Once upon a time, in an organization far, far away, I coached a young man who sniffed, "I don't read management books, because they're what everyone is reading.  I read other stuff, so I have something unique to say." 

"I understand your rationale," I replied, "but that's equivalent to saying, 'I don't speak English, because everyone's speaking English.  Instead, I speak Gomatan¹.'  What I suggest you do is read both.  Read the drop-kicks... Drucker, Peters, Covey, Senge, Collins, Katzenbach and all the rest, and also read as much -- or more if you wish -- that is outside the norm.  This way, you'll have the foundation everyone else has, but the added probability of being able to contribute a unique perspective every once in a while that dislodges groupthink."

I know that management books can sometimes feel quite pedestrian; that's a bit of what this young man was saying, but he was also exhibiting a scintilla of elitism, inferring that 'all the rest of the cattle can read -- sniff, sniff -- management books, but I'm going to read Literature.'  (Thankfully, every once in a while, really stellar 'management' books arrive, like Outliers and Made to Stick.) 

Alan Weisman's The World Without Us is no management book, but it is a book about sustainability, impact, legacy, systems theory and, as much as all these, it's flat-out fun. 

It's a thought experiment, nothing more.  And how.

Your mind will whir, some cogs will click, and all manner of ideas and implications will flutter through your mind.

It's deftly written, hums along quickly, and packs a periodic punch.  It will perhaps require a few sittings because it's quite dense, but it's a great guilty pleasure.

Try it, if you like.  It's not a management book in any pure sense, but that's precisely the point, isn't it?

¹Save yourself the googling, it's an invented-here language.

Jim Collins' (or, ahem, Collins's, if I am to be contemporarily correct) reputation is beyond reproach, but I must say, his tendency to convert what should rightly be a 'snack' into a bloating 'meal' is becoming wearisome.  (Call me jaundiced rather than scathing, but I expect better from Collins.  One could glean more insights from a playground, yet he's been rubbing elbows for two decades with the world's best and brightest and this is all we get?)

His latest book is just a 200-page exposition on the 4,000-year-old idiom (and timeless truth) "pride comes before the fall."  

No doy.  It took him 5 years and thousands of interviews to determine this... again?

Consultants get a bad rap because of such swill.  It's like the client asking, "What time is it?" and the consultant responding, "May I borrow your watch for a moment?"  

Collins's 'illuminating, revelatory, and epiphanic' stages of How the Mighty Fall include such nose-on-the-face nail-biters as:

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success
Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril
Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation
Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death 

I think I get it.  We all do.  Pride, Excess, Denial, Demise.  Hmmmm... sounds like a combination of VH1's Behind the Music, Kubler-Ross, the Weight-Watchers/Slim-Fast methodology, and Common Sense.  Hardly worth $25.

His parting shot, captured on the back cover, [almost] says it all, "Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you."

Yes indeed, I'm responsible for Me.  Got it.  I'll try to remember that.

I'm confident that Collins's next book will be better; I think How the Mighty Fall is simply his Blink¹.  (For the record, both Built to Last and Good to Great were, to my way of thinking, exceptional.)  Publishers have a way of teasing books out of best selling authors like Collins and Gladwell, and oftentimes before there is a book... and sometimes even when there is no book.  (I know this is all very doorman-critiques-Bach, so far be it from me to judge, but alas, these are my two cents.  Take 'em at face value.)

Publisher's full synopsis

This week as I travel, I'll be reading The World Without Us, written in 2007 by Alan Weisman.  I have high expectations for this book, and hope to confirm them in my next review.  More then; make it a great week.

¹Sorry, but I thought Blink was as 'worthless' as The Tipping Point was 'priceless.'  I mean, "thin slicing," come on.  Talk about making a snack into a meal!  Since when are the notions of 'go with your gut, use your instincts, and trust your first impressions' noteworthy?  The Tipping Point was excellent, and Outliers is arguably the best social-science book of the last five years, but I thought Blink was much ado about nothing.

As tomorrow is Memorial Day, I hope that all Americans who can... will appreciate the many 'ultimate sacrifices' made for this great country.

It is 'holidays' like tomorrow that serve to remind us what liberty and freedom really cost.  For millions, it cost everything.  Through democracy, we elect and assign our leaders -- and fire those with whom we disagree.  Our soldiers, however, serve where they are sent, and whether we agree or disagree with their literal marching orders, their service warrants our respect and honor.  After all, were it not for them, we would lack our freedom of speech and the right to, in public fora, approve or disapprove of what they are called to do.  We all understand that war is not the answer, but en route to the day when peace is unilateral and terrorists and jihadists surrender rocket launchers in exchange for olive branches, we are left with irreconcilable ideologies and conflicts during which we have the responsibility to demonstrate values while preserving the security and rights of those without voices or defenses.   

As a great nation, we are duty-bound to be grateful for those who do this and put themselves in harm's way, and as any entity which possesses much, we are obligated to be humble.  And so, today, a few brief words on gratefulness and humility.

