Due Diligence

Recently I had the pleasure of going back to Stratford, Ontario after a 3-year hiatus. It was a bittersweet reboot of the annual trip I’d taken for close to two decades with my mum and middle sister. My mother had been to Stratford every year since the Festival’s founding in the 1950’s, and this tradition of spending just 48 hours there each year to watch five plays together (you read that number right) was a bright spot for the three of us pre-pandemic. @stratfest

Fast forward and earlier this month, at long last, my two sisters, mom’s BFF Toni and I got to see Amaka Umeh, who, because of the pandemic, had to wait two years to make history on the Festival stage. Groundbreaking, revelatory and, as Toni said, “Because of Amaka’s brilliant and nuanced portrayal, this was the first time I immediately ‘got it’ without having to understand every line of Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter to follow the story.”

With this new tradition, we experienced four top-notch productions, two incredible meals, and the beautiful new Tom Patterson Theatre. What a wonderful time we had together!

So why was the experience so bittersweet? Because on the last day of September 2020, just four months after Amaka and three other Stratford actors who had played Hamlet over the years kindly did a personal shout-out to Mom online, Shirley “Rusty” Schumacher died. And thus ended our magical time together at Stratford.

Right about now, you may be thinking: “Martha, while I am sorry for your loss, what does this have to do with active listening and diligence?”

Great question! I’m sharing this story with you in the diligence context for three reasons:

1.     D for Diligence is the last letter in HEARD. If you’ve read my recent posts, you know that I began writing a 5-part series about active listening (AL) with a kick-off blog post in March, followed by monthly posts covering Hear and Understand, Empathy, Authenticity, Respect, and now Diligence. I hope you’ve found them helpful and if you haven’t had a chance to check all of them out yet, scroll down for more!

2.     Being diligent about employing AL early and often with your organization’s stakeholders is crucial. To learn more about what questions to ask your donors, colleagues, constituents, and anyone else in your life with whom you want to make a stronger connection, check out my article from the upcoming September issue of Successful Fundraising.

3.     When you look at folks across the globe who have been most successful in their fields (and of course success is a relative term – a topic for another day), there is one common thread: their stick-to-it-iveness, otherwise known as diligence, in practicing diligently to master their craft. The same is true for AL because, not only is it not a “one and done,” becoming a master active listener is a life-long pursuit that takes focus, attention and diligence. My mother was diligent in so many of her endeavors – including giving my sister and me the gift year after year of expanding our worlds through the arts.

In Stratford parlance, thus endeth the 5-part series on active listening. Cheers to Mom and to your continued AL evolution!

Interested in learning more about active listening? Check out HILT here: www.hazeninc.com/hazen-institute-for-leadership-training