Susan Szpakowski for Fieldnotes: At the "Reflection and Action" retreat last fall, I heard you relate your experience as a beekeeper to the topic of social fields. That in itself seems like a conversation worth pursuing, but even more so in light of the fact that you are also CEO of a large organization that is leading the way in alternative energy research and policy. Given your impressive career as an executive at Ford and now Plug Power, what are you learning from bees?

Roger Saillant: We are connected in ways that we don't see, in ways that I really don't understand. But I think something is going on in this world — an intensifying of interconnectedness that will become more accessible not far in the future. It is like a fragrance that is wafting towards us and is on the verge of being palpable.

Here's an example. Four years ago I left my farm in Michigan, to work for Plug Power. I raised bees on my farm, and when I moved I gave many of my possessions, including my honey, to a few close friends.

Over a year later I was getting ready to go to Japan to meet with a senior businessman there with whom I'd developed a special relationship. I wanted to take a gift with me, and I thought of the honey, but I didn't have any left. I thought about going to Vermont and filling a container from my farm with Vermont honey — no one would know the difference — but I decided no, that wouldn't be true to the intent. This dilemma was occupying my mind off and on for a number of weeks before the trip.

On the morning of my departure, a package arrived in the mail, just three hours before I was supposed to get on the plane. I opened it and there it was — a pot of my own honey. This had been sent, out of the blue, by a friend I hadn't talked to in months.

When I remember this incident, it still gives me the chills. Coincidences like this happen too often to be mere luck. How lucky can we be? It has something to do with being in a field of connection.

Fieldnotes: Is that the kind of field you experience with your bees?

Saillant: Yes. When I work with bees, there is a feeling of working together, a symbiotic relationship. There is an intimacy that has meaning to them as well as to me. A kind of flow exists between us. As I move with gentle intent the bees move aside for me; they're not angry nor even overly excited. There's a feeling of familiarity.

Every now and then I experience this kind of field in the workplace. Every action, every note is in its right place, and it all becomes a symphony. When I leave that moment, when I walk out of the room, the feeling lingers. It's as if I've been bathed, and I feel refreshed.

When you're in that kind of field, it's as though you've walked into a fog that's alive and all the rest of the world disappears. The fog is the medium of interconnection between you and other living creatures. It is like being inside a swarm of bees. There is no orientation, no real north. There is no time.

Fieldnotes: Is this kind of awareness something that can be cultivated or tuned into?

Saillant: I think this ability is a nascent trait in all of us. People sometimes get into that kind of state when they are listening closely to someone. They aren't listening to the specifics as much as to the total field. A connection can happen that lingers, even though you don't remember the details of the conversation.

The way I cultivate this state is by feeling my core, in a way that is simple, honest, and uncontrived. I go to that place inside myself that is white and clean, without ego. Then I can witness the emergence of that field for others.

I can do this if I'm openly struggling with communicating an idea. Anyone can do it. We go towards the center of ourselves and talk about it. The challenge is to move towards that state in front of someone else unselfconsciously. It is a practice.

It's not the same as meditating. There's no special posture. You can do it in the middle of a conversation or a meeting. It's like reverse spelunking. There's a cave with a light inside, and you climb down inside yourself toward your inner core.

I once drew a picture that represented this for me — of ropes with knots. We move from the solid to the less solid by taking hold of the rope and then moving down towards the next knot. One rope might be labeled "love," another one "beauty." On each rope the knots are points of awareness or platforms of insight which permit more movement and more insights and create more knots. It is personal what leads you towards the ropes and the insights. For me there's also a "bee rope." It's really about personal mastery, about becoming constantly aware of holding the rope and looking for the next knot and making more knots as you extend your awareness.

My motivation in talking about this comes back to interconnection. Real connection is very nourishing, and you could say that loneliness is a driver for me. I'll do most anything unselfconsciously to be in that kind of field with people. Being with bees, with people, with nature, is about being in a field that supports, nurtures, and inspires. It's about being home.



Roger Saillant joined Plug Power as president and chief executive officer in 2000. Plug Power designs, develops, and manufactures environmentally friendly fuel cell systems for electrical power generation. It now has 130 first-generation systems operating in 50 different locations across eight countries. Plug Power also works with U.S. federal and state governments to foster pro-fuel cell public policy and eliminate obstacles that stand in the way of commercializing this technology, which promises to provide an emissions-free source of energy.

Before joining Plug Power, Roger served for more than 30 years with Ford Motor Company and Visteon Corporation, a spin-off of Ford, where his most recent position was vice-president and general manager of the company's Energy Transformation Systems Group. Roger holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Indiana University and a post-doctorate degree in Organometallic Chemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles.