What Could Go Wrong With a Bad Deal With Iran?

What could go wrong because of a “bad” deal with Iran? Ask Ambassador Robert Gallucci. A former career diplomat, he cemented the 1994 nuclear agreement with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Gallucci was hailed for diffusing the world’s greatest nuclear proliferation threat of his time.

Compared to what appears to be on the table at the P5+1 talks however, North Korea gave up far more than their Persian counterparts ever will. Pyongyang agreed to shut down three nuclear reactors along with strict inspections by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency. North Korea also reaffirmed its membership in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and agreed to be a party of the 1992 Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Following a successful charm offensive by the late Kim Jong-Il, the “Agreed Framework” ensured that DPRK received generous international aid in return. This included 500,000 tons of heating oil annually, the building of two new Light Water Reactors and numerous other material incentives, all courtesy of the international community and, in particular, the American taxpayer.

Sadly, the Agreement was the perfect ruse for DPRK nuclear scientists. To be sure, North Korea received its annual shipments of oil and South Korea started construction of two 1,000 MW reactors. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright even feted Kim with gifts, including autographed NBA memorabilia. Fast-forward to 2003 and North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Then on October 9, 2006, DPRK detonated its first atomic bomb.

Given the pathetic state of North Korea’s economy, the world wonders why the Kims have sacrificed so much in pursuit of their nuclear ambitions. One reason may be that their hatred of their South Korean neighbors – along with the U.S. and Japan – outweighs their love of their own people.

The Obama Administration and the Europeans certainly harbor the hope of achieving peace in our time. But a real peace? That depends on whether we can trust Iran’s leaders to uphold their word. Even more importantly, it also depends on whether Ayatollah Khamenei loves his people more than he hates Israel, the U.S. and the Infidels of the western world.

What could go wrong? Just ask Ambassador Gallucci.

Rosh Hashanah & The God Particle

He was undoubtedly one of the greatest theological physicists of our time.

Fusing Einstein’s Theory of Relativity with Jewish wisdom, the genius of 20th century Jewish philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel was navigating through the spatial and temporal dimensions that make up 21st century Jewish life. It takes place in our homes. It takes place in our hearts. We are participants in this story. We can access the Divine space-time through ritual and faith. And we can realize what Heschel described as the “radical amazement” of having God present in our lives.

But for all his brilliance, for many Jews Heschel’s ideas are incomplete. This Rosh Hashanah follows a very difficult summer. Israel fought in Gaza. World Jewry fought battled global anti-Semitism. Jews even quarreled with one another. As such, defending Israel; protecting Jews afar; and healing the rifts within occupies our thoughts. The lavish concepts of a Jewish philosopher may not seem so relevant to us now.

It is the unexpected murkiness that unsettles much of the elegance of Heschel’s ideas. So it was also for Albert Einstein’s theories: quantum physics. Einstein’s grandiose concepts of our universe become upended by events in subatomic minutia. Chaos. Unpredictability. Paradoxes. Unknown variables. And competing forces. A mirror of life itself, we too experience the quantum realm daily via what 21st century Rabbi Irwin Kula calls, “the sacred messiness of life.”

And yet, as millions of Jews prepare for their New Year, we yearn for unity, understanding and a sense of meaning. How can we make right what is wrong in our lives? Who will give us the answers – or at least the guideposts – to bridge the divisions between time and space, the mundane and the Divine, between us and them, and between the conflicted parts of our souls?

In 2013, scientists around the world celebrated the discovery of the elusive Higgs Boson particle. Sometimes (but inappropriately) called the God Particle, its significance is largely related to validating concepts that bridge the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics. Is there also such a bridge to traverse for a conflicted four-thousand year old religious civilization as its welcomes its holiest days?

For many Jews, and indeed for many Americans, the missing element is not merely the lack of connections to our spirituality, but the lack of our connections to one another. We have individual lives to live. We have individual stories to tell. But we lack the glue to connect them to the fabric of places and moments that are supposed to bind us together.

Yet, that is the power of Rosh Hashanah: a birthday party for the world’s creation, it reminds us that living is best done together. The missing element is not an elusive particle but rather an entity that already exists: community. A community that’s within our reach. A community that we can own. A community that we can repair and make better. A community that helps our hearts and minds to grow.

In his later years, Rabbi Heschel explored the existence of prophesy in post-Biblical times. Perhaps that was his calling to us. We are all authors of our future. Yet the story can only be completed by adding yet an entirely new dimension: communities of purpose that bring us together. In that manner, we have the power to sketch for ourselves a new beginning on the canvas of eternity.

Happy New Year. Shanah Tovah.

What Reunions Teach Us

High school reunions are remarkable events.  They bind that awkward yet remarkable time in our lives known as adolescence to who we are today as adults.  Yet while attending the reunion itself, for those fleeting hours we exist in a bubble containing who we once were and who we've become.  It's certainly weird, but it's a lot of fun as well.

Attending my 25th high school reunion this weekend enabled 100 former classmates and me to live that bubble.  We wore nametags with pictures from our graduation yearbook.  We sought to recognize one another...in some cases easier than others.  And we caught up on a quarter-century's worth of life events while also remembering our Fast Times at Handsworth High.

When we left that evening, we renewed friendships and shared special memories.  But I also found myself thinking about what these past 25 years have been about, and the power of potential that exists in the next 25 years.  I did my best to encapsulate 1987-2012 in the following alliterative tripartite structure:

First, for virtually all of us after high school, our focus continued to be on learning.  For some, we went on to higher education while others immediately entered the workforce.  No matter what we did, the path in those early years was to learn the ways of the world...and a bit more about ourselves.

What then followed was a time of yearning.  We worked toward developing flourishing careers.  We sought life partners.  We strove to create our homes.    We made investments in ourselves.  We took risks.  And some of us, we even sacrificed a bit in the present for a brighter tomorrow.

Today we're earning.  And that's not a statement about our incomes.  Instead, it's about what we have the good fortune of accumulating right now.  For some, it’s seeing our families thrive; for others, it’s realizing professional, civic or personal accomplishments.  For all of us, I hope it's securing our good health for decades of future good living.

So where does that leave us in imagining our future?  To be honest, I got stuck trying to continue my alliterative theme.  The next 25 years will be about what...burning?  How depressing.  Churning?  That's great if all plan on producing butter.

But then it came to me...

For my classmates, for our generation and for me personally, it will be about returning.  We have this remarkable opportunity in the forthcoming years to give back.  Our families count on us, whether we have growing children or aging relatives, or both.  Our communities need our energy as volunteers, advocates, supporters and change-agents.  Being there for the people in our lives is the greatest gift we can give them, and the intrinsic rewards that we reap from such service are equally profound.

I look forward to engaging in the act of returning.  It offers us a sense of completion and it also connects us to aspirations so much larger than simply our own personal goals.  May the ensuing years be rich and fulfilling ones for my fellow Handsworth alumnae…I look forward to the next time that we all get together.

Special thanks to my good friend Mark Atkins, whose wisdom and insights certainly helped inspire these thoughts.

The Mission-Driven Business

It is funny how sometimes the most profound insights can happen in unexpected settings. Such was the case while ushering at Rosh Hashanah services this weekend.

Just before the holiday, I was pondering a scenario that questioned whether nonprofits are mission-driven businesses. A colleague of mine shared the following case study: Suppose that a nonprofit pre-school had exactly one opening and two families vied for that slot. The first was a couple that had no connection whatsoever to the mission of the school but could pay 100 percent of the tuition; the second was a single parent who was strongly connected to the mission, but could only afford 50 percent of the tuition. Who do you take?

Alas, both the words “mission” and “business” are vexing terms here. Yes, one would want to enroll the child from the needy (and connected) family, but my hypothetical school needs to stay solvent, so the businesslike choice is to take the family that can pay.

With these thoughts still floating in my mind, I entered my synagogue early on Saturday for my morning of ushering. Immediately I became immersed in a sea of activity: the clergy was systematically reviewing last minute details; the staff was in high gear to ready the building; and a small army of volunteers was hastily preparing to welcome 1,000+ families. What was clear to me in those harried moments is that my synagogue operates as a highly functional organization – even on the holiest days of the Jewish calendar.

But what happened next was even more amazing: As the service started, the mechanical and coordinated motions seamlessly transitioned into a highly spiritual and uplifting experience. The countless hours of preparation and organization dissipated into the background. Like the foundation of a building, all that hidden work helped support and strengthen these special moments for our community.

As I absorbed this juxtaposition while fulfilling my volunteer duties, two light bulbs came on: First, I realized that my synagogue is a great example of a mission-driven business: it certainly exists to fulfill a higher purpose but it operates no differently than any other major organization. Indeed, even institutions of worship need people who know how to attract members, keep the building running and operate it in a financially solvent manner.

The second light bulb illuminated my quandary with the pre-school example. I never had a doubt that in order to fulfill the mission, the right choice would be to accept the child from the single mom. But how does one address the fiscal question? The answer is the strategic trajectory that one chooses.

In the algebra of nonprofits, to solve for “X” the leader of the pre-school needs to say: “we exist to welcome families from all walks of life so that they can be enriched by our pre-school experience…and we make this possible by earning revenue from tuition and by earning revenue from philanthropy. That is how we run our business, by viewing both our participating families and our financial supporters as necessary constituents to fulfill our mission.”

The pivot in my thinking is not that philanthropy is somehow a new part of the equation, but that its purpose is viewed in a different manner. Philanthropic giving is a strategic revenue source to realize the ultimate goals of the organization, rather than just to fill a deficit. The mission-driven business understands what its goals are and how to achieve them. The mission informs the choices that the organization will make, but the business planning ensures that it can sustain these choices in a fiscally sound manner.

Back at my synagogue, the service concluded and I felt myself moved by these insights. . The weeks ahead will surely allow me test my notions in real-life, and I hope to contribute toward making good decisions on behalf of my organization.

In this spirit of optimism, I hope that Rosh Hashanah is a season of renewal for people of all faiths, and that each of us has occasion to advance his/her understanding of the world in which we live. Happy New Year!

