(Drawn from my Conversation with History Honors Majors at Yale University – November 2004)
· More specifically, why has the learning and acquiring of some sense of history – its events, its life stories, and its illumination of the role of the contingent and unforeseeable versus the predictable – why has this mattered to me?
· Why has reading – or more to the point, experiencing – the work of great historians mattered to me?
· And finally, why has the act of personally researching and elucidating certain lessons of history been something I have found useful in my life and, beyond that, extraordinarily enjoyable in its own right?
And perhaps more important than any of these questions, how do I talk about them with you – young men and women whom I don’t know personally, each on your own exciting path of learning – how do I talk about them in a way that offers some possibility of providing an insight of interest and value to you -- and not be just a trip down memory lane for me? All I can say is: I will try.
Let me begin with a sufficient amount of personal background to make what I have to say intelligible.
I came to Yale already greatly enjoying history, but thinking I would probably be a math or science major. My freshman year convinced me otherwise. I must say, Year I Physics played a major role in this. It became pretty clear that engineering would not be my chosen field. But even more importantly
than this negative inference, I got lucky. I signed up for a course that sounded beguiling ... interesting. Nicknamed “Cowboys and Indians, it
covered the development of the West: History 37 A & B. The subject matter was fascinating – westward expansion; manifest destiny; diplomatic battles with nations over territories; tension between ranchers and farmers; economic issues intertwining with the political – and yes, lots of detail on cowboys and Indians. But even more important than the exciting subject matter was that it introduced me to Howard Roberts Lamar, a wonderful professor who eventually became acting president of Yale. I got to know him. He inspired me. I have maintained contact with him ever since.
In my junior year, I encountered the other professor who had the greatest impact on me while I attended Yale: David Potter. He was my senior advisor. Above all, he introduced me to the excitement and the discipline of historical analysis. Forty-five years after I completed my senior essay, in February 1960, I still hold it as one of my proudest accomplishments.
To complete the biography quickly, the decision for me what to do following Yale was a no-brainer: three years in the Navy, an obligation undertaken in return for the scholarship I received at Yale. Those three years made a transformational difference in my life. After the Navy, I had planned to go to law school. I was accepted at Harvard. I ended up feeling I’d take one more year off, with something other than studying. And I turned to Procter & Gamble, a company I had learned about when I was soliciting ads for the Yale Daily News. I thought I’d go in there for a year and run a business. And I stayed for a career.
My 40-year career led eventually to my becoming CEO and Chairman of Procter & Gamble. I had the privilege of helping lead the Company into China and Southeast Asia, and Eastern and Central Europe. I had the opportunity to work hard to take diversity to a new level, recognizing what Provost Dick Brodhead once said:
I have always regarded the intellectual cost of separationism to be as great in its way as its social cost. In this country, those who have stopped thinking are typically those who have stopped interacting with people who might make them think – people, namely, who do not already think more or less the same as they do.
I tried to create a place of honest and tough-minded dialogue, the kind that should exist in any university like Yale, the kind well-described by my classmate Bart Giamatti when he said:
We must beware of voices that are scornful of complexity, and contemptuous of competitive views and values. These voices can be encouraged because they are said to be “idealistic” or “decisive”. What they are is precisely not idealistic, but in their simplifying, reductionistic. It is that civil conversation – tough, open, principled – between and among all members of the institution that must be preserved. If it is, community is patiently built. If it is not, the place degenerates.
People have often asked me – indeed I was asked this question by the captain of one of Yale’s varsity sports teams last month – “Can a history major be of any value in business?” My answer – “I can’t imagine any course of study being more valuable.”
Which brings me back to the three questions I posed at the outset.
Why has the learning and the acquisition of some sense of the lessons of history – its events, its life stories, its contingencies – mattered to me?
Some of the reasons are probably obvious, perhaps some not, and it would take too long to catalog them all. But the most important are these:
1. The striking reality that personal leadership makes things happen. That while there are trends that in some ways are inexorable, the difference that the individual makes in shaping these trends can be and often is decisive.
2. The inspiration I have gained for the qualities of great leaders. The recognition that it takes wisdom, good judgment, courage and persistence to make a change in anything that’s important. That had everything to do in how I’ve tried to lead and encouraged others to do the same.
3. The recognition that there is great goodness in the world, but also evil, and recognizing that if good people don’t stand up courageously and persistently for the good, we are going to be in trouble.
4. The study of history has also helped me develop a deep respect for different societies and culture, as I learned about their particular contributions and the challenges they have encountered and overcome. This recognition has fired my determination at Procter & Gamble respected national and regional identities as we operate globally as a company.
5. The recognition that great achievements and change are never achieved without setbacks and the wisdom to make course corrections in one’s original strategy. This has been of enormous help to me as I thought about how to pursue some of the biggest challenges in my career including the development of our business in Russia and China.
6. The recognition that certain values must prevail and must carry any institution forward, and it is up to us to make those values pertinent and relevant to today.
7. Finally, the realization that, if great institutions are to survive and grow (a matter that is not foreordained), they must achieve that fine balance of preserving certain core values that are fundamental to success, while being prepared to evolve and change everything else.
Let me now address the second question. Why has the reading, or more precisely the experiencing of the writings of great historians mattered to me?
Partly, it is the content. For example, the bringing to life of the characteristics of great leaders. Or the understanding of the religious, ethnic and political realities that have made the achievement of peace in the Middle
East so difficult or the knowledge of the historical origins of countries like Iraq which becomes a foundation for assessing what future policy should be.
However, as I reflect on it, just as important as the content has been the learning I’ve drawn from experiencing the intellectual integrityand imaginationof great historians as conveyed by their writing. Reading such history has served as an example to emulate in my own thought process and expression of thought.
I refer here to the fresh, penetrating, multi-faceted analysis of factors – economic, political, social and individual – that have helped lead to create major events or trends. I refer to the ability to identify previously un-discerned or at least un-described discriminating details which become related to a broad theme, enable one to see the subject in a new light. I refer to the expression of all this in writing that has impacted me with such force that I react with thoughts like:
- I wish I could have expressed it that clearly
- I can see the applicability of the dynamics described here to my own organization
My appreciation of why experiencing the work of a great historian matters was brought home to me again recently as I read the final work of David Potter, a wonderful book called “The Impending Crisis”. It deals with the sharpening sectional tensions between 1845 and 1860 that led to the Civil War. I’m on page 320 of this book, and I don’t think I have encountered a
page without a sense of admiration and sometimes awe at the substance and the way it’s expressed. I’m in the hands of a master. It lifts me intellectually. It prompts me to try harder to emulate the sensitivity, the precision and the intellectual integrity of analysis that I see here as well as the clarity of how it’s expressed.
Which brings me to the final question. Why has the act of personally researching, exploring and trying to illuminate lessons of history been something that I have found helpful?
In one way, the usefulness has been situational, highly coincidental, illustrating that you don’t know where your study might lead sometime in the future. The subject of my senior thesis was “The Influence of the Institution of Slavery on the Diplomacy of the Republic of Texas”. I worked for two years on it, I’m sure memory pushes aside some of the tougher moments, the countless re-writes. But it really was a thrill. It even won a prize. What did it lead to?
Totally unpredictably, my interest in the issue of slavery and this period of American history was one of the reasons that my interest was immediately piqued when I was asked 10 years ago to lead the development of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. This institution is committed to bring to life lessons of history – as people have fought for their own freedom and helped others achieve it – as a catalyst for dialogue and discussion, on how we can live and work together better today.
There were many reasons I agreed to undertake this role – the most important being that I had come to see firsthand the power that comes from people of different backgrounds and experience working together (and the ease with which stereotypes can separate us). But my interest and I believe my effectiveness in leading this project was clearly enhanced by my deep-rooted knowledge and attachment to this subject. And it has benefited enormously from re-connecting with professors expert in this subject including Yale’s David Brion Davis and David Blight.
But as I say, this is a situational connection. You may find one; you may not.
But whether such a specific connection develops or not, of this I am sure. The act of researching, analyzing and writing about this subject brought with it an appreciation of the challenge and, yes, the satisfaction of doing deep analysis that can lead to fresh perspectives as well as an appreciation of the value of clear expression. This has been of extraordinary value to me. Indeed, I am certain that these were among the most important qualities which led to the success of my career at Procter & Gamble.
But more fundamentally than that, they fired a love of learning, of curiosity to understand cause and effect, to distinguish between the general and the specific, to understand the difference an individual can make. And this and more has driven me – happily – to keep learning as the years have gone by.
Over the course of my life, I’ve been struck by the difference I see in people’s continued rate of learning: Their openness to new ideas; their willingness to reach out to try new things; to bring fresh perspectives. What accounts for these differences? I know of no simple answer. Many factors come into play. But the three factors I have observed most often are:
1. The extent to which people engage in new experiences -- often challenging, even at first glance, frightening experiences.
2. The extent to which people build relationships with people who are different than they are, and
3. Finally, by how much they read – about life experiences, about trends. History is a key part of this.
So what do you take away from these comments? I hope at least three things.
1. Never give up the life of the mind that you are experiencing today.
2. Develop a relationship with and maintain contact with one or two professors over time. Professors who have galvanized your love of learning, of analysis, of the art and power of fine expression, and
3. Save your history term paper!
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