LEADERSHIP CORNER
Father's wish list inspired Hale Kipa CEO to come here

Interviewed by David Butts
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hale Kipa Inc. photo

Title: CEO
Company: Hale Kipa Inc.
Age: 55

Personal profile

• Profile: Punky Pletan-Cross has one of the more interesting stories about how he came to Hawai'i. His parents were schoolteachers in North Dakota. His father, who grew up on a farm with 10 brothers and sisters, worked several jobs and seemingly never slept. When he finally retired at age 64, he died within a year, leaving behind a list of things he wanted to do in retirement. "One of those things was going to Hawai'i," Pletan-Cross said. The son, who ran a nonprofit organization in Massachusetts for 28 years, decided to make the trip for his father in 1985, the first of a string of annual monthlong visits.

Pletan-Cross, who wears jogging shoes and an untucked aloha shirt to work, says he felt healed by time spent in Hawai'i. It allowed him to go back to his Massachusetts job refreshed. But in 1996, "I came and went back, and didn't get the kick. I hadn't rebounded."

He knew he had to look for something new. In February 1998, he moved to the Islands, and in March began working for Hale Kipa ("House of Friendliness"), a private nonprofit organization that gives youths a place to stay and someone to talk with while they work on their problems.

"Punky" is a childhood nickname that stuck. The hyphenated last name was added in the 1970s when he married Cathy Cross, now a consultant to human service agencies.

• Favorite business books: "The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization," by Peter Senge.

• Most remembered mentor: "My parents were math teachers. From them I learned the value of education and got my inherent curiosity. Ron Ansen owned a bank, shoe company and was a lawyer. He gave me a belief that you have a duty to give back to the community if you have skills."

• Best part of the job: "Seeing kids that are in the residential treatment programs get well enough that they can go home. Keeping kids from going back through the court system."

• Worst part of the job: "When we gain money, that means someone else loses. There are a finite amount of resources: private, state and federal funding. If the economy is doing well, more money is available. I believe in what we do and believe we do a good job, but I do not believe we are the only organization doing good work."

• Most difficult challenge: "We are about to go out on a capital campaign in a fiscally difficult economy."

• Best decision as a leader: "Realization in my early 20s that participatory management was the only successful way to manage. This is a significant change. The model of poetic leadership is the CEO as a person who doesn't have all the answers. The old model is the CEO was prophetic, knows all the questions and has all the answers. Collective leadership develops what amounts to a poem that includes all ideas, resonates for everyone."

Hale Kipa has all-staff meetings three times a year with about 175 full-time and part-time employees. They break into small groups to encourage staff members to speak. "I believe in candor," Pletan-Cross says.

• Worst decision as a leader: "I make mistakes fairly often, and try to learn from what I do. When I started at Hale Kipa, I tried to ease in slowly to be more respectful. I brought a full-contact, East Coast style to an organization that was more polite.

"The issue of fit in culture isn't easy. (Former schools chief) Paul LeMahieu and (University of Hawai'i president) Evan Dobelle may have good ideas, but how do you get them integrated? If you think power is the lever, you can get short-term benefits. If you use influence, change is more slow but more long lasting."

• Trademark expression: "Change begins with me."

• Leadership tip: "To have influence, you need to be able to be influenced. Be open to other people's input — that is the door through which you are able to influence them."

Taking on... Getting a nonprofit to watch the bottom line

• The issue: Pletan-Cross sums this problem up as: 'No margin, no mission.' Or the other side of the coin is 'No mission, no purpose to the margin.' "The problem is to get people who are social workers, wanting to help people, to understand that we are a business. They come because they care about people and want to make the world a better place and yet we have to make money. We are no different from the Bank of Hawaii."

• The solution: Education is the key to getting employees to understand this. One example of how Pletan-Cross tries to get this point across is to ask new employees during orientation, "If you have X dollars and if you could buy services for your clients from nonprofit agencies, which services would you buy. They say 'All.' But you have to decide then determine if it was a good choice. How do you evaluate?"