Managing with Aloha: Ka lā hiki ola says, “Soar!”

“It is the dawning of a new day.” Optimism, Promise, and Our Sense of Hope. Last of Series Two on Managing with Aloha

By Rosa Say

My coaching copy of Managing with Aloha is annotated with quotes I’ve found which resonate with the values written within its pages. Recently, I tucked this one into chapter 19 on Ka lā hiki ola: “One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”—Helen Keller

We featured the value of Pono last issue, and talked about how it can fortify your readiness in tackling what’s next, simultaneously boosting your confidence: “Pono delivers integrity, ethical behavior, and morality—the morality of a particular system of shared values and principles of conduct.” I encouraged you to have that ‘particular system’ be your business or organization.

With the value of Ka lā hiki ola, we focus on “what’s next” through another lens—exactly what will ‘the dawning of your new day’ be all about?

If it’s truly new, it will be about some kind of change for you, a change steeped in Nānā i ke kumu (truth) and Pono (integrity), which you chose with forethought and your Aloha intentions.

Within our value-mapping, Nānā i ke kumu and Pono have fortified your constants. Ka lā hiki ola heralds in your change, and it helps you articulate it well, so it can be communicated to others, and received well. As American systems scientist Peter Senge wisely observed, “People don’t hate change, people hate being changed,” and we must convey the good which change can bring.

A lot might sit in the grey area between honored constants and desired change if you’ve been in business for a while, and when people have settled into their jobs; it doesn’t take much time to accumulate systems and processes, which have become habits and comfort zones.

Ka lā hiki ola says, “Let’s fly. To change is to soar.”

“Ka lā hiki ola encourages us to make Pono today and not as a lofty distant goal. Let go of yesterday, and let go of everything irrelevant to the right now. Give yourself hope in this very moment, not just in tomorrow. Live again, and live better—start a new chapter going forward. Knowing that sunrise will always bring a new day, be secure in that certainty, while living with the attitude that today is it. Enjoy your present; focus on what matters, and relish the now.”—Managing with Aloha for Ke Ola Magazine, April 2016.

You can get pretty excited about this, and your team can chime in enthusiastically as they enroll in the visionary aspects of the change you propose—people tend to cheer for “the dawning of a new day!” Yet letting go of previous habits and comforts can be challenging. It can take some time.

Or so we like to tell ourselves.

The ‘letting go’ woven into our practice of Ka lā hiki ola recognizes this need, but it comes with a greater sense of urgency as compared to the patience of Nānā i ke kumu and Pono, for that’s what a sense of hope requires. Think of this as a good impatience. Clear your runway—don’t be a leader who still holds back when everyone else is revving their engines, ready to soar.

Managing with Aloha is itself a good example, for much as we like to believe the Aloha Spirit is Hawai‘i’s natural persuasion, it’s no guarantee. We have to work on getting our Aloha intentions to be deliberate, thoughtful, and consistently present, so the Aloha residing in every individual will soar as their every day, every place, every job expression.

When I bring the Managing with Aloha philosophy to a business with its trunk full of how-tos, change comes with me. The company of people within that business must become a learning organization willing to change their habits. As they learn something new, they have to make room for it, and as their coach I help them do so.

You have the same responsibility as an Alaka‘i leader, whatever your change may be: you’re charged with helping your people make room. Then, you make space to soar.

Sense of hope can be present in everyday moments, and not just in distant tomorrows. Ka lā hiki ola will coach you with these affirmations:

“You made a decision to change, now trust in your decision and go for it. Welcome your sense of urgency as much as you welcome the dawn in each new day. Grab hold of your good impatience for change with both hands. Open your arms to let everyone else in, and clear the runway together.”

Listen well, and take it to heart.

Refuse to be average. Refuse to settle. Refuse to hold back.

Let go of whatever creeps.

Grab hold of opportunity. Grab hold of expectant optimism. Grab hold of confident starts and fresh chances.

It’s time to soar. ❖

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Next issue: Hana hou! We’ll be launching Series Three of Managing with Aloha. Join us!

Contact writer Rosa Say at RosaSay.com or ManagingWithAloha.com

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