Transcriber: Nadezhda Hristova Reviewer: Camille Martínez
Please welcome to the stage Laura Asiala.
It's August 2009,
and I'm sitting in a conference room of a global manufacturing company
about two-and-a-half hours south of here.
I'm talking to my vicepresident and the CEO for whom we both work.
We're trying to figure out
how we can better serve people in underserved communities.
But not through charity.
What we're trying to figure out
is how we can make the benefits of our technology
affordable and accessible
to the people at the base of the economic pyramid -
those four billion people in the world
who live on less than two dollars and fifty cents per day.
But there is a problem.
From that conference room we cannot possibly begin to see
the challenges and realities of people in sub-Saharan Africa,
the streets of Southeast Asia, or rural Latin America.
"I wonder if we could gain insight into those markets
through service first,"
I said, thinking out loud.
"What if we put employees into those markets,
not to sell anything right away per se,
but to gain some insight through service by meeting the people where they are
and offering the community some level of service?"
Our CEO whirled in her chair,
pointed a sharply polished index finger at me,
and said, "I want that!"
Which should be a very good piece of advice to all of you,
never to bounce an idea off of your boss's boss
without any idea on how you're going to deliver on it.
Fortunately, we found a way.
Working through an organization now known as PYXERA Global,
we launched one of the first global corporal pro bono programs.
We placed employees into underserved markets
around the world
to work with nonprofits and social enterprises.
In this first cohort, we sent ten people to South India for a month
at corporate expense
to work with social enterprises and nonprofit organizations
in order to improve manufacturing capacity,
expand sales and marketing channels,
and develop standards for renewable energy and low-income housing.
In that first cohort,
one of the teams worked with Sustaintech,
which was a manufacturer of clean cookstoves
that were developed to be safe and efficient.
This work was really, really important,
because what most people don't understand
is that one of the leading causes of premature death and disease
in emerging and developing countries
is actually caused by the smoke and emissions
that come from traditional cooking fires or traditional cookstoves.
In fact, in these communities,
professional cooks rarely live past the age of 40,
because they're so subjected to this level of air pollution.
So the work that Sustaintech was doing was very important.
Not only were the stoves designed to burn cleanly and efficiently,
which would make them more economical,
but because they didn't give off the same level of smoke and emissions,
they would be much healthier for the cooks.
Unfortunately, they were suffering from an issue in their manufacturing,
that meant the stoves had issues with durability.
And this specific issue was really preventing sales
and widespread adoption for the stoves.
So, in that first team that we put together,
we put together people on the team
that had experience in manufacturing, quality control
and straight from the factory room shop floor.
If they didn't know the solution when they left,
they barely understood the problem.
They started by listening.
And they listened deeply to the manufacturer
and to the organization,
as well as to the cooks and the prospective customers
that could use the stoves.
Working with and learning from people on the ground,
they ultimately identified
that there was a welding issue in the manufacturing process.
Unfortunately, the small team that we had put together
didn't have the expertise to solve that welding issue;
but what they did have was vast expertise behind them
in the company that had sent them.
So they linked in to their professional network,
sending notes and messages
back to their friends and their colleagues at home,
looking for ideas and solutions.
As the world turned, and it became night in India,
people on the other side of the world woke up to problems at Sustaintech.
Over lunches and breaks, they brainstormed solutions
and sent them back to the people on the ground in India.
Continuing to learn and adjust,
they ultimately ended up with a combination of solutions
that solved that problem.
And the team left Sustaintech
not only with a solution to that particular quality problem
but also with an approach
on how they might solve future quality problems.
What was also really interesting about this
is that we never named a lead on that team,
and at every point, someone came forward
from a specific talent or area of experience or expertise
to lead at different points in the project,
depending on where the project was and what the project needed.
Today, Sustaintech is a thriving social enterprise.
It has grown by 30% per year,
and the stoves have been widely adopted
and used in over 400 communities across the state of Tamil Nadu.
This idea of giving back to a community
is actually not a new idea in terms of corporate citizenship.
The best companies have been doing that for a really, really long time.
But what was new was the idea of using service
to gain insight into a market
that could then be better shared and better served
through the business through a shared value approach.
Immersing yourself in service to gain insight
in a completely foreign environment
really sets a new framework
for what it means to be a good global citizen,
whether you're doing that at your own home,
the state and national level, or abroad.
And it takes real courage.
That's what we've been talking about all day here today:
citizenship, community, courage, contribution.
We've gotten some really great ideas on how we might do that.
I think the Sustaintech team also provides us with some additional clues
on some of the habits and practices
that make people most effective global citizens.
They are:
to listen, learn, link, leave, and lead.
Did you get that?
Five L's: listen, learn, link, leave, and lead.
Listen first.
The great philosopher Epictetus observed
that we have two ears and one mouth,
that we might, "... listen twice as much as we speak."
He's still right.
So was Stephen Covey,
when he observed that one of the habits of highly effective people
is to seek first to understand
and then be understood.
This requires that you be present, get local,
and go with a curious, open mind.
Ask questions, listen deeply,
and understand that your way might not be the only way,
and probably isn't the right way.
By all means, action will be required.
And that's why you have to listen first.
Bring something to the party -
enthusiasm, energy, expertise, resources, advocacy.
But don't bring your answers until you understand the questions.
Secondly, learn and adjust.
My friend Richard Crispin states this beautifully, when he says,
"Don't fall in love with your solution,
until you've fallen in love with your problem."
When you listen,
you're going to gain some insight and then use action to continue to learn;
try some things, keep what works, change the rest.
Remember what Clayton Christensen
pointed out in his brilliant book, "The Innovator's Dilemma" -
when you start something new,
you can rest assured it will be at least 50% wrong.
So don't be surprised or stopped by the surprises.
Listen, learn, adjust, repeat.
Link together.
The word "citizen" comes from the same word as the word for cities -
people working together in the system of a city.
One of the most important things to understand as a global citizen
is that you operate within a system,
whether that system is clear to you or not.
Once you understand
that every interaction takes place within a complex ecosystem,
you know that solving problems can never be as simple as an if-then.
It's always going to be
more like multivariable calculus than simple arithmetic.
Which why it's all the more important
to nurture a diverse network of family, friends, and allies.
Mutually meaningful partnership is also absolutely crucial.
There is no single individual, no single organization,
not even a single sector,
that can solve our most difficult problems alone.
We all need allies.
The hierarchical nature that emerges from relationships
that are characterized by donor-beneficiary or expert-novices,
can really throw a partnership off kilter.
As adults, we all have something to learn,
and we all have something to teach.
Partnerships work best when everyone recognizes
that each party brings something of value,
and people are not only allowed and encouraged
but held responsible to deliver from their set of expertise and gifts.
Leave.
Get better.
Were you surprised that leaving is one of the critical success factors?
Not to be confused with "leave because it got too difficult,"
or otherwise giving up.
But there will always be endings.
The trick is to get them right.
How will you ensure that a positive net impact will be left behind you?
This is the essence of sustainability:
to build competence, and capability, and confidence
that will outlast far beyond what you can drive personally.
Finally, lead. And be lead.
The worst leaders always have to be in charge.
That's not leadership.
That's narcissism.
(Laughter)
The best leaders create an environment
in which everyone can lead from their area of strength.
Leadership is exhausting.
It's so much better to take turns,
which is exactly what Arrien pointed out
in his beautiful essay, "Lessons from Geese,"
"When the lead goose gets tired, it falls back in formation
and another goose flies to the lead point position."
The lesson here is that it pays to share the difficult tasks of leadership.
Because just like with geese,
we are interdependent on each other for our skills and our capabilities,
and our unique arrangements of gifts, talents, and resources.
Back in that conference room in Midland, Michigan,
we started with the idea that by being good citizens,
we could gain insight through service.
Today, dozens of multinational companies now have global pro bono programs,
placing employees into underserved communities
and using their services
to build that kind of competence and capability in communities.
Next month, I am very excited
that the next generation of that kind of corporate service will be launched,
when the Dow Chemical Company, PIMCO,
and PricewaterhouseCoopers actually join forces together
to provide pro bono services in Ghana
to address specific public health challenges
in association with USAID's Global Health Fellows Program II.
They'll be working on
the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
and specifically, those goals around food and nutrition security,
clean water and sanitation, and health system strengthening.
As they lead, we'll encourage them
to listen, learn, link, prepare to leave,
all while being good leaders and followers.
But as I reflect on this, I'm thinking,
those goals aren't only appropriate for overseas.
We are all too familiar in the state of Michigan
that we also have challenges with water in Flint,
with food and nutrition security in the inner-city food deserts in Detroit,
and with accessible, affordable health care
in the most rural areas of our state.
These are opportunities for global citizens
and courageous citizens everywhere.
There are borders of all kinds to cross,
and ample opportunities for us to listen, learn, link, lead,
and leave the world a bit better than when we found it.
Thank you.
(Applause)