Friend of Simplicity - Rosa Say

Today’s Friend of Simplicity is Rosa Say who I have known for about 4 years and who lives in Hawaii – are we all jealous of that or what?

Rosa is a prolific writer and a passionate advocate of lifelong learning. I am sure you will enjoy hearing from Rosa and visiting her various links.

Trevor - Hi Rosa - Tell us about your career to date and where you are based.

Rosa - I live in Hawai‘i and primarily work there, but I am fortunate in being able to accept invitations to speak and teach elsewhere in the world too, fortunate in that I love my work and love to travel.

I also do quite a bit of virtual work. After three decades gaining my professional experience in the Hawai‘i hospitality business, I founded three different companies, one for coaching and consulting, and two for writing and publishing. All three are dedicated to the mission of the Managing with Aloha™ movement: I help managers and leaders create and maintain healthy workplace cultures by way of value alignment and achieving their full potential in those professions and personal behaviours. http://www.managingwithaloha.com/

Trevor - You always seem to be ahead of the game with internet technology. What excites you most about communicating through the internet/blogging/twitter etc?

Rosa - The learning is what excites me most, followed closely by the now global nature of how we can communicate and collaborate.

Technology gets our physical and geographical limits to disappear, a true godsend when like me, you live on the most remote land on the face of the earth, yet want to be connected with like-minded people and thought leaders wherever they might be.

Lifelong learning and the adoption of technology are choices we all can make, yet in my case I’ve come to consider them both my innate talents; they are strengths begging me to capitalize upon them as much as I can, and so I do: I believe that working on our strengths is the way we live within a sense of thankfulness while we serve others in our best way possible.

A huge fringe benefit for me is that I find both learning (of all kinds) and technology to be great fun!

Trevor - What is your latest project?

Rosa - My newest business creation is that third company just launched in January of this year, named Writing with Aloha. It is the product-creating arm of Ho‘ohana Publishing, and it takes the teaching and coaching services of Say Leadership Coaching and converts them into product packages. The goal is to scale what my MWA training and coaching delivers, and deliver it to a wider audience in forms which are much more affordable for them.

Trevor - What advice would you give to young people coming into the world of business in 2009?

Rosa - Understand how lucky you are right now and close your ears to any negativity you hear.

True that this may be a very painful time for many people, however there are incredible silver linings to the dark clouds! I find it very exciting that we are no longer able to rest on our laurels and must reinvent and newly create better business models, and young people today are in prime position to optimize those advantageous conditions. My advice to them is to focus on their innate talents and put them to work: We don’t employ people; we employ their strengths and harness their potential.

Trevor - Tell us about your writing Rosa and do you have any plans for more books?

Rosa - Yes I do! I have a manuscript in draft right now which focuses on a very specific concept within Managing with Aloha which I call our ‘language of intention.’

Where MWA had focused on management, my next book will take on what I believe to be the crucible challenge of leadership. I know I have kept my MWA readers waiting for this, however I don’t think I could have written it before now and have it be good enough, meaning useful enough; we don’t need another lofty impractical leadership book. As they say, “the world conspires” at times so things happen when they should.

Trevor - Do you have any plans to visit the UK?

Rosa - You can bet I do have those plans Trevor; I just can’t yet say exactly when that will be. I am hoping it will be within a year at the most. Perhaps a book signing when my next book is released?

Believe me, it is not just a wish, hope or dream; I fully intend to visit and stay for a good amount of time; the prospect has been a very compelling one for quite some time now.

As you know Trevor, one of my projects is the Joyful Jubilant Learning network of the Ho‘ohana Community, and I’ve long thought of the UK as the more central place to hold our first global convention because of the key players most involved. http://www.joyfuljubilantlearning.com/

Trevor - Where can people find out about the services you provide Rosa?

Rosa - I invite your readers to visit www.RosaSay.com for more about what I do. It includes an overview of all my work in the business community, and the site will always highlight my current projects. August of 2009 will be my 5th year writing on the web, and to celebrate, I have newly created www.HoohanaCommunity.com - it is already live for those who would like to take a peek before our August launch. Both sites offer links to my blog Talking Story. Thank you for your Aloha here Trevor, I sincerely appreciate being able to meet those in your Simplicity community.

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Don Henley magic

Question - Has there been a better, more versatile male voice than Don Henley in the last 30 years of Pop?

I am unashamedly biased but there just is no competition in my opinion. Here Don sings his classic "The End of the Innocence." This track is on "The Very Best of Don Henley" - a new Henley album and he sounds even more perfect 'live' than on the album - surely a sign of genius at work!

