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Kamehameha’s Legacy of Values

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~ Originally published on Say “Alaka‘i” June 2009 ~
Kamehameha’s Legacy of Values

La Hae Hawai‘i

It is June 11th: Today is King Kamehameha Day here in our Hawai‘i nei.

In my study of our Hawaiian values I have learned quite a bit about the Kamehameha monarchy and legacy though I had not originally set out to do so. The learning was simply unavoidable; it was also enthusiastically welcomed, for Kamehameha the Great (i.e. Kamehameha I) was an ali‘i [monarch] driven by the guiding light of his values. Distinctive within his dynasty of rule is how he associated value-alignment with the principles of Alaka‘i leadership in the society we now refer to as the “Hawai‘i of old.” He made this association for us in what he said, and in what he did: Kamehameha; Law, Legend and Leadership (link explains Māmalahoe Kānāwai, the Law of the Splintered Paddle).

When we make the decision to commit to the values we’ve articulated and deliberately chosen, we do so understanding our decision will make a contribution: It will shape the character of our community. King Kamehameha understood that the values of our ali‘i could, and would lead the way in this shaping; they are highly influential because they are evocative. Through our values we Ho‘o! [we make things happen.]

Our values move us to act.

Imagine being Ruled by Values

Imagine something with me.

Imagine that Hawai‘i is still a monarchy, and King Kamehameha still reins over our islands.

French Polynesia in Hawai‘i

Within this picture of “what if?” imagine that the challenges we face are just as they are now: The only difference is that Kamehameha is our king. Give your picture your personal context: Shape it with the specifics of the variables you think influence you most.

How do you suppose things would be?

The answer is that it would largely depend on the values from which Kamehameha rules us. Whether we like it or not, the same is true of our present government. Make no mistake: When we elect someone to office, we are choosing their values.

[From the archives: And in Aloha our government shall lead us]

Values are the Construct of our Culture

Values drive our behavior, and their pervasiveness (or their absence) will define our sense of place. Shared values will determine our conversations; and those conversations articulate the thoughts we once held privately within the confines of our own beliefs. We share them with others who will either dispute and negate them, or embrace and enroll in them with us.

As described by Dr. George Kanahele in his book KÅ« Kanaka, Stand Tall, A Search for Hawaiian Values (University of Hawai‘i Press, 1986), the values King Kamehameha the Great chose for his rule included:

Mālama, or Caring: The wise ali‘i was advised to take care of his lesser chiefs and commoners alike, “for together they are the strength of his rule.”

Ha‘aha‘a, or Humility: “Looking after the welfare of people arises from an underlying spirit of sensitivity and feeling for others that flows from humbleness rather than from a conviction of superiority.”

KÅ«pono, or Integrity: “KÅ«pono combines two words: kÅ« in this case meaning in a state of, and pono, meaning rectitude, uprightness, or goodness ” according to the Hawaiian way of thinking, there is little difference between being honest, upright, good, fair, or worthy.”

Na‘auao, or Intelligence and Wisdom: “Na‘auao combines na‘au, mind, and ao, or daylight. Literally it means the daylight mind, or more appropriately, the enlightened mind ” No more fitting term can be found for the quality of mind that Hawaiian leaders, particularly the ali‘i, aspired to than that implicit in the ‘enlightened mind’.”

Koa, or Courage: “In a society whose chiefs were trained in the arts of fighting from childhood, and who proved their mettle on the battlefields, physical courage can be expected as a badge of leadership. But courage has two sides: the physical, and the nonphysical, that is, the emotional, moral, or spiritual. Opposition to a hero comes in many different forms.”

Which Values do we choose today?

Inspired by King Kamehameha’s legacy, these are values we can still choose today. We can make those choices and then commit to aligning our everyday actions to them; we can direct our creative energies toward the making of a future that will continue to uphold their complete integrity.

I’m quite sure that were King Kamehameha with us today he would feel those choices to be Pono [right and just] and to be quite obvious, for our values give us great clarity.

