How (2 page)

I soon realized, however, that the core of our efforts lay in helping our partners put out fires by responding to legal challenges that had already arisen. I began to believe that we could be of better service by helping them design and build fireproof buildings, to help them develop a new approach to getting their HOWs right and prevent these legal problems from arising in the first place. So we evolved as a company.

For a while, it often felt like we were selling vitamins to companies whose leaders did not realize they could get sick. Then a series of corporate scandals hit, and suddenly we found ourselves in the middle of a global discussion. The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) invited me to give their commencement speech, convinced that the power in HOW was the most practical message their graduating class could hear. The U.S. Federal Sentencing Commission asked me to testify about new ways of achieving higher standards of conduct and responsibility in business as they considered revisions to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The phone started ringing and the e-mail began to pour in from companies that realized there was an epidemic going on and they could catch it at any time. I was on TV, traveling the country, and speaking to corporate boards and employee groups of some of the biggest, most venerated companies in the world. LRN quadrupled in size.

Suddenly, it was practical to be principled. It was even fashionable. But I saw this as a double-edged sword. Sure, more people acting in a principled way, even if for the wrong reasons (to avoid prosecution, minimize liability, or build good PR), still meant more people acting principled, and that was a net good. However, I sensed that people lacked a deep understanding of
why
they should be principled, and more important than just being principled, why they should dedicate new energy and emphasis to how they pursue their goals and interests. From that basic notion, LRN has continued to change and expand its vision to help companies of all stripes and sizes the world over through new approaches to compliance, governance, and organizational culture. We now reach, work with, and help sustain “Do It Right,” winning cultures with more than 10 million people in hundreds of companies that do business in over 100 countries around the world. To thrive in and profit from the new conditions of the information age, both organizations and the individuals who work in them need to understand the power in HOW. That is what this book is about.

As I said, this is a HOW book, not a
how-to
book.
How-to
books offer step-by-step prescriptions for personal and business improvement:
Five Rules of This
,
Ten Practices for That
,
How to Get More of Whatever It Is You Want.
Follow all the rules exactly, these books promise, and the end goal—be it career success, losing weight, or becoming a millionaire—will be yours. Despite the well-meaning promise of the titles and the actionable advice—much of it useful—they offer, I believe that there is no single set of steps, habits, or actions that will provide either a shortcut or a clear and certain path to your goals. Life just isn’t that neat, tidy, or simple. A truly useful book must deliver something more—more lasting, more essential, more applicable to the full range of life. Instead of rules, steps, or an instruction manual, this book offers an approach—a framework and a way of seeing—to help you navigate the new global, hyperconnected world in which we suddenly find ourselves working. It offers something that will carry you beyond short-term rewards toward lasting success.

A new vision of HOW requires a new way of embracing why we get up every morning and go to work. I believe the inspiration to do so lives in the thought that there is a difference between doing something
so as
to succeed and doing something
and
achieving success. I am in the business of helping companies and their people do the right things in the right way. The mission of my company is to help others
and
we make a living so doing. We do not help others
so as
to make a living. The latter speaks to a journey of immediate gain and the former to a journey of significance, something of long-term value that makes not just money, but a difference. Significance lies in the ability to see one’s endeavors in terms of service to others, to be guided by a desire and ability to
connect
. In the vastly different conditions of our hypertransparent and hyperconnected world, I believe success can no longer be pursued directly, that it can best be achieved—and
only
achieved—through the pursuit of something larger and deeper. I believe that if you pursue significance—a goal larger than the bottom line—you should achieve success. How we manage this distinction between
and
and
so as
lies at the center of our ability to not only survive, but thrive in the new conditions of the world today. This book also seeks to help you discover this idea in everything you do.

Throughout this book, we explore a new lens through which to view the world, business, and human endeavor, a way of seeing that I have learned from my conversations with everyone from business thought leaders, scholars, CEOs, and corporate managers to professional cheerleaders, sports stars, and New York City street vendors. I have filtered these conversations through the challenges I face leading a growing company that must compete every day against those who also want to get ahead, deal with the pressures to make the numbers, take care of every customer, and strive to get better, and as I challenge myself to do the right thing even when it is the inconvenient or seemingly less profitable thing to do. Through anecdotes, case studies, cutting-edge research in a wide range of fields, personal experience, and interviews with a diverse group of businesspeople, experts, and everyday folk—some familiar, others completely unexpected—we will explore in this book HOW we think, HOW we behave, and HOW we govern ourselves to uncover the new HOWs that unlock and create value in the twenty-first century and beyond.

The people and companies that will rise to the top today and stay on top tomorrow, who will be rewarded, promoted, and celebrated, are those that get their HOWs right. The world has changed to make this idea more relevant than ever, and I believe it now represents the most powerful way to chart a course of enduring personal and organizational business achievement.

DOV SEIDMAN

Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, LRN, Inc.

April 2007

PROLOGUE

Making Waves

On October 15, 1981, in the stands of the sold-out Oakland Coliseum, Krazy George Henderson had a vision. It was the third game of the American League play-off series between the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees, and the A’s had lost the first two. Krazy George was a professional cheerleader, in the A’s employ for three years or so. No pom-pom shaking college rah-rah, George roved solo up and down the aisles of the stadium clad in cutoff shorts and a sweatshirt, a manic Robin Williams character with Albert Einstein hair, banging with abandon a small drum, inveigling the crowd, and leading cheers with an infectious intensity that had endeared him to fans throughout the Bay Area. Most shouts were familiar, like “
Here we go, Oakland, here we go!
” But this day was different. On this day, Krazy George imagined a gesture that would start in his section and sweep successively through the crowd in a giant, continuous wave of connected enthusiasm, a transformative event that later proved historical. October 15, 1981, is the day Krazy George Henderson invented the Wave.
¹

Everything has to start somewhere.

I had long been fascinated by the Wave, so I wanted to find Krazy George and ask him about the story of that first Wave. “The day I started it, I already knew what I wanted,” he told me. “I knew what was gonna happen, but nobody else in the stadium did.

“First thing, I hit my drum. That focuses everybody within three to four sections of me. It’s the secret to why I am successful. See, the drum shows energy and emotions; it shows I am personally involved with the fans. I move everywhere in the stadium (I am constantly moving), and I pound the drum. They see me sweating, they see the energy, they see that I love the game, and that I love the team. I act like a fan wants to act, and it releases something in them.

“So that day, I had to tell them what I envisioned. It’s so important to set the cheer up. If everybody doesn’t do it, it won’t go. You have to have almost total participation for it to go, and that’s the point. I pounded the drum and I started screaming, ‘
Here is what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna stand up and throw our hands in the air. I want to start with this section, and we’re gonna go to this section
,’ and I yelled down to the next section. ‘
I’m gonna start it and it’s gonna keep going
.’

“I knew it would die. I didn’t know how far it would go before it died, but I knew it would. No one had
ever
seen this before. So, I prepared them. I told them that when this thing died, I wanted all three sections to boo as loudly as they could. I couldn’t reach out to the whole stadium myself, but I thought as a group we might. Then I said, ‘
We’re gonna start on three, this section first; then you are gonna go, and get ready down there
.’ I yelled as loud as I could, and I knew what was gonna happen, and I started it, and the first section stood and threw their hands in the air . . . then the second section . . . the third . . . the fourth; it went about five sections and it just tailed off to nothing. People were looking at the game and they didn’t know what was happening. So it died.

“Right on cue, three sections just went ‘
Booo!
’ and I pounded my drum. I was screaming and waving my arms. They can’t hear
me
across the field, but they can hear my drum. They saw me flailing my arms and shaking my drumstick at them, and they got the idea. So, I started it a second time and it went about 11 sections—about a third of the way around—and it died behind home plate. Suddenly, the hugest ‘
Booooo!
’ you ever heard, maybe six, eight sections, came out. But it focused everybody, and they figured out what I wanted to do. So I said, ‘We’re gonna try it again.’ I didn’t say ‘try’; I said, ‘We’re
doing
it again,’ and I started it the third time.

“By the time I looked around, all three decks in the stadium were doing it, all in unison, throwing up their hands, a giant wave of human energy going around the stadium. It swept behind home plate. It kept going, and it got stronger and stronger. The people were screaming and yelling. It came around, went behind home plate and then all the way through the outfield, through the bleachers, and back to our section, and it just kept going. It swept right back, and it got even more powerful. Everybody was going crazy. Nobody had ever seen this before.

“The great left fielder for the A’s, Rickey Henderson, known as ‘The Man of Steal’ for his prowess running the bases, was coming up to bat at the time. He looked up and saw this thing going around and around the stadium, and he stepped out of the batter’s box and adjusted his gloves for about two minutes, watching this thing. He just stood there, looking at this thing, adjusting his batting gloves. I don’t know how many times it went around—four, five, six times—it was that powerful.

“After the Wave, the crowd was noticeably different, hyped up and involved in the game. They knew they’d helped out. They felt the energy. When I did the next cheer, the defense cheer or the clapping, it was
much
louder. That’s the thing I saw that day, and still see today after almost 25 years of leading the Wave, the added energy that it brings to the stadium or the arena or whatever venue I’m at. The fans start feeling that they are part of the game and they’re adding to it.”

The Wave is an extraordinary act. All those people, spread out over a vast stadium, with limited ability to connect or communicate, somehow come together in a giant cooperative act inspired by a common goal: to help the home team win. It defies language and culture, occurring with regularity throughout the world at Tower of Babel events as diverse as the Olympics and international soccer games (in fact, it’s often called the Mexican Wave or La Olá because of its first appearance on the international stage at the Mexico City World Cup Finals in 1986).
²
It transverses gender, income, and societal status. It is a pure expression of collective passion released.

When I started LRN Corporation in 1994, I thought it would be extraordinary if I could capture in the workplace something of the spirit of the Wave—that rich, cacophonous tapestry of human beings coming together to create that home court advantage. Was there some way to foment that kind of creative energy focused on our business goals?
What does it take to start a Wave?

If you consider the Wave as a process of human endeavor, you realize immediately that anyone can start one—an enthusiastic soccer mom, four drunken guys with jellyroll bellies and their bare chests painted Oakland green, or eight adolescents who idolize the team’s star player. You don’t have to be the owner of the stadium, the richest or most powerful person there, or even a paid professional like Krazy George. No one takes out their business card and says, “My title is the biggest; let the Wave start with me.” Anyone can start a Wave; it is a truly democratic act.

So, how do you do it? Let’s have some fun for a minute and break it down. Say, for instance, that you are sitting in the stands at a football game and the home team is down by a touchdown. You see your team huffing and puffing, and you are disappointed that your fellow fans seem lethargic and complacent. Suddenly, you have a vision, a vision to help your team win, to make them feel like they have a home field advantage. You imagine a certain esprit de corps, a massive wave of energy. But you are honest with yourself. You realize that you don’t own the stadium. The people there don’t owe you anything—they are free agents; they have other agendas. They are munching popcorn, eating hot dogs, slurping drinks, or cheering for the opposing team. They might be highly inconvenienced by your vision. The guy next to you may not feel like getting up; he might be thinking, “I’m mad as hell that our prima donna wide receiver wants to be traded.” So, what will it take?