Strength in the face of adversity: individual and social thriving - Thriving: Broadening the Paradigm Beyond Illness to Health

Similar stories of corporate recovery and thriving are not uncommon. For example, after Lee Iacocca was fired by Henry Ford, he took the helm of Chrysler at a time when the large automotive company was facing bankruptcy. Iacocca, a man of significant public and corporate charisma, went to Congress for a loan, saying "I want to borrow the money the old fashioned way - pay it back" (Abodaher, 1982, p. 224). Iacocca is a slick salesman, but he is also known as fundamentally honest. He obtained the loan and Chrysler introduced the "K body," a big engineering feat and a product that appealed to the American buyer. Having seen a crowd clustered around a new convertible, Iacocca sensed that it was time to bring back the convertible, and Chrysler introduced the Le Baron. The Dodge Caravan also contributed to Chrysler's dramatic turnaround. It was a minivan atop an already existing platform, and it sold vigorously.

Iacocca infused Chrysler with optimism. He used his skills as a salesman to bring back hope to a company that had lost it. Throughout the company, workers responded to his call for innovation. The notices of the imminent death of one of the Big Three automakers in the United States, forecasted by many automotive analysts, proved to be premature. A parallel turnaround occurred with rental-car company Avis, which was on the verge of bankruptcy when Warren Avis sold it to his employees. The new management faced the challenge head on.

A final example of organizational thriving is illustrated in the history of the Live Oak/Milstar plant in LaGrange, Georgia, which reopened six months after it had been destroyed by fire. The chairman and chief executive of Milliken and Company called the rebuilding effort an "extraordinary miraculous achievement." "We set ourselves the outrageous goal to rebuild the plant in six months. The standard time for such a project is 27 months" (Factory rises from ashes, 1995, pp. A 1, A9). The company pulled together after the January 31 fire. "Every one of our plants should have a theoretical fire," Milliken said. "It gets everyone out of their little niches to work together as a whole." At an opening rally, a crane was lowered to unveil a silver-metal sculpture of the phoenix, the mythical bird that rose, renewed from ashes, as a sign of immortality. The modern sculpture marks the entrance to the plant to honor the "industrial heroes" who built it (Factory rises from ashes, 1995, pp. A1, A9).

National Thriving

Arnold Toynbee (1948) once described the rise and fall of nations in terms of challenge and response. A young nation, he said, is confronted with a challenge for which it finds a successful response. It then grows and prospers. But as time passes, the nature of the challenge changes. If a nation continues to make the same, once successful response to the new challenge, it inevitably suffers a decline and eventual failure. Inherent in Toynbee's analysis is the assumption that the possible responses to national challenges include survival, recovery, and thriving.