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Volunteering recently at my son's school I was surprised to discover that although my coworker's son had left for university several years before, this father continued to organise one of the school's major fund raising activities. Given that most schools can't get parents to volunteer at all I was curious about his ongoing interest. "It's the spirit of the place," he told me, "I just love being here." He wasn't alone. Every time I turn up to help out there are more helpers than jobs. This makes the task pleasant. We always have time to chat - to get to know each other. We belong to a community. So we turn up in the hundreds. Shopowners, painters, consultants, engineers, doctors, farmers, insurance salesmen, mums, dads, sisters, brothers, grandmothers and grandfathers, all helping out for free. Now as someone who is interested in leadership I can't help but be intrigued. Most people have to be paid to work.
Pondering this I come back every time to my coworker's words: It's the spirit of the place." It's the spirit of the community that attracts people to donate their valuable time again and again. Last week, selling at the school's art fair I met a grandmother who had been volunteering at the school for 40 years. "It's the spirit of the place." How many places of work have a spirit that invites people to be part of the community? How many places of work bring so much to people that they come back for decades voluntarily just to help out? How much better off would we all be if more places did have a spirit, did create community and did encourage people to give for the good of others?
What is it about my son's school that build’s spirit? Well, everything. As a new parent waiting outside the headmaster's door I was drawn to the full script of Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream" speech in which he talks about each person's capacity to make the world a better place. Each time I attend an assembly, rally or parents' ceremony I am encouraged to be grateful for what I have (my health, my family, my ability to enjoy life) and reminded that not everybody is so lucky. While we celebrate current successes we are reminded that people in our community are ill, grieving or suffering in some way. We are encouraged to open our hearts, to be joyous and compassionate. "It's the spirit of the place." Many years ago, working with David Judd, then operations manager of Portland Aluminium Smelter, I saw this spirit operate in a large industrial site. David believed that people should develop their own personal potentials and work for the good of the whole community. He role-modelled this behaviour and then laid out the path for others to follow. He celebrated his own good fortune (through photography, bush camping and relationships) and worked for the community (setting up a crèche, a gym, a medical centre, bringing Don Burrows into town to teach the local kids jazz, bringing international speakers to talk to local people, putting the community through a personal development program, encouraging smelter staff to work with the homeless, sponsoring environmental projects).When you walked onto that site you could feel the spirit of the place. It sort of hummed. People wanted to be there. People cared - about themselves, each other and the plant. So industrial accidents decreased, productivity increased. Absenteeism fell to nothing, staff turnover halved. Demarcation became a non-issue people wanted to help each other make the place as good as it could possibly be. Tradespeople who normally lined pots, volunteered to paint and garden when their normal duties were done. Engineers did secretarial work and secretaries learnt how to use tradespeople's tools. There was a spirit of cooperation and community about the place. It became a world benchmark in its industry.
In our highly rational world, spirit doesn't get a lot of airplay. Pity!
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