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Ho‘ohana work, and your Labor

September 9, 2010 by Rosa Say

Interesting week.

Last Friday, I looked ahead to the 3-day holiday weekend to come and wondered how I’d celebrate Labor Day, and simply decided “I’ll labor.”

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday

Labor as in make something.

Labor as in the intensely concentrated work of physical creation.

I wanted to make something from scratch. With my own two hands. With my labor. Simply because I am able to do so.

Doing it would celebrate it, that is, celebrate the labor.

I wouldn’t process or better organize.

I wouldn’t repurpose or reinvent.

I wouldn’t write about a new idea.

I would make something that I would use.

I wouldn’t plan, strategize, or talk about my work, I’d get it done. I’d get ‘making something’ done.

Ho‘ohana could get physical.

Bell Pepper Seeds

Bell pepper seeds drying on the kitchen counter, and destined for the vegetable garden.

By the end of Saturday I’d made a new handbag from a long-stored bag of yarn skeins, warming up to my labor in a tactile and colorful way.

Sunday I made a raised bed for my garden, trading in my crochet needle for shovel and rake.

Monday I thought about the work-for-hire I do in business, and I made a self-coaching journal for a client who loves the feel of paper more than using her laptop. I’m confident she’ll get way more effective with her Weekly Review having that tabbed, personalized journal to help her.

Ho‘ohana work in progress

This attitude of laboring has continued to affect my workweek as I’ve returned to my scheduled tasks and continually asked myself, “How can I shape this task into a labor of love (the Aloha I talk about here, and in Managing with Aloha), and keep this love of labor going?”

Good stuff is happening. It feels pleasingly different from my old routines, and yet it feels comforting, like a return to what work does when it produces true usefulness.

Labor, and how great it feels, is something we’ve lost remembrance of in so many workplaces. Let’s get it back.

What can laboring, and the feel of satisfying labor be in your workplace?

What can you do to make it happen?

Labor Day Aloha

September 7, 2009 by Rosa Say for Say “Alaka‘i”

For the longest time I considered Labor Day nothing but an extra holiday. I wasn’t aware of the true history behind this American holiday, and I wasn’t curious about it either.

Growing up in Hawai‘i meant it was an extra beach day, and a really ono barbecue grinds day. As a kid, that was pretty much all I needed to know!

Paddleboarder

Then came my learning about Ho‘ohana, and my growing into the beliefs I have today about what this Hawaiian value of intentional, worthwhile work can be all about.

Hana ~ work
Ho‘o ~ make something happen
Ho‘ohana ~ make work happen as a Hawaiian value of living well
within our sense of place

Let’s explore this through Labor Day Aloha

WORK is a highly underrated word.
When work is good, it is really, really good.

You can belabor it, or have it be a labor of your love and Aloha. It’s completely up to you.

I prefer this kind of LABOR:

L – Love your work and the job you do. If you don’t, find new work you will love (and co-workers you’ll love being with). Your life is too precious to squander away in mediocrity or boredom.
A – Accept the reality that work is personal. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, and be personal while doing your work. Other people will relate better to you that way.
B – Brand what you do with your personal signature. Stand up for your work. Be proud of it, and be proud of being associated with it.
O – ‘Ohana, (your family) is connected to your work whether they want to be or not. Understand that, and make it a good thing. When you come home at the end of the workday bring only the good parts home with you.
R – Relationships at work are important. Welcome them. Invest in them. People first, tasks second—always. Friendships and teamwork can co-exist, and productively so.

Our DAYs will add up to the character of life we have:

D – Daily actions must point toward your ‘Imi ola (desired destiny). Otherwise you’re wasting your time, and you probably aren’t having too much fun. Fun is useful: It gives you more energy and it keeps you healthy.
A – Actions do speak louder than words. It’s true (and by now you know I’m a big fan of words and language). Walk your talk. (Which by the way, is a cakewalk when you love your job—go to the top and read L again.)
Y – Your work life is what you make it. Everything starts and ends with You. Take responsibility for your work, and on this Labor Day, celebrate the wonderful fact that you have a choice in everything you do. (Yes you do: No victim mentality allowed in the self-leadership of Alaka‘i thinking).

ALOHA makes everything even better:

A ”“ Authenticity is very attractive when connected to Aloha: “Alo” on the outside, and “ha” coming from the inside. Pretending you’re something or someone you’re not is way too stressful, (and it annoys everyone else you work with). I’ll bet you’re pretty cool just the way you are.
L ”“ Livelihood is a word we must all define on our own terms. Money is not evil, but it is the currency of our society, so define your terms in a way you can live well with both physically and emotionally.
O ”“ Optimism drives so much, and it’s magnetic. Be practiced in sharing a positive outlook and you will find it begins to influence everything you do, and all work which comes your way. Magically, it will also be the work you want.
H ”“ Have Ho‘ohana be your Labor Day mantra, today and every day. Ho‘ohana is the Hawaiian value of intentional work, and if you have chosen to live and work in our Hawai‘i nei, you have chosen our sense of place (as defined by our cultural values) regardless of the blood type running through your veins.
A ”“ Appreciate work because you can do it! Appreciate your health because it enables you to do the work of your Ho‘ohana. Appreciate others who work, because you need them as much as they need you. They make your life interesting, and worth the living of it.

Horizon Watcher

Today, on a day where “millions of Americans will celebrate Labor Day in a time-honored way ”“ by deliberately avoiding labor” let’s be grateful for work in all its form and function. Think about it: Work creates the possibility of play!

If you will be playing today, do enjoy it thoroughly. However notice it thoroughly too: If not for the work that so many do so brilliantly, providing the possibility, would you be able to enjoy what you will savor today?

We Ho‘ohana Kākou, together, and within Aloha.

For those who prefer them, here are the Talking Story links embedded in this posting:

  1. Aloha Training? Make it all personal
  2. What’s your Calling? Has it become your Ho‘ohana?
  3. I want a Labor Day about Ho‘ohana

Article originally published on Say “Alaka‘i” September 2009
Labor Day Aloha

I want a Labor Day about Ho‘ohana

September 6, 2009 by Rosa Say

I love this article by Thaddeus Russell, who is a historian and cultural critic. He is the author of A Renegade History of the United States, to be published by Free Press/Simon & Schuster in 2010. I must make a note to watch for its release.

The article begins:

On Monday, millions of Americans will celebrate Labor Day in a time-honored way – by deliberately avoiding labor. They’ll attend barbecues and beach parties; they might even kick back in their hammocks and lawn chairs with a feeling of entitlement, secure in their understanding that the first Monday in September is just a hard-earned reward for the American worker.

They’re wrong about Labor Day. And not only are they wrong, but by the lights of Labor Day’s founders, their whole attitude toward the day makes them less than good Americans.

In 1884, when President Grover Cleveland signed the bill making Labor Day a national holiday on the first Monday in September, he and its sponsors intended it not as a celebration of leisure but as a promotion of the great American work ethic. Work, they believed, was the highest calling in life, and Labor Day was a reminder to get back to it. It was placed at the end of summer to declare an end to the season of indolence, and also to distance it from May Day, the spring event that had become a symbol of the radical labor movement.

You can read the complete article at the Boston Globe: The truth about Labor Day: “Behind this weekend’s holiday lies a strange civil war.”

Russell writes a fascinating piece about the history of the holiday, and “the strange civil war” he describes isn’t anything I recall learning about before, even though early American history proved to be one of my favorite subjects in school (more proof positive that teachers teach what they want to teach, for surely I paid attention to everything they offered…).

Yavapai County Courthouse

The article is so good, that I have kept a copy as a private Word doc I can make a pilgrimage to each Labor Day to come, just in case it tragically disappears from The Boston Globe archives. I am being a good blogger and not copying it here word for word, much as I want to: Go read it before it slips into subscriber-only archives.

For the longest time I considered Labor Day nothing but an extra holiday too; growing up in Hawai‘i meant it was an extra beach and really ono barbecue grinds day.

Then came my learning about Ho‘ohana, and my growing into the beliefs I have today about what this Hawaiian value of intentional, worthwhile work can be all about.

When work is good, it is really, really good.

I want a Labor Day about Ho‘ohana: Ho‘ohana is Your Intentional Work

In my mind, Ho‘ohana is why managers matter, and both managing and leading matters.

Work can and should be a time where you are working to bring meaning, fulfillment and fun to the life you lead.
Ho‘ohana. Work with intent, work with purpose.
Managers do this for themselves, and they do this for those they manage.
When managers pair employees with meaningful and worthwhile work that is satisfying for them, they will find these employees work with true intention, in sync with the goals of the business.
Be one of those managers.

~ From Chapter Two in Managing with Aloha,
Bringing Hawai‘i’s Universal Values to the Art of Business

You can read the full chapter here, a page on our dedicated site for the Ho‘ohana Community.

As you well know dear readers, I will continue to write about this; can’t not write about it. For now, I gladly give Russell the last word with another snippet from his article: He writes so thoughtfully and so well.

“…many American workers would far rather have been relaxing at the ballpark than marching to celebrate their jobs.

The sociologist Daniel Bell called this long civil war over fun the “cultural contradiction of capitalism,” the system’s simultaneous demand for work discipline and production of pleasure that undermines that discipline. Today, work itself even more strongly exemplifies that contradiction. The typical American worker spends most of his or her day toiling at a keyboard – a regimen that requires intense self-discipline – but produces services and goods that facilitate or incite leisure activities.

Though we might imagine that today’s embrace of an idle long weekend at the end of summer suggests that a truce has been reached in the civil war, the two sides – workers and the official culture – remain in their trenches.

While pop stars urge us to “Just Dance,” political and business leaders continue the Puritan tradition of calling, as President Obama did in his inaugural address, for us to “set aside childish things” and shun “those who prefer leisure over work.” This weekend, as you join the millions of Americans celebrating what they call Labor Day but treat as Leisure Day – and do it through nothing more strenuous than playing softball or having a picnic – you, too, will be taking a side.”

Think about your own choice, and the side you take on this Labor Day.

Enjoy the holiday as your values urge you to do.

Postscript:
4 Selections from our Ho‘ohana Community archives if the holiday offers up more reading time:

  1. Why Choose Aloha Values? on Teaching with Aloha
  2. Labor Day: Celebrate your Work and some old fashioned Values on Managing with Aloha Coaching
  3. Kamehameha’s Legacy of Values written for Say “Alaka‘i” this past June
  4. The Battle of the Learner and Over-Achiever on Joyful Jubilant Learning

A Labor Day acronym for you:

September 6, 2004 by Rosa Say

Thank you for reading Talking Story! It can be fun dipping into the archives, looking for hidden treasures and reviving older ideas in new ways.

This particular posting is one I have updated for TalkingStory.org ~ Here is the NEW LINK:
The article is now called Labor Day Aloha

Paddleboarder

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RSS Current Articles at Managing with Aloha:

  • The Thrill of Work
  • Evolve into a manager
  • Self-Coaching Exercises in the Self-Leadership of Alaka‘i
  • Do it—Experiment!
  • Hō‘imi to Curate Your Life’s Experience
  • Kaʻana i kāu aloha: Share your Aloha
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