June 2009 Archives

In Treatment

By Aaron Hurst on June 26, 2009 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am totally addicted to HBO's "In Treatment".  I must have watched 20 episodes in 7 days the other week.

Like "The Office", the show is an import remade for American audiences.  This one comes to us from Israel, which is not surprising since it is about therapy, the Jewish pastime.

It is a drama but riffs off of a sitcom's 30-minute format and the nightly news' daily schedule.  Each day of the week we watch another patient of Paul--a therapist working out of a Brooklyn brownstone. We get to sit in on their sessions and follow their personal dramas as they unfold each week.   

Monday is a lawyer who wants to be a mom but can't find a man. Tuesday is a student battling cancer. Wednesday is a family in the middle of a divorce. Thursday is a CEO worried about his daughter serving in Africa and a crisis at work. On Friday we get to see Paul with his therapist.

I have done my share of therapy.  I have also worked with three executive coaches in my career. They are different experiences but have some interesting similarities. I got to wishing there was a sister show about executive coaching.

Not only would it be very entertaining, but it could help remove the stigma of using an executive coach and provide insight to managers about effective management and leadership.  Shows like "Nanny 911" help parents realize there are worse parents out there than themselves while also allowing them to pick up some helpful tips. The show I am envisioning could be a safe way for people to learn how to be more effective and sane.

In Treatment + The Office + The Apprentice + Nanny 911

If we carbon copy the format for '"In Treatment", here is a potential lineup for season one.


Monday: A mother of a small child works as a middle-manager and faces glass ceiling in her company where management is nearly all male.  She wrestles with her frustration at work and guilt around not being home.

Tuesday: Rising star at a consulting firm does a pro bono project and begins to think about a career change and the roles of his values at work.  He begins dating his nonprofit client and realizes that things aren't as black and white.

Wednesday: Entreprenuer facing the ups and downs of a rising start-up. She co-founded it with another person and they struggle to work together. One is motivated to build a great company and the other to build a great product.  One is a people person and the other has interpersonal issues.

Thursday: Hospital administrator who struggles with balancing business and the needs of the patients. Her father becomes a patient and makes her question her priorities.

Friday: On Fridays, our executive coach goes to therapy with Paul from "In Treatment" and talks about her own battle feeling on the sidelines and wonder if she should go back to working at a company instead of just coaching.

Of course there would be twists, romances and drama tossed in to keep it fresh.

Matt O'Grady Day

By Aaron Hurst on June 18, 2009 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Guest Posting by Matt O'Grady

Tomorrow, June 19 is Matt O'Grady Day at the Taproot Foundation. All our offices will be closed, and staff has the day off. The holiday celebrates my wedding last year on this date, which was among the first same-sex weddings to be legally performed in California. Of course, this is the greatest honor I've ever had in my somewhat sordid career - who else do you know whose employer declared an official holiday in their honor?

But Matt O'Grady Day isn't really about me. It's about the step forward society took - however faltering that step proved to be - when California's Supreme Court ruled that equal protection under the law applies to all, regardless of sexual orientation. Since that brave step was taken, California voters decided to write discrimination back into our constitution, and the same Supreme Court upheld their right to do so. In the same ruling, they also upheld my marriage, along with the 18,000 others that were performed last summer.

As a result, we now have three classes of citizens in California: First Class Citizens, including all heterosexuals who may marry and receive all the benefits provided by California law, as well as more than 1,000 distinct rights bestowed in federal law. And we have Second Class Citizens, including me, who enjoy state benefits of marriage, but not the federal ones. And we have a sorry Third Class of Citizens: Gays and Lesbians who can't get married at all. This is clearly unsustainable, as well as inherently unfair.

My sister-in-law is a fundamentalist Christian. She blessed my marriage, yet at the same time expressed opposition to same-sex marriage in general. A few weeks ago, she sent me a note. She had just seen the film, "Milk," and it changed her perspective entirely. She had voted to ban same-sex marriage last November, she wrote. But if she has the opportunity to vote on it again, she would change her vote.

I look forward to the day when the Taproot Foundation revises its policies and drops Matt O'Grady Day. Not because I'm not loved here anymore, but because my sister-in-law and everyone else in this country get so far past all this nonsense about restricting marriage that having a special day celebrating the achievement just seems passé.

But until that day comes, we have work to do in advancing society. So join me in taking tomorrow off to celebrate and rest up, then let's all get back to work fresh on Monday pushing society forward.


Steve Van Landingham, his mother Jeri Boone, San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty, Polly O'Grady, and Matt O'Grady celebrate after Steve & Matt's wedding at San Francisco City Hall, June 19, 2008.
 

Pro Bono Takes Tokyo

By Aaron Hurst on June 1, 2009 6:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Last week I heard from our friend, Ikuma Saga, in Tokyo who has been making strides to kick off a Service Grant Program in Japan since 2005. They've completed 17 projects and currently have 6 underway. 190 pro bono consultants have offered to contribute their time to do pro bono for nonprofits.

Service Grant Tokyo recently held a launch party to officially announce their newly acquired nonprofit incorporation status, exhibit their Board's commitment to their work, expand their network and promote pro bono. It's exciting to see people across the world get equally riled up about the role pro bono can play in society. Congratulations to Ikuma for all his hard work and for the success his efforts have seen in the last few months on bringing pro bono to Tokyo.

The Board members who are leading the pro bono movement in Japan include:

- Kaneto Kanemoto, CEO of OK Wave
- Yoshiko Ikoma, former Chief Editor of Marie Claire Japan
- Hajime Nakano, VP of Arc Web
- Eriko Kawabuchi, Executive of Idee
- Naoki Yoshioka, CEO of Unplug, llc.
- Ikuma Saga, Founder of Service Grant Tokyo & Director of Earthday Money Association

For those of you out there who speak Japanese, here's a link to the Service Grant Tokyo site with an example of one website they made pro bono.
 
Here are some pics to share from the celebratory launch party for pro bono in Japan at a MUJI Studios space: