The Leash Theory of Management

The Leash Theory of Management
by Bryan J. Neva, Sr.

Have you ever heard a manager use phrases like, "I have to keep them on a short leash!", or "I'll give them all the rope they need to hang themselves!" Essentially that manager subscribes to what I call "The Leash Theory of Management."

"The Leash Theory of Management" has its origins with the famous Russian Psychologist, Physician, and Nobel Prize winner, Ivan Pavlov (1849 - 1936), who did experiments with dogs called "classical conditioning." First Pavlov presented meat (an unconditional stimulus) to a hungry dog, and the dog responded by salivating (a natural unconditional response). Next Pavlov rang a bell at the same time he presented the meat to the hungry dog, and again the dog responded by salivating. Pavlov repeated this several times so the dog would learn to associate the ringing bell with getting fed. Finally, Pavlov rang the bell but didn't present the meat and the dog responded by salivating. So Pavlov conditioned the dog to salivate at the sound of the ringing bell. The ringing bell was the "conditioned stimulus" and the dog's salivation was the "conditioned response." The ultimate purpose of Pavlov's experiments with dogs was to learn if they were applicable to humans; and, in fact, they were as subsequent, unethical experiments on children by other psychologist proved this. Today, most psychologist and management experts overwhelmingly condemn the use of "Pavlovian conditioning" on people as being unethical and immoral as it lowers the dignity of human beings to the level of animals and causes long-term psychological harm.

We know that people can develop phobias, anxieties, irrational fears, emotional responses, or other abnormal psychological behaviors mainly because of a "conditioned response." For example, say you flew on an airplane and had a very traumatic experience (the plane experienced extreme turbulence and almost crashed), you'd naturally associate flying with death and might develop a fear of flying, or a "conditioned response" to flying.

Getting back to "The Leash Theory of Management" or what psychologist call "Pavlovian conditioning," the manager who subscribes to this theory basically believes that his employees must be trained like dogs and figuratively kept on a leash so he can control their behavior. He'll use rewards, punishment, fear, and intimidation all to elicit a conditioned response from his reports. The idea of "keeping his employees on a short leash" would imply micromanaging or closely scrutinizing everything the employee does. The idea of "giving them all the rope they need to hang themselves" would imply taking a hands-off approach with an employee, waiting for them to make a mistake, and then mercilessly punishing them the minute they do. The manager is essentially setting his employee up to fail, and they'll typically use this technique to get rid of an unwanted employee.

Using Pavlovian Management Techniques usually causes employees to respond anxiously to the mere presence of their manager; the manager (or "dog trainer" as I like to call them) has "conditioned" his employees to "respond" with fear and anxiety the minute he shows his face or opens his mouth. They become like dogs that have been beaten so much that they spend half their working lives just cowering in fear and sucking up to him. 

One of the most famous practitioners of Pavlovian Management Techniques was Jack Welch, the controversial CEO of GE from 1981 to 2001. During his tenure at the helm of GE, the company's value rose an astounding 4000%, and when he retired from GE he was given an unheard of severance package of $417 million. Welch's personal net worth is north of $720 million! Having published several books himself, and having numerous other books and articles published about him, we know that Jack Welch was a big proponent and practitioner of "The Leash Theory of Management." He used fear, intimidation, rewards, and punishment to motivate his underlings. These, along with some creative accounting and a growing economy was how he was able to accomplish what he did at GE! GE is a classic example of a "profit-at-any-price," "throw the baby out with the bathwater" organization, as they ruthlessly will fire employees on a whim. GE has absolutely no loyalty to their employees as they're seen as nothing more than "units of production." 

The military as well extensively uses "The Leash Theory of Management" especially with new recruits and low ranking enlisted personnel. The military loves the "young and dumb" as they're easily trainable just like puppies. The military euphemistically calls it "re-socialization," but in reality, it's akin to "dog training!"  That is why most people don't last much longer than their first enlistment, and also why so many veterans suffer from some degree of PTSD even if they'd never even seen combat. R. Lee Ermey's portrayal of the Marine Corps Drill Sergeant in the 1987 Stanley Kubrick film Full Metal Jacket is a classic example of military "Pavlovian conditioning." Those who thrive in a military environment, like the character R. Lee Ermey played, are those who love to be "dog trainers" just like the famous dog whisperer Cesar Millan, or the controversial Jack Welch. 