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More wisdom from Tony Benn

Regular readers of my Blog know I am a great fan of Tony Benn - now 84 years young. I managed to get hold of a copy of one of Tony's speeches called "The Use and Abuse of Religion."

This speech was at Oxford University in 2006. Tony had been a student at Oxford in his youth during which time he was elected as President of the Oxford Union.

I just wanted to share a few highlights that illustrate the wisdom of one of the greatest British politicians of the last 100 years.

University Sermon by the Rt Hon Tony Benn PC

The University Church of St Mary the Virgin on Sunday, 14 May 2006

"Adam Smith was the founder of one of the greatest religions of all; those who worship money. Archbishop Dow Jones, whom I’ve never met, works twenty-four hours a day on his averages. Dow Jones tells us every day on the business news how society is doing by measuring what is happened on Wall Street."

"When we heard that God told the President to go to war, and that man Moussaoui who was sentenced to life imprisonment last week in America for being involved in 9/11 had said “We are the soldier of God, you are the army of Satan”, you realise that the same language is used by both sides."

"I remember once when the Russians and the Americas had a space race, to see who could land on the moon first, the Russians landed a space vehicle on the moon. It was like a World War I tank, with caterpillar tracks and it went across the surface of the moon, and I had a letter from a constituent in Bristol that I have never forgotten. It said “Dear Tony, I see that the Russians have put a space vehicle on the moon. Is there any possibility of a better bus service in Bristol?” Now, you can laugh, but it was a very, very sensible question. With a fraction of the money that you spend on war you, everyone in Africa with Aids could get drugs and the United States could have a health service. When you have to make a moral judgement the scientist cannot help you in his capacity as a scientist."

"I read the other day that if everyone in the world had the same living standards as the Americans it would require the resources of 33 earths to do it; 33 times as much oil and food and water. That reinforced for me the idea that the human race are like survivors in a lifeboat, after a shipwreck. Imagine a little lifeboat with a few people in it with one loaf of bread for there are only three ways that you can distribute in those circumstances. You sell the bread so the rich gobble it up, you fight for it so the strong gobble it up, or you divide it up and share it."

"It is the motivation of moral teaching that encourages you to want to do it yourselves. These words appeared in the Charter of the United Nations, I heard them 61 years ago, I was on my way back as a pilot from the Middle East in a troop ship coming back to this great university to resume my studies and I heard the preamble to the Charter and it said “We the peoples of the United Nations” – it didn’t say we the coalition of the willing, or we the free world, or we the international community, “We peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war which twice in our lifetime has caused untold suffering to mankind”. That was the commitment that we made, and this generation has to discharge that commitment because, dare I say, there is no moral difference between the stealth bomber and the suicide bomber. Both kill innocent people for political reasons, and that I believe is in defiance of everything that was being taught by Jesus and the great religious leaders whom we have been celebrating in this wonderful University Church today."

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61 years later - Thank you Mr Bevan

I watched a BBC documentary this week about the founding of the National Health Service NHS in 1948.

It filled me with pride to hear about the fighting spirit of the great Welshman, Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health, in the great reforming Labour Government immediately after the Second World War. Mr Bevan had worked down the coal mines of Wales as had his Father before him. He was from working class stock and very proud of it.

Mr Bevan steadfastly refused to give up the battle to set up the NHS despite opposition from powerful lobbies like the medical profession. The Conservative Party under the leadership of Winston Churchill violently opposed the setting up of the NHS in the House of Commons. That tells me a lot about the Conservative Party philosophy which has not really changed of course since those days. Whilst they make the right political noises to capture votes I'm sure they would secretly love to privatise the entire NHS.

Mr Bevan famously said that no longer will wealth be an advantage nor poverty a disadvantage. He said that healthcare will be provided free of charge to all based on clinical need and not on the ability to pay.

These principles still apply today - 61 year later and I for one will fight to my dying day for those principles to remain intact.

Despite what cynics and scaremongerers might try and tell us it is possible to have a government funded universal heath care system and patient choice at the same time. Those people who can afford to pay for private healthcare in the UK have that choice (they have ALWAYS had that choice).

What the wealthiest people in Britain DO NOT HAVE is any more of a right to free NHS treatment than the poorest member of our society. Isn’t that wonderful?

Despite being a great advocate for the NHS I have also always acknowledged there are many problems in the NHS. It is far from perfect. I still however have a sense of great pride that in Britain we can say we have a free healthcare service for the most vulnerable members of our society and it is guaranteed regardless of wealth status.

Surely one way any nation can be judged is how it guarantees to look after its most vulnerable citizens regardless of their ability to pay.

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