Living in More Than One World

Gordon Pitts of The Globe and Mail in Toronto has a fascinating Q&A today, Why Joseph Rotman hates the ‘do-gooder’ label,  with businessman/philanthropist/volunteer/educator Joseph Rotman, who seems to embody the idea of living in more than one world. The Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto is named after him. He is highly educated himself and recognizes the value of education not just to individuals, but to all of society. One theme I took away from the interview was that working with and strengthening nonprofit organizations and the arts was in everyone’s interest. They are part of the pillars of making a better life for everyone in a community, or an entire country. Rather than focus so much on shareholder value in business education and running corporations, he says we should use a broader view that takes into account a wider set of stakeholders. “You are part of a total system,” Rotman says, “and, as a corporation and business leader, you have a responsibility to participate in all aspects, which is why I do my community work, why I do my public policy work. I am lucky enough to afford to do it and love doing it.” He sees the arts and the creativity that underpins it as a crucial part of life that should be appreciated on the same level as business, science and technology and other endeavors. The interview is relatively brief, but gives a nice overview of his life, the decisions he’s made about his career and education and how he’s gotten to where he is at age 74. Although he’s well past traditional retirement age, he is doing work and putting his personal fortune to use to benefit as many people as possible. I think it’s significant that the tagline for the Rotman School is “a new way to think.”

Ira Jackson, the dean of Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at the Claremont Graduate University, has written The View From Drucker: Drucker Apps, in the May 23 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, about an innovative regular feature on the Drucker Institute website. Twice a month, since January 29 of this year, the Institute takes a topic and includes information on various facets from Peter Drucker, in the form of excerpts from relevant passages of his books, material from the voluminous online Drucker Archives and videos or audio files featuring Drucker or outside experts. There is also the full text related to the topic from The Drucker Difference columns on BusinessWeek.com by Rick Wartzman, the director of the Drucker Institute. You can subscribe, or access Drucker Apps from the website. “Each bi-weekly App,” Jackson writes, “is designed to be timely and play off something in the recent news.”  He describes the May 9 feature on volunteering, which has eight different features, including a short Drucker video, and the text of a speech Drucker gave to the Economic Club of Washington in 1991. The Drucker Apps for May 23 is about finding and keeping jobs. The ten features — one section is intriguingly headed “Help Wanted” (if you help yourself first)” – include the full text of a 1957 speech Drucker gave to the Eleventh International Management Congress in Paris, “The Problems of Maintaining Continuous and Full Employment.” There is also a video and book excerpt from William Cohen, president of the Institute of Leader Arts, and a former PhD student of Peter Drucker.  A final note: there is a Q&A with Rick Wartzman about The Drucker Institute and The Drucker Societies in my forthcoming book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life.

CNBC has an interesting feature on rethinking the work you do, balancing the possible benefits of change with practicalities.

One of the main concepts articulated by Peter Drucker to me in an interview in 2005 is that by maintaining diverse activities, interests and personal relationships, you have a cushion when life deals you a setback. As I was completing my book, that’s just what happened to me, when I was laid off by USA TODAY in December, after working there for 21 years. Had I not been working on the book, and preparing for its publication this coming August, the setback could have been a lot worse.

Many more of us will be in a similar position in the next couple of years, and job-hunting and resume writing is only part of what’s going to be needed to maintain a sense of self, purpose, mission and goals. Whether or not a new, desirable job is around the corner, some activities may help people in these situations. Among them are personal reinvention, volunteering, tutoring, looking into becoming a social entrepreneur (or working with existing social entrepreneurs) and sharing your talents (such as a lawyer doing pro bono work). One of the things underpinning this is the ability and willingness to engage in regular, honest self-reflection.

Many religious institutions need volunteers, especially in teaching, and you don’t have to be an experienced teacher to qualify. Another area in the book discusses parallel careers, which in my case, for the past 13 years, has been teaching. It’s been another lifesaver for me. What can you offer to the world, whether or not you have a fulltime job? Can you help other people who are in the same situation? One of the things I learned from Drucker is that you should focus on what you can do, rather than what you can’t do. This is important as we try to maintain a sense of self-respect, self-esteem and personal/professional identity. And it’s not easy; I still tend to refer to USA TODAY in conversation as “We…” Not many people have 100% job security. What may be required of all of us is to rethink our lives to reimagine what is possible, inside and outside of the work world. How many worlds are you living in, and how many more could you enter?