RWL Newsletter #62
"We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep." - Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! It's homecoming weekend here - you could see the unusual amount of traffic starting to roll into little old Durham last night. I'm sure there are lots of things going on over on campus - I am staying away - not a big fan of crowds. Last Sunday we had quite a fog, but I went out on the Oyster River for a paddle anyway - far away from the crowds - and was able to snap this shot of a great white egret - which I am told is a fairly rare bird. I've found that when I open myself up to possibility, the world rarely fails to produce.
My daughter was assigned to read an excerpt from Walden this past week. I re-read the part she was assigned so we could talk about it together. Inspired by Thoreau (as always happens when I read him), I've put together three links that share the theme of shaking things up and opening up to other possibilities. A few years ago I included Walden in a course I called, "Leadership through the Great Books" that I used to teach to MHA grad students. There are so many themes in this book that are relevant to leadership - focus, not investing your effort in frivolous things, not being distracted, understanding what is important, work-life integration rather than work-life balance.
Read
What: from Walden, or a Life in the Woods, by Henry David Thoreau, chapter 2, Where I lived and What I lived for, pp. 62-74
http://www.eldritchpress.org/walden5.pdf
Why: If you've never read Walden, I would recommend this chapter. Then, if it moves you, go back and start from the beginning. My advice is to read it slowly, appreciate the prose, and take time to consider each of his assertions.
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."
Watch
What: Stop searching for your passion | Terri Trespicio | TEDxKC (11 minutes)
https://youtu.be/6MBaFL7sCb8
Why: I loved this quote: "Passion is not a job, a sport, or a hobby. It is the full force of your attention and energy that you give to whatever is right in front of you." Thoreau doesn't use the P-word in this context, but he is very against this idea that your passion is somewhere out there. It is about how you live the life you have. "To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour."
Listen
What: Lean Blog Podcast, Dean Gruner, MD on ThedaCare’s Lean Journey
http://www.leanblog.org/2017/08/podcast-286-dean-gruner-md-thedacares-lean-journey/
Why: In this interview, Graban talks to Gruner shortly after he has retired from ThedaCare, a health system that has become famous for its application of Lean. Despite many accolades, Gruner reflects on a point at which he and his senior leadership realized that they had lost their way with Lean and that it had just become a process that was being deployed in form, rather than substance. They had to go through a process of introspection and reinvention - a re-awakening. As Thoreau says, "Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep. Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering? They are not such poor calculators. If they had not been overcome with drowsiness they would have performed something."
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line by e-mail, or you can tweet to me at @bonicatalent .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
Have a great weekend coming up and do amazing things!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
Twitter: @bonicatalent
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau