Acorders asks, what can you create, build and deliver with friends? From where do your courage and strength come forward?
Going back to the Innovation Value Chain, Acorders believes playing a position in this field requires an ecosystem approach to building the right ensemble. We use knowledge of archetypes to help us see and know the wholeness of people. We look beyond how a person might serve our immediate needs, wants, and desires. Acorders puts forward caution in our information-rich and attention-scarce world. Miss out on seeing the value and uniqueness of a person, and you will miss out on collaborating with the entirety of their gifts.
The Myth
We break the myths of innovation, especially No. 5 "the lone inventor". Combining resources and gifts leads to impact when individual efficacy joins team efficacy. The Acorders blog profiles various archetypes using stories of influential people who have informed Hada Kage. The series evolves to depict her history, but it is not meant to stand alone. Hada envisions the experience with Acorders looking and sounding like the improvisation of a Jazz band, or the famous Talking Heads band from the 1980s. Watch the full-length concert film, Stop Making Sense from 1984, and see the power of a team taking shape.
The Story
Not long after leaving the security of her family farm, Birdie found herself in Houston, Texas, along with two children in the post-WWII era. I recall her giving me an account of her situation and the choices she faced. I was astonished because of the outcome. She prospered when many stories of working migrant women who were without husbands, ended in tragedy. At one point, I asked "Great-grandma, how did you do it? How did you find the courage to leave your marriage when you knew how vulnerable you would be?" She answered sweetly, “well I had my family doctor, a pastor, and friends”. Birdie was 95 years old at that time when we spoke. I will never forget how her face lit up with that heartfelt smile as she emphasized, "I had my friends".
Something as simple as Birdie acquiring her first vehicle was indicative of the context of her story. Being a single woman in the 1940s of America, she could not qualify for a loan by herself. It was the husband of a friend who needed to co-sign the contract for the loan, with her qualifying income put forward. I remember the care she took in explaining that part of her story. She never portrayed herself as destitute. In every instance where she received help, she was conscious of how her gifts would be combined with another person.
Valuing real friendship and ensembles is the lesson Birdie left with me that day. Years later, I looked at the same dining room chairs we sat in, talking and visiting, so many times before. Birdie passed away at 97 years old, and I was standing there mustering the nerve to help pack out her home. I got underway with my task of going through papers when I came across a history of the Crone Family, Pioneers of East Texas. The research was compiled in 2003 and detailed my maternal history in America. Birdie and I never spoke directly about this, so I immediately asked if I could keep the papers.
In 2018, I pulled them out and dusted them off, reading them thoroughly throughout. At that time, I was expecting my daughter and was simply curious if an old name might come forward from our family tree. What I discovered was curious. It sent me back to my earlier enchantments with Birdie. In searching for my first American-born great-grandma, I found Celia Victoria Crown, daughter of Humphrey Posey. Known to the Baptists as "Elder" Humphrey Posey, he founded and directed the Valley Town Missionary School of North Carolina. He was my 7th generation back great-grandpa on my maternal family tree.
Do you recall Rose? She is the hunter who carried her family legacy forward, despite losing them all at just 7-years old. Her family had evaded the Indian Removal act of 1830. They were a part of the 800, who hid away in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina. These Cherokee had friends who helped them while raising funds to purchase back some of their lands. The Eastern Cherokee Nation was born in the 20th century, and Valley Town School is known to have contributed to their story. Rose's father, another of my 7th generation great-grandfathers, was known by our family to have been a Baptist preacher. So, there I had correlating evidence that generations back from my mother and father, their families were helping each other in an ensemble. And then 1984, my parents met in a High School in Lithia Springs, GA. They believed they were strangers meeting for the first time. My mother just moved from Houston, Texas. She was the daughter of a U.S. Army Officer, newly assigned to the U.S. Army Fort McPherson in Atlanta, Georgia.
What We Do
Acorders is a blank canvas inviting all light. Come here and use your light to give form and color to our pages. Build with us. Bring your story and seed it in our ecosystem. Tell it alongside Hada Kage. Let it converge and diverge in a secure space amongst friends. Let our storytelling prompts help you recalibrate whole-brain thinking. Let us help build out a specialized value stream around you.
Join our community and participate in the design process with us. Acorders is building a digital experience for storytellers of impact. We invite you to discover your archetype and place it on a path with us. Much like the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books of the 1990s, Acorders will prompt an individual to tell their story and align it with others in an ensemble.