Extreme Kindness

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

I must admit, I have been bitten by the blog bug. I love reading daily from the different bloggers who write on a variety of topics, from compassion to corporate social responsibility. One of the more intriguing blogs i presently read is the 5 dollar philanthropist. This is Tom William’s (co-founder of www.givemeaning.com) blog on social networks, marketing and philanthropy.

The project GiveMeaning is a phenomenal site which helps connect communities and individuals to make positive change.

Watch one of their podcasts to understand more: http://www.givemeaning.com/podcasts/gmpodcast7_showntell.mov.

Peace out!

Chris

Here is a look at Kindness Searches on google:

Here are the top countries searching for kindness:

1. Singapore

2. Canada

3. United States

4. New Zealand

5. Philippines

6. Australia

7. South Africa

8. United Arab Emirates

9. Ireland

10. Hong Kong

Lastly, here is a list of communities that search for kindness. Note the hometown of the kindness crew, Victoria, B.C. in 3rd place!

Cities

1. Richardson, TX, USA

2. Dallas, TX, USA

3. Victoria, Canada

4. Edmonton, Canada

5. Winnipeg, Canada

6. Salt Lake City, UT, USA

7. Vancouver, Canada

8. Calgary, Canada

9. Raleigh, NC, USA

10. Portland, OR, USA

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

Matt Navitsky emailed me to let me know about an important contest. He writes:

My name is Matt Navitsky and I’m getting in touch with Extreme Kindness on behalf of Circuit City’s firedog services. The “firedog Across America” contest was launched by Circuit City this past winter to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to America’s firefighters. Now we need help selecting the $100,000 grand prize winner. On top of that, every vote cast will result in a $1 donation to the voter’s chosen firehouse. We’d be thrilled if you could let Extreme Kindness readers know about the contest so they can help raise money for America’s fire safety professionals.

Over 5,000 essays were submitted to www.firedog.com between December 6, 2006 and March 31, 2007, describing the ways in which these everyday heroes go above and beyond the call of duty. From helping communities recover after tragedies, to touching the hearts of those in need, these stories are truly inspiring. Circuit City recently visited the finalists and created a video story for each to help bring the essays to life. Videos for all finalists can be viewed here: http://web.firedog.com/acrossamerica/vote.aspx.

Now that the ten finalists have been selected, we need everyone’s help deciding who the grand prize winner will be. Each of the ten finalist firehouses will receive $20,000 for much-needed equipment and the corresponding essay writer will receive a home “techover” worth $10,000, courtesy of Circuit City’s firedog(SM) services team.

And as a firedog Across America finalist, these ten firehouses are now eligible to win additional funding during this final stage of the campaign when America votes for a $100,000 grand prize winner. Until May 13, Americans can visit www.firedog.com to view all ten firehouse finalists’ stories (also pasted below this email) and vote for their favorite. Each vote will result in a donation of $1 to the voter’s chosen firehouse. At the culmination of the voting stage, the firehouse with the most votes will win the grand prize. The winner will be announced the week of May 14, 2007.

Circuit City developed firedog across America to kick off its new service, firedog, a one-stop shop for consumers’ technology needs: www.firedog.com . Circuit City’s firedog technicians install, optimize, repair, and make technology purchases simple so consumers don’t have to waste time with piles of manuals and tricky cables.

As part of the December launch, Circuit City and firedog also presented $100,000 donations to both the FDNY Foundation, which supports New York City Fire Department initiatives, and the National Law Enforcement and Firefighters Children’s Foundation for its efforts in helping children of law enforcement and firefighting personnel. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and New York City Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta were on hand to receive the donations.

Again, we wanted to share information about the firedog Across America contest with Extreme Kindness in hopes that you’d let your readers know about it and help us honor and generate donations for America’s fire safety community. I’ve included the list of ten finalist firehouses below. Please let me know if you decide to encourage your readers to vote for their favorite at www.firedog.com or if I can provide you with further information.

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.”

Ever found yourself seething because you can’t find your keys, or you left a grocery bag at the store? I have…many times!

It can be tough to stay centered, or positive when little stresses pile up in our lives, and it is important to have a system or a method for taking care of these stresses. Prevention of course is key: stay engaged in what you are doing, be patient in your work, take the time to put things in the same space all the time. Most of all: stay organized! These routines will help eliminate much of your distress before stress has the chance to surface. But, guess what, you will lose things! So here is a simple formula I have come up with to help me when my favorite dress shirt has walked away from my closet.

1. Choose to stay Positive through the process.

2. Begin to clean up the space you are looking in. This will allow you to feel productive during this process.

3. Set a time-specific goal.

4. Reward yourself when you find the item, and for cleaning up your space.

The Get Things Done formula will also help you to stay organized and on top of your work and life. This will minimize most of these issues before they arise.

The website is: http://www.davidco.com/

Is it possible to forgive someone on-site, without receiving an apology or admission? Do the personal feelings associated with forgiveness always necessitate the apology of another? It may be possible to move towards resolution with those who have wronged us by first releasing our hurt or anger. This can allow us to be in a space of grace when we meet that person to search for our answers and apologies. We can release the burden of pain that often cripples us and plunges us deeper into the anxiety and pain which is connected to being hurt.

I have begun to forgive on-site. Can you?

“When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger
than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.”

“To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.”

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

The forigiveness project is a powerful and important project which brings together people to engage in the process of forgiveness. The website has a plethora of stories about forgiveness in the most extreme of situations.

http://www.theforgivenessproject.com/

Richard St. John is a fellow Canadian, dedicated to spreading success and passion. In this three minute video, Richard, let’s us know how to achieve success in area of life. Two of his “8 Factors for Success” really stood out for me: Passion and Serve. These two pillars are what have driven the Extreme Kindness project. Pairing something you love to do with making a difference in the community is the main philosophy behind our work.

Right now I am racing through the book this presentation is based on: Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and Rich, What Really Leads to Success - and it’s not smarts, looks or luck. The book has a beautiful minimalist design and is filled with insightful quotations from the world’s most succesful, in all areas of life. Anyone wanting to find success in serving the community should consider this book!