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Feature - Strengthening the weak leg of the sustainability stool

Whistler celebrates a miracle of caring

If you’re reading this article you will soon speculate that the writer is some distant cousin to the local sage G.D. Maxwell, because I’ll take forever to get to the point. Except for those weeks when he’s in a self-professed writer’s cramp I, like Max, propose there’s an epiphany in here somewhere. So maybe I’ll just state it up front…

Every year for over a decade Whistler has engaged in a weeklong miracle of caring across the entire community

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Yeah – I know I missed it too, and that’s why I have to explain this epiphany.

Seeing there’s lots of talk about sustainability, and we’re all becoming experts on the topic, I’ll frame the miracle in that context. The first lesson in Sustainability 101 is that to get to a better state one must balance the three legs of the stool: social, economic and environmental concerns. In a place like Whistler that could mean creating a land bank drawn from crown land to relieve pressures on housing. Clearly this has legs.

But the further you get along in this course on sustainability you find that the truly flimsy leg of the stool is the social one. No matter how smart we are we seem not clever enough to really care for others. Me-centredness not other-centredness constantly erodes the social leg of the stool, threatening the whole structure to collapse.

Even one of the most empathetic tools the community has embraced, The Natural Step , recognizes this human paradox. Three of the System Conditions essentially say don’t trash the earth, and the last one say’s, oh and by the way, don’t trash people. This afterthought even has practitioners of the model discount the Fourth Condition as "the fluffy stuff."

It’s fluffy because we are great at dealing with process problems but fail to empathize with people problems. As the nightly news feeds real-time genocide into our living rooms we seem evermore inured to care for others and we begin to resign ourselves to a state of chaos.

Now we move to the advance course in sustainability and we learn how change occurs in Natural Systems – change, where higher states of order transcend out of the black whirr of chaos. Like the snowflake that triggers the avalanche, it takes little to move unstable systems to dramatic change. This spontaneous change is kind of messy because it is preceded by chaos. The system has to want to transcend to a higher value. Nature thankfully has that will to transcend. Communities, as part of this complex natural system, hold values that they too want to ascend to.

That’s why Whistler is pursuing a Sustainability Plan, and to move to this higher order brings lots of energy, feedback and instability into the system (you’ve probably noticed). But this is a good thing as long as we are clear on the values we are trying to aspire to. As the editor of this paper has reminded us several times, "Its about the people of Whistler. They are what make Whistler unique and sustainable."

So if it’s the people of Whistler that will make it sustainable, what is it that we do that demonstrates our will for social sustainability? What are our traditions of caring? This is where some of you are thinking of the volunteer committee you sit on, the team you coach, the neighbour’s kid you mind after school and a host of other things no one person could ever account. For others community caring is expressed in your passion for our natural setting, pride of our built environment or, God forbid, one economic paradigm or another. But the best act of sustainability has no economic bounds, no political affiliation no environmental stewardship – it’s the act of consistent human compassion. A sustainable community is adaptive in its evolution toward being mutually supportive (read caring).

I would suggest that one of the true markers that we are a caring community is something we are in the 12 th year of celebrating. It is an event that would be the envy of any community and will over time be copied by many. Whistler is unique not only in the fact that its many businesses celebrate and recognize the positive attitudes and exuberance of their employees individually, but as a community we do it collectively. Nowhere else does a community recognize its committed work force by officially proclaiming an entire week in their honour. Yes, a few days ago mayor and council proclaimed April 22 nd to 28 th Employee Recognition Week in Whistler.

There’s the epiphany – the miracle is up to you.

The miracle is taking the time to dredge back in the annals of your mind to find a time when someone sincerely recognized you – maybe you’ll just have to settle for a time when they should have recognized you. Now hold that thought and transform it, repackage it to your best employees or co-workers, and take action by celebrating who they are. Now we’re making miracles.

Yes, the miracle of recognition is truly rare. In recent weeks I spoke at both the local Rotary Clubs, where the most charged people in the valley turn their minds to helping others. While making my thinly veiled promotion for Employee Recognition Week, I asked who in the room had been moved in some small or great way by another’s recognition – dead silence. These miracles are rare. Later Mecki told me a story of when her husband Michael was recognized for delivering a big project, what impressed them was that the employer did something that acknowledged the whole families contribution as a support system – proving that recognition is not just personal, but personalized.

