Conference: "Resiliency and Its Place in Our Life's Journey"

Speaker - Kenny Moore

Kenny is Corporate Ombudsman at Keyspan. 

Outline of Talk

1. Introductory Comments
   1. See his handout: "Celibacy in Corporate America"
   2. I have been counseling corporate executives, most of whom think they are omnipotent and need no one.
   3. My life as a priest has given me perspective on my life with corporations.
2. Models
   1. Let's look at my model:

      Problems   ==========>   Solutions
      Predicaments   ==========>   Movement
      (dilemmas, no-win situations)	(Ask the right question; it might be the closest we get to generating movement.)
      Mystery (Therein lies the answer!) (Therein is the acorn.)

   2. As a new priest, I addressed a group of kindergartners, after having been told to "keep it simple" for them.
      1. I told them, "The Lord God is one."
      2. A kid immediately asked, "When will he be two?"
      3. I said, "December 25-th."
   3. Career Model
      1. Harvard Business Review - Must have timelines, plans, objectives.  Must be measurable, etc.
      2. Another career model (Plato ~400 BC)

         Acorn   <==========   Daimon
         (The nature of our lives; our destiny.)	(Uses events etc. to help the acorn realize its destiny. A guardian angel.)
         Acorn becomes Great Oak.	Eudaimon Happiness.

3. Finding the Acorn
   1. Most of us go to our graves with our music still inside us.  Find the music, find the acorn.
   2. Childhood is a period of time when we instinctively know our acorn, our desires in life, our talents, what we're good at.
      1. These awarenesses are socialized out of us.
      2. Look back to that time.  Recall joys that we had.  Consider dreams, mistakes, tragedies.
      3. These can give us insights into what our acorn might be.  Find the acorn.  Will not get answers, but can get inklings.
4. Reports of Breakouts
   1. (Rocky) I found that I liked to think.
   2. I loved to hear my father talk with his friends.
   3. My life was blessed at all stages.  So my inkling of my acron is that it is luck.  Those fortunate conditions and incidents could have been tragic.  I had no control over them.  So it must have been luck.
   4. (Kevin D.) Several mistakes and traumas (job loses, etc.) brought me finally to my current career as a counselor, rather than my old corporate career.
   5. (David P.) Transition in 1993-94 brought insight that I was not the corporate manager type; I was an analyst.  In my childhood, I had been oriented this way.
5. The Three Aspects of Zen
   1. Show up.
   2. Breathe deeply (Fear is excitement without the breath.  So breathe!)
   3. Surprises (Recognize and accept them.)
6. Thoughts to Help Find the Acorn
   1. Sören Kierkegaard: Live is understood in hindsight, but must be lived by looking forward.
   2. It's not the destination; it's the journey that's important.
   3. Jesus raised more questions than he answered.
   4. It's the involvement with the sacred, with something bigger than ourselves.
   5. It's about taking risks, about being open to things about which we know little or nothing.
   6. Safe gets you only so far.
   7. Midlife transitions can lead us to a different way of being.
   8. You don't get a second chance.  So who are you??!!  Go inside and ponder it.
   9. Corporate  managers want to know how to get employees to trust them.  So now the "soft" aspects of management have become the "hard" aspects.
   10. Look at the complements in your life.  Early on, men are aggressive, goal-oriented.  Later, they become comtemplative, more maternal.
7. Questions for Breakout Groups
   1. What is my acorn?
   2. What have I been avoiding saying "no" to that has kept me from living out my acorn?
   3. What changes do I need to make to move forward?
8. Breakout Group #5 (Owen McKeon, leader)
   1. We tend to be too risk-averse.
   2. Need to contemplate, to hear the inner voice (i.e., find the acorn).
   3. Doing the job, earning the needed income, tend to make us say "no" to the things we'd rather do.
   4. Segundo Fernandez: When I was 14, I was sitting in a beach chair on a beach.  I had a nickel in my pocket.  I remember that the thought occurred to me that this would prove to be the most joyful moment of my life, and that I should enjoy it right then as much as I could.

(The notes of this outline were taken by David G. Price.  They were wordprocessed by Patrick Lyons.
These notes may not be reproduced without the written permission of the presenter.
This page was last edited on August 07, 2003 by Patrick Lyons.)