Extreme Kindness

Google Video: Just Copy and Paste the below link into your web browser.

http://video.google.ca/videosearch?q=kindness+Crew&num=10&so=0&start=0

Many people have raised their eyebrows when hearing that I am leaving for some far off destination, to talk to a group of businesses or CEO’s or high paced sales force about the importance of kindness in the workplace. It is not always something you think might be a high priority for the corporate world. Well, for some of the disbelievers and believers out there, I encourage you to check out this fantastic new book called:

THE POWER OF NICE

“Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval have moved to the top of the advertising industry by following a simple but powerful philosophy: It pays to be nice.

In an era when the corporate world glorifies a dog-eat-dog mentality, these two dynamic women built The Kaplan Thaler Group, one of the nation’s fastest-growing advertising agencies, not with spears and intimidation, but with flowers and chocolates.

Read more about how this powerful four-letter word can change your life!”

http://www.thepowerofnice.com/

This little book will show you why women should run most corporations in America, and maybe the entire country. Reading “Nice” will improve just about everything in your life, and that’s a promise.”
— James Patterson, best-selling author,
former CEO of J. Walter Thompson North America
“For my money, I would always rather make a deal with people I like who treat me well. If you want to discover the surprising power of nice, read this book. Memorize it. Use it. You’ll be glad you did.”
— Donald Trump
Leo Durocher was wrong! Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval’s “The Power of Nice” is the antidote to our increasingly mean-spirited culture. I’m going to send a copy to every political campaign consultant I know.
— Arianna Huffington

What does it take to truly make a difference? How do we measure the success of people striving for a better world?

I looked today at a list. A list of those who have won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Men and women of genius, vision and sheer determination. Each of them unique and one of a kind. How do such people become who they are and how do they achieve what they have?

I can say that they all share one thing in common. They are all leaders. More importantly, they are all leaders in compassion.

To be a leader you have to nuture many wonderful qualities including passion, energy and the ability to set goals. To work towards benchmarks everyday, to stay the course, to continue on.

What would it take to be a leader who achieves such an honour as the Nobel Peace Prize?

I believe it starts with first setting a goal. Then taking that first step and then another and another until you are running torwards what at first seemed like an impossible dream.

Run as fast as you can because life is too short to walk in circles.

Remember as well that we are all just people, with the same potential locked inside us.
Take a moment and learn about one of these people listed below. Place them on that mantle of honor besides your other modern day celebrities, talk show hosts and athletic superstars. But do not ever think that such a place of respect and height cannot be reached by you as well. When we stop believing that each person has the chance to make a remarkable difference, we stop trying.

To stop trying is the same as standing still for your entire life.

So go for a run today and see how close you get to that next goal. What do you have to lose? The answer is nothing if we try and everything if we don’t.

Commit first to becoming a leader and someone who is not afraid to set goals. Making the world a better place is just around the corner.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to 94 individuals and 19 organizations since 1901.

2006 - Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank
2005 - International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei
2004 - Wangari Maathai
2003 - Shirin Ebadi
2002 - Jimmy Carter
2001 - United Nations, Kofi Annan
2000 - Kim Dae-jung
1999 - Médecins Sans Frontières
1998 - John Hume, David Trimble
1997 - International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Jody Williams
1996 - Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, José Ramos-Horta
1995 - Joseph Rotblat, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
1994 - Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin
1993 - Nelson Mandela, F.W. de Klerk
1992 - Rigoberta Menchú Tum
1991 - Aung San Suu Kyi
1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev
1989 - The 14th Dalai Lama
1988 - United Nations Peacekeeping Forces
1987 - Oscar Arias Sánchez
1986 - Elie Wiesel
1985 - International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
1984 - Desmond Tutu
1983 - Lech Walesa
1982 - Alva Myrdal, Alfonso García Robles
1981 - Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
1980 - Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
1979 - Mother Teresa
1978 - Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin
1977 - Amnesty International
1976 - Betty Williams, Mairead Corrigan
1975 - Andrei Sakharov
1974 - Seán MacBride, Eisaku Sato
1973 - Henry Kissinger, Le Duc Tho
1972 - The prize money for 1972 was allocated to the Main Fund
1971 - Willy Brandt
1970 - Norman Borlaug
1969 - International Labour Organization
1968 - René Cassin
1967 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1966 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1965 - United Nations Children’s Fund
1964 - Martin Luther King
1963 - International Committee of the Red Cross, League of Red Cross Societies
1962 - Linus Pauling
1961 - Dag Hammarskjöld
1960 - Albert Lutuli
1959 - Philip Noel-Baker
1958 - Georges Pire
1957 - Lester Bowles Pearson
1956 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1955 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1954 - Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
1953 - George C. Marshall
1952 - Albert Schweitzer
1951 - Léon Jouhaux
1950 - Ralph Bunche
1949 - Lord Boyd Orr
1948 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1947 - Friends Service Council, American Friends Service Committee
1946 - Emily Greene Balch, John R. Mott
1945 - Cordell Hull
1944 - International Committee of the Red Cross
1943 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1942 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1941 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1940 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1939 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1938 - Nansen International Office for Refugees
1937 - Robert Cecil
1936 - Carlos Saavedra Lamas
1935 - Carl von Ossietzky
1934 - Arthur Henderson
1933 - Sir Norman Angell
1932 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1931 - Jane Addams, Nicholas Murray Butler
1930 - Nathan Söderblom
1929 - Frank B. Kellogg
1928 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1927 - Ferdinand Buisson, Ludwig Quidde
1926 - Aristide Briand, Gustav Stresemann
1925 - Sir Austen Chamberlain, Charles G. Dawes
1924 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1923 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1922 - Fridtjof Nansen
1921 - Hjalmar Branting, Christian Lange
1920 - Léon Bourgeois
1919 - Woodrow Wilson
1918 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1917 - International Committee of the Red Cross
1916 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1915 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1914 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1913 - Henri La Fontaine
1912 - Elihu Root
1911 - Tobias Asser, Alfred Fried
1910 - Permanent International Peace Bureau
1909 - Auguste Beernaert, Paul Henri d’Estournelles de Constant
1908 - Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Fredrik Bajer
1907 - Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Louis Renault
1906 - Theodore Roosevelt
1905 - Bertha von Suttner
1904 - Institute of International Law
1903 - Randal Cremer
1902 - Élie Ducommun, Albert Gobat
1901 - Henry Dunant, Frédéric Passy

A company’s core values can say a lot about an organization.

Next time you are making a purchase ask yourself, what are the values of this company? Does the business stand by their values? Are you making a positive difference by choosing to support these values?

To better understand the concept of core values and their power, I have placed a short article below by Scott Bedbury.

Enjoy….

Strong Coffee: Expanding Your Brand Without Diluting It
Scott Bedbury
A brand, says Scott Bedbury, is much more than a company’s product. A brand is a company’s DNA.

Bedbury realized that firsthand when he joined Nike in 1987. At that time, Nike was rapidly losing market share to Reebok. With Reebok eating Nike’s lunch, Nike’s executive team took a hard look at its brand and decided to reemphasize its core strength: athletics. That was still too narrow a strategy, because by building its brand solely around athletics, Nike would appeal only to serious athletes.

The goal of any brand, says Bedbury, is to “widen the access point”–to find the highest common denominator that appeals to as many customers as possible. To find its highest common denominator, Nike set out to identify its three core values–the strands that compose its DNA.

For Nike, these core values are:

Authenticity: Nike is authentic in everything it does.
Athletic: Nike appeals to serious athletes.
Performance: Nike’s products must meet the highest specs.
From this three-legged model, Nike identified its widest access point: the joy in sports fitness that’s available to everyone. In other words, “Just do it.”

For a brand to succeed, says Bedbury, a company must identify its three cores values — the gene pool that makes up the organization’s DNA. For Disney, these core values are:

Entertainment: the product itself, from theme parks to films.
Family: Disney’s community is a community of families –everything it does should be relevant to families.
Fun: Disney stands for fun.
For Disney, the “fun” component is the most important, because it provides an emotional cue that should be in the genetic makeup of every brand. While Nike’s brand has brought it tremendous success, its brand is suffering now precisely because it lacks an emotional cue — people lack an emotional connection with the brand.

How do you identify the gene pools for your company’s brand? It’s not an easy task, as the audience learned when it tried to do just that in breakout sessions ( groups tried to identify the core values of companies ranging from Martha Stewart to Amazon.com to Fast Company to the IRS ).

But companies tend to grow their brand from three distinct gene pools: its product or activity; its values; and its emotional cues. These values must be rooted in reality — no one is going to believe in a kinder, gentler Microsoft, for example. But they must also draw on an organization’s heredity — and what it aspires to be.

If you have the chance, just 1 minuute, you have to check out this guy Kevin Carroll. One of the many incredible people who have inspired the Kindness Crew and who we are PROUD to call a friend! He will teach you how to PLAY and MAKE THINGS HAPPEN!

http://www.kevincarrollkatalyst.com/about.html
(A little info below from his very cool website)
“About
Kevin Carroll is the author of the highly successful Rules of the Red Rubber Ball. He is the founder of The Katalyst Consultancy where his “job” is to nurture and care for the individual and communal inner spirit and to inspire new ways of thinking. It is not unusual for him to work with CEOs from Fortune 500 companies and a group of equally unruly first graders on the same day. In fact, it’s expected. He considers himself an excitatory agent for change; in other words, he’s a “Katalyst.” The “K” is for Kevin.

Raised by his grandparents in Philadelphia, Kevin spent endless hours at the neighborhood playground where he found his calling: a red rubber ball. Kevin’s pursuit of play and his red rubber ball took him overseas with the Air Force. Kevin spent ten years in the United States Air Force as a language interpreter and translator gaining fluency in Croatian, Czech and Serbian and conversational fluency in German and Russian.

After the Air Force, Kevin landed a job as the athletic trainer and physical education teacher at The Haverford School in Philadelphia, which quickly led to his job as the head athletic trainer for the Philadelphia 76ers. While at the 76ers, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight tapped Kevin to bring his unique experiences to the sneaker giant and help inspire their creatives. Although no job existed at the time, Knight encouraged Kevin to “hang out” and create the job that would add value to the company. Kevin accepted the challenge and stayed for seven years as “Katalyst.” He was instrumental in helping Nike develop a deeper understanding of athletic product performance, team dynamics and interpersonal communication. He was also the inspiration behind the Lance Armstrong wristband phenomenon. Kevin left in 2004 to found his own brand, The Katalyst Consultancy.”

On April 22nd at 1:00 PM PST (Pacific Standard Time), over 1000 people around the world made the attempt to participate for 1 minute in the first global hugathon. If they happened to be standing by a stranger, anywhere in the world at 1:00 PM PST, they cheerfully asked the person if they would like a hug. No more no less.

The goal was to have people around the world hugging all at the same time.

The hugathon started with 20 emails being sent out on www.facebook.com from Brad Stokes two weeks before the event. This resulted in over 1800 people being invited with over 1000 making the attempt to hug other people given the opportunity.

Remember that it takes no time to make a difference. All you have to do is be creative and be online.

Join Brad Stokes facebook to be a part of the next Hugathon!

B-rad

Can Facebook help make the world a better place?

The Answer is YES!

On April 22nd at 1:00 PM PST (Pacific Standard Time). If you are standing by a stranger, anywhere in the world, cheerfully ask them if they would like a hug.

No more no less.

The goal is to have people around the world hugging all at the same time.

This event has 526 confirmed guests.
Check out the link for pictures and to register http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=2274949887

Remember the Pay It Forward equation and invite your friends to attend.

Thanks for making the world a better place one hug at a time!

B-rad

Hugathon #1
Sunday, April 22, 2007
1:00pm - 1:05pm
Location: Where ever you are in the world

So I just got hooked on www.facebook.com and immediately wanted to see if Facebook can help make the world a better place.

The Answer is YES!