Whistler Chamber of Commerce has been making personalized miracles for over 12 years. As the Chamber ramps-up for the annual WCC/American Express Employee Recognition Gala Dinner on April 25 we encourage you to design your own miracle, throw your own gala, express your personal capacity to care for an employee or co-worker who has made a difference – let them know they rule, and if you don’t think it makes a difference read on.

The Chamber has run the Employee Recognition program on a shoestring budget, with a committed group of volunteers and dedicated sponsors (made up of several local companies, American Express and SuperPages). For 12 years the ever buoyant John Lemare, of American Express, has encouraged his company to fund the event even though they receive little recognition themselves. John proves that good judgement always leads to good business when he says: "Of all the sponsorship events that I have been involved with during my 20 plus years with American Express, the Whistler Employee Awards program is the longest running, the most well organized, and by far the most valuable program that I have had the pleasure of supporting. This is one event that has grown and matured into being an important integral part of the employee/employer relationship in many of Whistler’s most established businesses." (From that comment recognition flows to my predecessor Thelma Johnstone).

Past attendees more than back-up John’s comments about the event. It’s remarkable, they all effectively say the same thing, "It was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life."

And the miracle isn’t just for naive do-gooders. Retired engineer Stanley Gow, nominated to this years gala by Whistler-Blackcomb, has a handsome elder face that lights up when he says, "this is the most memorable recognition of my whole life," and you can tell by his smile it has been a good life.

To read the 120 employer testimonials for nominees coming to the gala is to witness a unique exercise of good will. Imagine how some people feel who have earned the recognition of being asked to the gala by two, three or even four employers.

We have seen by this event alone that recognition pays back to the community in some wildly exponential fashion. Several people see this recognition as a special part of what moved them to be contributors in the community. Linda Marshal, a past nominee to the gala dinner who has been a driving presence in community events through her company Martial Arts, now helps stage this event.

Tanya Ewasiuk moved to Whistler in ’91 and knew she was "here for good." In ’94 Fun For Kids Clothing nominated her to the Employee Recognition Dinner and for her it was one important piece in the whole of belonging at Whistler. She speaks of those early days with the Spirit Program and how "we saw ourselves as part of the formula that made it work."

That belonging thing took hold and Tanya eventually bought the business of a subsequent employer, she went into the first housing lottery at Millar’s Ridge, sits on the Chamber Board and has even run for council. Now she sends her employees to be recognized and in doing so seeds the community with that spirit that some say we have lost.

For many Whistler workers the employer is the closest thing to family for a thousand miles. Ours is a dynamic flow of full and part time staff, seasonal and resident employees. They come to a place that encourages a standard of service excellence and for one week in April that same place makes the promise – a proclamation – of a standard in recognition excellence.

It’s a chicken and egg argument, but none of us should miss the connection between quality recognition and the quest for higher service standards. In last week’s Question a letter from a concerned resident pondered "What ever happened to customer service?" The Chamber-sponsored cartoon on the same page showed an exuberant manager gush congratulations to an employee using the wrong name.

So the broader question becomes, how much is the decline in service standards a reflection of decline in our recognition? Broader still, is not service the key issue to our sustainability as a premier resort? What ever the full answer, these questions are in part addressed by our collective ability to be other-centred – to truly recognize the contribution of our employees.

Somebody must have had this insight 12 years ago when they dreamed up the idea of Employee Recognition Week in Whistler. It was a time before the local economy had gone wild and the only environmental interest in wetlands was from birds. But on the social dimension someone knew that ours is a town that owes a special end of season thanks to our employees. That our ability to say thanks, to be other-centred, was an important part of what will always make this town tick.

So the next time you run into one of those sustainability gurus ask them what they know about the "fluffy stuff," because it’s the stuff that truly sustains community. Better still, tell them your story about making miracles the week of April 22 nd , and they’ll soon learn the Fourth Condition is really the First.

Brent Leigh is president of the Whistler Chamber of Commerce.

If you’ve got a recognition story, please e-mail us at caringculture.whistlerchamberofcommerce.com



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