Mr. Rogers: A Post-Modern Prophet

When I was an early teen (a bit above the target audience), I found him on the PBS channel once we purchased one of those old UHF converters.  He was woefully nerdy, signing painfully un-cool songs, and doing puppet shows I could have done in my basement – and I found myself strangely captivated. 

I found Mr. Rogers to be “unique” to anyone I had known, and it’s taken me years to understand why.  Mr. Rogers character came home from his daily occupation (whatever it was) and the first thing he did was remove his “business” motif – first his suit jacket for a sweater and then his dress shoes for some sneakers.  He was an adult who became “real” as soon as he entered the extended home of my TV screen.  He asked questions rather than giving answers.  He spoke life lessons in the kingdom of make-believe.  And chief among his message was the desire to be engaged in community – inviting me to be a neighbor.

I know now that Mr. Rogers was trained to be a Presbyterian minister – and though he was firmly a member of the “builder” or “greatest” generation, he was paving some post-modern paradigms whether he knew it or not.  Being a neighbor is becoming a lost art among many of us today.  I have to admit – I don’t know many people who live on my street.  I know the crab grass in my front yard must be an object of distain to those who live on both sides of me and I know that the guy who lives behind me has a stainless steel grill – but that’s about the extent. 

Harry Truman, who lived in my hometown when I was growing up, noticed a negative phenomenon occurring as he made his daily walks – as soon as a neighbor got central air conditioning, they disappeared.  This home-cooling invention I give praise for every summer here in Missouri also has a downside – it began the long cocooning process that most post-moderns exist in today.  It’s been compounded by TV, electric garage doors, the internet, triple-pane windows, and on and on. 

We’ve worked hard to build our privacy fences and designed our biggest windows to be away from the streets.  Is it any wonder that emerging generations long for community?  They desire to experience what it means to know those on your street on a first-name basis and know the blessing of “community in proximity.”  Unlike Mr. Rogers, I don’t talk to my postal carrier, I don’t have someone drop by for a cup of sugar, and I don’t have that Officer Clemmons come knocking at my door (OK, maybe that last one is a good thing).

I do have communities to which I belong – my church, the division in my job, my kids school, the Disney online community I frequent, and the restaurant I go to on Saturday morning, just to name a few.  Yet, I’m still captivated by the concept of the community in proximity that I saw on Mr. Rogers.  It doesn’t happen enough – and I feel a sense of loss.

Post-moderns are longing for true community – people who will invite them over to watch the big game, folks who will share their recipe for butternut squash soup, neighbors who can be trusted to watch the kids when an emergency occurs, people who will look beyond the privacy fences to check on their neighbors from time to time.  Look at the last decade of sit-com’s on TV – the community in proximity still exists in our “Neighborhood of Make Believe.”

Post-moderns long for us to take off our office jacket and shoes, feed the fish, and engage in community.  We need to ask questions and share life lessons.  Maybe we shouldn’t do it in song, but our actions need to invite others into community.

I’ve got a cookie recipe that’s really great – and I’d love to know from the guy behind me what that wonderful smell is that comes from his grill during the summer.  Maybe the “Neighborhood of Make Believe” Mr. Rogers created is becoming a call to us post-moderns.  Won’t you be my neighbor?

I. David Lloyd

Risk

Travel for business in Japan is quickly becoming non-existent. Concerns about radiation, in-country transportation, and food contamination as a result of the nuclear crisis are causing corporate travelers to cancel trips to Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

The U.S. State department directive to avoid travel to Japan has multinational employers following their lead. Many companies are not only canceling scheduled trips, but are prohibiting travel for non-essential employees.

Companies that rescue corporate executives and business travelers are anticipating a wave of demand from clients as the rolling blackout and infrastructure problems move through the rest of the nation.

 Crisis management teams for companies with a major footprint on the Japanese economy are operating 24/7 to ensure the ability of expats and their families to evacuate.

While safety and security issues should always be taken seriously, the challenge is to balance such issues with the overt and covert messages risk management behaviors send across cultures. Company actions that are considered “prudent” for employed expats are often interpreted as “abandonment” by the local population.

New learning, new ideas, new processes can flow from situations of risk and uncertainty. The global workplace is where executives make a commitment to working interculturally in order to competently strengthen relationships while addressing difficult circumstances and issues.  

There are times when safety and common sense dictates “prudence.”  Fleeing a situation, or cancelling travel to an area sends a powerful message to those who are left to “pick up the pieces.”  Staying in a situation or traveling to a place that is "at risk”, to be “with the people” also sends a powerful message. Developing culturally intelligent leaders to work in a world at risk will increasingly challenge international organizations and business in the 21^st Century. 

Ubiquitous

I first saw the word "ubiquitous" on a billboard in Seoul two years ago describing ... well, something. Since that time, ubiquitous began to 'turn up everywhere' in the global marketplace and defines and describes a wide variety of diverse concepts and practices.

Ubiquitous technology is that which uses multiple devises to integrate information processes into everyday life, i.e. Apple, in the latest operating system just introduced the ability for me, the user, to watch TV, listen to music, and access video on any apple devices in my home--ipod, ipad, iphone, mac... just because ... it's home!

Starbucks, McDonalds, Gap, Wal-mart, Amazon and other retailers have effectively created a ubiquitous consumer culture in the pervasive presence of their products virtually anywhere in the world.

Global leaders are persons who not only are aware of their own cultural setting and traditions, but effectively navigate organizational culture, marketplace culture, and international cultural boundaries and challenges. Developing one's cultural competency requires one to engage in an ubiquitous experiential learning process that incorporates emotional intelligence, mental capacity, global perspective and an openness to new insight  across cultural lines. This cultivating of one's cultural intelligence is truly a ubiquitous adventure!