On April 22nd at 1:00 PM PST (Pacific Standard Time). If you are standing by a stranger, anywhere in the world, cheerfully ask them if they would like a hug. No more no less. The goal is to have people around the world hugging strangers all at the same time. If you get a fun picture or a cool story, share it at www.facebook.com by joining this event on Brad Stokes facebook event listing or at www.extremekindness.com by writing to Brad’s Blog. Feel free to also post any video footage on youtube.

Good luck and have fun. Lets see if we can get at least 1000 ppl playing for the first hugathon hosted by all Kindness Crew members (this means you)!

We were recently asked to speak on the spiritual aspect of Extreme Kindness.

I thought that this would be an easy question to answer at first. But I quickly realized that very often, matters of the ’spirit’, can be elusive in their description and not as tangible as we would like. Like any contemporary seeker I immediately turned to the ultimate source of modern day knowledge; Wikipedia.

“Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. The spiritual, involving (as it may) perceived eternal verities regarding humankind’s ultimate nature, often contrasts with the temporal, with the material, or with the worldly. A sense of connection forms a central defining characteristic of spirituality — connection to something greater than oneself, which includes an emotional experience of religious awe and reverence. Equally important, spirituality relates to matters of sanity and of psychological health. Like some forms of religion, spirituality often focuses on personal experience (see mysticism).
Spirituality may involve perceiving life as higher, more complex or more integrated with one’s world view; as contrasted with the merely sensual. A common theme of spirituality in many traditions, is thus the path, work, practice, or tradition of perceiving and internalizing one’s true nature and relationship to the rest of existence (ie, God, creation, or life), and of becoming free of the lesser egoic self (or ego) in favor of being more fully ones true Self.”

Okay now we have a common platform to all jump into the waters of our inner selves.

Extreme Kindness began for the four of us as a way to PROTECT our spirits. We had just watched September 11th with the rest of the world. Glued to the TV, wishing for change yet feeling powerless to do anything about it. My mother had also recently passed away just a few months prior. On September 11 2001, we went out to commit our first marathon of extreme kindness to preserve our HOPE. Hope in the world, our fellow man but also ourselves. Hope that we might do something to help the people around us.

I also believe that the spirit needs to have FUN. Extreme Kindness is all about connecting with each other and ones true self through laughter and joy. Happiness and Kindness is the spirits natural programming. We all start as babies who experience pure JOY and WONDERMENT of the world around us. A mothers KIND touch, a fathers song and a siblings smile. When we are having a good time is often when we feel most in touch with ourselves, the ones we love and the world around us. I personally find that the best ANSWERS come when I am laughing.

Extreme Kindness has given each of us a “connection to something greater than oneself”. Enough said here.

When performing acts of kindness you step out of the material world and into the realm of ‘feelings’. I love the temporal reality I spend much of my time in, but to every so often touch that other place that so often remains hidden can truly be addictive.

Maybe that is because every time I give, receive or witness an act of kindness, my brain produces more Serotonin (Did I spell that right?). That’s the natural hormone our bodies give us to feel happy. Now that has to be good for “matters of sanity and of psychological health”.

To wrap up “thus the path”. Extreme Kindness walks in the real world on a real journey for a better understanding of real human beings and being human.

I hope this helps and please let us know your thoughts as well.

B-rad
B-Cool
B-Kind
B-Spiritual

I was asked recently,

“how much does Extreme Kindness truly change the worlds problems?”

The problems being: War, Poverty, Racism, Disease, Hunger, Murder, Corporate Greed and Political Corruption.

My answer,

“I do not know”

My goal for Extreme Kindness is not to directly bring about World Peace or solve any other of those massive and frightening global issues.

I’m no genius and I am not a great man.

But, rarely have I been indifferent.

Extreme Kindness wakes me up. It gets peoples attention. It can take away a persons indifference.

Indifference to suffering. A lack of connection to the world around us. This is all I wish to solve. Then maybe someone might teach me how to help make a real difference.

Edmund Burke

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.

Elie Wiesel

The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.

George Bernard Shaw

Indifference is the essence of inhumanity.

Helen Keller

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all — the apathy of human beings.

Joan Vinge

Indifference is the strongest force in the universe. It makes everything it touches meaningless. Love and hate don’t stand a chance against it.