Earl Bakken, electrical engineer, pacemaker inventor, and founder of Medtronic is an interesting guy. He thinks faith heals. At least that's how I understood what he told me a few years ago in the conference room of the hospital he founded on the Big Island of Hawaii.
North Hawaii Community Hospital is beautifully situated in Waimea. It is the highest tech-highest touch healing center I've ever visited. It even has a director of holistic services who oversees a program that includes reiki, prayer blanket ministry, pet therapy, aromatherapy, and guided imagery. Their vision is to treat the whole individual through a team approach to patient-centered care.
But, it was the faith thing that caught my attention. So, I asked him, as an engineer who's company's products have saved thousands of lives, what does faith have to do with it. He responded, it's the person's faith that brings about healing, the technology alone is insufficient. In a document entitled The Healing Environment in Blended Medicine at North Hawaii Community Hospital, he writes: "We know the importance of the intangible, of faith..."
My favorite definition of faith is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith and vision are inextricably linked; and are sorely needed in times of stress and uncertainty. People who have faith don't usually focus on the way things are; they focus on what can be. They imagine it, describe it, believe in it.
Faith holds the power of transformation. It means we stop talking about what we don't have and spend time talking about what could be. As Jim Lord, author of What Kind of World Do You Want writes: “It takes courage to break from our routines and bring our ideals, hopes, and dreams out into the open; to make them legitimate topics of conversation; to shift our sense of what is and what is possible by changing the way we talk about it. It takes courage to reclaim our power to change the world.”
As with hope, faith is contagious. Albert Schweitzer said, “I am convinced that far more idealistic aspiration exists than is ever evident. Just as the rivers we see are much less numerous than the underground streams, so the idealism that is visible is minor compared to what men and women carry in their hearts, unreleased or scarcely released. Mankind is waiting and longing for those who can accomplish the task of untying what is knotted and bringing the underground waters to the surface.”
Whether we are religious or not, faith plays a key role in leadership. Whether as a nonprofit executive or a member of a board, championing the ideals of our organization's cause, seeing the world as we imagine it can be, and inspiring others to follow is our responsibility.
So, let's keep the faith.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Hope
In challenging times, hope often fades as it is consumed by the angst and worry that pervades the world.
One of the people I most admire is Dr. Bill Arnold--even though we haven't spoken in years. He taught me a lot just by being who he is. By profession, he is a rheumatologist who cares mostly for older adults.
Fifteen years ago, Bill was the perfect chair for a fundraising campaign that was foisted upon me as a new chief development officer for a new bioethics center at a major healthcare system. Not long after I arrived at the Center, I was told I had to launch a campaign to honor the outgoing CEO of the healthcare system who had been there for decades. We had no prospects, no database, not even any names in a file. But, someone told me to talk with Bill. That was the start of a surprisingly gratifying relationship--and successful campaign.
Bill grew up on the south side of Chicago, was a good Catholic and an accomplished figure skater. Though he appeared to be a buttoned down professional--and served as president of the medical staff, he loved the Stones and would quote from their lyrics. As I came to know him, I realized how caring and hopeful he was as a person. And that rubbed off on me. When he talked about his profession and the older adults he cared for, he'd purposefully misquote a Biblical text: "Now abide faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is hope."
Bill often spoke of the powerful healing quality of hope. Hope uplifts and energizes. Hope transforms people. When you encounter hopeful people you feel better.
When I asked Bill to chair the campaign, he didn't hesitate. He offered advice, agreed to provide introductions, and gave me several names to pursue. By the end of our first conversation, his positive energy gave me hope that I might actually succeed. As alluded above, we did succeed. Within less than a year, we had achieved our goal and had nearly 5,000 names in our files--10,000 by the next year. At the celebration, we presented Bill with a plaque from which we hung gold gilded (well, it looked like gold) skates--with an inscription: "You can't always get what you want... but you get what you need."
Bill's hope was the fuel of success. It's amazing how infectious hope can be. The more we talked about the vision, the possibilities, and the impact, the more people came on board.
When people are hopeful they are more creative, more visionary, more collaborative... more pleasant. As nonprofit leaders today, we have an opportunity to be messengers of hope. We have a choice--maybe an obligation--to focus our attention, our thoughts, and our words on the possibilities not just the problems.
Strong leaders are visionaries who see beyond the desert to the fertile valley. They don't indulge in the troubles, difficulties, and setbacks. They find ways leap the gap, to climb the mountain, to trek through the wilderness to the hope of the future.
We can be hope-whisperers... better yet, roarers. It's one of the best organization building and fundraising tools we have.
One of the people I most admire is Dr. Bill Arnold--even though we haven't spoken in years. He taught me a lot just by being who he is. By profession, he is a rheumatologist who cares mostly for older adults.
Fifteen years ago, Bill was the perfect chair for a fundraising campaign that was foisted upon me as a new chief development officer for a new bioethics center at a major healthcare system. Not long after I arrived at the Center, I was told I had to launch a campaign to honor the outgoing CEO of the healthcare system who had been there for decades. We had no prospects, no database, not even any names in a file. But, someone told me to talk with Bill. That was the start of a surprisingly gratifying relationship--and successful campaign.
Bill grew up on the south side of Chicago, was a good Catholic and an accomplished figure skater. Though he appeared to be a buttoned down professional--and served as president of the medical staff, he loved the Stones and would quote from their lyrics. As I came to know him, I realized how caring and hopeful he was as a person. And that rubbed off on me. When he talked about his profession and the older adults he cared for, he'd purposefully misquote a Biblical text: "Now abide faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is hope."
Bill often spoke of the powerful healing quality of hope. Hope uplifts and energizes. Hope transforms people. When you encounter hopeful people you feel better.
When I asked Bill to chair the campaign, he didn't hesitate. He offered advice, agreed to provide introductions, and gave me several names to pursue. By the end of our first conversation, his positive energy gave me hope that I might actually succeed. As alluded above, we did succeed. Within less than a year, we had achieved our goal and had nearly 5,000 names in our files--10,000 by the next year. At the celebration, we presented Bill with a plaque from which we hung gold gilded (well, it looked like gold) skates--with an inscription: "You can't always get what you want... but you get what you need."
Bill's hope was the fuel of success. It's amazing how infectious hope can be. The more we talked about the vision, the possibilities, and the impact, the more people came on board.
When people are hopeful they are more creative, more visionary, more collaborative... more pleasant. As nonprofit leaders today, we have an opportunity to be messengers of hope. We have a choice--maybe an obligation--to focus our attention, our thoughts, and our words on the possibilities not just the problems.
Strong leaders are visionaries who see beyond the desert to the fertile valley. They don't indulge in the troubles, difficulties, and setbacks. They find ways leap the gap, to climb the mountain, to trek through the wilderness to the hope of the future.
We can be hope-whisperers... better yet, roarers. It's one of the best organization building and fundraising tools we have.
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