Saying that should cease - One person cannot make a difference

Saying that should cease – One person cannot make a difference

While it is easy to fall prey to the convention that problems are vast and one person cannot make a difference – one person can absolutely make a difference!

Loren Eisley’s Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loren_Eiseley

TVO Agenda Episodes:

• Bill Browder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLFGWEdA4Bs
• Doing Holidays Differently https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuhHnQK7raU&t=4s

Kathleen Sharp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTbKD2GR00c

Connect with Tanya Hewitt on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanya-hewitt-55804529/

Buy her a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tanyah

Credits:

Adam Johns – voiceover - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjohns730/

Beverley McKiver – composer and player of the music Tell Me About Love - https://www.linkedin.com/in/beverleymckiver/

Episode Transcript

Adam Johns (00:03):
Welcome to Beyond the Minimum, where we'll be exploring the world of work. We'll be chatting about concepts, ideas and phrases, explore practices and delve into what good looks like. Work can be purposeful value lead, and more meaningful to all who interact with the workplace. This podcast is brought to you by Tanya Hewitt who lives in unceded Algonquin, Anishinaabeg territory, otherwise known as Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Tanya Hewitt (00:33):
Hello, everyone, it's been a while since I have recorded one of these. There are a lot of things going on in my world. And hopefully soon I'll have an announcement to make on this podcast, in order to be able to get stuff out there. So I thank you, again, for paying attention to this podcast and listening, I hope to be able to keep up with the schedule of a weekly release. And that you will still be out there listening to this, I really appreciate you being here. And I hope that things are going well in your world. So with that, let's get started.

Adam Johns (01:23):
Today's episode is sayings that should cease.

Tanya Hewitt (01:29):
So today's saying that should cease is one person cannot make a difference. It is so easy to become overwhelmed in this world right now. I saw an article that talked about issue fatigue, while COVID Fatigue was out there in probably 2021. When we started hearing that right now, with inflation, with cost of living with the war in Ukraine. COVID is still with us. And a whole bunch of other issues that we could speak of. There is in fact, a lot of burden on people who might just want to man, why even put out an effort anymore, everything doesn't seem to be getting any better. However, this kind of attitude is actually really one of convenience. Obviously, we could start to just build up walls around ourselves and hide under a shell and wait for things to get better. But in actual fact, that might be abdicating our responsibility.

(02:57):
So I'd like to give you a few stories that might be able to shed light on how one person can make adifference. So the first one is one that has been around for some time because it really harkens back to a story. I call it the starfish story. I heard this years ago in a volunteering role I had done and through researching it, it is attributed to Loren Eisley, who was an American anthropologist and philosopher. And he wrote something called the Star thrower. The rules change depending on the source because this has become a beloved story. And it's not necessarily consistent from one source to the other. And in fact, the message I guess, is still core. But the because the players change, you might be able to get a different interpretation from different sources. So I'm going to go back to the place where I heard it first. Because that's often how

(04:06):
we relate to things when we first hear things. I'm sure you've encountered this when somebody covers a songthat you knew in its original incarnation. You just don't like the cover version because the original is how it is because that's what we first heard. And that's the one that we prefer. That's a bias involved in that but nonetheless, it exists. I know that this version is substantially modified from Loren Eisley's published version. I will give it to you anyway. An old man was on a beach and he was picking up starfish on this beach. One at a time he was picking up a starfish and throwing them back into the ocean. A young boy approached the old man and asked him Why are you doing that? And the old man told the young boy, well, they will die if left on the sand. So I pick them up, and I put them back into the ocean, the young boy looked around and remarked,

(05:17):
there is no way you can get all these starfish in the ocean, there are hundreds, maybe 1000s of them out here,you won't be able to make a dent, you'll hardly make a difference. The old man then picked up one starfish. And while throwing it in the ocean, said to this one, I made all the difference. So from that perspective, you can see that when you do something for someone else, to that person, it will be a really, really substantial difference.

(05:56):
The second story is not as much a tale as it is a true story, as the rest of these will be. And it is thefreezing order that Bill Browder instigated. Let me tell you the story. Overall, he has been responsible for getting countries to adopt legislation that seizes Russian oligarchs' assets overseas. So I'm going to quote from an agenda episode, I'll put the episode in the show notes. This is what Steve Paikin says, "You know, I have to say one of the reasons I liked this current book of yours so much, and your previous one read notice is that it really puts a lie to something I hear all the time in my daily work, which is, one person can't make a difference. I'm just one person, I can't do a thing. But you one person decided that you are going to go on a mission for the rest of your life, if need be to bring justice to your friend Mr. Magnitsky, because

(07:04):
of the way he perished in a Russian prison." That was Steve Paikin. And Steve Paikin was talking to BillBrowder, who at one time, was the largest foreign investor in Russia. He invested, however, in highly corrupt companies, and he didn't like that. So in researching these companies, he wanted to expose them. And in so doing, he became a threat to these at that time, probably very powerful people that as a consequence, he was threatened. And there were trumped up fraud charges against him, and he hired a young lawyer in order to help him. The young lawyer discovered the fraud, and he testified, he was subsequently arrested by the people who he accused, and was put into prison, beaten and killed in prison in 2019. And Bill Browder knew that this lawyer who, you know, had a wife and kids and all the rest of it did all of this for him. And he couldn't not

(08:17):
do something as a consequence. So he started the Magnitsky Act, which freezes the assets and bans visas ofpeople who killed Sergei, who was the lawyer, and people who commit similar human rights abuses in Russia. It became law in the US in 2012, in Canada in 2017. It's also law in the UK in 27 Other countries of the EU and Australia, Norway, Montenegro.That's really powerful. So it is true that this guy probably had connections. But he used the connections for good. He didn't just dismiss some corrupt society as Oh, well, you know, there are innocent bystanders who have to pay the ultimate price in these things. He really took this to task and that is why he was on The Agenda at all, as you heard.

