Is Reconciliation Possible? Ending the Conflict and Carnage in Israel and Palestine. My Hope Endures!

  

Reaping the Rewards of Mutual Respect and Empathy in Pursuit of a Compelling Goal

 

We read story after story, decade after decade, and, recently, day after day, about the conflict and unending carnage within the Israeli and Palestinian communities.

 

It remains a herculean task to exit from this trauma; yet, difficult as it is will be to achieve, there is hope to be drawn from a short essay authored by Dr. Adam Lee Goldstein, the Director of Trauma Surgery at a Medical Center in Holon, Israel (The New York Times, 5/20/21.)  

 

Dr. Goldstein’s hospital is on the southern edge of the city, in a working-class neighborhood filled with Jews and Arabs, recent immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa, and the countries of the former Soviet Union.

 

On Tuesday, May 18, the hospital faced a crisis.  Within an hour, more than 40 patients had arrived, four in critical condition, three needing emergency surgery.  For the next few hours, the entire hospital worked to evaluate and treat the wounded, no matter their religion or ethnicity.

 

The groups fighting each other in the streets of Holon were suddenly combined together inside the walls of the hospital’s emergency room.  They arrived wearing religious Jewish undergarments or Arab garments.  An Arab nurse treated a Jewish wounded person; a Jewish intern examined a young Arab man who had been injured by a rubber bullet to the chest.

 

Dr. Goldstein writes that his medical center lacks funds; it is not the biggest hospital in Israel, and it has not been painted for four years…“but to me it represents everything that is beautiful and possible at this place.  Before, during and after this current disaster, we are the hospital for one of the most diverse, elderly and neglected populations in Israel.  We train residents from all over the world, especially Africa and Latin America, and Palestinian residents from the West Bank in Gaza.  In two and a half days, we received more than 100 people wounded from missiles, falling schrapnel, or the violence on the streets.”

 

Dr. Goldstein eloquently concludes, “in the coming days, years and decades, I hope that what is happening now under the roof of this hospital—the selflessness, the lack of ego, the team work and diversity and mutual respect—can be a model for this entire country, for our entire region.  If neighbors and communities can’t work together, can’t get along in the way that I see every night in our hospital, I worry that we are guaranteeing that the suffering across this country will only get worse.  If we do come together as we do inside our own walls, it will be a beautiful thing.”

 

This story took me back to a “beautiful thing” I experienced in 1999, at a meeting in Bucharest, Romania.  Bucharest is the headquarters, bringing together nine different countries made up of different ethnicities, different religions, and different languages.  P&G employees were present that day from each of those countries.  Several that had recently been in a war with one another and remained divided by bitter religious differences. 

Toward the end of the evening of grand celebration, diverse music and dancing, one person after another from each of the different countries came up to me to tell me how inspired they were by being able to work together in P&G against a common purpose and set of goals.  Their faces glowed as they told me this.  And so did mine.

 

These men and women had come to know each other.  They had developed empathy for one another.  And they were experiencing the thrill—for that is what it was, of seeing what they could accomplish together despite differences which before and, yes, even in the future, would risk tearing them apart unless they reunited in the pursuit of a compelling goal and came to know and appreciate one another, not as some “labeled” generic category, but as individuals.

A Dramatic Example of the Role of Contingency and the Individual in History

 I just finished reading one of the most galvanizing and analytically insightful books I can recall recently reading called Hitler’s 30 Days to Power:  January 1933 by Henry Ashby Turner, Jr.

 

With unbroken narrative drive and razor-sharp intellectual analysis, Turner traces the unpredictable and totally contingent nature of Hitler and his Nazi Party ascending to power through his assuming the chancellorship on January 30, 1933.  At the beginning of the month, this would have seemed entirely unlikely; the Nazi Party had suffered defeats in recent elections, its morale was dispirited and there were signs that the German economy was starting to turn the corner from the extremely severe depression which had been afflicting it.

 

Turner’s book persuasively makes the case that Hitler’s appointment as chancellor was by no means inevitable, even if it were possible.  There were preconditions in German history, past and present, which in fact made it possible.  The preconditions went way back at least to the failed democratic revolution in 1848, to the political right’s capturing the cause of nationalism in the course of the country’s unification under Prussian leadership.  The economic conditions and social tensions that gave rise to a militant working class political movement and eventually to its split into bitterly opposed factions (the Communists and Social Democrats), the shock of defeat in World War I and the draconian Versailles Treaty conditions—all of these and more—were historical preconditions.

 

However, as Turner makes clear, “An examination of the events of January 1933 undercut any notion of inevitability by revealing the strong elements of contingency in the chain of events that brought Hitler to power.”  And importantly, they involved individuals.  I won’t try to review all of the individual roles here, but they’re important and merit study.  There is the weakness and poor judgment of the aging President Von Hinderbergh who, in the end, was the only one who had the right to appoint the chancellor.  There was the political ineptness and simple lack of drive for power of Kurt von Schleicher, the chancellor, who in many ways allowed this to happen. There was the mendacious von Papen, who thought he could control Hitler, greatly overrating his ability as deputy chancellor.  There were the liberal parties who didn’t accurately read what Hitler had committed himself to.  There was von Hindenberg’s son who, despite his better judgment, finally went along with Hitler because he didn’t think Schleicher was up to the job.  And there was luck in different meetings between the people as the conspiracy to get rid of Schleicher despite Hindenberg’s adversity to Hitler was born and carried out.

 

Turner goes on to describe an alternative that could have occurred at this point in Germany’s history:  a military autocracy.  von Hindenberg could have allowed this.  It would have been against the Constitution, but that was clearly going to be violated by Hitler and von Papen knew it.  Hitler’s would not be a parliamentary coalition government; it would end up being a Presidential and eventually a dictatorial one.  Upon von Hindenberg’s death in 1934, Hitler of course appointed himself as the president.

 

In the early years, Hitler was buoyed by the economic recovery, by the desire for stability by the German people and by his toning down the anti-Semitism and intent on military conquest which was coursing through his veins.  

 

I agree with Turner’s ending judgments:  “Only through the political blindness and blunders of others did Adolf Hitler gain the opportunity to put his criminal intentions into effect between 1933 and 1945.  This is not to say that he alone was responsible for the heinous crimes committed during his rule.  To the everlasting shame of the German nation, Hitler found large numbers of lackeys eager to persecute, subjugate and slaughter people deemed dangerous or inferior by the perverted standards of his regime.”

 

“Although the Nazi’s dictator’s career left only a negative legacy, it provides a powerful example for subsequent generations of the crucial need to exercise the utmost care in selecting those to whom control is granted over the most powerful—and potentially the most lethal—institution created by humanity:  the modern state.”

 

“This story serves as a reminder that nothing except change is inevitable in human affairs, that the acts of individuals make a difference, and that heavy moral responsibility weighs upon those who wield control over the state.”

 

This book was written in 1996, fully 25 years ago.  We received another reminder of the importance of Turner’s summary points in the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States.  On the flip side, we saw the importance of these points, manifested positively, in the choice of Winston Churchill to lead Britain in 1940.

Creating and Sustaining a Winning, Successful Organization—Its Relevance to Procter & Gamble (Or any Great Organization)

 Yuval Levin’s book, A Time to Build:  From Family and Community to Congress and a Campus, How Recommitting to our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream provides deep insights as to to why P&G has been a successful, sustaining organization over time.  

 

Levin begins by documenting the well-established decline in faith in institutions, all kinds, excepting the military.  In losing faith, “We’ve lost the words of which to speak about what we owe each other.”  Institutions which were once formative in establishing who we are and in meeting our highest ideals of integrity, respect for others and excellence have become personal platforms for people to use to pursue their own purposes and establish their individual excellence and uniqueness. This lack of conviction in the role of institutions in helping set boundaries, provide a code of conduct and help individuals to achieve their highest aspirations is what accounts for this loss of faith, according to Levin. I believe there is much truth in this.

 

As Levin talks about what characterizes strong institutions, what enables them to be sustained over time, as he presents the benefits they offer, I think back again and again to what makes P&G special and what it must preserve.

 

Institutions come in a lot of shapes and sizes, Levin writes, but they share two distinct elements:  They are durable; they keep their shape over time and so shape the realm of life in which they operate.  P&G has done this in its fundamental purpose of serving consumers, providing a place of employment where people can grow, delivering excellence in every dimension that matters (consumer acceptance of its brands, financial results etc.)

 

Another critical element is that strong institutions are forms of association in which people are not only willing but motivated to provide their best effort.  In P&G, I think of our unique Alumni group, which brings people back after years and decades of being with the company.  They do this for a lot of reasons, but a critical one is to share, once again, in the common values and the achievements that have grown from those values of the company.

 

This perception of the institution to which we belong will lead us to respond to the question of, “What should I do now?” by asking, “What is the responsibility I owe to this institution?”  This line of making a decision as to what one does permeates military culture.  It is what makes integrity and commitment to duty the highest priorities.  

 

Institutions can properly be defined as the durable forms of our common life.  For that to prove true, the institution must work to accomplish some socially important task, whether that be educating the young, making laws, defending the country, serving God, or in some meaningful way improving the lives of consumers—that, of course, is P&G’s commitment.

 

We come to trust and value an institution, as we have Procter & Gamble, to the extent that it delivers on this purpose over time and operates with an ethic and set of values that help individuals be their best selves.

 

Levin argues that strong institutions should be “formative” in the sense of helping us live in accordance with the highest values of integrity, pursuit of excellence, respect for one another and truth.  This has to be modeled in action, and this can only happen if leaders believe in and live these values.  This has been actualized in P&G for most of its history, through its leaders.  The company’s “promote from within” practice has helped achieved consistency in the choice of leaders who embody these values.  At the same time, our record has not been without blemish.

 

What is it that has led to and accounts for the decline of values and character as fundamental to the life of institutions and the life of individuals in them?  Part of it has certainly come from the growing predominance of the internet and social media as the conveyor of what makes for news.  It has led to a culture where multiple opinions have to a significant degree come to override the reality and importance of fundamental truths.  

 

Procter & Gamble’s succinct and concrete set of Principles and Values, combined with its Purpose, establish and demand adherence to such a broad, concrete set of values.  Living this, telling stories, showing their presence in the past and the present, are vital to preserving a culture built on these values.

 

 

In talking about institutions and their role, Levin makes the excellent point that, “The family is our first and most important institution.  It gives each of its members a role, a set of relations to others and a body of responsibilities.  The institution of the family helps us see that institutions in general take shape around our needs and, if they are well shaped, can help turn those needs into capacities.  They are formative because they add to us directly and they offer us a kind of character formation for which there is no substitute.  There is no avoiding the need for moral formation through such direct habituation in the forms of life.” 

 

We recognize that our role at any point should stem from what we view as our responsibility and opportunity to contribute to the purpose of the organization (supporting the development of children to be all they can be in the case of the family), and doing so in alignment with our highest moral aspirations.

 

Importantly, this view of the family as an institution flows directly into how I’ve viewed Procter & Gamble—as carrying out and, in many ways, being a family.  A family, too, in not unduly restricting the development of every individual in it.  

 

An important quality of a “good family” is to extend our “horizon of expectations and priorities” when it comes to our children.  So is this true in Procter & Gamble.

 

Levin notes that “the relationship between ideals and institutions must be fairly explicit—in the case of the most idealistic institutions, it must be very explicit—and it must be widely understood and clearly sustained in practice.”  This describes I believe the role that Purpose, Values and Principles have played and must continue to play in Procter & Gamble, even recognizing that we will not be perfect.  

 

The argument presented in this book and which I have attempted to extend into my perception of Procter& Gamble will not be easily applied to tackling the decline in trust in the institutions around us.  However, I agree that it describes what we need to do:  recognize our institutions are critical to accomplishing aspirational goals and purposes. 

 

 This has to be done in a way that invites new learning on how this purpose and values must be better lived in the context of new knowledge and the environment in which the organization operates.  Only with this attitude will organizations be able to live the coda:  “Preserve the core; be prepared to change everything else.”