So as we honor Kamehameha this month, choose your values. Several Hawai‘i historians concur with Dr. George Kanahele, in believing that “no one surpasses Kamehameha the Great in leadership, historic achievement and lasting impact, or in having a transcendent vision for his people.” His vision? That the islands and the people of Hawai‘i be Lōkahi: Live in harmony, and remain united.

You might also feel that “no one surpasses Kamehameha the Great in leadership.” Perhaps not yet, but it is still possible. For you, your choices and your actions are still possible.

If you’ve read this far, or if you’ve read this blog before, you hunger for your own expression of Alaka‘i leadership, and you know that both management and leadership matter. So Nānā i ke kumu: Look to your source and your truth, and choose your values.

[From the archives, the values we chose for our study during 2009: Hau‘oli Makahiki Hou: Hawaiian Values for 2009]
[Update for 2010: For 2010, with Aloha ]

Let’s talk story.

Any thoughts to share?

Photo credits: La Hae Hawai‘i and French Polynesia in Hawai‘i, both by Rosa Say.

Hau‘oli Makahiki Hou: Hawaiian Values for 2009

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2010 Update: I made the decision to bring Say “Alaka‘i” here to Talking Story in late May of 2010 when the Honolulu Advertiser, where the blog previously appeared, was merged with the Star Bulletin (Read more at Say “Alaka‘i” is Returning to the Mothership).

Therefore, the post appearing below is a copy of the one which had originally appeared there on January 1, 2009, so we will be able to reference it in the future when the original url it had been published on is no more…

Hibiscus

Hau‘oli Makahiki Hou: Hawaiian Values for 2009

In responding to a reader’s question this past Sunday, I wrote of the Top 7 Business Themes I am hoping our Hawai‘i business leaders will embrace throughout 2009. It was a great question, one stimulating much more thought for me over the past few days, and I’d like to start the year with a follow-up.

I’m one to quickly look beyond the disappointment I’d felt in 2008. I wasn’t too happy about most business news over the past few months, and you many not have been either. We didn’t end on much of a high note beyond holiday-flavored celebrations. But I prefer the thinking that we can only go up from here, and that it’s time to get to work. Good work. Personally satisfying, professionally fulfilling, Ho‘ohana type work. I believe that pursuing good business, creatively idea-led and worked on by great managers and leaders, is very promising work and worth our effort, our study and our experimentation; essentially, that’s what Say “Alaka‘i” is all about.

If this is your first time here, I’d suggest you start by reading this: The Top 7 Business Themes on my 2009 Wish List. Today, I’ll continue the discussion started there with more on my favorite subject: Our Hawaiian values and the concept of value-alignment.

The Uncommon Common-Sense Strategy of Value-Alignment

I’m going to make a big assumption to start. Let’s say you like a few of those 7 business themes I had suggested for the coming year, and you’re wondering how to go about tackling them. I propose you concentrate on value-alignment, which simply means that you align the themes you choose with values you

a) ethically believe in at gut-level,

b) feel will engender the behavior you want to happen for your business, and

c) are fully prepared to champion with constancy.

What you will then discover, is that those values do an incredible amount of the work for you.

Everyone depends on their gut-level values to guide their actions automatically, and give them emotional grounding. Therefore, as a leader and manager, it’s important to understand that values can compete with you as well as be your allies. If you do not choose, vocalize, and then constantly champion values which are specifically aligned with your business strategies, everyone you manage, lead and partner with will fall back on their default behaviors instead. If so, you take your chances: They may be in sync with you, or they may not be.

Isn’t it better to be on the same page from the get-go?

7 Themes, 10 Hawaiian values

To save you the click back to Sunday, these were the 7 Themes I had proposed to you for 2009:

  1. Impatience for Change and New Ideas
  2. Financial Literacy
  3. The Entrepreneurial Mindset
  4. Aloha asset creation via a Ho‘okipa obsession
  5. The Role of the Manager reconstructed
  6. Talking Story Grows Up
  7. Training Becomes Learning Constant, NOT Budget Luxury

These are the Hawaiian values that I feel will best align with these initiatives.

  • Alaka‘i —the value of leadership
  • ‘Imi ola —the value of created destiny
  • Koa —the value of courage
  • Kākou —the value of inclusive communication
  • Aloha —the value of love and unconditional acceptance
  • Ho‘ohana —the value of intentional work
  • Ho‘okipa —the value of hospitality with generosity
  • ‘Ike loa —the value of learning
  • Lōkahi —the value of collaboration
  • Mālama —the value of stewardship

Here is a little bit on each with why I feel they are your strategic targets with value-alignment in 2009.

a) Alaka‘i —the value of leadership

This one should be no surprise to you: I believe in the nobility and positive capacities of both management and leadership, and they are the drivers of everything else. This is not to say that I believe the titles and positions traditionally assigned to those in management and leadership roles are necessary. I believe these two disciplines translate into the self-management and self-leadership that every single person in a business enterprise can, and must practice to make their optimal contribution to the organization.

If you are new to my writing and this blog, this article will best catch you up with our management and leadership definitions and context: Management versus Leadership: Power up your vocabulary!

b) ‘Imi ola —the value of created destiny

‘Imi ola translates to “seek your best possible life” and it is the belief and conviction that you can create your own destiny instead of letting life happen as it may by way of chance, luck and happenstance. Wishing and hoping is not a strategy, and further, they waste time in business. You must want to be a creator, an innovator, a mover and a shaker. You must seek to make things happen in the best possible way.

c) Koa —the value of courage

I firmly believe that courage may be our most crucial necessity right now. Courage understands that not everything is simple or easy, and it calls on Ho‘omau [persistence and perseverance] so we go the distance with our beliefs and our convictions bravely, harnessing our fears into a sense of urgency, and giving us clarity and focus. Determination without clarity and focus is just stubbornness.

d) Kākou —the value of inclusive communication

These statements which appeared with 2. Financial Literacy, are worth repeating:

The change we need to see happen in business requires our collective intelligence, and there best be NO leaders or managers who ever make “need to know basis” judgments or valuations of anyone else in their organizational culture, especially when it comes to the financial literacy of a company’s business model. Let people judge for themselves when your sharing is “too much information” for them; chances are they are far more intelligent than you give them credit for.

Inclusive and pervasive communication specifically comes up with number 6. Talking Story Grows Up, as well, and please know that communication is essential in all of them.

Language, vocabulary, and conversation combine as our primary tools in business communications: What we speak is fifty times more important than what we write (yes, this is coming from someone who is an author too!) The need for CLEAR, intentional, reliable and responsive communication is critical in thriving businesses. Drive communication of the right messages, and you drive momentum and worthwhile energies.

People may choose to opt out of certain conversations, but don’t you be the one to leave them out.

e) Aloha —the value of love and unconditional acceptance

g) Ho‘okipa —the value of hospitality with generosity

These two are so critical they were already called out specifically as a strategy in and of themselves. What I would add is the knowledge that they cross all boundaries and affect all stakeholders: They are not just about your business customer. Aloha and Ho‘okipa must be given freely and generously to everyone if they are to return as the character of our islands, and unquestionably color our reputation and standing as the global citizens of planet Earth.

Start within (live with Aloha and Ho‘okipa as a strong individual with integrity), then move steadily outward and inclusively (work, manage, and lead with Aloha and Ho‘okipa thereafter).

f) Ho‘ohana —the value of intentional work

Let’s break this one apart. You probably know the word hana: It is the Hawaiian word for work as a noun. Ho‘o is a prefix of causation, that on its own means to ‘make something happen.’ Thus attach it to a hawaiian noun, and it turns it into an intentional verb. Thus Ho‘ohana is the value of intentional work.

Intention. No more 9-5 attitude, no more going through the motions or sleepwalking through the work day. Deliberate, focused action steps.

Intention. No more auto-pilot, and no more sacred cows. Everything is up for reevaluation and reconstruction. Everything can become new again.

