Learning Managing with Aloha: 9 Key Concepts

This is a newly edited copy of a reference page published on www.ManagingWithAloha.com. I’m bringing it to Talking Story because we now use these 9 Key Concepts as post categories here as well: It should prove useful as our all-9 reference page for this blog, and less jarring than hopping around between sites as we have been.

Preface

The Managing with Aloha sensibility for work has been adopted by companies globally since my book was published in 2004.

Immediately after the book was released, I turned my attentions to constructing a framework businesses could use in applying the philosophy faster than the thirty years it had taken me to identify and articulate it. I founded my company, Say Leadership Coaching to teach MWA to others within this framework, one aligned with our core mission: mentoring the Alaka‘i Manager. The 9 Key Concepts of the framework we settled on also became the curriculum framework of our Workplace Aloha School and the MWA University.

Therefore, what follows is not found within my book, however I freely offer it to you on the web to help you apply the book once you have purchased and read it.

Read to discover. Apply to truly learn, and make it useful

I have written about values, management and leadership extensively since my book’s release, and if you find one of my articles on the web, I suggest this two-step to you as self-coaching in the MWA philosophy:

1. Ask yourself, “Which of my personal values does this article relate most closely to?”
   If the article resonates with you, that will be the reason why: you have tapped into your innate beliefs. Next,
2. Revisit this page, and look for which of these 9 Key Concepts you can bring both value and article in alignment with, by defining specific action steps you can take — and take them at your first opportunity! When you turn your learning resource into the energy of your personal activities, you are fortifying your strengths.

There are 19 Hawaiian values defined in Managing with Aloha

When they are chosen for a business, I recommend these values be aligned with the organizational culture of that business within a framework of 9 Key Concepts.

To be clear, you need not adopt all of my values. You can also do this with your own values, if you find you are strongly drawn to another value not listed within the 19 I chose to write about. The majority of values shared by humanity are quite universal; I did not invent them: I packaged them within a values-based business model. My book shares the story of the values I chose as a business executive working in the hospitality industry in Hawai‘i over a thirty year period, and it is filled with illustrative examples you are likely to easily relate to.

To get a sense of how the Managing with Aloha philosophy works within a company, think of a simple grid of criss-crossing lines:

• The grid itself represents an organizational culture.
• The left-to-right diagonal lines represent the values of the company.
• The right-to-left diagonals crossing the other way to intercept them are these 9 Key Concepts.
• The Managing with Aloha philosophy will synchronize a company’s values at each intersection point.

Normally there are five to seven core values in a healthy organizational culture. When the best possible intersection with the 9 Key Concepts happens for each of those core values, the workplace culture becomes value-aligned. It is stronger, more productive, and charged with creative energies.

It is also much more satisfying to you, and more fun to be involved with.

These are the 9 Key Concepts

The first two, Aloha and Ho‘ohana, are also values: I think of them as the guiding lights of Managing with Aloha. You will also notice that I use Kākou, the value of inclusiveness and “language of we” in these descriptions, for they refer to we when using my book together, we in the Ho‘ohana Community of MWA practitioners, and we within my own company, Say Leadership Coaching, founded to help bring MWA to workplaces within a for-hire consultancy.

1. Aloha:

Aloha is the genuine spirit of all relationships, and the fertile ground from which everything else will thrive. Your Aloha is the authenticity you bring to your connections with others, and to the self-expression of your work. Everyone has aloha; we help you bring it to fuller expression within whatever you do, urging you to live, work, manage and lead from the inside out. Your “inside” is an amazing stronghold, and a source you can tap into.

Talking Story Category Page: Key 1—Aloha

2. Ho‘ohana:

This is the Hawaiian value of worthwhile work. Work with passion, with purpose and intention, and with full joy while realizing your potential for growth and creativity. When you Ho‘ohana you create your best possible life and you forge your own destiny, for you have connected your wide-awake intentions to the work you have chosen to do.

Talking Story Category Page: Key 2—Ho‘ohana

3. Value Alignment:

Work with integrity by working true to your values. Focus all efforts on the right mission and the right vision (yours!) for it honors your sense of self and brings compelling pictures of the future within your reach. For a business, deliberate value-alignment creates a healthy organizational culture for everyone involved.

Talking Story Category Page: Key 3—Value Alignment

4. The Role of the Manager Reconstructed:

In today’s workplaces, managers must own workplace engagement. The “reconstruction” we require in Managing with Aloha is so this expectation is reasonable, and so it is valued as critically important: Managers can then have the desire and ‘personal bandwidth’ for assuming a newly reinvented role, one which delivers better results both personally and professionally.

Talking Story Category Page: Key 4—Role of the Manager

5. Language of Intention:

Language, vocabulary, and conversation combine as our primary tools in business communications: What we speak is fifty times more important than what we write. The need for CLEAR, intentional, reliable and responsive communication is critical in thriving businesses. Drive communication of the right messages, and you drive momentum and worthwhile energies. The Managing with Aloha language of intention is inclusive, and a “Language of We.”

Read more about our TS Language of Intention on this page exclusively designed for Talking Story:
A Link Index to our Hawaiian Glossary and to our Talking Story Language of Intention

Talking Story Category Page: Key 5—Language of Intention

6. The ‘Ohana in Business:

The best form for your life can be the best form for your ‘Ohana in Business® as well, where the goals of each will support the other. A business can be more than self-sustainable and profitable: It can thrive. We learn a value-based business model and organizational structure simultaneous to learning productivity practices which drive ROI (return on investment) and ROA (return on your attentions).

Talking Story Category Page: Key 6—The ‘Ohana in Business

7. Strengths Management:

Keys 1 through 6 have put a great foundation in place for your business to thrive within: Together they have created the best possible launching pad for your organizational culture. Now we turn to bigger investments made in each employee, business partner, and stakeholder involved, so you can truly say, “Our people are our biggest asset” —and mean it. Cooperation, connectivity and collaboration evolve to optimization and co-creation.

Talking Story Category Page: Key 7—Strengths Management

8. Sense of Place:

Think “working in my neighborhood.” Sense of Place is about greater community locally and connectivity globally. It is saying thank you, and engaging at a higher level with those Places which have gotten you this far, and continue to nourish you daily in a multitude of tiny ways that collectively are absolutely HUGE factors in your success. It is giving back, recognizing that Place nurtures and sustains us; it shapes our experiences and lends cultural richness to life.

Talking Story Category Page: Key 8—Sense of Place

9. Palena ‘ole (Unlimited Capacity):

This is your exponential growth stage, and about seeing your bigger and better leadership dreams come to fruition. Think “Legacy.” Create abundance by honoring capacity; physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. Seek inclusive, full engagement and optimal productivity, and scarcity will be banished.

Talking Story Category Page: Key 9—Unlimited Capacity

What will be the result you achieve when you manage with Aloha?

New learning, increased energy, passionate commitment to vision, and dramatic shifts in personal engagement. Said another way, you will grow as you learn the Ho‘ohana of self-management and self-leadership as you make extremely valuable contributions to whatever organization you are presently involved with.

Mahalo nui loa: Thank you for choosing to study with me here on Talking Story.

With my aloha,

~ Rosa Say

Additional Suggested Reading: Value Your Month to Value Your Life
Make this even easier for you! The Care and Feeding of your Talking Story Subscription

Visit Say Leadership Coaching to learn more about: The Healthy Workplace Compass

Photo credit: MWA Book Jacket by Island Heritage Publishing. Bling on Flickr by nataliej