Life Stories and Blue Oceans inform “Legacy Chats” Workshop

Last week the state of Washington released 233 pages (repeat, pages) of an Excel spreadsheet listing the registered non-profits in the state that are no longer viable.

But on Orcas Island, some two dozen representatives of thriving local non-profits attended a workshop called “Legacy Chat” to develop skills and tools for donor stewardship, chiefly through engaging donors in conversations about their lives, experiences, passions and how they want to be remembered.

Financial planner Joe Cohen brought Scott Farnsworth of Sunbridge Legacy to facilitate the workshop. Through his experience in engaging clients to impart the legacy of their life stories, Farnsworth has created techniques and tools to help donors identify what gifts we can leave those communities that have inspired or helped us.

By telling our stories, Farnsworth says, we get insight and clarity about our past and about what “legacy” we leave for others, what bridges we build to the future. He has created cds, workbooks and videos as tools to help elicit those stories through provocative questions and “generous listening.”

Prior to the workshop, Farnsworth made available the paper “Blue Ocean Strategy” from the Harvard Business Review. In it, the concept of creating new markets (Blue Oceans) characterized by rapid growth and non-existent competition was differentiated from traditional, competitive, business growth. An example of a Blue Ocean strategy was the “re-invention” of the circus by Cirque du Soleil, which strategized to replace animal “acts” with human artistry. “The distinctive strength of the business world is its capacity to create new market space that is uncontested,” according to the paper’s authors.  (To read the full document, click: Blue Ocean Strategy)

Blue ocean businesses can “accomplish more, with less resistance and greater outcomes,” said Farnsworth. “I hope by the end of today, you’ll see where a blue ocean can fit into your organization.”

Farnsworth, a lawyer, banker, college professor and financial planner, recalled his own “Blue Ocean” moment when one his clients reprimanded him for “plugging me into one of your folders,” rather than take into account the client’s unique perspective.  Farnsworth responded by partnering with a minister to develop the format for “Priceless Conversations.” These conversations are designed help his clients manage their own legacies to truly represent their own passions and ideals.

Farnsworth has authored the book, “Like a Library Burning,” based on the idea that with the passing of each elder, a bridge to the past has been burnt. The legacy of that person’s stories of their life experiences should be passed on to future generations.

The June 20 workshop began with each person speaking briefly of their “inheritance” in terms of where they came from and what they learned from those who went before them.

Farnsworth showed the DVD “The Lighthouse,” illustrating how one man’s legacy gifts to those who had shared his life experiences, and how those gifts of insight, wisdom and forgiveness enriched those who came after him.

“You connect with people by sharing stories. We fall in love with the people who share our stories by listening generously,” Farnsworth said. Throughout the day, the groups broke into smaller groups of two, three, and five individuals to converse about objects that define them, whom they admire, and what annoys them, among other topics.

Farnsworth recalled the story of Miss Oseola McCarty, the descendant of Negro slaves, who’d wanted to be a teacher, but instead worked as a washerwoman. Eventually she accumulated $200,000 in savings. She went to a trust officer at a branch of the bank where Farnsworth was a vice-president, and was guided to establish a scholarship fund for black students at Southern Mississippi University, so that they could become teachers as she had once aspired. When asked if she didn’t want to spend her fortune on herself, Oseola McCarty said, “I am.”

When word got out of her legacy, many more were inspired by her legacy to contribute to that fund. Oseola McCarty had the satisfaction of seeing many African-American students become teachers, and she was the recipient of the first honorary doctorate given by the University of Southern Mississippi.

The greater part of the afternoon was taken up in private, one-on-one conversations on a topic chosen from a workbook that Farnsworth has developed to facilitate the sharing of life stories. He advised the group: “It’s not so much the experiences we have as the stories we form around our experiences.”

As the afternoon drew to a close, people questioned the link between sharing legacy stories and asking for a donation to their specific organization. Martha Farish described capturing the stories as a “service to the community; you’re not going to see a one-to-one connection.” Rather she said, by the legacy of stories, one person’s identity and passion — their life story — is “a gift of caring to the community.”

Joe Cohen said, “The Legacy Chat is not a manipulative tool, but a means of understanding.”

Farnsworth summed up the lessons learned from his experience of “legacy chats:”

• Every legacy begins with a conversation
• Passion can be discovered by listening to stories
• Once you know the “why” of a legacy gift, the “how” becomes easy
• Sometimes the story is more valuable than the gift

The Legacy Chat workshop was funded in part by the Orcas Island Community Foundation through a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant.