Zest. A Strength to Explore

Rhiannon Gallagher • July 18, 2023

A tribute to walkers

people out for a stroll on a bridge with snow covered mountains behind

I come from cynical people. Smart and funny, and (as I said last week) appreciative of beauty and excellence, but cynical. So when I met Winston Walker and Betty Payte, I hadn’t had much experience with folks whose main VIA character strength is Zest. It is 22nd out of 24 on my strengths list.

Zest is “Approaching life with excitement and energy; not doing things halfway or halfheartedly; living life as an adventure.” It is part of the Courage virtue, strengths that help you face adversity and exercise your will. The other Courage strengths are bravery, honesty, and perseverance.

Winston and Betty both profoundly influenced my ability to experience and seek out zest. I am better at living in the moment, at the edge of my comfort zone, and letting myself be silly and joyous because I had these two utterly zestful people in my life for a little while.

That is one of the things that makes VIA Character Strengths different from other assessments. Built into them is the idea of a growth mindset for individuals and teams. They assume elasticity. Low bravery? That’s ok; let’s start with small risks. Not a lot of prudence? Build structures to support your risk assessment so you can structure prudence even if you don’t have a lot naturally. Short on zest? Get silly, turn things upside down, play together, and find joy in what you do together.

It is much easier to build those structures and create that elasticity when you know what you are working with, as an individual or as a team. Awareness leads to action. Knowing your strengths as individuals makes sure that when you have someone with strong zest, you are giving them the freedom to lead others to their innovative edges. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses as a team ensures that you can put conscious thought into bolstering where you have strengths to bolster.

Betty’s memorial service was last weekend. She was 92 years old, and the service was full of people remembering her truly lifelong zest and curiosity. She pushed people into adventures, from biking across the US to flying small planes to doing the Bolder Boulder when they’d never raced before. She laughed, cajoled, and sang them through the hard parts until they were at the edge of their comfort zone without even noticing. Her zest made sure people were living life as an adventure alongside her.

Winston died in 2019, He is the first Black person to have a trail in the massive Denver Parks System named for him. Winston used his zest to coax people who weren’t sure about the outdoors into adventuring with him. Thanks to Winston, the outdoors around Denver are a little less monochromatic than they used to be. His energy was infectious. On a walk with him, elders would find themselves swinging at a playground, children would suddenly be scampering up trees, and everyone would be in goofy group photos. Everyone was a little more alive after a walk with Winston.

There are 24 character strengths, not 12 strengths and 12 weaknesses. Some come from our natures or our families. Some come from our experiences. And some we find in friends and mentors and teammates. We can change and evolve our strengths through these connections, just as I did with Betty and Winston.


Learn more about Winston and the trail named for him: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/16/colorado-hiking-trail-black-nature-racism


Learn more about Betty: https://coloradocommunitymedia.com/2019/12/06/betty-payte/

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Murray wasn't happy. He was sure this new initiative would fail, just like all the others. 'I've been here for 31 years,' he'd say. 'They almost always fail.' But Murray was a planner, coordinating schedules and materials for teams across the entire organization. He talked to almost everyone, and he talked a lot. We had to get him on our side. Digital transformations succeed or fail for many reasons, big and small. Most of those reasons are people-related. But sometimes the reason is a person. One person. Or just a few people. People who, if you looked at them on a hierarchical chart, wouldn’t seem to have a bunch of power. But WOW, they have a lot of influence. We call these folks social nodes, and few actions will support your transformation success more than finding them, knowing them, honoring them, and getting them on the side of change. On factory floors, sometimes, they are social nodes because their role is so far-reaching. Planners, tooling designers, and in-process inspectors who talk to everyone and know everything are often social nodes. Union officers may be social nodes as well. But they could also be social nodes because they are simply people who connect well. The person who organized the chili cookoff or the person who always seems to be chatting in the breakroom. The person who reads all the company newsletters and emails and knows what’s happening outside the day-to-day. Social nodes often have strong opinions. They are loyal on multiple levels, but they’ve often been around for a few ‘transformations’ and can rattle off what went wrong in every one of them. Once we know who they are, we can build communication to support them. In various projects, I’ve given them special briefings, created a place in the project updates that comes from them, given them access to early information they could disseminate, or checked in with them regularly to learn how implementations are going. For Murray, we created a special column in the project newsletter called 'Murray's Musings' and recorded and transcribed a little interview every month. We asked about the problems with the old processes and checked in on new ones. We asked about his history with the company. We let him know that everyone, including the C-Level folks, was getting the newsletter and reading his words. Murray is retired now, but his stories are recorded as company history. And the initiative succeeded, partly because we recognized Murray as a social node and got him on board.