"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."  (The letter of Paul, to the Philippians, chapter 2, verses 3-4.)

Regardless our petty differences, be they individual, organizational, or geo-political, we are called to love one another and be gracious with others, especially those with whom we disagree.  Similarly, to become great, we are to become nothing.  To die unto ourselves that we may serve others and, forsaking ourselves, help others become greater.  In short, we are to be grateful.  Where we are currently insatiable, we are to be satiated by little and pour ourselves out for others; to appreciate and be thankful for the difficulties and sorrows, that we might appreciate more the seasons of bounty and blessing.

And equally important, to find that in giving to others and contributing beyond ourselves, we are more fully restored.  In the words of a great counselor-friend of mine, "Nothing helps the clinically-depressed so much as volunteering and serving others."

To provide a tangible example of gratitude, gratefulness, humility, forgiveness, and service, allow me to share a super-brief story. 

Three hundred years ago, the prolific Matthew Henry, scholarly theologian and commentator, was attacked and mugged and beaten to within an inch of his life on a dark, London street.  As he reclined in his bed, recovering, he was asked for reactions to his assault.  He thoughtfully replied, "I am thankful."  Seeing the puzzled look on others' faces, he elaborated, "I am thankful, first, because I was never robbed before.  Second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life.  Third, because although they took my all, it was not much.  And fourth, because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed."

Is this how you reacted when you realized half your net worth had evaporated in the last fourteen months?  Is this how you reacted when you were laid off?  Is this how you reacted when the world or its many minions danced gleefully on your failures, stomped on your heart, stole your livelihood for personal gain, or crushed your soul?  I doubt it.  And yet, we are to count our losses as blessings, and our sorrows as joy, if we are to be a grateful lot.  May Matthew Henry serve as a gentle reminder this coming Monday, week, and year.  When all seems lost, may you perceive the gain. 

Despite your worldviews, political persuasions, or views on the hereafter, may we all bow our heads on Monday and say a prayer for those who made -- and make -- it possible for us to enjoy this land, our family, and our harvests.  However great or small we perceive them to be, we undeniably and inarguably reside in a free country that has gone out of its way for 233 years to endow each and every citizen with three very enviable, exceptional, and uncommon rights.

e hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...

On Monday, if you do nothing else, give thanks and count your blessings.  They are likely more abundant than you perceive, starting with the truth that you choose how you will spend your Monday, while many around the world cannot.

For those of you who were kind, curious, and committed enough to devour my last blog in its entirety, today I am serving a tiny and tasty morsel for dessert. 

This very morning, I had the most wonderful time attending a Professional Women's Networking Breakfast and sharing some ideas on the topic of Resilience.

Throughout, and particularly afterward, I was overwhelmed by their own resilience, positive spirit, degree of engagement, stories of inspiration, and general entrepreneurship and drive.  These dynamic women are clearly tackling the world with a zest for life; the morning was absolutely buoyant.   

One of the most common topics that arose in the 'post-presentation' dialogues was Purpose & Calling.  A number of the attendees inquired, "Where can I learn more about 'purpose' and 'calling?'  I am personally at a crossroads, and eager to read and learn and discover more about myself and where I am destined to contribute, collaborate, and work."

In answer to this perennial question, I offer up the work of Richard Leider as a great "go to" resource.  Dick is a best-selling author, executive educator, life coach, teacher, speaker, and counselor.  His most well known books include The Power of Purpose, Claiming Your Place at the Fire, and Re-Packing Your Bags.  He is a calm spirit in a blustery gale, a temperament which serves him well -- especially given his profession.  I consider him one of the most pivotal mentors I ever had in my earliest years as I stared-down several proverbial 'forks in the road.'

If you have, are now, or ever do face your own 'fork in the road' moment, bookmark the following two resources.  You'll be glad you did.  

Are You Deciding on Purpose?  (An easy, breezy interview from Fast Company Magazine) 

Purpose&theGoodLife.pdf (1,016.52 kb)  (A rich, scholarly study on Money, Medicine, and Meaning as subsidized and published by MetLife) 

 Robert Frost

On my last trip to the great northwest, I had the distinct displeasure and responsibility of working with a very angry, broken team.  I will share a brief synopsis of my adventure’s lowlights and highlights, should they benefit you when faced with a similar constellation of dysfunctions.  

The vast majority of teams (because they are, at their most elemental level, coalitions of individuals) face the pedestrian and routine issues of ‘poor communication, periodic conflict, unclear direction, and too few resources.’  These challenges almost go without mentioning because they are as natural and inevitable as hunger, ideological differences, and war.  Though we may desire they not exist, to deny them is naïve, idealistic, and fantasy.  Wherever resources and minds co-exist, so too will opinions and differences of opinion – and subsequently divisive priorities, power, control, hierarchy, and struggles.  These are realities of the human condition and only Utopia, Shangri-La, and Heaven lack them. 

Any leader’s challenge (and opportunity) is to reduce, manage, or redirect differences toward things which are – on balance – more constructive than destructive. 

The leader of the team with which I worked was, however, plagued with an overabundance of challenges.  In addition to the ‘typical four’ described above, he faced a range of others, from in-office harassment claims, grievances, and physical fisticuffs to an employee lawsuit, intra-office dating, theft, and a caustic grapevine that thrived on jealousies, half-truths and mean-spiritedness.  In the particulate, none of these is all that unique or necessarily insurmountable, but in the aggregate, they formed a furious storm. 

As he said to the team when we first convened, “Some people would rather judge others and throw rocks than follow; these people don’t make good employees – but they make great critics and derelicts.  Regardless, I will not be deterred.  We’re not leaving this room today until each of you decides to get on board, off, or run the risk of getting run over.” 

And with that, I thought we were surely cooked turkeys.  Such toothpaste rarely returns to the tube. 

For nearly three hours, we heard each team member’s grievances and complaints.  The leader had been clear from the start, “What is not aired here will not be aired elsewhere again.  I have met with each and every one of you and [our HR person] offline on countless occasions, and now it’s time to address the issues affecting our team as a whole and this organization from the inside out.”    

The emotions and feelings on that day of reckoning ran the gamut, from a sense of betrayal, belligerence, and frustration to indifference, haughty arrogance, and depression.  It was true, each person thought he or she could run the team better; they all wanted to be chiefs.  

Given the circumstances, the besieged leader did a remarkable job.  I was impressed with his directness, astuteness, and willingness to be critiqued.  “Get it all out,” he said repeatedly.  And boy, did they.  He was relentless, and they responded in kind. 

Spitting in the cup, clawing the air, knocking peers, evil-eyes, rolling eyes, crossing arms, bouncing legs, pacing against the back wall, pounding fists, scribbling pens, pointing fingers, shouting, accusing, blaming, denying, hiding, conspiring, ganging-up… before the morning was done, I’m certain we’d seen all that could be seen without needing to summon the security guard. 

I stepped in repeatedly – facilitating, guiding, berming, and doing my best to referee and bring things to a healthy head without allowing any faction to overrule or any individual to be overwhelmed.  The meeting and its inherent conflicts were destined to occur, I reasoned, so my responsibility was to do everything in my power to keep the wheels on the rails. 

As the team of apparent vipers bared their fangs and spit their venom, two quotes hooked through my mind like a one-track record: 

"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."  (William Congreve)  

“All those who have been wronged, or believe themselves to be wronged are terrible, for they ceaselessly seek revenge.”  (Aristotle)  

This was unquestionably a team which felt they had been wronged by one another, their boss, and their organization at various turns in the tracks.  They had become vengeance-seeking individuals, no doubt.  And yet, somehow – miraculously – a team destined to be redeemed.  A team of people, remember, and people needing to be heard and healed.   

Even the largest lion, when thwarted by the smallest splinter in its paw, welcomes a mouse. 

Real-world redemption began late in the afternoon. 

And it began with an admission. 

And an admission was followed by an apology. 

And one apology was followed by a second. 

And apologies were followed by mea culpas. 

And in time, the boil was lanced.  And it flowed.  And sooner than I have seen before when facing similarly intractable circumstances, it was drained and began the long and arduous process of healing. 

Two team members resigned, not only from the team but the organization itself, confessing they could never forgive.  Their slights, wounds, and nefariously competitive aspirations ran too deep. 

One team member was terminated forthwith, having violated too many organizational policies and being exposed. 

A half-dozen team members, having fully ‘dumped their buckets,’ arrived at the much needed place where rationality finally trumps emotionality.   

And the rest, having admitted their ‘enabling’ of the scheming and undermining and lashing-out behind the leader’s back resolved to be accountable for their behavior.  ‘Get-Well Plans’ were developed, ‘Action Items’ were documented, and for two final hours, the team’s remaining members did the most amazing thing… they spoke peacefully, respectfully, and with an energy that was constructive and positive rather than bitter and contemptuous. 

They listened, they heard, and they responded.  

Three weeks later, I joined a conference call with the team.  “We just wanted to let you know how much things have improved.  Those who could no longer support [our leader] and our team have moved on, where they are much happier and healthier.  And we have come together.  Our performance has improved dramatically, we are drama-free, and ‘outsiders’ are taking notice – so much so that we have a long list of candidates to fill the vacated spots.  Our reputation, it seems, is improving.” 

And perhaps most meaningfully to me (at least from a personal standpoint), one of the women on the team commented, “Blake, I haven’t been sick the past three Sundays.”  She had told me (in the weeks preceding the ‘come-to-Jesus blowout meeting’) how violently ill she became on most Sunday afternoons – undoubtedly in anticipation of Monday mornings and rejoining the war.  (Our bodies, by the way, are wonderful barometers of our stress.  I encourage you to listen to yours.)   