I once met a veteran back in the '80s who had a barcode tattooed on the back of his neck; when I asked him about it, he told me the military made him feel like just a number or a piece of serialized military equipment. The tattoo was his way of protesting his military experience. In fact, when I was in the military, we stenciled our social security numbers on everything including the "dog tags" we were required to wear around our necks. The military's social caste system where the officers are the "Lords" and the enlisted personnel are the "Serfs" is an outdated system best left in the middle ages.

Employees who experience "The Leash Theory of Management" in their working environments usually fall into three categories: 1) those who Accept it and stay; 2) those who try to Change it; and 3) those who Exit (Accept it, Change it, or Exit: ACE it). The employees who accept it and stay usually do so because they can't afford to lose their jobs (i.e. their meal ticket), and they cower in fear like an abused dog and suck up to their "masters" hoping not to get another beating that day; however, they become disengaged from their work and usually do just enough to get by and not draw the wrath of their "dog trainer." Of course, the long-term results are lower productivity. The employees who try to change it do so because they believe they can somehow be a change agent in the organization, and they don't like being treated like dogs. They want to be treated with the dignity and respect of a human being. Finally, the employees who exit don't accept the status quo and don't like being treated like dogs, so they just quietly leave. The revolving door starts turning, new employees replace them, and the vicious cycle starts all over again. (It kind of sounds like the military doesn't it?) Unfortunately, when there's high turnover under a manager who practices "The Leash Theory of Management," the last thing most organizations will ever do is fire the manager!

Dr. Stanley Milgram was a social psychologist who performed controversial obedience experiments in the early 1960s. He subsequently published a book in 1974 entitled, Obedience to Authority which became a worldwide best-seller. His experiments are cited in just about every psychology textbook today, and they help to explain the passivity of the German people under Hitler and the Nazis during World War II. An article in American Psychologist summed up Milgram's obedience experiments as follows:

"In Milgram's basic paradigm, a subject walks into a laboratory believing that s/he is about to take part in a study of memory and learning. After being assigned the role of a teacher, the subject is asked to teach word associations to a fellow subject (who in reality is a collaborator of the experimenter). The teaching method, however, is unconventional—administering increasingly higher electric shocks to the learner. Once the presumed shock level reaches a certain point, the subject is thrown into a conflict. On the one hand, the strapped learner demands to be set free, he appears to suffer pain, and going all the way may pose a risk to his health. On the other hand, the experimenter, if asked, insists that the experiment is not as unhealthy as it appears to be and that the teacher must go on. In sharp contrast to the expectations of professionals and laymen alike, some 65% of all subjects continue to administer shocks up to the very highest levels."

Milgram's obedience experiments proved that 65% of people throughout all walks of life will naturally accept "Pavlovian conditioning" in the workplace while only 35% will resist it and refuse to be a part of it. It was a shocking discovery about human nature.

 
But knowing human nature's propensity to blindly follow authority, choosing to be part of the 35% who questions the morality and ethics of "The Leash Theory of Management" or "Pavlovian conditioning" will begin the change process to more humane, modern and effective leadership methods in organizations. "Pavlovian conditioning" only works because of our human nature to blindly follow authority. Developing an ethos that questions the morality and ethics of everything will help prevent us from falling into the trap of perpetrating injustices on others or being victimized by others.

So if you're working for a "dog trainer" I recommend that you just quietly start looking for another job as it's easier to find another job when you already have one. If you stay you'll eventually develop some serious mental health issues, and if you resist it's unlikely you'll ever change anything and you'll still end up with some serious mental health issues. So do yourself a big favor, save your sanity, and just leave! Find another employer or manager who doesn't practice "The Leash Theory of Management" and will treat you with the dignity and respect we all deserve as human beings.

6 Signs You Worry Too Much About What Others Think: Why It’s a Problem and What to Do About It by Dr. Gary Trosclair, Huffington Post

6 Signs You Worry Too Much About What Others Think: Why It’s a Problem and What to Do About It 
by Dr. Gary Trosclair, Ph.D, Huffington Post

It’s very human to want to be liked. Isolation is dangerous for our mental health. But if you betray yourself to get people to like you, that causes problems that are at least as bad if not worse. I’ll explain why in a moment, but first let’s look at some signs that you worry too much what others think about you.

1. You do things you don’t want to do and you resent it.
2. You no longer (or never did) really know what you want.
3. You’re afraid to say what you really believe.
4. You spend time with people you don’t like or you avoid people out of fear.
5. You struggle to make your own decisions.
6. You imagine that people are upset with you when they really aren’t.

Here’s why it’s a problem:

Deep inside of us, along with our need to be liked, we also have a need to be authentic, to think and live in our own unique way. Nature made us this way so that we could think critically and develop creative solutions rather than rushing headlong over a cliff with the rest of the herd. If we all thought alike the human race would have died out long ago.

As Bertrand Russell wrote, “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”

We thrive when we get along with others, and think and act independently at the same time. If you aren’t doing both, you’re out of balance, and your psyche will complain about it with either depression (“No one likes me.”) or anxiety (“I have to get them to like me”). These are often warning signs, and if not heeded, things can get really bad. That’s why it’s dangerous to worry too much what others think about you.

Here’s what to do about it:

1. Find your people: Don’t imagine that you can stop caring what everyone thinks. Seek out the people who see your strengths and goodness and whom you trust. Stick with them and take what they say seriously. When you fear that they’re thinking badly of you, check it out: Ask them what’s going on. A small group of friends or community can go a long way in increasing security. It’s important to know that you’re loved.

Bernard Baruch put it well when he said, “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”

2. Face it down: What if other people do think badly of you? Thank goodness! If everyone likes you, you’re probably not being true to your self. Ask yourself “What’s the worst that could happen?” and come to terms with it.

3. Spend time alone or in therapy: In order to remember or learn what you want, need and believe you’ll need to have periods of time when you can hear yourself without worrying about the voices of others. Journal. Talk to yourself. Ask yourself what you need. Find ways to make yourself happy that don’t depend on other people. Psychotherapy can also help with this because it focuses on hearing what’s inside of you.

4. Experiment judiciously with speaking your mind. This could mean taking some chances. You may not be able to do this at work, since we usually need to maintain an appropriate persona at work. And, sadly, if you belong to a racial or sexual minority, you are probably wise to be guarded in certain situations. But exercising your opinion elsewhere can build confidence. This can be scarey, but it can also be liberating. Avoidance breeds anxiety, while mastery brings self esteem. Here again, therapy is a safe place to start.

5. Decide what’s truly important to you: Is what people think of you high on that list? Make a short list, post it on your fridge, send yourself reminders on your phone, and don’t let critical folks who are suffering from insecurity come between you and fulfillment.

6. Find your inspiration: Name three characters—real or from literature or film (for example Martin Luther King, Eleanor Roosevelt, Malala Yousafzai, Misty Copeland, Katniss Everdeen or Harry Potter) that have faced these same fears and overcome them. Carry their image in your mind. Authenticity is an archetypal theme: For millennia we’ve used stories of heroes and heroines that have not followed the crowd to help us overcome our own fears. Images of their courageous acts reach older parts of your brain—fear centers that may not respond to simple logic—and can free you to follow your intentions.

This being true to your whole self—this individuation—isn’t easy. It takes courage and perseverance, but in the long run it feels better. And for many people, bringing their unique offerings to the world is what gives their life meaning.

Here’s how Carl Jung put it: “May each one seek out his own way. The way leads to a mutual love in community...Therefore give people dignity and let each of them stand apart, so that each may find his own fellowship and love it.. Give human dignity, and trust that life will find the better way.”
_______________________________________________

My Thoughts:

"Don't concentrate on all the people who may dislike you; concentrate on the God who Loves you!"

As a Christian, I try to completely trust God and not people in everything I do and say; it gives me peace of mind when I put God first, others second, and myself third. People are quite fickle; one day they're your friend; the next day they're your enemy. So try not to worry if people "like" you or not. God brings people in and out of our lives all the time: some for our encouragement, some to try our patience, and others, unfortunately, to build our characters. It's quite rare to find a true and devoted friend who'll stick by you through thick and thin.

Try as much as you are able to be patient and stay humble of heart with others, trust in God completely and not in yourself or others. It's NOT possible to please everybody, but it IS possible to please God. The only way you can get most people to "like" you is to do nothing, to say nothing, and to be nothing, but then you'd no longer be the unique human being that God created you to be...you'd be a mind-numbed robot or a plain vanilla ice cream cone; you wouldn't be you!  

It's important to remember that it really doesn't matter whether or not others "like" you or how they treat you, but whether or not YOU like YOU and how YOU treat others! You're your own worst critic, so if you're happy with who YOU are then that's all that matters. There are many reasons for other people's unfriendly or unkind behavior. You can only try to positively influence others, but you can't control others! How others behave is ultimately their responsibility, not yours! YOU are only responsible for YOUR behavior, NOT other people's behavior

Think about this, Jesus was the perfect human being and what did the world do to him? Jesus even warned his disciples (John 15:18, 20), "If the world hates you, remember the world hated me first. If people did wrong to me then they'll do wrong to you too." St. John said (1 John 3:13), "Don't be surprised if the world hates you!"  And St. Paul said (2 Tim 3:12), "Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

For many and varied reasons people, in general, can't stand people who strive to live good and decent lives. It's counterintuitive, but it's quite true. The old cliche, "no good deed goes unpunished" is quite true. It amazes me how many politicians, entertainers, famous, and wealthy people who live sinful lives are venerated as secular saints. Jesus warned of this too (John 15:19), "If you belonged to the world, the world would love you."  

People will betray you, abandon you, and mistreat you; don't treat them the same way, just forgive them and continue to love them. "Loving" someone is quite different from "liking" someone. You're never going to "like" everyone and not everyone is going to "like" you. So if others are unfriendly, rude, hateful, or disrespectful to you, then return love, kindness, blessings, and prayers instead. When our lives are over, it really won't matter how many friends we had, but whether we were a friend to others (especially to those who are outcasts in the world).

I think Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta said it best:

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; forgive them anyway. 

If you are kind people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; be kind anyway. 

If you are successful you will win some false friends and some true enemies; succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget about tomorrow; do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough; give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway.   

Ten Unmistakable Signs of A Bad Place To Work by Liz Ryan, Forbes

Ten Unmistakable Signs of A Bad Place To Work 
by Liz Ryan, Forbes

I talk to job-seekers every day. Some of them have target lists of companies they’d like to learn more about, and almost all of them have lists of companies they would never work for, no matter what.

Where did they get their lists of companies they would never, ever work for? They either worked for those companies in the past or have friends who did. People talk, and they tell their friends “No matter how badly you need a job, don’t go to work for this company and that company. It’s worse working there than being unemployed, by a mile!”

An employee handbook is a window to the corporate soul. Reading the employee handbook will give you enormous clues to the company’s culture. If they won’t give you a handbook, run away then and there!

Here are ten unmistakable signs that a company you are interviewing with is not a good place to work.

1. No-Moonlighting Policy

If you read the company’s employee handbook and you find a No-Moonlighting Policy, that’s your cue to back out of the recruiting process, fast! A No-Moonlighting policy is a rule that says that if you work for this company, you can’t have another, part-time job. Why would that be any of their business, if you’re showing up to work and getting your work done

You should not have to ask permission to spin records at weddings as a DJ or to work part-time at your uncle’s catering company. A No-Moonlighting policy is exactly the type of overreaching, Big-Brotherish practice that corporations only employ when they believe that their team members are insignificant cogs in their machine.

2. No-References Policy

You won’t find this policy in the employee handbook, so it is important that you ask your interviewer about it. Ask them whether the company’s managers are allowed to provide references for their former employees. In many large organizations, they are not.

Even if your old manager wanted to give you a glowing reference, he or she wouldn’t be allowed to do so. Your manager would have to send the inquiry to HR, and all they’d be allowed to do is to verify your dates of employment and your job titles. What a slap in the face to the employee who did a tremendous job, and deserves a good reference!

Ask the question this way:

“I am very interested in the culture of any organization I think about joining. I hope that if we end up working together, that relationship lasts for a good period of time but I also know that people don’t walk into companies anymore and retire from the same company thirty years later. Does your company allow managers to give references for their employees, or are those inquiries sent to HR?”

Only fearful leaders put No-Reference Policies in place. They couldn’t care less whether the No-Reference Policy makes it harder for their former teammates to get a new job. No-Reference Policies are unethical and should be illegal but they’re not, so proceed with caution!

3. Progressive Discipline

If the handbook talks about Progressive Discipline, get out of Dodge immediately! You are an adult. You are not a wayward third-grader who needs to worry about getting sent to the principal’s office. Progressive Discipline policies that line out the punishments employees will receive for a first infraction, second infraction, etc. are holdovers from the Industrial Revolution and have no place in the Knowledge Economy we are working in now.

4. Payroll Deductions

Some old-school companies will take money out of your paycheck for stupid things. You will see these policies written out in the employee handbook if they have them in place. We got a call in our office from a young woman who works for an accounting firm in Chicago. Her boss had asked her to order pizza for the team one day.

The young woman ordered $120 worth of pizza for the group and told her manager about it. Her manager got mad. He said, “$120? You could have gotten a better price!” The young employee was freaked out. She went back to her desk and started researching cheaper pizza options online.

She placed another pizza order with a different restaurant. This time the bill was $89. Unfortunately, in her nervous state she forgot to cancel the first pizza order, so both pizza orders arrived.

Her boss said “I’m going to take the $120 out of your paycheck!” Of course, the team ate all the pizza — both orders. Any company that wants to take money out of your paycheck (for a piece of equipment that breaks while you’re using it, e.g.) is not a place you want to work for.

5. Dictated Hours

I collect employee handbooks. At least 30% of the 100 or so employee handbooks on my hard drive specify the number of hours the company expects you to work — and I’m talking about salaried employees who do not get paid a penny for overtime!

Some companies specify, for instance, that ‘staff-level’ employees should expect to work 45 hours per week (for the price of 40!), supervisors should expect to work 50 hours per week and management folks should plan on working 55 or more.

Smart companies know that what’s important is that the work gets done – not how many hours people work. If you see this kind of language in an employee handbook, do not take the job — because you will hate it if you do!

6. Managers Control Internal Transfers

In good companies, employees bid on internal jobs they are interested in. If they get the job, then their new manager and their old manager will talk about a transition plan to get the employee into their new position without leaving the former manager in the lurch.

In bad companies, managers control their employees’ internal transfer and promotion opportunities. They haven’t figured out that if an employee is thwarted in his or her desire to move to a new position inside the company, they’ll just find a new position in another company!

Companies that don’t understand the difference between machines that can be controlled by humans, and talented employees who can’t be controlled, don’t deserve your talents.

7. Formal Performance Management

Performance Management is the name of a popular HR hoax and scam that turns any job into a series of tasks and goals that you’ll be held accountable for on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. No job worth doing breaks down into tiny, measurable parts.

Good jobs are whole. You know what your mission is and you work toward your mission every day, checking in with your manager as appropriate. Run away from any company that surrounds you with yardsticks and measurements. Working in a place like that would only raise your blood pressure and destroying your mojo.

8. No Casual Time

When you read a potential employer’s employee handbook, pay special attention to the section of the handbook that focuses on paid time off. Good companies understand that in addition to scheduled vacation time and unscheduled sick time, normal adults need occasional days off to deal with real life.

You might have to take your cat to the vet one day or be called into a meeting at your kids’ school without notice. Good companies have personal time or casual time you can use for those real-life situations. If the only kinds of time off your prospective employer offers are vacation time, sick time and holidays, keep job-hunting! There is a better employer for you than these folks.

9. Pay Grades Make the Man (or Woman)

Also pay close attention to the discussion of pay grades in the employee handbook you are reading, and listen on your job interviews when people talk about pay grades and levels. In some companies, status and title are everything. These companies are not populated by fun, smart and creative people!

In some organizations you hear people say “Don’t call him — he’s an E5, and he won’t answer your call because you’re only an E3.” They say these things without irony. They think it’s normal to rank and evaluate people based on their title and pay grade. Don’t work with people like that! You have a brilliant career to lead, and bureaucratic, fearful organizations will not help you get there.

10. Interview Process

Last on our list of bad-company giveaways is the interviewing process itself. If people return your calls and email messages, treat you kindly during the interview process and generally seem to value your time and talents, that’s a great thing.

If they leave you waiting for weeks between each contact, give you endless tests and assignments and behave as though they are members of the royal family and you are a piece of dirt under their feet, don’t stick around!

No employer will ever love you more than they do at the point where they are trying to hire you. If the signals you get during the interview process are negative, don’t expect things to get better once you have the job.

The world is big, and there are lots of good organizations to work for. Don’t you deserve to work for one of them? Invest the time and energy to find a company where you can bring yourself to work. We are cheering you on!

Choose Life!

Choose Life!
by Bryan J. Neva, Sr.

In 1981, teenagers George Kyriacos Panayiotou (professionally known as George Michael) and Andrew John Ridgeley formed a musical duo in Hertfordshire, England. Calling themselves Wham!, they meteorically rose to the top (with a few bumps along the way) and eventually sold more than 28 million records by the time they broke up in 1986.

Their most memorable hit, "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," was released in 1984 and rose to #1 in the UK and the US; it was subsequently ranked #28 by VH1's 100 greatest hits of the 1980s. In the music video, the duo wore designer T-shirts with the slogans, "CHOOSE LIFE" printed on them.

In hindsight, the "CHOOSE LIFE" T-Shirts worn in their music video was rather ironic as Michael and Ridgeley embraced the hedonistic lifestyle of most music stars. Their idea of "Choosing Life" was simply uninhibited personal freedom, having fun, and doing whatever feels good. That was living life to the fullest. Ridgeley eventually settled down to a more normal lifestyle, but Michael continued to live a debauched lifestyle which probably contributed to his untimely death in December 2016 at the age of 53. 

Ask anyone who's fighting a terminal illness if they "Choose Life" and they'll give you an unequivocal "Yes!" Healthcare comprises about 20% of the U.S. economy, so most of us want to stay alive. But staying alive is quit different from having a high quality of life. We all exist but how many of us truly live? 

More than 3000 years ago, the Prophet Moses gave an inspirational speech to the people of Israel about "Choosing Life" (Deuteronomy 30:11-20): 

Surely what I'm telling you today is not at all hard, nor is it too far away. It's not up in heaven that you should say, "Who'll go up to heaven for us to learn about it so that we can live by it?" Neither is it something beyond the sea that you should say, "Who'll cross the seas for us to learn about it so that we can live by it?" No, not at all, what I'm telling you today is actually very near to you...it's in your mouth and it's in your heart. What I'm telling you today is life and prosperity; it's death and adversity! All you must do is obey the commandments of the Lord your God by loving Him, walking in His ways, and observing all that He has taught you, then you'll live and prosper and the Lord your God will bless you. But if you turn away and do not obey Him, then you'll perish and die. So I call upon heaven and earth today to bear witness to what I have told you; I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your family may live and prosper!

Moses' taught that to "Choose Life" was to obey God's commandments by loving Him, walking in His ways, and following His teachings. And by doing these you'll prosper and God'll bless you. Not doing these is simply to "Choose Death" and curses.   

God has given all of us the freedom to choose how we want to live our lives. If we want to live a hedonistic lifestyle, that's our right. God's not going to stop us. But God has revealed to us the way to a have a truly abundant life simply by loving Him, walking in His ways, and following His teachings. The choice is between life and death; it's between blessings and curses. So "Choose Life" so that you and your family may live and prosper!

Trust

TRUST
by Bryan Neva

trust (trəst)
noun
A firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. "relations have to be built on trust"
synonyms: confidence, belief, faith, certainty, assurance, conviction, credence, reliance
verb
A belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of. "I should never have trusted him"
synonyms: rely on, depend on, bank on, count on, be sure of

Trust is such a simple word with such a deep meaning. Think about this for a moment: without trust we cannot have meaningful relationships with others; we cannot conduct commerce with others; we cannot safely live our lives; we cannot even live in a civilized society without trust. Trust has all but disappeared in most underdeveloped countries. All of us who've lost friendships, romantic relationships, gone through divorces, or quit lousy jobs can agree that a violation of trust was a major factor. Trust is essential to everything we do.

Because too many people in our world are untrustworthy, countries must maintain a military to defend themselves; communities must maintain a police force to keep the peace; businesses must install burglar alarms and hire security guards to prevent theft; and individuals must lock their doors and arm themselves to remain safe. I'd guess that the world probably spends trillions of dollars every year protecting itself from the untrustworthy.

I believe the root cause of our lack of trust is primarily safety and security; we all want to remain physically, emotionally, and economically safe and secure. This is human nature and thousands of years evolution where our brains are hardwired for fight or flight. Until proven otherwise, it's best to be distrustful of others. Trust is very hard to earn, it's easy to lose, and it takes forever to repair. 

In organizations with low trust environments, I believe the cause is similar to people but it's probably more economically driven. When organizations have a survival-of-the-fittest mentality along with an inordinate love of money they tend to become distrustful of their employees, suppliers, and customers. They develop an over reliance on hierarchical management, bureaucracy, and redundancy. These, in turn, result in employees becoming disengaged in their work, productivity declines, and employee, supplier, and customer turnover increases. The bottom line is that it's very expensive to run a business when trust has gone out the window.

Stephen M. R. Covey (son of the late Dr. Stephen R. Covey) makes the case in his 2006 book, The Speed of Trust, that there are 13 behaviors individuals and organizations can do to build trust:

1) Talk Straight - say what you mean and mean what you say; don't be duplicitous; your word is your bond; show humility and intellectual honesty.

2) Demonstrate Respect - follow the Golden Rule: treat others the way you'd like to be treated; follow the Platinum Rule: treat others the way they'd like to be treated; be respectful even if someone is disrespectful to you (don't sink to their level); constructively deal with reality and differences with others; don't personally attack others if you have different points of view; embrace diversity; be a good team player.

3) Create Transparency - everything should pass the "Newspaper Headline" test; that is, would your family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues be shocked if your activities were printed on the front page of the newspaper? Conduct all affairs with integrity just as if a reporter were looking over your shoulder. 

4) Right Wrongs - apologize and atone for the sins we've committed against others; forgive others for the sins they've committed against us; work at reconciliation; be a peacemaker. 

5) Show Loyalty - speak about others as if they were present; don't behave like high school kids by gossiping about others in the workplace; it's pathetic to see sophomoric behavior among adults.  