(09:14):
The third story is one that I learned about very recently, a woman named Kathleen sharp, was part of anorganization that I hope to be joining called Women in Lean. She gave her life story, essentially, on a YouTube video and I will be putting that into the show notes. And she, in her life story revealed that she didn't have any children and was going through her house after her husband passed away of cancer, came across her wedding dress. So she had no children to give it to. She realized that the style had changed since 1982 when she got married, or 1981 sorry, that when she got married, she realized that there were a lot of children who die in NICUs. Of course, the neonatal intensive care units are for very, very vulnerable babies, and many of them don't make it. So there is a program called Angel gowns, to be able to dress the the children who pass

(10:23):
away in NICUs, made from wedding dresses, so she doesn't know how to sew. But that didn't stop her. She foundsome people who didn't know how to sew, wherever she was at the time, and asked them if they could take her wedding dress and make it into ANGEL gowns. Well, not only did these sewers learn how to make Angel gowns, but a whole program was begun not only in the hospital that she was doing this with, but to the entire state. And perhaps it has grown since then. So this is what I'm talking about that if we start to actually engage in something, people may see that and it will start to grow.

(11:13):
Second to last story I'll give you is from Elamin, Abdelmahmood. He is a journalist who is on CBC, theCanadian Broadcasting Corporation quite a bit. But he was on The Agenda, and I'll put the episode in the shownotes, just before Christmas. And the question that was posed to the panelists, he was one of the panelists that prompted my including him in this discussion was, what is the most wasteful practice? You see around the holidays, the episode was about doing holidays differently. So doing different things in order to not make as much of a impact on the environment not contribute to commercialization, this kind of thing. In the most wasteful practice, Elamin suggested to do away with wrapping paper. This went over like a lead balloon to Steve Paikin, who countered, "But Elamin, this is a huge culture that we have with the beautiful

(12:21):
wrapping paper and the pretty bows. And how can you suggest that that be the wasteful thing?" Elamin talkedabout how, after you open the wrapping paper, it often ends up in the landfill. And just how many presents get unwrapped at Christmas and how much landfill is filled with that. And we could do away with that if we didn't do that, and said that the whole point of this program that Steve was hosting was to change social norms, one conversation at a time. Steve Paikin, once he got over the idea, kind of was hit with a eureka moment and said, "Wow, you know what, you're absolutely right. We are here to change social norms, one conversation at a time." A marathon always starts with the first step. Anything big always starts somewhere. If we can be the genesis of that start, then we can see that we can make a difference.

(13:36):
So the last story that I'll offer you is my own story. So I am trying to do what I can to environmentalize, mylife and my family's life. I'm going about it slowly. Not necessarily an overwhelming even though sometimes it feels overwhelming, but it is, you know, a slow and deliberate pace. Last year, I looked at some of the disposables that we were using, and what we could do about this. And I saw some serviettes that we were going through, oh, probably every month or so. We got one of these, you know, large no name brand packs at the grocery store, and we put individual serviettes into the compost every week. So a lot of people might say, Well, why, why would that matter, then? Well, because they probably don't break down as quickly as I would like them to, the less waste the better overall. I looked around what I had, and I have a problem throwing out

(14:47):
textiles, including old clothes that either are ripped to the point of no return stained to the point of noreturn. These are not things that can be donated, but that can be made into serviettes. And so that's what I did, I made a lot of old clothes into serviettes. That means that when we have people over, that the serviettes that we offer them are these cloth serviettes that were made from old clothes. And I can remember the first time that we were going to have people over my husband was a bit reticent to have those serviettes for the company, put out some normal serviettes for other people. And I thought, You know what, this is exactly the time that we want to put out what we do for ourselves to allow others to see what we're doing. Again, it's this one conversation at a time approach. And that maybe people will leave and be Oh, my God, did

(15:58):
you see those serviettes that they were serving, and that might be a genesis of a conversation that they wouldhave with their co-workers or with their families. And there might be even in the cynicism, somebody who will catch on and say, "You know what, that's not such a bad idea. I could see us doing that." Just the small little changes that we communicate outwards, can make real differences. So overall, in this episode, you've heard of a bunch of stories, people with lots of power, and people with not much power at all, who are doing their part to make a difference. And because they did, others have responded. And those people have been just single individuals, but they can actually make a difference. And so can you. So remember, one conversation, one action, one thing that you can do, in order to make a real difference in the lives of others.

(17:09):
I thank you for listening. I don't know if this is your first episode, or if you are a regular listener,having really appreciated some of this content. I just wanted to tell you that I really do appreciate you for listening. If you would like to express your gratitude for this podcast, I would encourage you to buy me a coffee, head on over to buy me a coffee.com/tanyah that's buy b-u-y me m-e a coffee c-o-f-f-e-e all one word.com/t-a-n-y-a-h tanyah. I will put this in the show notes. And I would really sincerely appreciate your support. In addition to that, you can rate and review this podcast and I really, really appreciate that you are here listening to what I am sending out to you guys. Thanks so much.

Adam Johns (18:22):
Thank you so much for listening to Beyond the Minimum with Tanya Hewitt. We hope this episode aligned with you. Maybe it was diametrically opposed to us, at any rate, we trust it made you think. The more we can think about our workplaces and start talking about them, the more we can collectively make a real difference. If you're living in Canada, please find out the Indigenous territory in which you reside. Begin using it to introduce yourself. Please reach out to Tanya through her email [e-mail]. Connect and chat with her on LinkedIn. Follow her company Beyond Safety Compliance. And remember to ask yourself the question, How does your work look? Because we can always go Beyond the Minimum.