About a month back, I spoke about a $300 house that a couple of people had been talking about building for the poor and then exploring the possibilities of how that could happen. It came off an article that was written by Vijay Govindrajan and Christian Sarkar who had written in Harvard Business Review about the $300 house believing that they could and should do something about improving housing for the world's poorest, so that they could break out of the vicious cycle of poverty. In that article which was written in August 2010, they challenged the design community to employ the strategies of innovation and disruptive thinking to attack this problem. As more and more people got involved with it, they raised these questions:
· How can organic self-built slums be turned into livable housing?
· What might a house for the poor look like?
· How can world-class engineering and design capabilities be utilized to solve the problem?
· What reverse innovation lessons might be learnt by the participants in such a project?
· How could the poor afford to buy this house?
Vijay Govindrajan writes that, at his Dartmouth College, they decided to take his $300 housing challenge on the road. After the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, they sent students and faculty from different disciplines – business, engineering, medicine, architecture, anthropology, environmental studies and other disciplines – to Haiti to establish relationship with these communities and identify design solutions that might help to address this need for permanent and durable housing there.
Just last week, Govindrajan again wrote an article, this time co-authored with Jack Wilson, "Whatever Happened to the $300 House?" It basically says, "Here's what they've been doing and it's generated a lot of information and interest; different people have got into it. But, finally, we realized that we need to be guided by 'The doctrine of Three Ds.' When we deal with people around us, we realize that these three Ds are so important.
1. Dignity.
2. Durability.
3. Delight.
Those are three such beautiful words for us in our own lives and work circles. Dignity, durability and delight. Dignity is so important in our day, in our workplaces, to be able to make sure that everybody is treated with dignity. I found an article in Fox News by Donna Hicks, which says, "One of the major leadership challenges is knowing how to handle this aspect of maintaining the dignity of people in workplaces. When people are faced with violations of their dignity, then these become very highly charged emotional events." She stresses the need for people in workplaces to realize that dignity is something that must be afforded to every person there; we need to treat others as valuable.
That's a good word for us on a Tuesday call – to take a moment, press 'Pause' and ask the question: Do I afford dignity to people around me? Is there anyone in my sphere of reference who I have trampled upon? The actor John Wayne had this wonderful line, "You can take everything a man has as long as you leave him his dignity." That's the one thing that people need.
Rick Bragg says, "Every life deserves a certain amount of dignity, no matter how poor or damaged the shell that carries it."
The second D was durability. Are we building durability into the people at the workplace? Are we making sure that they are prepared for the long haul, that they can go to the end without burnout, without falling into depression? Do we afford that kind of workplace environment that allows for durability? Are we investing into people? I know a good friend who says that one day he found his driver seemed to be worried about his son's education. He told him that he would help him get into ITI and help him learn a trade and he paid for his education. Today, that boy is earning enough that his father doesn't need to drive, which created a different sort of problem. Are we making sure that we are helping the people who are with us to be durable, that they don't have moments where they are knocked down by the things of this world?
I remember early on in my marriage, I came home one day and found my wife Sheila sitting in our living room with 8-10 kids. I wondered where they came from. I found out that they were the kids of the maids who were working in different homes in the society. She just decided one day to start teaching them and so had a class for them everyday. It doesn't take much for us to make sure that we put in some aspect of durability, even beyond what is required of us.
The final D – Delight. It would be so wonderful to put in moments of delight into a day for the people around us. One of the things I love is to walk around my office and hear somebody humming as they work, or softly singing a song. That's beautiful! That's what needs to happen in workplaces. Maybe that's something that you can create – create a moment of delight for somebody. Maybe print a saying or a quote of encouragement and put them on peoples' desks when they are not there and let them be encouraged when they read it. Or a tiny gift for people – it doesn't have to be much. Just create a moment of delight.
Those are important things that we need to put into our workplaces just to make it a little nicer, exciting, a little more humane. I like what Govindrajan said – the three Ds are so important as we look at people around us. How can we afford them dignity? Make sure that there is durability in their lives, that they are not burning out. And then, the icing on the cake, make sure that there are moments of delight in our areas of work.
In our Holy Book, they brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in the act of adultery. They just brought her; it seems like she was without any clothes. He afforded her a moment of dignity. He told them, "If there is any of you who has not done any wrong, then you can throw the first stone." And none of them could. Then he said, "I don't condemn you either, but go, and stop doing what you are doing." A shred of dignity was given back to her. It makes a huge difference to people around us.
My hope and prayer for each one of us on this call is that, beyond our work, beyond the deadlines and the bottom lines, let's look today to afford dignity, give dignity to people around us. Make sure that they are durable and let's create moments of delight for people around us.
Can I pray with you? Almighty God, help us to look differently today. Help us to look with different eyes. Maybe even look through Your eyes and see a person who has had dignity stripped from them and be able to re-clothe them in dignity. Or help us to see somebody who is struggling, trying to get the job done and be able to help him or her to stay the course. Give us ideas to create moments of delight for our colleagues that will bring a smile or a song to somebody's heart or lips. That's our prayer, Lord God, and we pray it in the name of Jesus. Amen.
• Vijay Govindarajan & Jack Wilson, "Whatever Happened to the $300 House?" http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/01/whatever-happened-to-the-300-house/
• John Wayne quotes, http://johnwayne.com/life-legacy/quotes/
• Rick Bragg quotes, http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/dignity
• Donna Hicks, "Leading With Dignity in the Workplace." http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/03/25/leading-with-dignity-in-workplace/
• Lisa M. Gerry, "10 Signs You're Burning Out--And What To Do About It." http://www.forbes.com/sites/learnvest/2013/04/01/10-signs-youre-burning-out-and-what-to-do-about-it/
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