News and Reviews
John Hurst 1941 - 2009
In early December we heard about the very sad and untimely death of our good friend and colleague, John Hurst. Ralph Lewis, the Greenleaf Centre UK Chair offers these thoughts:
John Hurst was a man of passion; someone who believed with all his heart that work was a noble calling. To hear him talk about the days of the steam locomotives and the duties of the firemen made you realise what an art and vocation it was. And for John, Servant-Leadership was about honouring the individual and their skills in work such as that. He saw no reason why this shouldn't be the case in any workplace, but was profoundly disappointed that this wasn't the case. At the UK Servant-Leadership Conferences John contributed with forthright vigour and energy and, again, passion. Never one to call a spade a spade, but a bloody shovel, you knew where you were with him. And it was a good place. He is sorely missed as someone who cared profoundly about people on an everyday level. No more fitting an epitaph than a passage from A Christmas Carol (John loved Dickens) about Scrooge saying he (Marley) had looked after his business, and the reply:
" Business... Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business”.
On December 31st The Independent carried the following obituary. We are grateful to The Independent for allowing us to reproduce it here.
John Hurst: Politician who championed local health services and fought the sale of council housing
Thursday, 31 December 2009
John Hurst was a passionate campaigner for the NHS, civil liberties and public housing. Born in Redcar, Yorkshire in 1941, he moved in his teens to East Ham in London, where his father held a senior position at Beckton gas works. From the local grammar school he went to Hull University to study maths and physics.
On graduation, in 1962, he was recruited by Montague Burton, then one of the world's largest clothing firms, in Leeds, as a computer programmer. From there he moved to International Computers Ltd (ICL) which was formed in 1968 as a part of the Industrial Expansion Act of the Wilson Labour Government. ICL was an initiative of Tony Benn, the Minister of Technology, with the intention of creating a British computer industry that could compete with leading world manufacturers like IBM.
Hurst was soon sent to Moscow and other points east to put on training courses. These visits reinforced his negative views on the Soviet version of "Socialism". However, by then he had long been committed to Democratic Socialism of the Labour variety. This included anti-colonialism, and he devoted much of his free time to the Anti-Apartheid Movement. Although disappointed with recent events in Zimbabwe he remained deeply devoted to Nelson Mandela.
In 1970, Hurst joined British Rail, partly because of a lifelong fascination with the railways and partly because he felt he would be working for a great public sector institution. Starting in BR's computer division, he later moved on to management. In the 1980s he was a senior manager at the headquarters of what was still a publicly-owned industry, reporting to a director appointed by a Thatcher cabinet minister.
Increasingly he felt at odds with government-imposed policies as one industry after another was privatised and it seemed only a matter of time before it was the turn of BR. He later wrote of this period, "Coming to work became a miserable experience, surrounded as one was by crude self-seeking, a lack of concern for the general good, chronic fear, no solidarity, inclusiveness or fellowship and a cackling contempt for the weak."
At 46, he was "persuaded" to take early retirement. He then worked as a consultant for the Post Office and other bodies and developed his political and intellectual interests, among which was Jungian psychology. He graduated with an MA from Essex University and was working on a PhD at Lincoln University. Apart from public issues he was a cricket devotee and lover of classical music.
Through BR Hurst had moved to Grantham in the early 1970s, and for him this Conservative-dominated town represented a challenge. He was elected to South Kesteven District Council and to the Lincolnshire County Council and was deeply disappointed when defeated, after many years of membership, first in the District Council Elections in June 2007 and then in the subsequent County Council Elections in 2009. He felt that these losses were the result of government unpopularity rather than a verdict on local Labour politicians. A notable aspect of his years as a councillor was his part in the fight to keep services at Grantham Hospital. He also campaigned against the sale of council housing. He was well-known in Labour circles up and down the country and the local MP, Quentin Davies, said of him, "No one who knew him could have failed to be struck by the genuineness and selflessness of his devotion to the community".
Hurst died suddenly at home, where he was found by his Iranian-born wife.
David Childs
Servant-Leadership: Bringing the Spirit of Work to Work
Edited by Ralph Lewis and John Noble of The Greenleaf Centre for Servant-Leadership UK
"It's a cracking good read, and everyone should enjoy it." So said one of the people who has read this book: a biased opinion perhaps, but right on the mark all the same!
Servant-Leadership: Bringing the Spirit of Work to Work is an easily accessible introduction to servant-leadership: what it is, what it means for servant-leaders (wherever they may sit in their organisation), how it was first expressed, and - crucially - how it actually works in real organisations. Whether or not you are already familiar with servant-leadership, and wherever you are in a work-place 'hierarchy', if you would like it to be a happier, healthier, organisation, try this book.
Edited by Ralph Lewis and John Noble of The Greenleaf Centre for Servant-Leadership UK, the book brings together contributions from thirteen servant-leadership practitioners from the UK, Europe, South Africa and America.
There is an interview with George SanFacon, a conversation with James Autry, and several essays by people working in a variety of places including: publishing, a law firm, hotels, local government, a computer and management training company, pensions and housing. They describe with great honesty the journey to introduce servant-leadership into their workplaces, failures as well as successes. What shines through the whole book is their faith in the people with and for whom they work.
All the contributors speak from personal experience and in their own voices, and in a range of styles, which means there is something to suit all tastes.
Margaret Wheatley, one of the most inspirational of servant-leadership practitioners, has written about how fear of what may happen if people are allowed to express their visions, act spontaneously, or simply contribute their ideas in discussion, is crippling organisations.
In hard times like the present, this readable, inspirational and yet realistic book, could well provide the help we all need, more than ever, to benefit from the creativity which arises from just listening to one another.
As the Introduction says: Servant-leadership is not a set of techniques or guidelines to improve productivity or even to make people's working lives better. It is something you do because you believe it is right. Now, there is lots of evidence to suggest that the bottom line is improved and people are happier and more engaged, but again that is not the reason for servant-leadership. You do it because it is the natural thing to do.
Paula Harvey
October 2008
To Be a Servant-Leader
Stephen Prosser, Paulist Press 2007 ISBN 978-0-8091-4467-9
To Be a Servant-Leader is a welcome and important addition to the burgeoning litany of books on servant-leadership. It is a challenging, detailed, and sometimes provocative examination of the philosophy and practicality of the subject, illustrating from the very outset that servant-leadership is not for the faint hearted. The fact that the book comes in at less than one hundred pages might lull the less than attentive to the thought that this is an easy read. It is not. It is a thorough assessment of the values most usually associated with the servant-leader and how these values are lived out. In addition, through a series of questions, it provides something of a checklist, a continuing measurement of how you are doing. Quakers who read To Be a Servant-Leader will find some echoes of their Advices and Queries, a book designed to ensure consistency of principle and a means by which this may be quietly tested. In some ways To Be a Servant-Leader represents Greenleaf’s best test writ large, and applied to all activities and aspects of organisational and personal life. In this context it brings to mind Jim Autry’s contention that life is integrated, not segregated, and one’s values must be applied equally in all settings.
The author notes that when he had prepared the first draft he sent it to a number of colleagues and friends to seek their views as to the nature and content of what he had written. One replied that it was like “trying to eat a whole Stilton,” and so it is. There is a great deal to this book, but the reader would find it worthwhile – as Stephen himself suggests – taking it gradually, one or two chapters at a time. I had known for some time that this book was on the way. The wait has been well worth it.
John Noble, November 2007