Eighty percent of my vocation, it seems, is spent at the tails of the bell curve.  I am rarely called in by ‘average organizations, teams, and individuals wishing to accomplish average results.’  I am, most often, called in by ‘those in crisis’ and ‘those of excellence.’  The former need resolution and the latter seek perfection.  (I equate this to fitness, as well.  The very fit, world-class athletes are constantly exercising and working to improve while the sedentary or at-risk are motivated to seek help after the heart attack or other near-disaster.  Either way, both groups are taking action.  Meanwhile, the majority of us simply carry on, status quo, with the usual motivators of pleasure and pain remaining too minimal to incent.) 

Spending time at these tails means, predictably, that for all my experiences of excellence and A-team performance, I correspondingly have had what amounts to a trove of challenging assignments.  A small portion of these can barely be described without considering the words ‘wickedness’ or ‘evil.’ 

During those quiet flights home afterward, when I feel more like a priest having concluded an exorcism, I am careful to distinguish what I have experienced from ‘typical’ behavior.  Teams ‘on the edge’ are, after all, people who have often lost their way like Darth Vader, succumbing to the darkness bit by bit, trial by trial, and temptation by temptation.  Few people, save the sociopath, set sail for the dark side intentionally.  Instead, they typically find it when they find nothing else. 

Many philosophers have, in various ways, expressed the same notion.  “Only by darkness do we know the light.” 

I am comforted by the reality that I have witnessed many teams return, astonishingly, to the tube.  We must be careful that the ‘L’ on the forehead and the ‘A’ on the sweater not become self-fulfilling prophecies of Our Gang’s “The Little Rascals” or Welcome Back Kotter’s “Sweathogs.” 

With admissions, apologies, ownership of wrongdoings, mea culpas, forgiveness, liberations or excisions as necessary, hope, and plans, most teams can make it back to the light. 

And it is after such returns that I get a bit of myself back and remember why I do what I do in the first place, despite its inherent risks and difficulties.  With others’ reputations, fulfillment, health, and performance restored, I find that something equally important is reliably restored along the way: my own faith in people and their capacity to do right.

A woman, very important to me, recently shared this story:

"I spent last evening with my friends of fifty-nine years and drove home in the fog.  During the drive, I was thinking, 'Can it be that when I was eight and putting my books in my cubby in elementary school, one girl, who just sat across from me at dinner, had first approached me and asked, 'Some of us go out and play and talk on the playground now during recess.  Would you like to come?'  Well, I had experienced a horrible couple years in kindergarten and first grade at another school, though no one knew that.  I had worried much about the playground, and even planned to hide behind a tree!  But, there I sat last night with seven friends of fifty-nine years who had invited me out to the playground.  They had made all the difference decades ago, but the eleven years we spent together in school have paled in comparison to the lifelong friendships we have experienced ever since."

To varying degrees, everyone has a need for friends and friendship.  While some people need friends to survive, others need them as touchstones.  Either way, their place in the human experience is undeniable.  It is these connections that provide a sense of belonging, acceptance, and affirmation.

Some friendships are not; they are -- instead, one-way.  One person does all the giving, while the other does the taking.

Some are destructive and cancerous.

Some are shallow and predictably splinter upon the rocks.

Some last for moments, while others last a lifetime.

In the end, those that prove the most fruitful are the ones in which each person is refined and made better as a result of the relationship.  I have met too many couples and 'friends,' for example, who simply pollute one another or prove toxic.  (I am most haunted by a woman I counseled years ago who said, "My husband hurts me.  I feel so ashamed."  In Battered Person Syndrome, as in unhealthy friendships, the beater beats and the victim apologizes.  These are not friendships; these are cyclical-crimes that feed on themselves and only worsen with time^.1)

A good friend once asked, "What sort of person should I marry?"  My only advice at the time was, "Marry someone most beautiful on the inside." 

The enduring, adhesive (sticky) friendships bring each person closer to greatness than before.  (Jerry Maguire wasn't too far off base.) 

Just recall the slogan, "Friends don't let friends drive drunk."  Said conversely, "Friends are the means to make you better (not worse)."  They mean you no harm, have your best interests at heart, and serve to help you fulfill your destiny.  The same is true of great organizations, great employers, great supervisors/managers/leaders/colleagues.

For several years, we all heard the mantra, "There is no 'I' in TEAM."  A colleague of mine most effectively addressed the shortsightedness in this logic when he said, "The greatest teams 'sponsor' individuals who -- together -- become much greater than the sum of their parts."

I've always liked that idea -- that the greatest teams make individuals better, pull them to greatness and, generally, 'sponsor' them... their personhood, their character, their integrity, their value, their potential, their humanity.

As leaders, just as parents, we sometimes resist creating friendships with employees, believing such a dimension might alter or complicate an otherwise simpler relationship.  I understand this conceptually, but have found that some of the greatest leaders and parents are friends (not exclusively, primarily, or predominantly), but also.

In the words of the beautiful Maya Angelou, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Now, go befriend someone, maybe a newbie.  Ask them to lunch, to join you during recess, or to save you a spot in the next meeting.  You never know, it might just lead to a decades-long rapport or relationship that brings you or them out from behind that tree, or makes you both better individuals than you are today.

