All The Difference

By Rick Van Arnam

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

The Road Not Taken | By Robert Frost

I love this poem. I love the concept of taking a path that most don’t. There is something intuitive in recognizing that a road less traveled by may be richer in some way. Perhaps it is a view - or perspective gained – that would not otherwise be revealed if we simply followed the mainstream in thought or action. More likely the road less traveled becomes an experience that shapes a person in some way. As Robert Frost implies, the experience makes “all the difference” and I think he meant that in a positive way. What is not as intuitive is actually deciding to take the uncommon path – it may appear risky, full of uncertainty or require more work.

A lot of decisions that positively shape character in people require challenging choices. I don’t mean necessarily that the decision is challenging to make, but all that follows after the right decision has been made is challenging. Back in the fall of 1928, John Wooden enrolled at Purdue University where he, “hoped to be good enough to play basketball and smart enough to get my degree.” Athletic scholarships did not exist as they do today, but he was promised a job by the legendary coach ‘Piggie’ Lambert as a means to pay his way through school, a principle in which Coach Lambert believed. During Wooden’s sophomore year a local doctor offered to pay all of John’s college fees. As Wooden tells the story in his book, They Call Me Coach, Coach Lambert extended the offer to Wooden on behalf of the doctor and reminded him of his principle that working oneself through college would make one better appreciate the value of the education. The decision was Wooden’s alone and he declined the offer with full support of his coach. His choice surely made Wooden’s student-athlete-employee role more challenging and explains the lowest-left block in John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success. His famous pyramid is a visual strategy for success that he designed during the mid-to-late 1930’s and shared generously over the remaining sixty-plus years of his life. He defines this block, labeled INDUSTRIOUSNESS, by writing, “There is no substitute for hard work. Worthwhile things come from hard work and careful planning.” There is a reason it is the lower left block of the pyramid; it is the cornerstone. Wooden, like Frost in his musing, recognized that hard work and careful planning, like taking the path less traveled by, make all the difference.

Are there any cautions that come with the road less traveled? Maybe. I think it is wise to be aware of its side trails that are traveled even less. The farther you veer off course, even an uncommon course, the more alone you may find yourself. Without teammates of support that go by the names of Encouragement, Wisdom and Camaraderie, the going may shift from challenging to futile. Even less traveled paths could be dead ends with haunting names like Stubbornness Trail, Unforgiving Road or Prideful Street.

RVA

The Call Me Coach, By John Wooden with Jack Tobin, McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., Copyright 2004

Significantly 11 | 11 | 11

By Rick Van Arnam

As delivered to the Norwich University Corps of Cadets, Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont on November 11, 2011

Good Afternoon.

11 | 11 | 11. Today is a calendar oddity – full of buzz for how it rolls off the tongue, but yet holds patriotic meaning because it is Veterans Day.

So I’ve given a lot of thought to what I can say or share that will compliment the importance of this day its and its specialness as 11 | 11 | 11. My thoughts are mostly crafted for all of our students, and prospective students, those in ranks before us and those listening from wherever they may stand. Additionally, I have an observation for our Vietnam era veterans that may take history a bit longer to verify, but is an observation about which I feel strongly and have felt personally.

In the late morning of October 25, 1983, in the fall of my senior year at Norwich, I recall walking toward Harmon Hall chatting with my classmates, likely to grab a cup of coffee between classes in The Mill; maybe some of you did the same thing this morning. On that day, the US deployed troops to the island of Grenada in overwhelming numbers. It was the first use of combat troops since Vietnam and as a 21-year old, soon to-be-commissioned Infantry officer my classmates and I were eager to be a part of something that we saw as exciting. From listening to cadets in White Chapel who attended last month’s Student Government Association Open Forum, especially those who remained long after the forum ended, I know many of you feel the same way. I believe that this feeling stems from a desire to do like our fathers and grandfathers did – to serve our country in uniform. There is perhaps no more honorable path than this: to serve something much greater than ourselves that was conceived before we were and that will endure far after we are gone. It is this instinct and desire, the DNA that engineers our American character that we honor today.

This DNA is the currency that endows forever the greatest sentence in our Nation’s founding documents. ‘That we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It is from this sentence that veterans have always had a purpose and mission.