Intention. No more giving attention to the things which don’t matter or only create busy-work. Attention gets matched to intentional choices, and accomplishment results.
Intention. No more apathy, complacency or boredom, and mediocrity will NOT be tolerated. Intention embraces excellence, and excellence is never an accident: It is always intentional, and it always demands more than the norm.

And wonderful, fulfilling, gets-the-blood-pumping, satisfying work. It can feel great, and it should.

h) ‘Ike loa —the value of learning

We talked about this one with number 7. Training Becomes Learning Constant, NOT Budget Luxury. ‘Ike is the Hawaiian word for knowledge, and loa means long, extended or continuous. Learning must be highly prized in our businesses of 2009, for we have so much to figure out, so much to do and do smartly. A trend which dismays me is how so many human resources departments are no longer about the training, education, coaching and mentorship which creates and supports those ‘human resources.’ They’ve become more concerned with legal butt-covering and benefit economies. Such a shame.

The up side is that managers have a wide-open door to step in without worrying about much H.R. territorialism, and frankly, this is how it should be anyway: Managers must be the trainers, educators, coaches and mentors. That is part of the critical reconstruction of theme 5. The Role of the Manager reconstructed.

i) Lōkahi —the value of collaboration

Each and every one of the 2009 themes I have suggested will require collaboration, and a lot of it. I hold so much gratitude for KHON2 in the way they have added the value of Lōkahi [more commonly defined as harmony and unity] to our local vocabulary, community consciousness and civic responsibility. Businesses have a civic responsibility too —a huge one, for the community supports everything they do in a myriad of ways.

Pretty obvious that much teamwork will be called for within organizations, however we cannot stop there and silo ourselves; teamwork must extend outside our company boundaries too. 2009 will be a year that we cease to compete with each other, and network, partner and outsource better than we ever have before.

j) Mālama —the value of stewardship

For me, Mālama answers a very important question: All of these efforts, all of this work, is for the sake of what? Mālama is often defined as caring and empathy, but it is so much more than that. It is the combination of service and stewardship, and like Aloha and Ho‘okipa, it is extended to everyone inclusively.

I believe there is an element of tough love within Mālama too, where we don’t babysit, we enable and empower. We teach others to be stewards and caretakers too, for we understand how much they can be lifted up by being so effective, and so self-powered and capable. We enlarge other’s capacities and make synergy happen: Mālama complements Kākou, Lōkahi, ‘Ike loa and Alaka‘i in tremendously exponential ways. It is the great connector and growth generator.

You may have noticed that I used that ‘believe’ word quite a bit in composing my value list. As I said earlier, value-alignment means this:

…you align the themes you choose with values you

a) ethically believe in at gut-level,

b) feel will engender the behavior you want to happen for your business, and

c) are fully prepared to champion with constancy.

What you will then discover, is that those values do an incredible amount of the work for you.

Now the question I have for you is this: Do you believe in these values too?

And, will you help me champion them in the coming year?

Related Reading;
Here’s another recent article if you want to read more about values in the workplace;
The Holiday Gift of Workplace Values

Your Aloha has created Sunday Koa Kākou

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2010 Update: I made the decision to bring Say “Alaka‘i” here to Talking Story in late May of 2010 when the Honolulu Advertiser, where the blog previously appeared, was merged with the Star Bulletin (Read more at Say “Alaka‘i” is Returning to the Mothership).

Therefore, the post appearing below is a copy of the one which had originally appeared there on November 23, 2008, so we will be able to reference it in the future when the original url it had been published on is no more…

Hibiscus

Your Aloha has created Sunday Koa Kākou

Wow, mahalo nui loa!

In my first post here last Tuesday, I said that Sundays on Say “Alaka‘i” would be a “maybe,” depending on any need created by your questions and comments, and boy, did you respond! Thank you so much for your Aloha.

I have a terrific assortment of suggested topics and requests from you to get us started, and I’ve decided to add a category to contain our third day’s talk story that will be called “Sunday Koa Kākou.”

