The Power of a Symbol
This blog contains 2 stories. I settled on Inspiring a Shared Vision as their home, but I could have just as easily chosen Model the Way since the stories, like the two leadership practices, are deeply connected.
The first story is about 12 participants in a high-potential development program, straight-forward acronym is HPDP. They are the 5th wave of the program, each of which lasts about 15 months. HPDP participation requirements include:
intensive psychometric assessment
detailed behavioral feedback from supervisors
8 two-day, face-to-face development programs which include focus on:
impactful communications through Improv classes
deepening personal vision and personal purpose
knowledge and skill development at the self, team, organizational and industry levels of leadership
interaction with senior company executives
preparation, delivery and defense of original business/leadership-related research to the Board of Directors
workshop with a futurist to launch their own ‘community of leaders’
all while continuing to perform their regular duties; and oh yes, perhaps a relocation and reassignment somewhere in this rather busy process. Not for the faint-of-heart nor the uncommitted.
Sometime into this process, the participants are asked to come up with a team identity. Wave V decide on The Hanged Men.
The symbolism is nothing short of remarkable, a plethora of possible meanings, such as the:
12th Tarot card: a man hanging by the ankle upside down, a common punishment for traitors in Italy. You can see the humor here, being in such a intensive program with everyone watching your performance could well feel like a punishment at times!
solemn expression on the hanged man’s face could also represent self-sacrifice, also fitting
viewing of the world from a new perspective, gaining new insight, new awareness and enlightenment, VERY appropriate; or the
depiction of the Norse god Odin, who suspended himself from a tree to gain knowledge.
As I say, a remarkable symbol!
Next, they decide to get a Challenge Coin made, part of the backstory here being of an America soldier, lost behind enemy lines and the only proof he had to successfully identify himself was his challenge coin. Of course it’s not lost on anyone near Wave V in a social setting to learn that the coin can be presented as a challenge, in a bar, and the one or ones who cannot produce their coin(s) must pay for everyone else’s drinks!
Here’s side #1 of their coin:
This is a serious piece of work: pewter, 2” in diameter, a heft of about 4oz. The side shown above has symbols for HPDP Wave V, the company PCL, Canadian and American flags, the 3 sectors in which PCL operates: commercial, civil and industrial and a continuous skyline around the edge. So far, so good for the symbolism, but check out the second side:
Now that is a powerful image! And the symbolism continues: not only are the years 2016/17 there in Latin, but so is VINCIT QUI SE VINCIT, or “he conquers who conquers himself”, an absolutely brilliant capture of the determination Wave V had to become the best versions of themselves. And so you get a sense of what this coin might represent to Wave V. THIS is an identity! They have answered our challenge!
And now here’s the second story. Fast forward to the same timing in HPDP for Wave VI, about 2 years later. When we ask what they are considering for an identity, I wouldn’t say they ‘scoff’ at us, but it does not appear that they are thinking that creating an identity will be all that difficult, and so we pull out the challenge coin of The Hanged Men, tell their story and watch their faces fall as they realize their focus is even not in the same galaxy … or deck of cards, so to speak.
The room gets quieter ... but not as quiet as it does when Geoff Curzon steps up. Geoff (seen below) is the main facilitator for the modules on self-team-organization-industry leadership. He is not a PCL employee, he is an independent thought-leader and an expert designer/instructor in leadership. We are indeed fortunate to have him helping us shape the futures of our high-potentials! He is world-class.
Geoff tells Wave VI about the importance of his coin, which Wave V had so graciously presented to him with some ceremony after he was unable to help facilitate one of their modules due to a bad turn in his wife Jennifer’s health.
Geoff’s story is that he has carried his coin with him throughout the year-long treatment of Jen’s chemo and radiation treatments for invasive breast cancer. He says the coin symbolizes the person he wants to be for her and so he puts it in his pocket every time he leaves the house ... and he says that if he realizes that he has forgotten it, he returns home to get it before carrying on with his day.
He says that when, in the tough times, in those deeply-emotional moments, he needs to remind himself of who he wants to be for Jen, he reaches into his pocket and squeezes the coin, sometimes so hard it leaves the mark of the Hanged Men on his palm.
Jennifer has come through her trials, thank goodness, due I am sure to a combination of her strength (I mean, just look the power of her smile!), her treatments and Geoff’s love and dedication, but I have to believe that, without the gift of the coin by The Hanged Men, it would have been that much harder for both Curzons.
BTW, is it just coincidence that the name Curzon comes from the Spanish word “corazon”, meaning “heart”?
Thus the power of the symbol, the vision of who Geoff wanted to be and how he used it to model his way. Inspiring.