So at the time of the Grenada invasion, which some called an on-the-spot correction due its short duration, many of my classmates felt that we had missed our chance – not to serve, but to serve in combat. Our military strength and technology, set in motion in many ways by President John F. Kennedy’s challenge in the early 1960’s to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, eventually led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. But the world that was to become more peaceful with the end of the Cold War had actually become more dangerous. Fast forward twenty-seven years and our class, the Norwich Class of 1984, has seen its appetite for excitement diminish giving way to a sense of humility. Where once we searched for Soviet tanks and submarines, we now search for needles in haystacks in remote regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan and in places like Yemen. And today’s veterans have proven skilled in this craft. We have witnessed in the last generation a decrease in threat from large standing armies and nation-states, but an increase in what Thomas Freidman has termed “super-powered individuals” who can self-detonate wearing a suicide vest while shaking hands with the Chief of Police in Konduz Province, Afghanistan or send a text message claiming responsibility following an attack on a forward operating base (FOB) in the Tajik province of Panshir, Afghanistan. In both instances, you can read about these events on an iPad in lower Manhattan, just a few blocks from where the twin towers once stood, before the United States Government can issue a statement….you get my point. The world today is dangerous. So those who serve, and all of those who support those who serve and our civilian partners in working groups world-wide, need to be world class thinker more than ever.

That pursuit – to become a world-class thinker – I think not only honors what veterans before us have sacrificed to enable, but is the best response to a globalizing world that on some days seems to hold near equal parts opportunity and danger.

This need for smart people, for thinkers, who serve is not new. A Spartan King, quoted by the 5^th Century Historian Thucydides, said, “The nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.”

When I read this quote, that appears in a new book written by Karl Marlantes, I thought is appropriate to share with you – and challenge you – our Veterans of today and tomorrow – to spend equal amounts of time both honing military skills and exercising critical thinking and speaking skills wrapped in a genuine desire to understand better those who do not understand freedom’s purpose.

Imagine that you, in the year 2038, twenty-seven years after your commissioning, speak at this parade. What will you say? 11 | 11 | 2038 – what will veterans of your generation have done, for you will certainly be asked to do much, and how will you have done it? My sense is that you will reach the same conclusion and chosen the same strategy that has emerged over the past decade. You will equally mix a warrior ethos with a thinker ethos. You will evolve from Norwich’s student-leader attraction to a transformed citizen-soldier able to think even better than you can fight.

As we close with darkness winning the day, I feel compelled to tip my cover to the Vietnam vets reflecting on the collision of coincidence that impacts veterans from any era. No matter the era in which a Veteran came of age, it is important to remember that no Veteran, from the beginning of time, was able to select when he or she was born. If you were born in 1923, for example, you likely served in WWII and became part of whom Tom Brokaw termed “The Greatest Generation” and your legacy has been secure for decades. But if you were born between the end of WWII and the start of the Korean War, you may have been drafted (or volunteered) to fight in the Vietnam. A war that was not popular, your legacy, despite an amazing effort, remains in the balance. Not because of the individual effort, but because of the disappointing geo-political outcome.

Until 9/11….because I think the legacy that is today taking shape for those who served in Vietnam, is that because of how they were treated upon their return, America has realized that never again should an American soldier feel unsupported while deployed or unappreciated upon return.

So when you come off the plane in Bangor, Maine, whether going to or coming from Iraq or Afghanistan, the handshake and thank you that you receive from a veteran who may not have received either, will move you. It is what makes this country great. And it will make you think about those older veterans – modestly dressed, their fittest days behind them and likely with other things that they could do at home – and you will think about their service and sacrifice to this country…..and you will be humbled.

To those from that era and who are within earshot today – thank you for serving under less than ideal conditions (at home and abroad) – and thank you for recognizing today’s veterans upon our return – from the programming in place to help veterans persevere through The Long War – to every care package sent, cup of coffee purchased or handshake rendered.

Thank you, God Bless and good evening.

RVA

References

Longitudes and Attitudes: The World in the Age of Terrorism, by Thomas L. Friedman, Anchor Publishing, Copyright 2003

What it is like to go to War, by Karl Marlentes, Atlantic Monthly Press, Copyright 2011

“The Biggest Man The Class Produced”

By Rick Van Arnam

Northfield, Vermont

Here is a question to which I’m sure we will both reply with the same answer: can you imagine working for one organization for sixty-six years? My answer – no! In my three decades of working, one common theme is that a person does not stay with the same company for his or her entire career. In fact, there is only one organization in which I know friends who have been employed for thirty years – the Army. I was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1984 and spent the following six years on active duty. During my time on active duty, I served with a few officers with whom I still stay in touch and who are approaching or have passed thirty years of service. But that is my limit of knowing others who can say that they have worked only for one company. And even a thirty-year careerist in the Army is still not half way to the sixty-six years of continuous service that Mr. Frank Boyden spent as headmaster of Deerfield Academy.

