Back to school on campus in Zug, Switzerland

Jeffrey & Donald

The flight to Zurich took about 10 hours once the Airbus lifted off the ground in Toronto. Zug is about 30 minutes outside of Zurich on the edge of a lake surrounded by mountains. The place is very picturesque and my first day has been quite special having flown over with Dr. Oxford York, then being greeted at the airport by Dr. Henderson with his associate Marcel from Monarch Business School of Management.

Marcel drove us across Switzerland to our destination in the remarkably manicured Zug. I will include a few images of the town.

The reason for being here is to take part with my student cohort and faculty in a workshop about preparing the doctoral thesis. I’ve been asked to give a presentation about my area of focus. This will include a video presentation along with a few slides that depict the engagement gordongroup has had underway documenting the James Bay Crees of Eeyou Istchee over the last four decades including all the individuals and stakeholders who have contributed to their Nations phenomenal growth within Canada.

Taking the path to higher education has returned many great experiences and Zug is just the latest opportunity that has unfolded along the pursuit.

Images from James Bay, Eeyou Istchee

Sturgeon Falls Waswanipi, Quebec

Planes, Boats and ATVs

I’m back here in the community of Whapmagoostui, Northern Quebec on the coast of Hudson Bay. Around 2000 people live here including both Crees and Inuit. My last experience here was in the 1990’s while underway working for the Crees educational system.

This trip includes introductions to people from different cultures. The plane from Nemaska did a stop over briefly in another Cree community Waskaganish before beginning the northern trajectory past James Bay further into a region known as Ungava bordering Hudson Bay.

While onboard the aircraft I struck up a conversation with Alux an Inuk who during the trip north was looking out the window at the clear view of the coastline below. He let me know that he was on the look out for Beluga whales. The Beluga is a primary source of food for the Inuit people. The tradition involves a crew of men who travel to the whales off the coast aboard their boats; they harpoon and shoot these sea creatures for provision of food for their communities. My idea of seeing these animals cruising the surface shifted to thinking about what the slaughter might be. My introduction to people from distant lands is rich learning and hunting is a way of life foreign to urban societies.

Our stay in Whapmagoostui (Great Whale) has included introductions to many people and visits to many locations. A coastal community Whapmagoostui has the magnificent Hudson Bay ever present as a backdrop. The region includes beachfront, sand dunes combined with hilly terrain mixed with lakes and rivers. The natural terrain has a landscaped look that is picture perfect. A natural splendor, groomed well beyond any man made garden. We’re here in summer and we’ve been afforded almost temperate conditions with fresh breezes purging biting flying insects. Breeze coming from across broken ice flows, over the vast waters of Hudson Bay. This weather is an easy adjustment for our crew of urbanites by comparison to the extreme cold served up for most of the year here in the north.

Another primary mode of transportation here is the ATV (All Terrain Vehicle). These torqued up dune buggies have been used for about twenty years. They’re a multi-purpose utility that provide riders and passenger’s transportation across the spectrum including recreation, hunting as well ATV’s are good for getting the groceries or Sunday driving. A compact personal vehicle with rock proof suspension frames and highly efficient engines make the ATV design the transportation of choice for those living in the community.

Getting from point A to point B is a common aspect of life in the North and different modes of travel keep people together. The ATV provides an exhilarating driving experience, a great option of mechanized travel that further enables living on land.

How Ancient Civilization does Corporate Social Responsibility

Inuk Ancient Dwelling at Deception Bay, Ungava Penninsula, Quebec, Canada

Looking at how organizations today promote sustainability and corporate social responsibility becomes interesting when we draw a parallel between 21^st century thinking on this subject and what we know about ancient civilizations and their point of view from centuries past. Modern society can look to indigenous culture to find pathways for more environmental stewardship, governance, preservation and other guiding concepts.

One of those principles is the idea of collaboration and the importance of everyone contributing with the interest of achieving the best possible outcomes. Much is being discussed today about the rise of employee involvement. Specifically through empowering all members of the organization greater levels of success are realized.

Indigenous society practiced democratic values that included all members within a group relying on a Speakers Stick. The Speakers stick was used as a prop to let others among a group including Elders or Leaders know that the individual who held the speakers stick was given the opportunity to express their point for the benefit of everyone without interruption or presumption. The structure and attachment to rank and file in our contemporary office environment traditionally has not empowered lateral free expression, moreover, this results in a cost that companies are burdened with. Using the speakers stick to bring forward the best solution or consensus today is certainly a good thing, it occurs to me the stick forced everyone to just listen, we should look to indigenous cultures for lessons about how to empower all members of the team.

Sharing remains a vital aspect of how Indigenous culture harmonized their communities and ensured all people were cared for. By way of thoughtful consideration about not overharvesting wildlife or hording fish stocks, food was made available to all those who were within the group. Preservation specifically regarding the land and how the land provided the bounty of food through hunting, trapping and fishing established a form of governance among indigenous culture that ensured that only enough was taken so that ample food supplies were in place for at least seven generations into the future.

Storytelling in oral societies remains an integral aspect of how knowledge and wisdom was taught and passed from generation to generation. The importance of stories and the spoken word in context with survival or for the purpose of expressing ways to reduce risk knowing the extreme circumstances people were accustom to enduring. Stories remain a powerful method of education that brought meaning and context to the listener to help broaden and expand perspective on many different levels. Elders among multi generational family units often expressed stories, through repetition and emphasis about characters and metaphors, their stories emphasized the many extraordinary unique elements of a rich and vibrant culture. Storytelling remains a core aspect of expression among indigenous societies and through this expression another example of sharing is demonstrated. 

How stories are expressed today is evident in a myriad of forms, the opportunity exists for corporations to do a better job expressing how they’re making a difference through practices such as corporate social responsibility and what their doing to lighten the impact upon those in their path.

Gordongroup has had the benefit of working directly with the Crees of Eeyou Istchee for the last three decades. Our experience, learning and time-shared together with our clients and friends  has been a tremendous privilege that we are truly grateful for.