09 October 2007

October- HFCN, Survivors, and health!


What does October have to do with Helping Friends, Domestic Violence, and Breast Cancer?
In October, our network-HFCN- is 6 years old. We are global, we are diverse. We honor knowing people from all walks professions, and experiences...Happy Anniversary-- and THANK YOU for hanging tough, our friends.

Miracles of Recovery happen in life, in work, and in health. Since the Helping Friends was created in 2001, we have provided aid for Tsunami Relief, Hurricane Katrina Relief, and helped our colleagues in the IT Industry through one of the more challenging times in our World History.

 
It takes caring, dedication, courage, and love to build a family, a work environment, a city, county, state, nation, and world.
Will we dare to wake up and talk about, unpleasant situations that might be avoided, if folks are trained to handle
them well, and prepared for the possibilities, to be more resourceful, when they are called upon to be resourceful.
My employer was one of many employers in the World Trade Center on September 11. It is about us being, and bringing our best selves to life every day. As a Global Representative of my industry, as a global Resolution Center manager for IT issues, we had spent many a weekend supporting environmental alarms in WTC2 before the towers fell on the morning of the 11th. It was not every weekend, but it was frequently enough that we knew the people, we had created the business plans that allowed us to help others in a disaster-- well enough to recover quickly, but how much better could be be, if we were not so busy on our lives before September 11 with our day to day work, that we did not plan our life work to say, or do, or connect to one another.

Most of the alarms we responded prior to September 11 were environmental monitoring-- basic, and basically boring, threshold environmental issues, met to keep the building and it's infrastructure working well.. some were false, and besides, it did not take more than 4 hours at a time on the weekend to validate the issues and trigger the business continuity issues, and resolve the problems..

As a duty manager, it was a real delight to encounter people like my friend Dave-- a great System Admin who practiced good judgment in all times.. You knew that whenever there was an alarm, and D~ was your partner, things were going to be manageable. Or B~, who understood and had created the relationship mapping of every critical system and a back up so that if something went down, he probably had a back up plan.. Or Iola, who was the most magnificent human database of knowledge -- she had been around the company for years and had a great singing voice, and could solve problems in this company through her connections to... everyone-- it wasn't superficial, this woman genuinely remembered the thousands of people she supported, she really knew and cared about people!

What a difference a month makes. After the towers, our sense of security, our sense of well being, and our hearts fell, we would face a period of devastating reconstruction ourselves. October 2001, one month after September 11 and the destruction of the World Trade Center Buildings. We knew the finances were there, the announcement of reduction of our workforce (layoffs) were unavoidable.

We knew that regardless of how affective we were on our jobs, the company would have to contain costs, and that there were forces outside our control at work, and learning the humility of accepting that reality with whatever the cards held, was all our jobs.. We practiced becoming stoic and tried to visualize how we would handle the news- positive or negative. We knew that some would be affected by the loss of jobs, others will have to work harder, and many people we worked with and enjoyed might be gone. That was a bummer for a team that fairly well appreciated and had a passion for what we did.

And so it was, the week before Halloween, I found myself trying to find the grace to fulfill my duty as a people manager in a time where this type of notice feels like an obscene amount of disruption to people's lives. This is my only trip from Colorado back to California that was marked with a very silent vigilance. People were very human then.. but the ones that I will remember forever, found a way to put aside for the moment, their own pain, to really make a difference for others.. And to you, we celebrate, we appreciate, and we hope to cultivate and inspire this courage and strength of character to ask the questions, prepare the answers, and respond to people as human beings, and noble human resources.If you looked at the Reduction in Force activities as necessary business numbers of people was filed under 'necessary business releveling', you might be able to do part of your duty, but the human side still matters. If you were one of those people wondering if they were going to lose their job and possibly, their spouse, to military duty, this issue became delicate, poignant, and bitter. I am proud of those people I worked with, and still in touch with many of them today, not because we have to, but because we choose to stay in touch.. We enjoy that feeling of knowing we can make a difference, in good days and in bad, if we choose to be willing and ready to act on those opportunities for good!We are not heroes for living our lives well, doing our job, or fulfilling our dharma, our deliverables, and our data justifications.. We are on this earth for a short while. Let us find the appreciation for one another, to not be so busy that we miss the opportunity and the grace to make the most of it. Not because life's fleeting, because it's delicious, beautiful and our connection to one another is what life is about.

That is my mantra. Try to find the optimism in this story. People matter way more than the bad news we must deliver.. The Helping Friends Career Network was founded as a way to help people to healthier living. I do this as a labor of love, and here is where the events of October are so special to me. They are special because each of our celebrations in the autumn have a bunch of friendly memories, faces, and uncommon grace and joy in staying connected! The whole issue of office politics matters a whole lot less when you think of what could be instead.
  • October is the month the Helping Friends Career Network came to be-- not because we were so nice, but because we worked with people who inspired us to be better people and bring our best selves.
  • October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and we are proud to have helped numerous survivors of cancer in various stages of recovery, remission, or reconstruction.
Then comes the topic near and dear to my heart, and that is caring about people enough to face them with integrity in good times and in bad. I have my life today, because of that courage and integrity of others, not to shy away from the difficult topics of violence. As a survivor, I appreciate people in business, in service, in healthcare, with the nerves of steel and courage of diamonds to coach people through these difficult life situations. I never dreamed I would face, much less survive a violent criminal hostage situation. Sometimes it takes the courage to cut through the politics to talk about the discomfort before the real healing can begin. Everybody hurts -- sometimes.. We have immense power to offer comfort.. it is in being able to reach out of ourselves, for that day, that moment, to make a difference, unafraid of anything but managing what's in the moment... that matters.
LINKEDIN2HELPING FRIENDS
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