Mike Miles wrote:
> I read your ideas for the bus drivers dilemmas (copied below) and thought
> "What a great approach to intervening in a social system".
Some amens from the amen corner, here. I remembered a portrait at the
beginning of Daniel Goleman's "Emotional Intelligence" that rang a bell--I
thought I would quote it here--
"It was an unbearably steamy August afternoon in New York City,
the kind of sweaty day that makes people sullen with discomfort. I was
heading back to a hotel, and as I stepped onto a bus up Madison Avenue I
was startled by the driver, a middle-aged black man with an enthusiastic
smile, who welcomed me with a friendly, 'Hi! How you doing?' as I got on,
a greeting he proffered to everyone else who entered as the bus wormed
through the thick midtown traffic. Each passenger was as startled as I,
and, locked into the morose mood of the day, few returned his greeting.
But as the bus crawled uptown through the gridlock, a slow, rather
magical transformation occurred. The driver gave a running monolgue for
our benefit, a lively commentary on the passing scene around us: there was
a terrific sale at that store, a wonderful exhibit at this museum, did you
hear about the new movie that just opened at that cinema down the block?
His delight in the rich possibilities the city offered was infectious. By
the time people got off the bus, each in turn had shaken of the sullen
shell they had entered with, and when the driver shouted out a 'So long,
have a great day!' each gave a smiling response."
Goleman continued that this memory had stayed with him for more than
twenty years. Isn't it amazing that goodness can have such an impact on
us--well, I guess that that isn't so amazing. The surprise is that we are
amazed so infrequently. Anyway, thought you might enjoy the anecdote as
much as I did.
-- Richard C. "Doc" Holloway Thresholds--Human Development and Networking for Learning Organizations Visit my website at <http://www.thresholds.com/> Please note my new e-mail address--<mailto:learnshops@thresholds.com>Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>