that, Cali!) so thankfully it is not and makes up 90% of US wine production. Needless to say, there is plenty to enjoy in California and Australia and the "no worries" lifestyles are quite similar, in part due to California only waking up by the time New York has been busting ass for four hours, and Australia eeks out a living while the United States is either done working or sound asleep!

Broader MBA Horizons

In response to the concepts of Roger Martin in the Harvard Business Review, the expansion of depth and breadth along a dynamic axis in current MBA programs is what gets me out of bed in the morning.

Knowing that the days of business as usual are over, the world is searching and waiting for solutions to the problems we face. Given the current crisis in Haiti, we need all the help we can get. Drastic times call for drastic measures.

With all business problems that are more easily surmountable than providing aid to Haiti, it doesn't need to seem so drastic. All Roger Martin is really asking for is that MBA students maintain their own identities rather than becomes cogs in the wheel.

With a little help from enlightened thinkers, this current generation of MBA's can become the solution the world needs. It means we must collectively find the middle road. The hard-hearted must soften and the soft must harden to survive.

An MBA should feel comfortable when speaking his or her mind, primarily when it comes from an understanding that we are all in this together. We must collectively create the paradigm shift necessary to pull us out of the negative cycles now commonly known as the GFC.

A new generation has arrived, here to provide solutions to the problems of the past, but only if we position ourselves as having the power to do so. We give our power away if we fit too easily into the machine as it stands. The machine needs an upgrade. We are the repairs.

I wouldn't advise anyone completing an MBA to be content fitting into a predefined job description for long. If we aren't actively changing the language of business as we mold it in our image, we are doing the world a disservice.

Be bold and thoroughly yourself. It's what the world is waiting for.

Back in the States! First stop, LA

I figured of all the days to add to the blog, this is it! On my first voyage back to the States from Australia, I left Sydney at noon on December 22nd and arrived in LA earlier than when I left Sydney: 7am, December 22nd.

When was the last time I had a 41 hour day? This is a day for recreational literature!

In the spirit of my new theme to add more drawings to the blog, I think it's fitting to pick a classic Sydney sight since I won't see it again until 2010. Here's the recognizable lifeguard station on Tamarama beach. One landmark along the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk that has become my favorite route for a ritual run.



Looking out of my window in the plane on arrival in LA, I was amazed to see the amount of traffic on the roads as early as 6am, before the sun was up. Maybe I'll get away from this computer and get a taste of Tinsel Town before leaving for North Carolina tomorrow.

Safe travels, Michelle! I'll see you at the LAX Radisson :) This place is nice! Near to the Getty Museum, too...

Bright Star

Qirkz in Marrickville - Oscar Jimenez Dec 19, 2009

Inspired by my colleague's video blog account of our recent trip to Qirkz in Marrickville, I wanted to post the sketch, above.

This performance was Oscar Jimenez, who had quite a following. I don't know if he told everyone to come dressed up like flappers and pre-depression era gangsters, but people were dressed to impress! Everyone was so polished last night! I felt dressed about as well as the guy making our delicious pizza from the wood burning oven downstairs.

The best part, I have to say, was the company I went with and being able to hang out at the end of the night on a balcony overlooking the Randwick Racecourse and keeping the party going with some home-spun DJ talent. Qirkz certainly set the tone for the evening. I hope to make that a trend! They won't have any new performances until the New Year.

Worth waiting for!

Creative Relapse

Life experience lately leads to the mention of a few things. First the "Theory U" retreat to Kangaroo Valley with Catalyst 2030 working towards Sustainable Ground and Sustainable Sydney 2030, second the subsequent art opening of Aaron Fuller's photography at Tortuga Studios in Sydney, and third the burning desire after watching Waltz with Bashir to communicate my style of art effectively and strive for a lasting cultural impact.

It sounds lofty, but it's all a part of the process. Theory U is a working approach to getting from point A to point B. In what I want to accomplish, I must first leave where I am and aspire to arrive where I want to be. Let's say that process is leaving the left side of a U and traveling to the other. There is a gaping chasm in between. This is the space of individual self-knowledge and negotiation that can be explored in places like Kangaroo Valley Bush Retreat.



With a group of twenty people we approached our objectives in holding the Sustainable Grounds Cafe of Cafe's event coming up. On Tuesday August 25th the owners of Sydney's most prominent Cafes will gather in the Botanical Gardens for a World Cafe style event. As all owners create a collective ownership of their experience on the 25th, we as a core group of Catalyst 2030 formed our own ownership over the weekend retreat.

As Barack Obama mentions in The Audacity of Hope, my painful realisations in my Theory U experience are the same worthless qualities of my flawed existence that I grew tired of years ago. I am now reminded of what I was hoping to forget, which is interesting because at the start of the retreat I mentioned that I wanted to actively remember. By actively remembering what we have been taught not only within our lifetimes but within the lifetime of our existence on this planet as we know it, we might start finding answers to questions we have forgotten to ask.

Coming back into the MBA life was a shock to the system, but it's my preferred shock given the alternatives. After a week of being humbled further by Midterm results I had an interview at Stryker on Wednesday. That boosted my confidence and I hope to report further in a future post. By week's end I attended a Catalyst 2030 colleagues opening on Friday at Tortuga Studios. Aaron Fuller had photography was among the more refined work on display, and humbly priced in the open auction format. No doubt he priced to them for a quick sale as he left the next day for Melbourne to attend Al Gore's Asia Pacific Climate Project through the Australian Conservation Foundation



All that inspiration feeds directly into the courses I have registered for next session, but I'll write more on that later. I was thankful for another break on Saturday when two classmates had birthdays over the weekend and gave the AGSM MBA cohort an excuse to gather on Saturday. Later that night I was further inspired musically by Martini Club, who never disappoint. By the time I made it back to my place to assault my Strategy binder with a highlighter I had been able to watch Waltz with Bashir. That movie made me so grateful to be alive and living beyond a war zone that the fuel of my internal fire is burning brighter and needs to come out.



Put it all together and I had scribbled more strategy notes for the ETA Cafe in my moleskine while downloading The Window, a new album by my old favorite Shirlette Ammons and her Mosadi Music. That is a nice addition to my collection after sharing the work of her former collaborator Applejuice in his new partnership with Suede from Camp Lo. Their collaboration, Freebass 808 has been keeping my ears busy for weeks.



I'm feeling the wave of creation my soulbrothers and soulsisters are fueling, and completed a new track, "relapse" that I started in Kangaroo Valley, somewhere at the bottom of my "U". It's based on lyrics I wrote in 2003 as I'm pulling from sketchbooks dating back to 1999 that I scanned onto my MacBook before leaving the States. You can read the lyrics and sing along at Reverb Nation.

Or you could just click on the Reverb Nation Player widget in the right margin...