Today, we start with our Ho‘ohana; our purpose and intention with this work we shall make happen each Sunday. It will be a day to practice the two values of Koa [courage] and Kākou [togetherness and inclusiveness], two values I believe to be woven into Alaka‘i as the value of leadership.

Alaka‘i ka ‘ike; Our guides with learning

Why Koa Kākou?

I am not a Hawaiian linguist; I have much, much more to learn about our native tongue, but as you can tell, I do love to invoke the power of words, and I love the concept of kaona —hidden, storied meaning which becomes part of our language of intention.

I am also fairly bold with using our Hawaiian words because to use them often (and quickly) forces the learning challenge with me, so to all the Hawaiian speakers and kÅ«puna [elders] out there who might have any helpful corrections for us, please write to me if I mess up! I will gratefully and eagerly receive your teaching. I also humbly ask your understanding and patience with me if I leap to new words too quickly, for I err on the side of making a mistake I will learn from, versus hesitancy which stifles the creative impulses of my mana‘o with Alaka‘i.

Mary Kawena Pukui’s ‘ÅŒlelo No‘eau and the Hawaiian Dictionary she collaborated on with Samuel H. Elbert are always on my writing table, and I promise to do that homework study first!

Koa; “Courage begets courage”

There is one more book I strongly recommend to all who choose to study Hawaiian value alignment, for it was written by someone I believe to be one of our greatest teachers. KÅ« Kanaka, Stand Tall, A Search for Hawaiian Values by George Hu‘eu Sanford Kanahele should be in every Alaka‘i Library.

This is what Dr. Kanahele has to say about Koa [courage] as a value of Hawaiian society:

“In a society whose chiefs were trained in the arts of fighting from childhood, and who proved their mettle on the battlefields, physical courage can be expected as a badge of leadership. But courage has two sides: the physical, and the nonphysical, that is, the emotional, moral, or spiritual. Opposition to a hero comes in many different forms.”

The Hawaiian value of Koa is more than bravery and fearlessness. It is also resolution, conviction, and emotional strength. When we manage and lead with Alaka‘i, Koa is a value we constantly must draw from if we are to lead with ideas of nerve and daring in times when our world largely cautions us to tread lightly —and when our own voices of self-doubt caution us to tread lightly. We call on courage from within.

To make a difference for someone else, we must make a difference for ourselves first. We must wear leadership like a warming coat when our bones rattle with inner fears. On a more basic level, this means that we have to welcome our mistakes from day-to-day for all they can teach us. Have you noticed how you remember and retain more when you emerge victorious from what was a mistake at first?

King KamehamehaIn KÅ« Kanaka, Dr. Kanahele discusses intellectual courage, moral courage, and the courage of conviction and bravery with examples demonstrated by King Kamehameha. He ends with this:

“No one surpasses Kamehameha the Great in leadership, historic achievement and lasting impact, or in having a transcendent vision for his people. … Kamehameha no doubt recognized that courage begets courage; the more you use it, the more of it you produce. Conversely, the less of it you use, the less you have. This is a truth that every leader learns sooner or later, although not every leader learns this hard lesson in time.”

Photo (and more on Kamehameha I) from Wikipedia

Kākou; Communication begets collaboration

Within the context of work, I think of Kākou as the value of collaborative communication. Now again, don’t restrict ‘work’ and think of it as your job; think of work as your Ho‘ohana, [intentional work] and simply as anything you need to get done.

Kākou is about inclusiveness. At its elemental core, the spirit of Kākou acknowledges that we are not on this Earth alone, and as the human race we seem to survive better —we thrive —in each other’s company, sharing the ups and downs of our day-to-day existence.

Kākou is less intimate than ‘Ohana [family] for it applies to everyone that surrounds you in the consciousness of some particular striving or effort or task. Kākou is a distinctively verbal word; when you say it, you speak of your inclusive intentions instantly. For instance, when I address a group of people, large or small, I normally start with the words “Aloha mai kākou,” meaning that I offer my Aloha to everyone there. Mai kākou includes me as the speaker, and it’s my way of asking permission to be included in their conversation, in their attentions.

Kākou promotes sharing, and making the effort to promote the well-being that is felt with inclusiveness. When we teach the value of Kākou to our ‘Ohana in Business, (a business-model concept) we coach them to involve and include their peers in all they do, promoting Lōkahi; cooperation, unity and the harmony that comes from togetherness.

Kākou is the language of “we.” And the language of we stimulates ownership and personal responsibility in the all-encompassing initiatives of a company —or of a blog where communication is highly valued for it’s collaborative and creative properties, like this one!

Our Koa Kākou Language of Intention

So this is my kaona [storied, hidden meaning] for Sunday Koa Kākou: We’ve defined leadership as being about vision, and working on our ideas. Therefore, our Sunday Koa Kākou will be to work on those ideas which earlier in the week have come from YOU; we will offer up the day in a brave charging forth with the collaboration we can create.

I trust you may have read some of the comments which have already been shared here. Great stuff, so if not, do check them out! These came via my email:

Ian wrote:
“Today, more than ever, we need Alaka‘i. A friend once asked me to think of a hero – someone I look up too. I thought of my mother, my dad, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela… then he asked, ‘How many people look up to you…want to be like you?’”

David wrote:
“Yes it is time to reinvent ourselves again! I am addressing this in my latest blog posts and in my custom framing business. I feel that times will be very challenging for the next year at least and those that survive will have solved the problem of presenting their products and services as necessities rather than discretionary purchases.”

Andrew wrote:
“Now is the perfect time for this. We all need personal energy to enable us to lead our businesses through current times.”

Marianne wrote: “I like this!”

I do too Marianne!
Our partnering to learn more about management and leadership through our Alaka‘i value-filter is going to be more timely and on-point with your help; the braver you are about sharing what you are thinking in the comments here, the better the result will be.

I do welcome your emails, however Koa Kākou will happen most in the comment boxes because you are talking with each other and not just me; Sunday will be the highlight reel and the celebration party. We will have a current and highly useful laboratory to work in; calling this a ‘blog’ will just be a shortcut to explaining how we started.

Again, thank you for the warm welcome this week

Mahalo for reading this first week’s worth of Say “Alaka‘i” and bearing with all the introductory stuff. Bloggers refer to it as designing ‘About pages’ and ‘category generation.’ We in the islands know it’s more than that, and we know why it’s important.

It is akin to our Hawaiian practice of stating our genealogy, of asking our permissions, and of being forthright about our Aloha intentions as we write new stories which we hope will honor the histories of our ancestors [the mo‘ōlelo]. For me, it is also about a gathering together of that crucial sense of place, with Say “Alaka‘i” as a place for all of us to learn management and leadership together, and of assembling an energetic, positive community; I am here for conversation with you, not to write a broadcast.

For today, I’ll end with one more suggestion for your Alaka‘i Library and a quote from another respected kupuna;

“There is a prophecy that, if seven generations pass and the seeds are not planted, then the next generation passes away. We’re in the seventh generation now of the past 200 years. So, we need to inculcate into our younger generations that there are so many things to be proud of —tremendous riches to be learned and passed on. We must commit ourselves as Hawaiians, be proud of what we have and understand our past, [and yet] commit ourselves confidently about achieving things.”
—chanter and hula master John Lake
quoted within Voices of Wisdom, Hawaiian Elders Speak by MJ Harden

Perhaps that can be our first Sunday Koa Kākou conversation? What are some of those “many things [we need] to be proud of —[the] tremendous riches to be learned and passed on?” What must we commit ourselves to? For example, Joanna had offered this in her comment:

“Values, purpose and intention can make such a difference to the way that we feel about ‘work’. Even the word ‘work’ can make us feel heavy, deadened, burdened whereas if we shift to the focus on what we’re trying to do, and why, and how it connects with our core values, what we’re about (and yes, where we come from) it starts to feel like task, a project, a challenge that we can approach with more vigour and energy.”