6) Deliver Results - or you'll lose your credibility and you'll get a reputation for being all talk and no action; your employer hired you to do a job, so do your job to the best of your abilities.

7) Get Better - lifelong learning and personal improvement are essential to staying relevant in your work and in your life; don't hang your brain at the door when you come to work; there's nothing more pathetic as an adult who never grew up nor could put their childish ways behind them.

8) Confront Reality - don't sweep problems under the rug; it shows real character and intestinal fortitude to admit when things have gone south; don't be a Pollyanna and believe that life is just rainbows and butterflies; face facts and be willing to call a spade a spade!

9) Clarify Expectations - or you'll leave people guessing; don't try to be a mind reader and try to guess what others are thinking; only they can tell you.

10) Practice Accountability - don't play the blame game; hold yourself and others to high moral and ethical standards; don't play favorites and look the other way; if it's in your power, then reward good behavior and punish bad behavior.

11) Listen First - a good judge listens to all the facts before rendering a decision; seek first to understand then to be understood; God has given us all two ears and one mouth so we should listen twice as much as we talk.

12) Keep Commitments - keep your implicit and explicit promises; your word is your bond; be on time for appointments, and apologize in advance if you have to break an appointment; be reliable. 

13) Extend Trust - to those who have earned or are sincerely trying to earn your trust; don't be gullible, but at the same time don't be a control freak or micromanager who doesn't trust anyone; just because a few people violated your trust in the past does not mean that you should never trust anyone ever again.

Yes, trust is such a simple word, but a very hard thing to live by.

The Evil That Men Do

The Evil That Men Do
by Bryan J. Neva, Sr.

"The evil that men do is remembered long after their deaths, but the good is often buried with them."  - William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 2 - modern translation)  

Black Elk was born around December 1863 to an Olgala Lakota (Sioux) Native American family somewhere along the Little Powder River in present day Wyoming or Montana. He became a famous Lakota Medicine or Holy Man, was the cousin of the famous War Chief Crazy Horse, he participated in the Battle at Little Bighorn (aka Custer's Last Stand), and he fought at the Wounded Knee Massacre. After the Indian Wars, Black Elk went on to tour throughout America and Europe with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and another lesser known western show; at one point he even performed for Queen Victoria herself.

In this award winning Biography of Black Elk, Joe Jackson recounts in great detail the life of this legendary Native American and the clash of cultures between the modern European Americans and the hunter-gatherer Native Americans of the Great Plains during the 19th century. Like Helen Hunt Jackson's 1881 book A Century of Dishonor, and Dee Brown's 1970 book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Jackson's 2016 Biography Black Elk puts a face to a name in this gut wrenching story of the sufferings of the Native Americans of the Great Plains. He recounts the systematic genocidal actions of the U.S. federal government and their agents to eradicate the Native American people and destroy their culture, way of life, and their spirituality through total warfare, the decimation of the North American buffalo, a string of broken promises and treaties, forced relocations, the denial of citizenship and constitutional rights, negligence, starvation, fraud, waste, abuse, and numerous other injustices perpetrated on the Native Americans.

With 20/20 hindsight we can look back and condemn that generation of Americans who perpetrated these grave injustices on the Native Americans in the name of Manifest Destiny and social Darwinism (the hidden agenda being power, greed, and racism). In the white man's eyes these aboriginal people were stone-age Neanderthals who needed to be brought into the modern age. The most notable of all these injustices was the Wounded Knee Massacre where around 300 men, women, children, and infants were slaughtered by the U.S. Army. Even after a formal investigation, shockingly no one was ever held accountable and over twenty men were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor! (Their standards for awarding the Medal of Honor were quite low back then.)

However, we must temper our condemnation of that generation by taking into account the misguided culture of their times, and we need to admit that the Native Americans themselves were not innocent bystanders in all these disputes either. The various aboriginal tribes warred amongst themselves for centuries, and the Lakota especially were a dominate warlike people pushing the less powerful tribes like the Crow out. The Crow, as longtime enemies of the Lakota, worked as scouts for the U.S. Army.

At what percentage you place the blame is debatable, but it's safe to say that hatred and prejudice ran high on both sides of the dispute. Like all human beings, there were good and bad actors on both sides. For the Native Americans, it was a losing battle to continue fighting the overwhelming numbers of whites with their superior weaponry; their pride simply got in the way of their common sense. For the whites, it was an immoral war, and they proved time and time again that they couldn't be trusted to keep their promises as treaties were torn up at a whim, and like the Native Americans, their pride got in the way of their common sense, but more importantly, their basic humanity. Like most wars, this conflict was just senseless. But to the victor go the spoils and to the vanquished goes ignominy. 