Community links in the age of Linked In

I must admit that I rather enjoy the online social networking world. Whether it is the steady stream of updates from friends on Facebook, or the terse notes from those I follow on Twitter, these messages keep me in touch with people living across the street and across the ocean.

Yet, the question that keeps me up at night is whether social networks are a genuine form of community.

For me, the term community is defined by several characteristics:

First, communities unite people who share common traits or a common purpose. Communities are not random amalgamations of people, but rather, exist for explicit reasons. Moreover, people who belong to a community can define their affiliation.

Second, communities must have a sense of place. Often, groups that define themselves as a community will associate with a physical space, whether it is a church, a club, a neighborhood, a town or even a country, to bind them together. But whether such a place exists or not, a community must “reside” somewhere in order to sustain itself.

Third, communities must have boundaries. In some cases, they are geographical, such as a neighborhood. In other cases, they are the norms, rituals, practices or beliefs of the group. This sense of boundaries also characterizes that there are both insiders and outsiders in a given community (although the broadest definition of “community” would certainly include all those who would want to identify with it).

Finally, communities imply an ongoing connection between members of the group. Communities that exist through daily activity amongst their adherents are often the strongest ones, but whether the level of contact is constant or occurs episodically, communities require regular and habitual interactions between people to sustain themselves.

If these four points represent a kind of litmus test whether social networks are, in fact, communities, I find myself concluding that yes, they are. Indeed, whether it is an online network or a chat group, these sites create affiliations between people that are visible, accessible, definable and sustainable.

But how do I reconcile the fact that I’m rather uncomfortable with this conclusion? After all, in my professional life I’ve dedicated nearly two decades toward creating and strengthening the kinds of communities where one actually needs to be physically present to participate.

For me, the answer is that whether I like it or not, millions of people are creating new definitions for themselves of what it means to belong and to affiliate. Social networks help to facilitate these connections in ways beyond anything what traditional community planners could ever have imagined.

Looking ahead, social entrepreneurs seeking to strengthen communities in the physical world have much to gain from studying the dynamic nature of communities in cyberspace. Already there are exciting synergies between our digital and corporeal lives and I for one am looking forward to being a part of these new ideas.

But in the meantime, I’ll be updating my status and reading the latest tweets as I keep pondering future definitions of community.

Nonprofit Management: Old School as the New Strategy

After reading Reengineering the Corporation by the late Michael Hammer in 1994, I was so enamored with his “clean slate” approach to business practices that I became determined to explore how its teachings could change the nonprofit world. I wrote several papers in graduate school about how communal organizations could utilize reengineering principles in their businesses. I even attended a seminar offered by Hammer & Company to learn how I could bring reengineering concepts to the organized Jewish community.

But 15 years later, I find myself thinking about the nonprofit world very differently and am also rediscovering that there is enormous value in “old school” thinking. Of course, every nonprofit executive must run their organization as if it were a business (especially in terms of quantifying goals and accountability). However, past operating practices may also be incredibly relevant as nonprofits adapt to new economic and social realities.

I offer two specific observations:

Bring Back the Volunteers. As many not-for-profit enterprises became more sophisticated over the past two decades, they shrunk their volunteer leadership ranks. Large community boards were replaced by smaller governing boards; committees that once focused on operations were reduced or even eliminated. Most dramatically, decision-making power shifted away from the lay leadership and to the professional staff.

This drive to professionalize nonprofits brought many positive changes, but it also reduced the number of people who felt connected and committed to these organizations. What is therefore needed is 21st century approaches to engage larger numbers lay leaders. While every nonprofit is unique, ideas include advisory committees examining new uses of technology; planning groups charged with conceiving “green” initiatives; or lay-professional teams working to bring novel demonstration projects to life. Volunteers are not only vital to the vibrancy of nonprofits, but also uphold a modified teaching from the movie Field of Dreams: “build it together, and they will come.”

Bring Back the Smaller Donors. A common trend among many philanthropic organizations is that they are raising more money from a smaller donorbase than in the past. From a bottom-line perspective, the news may seem fine, but there are also negative consequences. In today’s challenging economy, a top heavy donorbase translates into big problems when major donors need to reduce their gifts. Beyond the financial challenges, having fewer donors also indicates that less people feel connected to the important community-building organizations.

Fundraising appeals are often effective barometers in measuring how nonprofits relate to a given community. They allow hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals to feel that they are making a difference to causes that are important to them. Furthermore, every gift made to a nonprofit is in essence a vote of confidence. Today’s nonprofits would therefore be wise to energize their broader fundraising efforts, especially because their annual campaigns are also “campaigning” to secure those all-important philanthropic votes.

Reflecting further on these observations, “old school” to me is not about turning back the clock to 1984, but rather, it is about ensuring that modern nonprofits have the social capital needed to succeed in 2009 and beyond. Viewed in this context, what I am really suggesting is a hybrid approach.

In the automotive world, hybrids are likely key to revitalizing their industry; perhaps the same is true for many not-for-profit organizations as they map out their future paths.