Category: Idea Sharing Adventure Blog Posts
During the COVID-19 pandemic I once heard someone rhetorically ask, What if we are the virus? It was a hypothetical question. The speaker did not mean to suggest that it was literally true, but rather to offer a fresh perspective from which to view humanity’s capabilities. For a moment I could picture all the other creatures…
READ ARTICLEI remember how I felt the first time I realized that genocide was part of the American story. It was another windy and searing summer after- noon, and I had just crossed the White River near the town of Interior, South Dakota. I pulled the car over and began walking in circles through the hardened…
READ ARTICLEI have read and heard that the American Dream is dead. With this pronouncement comes the suggestion that it was easier to achieve success in past generations than it is today. I find this premise both doubtful and disappointing. The notion of a uniquely “American” dream dates back to our nation’s founding, and was often…
READ ARTICLETime is more than just an opportunity to be productive. This understanding is a gift I brought home with me from my excursions on the northern plains. As a CEO I have tried to incorporate this wisdom into the world of work. As productivity improves, work should take less time, not more. Work should be…
READ ARTICLEI once helped the Oglala Sioux Tribe build a home in a reservation community near the Nebraska border. Our company donated the building materials and then shipped them to Pine Ridge. I flew to meet the truck and to help unload it, knowing the freight company contractually allowed four hours to accomplish this task. I…
READ ARTICLEIf you read a news report summarizing the challenges at Pine Ridge you might well conclude that the situation is overwhelming. According to the well-regarded nonprofit Re-Member: • The unemployment rate at Pine Ridge is 89 percent.• The poverty rate is 54 percent.• The high school dropout rate is over 70 percent.• And 85 percent…
READ ARTICLEIn an uncertain world filled with chaos, diversity, and strife, isolationism has its advocates. If I retreat, perhaps I can be safe and secure. But in an epoch defined by connectivity, isolation is a false haven. Isolationism doesn’t work when there is no ability to isolate. It takes fifteen hours for a human to travel…
READ ARTICLEI have a valued friend by the name of Gabrielli LaChiara. She is a healer who recovered from a potentially terminal cancer and now helps others do the same. Among her teachings is a simple yet transformative progres- sion of thought with the capacity to heal all the wounds of the world: Love is the…
READ ARTICLEConfronting our authentic feelings about a past injustice is an important early step toward healing, but for enduring change to manifest, our introspection must ultimately transform into action. Along the healing continuum a single question waits for us all: “Okay, now what?” This is the moment where you decide if you will make a move…
READ ARTICLEPain and trauma have been inextricably linked to the human experience. Setbacks and losses are universal. Everyone will be wounded. As a result, healing—the act of reconciliation and recovery—is perhaps the most important skill that humans can acquire. Yet where are the venues through which this critical capacity to recover is taught, cultivated, and nurtured?…
READ ARTICLEThe highest aspiration for mankind should be freedom for all. But freedom is elusive, tricky to define, and surprisingly hard to accept in all forms. The absence of subjugation. The power of self-determination. The state of being unrestricted. These are common descriptions of freedom’s lofty demands. But the pursuit of personal sovereignty comes with a…
READ ARTICLEI have been at Pine Ridge many times in late October. Halloween gatherings are organized in most communities across the reservation. Zombie-themed events are common and well attended, which always causes me to pause and reflect. Why are zombie movies and television series so popular? I find these types of shows exceptionally predictable. No matter…
READ ARTICLEFor centuries empires grew by amassing power into the center. “All roads lead to Rome,” as the ancient saying goes. Dogma, coercion, force, and ritual overtly and covertly combined to keep large groups in rhythmic lockstep. But time is a stubborn thing. Strategies that sustained empires in one era can become their downfall in the…
READ ARTICLEBelow is Whisper #22 from my latest book, 48 WHISPERS, which is a collection of photographs and personal meditations created across a decade of travel to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the surrounding northern plains. “The world did not become round only at the point when it was acceptable to say it was round.” —Jan…
READ ARTICLEBelow is Whisper #21 from my latest book, 48 WHISPERS, which is a collection of photographs and personal meditations created across a decade of travel to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the surrounding northern plains. There is no one single nation or tribe that has cornered the market on great people. Great people are abundant…
READ ARTICLEBelow is Whisper #20 from my latest book, 48 WHISPERS, which is a collection of photographs and personal meditations created across a decade of travel to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the surrounding northern plains. In my early days at Hancock Lumber we had sweatshirts with our logo on them that read “Our People Make…
READ ARTICLEBelow is Whisper #19 from my latest book, 48 WHISPERS, which is a collection of photographs and personal meditations created across a decade of travel to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the surrounding northern plains. I once attended a powwow in honor of Tamokoce Te’Hila at the Prairie Wind Casino. Billy Mills, as he is…
READ ARTICLEBelow is Whisper #18 from my latest book, 48 WHISPERS, which is a collection of photographs and personal meditations created across a decade of travel to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the surrounding northern plains. When I entered the world of business thirty years ago, “staying in your lane” was considered an expected practice for…
READ ARTICLEBelow is Whisper #17 from my latest book, 48 WHISPERS, which is a collection of photographs and personal meditations created across a decade of travel to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the surrounding northern plains. One morning in London, while doing research for my second book, I shared breakfast with a Colombian-born advertising executive, Jose…
READ ARTICLEBelow is Whisper #16 from my latest book, 48 WHISPERS, which is a collection of photographs and personal meditations created across a decade of travel to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the surrounding northern plains. As a young manager I often listened to evaluate the perspectives of others. But after living for a few years…
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