DWIGHT RISKEY
People With MS and the Courage to Give
Chapter 5: Oranizing a Team for Charity
I THOUGHT THAT AFTER TWENTY-ONE YEARS I knew everybody at Frito-Lay, but our MS 150 team, the Cheesy Riders, allowed me to meet a whole new set of people in a completely neutral, non-work-related context. Nothing could be better for building a network of strong personal connections in an organization. It also attracted the most wonderfully diverse set of participants—ethnically, functionally, hierarchically, age, and gender diverse. By its very nature, working together on this event is all about inclusion. Try it. I promise you, you will be rewarded beyond your wildest expectations.
The story goes that about 140 years ago Abraham Lincoln and a good friend had a running debate about the nature of altruism. Lincoln argued that no action is ever truly altruistic . . . that there is always, if you just dig deep enough, a selfish motive behind every generous or charitable behavior.
One day he and his friend were riding in a carriage along a rough road when they saw a litter of tiny piglets stuck helplessly in a puddle of mud. Lincoln stepped off the carriage right up to his knees in the mud to rescue the little pigs and send them on their way. As Lincoln crawled back into the carriage, a muddy mess, his friend just remarked, “I rest my case. There was no possible reward or selfish motivation behind your kind action.”
Lincoln thought for a minute, and then replied, “Oh, to the contrary. I would have heard the squeals of those little creatures in my dreams.”
Now, between you and me, it is not worth debating the fine philosophical points of this little story. Let’s just be practical. Whether or not you believe Lincoln had a valid point, the deed was done, and it was a good deed. The piglets were saved.
I am a senior vice president at Frito-Lay. For Frito-Lay or any corporation to help support research to eradicate MS, help raise funds to support its victims— these are undeniably good, meaningful things to do. The secondary benefits like team building, improved morale, and a positive corporate culture may be considered ulterior motives. If they are, I believe we should encourage all the ulterior motives we can get.
I’m involved in the MS 150 Bike Tour, and I can tell you that my motives are anything but purely altruistic. For me and my team, it all started about two years ago when the son of an old friend asked if I would help fund his ride in the MS Bike
150. I said yes and happened to be near the finish line of the first day of the ride.
To watch my friend’s son and a few hundred other riders cross that finish line was an incredibly moving experience. The thought of riding a hundred miles— well, it was just an amazing concept to me. But I noticed that there were riders my age, even older. I walk with a pretty distinct limp from my MS, but I noticed that there were a number of riders that had much tougher physical limitations than I do. Some of the riders looked as if they were in great shape; others looked, honestly, like they could afford to lose a few pounds. Suddenly, it struck me. Maybe I could ride, too.
Shortly thereafter I asked to join the team that I had supported, Se Astringo, which means commitment. But the captain wouldn’t have it. She encouraged me to start my own “starter team” at Frito-Lay.
I got a bike and started riding. We had a couple of little organization meetings and an individual on our team came up with the team name Cheesy Riders—as a play on our Chester Cheetah spokescat for Cheetos. Landor, the company that designs our package graphics, has some bike riders. They offered to do a jersey design—gratis.
I tell you, the excitement was just contagious. It seemed like pretty soon everybody was talking about the Cheesy Riders.
At nearly every training ride we had a surprising number of people turn out. We had volunteers coming out of the woodwork. It wasn’t just your run of the mill corporate activity, it was a MOVEMENT! It reminded me of the sixties . . . well, there weren’t any drugs, but you know what I mean.
And what were the organizational benefits? Well, I’d like to emphasize three:
1. ADVENTURE STORIES. Have you ever shared a life-threatening experience with anyone? You know how different you feel about that person forever after? Well, this was not a life-threatening experience by any stretch of the imagination, but its intensity carried the same sort of emotional weight. You cannot help but feel a deep personal connection with people who share as intense an adventure as the MS 150.
On the softer side, my wife, Cynthia, who also rode the 150 miles, calls this sort of thing “making memories.” The MS 150 was a fantastic way to make a bunch of really powerful memories—with people you’d otherwise hardly known except to say hello in the hallway. I thought that after twenty-one years I knew everybody in our organization, but the Cheesy Riders allowed me to meet a whole new set of people in a completely neutral, non-work-related context. Nothing could be better for building a network of strong personal connections in an organization.
2. DIVERSITY. I’m not sure why, maybe because of the socially nonthreatening nature of the activity, but the Cheesy Riders seem to attract the most wonderfully diverse set of participants. Ethnically diverse, functionally diverse, hierarchically diverse, diverse in age and gender—there is virtually no other kind of activity that I know of that can pull together such an astoundingly diverse group of employees. By its very nature it was all about inclusion. We have a Hispanic advisory board at Frito-Lay to help facilitate Hispanic inclusion in our company culture. I serve on the board. As a part of one of the meetings, we arranged for a few of our Hispanic professionals to do a little panel Q & A about their experiences in our corporate culture. One of our young Hispanic professionals commented on the challenges of being a woman and an ethnic minority. She said that the number one thing that made her feel included and connected to our company was our little Cheesy Riders team. It has been a powerful force for inclusion. And by the way, the MS 150 is not just about athletes. It’s not exclusionary in that way either. Although there are a few serious bike riders, the truth is, most of the Cheesy Riders had never taken anything like this type of physical challenge before.
Don’t get me wrong. Everybody took the task very seriously from the fundraising, the training, to the team building. We had a team of over seventy riders, and we ended up with a team of some fifty volunteers. I think this year we’ll need more volunteers, because at least half of the volunteers from last year will be riding this year!
3. BEYOND CORPORATE. Putting this team together had very little to do with me, or really even with Frito-Lay as a big company. Frito-Lay was a sponsor, but it had a kind of loose, fairly unsupervised affiliation. I think that was an important success factor for us.
Once we got a very small wind in our sail, the Cheesy Riders were not about boring committees and taskforces. The team was a sort of living entity that thrived on its own energy. Everyone who wanted to could be a leader. There was plenty to do; none of it was a job requirement. It was kind of like a group art project—a simultaneous creative exercise. I believe it was one of the most rewarding, corporate activities that most of us had ever been involved with. And the day after the ride, I received some of the most moving notes from my team. They described it as personally rewarding, inspiring, and hugely fun.
So, I guess in closing, I’d just say I don’t really care why Lincoln saved the baby pigs. The bottom line is that they’re healthy, they’re happy, and Lincoln feels good too.
I would encourage anyone to organize a team for a charity event. I promise you, you and your company will be rewarded beyond your wildest expectations.
Visit redriverchallenge.ms150.org/rrc/rrc/. For bike tours in your community, see: www.nationalmssociety.org
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