I strive to give others poker chips, as others did for me.

In 2019, I developed a new outlook while working at Camp Kodiak, a non-competitive summer camp for children & teens with & without learning differences. Camp Kodiak nurtures learning while also contributing to overall social development and self-esteem building, through an engaging summer program in McKellar, Ontario, with professional staff and management. At Camp Kodiak, I supervised a cabin learning how to manage emotional regulation and attend to diverse needs most effectively. I also taught sailing & photography and gained specialized training, developing unique transferable skills as a management professional.

When I worked at Camp Kodiak in 2019, it honestly changed my life, and outlook on how I perceive work.

Their training philosophy uses the “poker chip” analogy as a foundation for working, from the novel When the Chips are Down… by Dr. Richard Lavoie, to understand better the notion of working with children with learning differences. It has forever directly impacted how I practice doing business and communicate with colleagues, understanding the profound impact of one’s actions on a person and their self-esteem.

According to Lavoie, the approach to working with others is quite simple; “supply more poker chips in the stack by the time they leave than when they first arrived.”

Background:

The analogy goes as follows; popular children have three thousand poker chips. Children that excel at sports have nine thousand poker chips. Children who have a learning difference, lack confidence, and or people who don’t have the same opportunities or social capital have no poker chips or very little.

Is it ok to ask individuals with more chips to compete against people with less chips? Is it equitable to expect the same results?

The answer is no.

Some professionals have large piles and multiple stacks of poker chips (value, experience and boosts in their self-esteem), and others have just a handful.

The more poker chips you can give to someone, the more risks they are willing to take in the future. Just remember to provide many poker chips, and hopefully, they will do the same for you – It’s never guaranteed though. The meaningful intangible reward of supplying more poker chips to someone is what makes work so worth it.

At the end of that summer on my last day of work, the most amazing thing happened. Staff went around and gave each other poker chips. It was such a small but powerful gesture, that has stuck with me since.

My job as a professional is to give clients, organizations, kids, colleagues, & team members as much poker chips as possible through my work.

I have been fortunate since childhood to get involved with charitable work to support causes that directly affect my life and around the world. I have grown up with friends on the Spectrum/or of the population and seen first-hand the impact on their life through supplying poker chips (boosts in their self-esteem), but I have also seen the same effect on my colleagues, friends, and mentors around me.

I carry a poker chip as a humble reminder to act with humility, compassion, and gratitude, and to give more poker chips while empowering the best in people and each other.

Consider joining the club.

By Aaron L. Greenspan