Workplaces are grapevines; that's just the way it is.  Sadly, there are too few exceptions to the hypothesis that, "Where there are three, there gossip be."

Turn on practically any TV channel or Radio station: innuendo, rumor, speculation, gossip.

See countless Websites...

Countless News programs...

Countless 'Reality' programs...

My feeble Blog entry for today won't do one iota to stop gossip from metastasizing, but if it underscores the importance of not gossiping, abiding gossip, or feeding the gossip machine for even 'one day,' all the better.  A chain only works when each link does its part.  By refusing to engage or tolerate gossip in your workplace, you not only differentiate what IS and IS NOT appropriate, productive, and right, but you sometimes preserve a person's reputation.

And THAT is something which, once tarnished, dented, or broken, suffers from Humpty Dumpty Syndrome:

In Doubt, the haunting play and film by John Patrick Shanley, there is a wonderful sermon delivered by the character Father Flynn.  I will close with it, as it so powerfully captures the viral and infectious nature of gossip:

A woman was gossiping with a friend about a man she hardly knew - I know none of you have ever done this - that night she had a dream. A great hand appeared over her and pointed down at her. She was immediately seized with an overwhelming sense of guilt. The next day she went to confession. She got the old parish priest, Father O’Rourke, and she told him the whole thing.

‘Is gossiping a sin?’ she asked the old man. ‘Was that the hand of God Almighty pointing a finger at me? Should I be asking your absolution? Father, tell me, have I done something wrong?’

(Irish Brogue)
‘Yes!’ Father O’Rourke answered her. ‘Yes! You have borne false witness against your neighbor, you have played fast and loose with his reputation, and you should be heartily ashamed!’

So the woman said she was sorry and asked for forgiveness.

‘Not so fast!’ says O’Rourke. ‘I want you to go home, take a pillow up on your roof, cut it open with a knife, and return here to me!’

So the woman went home, took a pillow off her bed, a knife from the drawer, went up the fire escape to the roof, and stabbed the pillow. Then she went back to the old parish priest as instructed.

‘Did you gut the pillow with the knife?’ he says.

‘Yes, Father.’

‘And what was the result?’

‘Feathers,’ she said.

‘Feathers?’ he repeated.

‘Feathers everywhere, Father!’

‘Now I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out on the wind!’

‘Well,’ she said, ‘it can’t be done. I don’t know where they went. The wind took them all over.’

‘And that,’ said Father O’Rourke, ‘is GOSSIP!’

What a difference seven months make.

In October, as the unwinding of our world's economy became crystal clear, so many perceived it as 'temporary.'  "The prey must make its way through the python, then all will be well in the end," they seemed to say.

And perhaps that is entirely true.  2010, 2011, 2012... I suppose things could return to 'normal' by then.

But I think not.

I think what's done is done, what was was, and we've entered a New World Order.  I believe the 'unwinding' was, in fact, a re-calibrating. 

I believe the waterline of the former market was, for all intents and purposes... former.  And we may not see Dow Jones at 14,000+ for another generation.  Call me a heretic, an idiot, or a doomsday-sourpuss-naysayer; I've been called worse.  But I believe the snake oil salesmen who are selling fiction disguised as hope are unrealistically optimistic or altogether deceptive. (I see the difference as their 'knowledge' x their 'intent.')

I attended an economic conference several weeks ago, and ALL the economists were prophesying, "This will blow over in a few months.  Q3 2009 will see a return to business as usual," guess-hypothesis-theory-lie.  I'm sorry; I just don't buy it.  While I fully understand FDR's lamentations about 'fear itself' and the need for positive psychology to lead the market, I believe it's time to come to terms with reality and adapt rather than hope for stable sand castles found primarily in Utopia. 

I imagine the market as we knew it before -- with easy loans, bottomless debt, and raging home sales -- is a thing of the past. 

Is the bottom near?  Perhaps, though I agree with Warren Buffett's sentiment that we probably won't experience it until the Government stops reaching in and tweaking the knobs.  At some point, probably where 'rescue' and 'reality' intersect, we will indeed experience a legitimate transition, but I don't think 'bottoming, leveling out, and climbing' are synomymous with 'back to business as usual.'  (At least, not for everyone.  One of the great ironies of this current economy is the disparity between the haves and have-nots.  While many people and clients and states I interact with are STARVING, many others are THRIVING.  On the one extreme I hear, "The sky is falling!" while on the other extreme I hear, "Crisis, what crisis?  We have so much money we don't know where to spend it all!")

Some might argue that I am sounding a bit like Chicken Little, but I believe that history and conventional wisdom will reveal that I am among an unintentional chorus of Shepherd Boys who would rather be wrong.  And by unintentional, I mean to say, "non-economic types" who wind up being in the majority and on the side of right, not because of knowledge, but because of intuition. 

I believe we're entering an era of Business as Unusual or, said another way, The 'New' Economy is The Economy.

2,600 years ago, the Greek slave, Aesop, wrote well over 200 brief fables, and many of them specifically for children (though they apply to most everyone).  Among them is The Shepherd Boy & the Wolf, more commonly remembered as The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  The theme of the story is best recalled in the final line of the fable:  "Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed.  The liar will lie once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth."

Only time will reveal whether the 'renowned and expert economists' are right (and Q3 2009 will reveal a miraculous, magical, and unheralded 'market bounce' that eventually leads us back to earlier Dow Jones health, employment, and worldwide productivity as before) or if those who said once and twice (without knowing why), "the world is changed for a generation" will be deemed right.

Again, I would prefer to be wrong.

At this point in life, most of us have endured one sort of surgery or another.  I equate today's Shepherd Boys as those who scratch at our scar tissue.  What was once sensitive and irritated (October 2008) is slowly becoming thick and numb (May 2009).  The 'jump' in our step has faded a bit, we've ignored the alarms for too long, and many are awakening and coming to grips with a potentially new reality.  A sense of, "Okay.  Um.  So, this REALLY isn't going away next month?  It wasn't just a drill?  All righty then, let's see... what shall I do now?"

History has an enviable way of efficiently and accurately sorting the misfits and malcontents from the rest.  I know most of us would LOVE to see a return to a pre-9/11 or pre-2009 economic world order, but the hairs on the back of my neck just don't sense that coming anytime soon.  Do yours?   

Meanwhile, whether it's only a few years or an entire generation plus, I suppose we should return to our work, reprioritize, rebalance, and find ways to survive through and thrive within a minor economic winter.  There is plenty of work to be done, there are many fields still lacking qualified applicants, and as Nature reminds us, life is binary.  It's either 'find a way to Grow' time, or 'embrace the slumber that has no end' (e.g., die). 

I elect to fight, as I'm sure you do, too.  It's buckle-down time.  Not for an illusory and fabled 'comeback' of lore, but in pursuit of creating a more sustainable future for our children, our customers, our constituents, and all those we hope will follow.

Onward.  Perge.  Semper fidelis.  It's on.  Let's roll.  Bring it.  Go time.  All that jazz.

Sometimes the smallest, simplest things catch my attention.  I don't know why, but it intrigues me, as do the teensy lessons the things themselves reveal.

Last week, Lowe's delivered several pallets of mulch to our driveway.  Once the bags were emptied and spread, I began to wonder what we might make of the remaining wood from the pallets themselves.  Coincidentally, my wife, Dawn, had been talking about a "flower wagon" for our front porch for several days.

Though it took a while for the cogs to engage, eventually... klunk-kerplunk, eureka... Mother's Day is coming. 

She printed a photo from the internet, and bam -- I was off to the races.

From Friday evening through Sunday, I became a man possessed.  My aged and creaky body beneath me, I painstakingly broke down the eight pallets with a hammer, crowbar, pliers, and ripsaw.  Our family ran the errand to Lowe's and purchased chain, hinges, angle brackets, more screws, a second drill, and another saw blade.  Three days later, we have five wagon-bodies awaiting the arrival of their axles and wheels.  Upon completion, we'll distribute the wagons around the yard and load them up with flowers, grasses, watermelons, or pumpkins as the seasons dictate.  In time, and with age and weather, we think they'll work well.

But as I was bending, standing, hobbling around my sawhorses, experimenting, screwing up, starting over, measuring, re-measuring, marking, cutting, re-cutting, drilling, screwing, sanding, and spraying, my mind was free to drift and float.

On Saturday night as I did 'bedtime' with our six-year-old daughter, Lauren, we played a memory game.  She's working on her math and, as we wound-down for the evening, with all the lights off in the room, she said, "Let's play a numbers game.  I need to work on my math, okay?" 

Into the ink-black darkness I said, "Okay.  How many curtains are in your room?" 

Her mind whirred through the room and she said, "Five."

"Yes, five," I replied.  "That's right.  Good.  Okay.  How many doors do we have upstairs?  Downstairs?  Be sure to count the closets, attic, and doorways with no 'literal' doors, okay?  And how many gates do we have outside?"

In time, she gave me great numbers for every question.  She was right-on.  And then she said the coolest thing,

"Isn't it neat that while my body is here in bed, my mind is roaming the house and yard?"

Y e s    i t    i s

It is, literally, mindblowing.

And as my body and hair and eyelashes and shoelaces and fuzzy legs and arms became covered and more covered with fine sawdust, my mind traveled to Beijing and Paris and London and Toronto and Phoenix and Toledo and Orlando and to the movie and grocery stores down the street and the mall across town and that terrible O'Hare which always strands me.  It roamed to cars and planes and people and politics.  To religion and mailboxes and dogs and squirrels.  To the wind that blew and the rain that fell and nearly ruined my tools, to the neighborhood boys revving their engines and blaring their tunes, to birds and ants and leaky roofs and mosquitos, and to the meals I could smell through the windows and the shower I longed to take when I was finished each evening.

And like our precious Lauren, growing inch by inch and word by word, I thought to myself, "Isn't it neat that while my body is here, my mind can go anywhere."

Y e s    i t    i s

The mind is a terrible thing to waste, but too often, I see organizations and leaders who don't allow (much less expect... demand...) their people to hope and dream and think.  And we confine people, and their minds, to cubicles and repetition.

Henry Ford once lamented, a century ago, "Why, when all I need is a pair of hands, do I have to get a whole person?"  (Yes, people are complicated, but oversimplifying the workplace so people can solely be more effectively 'managed' borders on malpractice.)  Toyota, and countless companies defined by 'predictability,' have found ways to ensure job enrichment and variety.  Have you?  After all, though it is indeed complicating, you get much, much more from a person when you demand they also think creatively and constructively about your business.  And yes, sometimes the most constructive changes arise like a phoenix in the face of 'creative destruction,' not unlike Market Darwinism and what we are seeing in broad scale around the world today.  

(There is an anecdote that Bill Gates, Sr. tells about his then-adolescent son.  After repeatedly yelling up the stairs at Bill, Jr. to come down and get in the car, his exasperated mother inquires, "WHAT are you DOING?"  "I'm thinking, Mom.  Don't you ever do that, too?" he replied.  Later that evening, his mother and father admit to one another, "No.  We really don't take enough time anymore to just think.  Just think.")

And no, I am not advocating 'daydreaming,' but I am encouraging you -- as a leader -- to facilitate and foster an environment in which people can indeed imagine and think, wherein you allow their minds to explore new and heretofore uncontemplated opportunities.  As they do at W.L. Gore, we should consider allowing people 'dabble time.'  It's where Gore finds breathable plastics and 3M finds Post-Its.

And for all of us, including my daughter and me, it's where we find doors and freedom.

We stood at the counter, Dawn, our six-year-old daughter Lauren, and me.

And from Lauren's tiny mouth come these words, "I'll have a banana smoothie, please."

She had read this $2.50 line-item from 20' away and ordered it herself.

My, oh my, how times change.  A year ago, she could read one and two-syllable words.  Two years ago, at age four, I think she 'recognized' words, but I don't recall her reading many sentences.  But here we are, May 2009 at the age of six, and she's reading chapter books, street signs, movie titles, Viagra commercials, Disney Channel barrages... she can, in short, read just about anything.  Words like 'catastrophe' throw her, but with these wily exceptions, she can pronounce most everything.

Like soft mid-sections and wiggly skin, I know that, as adults, undesirable things creep up on us.  But the year the world begins to reveal itself to a child like a blossoming flower in Spring is a welcome year indeed.

Life itself is like this, I believe.  We are born into utter darkness, ignorant of all.  And year by year, bit by bit, our eyes open.  They open to the good, the bad, the indifferent -- but they open.  And over time, we assert ourselves (or fail to) and become a person with proclivities, opinions, preferences, and biases.

What an amazing thing, life. 

Relish it.

And every now and again, stop and smell the flowers -- indulging and appreciating the awesomeness of simplicity.

After all, there's more to saying, "I'll have a banana smoothie, please" than meets the eye.

Sometimes I’m slow on the uptake, but having heard this sentiment three times this past week from employees in different organizations, “message received!”

Indeed, there are many loser-bosses.  Why so surprised?  The rungs of leadership and management are not immune to the bell curve of life.

The succeeding questions, however, are what matter more: “Why?”  and more audaciously, “How can I remedy this?”

First, to the Why.  There are generally 5 Root Causes for Leadership Failure.  Quickly (lest this become a 10,000 word essay), they are:

1.     Selection: We’ve started with an acorn, hoping it will grow into a pecan tree.

2.     Understanding: The individual fails to grasp, intellectually, what is expected as a leader. 

3.     Behavior: The individual fails to acquire or master the skills required to blossom into leadership competence.

4.     Barriers: Whether personal (e.g., drama) or organizational (e.g., hierarchy, ambiguity, limited resources), there is an Achilles Heel that continually pulls the leader down and away from performance.

5.     Desire/Motivation: Sometimes resulting from the preceding, but often evolving from burnout or rustout, the leader simply fizzles out.

Considering these root causes and their branches, it’s relatively simple to pinpoint an individual’s reasons for failure.

And now, a tad on Remedy.  I will provide only the broadest of strokes and address just three factors here, because entire FIELDS and INDUSTRIES exist to fully remediate leadership deficits.

To develop a leader, just like a diamond, three key ‘environmental factors’ are helpful.  (This is to say ‘nothing’ of the perennially important ‘nature vs. nurture’ dialogue and innateness.) 

1.     First, great leadership generally emerges over Time if it is to sustain deep roots and broad leaves. 

2.     Second, enough Pressure must exist – in terms of consequences – to berm, direct, and focus leadership talent.  (This is the ‘push.’)

3.     Finally, enough Heat must exist – in terms of personal drive – to regularly motivate and inspire oneself to achieve, ascend, serve, contribute, sacrifice, whatever.  (This is the ‘pull.’)

From within environments where adequate mentors, coaches, and role models exist… where there is solid feedback and developmental opportunities combined through education and experience, organizations are more inclined to breed leaders.  All the more so when these leaders overcome the five roots of failure and experience the time, consequences, and motivation consistent with aspects of pressure cookers, kilns, or crucibles.

In short, if you want fewer “loser bosses,” start with the right seeds and afford them the right mixture of soil (which includes water, oxygen, sunlight, etc.) and fire.

Wow, do we have ambiguity in spades today, or what? 

Surely it’s not just my own little perception!

Surely not.

I’ve heard it by the truckload lately.  Here are four quotes from four different clients:

“There’s so much ambiguity that we cannot make decisions.”

“Our environment is rife with ambiguity; our people are wandering aimlessly.”

“We’re waiting for direction we know will never come.  Can you help us help our people to ‘lead through ambiguity?’”

“Until this economic mess clears up, we’re flat-footed.  We can’t seem to catch, roll, or run.  If it’s 2011 or 2012 by the time things improve, we’ll be long-dead by then.” 

What are leaders, organizations, employees to do?

The short answer is, “Leverage what you’ve got.”

As I described with one organization this past week, many entities currently resemble Swiss Cheese.  They’ve got ‘some’ of the answers, but not all.  Opportunity, challenge, and competitive advantage are found by those organizations FIRST able to fill in enough of the voids to move on.

It’s true… we NEVER have all the elements we need to form a perfect or complete answer.  But yes, we generally have a much clearer vision than today’s “survive.”  In lieu of that clear vision, there are many aspects of direction that we CAN marshal from the cheese.

For example, a sense of Purpose or Calling.  Values.  Key Strategy Categories like Talent Development (which includes dozens of helpful touchstones like recruitment, selection, development, appraisal, promotion, compensation, and succession planning), Image (branding, marketing, messaging, advertising, and promotion), and Financial (business economics, accounting methodologies, and anything remotely sales or revenue-related).

Sure, we may not have a full set of maps or navigational equipment, but we’ve been in the ocean before and we can generally make out a flicker from the distant lighthouse.  Knowing the storms are striking each market and industry differently, some organizations will need to identify and pursue entirely different beachheads and destinations, while others simply need to decelerate, accelerate, or make tiny course corrections. 

In the process of “organizational evolution” (lest one experience Market Darwinism and risk extinction through failing to adapt), we accept that DNA adapts slowly where at all.  Sweeping changes are less realistic or required than pivotal 1° tacks which, in the aggregate over time, generate significant transformation and success, all the while holding onto the riggings of what is familiar.

We know that for every sixty miles traveled, each degree of change throws us off course by one mile.  Said another way, even the smallest tweaks can take us to an entirely DIFFERENT, NEW, or BETTER destination.

Don’t let ambiguity cripple you or your organization’s ability to remain fixed on a long-term objective while accomplishing small and short-term wins.  They are indeed there, hoping against hope to be found.

I recently visited with an Operations Manager in a factory who was clearly distressed.  “But I learned something long ago that serves me well in times like these,” he said.  “Never get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired, or Scared.  As long as I manage H, A, L, T, and S, I’ll be fine.”

Knowing that few things in the universe are ‘original,’ I Googled this acronym and discovered it originated as a mnemonic in the treatment of substance abusers, be they alcoholics or drug addicts.

Whomever it was originally designed to help, I love its simplicity, ‘memorability,’ and relevance.

Indeed, when we are too hungry – be it for food, drink, or practically anything, we make poor, immediate, irrational choices that we predictably regret later.

When we act out of anger, we are really re-acting.

When we become too lonely, we succumb to poor choices, depression, and thoughts of failure or inadequacy.

When we get tired, everything collapses.  We become agitated, distracted, and shadows of one’s self.

And when we get scared, we convert shadows into monsters and make big decisions in belittling ways because fear reduces us to fight or flight instincts.

H.A.L.T.S… I just love this handy little reminder, and hope that – while ideally you would never require it – perhaps it will serve you well in a needing moment.

A brief entry for today…

First-up, THANK YOU for your many responses to help TBLG shape our Research Question as proposed in my preceding blog entry dated April 8^th, 2009.  KEEP ‘EM COMING, and please share the link with others so they might also contribute.  We have received several Comments and scores of Emails on the proposed topic(s).  As with all research, this project will take some time and we will nurse it in the background as we multi-task with daily chores.  Keep one eye open for forthcoming Calls to Action, as they will describe progress and ‘next steps.’

I am emboldened by your passion, guidance, and willingness to help with and participate in the research.  So many contributions were intriguing that the task becomes richer as it becomes deeper.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

Stay tuned. 

Last-up, speaking of multi-tasking, this is my signal to make a Lane Change, as I will momentarily upload a few waylaid blog entries that accumulated in recent days, as I found myself on several airplanes.