What I can't always say immediately but still want to

'Do you see any differences with other management teams?' the CEO says as he walks up to me and looks at me with an expression that seeks confirmation. Meanwhile, the management team writes and scribbles happily on whiteboards on the wall, together creating a unifying change story to tell each to their own team next week.

'I get that question more often and quite honestly, there are always differences, but most of all I see similarities. In all teams it is about getting something clear together and being able to include others, so that they really understand and feel what is intended. Only then everybody is able to translate it into small changes in their daily work that contribute to it,' I hear myself say.

His question triggers me, but differently from what he means. Two recent experiences from my trips to Cape Town and Curaçao, about which I cannot say anything at that moment, shoot through my mind.  Both are about the difference between rich and poor, between survival or a life of luxury. Between having a good job or being underprivileged and dependent. Differences that not everyone wants to see, let alone do something about. Differences far away and close by.

My brain shows me a clear picture of the scene behind the cheerful advertising van on the boulevard of Camps Bay near Cape Town in this photo. A family is hiding behind it in bright homemade clothing sitting on a wall. Four pairs of children's hands full of nachos cheese-avocado, four happy munching children's mouths and two grateful looking parents watching over them. They eat from the heavy cardboard box, rather hastily folded by me, which the youngest had grabbed from me with two tiny hands, after they had sung and danced in front of our terrace.

My daughter Roos and I simply continued sipping our Mocktail afterwards and ordered another gigantic portion of nachos 'no avo', because Roos doesn't like that and she was hungry. I chatted with our obese neighbor, who was born in Cape Town but now lived in L.A., and mostly bragged about all the luxuries he affords himself, said nothing about the poverty in his country and totally ignored the performing family. Walking back to our car, I saw them sitting, hidden behind the advertising van. The close-up pops up again of what I saw when I walked up to them to give them the second full box of nacho leftovers. 

Soon after, I was in Curaçao for work and met Puck who has lived there for two and a half years. She showed me "'the other side' of the island and took me to a soup kitchen where elderly volunteers prepare meals for some 250 islanders living in poverty. Her stories impressed me, and I immediately donated a one-time donation of 25 meals to Daily Meal Program. I will repeat this every time I return to the island. Who will follow?

In those two situations I saw and felt the difference between ignoring or making a small human gesture that connects, Which is much more than giving money and can be done by anyone anywhere. So include greeting the homeless man at the supermarket and not walking around him with a full shopping cart as I see many others do, as if he is not there.

I still want to tell the CEO that internal issues such as how his management team is doing are of course important, but that it is good to also look at the contrast between his world and that of the underprivileged fellow man right outside the walls of this ivory tower. 'I would like to also guide you in finding ways to do something for the underprivileged in your immediate environment, in addition to your focus on shareholders, employees and customers,' I want to tell him. But he is already back with his colleagues discussing the change story within the organization.

In the traffic jam on the way home after this intensive multi-day event, I am happy that the predetermined goals were achieved. The CEO and his management team are satisfied with my guidance and they want me to return. And yet the desire still gnaws at me to get more out of it that next time. To then be able to say what I was thinking earlier today, or better yet, include this in the goals beforehand.

'Aren't you past this a long time ago?' my coach asked me the other day, referring to working with management teams and hassles within organizations. At the time, I didn't have the answer.

'No,' I think now. 'But I do long to make this work more meaningful. I'd like to connect the business world with that of underprivileged people in their immediate surroundings in a way that they can begin to mean something to each other.'

Are you and your team or organization open to this? Then I would like to get in touch with you.