Interaction Our Way: ...A Portrait of Success

By The Goodens

Interaction Our Way is a portrait of shared and human action resulting in successful careers and lives for the five Gooden siblingsVince, Mike, Steve, Linda, and Duane. Their unique Plans illustrate how they interact with education, religion, military, health care, government and the workplace. Their careers range from CEO to Technical Specialist and their educational levels include Doctorate, Masters, and Certificates. They attribute their success to having a solid foundation, perseverance, and knowledge. They reveal that there have been bumps in the road, challenges, and even adversity; however they overcame them by strategic interaction in the organization they participated. For them failure has not been an option and they provide recommendations for success to inspire and encourage others to follow.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469196084

The Goodens

Vince, PhD, Major in Public Administration, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, thirty-five years experience in public and private management.

Book preview

Interaction

Our Way

. . . A Portrait of Success

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T h e G o o d e n s

Copyright © 2012 by The Goodens.

Library of Congress Control Number:         2012906289

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

111083

Contents

Preface

Background

Chapter One

Life Plans

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Interactions

Chapter Seven

Recommendations

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Conclusion

Chapter Ten

Appendix

References

Preface

To the outside world, we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other’s hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time.

—Clara Ortega

F rom metal barracks in Vietnam to higher echelons of corporate institutions, the Gooden family (the five children of Charles and Harriet Gooden) succeeded. Linda and Duane are executives at major defense contractors, Mike is a successful entrepreneur and business owner, Steve had a successful military stint only to have his employment career cut short by a disabling factory incident, and Vince has been a successful manager in the public as well as private sectors.

Interaction Our Way is a portrait of the Gooden family who defied cultural norms and institutional realities to have successful careers and lives in America. On the road to success, the Gooden siblings faced challenges, adversities, and even obstacles; but in their household, failure was not an option. When faced with conscious and unconscious, subtle and not-so-subtle, ingrained institutional biases and other challenges, they responded by relying on their human values and interaction skills.

They are generally a private family, not reformed felons, addicts, superstars, or pop artists seeking to cash in. Being private, however, does not mean that they are not active and even influential at the local, state, and national level. For them, an integral element of success is shared and human action and giving back to the community.

For instance, Steve uses his communication skills in community as well as church-related activities. Over the years, Vince has applied his management skills in service to numerous local boards and councils, state associations, and national groups that advocated for the homeless, poor, and child care among other issues. Duane has applied his engineering and technology background and capability to activities that range from implementing learning and mentoring programs at the local level to advising principals at the highest levels of government and defense.

Mike has long been sought after to provide his business expertise to individuals, local councils and groups, academic institutions, and the highest levels of government, including legislative consultation and executive branch audiences with more than one President. Lastly, Linda is constantly in demand to share her information technology knowledge and management approach with educational institutions, associations, state boards, legislature, and national commissions such as the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

The Gooden siblings attribute their success to a solid foundation, learning capacity and knowledge, and a willingness to interact as shared action. Within this framework, each of the siblings developed their own plan for success and actively sought to achieve their goal. While each plan has been unique, there is a continuity of familial togetherness and support for each other’s success.

They are now conveying their message to inspire and encourage other capable individuals to visualize their thoughts and ideas and interact within established frameworks to convert them into processes, products, and services that will be beneficial to a significant portion of society.

Background

Chapter One

Introduction

I nteraction is shared action!

Chairman and CEO, executive vice president, group president, assistant vice president, commander, staff sergeant, executive director, PhD, masters, bachelors, honorary degrees, technical certificates. Sounds like Who’s Who in America, but this autobiography is just about five black American siblings from the Southside of Youngstown, Ohio, who worked within the system, mastered its challenges, and had successful careers and lives.

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Michael, Steven, Baby Duane, Vincent, and Linda Gooden

Five siblings, five dreams, five success stories—success in this case being relative and how it is defined depends on each person’s own reality. The reality of success for each of the Gooden siblings is presented here in their own words and writing and thinking styles. Each of them present their perspective on success and adversity in the military, experience with the education system, challenges and successes in their career paths, and complications of the health care system.

A common theme in the writings is how they interact in organizational settings. The premise is that interaction is shared and human action, which is process-oriented and this shared and human action occurs in structural entities. So far so good, up to the 1970s. They then entered an era in which any discussion about organizations had to include networking.

Thus, the book describes the evolution of organizational structure, processes, and networks for the period from mid-twentieth century up to now as seen through the lenses of Charles and Harriet Gooden’s five offspring—Vince, Mike, Steve, Linda, and Duane. They have had successful careers in military, public, and private organizations and share their experiences about how to interact and survive in organizational settings.

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Harriet, Duane, Linda, Steven, Michael, Vincent, and Charles Gooden

When you see names of organizations such as ACS, Honda, General Motors, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Ford, Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Labor, US Army, US Navy, and General Dynamic, the Gooden children have all been there. Each had a unique plan for life and successfully executed that plan. The importance here is how they interacted with the myriad of organizations, absorbed any bumps on the road, and implemented their plan to succeed in spite of any challenges they faced.

Both parents, Charles and Harriet, were influential in the lives of their children from different perspectives. For instance, Charles was a hardworking steel worker and truck driver and lived life to the fullest. He graduated from the Rayen High School in Youngstown, a town that was known for being a shot and beer city as well as noted for its crime and superior steel manufacturing.

Having worked and lived in this element, he was well equipped to provide the streetwise perspective for the siblings. Some of the guys wanted to be a tractor-trailer driver like Charles. However, that idea waned after hearing about sliding around and up and down the West Virginia and western Pennsylvania mountains during the winter months.

Harriet, who was raised on the south side of Youngstown, was a stay-at-home mom, only working on the outside to supplement the household income during downtimes. She provided primary nurturing and discipline that guided the children’s growth and interactions. For instance, she monitored their homework, led nightly family devotions, and raised the children up in the church. She was very strict about the church. Unless you were ill, you went every Sunday. No questions asked—you went or else!

The Plans

Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die.

—Daniel Burnham

Having these two perspectives about life, the first wave—Vince, Mike, and Steve formed life plans—Vince an education plan, Mike a business plan, and Steve a travel plan. Vince was an early learner and a bit devious to the extent that he would goad Mike and Steve into perilous and even harmful activities to see their reaction, such as touching a bee and getting stung or reaching for a double-edged razor blade. Mom channeled this learning in a positive direction and kept getting Vince more and more complex models and puzzles to challenge his smartness and smartassness.

Mike was meticulous, focused, and demonstrated his entrepreneurial prowess at an early age. He always had a job from age nine or ten, always wore suits and ties, and always had a car even if he had to use his shoe leather for brakes. Steve was the likable and friendly sort and, as a kid, was always gone. As a tyke, he would leave the house in the morning, and he would not return again until the evening. Neighbors and friends knew more about his whereabouts than the family did.

The second wave, Linda and Duane, had the hindsight of the first and traveled their own new paths: Linda a technology plan and Duane an engineering plan. There is a six-year gap between Linda and Steve; hence the second wave began. She has always been petite, technically correct, and could do no wrong in the other siblings’ eyes. She also liked intellectual challenges, so the computer was a natural magnet for her. Duane, aside from having near-genius intellect, was inquisitive and protective. He had a lot of time on his hands as the other sibs were active elsewhere, and he was heavily influenced by Cold War politics, weaponry, and the conquest of space.

Throughout the years, the siblings executed their plans and had an opportunity to interact with numerous organizational structures, processes, and networks. In some organizations, they exercised a leadership role, and in others, they served as participants. This wealth of experience is shared with the readers to inspire, to encourage, and to offer informative as well as prescriptive ideas and practical wisdom about how organizations should be and how people should interact in them.

Life Plans

Chapter Two

Vince: Education Plan

Crystallize your goals. Make a plan for achieving them and set yourself a deadline. Then, with supreme confidence, determination and disregard for obstacles and other people’s criticisms carry out your plan.

—Paul J. Meyer

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Vince at two years

H i! I’m Vince. My siblings and I are about to embark on a journey of introspection, self-perception, and recollection about ourselves to offer inspiration and encouragement to others who come after us. We generally attribute our success to shared and human action within the organizations we participate. Along the way, I have learned things. Thus, as I grew and matured, there have been certain sayings, symbols, habits, customs, truths, clichés, proverbs, etc., that stayed with me knowingly and unknowingly and influenced my thinking, acting, and generally how I interact with others. For instance, take the following:

• When you write, say what you are going to say, say it, and say what you said. Thus, I should write about something that I have experience in or should know about, such as interaction in public and private organization and management, having been educated in and having worked at for several decades.

• Work within the system. This idea was presented to me early on, and as I recall, my sixth-grade teacher told me that I was not smart but was ingenious or ingenuous. In either instance, I was able to interact and navigate the system to successfully complete my education.

• Know the