How to Change A World: 5 Things We’ve Learned About the Business of Telling Solution-forward Stories Part 4

Casamiro family members with Deborah Schaffer, Suzana Merino, our Cuba Film Office liaison, and me,

Part #4: Do Good Work and Be Decent
Seems obvious, right? Yet the iconic “difficult but brilliant” director gets glamorized, almost encouraging us to follow in their disagreeable footsteps on the road to success.

But, on the whole, most of us prefer to work with people who treat us respectfully and do a good job.

Fortunately, the real world of film/TV/streaming production tends to reward those who cultivate positive, professional relationships based on:

• respect
• listening
• compassion
• taking responsibility for setbacks and working to get over them
• a commitment to collaboration and/or teamwork

4) Turning Storms Into Waves
It’s easy to get caught up in a video production’s daily stresses. Deadlines, budgets, long shoot-days and editing sessions, delays, creative differences and all the rest can add up to a mind swirling with concern. And a turbulent mind can lead us off-task and off-relationship.

I learned that the hard way! For decades I had worked in a variety of difficult situations, and having many of my clients return year after year was fair evidence that I had managed those situations well. But a big lesson came to me in Cuba.

Exhausted after weeks of preparation, travel, and filming, I was pretty tapped. Jim Merkel had been there before and knew how special it was, but I was running on empty and couldn't see much past the rough terrain as we approached the Casamiro family’s permaculture farm. With only a couple days to film the entire operation, profile the people and gather family stories, we were losing daylight and were still a half-mile away from our destination. That’s when our driver stopped the van,  “no más.” The van full of us and all our gear and luggage would not go any further.

I lost it! In my mind, those that had managed the logistics screwed up! How were we going to get to the farm, accomplish our tasks, shoot all we needed, get all the interviews?!!

While I huffed and puffed through unloading the van, pushing it through the ditch, and reloading it, I got hotter and sicker. Obviously, my crew mates were feeling some of the same frustration, but now they had my sorry ass to deal with as well. We made it to the farm and then I met José Casimiro and his kind, brilliant, and generous family. 

First, José saw I could use a "pick-me-up," and blended a potion of home grown garlic, herbs, honey, and citrus that immediately soothed what ailed me, but the crew's positive energy remained disrupted by my blowout. JIm later confided to me that it had really put him on edge. Did you know research shows we are hard wired so it can take 5-10 positive experiences to regain one's trust before a friend/colleague forgets the negative?* 
 
I had a lot of mending to do. With time, effort, and reconnecting, I reset those relationships and eventually we were all able to focus the next few days on following the Casimiro’s routine of growing and maintaining their wind, water, solar, and manure-powered closed-loop system. Absolutely inspiring. I was personally energized by endless sources of vitamin rich foods all grown and nurtured by them with little to no use of fossil fuels. The Casimiro's knowledge and vision for a happier, healthier world was transformative. This was heaven, and we got what was needed and more!

So, thanks to Jim and the crew in Cuba, I can now speak from experience when I recommend putting relationships before rigor. There’s value in rigor, but only when we also step out of daily stresses and cultivate solid relationships — that’s how we create sustained, positive, creative, and productive environments. 

And that’s the foundation of fulfilling work.

References:
*https://www.gottman.com/blog/the-magic-relationship-ratio-according-science/#:~:text=Negative%20interactions%20during%20conflict%20include,The%20Five%20Positive%20Interactions

https://news.columbia.edu/news/how-can-we-break-cycle-focusing-negative-experiences
https://hbr.org/2015/01/a-second-chance-to-make-the-right-impression

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