"Hello, do you have a minute?"

"Hello, do you have a minute?" asked a blonde-haired girl wearing worn jeans and an oversized blue T-shirt that read "Planned Parenthood".  She was standing underneath an awning to avoid the persistent drizzle that accented the depressing tone of an overcast day, and judging by the time and a guess at her age, I figured she had probably been standing there for a few hours since she out of her daytime summer activity.  The clipboard under her arm and a weary but determined smile made it clear what her mission was for the day.

Me?  I was just trying to get away from a long day at the office to the subway train that would ship me back to my comfortable suburban home, where a delicious leftover dinner was only a few microwave minutes away.  Stopping to listen to a fundraising pitch for a charity I've seen around since middle school was far from the top of my priorities.  I could tell from the uninterrupted, preoccupied footsteps of the people in front of me that they felt the same way.  Poor girl.  I hope someone else will give her some attention.

But something gave me pause as my eyes connected with hers, negotiating whether I would at least stop and hear her out before making up a meager excuse to leave my wallet safely untouched in the back of my pants.  Maybe, it was the fact that I just saw a Berklee student toss a cigarette stump into a roadside puddle, and I felt guilty for doing nothing to rectify that situation.  Maybe it was the fact that "leadership" and "public good" have been swirling inside my brain since I agreed to start my first managerial position.  Whatever the cause, I stopped and turned to face her directly.

"Hello," I opened, "What brings you out here today?"

A glimmer of hope lit up in the girl's eyes.  "I'm fundraising and trying to spread some awareness.  Have you heard of Planned Parenthood?"

"Yes," I replied easily, "I'm familiar with the organization.  And unfortunately I can't help you with your goal tonight."

Abruptly, and without another word, I turned back toward the MBTA station and continued my commute home, puzzled by my own decision to engage in a conversation that I knew would go nowhere.

So... why did you stop?  I don't know.


Well, if you stopped, why didn't you at least give her something?  How much was I supposed give her?  $5?  $10?  And what if I saw one of her cohorts a block apart and am solicited again?  Where does it end?


...  Is that really a valid excuse?  Why is it an excuse?  Why do I have to give away my money in the first place?  To a charity that I have no use for?  To a person who could just be wearing a charity's shirt just to scam people, much like the man and woman who camp outside the Hynes Convention Center station and tell the same sob story to passerby about "needing to get home on the T" or "my home burned down", begging for money?

What about that comment you made today about giving aid and sympathy to those who are less fortunate? ... But still, can I afford to give money to every single charity fundraiser I come across?  Even if it's just $5?  Or even $1?  And what would that even do or accomplish?

At this point, I realized that I was blocking traffic inside Hynes station, standing just a few steps away from the gate I had passed through with a swipe of my Charlie Card.  I hurried down the stairs, hoping that I would just forget the nagging feeling that I should go back up to street-level and give something to the girl.

As the train door closed behind me, shutting off any chance of contributing something to Planned Parenthood through the young fundraiser, I mentally projected the effect of a small donation by a large group of people.  If everyone in the top 10% of U.S. income earners donated just $5 to a single charity, that charity would receive $75 million instantly, a substantial amount for any nonprofit organization.  How many lives would that impact?  It's hard to say, but I imagined the impact would be greater than the top 10% each donating nothing.

Still, there was nothing novel about the call for a small effort from each member of a large group.  I'd heard the argument, the plea many times before.

What did strike me, as I reflected on what I told myself I want to accomplish later in life, is that Planned Parenthood exists today because there are people behind it who work to push society toward a better world for women, parents and their family and friends.  A better world.  Isn't that what I want?  Isn't "a better world" what I dream of building?  And if so, will I ever be in a position where I need to ask strangers to spare a few dollars on their way home from work, to support the mission I champion?

I'd had enough of my own rationalizations, which I realized were futile and ultimately empty.  Even if I'm not in the 10%, giving $10 today to support a worthwhile cause would not force me into bankruptcy.  So I followed through with that small effort by logging on to plannedparenthood.org and supplying my billing information, hoping in the back of my mind that one day someone will do the same for me.

So, to the blond-haired girl who stood near the corner of Boylston & Mass Ave at 6:45 PM this dreary Wednesday evening, thank you for reminding me of both Golden Rules and for clarifying my path forward.  Perhaps together in spirit, we can make the Pareto improvements that I try and want to associate with myself.

Customer-focused? Prove It

One of the major points that The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan continuously makes is that everything a leader does and doesn't do is communicating to those around him or her.  The order in which the leader completes his tasks and schedules his meetings also speaks volumes about priorities and interests.  With that in mind, I started thinking more about one of the phrases that stick out in my mind as an important philosophy from GSC's president: "student-focused" (a.k.a. "customer-focused").

Bradt, Check and Pedraza give a very thoughtful and poignant example of how easy it is to say what sounds good and then act in a completely different manner.  Basically, the story focuses on a new CEO's plan to show up on day 1 and then immediately launch internal committees to tackle priorities.  When the CEO was asked how his actions would speak to his espoused goal of becoming more customer-focused, the CEO realized that his actions were giving the wrong message.  After reconsidering, the CEO decided to meet with key customers to understand their delights and disappointments with the company.

While it may seem like a cop-out to emulate this tactic, I think it holds a lot of water in my entry into a technology leadership role that has responsibility for providing technology services that directly impact customers, or students as the case is at GSC.  Having no direct experience as an online learner or instructional designer in the higher education industry, I have a lot of catching up to do.

So, for me personally, I plan to register for one of GSC's online leadership classes at the earliest opportunity when I start my new job, and I will take time to speak with students who are served at every single one of GSC's campuses.  I will also plan to talk to students studying at competing institutions in NH, such as UNH, KSC PSU and SNHU.

I'll close this post with a slightly modified quote (borrowed with thanks to Railsfactory) from Mahatma Gandhi that I feel helps align me with the president's goal of becoming more student-focused.

A [student] is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work - he is the purpose of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to serve him.

What's an Appropriate Opening Address?

In a few days I will have the opportunity to address all of my staff for the very first time.  None of them have any significant history with me, and many (if not all) of them have significantly more years of work experience than me.  So, what am I supposed to say, without knowing any of them and without having a good understanding of the situation at my new organization?

The opportunity to make a first impression led me down the road of taking a deeper look at why I was brought on board.  How am I expected to add value to the organization?  Fortunately, my new boss was kind enough to remind me of my key areas of responsibility, which includes educational technology, information technology and business intelligence (a.k.a. institutional research).  For each area, my job is to understand, develop and communicate my boss's (and his boss's) vision to my staff and then help them take steps to realize that vision together.  The understanding, developing and communicating of a vision will be pretty easy, since I can do that mostly on my own.  The real challenge will be how to collaborate with my staff to actually execute a plan to achieve that vision.

In order to collaborate, I feel like I must have the respect of my staff.  And herein lies the real problem on my mind:  What can I say that will not make me look like an arrogant, self-absorbed ass?  What can I say that will still be believable and exciting to people I've never worked with before?

I could talk about my past experience, but that would seem self-absorbed.  I could talk about the vision, but I don't really know what that is yet.  I guess all I'm left with is talking about my philosophy and expectations, with an emphasis on my own eagerness to learn from everyone and a concession that I am not and will never be perfect.  As for adding value to the organization and my staff, the proof will be in my actions, not in my words.