Recently, I read John McPhee’s short biography of Mr. Boyden who joined Deerfield Academy straight out of Amherst College in 1902. He was twenty-two years old. Joining the Academy just before the Wright brothers’ first flight and retiring just before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, his career spanned three major wars, the Great Depression and the birth of the baby boom generation. His length of tenure still amazes people as I discovered yesterday when I shared his story at local high school graduation party. It is hard to find a single measure that summarizes Mr. Boyden’s importance to Deerfield Academy, but his impact on secondary education in America goes beyond the Academy’s history as evidenced by the stories of recognition in McPhee’s work.

To frame Mr. Boyden’s historic tenure, it is helpful to visit the leadership work of two New York Times best selling authors. Dr. John C. Maxwell and Jim Collins both use five-level leadership models to illustrate effective leadership over time; level-five leadership, for the authors, is the highest level attainable. Although the authors take a different approach in creating their separate models (Maxwell’s seems more qualitative and Collins’ is grounded in quantitative research), both reach similar conclusions. Level-five leadership is usually characterized by what others will do or say for a person – usually later in a person’s life or career. In Maxwell’s case, Level-five leadership is like a gift given by others to the leader – recognition for a job well done usually evidenced by followers who look to the leader for advice, who lavish praise and recognition on the leader and a general recognition by peers as someone whose being is ‘special.’ One example in the news over the past year is the legendary coach, John Wooden, who died at the age of ninety-nine. In Collins’ case, Level-five Leadership is characterized largely by a sense of humility – someone who is equally at ease and sincere in recognizing others for success while taking responsibility when plans go awry. So when I read about Mr. Boyden, I was struck by the compelling evidence that solidifies his place as one of America’s greatest all-time educators and stands as an example of the highest level of leadership.

The first piece of evidence focuses on the Academy’s transition from a public-private school to becoming fully private and occurred in the 1920’s. Although Mr. Boyden was still young, he was in his forties, he had already been headmaster for over twenty years. Deerfield, at the time, faced a dilemma resulting from a new law that did not allow public funds to be used for private schools (Ironically, I worked through a similar bequest situation as the former owner of The Gray Building, www.graybuilding.org, in Northfield, Vermont which had title issues dating back to the mid-1800’s associated with the terms of a bequest granting land to be used for educational purposes). To become fully private, in addition to a lengthy legal battle, the Academy had to come up with one hundred fifty thousand dollars to pay the town the value of a bequest dated from 1878. Recognizing just how important Deerfield Academy had become in educating young boys, three of Boyden’s peers at competing schools raised $1.5 million dollars over six years – from their alumni – to keep the Academy open helping Deerfield transition completely to a private school. As author John McPhee wrote, this was an “extraordinary gesture in American education” and one that is a direct reflection on Boyden’s potentialities as an educator and leader. It is also significant to note that this occurred approximately one-third into Boyden’s career – not toward the end – he would remain as head of school for another forty years!

Further evidence is contained within statistics that recognize his ability to produce educational leaders and that recognize Mr. Boyden for his lifetime of work in education. By 1965, author John McPhee counted twenty-nine heads at other schools that had either learned from or served under Boyden at Deerfield. Additionally, Dr. Boyden received honorary degrees from Harvard, Princeton, Yale and seventeen other schools. The first statistic points to his ability to develop others – a leadership competency needed for growth – and the second statistic points to the respect and admiration gifted to him not from secondary school peers, but from the post-secondary school ranks where his students earned their college degrees.

But the greatest attribution to Mr. Boyden may be in a simple quote from a college classmate who likely acquired more wealth during a shorter business career than Mr. Boyden earned in his lengthy service in education. Good people of character who become great leaders don’t do it in short-order (see Perseverance – The Reading Glasses Principle). Daily is the process that led to Mr. Boyden’s achievements and his enduring reputation as “The Headmaster” is captured best by Robert Cleeland, also a member of Amherst College’s class of 1902, who said this about Mr. Boyden, “He was unknown in the class, and he is the biggest man the class produced.” While I don’t predict a return in time to an era when a person works for only one company, I do believe we can be inspired by Mr. Boyden’s life. Committed to a cause and connected to kids, he is a man who “finished up strong” securing a spot near the top of the class of great American educators.

RVA

Credits

The Headmaster, by John McPhee, Copyright 1966, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

A Shoe Story

By Rick Van Arnam

Northfield, Vermont

Who among us has not had a great customer experience about which you can’t wait to tell somebody? Perhaps one indicator of a well-led company is when ordinary customers become de-facto sales representatives who wouldn’t buy from anyone else while encouraging their friends to do the same. That is how I feel about Allen Edmunds - a shoe company.

