The Puget Sound is Dying...Why Would You Ever Care?
"On November 15, 1990, in response to mounting evidence that air pollution contributes to water pollution, Congress amended the Clean Air Act and included provisions that established research and reporting requirements related to the deposition of hazardous air pollutants to the "Great Waters." The waterbodies designated by these provisions are the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, Chesapeake Bay, and certain other coastal waters (identified by their designation as sites in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System or the National Estuary Program)"
In July, 2009 Puget Sound (Lots of great pictures!) was added to this list of treasured and protected waterbodies.
On February 3.2010 the Seattle Post Globe ran this headline...
Puget Sound getting sicker; Obama budget slashes money for Sound cleanup by 60%.
You may be thinking that somehow you got on a link to the wrong site, let me reassure you. This is The Heart of Engagement and yes, in part the title of this post reflects current ecological conditions in and around the Puget Sound, Washington State.The other part of this week's title, (...Why Would You Ever Care?) may seem a bit sarcastic, however, that interpretation would really miss my intention here. What I am attempting is to make an experiential connection between those things in our lives that we are aware of yet do not respond to. Often we do not take action merely on the basis of awareness, because regardless of the conceptual awareness, we are not engaged; we have not chosen to be responsible for the matter at hand. There are many issues I could have mentioned instead of the health of Puget Sound
- The well being of the people of New Orleans post Katrina
- The current Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico
- The AIDS epidemic in Africa
- The unemployment level in America
- Name your favorite issue suffering a lack of engagement
About a week ago I was sitting in the basement of the local union hall in Anacortes, WA along with a number of other local citizens. This gathering was a monthly event sponsored by supporters of one of our two major political parties. Topics range from campaign finance reform to immigration concerns to the pluses and minuses of the recently passed health care legislation. On that particular evening we were hosting Kevin Ranker, local state senator who was doing an update for us on progress being made to recover some of the Puget Sound Restoration funds cut by the Federal Administration as mentioned in the article from the Seattle Post Globe.
As Kevin spoke that evening it gradually became clear that the Puget Sound dying is not such a simple issue to deal with. Here's a shot from another angle of what may be the most recognizable feature in the Puget Sound area, Mt. Ranier.
Oops, this does change the frame a bit does it not? Rather than simply see the situation through the lens of "Puget Sound is Dying, ain't it awful and somebody ought to do something cuz it's beautiful", we can now see that we/humans are reliant on this body of water and are also helping it die. The manner in which we have/are employing this resource whether it be ferrying business commuters to work or baseball fans to the Mariners games at Safeco Field, loading and unloading cargoes from Japan. China and Southeast Asia or serving as home port for an Alaskan fishing fleet is not very likely to change immediately in response to the article from February in the Seattle Post and Globe. There are too many seemingly independent interests in play. People freeze up in the face of this amount of complexity.
This takes us to the Heart of Engagement, in my view: Choice. No matter what the situation, it is possible to engage. The key is to be able to stand in the face of the complexity, free of judgments of right and wrong, good or bad, should or shouldn't etc.and take action effectively.
...
Last week I received a really great note from Leigh Branham at Keeping the People in response to my recent post 'Really...are There Rules...for Engagement?' Leigh and his partner Mark Hirschfeld have done an exhaustive study, 2.1 million employee engagement surveys from 10,000 employers. They publish the results of their analysis in a newly published book, Re-Engage, How America's best places to work inspire extra effort in extraordinary times. I've not had the opportunity to read their work yet and I am looking forward to it. According to Leigh's note he and Mark have isolated six universal drivers for engagement as well as discovering that there may be "signature drivers unique to each employer. I am anticipating a good deal of mutual learning as we exchange notes and possibly conduct conversations over the coming weeks and months. I can tell you right now that the ax I am going to grind with Leigh and Mark is to answer the question; "where does CHOICE fit into the picture?"
It may seem to you like I am leaping back and forth on topics, really I am simply changing contexts. From my perspective engagement is engagement is engagement the only thing that changes is the context. While I am prepared to recognize the value of understanding drivers of engagement in the workplace as something within the control of one party to a relationship I will also assert that no matter what state the drivers are in there is always the opportunity to engage, no matter what the situation or problem at hand. What I am less understanding of and really want insight into is why, when situations are exposed where stakeholders can see their interest in jeopardy, do they opt for inaction or ambivalence? Why would we ever care enough to take action?
Kevin Ranker; what makes him the one who takes action in the face of a dying Puget Sound? From What I can tell he has no special qualifications other than a passion to see the ecology of our area preserved. He has made a CHOICE to engage without regard to whether he should, who is right, will he be successful, will anyone say thank you?
- Where are you standing by at work while your interests are in jeopardy?
- What will it take to move you to action?
Thank you for your attention and just because you are so patient here's another shot of the beautiful and perplexing situation we live in here in the northwest.
