Another of the excellent s
peakers we heard at the National Speakers Association convention in New York last week was Bill Strickland, President and CEO of Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center, Inc.
Talk about someone who does meaningful work! His story is much too long to detail in this blog, and I certainly can’t do him justice. Besides, he’s been written about in Inc, Fast Company, and tons of other publications, and you can read about him there.
In a nutshell, Bill Strickland is a social innovator who runs a company to train and give substantive (not empty) hope to poor inner-city kids, welfare mothers, and others in the Manchester area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He’s taking his highly successful model, which educates people in the visual, culinary, and other arts, and replicating it across the country now.
Here’s just a little of what Strickland said, that stuck in my mind:
- “The only difference between rich people and poor people is that poor people don’t have any money.”
- “People’s behavior is a function of how they’re treated.” (Where have we heard that before?)
- “We have fresh flowers all over the center, because these people deserve to see fresh flowers.”
- When he had his center designed in Pittsburgh, he wanted it to be flooded with light. The people who learn there have lots of darkness in their lives. Strickland knew that light would change their outlook, and their behavior. It has.
- The walls of his center are covered in valuable art. Skeptics told him the art would be trashed within a month. In the 22 years since he started the practice, there’s never been an act of vandalism at the center. Reminds me of a point made by John Houseman in the classic training film, Brain Power, by Karl Albrecht, in which Houseman reminds us, “We get what we expect to get. What are you expecting?”
We heard lots of polished, eloquent speakers at the NSA convention. Bill Strickland was not one of them. It was, instead, his message, not his delivery, that blew me away.
Thanks, Bill Strickland, for being an Extra-Miler.
Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and his co-author and business partner Bill Catlette, are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.