Black Elk was a mystic who felt a deep calling since childhood to save his people. Maybe that was why he became a Medicine Man who administered herbal medicine along with a little hocus pocus to heal people. Black Elk's first wife, Katie War Bonnet, converted to Catholicism and raised all her children in the Catholic faith. After Katie's death in 1903, Black Elk converted to Catholicism too and took on the name Nicholas Black Elk at his baptism. He subsequently spent the rest of his life as a Catholic lay minister, teacher, and evangelist trying to heal men's souls. He also continued to practice herbal medicine and many times he was more successful than the physicians of his time. (Only in the last several decades has the west embraced traditional herbal medicinal cures as a viable alternative or adjunct to modern pharmaceuticals; in fact, many of the most successful drugs we have today were synthesized from herbs.)  

I'd like to believe that Black Elk somehow found peace and hope in the midst of all of his sufferings through his faith in Jesus Christ who, like Black Elk, also suffered at the hands of evil men. Black Elk was truly a great American. He died at the age of 86 at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota on August 19th, 1950.

Micromanagement

Micromanagement

"Micromanagement: That school of management that allows you to focus on each individual detail with such precision and clarity that you forget what you are doing!" - Allen Laudenslager

Curating by Allen Laudenslager

Curating

by Allen Laudenslager

We see the word “curating” bandied about the Web regularly but most of us have only a vague idea what the word means:

Curating: to pull together, sift through, and select for presentation, as music or website content: “We curate our merchandise with a sharp eye for trending fashion,” the store manager explained.

It’s the kind of thing Amazon does with targeted advertising when they track your shopping history to send you ads related to the kinds of products you have either bought in the past or are looked for on their site. I’ve noticed recently that my Google searches are starting to show ads for more of the same things I've shopped for.

For most people that’s a good thing. If I was searching for extra wide shoes (I wear a 4E width and those are very hard to find in my local stores) I will see ads for wide shoes when I make my next search on Google or Amazon. Even if I’m now searching for hardware for my vintage trailer, those ads will continue until I do enough searches for some other item to boot them off.

There is a movement to do the same thing with your news feeds. The concept is that if you read articles about the latest presidential candidates you would like to read more articles about them. That actually sounds like a pretty good service, right?

The scary part is that if you begin to focus on just one candidate that same system may focus its future recommendations on that one candidate as well. If you focus on things favorable to one candidate you might see only favorable articles. This naturally narrows your reading to what your “curation” software is spoon-feeding you. It's kind of like limiting your social interactions to just the people you know.

A television news show has a large and varied audience that has equally varied tastes, so it presents a collection of unrelated news stories. Some of them are very interesting to you others not so much, BUT if you watch the whole half hour news report you'll get a range of information about a variety of subjects. In other words, you'll get a rounded view of what is happening. If on the other hand you only listen to a news station that reports on a narrow range of topics from a single view point you won't get fresh ideas.

Most of us know that guy at the gym or office that only listens to an extreme political talk show and whose entire world is bounded by a single point of view. They're the one who is always talking about conspiracy theories and never accepts that sometimes it’s just a coincidence. So in in order to not be like "that guy", I like to use a news aggregator that requires me to manually add news feeds and doesn’t look at what I am currently reading and make recommendations about similar sources. I like it that way because I prefer an eclectic collection of sources so I get a broad range of subjects and viewpoints.

Dudley Field Malone, co-counsel for the defense of John T. Scopes in the famous "Monkey Trial" in 1925, responded to William Jennings Bryan's argument against admitting scientific testimony when he said, "I have never learned anything from any man who agreed with me!" Malone gave arguably the best speech of the trial in defense of academic freedom and his quote became famous.

In exactly the same way, your world of ideas can be circumscribed and limited by software that tries to show you more information that supports what you are already reading. Fresh and new ideas that challenge your existing concepts and accepted wisdom are the food of intellectual thought. Yes, after you read an opposing viewpoint you may well decide that you were right the first time. But unless you continually challenge what you think you know how can you grow and learn?

Sitting in a classroom being presented with new facts or viewpoints all of us have experienced the awakening that new information gives us. That moment when we think “Oh, if that’s true then this is true too! I never thought about it like that before.”

The latest improvements in artificial intelligence can allow this kind of curation and while it can lead you to many things you might not find on your own. On the other hand if it’s poorly done, it can become a straitjacket that limits your ideas to what you already know.