Aloha! I'm taking a short break to relax and do some family business in Hawaii, and am so amazed at my good fortune! This really is a beautiful part of the world.  In one of my meetings this week, the conversation turned to social issues here on Ohau. For example, rents are very high in downtown Honolulu and Waikiki where many of the people on this island work. Public transit outside of downtown and Waikiki is at best servicable, and so if you work in housekeeping in one of the hotels, you may well find it best to have a car over a home, because you can sleep in your car, but you can't drive your home.

How might we imagine leadership in the face of such concerns, recognining full well that Vancouver, where I live has a huge shelterless community? Building on Parker Palmer's idea the learning is a communal act, what might it look like if those of us with permanent shelter engaged in co-active learning with those who do not have shelter. What could we learn from each other? What possibilities might emerge out of such a dialogue?

And to link this to our work as leaders in organizations, what role do our organizations play in the communities we serve? If our organizations are in fact persons under law, do they not then have ethical responsibilites in the community too? And how then do we act as leaders, modelling and supporting community based work? What is your role as a leader in an organization, inextricably linked to the community it serves?

I'll leave that for you to decide, and wish you all, Aloha.