It took me a long time to buy a pair of Allen Edmunds. The first time I recall trying on a pair of their shoes occurred during an anniversary trip to Chicago back in the mid-1990’s. Connie and I were shopping on Michigan Avenue and we perused our first Allen Edmunds store. At that time, I was working for CompuServe in Columbus, Ohio and was slowly learning how to build a professional wardrobe. I loved their shoes immediately, but could not bring myself to spend nearly $300 on a pair of shoes. It took nearly nine more years and a deployment to Afghanistan before I mustered the financial courage to invest in a new pair of shoes made by Allen Edmunds.

By this time, I had learned that higher end shoe companies offered services to overhaul worn shoes for about the cost of an average pair of new shoes that you might expect to discard after just a couple of years of regular wear. Applying a timeless adage, I had learned that when it comes to shoes, you get what you pay for. A high quality pair of hand-crafted leather shoes will last several years if cared for properly and last perhaps a lifetime with periodic restoration. So one year ago this month, while on my mid-tour leave from Afghanistan, I packaged up my first pair of six-year old Allen Edmunds shoes for shipment to their re-crafting cobblers located in Port Washington, Wisconsin. Packaging was easy – their website has an easy-to-fill-out form with a pre-paid, printable UPS label that I affixed to a box and dropped at a UPS pick-up site. When I returned from Afghanistan six months later, I had a like-new pair of Allen Edmunds shoes waiting for me ready for another six or seven years of use.

Soon after I started to wear these shoes, I received an offer in the mail announcing a special deal on recrafting services. My second pair of Allen Edmunds, which has become my favorite pair of shoes ever, needed a little attention so I repeated the same easy process and shipped my shoes to Wisconsin free of charge taking advantage of a 10% discount. When I received the shoes back, there was an letter from Paul Grangaard, president and CEO of the shoe company. The letter contains a Paul Harvey-like ‘rest of the story’ that explains the origins of the discount offer. The company wanted to do something for its customers who in 2009 where feeling the impact of the recession purchasing fewer newer shoes – so Allen Edmunds came up with the idea to offer a discount. The company recrafted 8,000 pairs of shoes stressing not only the local post office but also their cobblers who needed all of six weeks to get caught up. The company repeated the offer in 2010, but forecasted lower demand due to an improving economy and perhaps due also to the 8,000 pairs of shoes updated in 2009. But in the same period of time, Allen Edmunds received 16,000 pair of shoes on the way to recrafting a total of 60,000 pair in 2010!

In addition to the CEO’s recrafting note, I also received a $35 coupon good toward the purchase of a new pair of shoes and a free pair of athletic socks. What a deal!

Over the past year I have written about and spoken of solving complex problems – those problems that, by nature, produce cascading effects that often are hard to predict. This shoe story is a bit different than some themes on which I have mused, but for the executives of Allen Edmunds, who certainly felt the impact of a sour economy, boosting revenue when customers were not keen on spending $300 for a new pair of shoes was a complex problem. But the genius behind the offer turned out not so much that demand outstripped the forecast or that customer loyalty deepened. Rather, I think the genius behind the offer, albeit unintended, is the expansion of the cobbler team (jobs) and the recrafting lessons learned from restoring tens-of-thousands of pairs of shoes over the past three years.

So I’ll close with a couple of thoughts.

First, learning and development around leadership and character takes time (see Perseverance - The Reading Glasses Principle, published 29 August 2010) – not unlike the time it takes to wear out a high quality pair of shoes. For a company that sells a product that is expensive and can last for upwards of twenty years with care and regular maintenance, customer loyalty is paramount to long-term growth and learning and development with that in mind must match the same long-term horizon. Do you have a plan to sustain your personal development? Should it include a major event – an offsite session (like sending your shoes for recrafting) – in order to infuse new ideas, thinking and enthusiasm into your leadership?

Second, I don’t know Paul Grangaard or his executive team, but I suspect that the company is well-led based on how they treat their customers. Allen Edmunds finds ways to stay connect with its customers whether it is promoting a recrafting service in a down economy or publishing a CEO blog accessible from the company’s homepage. But the indicator that I appreciate the most is the by-name recognition of John Bittner, the company’s master shoemaker, made by Mr. Grangaard when he wrote about the expansion of Bittner’s recrafting team. It reminded me of Jim Collins’ “window and mirror” research from his book, Good to Great. In that book, Collins noted that the most effective leaders have a knack for looking out the window to recognize success in others, but looked in the mirror to place responsibility on them when success eluded a plan.

Lastly, we are entering June – a month marked by high school graduation and that contains Father’s Day. If you are thinking of a unique gift that will be enjoyed for years to come, why not help a young man buy a his first pair of Allen Edmunds shoes or a dad something that will last for many more Father’s Days?

RVA

PS – I have my eye on a new pair of Allen Edmunds. I think this pair will be the Winnetka…