How will our work be remembered?

What is our legacy?

A continuing theme of this blog is to challenge us to build a new language as a tool for creating change. One way of helping us to do that is to think about what our legacy might be.

How will we look back on our work?  How can we know for sure that our contributions actually helped to create a better future?

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions is currently experimenting with a legacy statement:

“Workers were empowered to deliver health care at a lower cost and higher quality. We demonstrated a better health care system that inspired a move toward universal health care, and did so while workers attained industry leading wages and benefits and improved the quality of work life.”

Please let us know what you think and if you have any suggestions about this statement.

Lessons from the legacy of others

When I think about our legacy I am inspired by Dr. Jonas Salk, best known for the discovery of the polio vaccine and also one of the great thinkers in history. Here are some of my favorite teachings from Dr. Salk:

-When asked by renowned journalist Edward R. Murrow who owns the patent on the polio vaccine, Dr. Salk responded: “There is no patent. Can you patent the sun?” (1955)

-“I have the impression that the new generation of young people, are coming up on the scene with a sense of “ancestorhood”, and with more wisdom than was evident before.” (1985)

-“Reason alone will not serve. Intuition alone can be improved by reason, but reason alone without intuition can easily lead the wrong way. They both are necessary.” (1991)

-“Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.” (1988)

Melville Cuba, Lifeguard

And, a celebration of sorts comes from a recent New York Times obituary page: Melville Cuba who died at age 99.

On August 8, 1933 at age 23 he was a lifeguard at Rockaway Beach, Queens.  On that day, 40 young orphans from the Pride of Judea Home were swept into the stormy waters by a huge wave.  Mel swam out and saved four of the children by himself, carrying all four in his arms to safety.

He received many awards for his courage. Mel then settled into a career as a science teacher in Brooklyn.  Throughout his life he wore a bracelet bearing the seal of the City of New York, and the inscription:

“Melville Cuba, LIFEGUARD”.

As we go to work every day, it is a wondrous aspiration for our legacy:  to be lifeguards for our patients, our unions, and the work we do every day. And to be, as Dr. Salk taught, good ancestors.