Resistance Is Futile

Posted by jlubans on May 24, 2024  •  Leave comment (0)

20240524-rsz_love-honor-obey-1.jpg

I'd shelved (sort of) my e-copy of the old timey thriller novel WO 2, but the recent brouhaha about a star football player* (Harrison Butker) conservative beliefs about marriage made me return to the novel's last page.
WO 2 by Maurice Drake (1912) would be in the top 10 of early espionage fiction if there were fewer cowboy-kissing-his-horse romantic scenes and less ambiguity about German malign intent.
What's that about kissing a horse?
Back in the day, western B-movies always included a love interest akin to kissing their horses like Trigger, Champion, Silver or Topper.
That was when I'd troop to the candy counter and spend my hard-earned nickels and dimes on snacks and return in time for the real shoot 'em up action.
So, too, there is a bit too much boy-girl conflict in WO 2.
Like the best amateur spy book probably ever, The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers,
(1903) WO 2 has a nautical setting.
And, both have German villains. Riddle limits the love interest, but WO 2 spends the last chapter in conflict over wifely obedience.
Finally, on that last page mentioned above, the lovers (James West, a proud male and Pamily Brand, a fierce suffragette) come to terms. (BTW, UK women got the franchise in 1918)
But, the last words by the heroine, belie submission: "I-I'll promise to say obey in the marriage service if you like. It's only a matter of form. Isn't it?"
Anyway, I found Mr. Butker?s conservative Christian remarks to be quite interesting. The kerfuffle they caused topped out at absurd.
It is what the guy thinks, let him speak his mind.
Certainly don't cancel the man for being honest to himself.
What does this have to do with work? Well, we have the hierarchy in most work places. And all the boxes below the top box are supposed to salute when the boss comes around, right?
Well, there is another hierarchy, an invisible one, in which the real power structure exists.
Just like in marriage.
There are some men who are happy to let the "little woman" "wear the pants" or "rule the roost". There are some women who are happy to have it the other way.
But, to think that the marriage vows indicate one person's submission to another or that your supervisor somehow has full authority over what you do and how you think is silly.
Obey Whom? Or Obey what?
I should have provided much more guidance for a follower willing to submit to me, a leader; that was the problem.
Unlike the know-it all-boss, I expected subordinates to think! To dream. To innovate.
If they did not and expected me to light the way, well, that is where I fell down on my part of the boss/subordinate deal.

*Kickers, by the way, are an odd bunch (loners, superstitious, idiosyncratic and a bit zany). I wrote about Gabe Brkic, the University of Oklahoma football team kicker. Like Mr. Butker, he appeared to march to his own drummer.

***********
Buy this book at BookBaby:

And, for how to bring out the best in every worker, read this book:
null
Leading from the Middle, is available at Amazon.

Copyright all text John Lubans 2024

Billy the Baker Returns (A Fable in the Style of George Ade*).

Posted by jlubans on May 10, 2024  •  Leave comment (1)

20240510-rsz_this_one.jpg
Caption. One of Billy's Not So Best

Once upon a time there was a Young Man who decided to do Something with his life. This was not a spontaneous Moment. No, his Father put it to him, telling him it was time to pay Rent or move out.
So, Billy, as he was called, said he was going to the Tontine Baking School in a distant city. It was something, he said, he always wanted to do, although that was News to everyone.
Irregardless (yes, I know) the neighbors and his friends gave him a Wowser of a send off Party - gifts and all - and put him on the Express Train to the distant town, his parents waving Fervently.
Sue, his gal, was not all that keen on Billy leaving, but there was Harold who might be getting a job at the mill, so ....
After a while Billy came back. When would he start baking? he was asked. Well, it seems that Bakery School did not really work out. He had had some Bad luck. He lost all his Money and someone stole his Good Clothes.
His dad, Lester, had a heart-to-heart talk with Billy and told him, ?I am sorry Bakery School fell through, Son. Rent is due on the 15th.
Momma cried in the hallway and felt bad for Billy, her darling.
Billy was inspired again. He no longer wanted to be a Baker; what he wanted to be was a Computer Technician; he sure knew a lot about Gaming, Hacking and Spamming, even AI, so announced he was headed to school again, this time to the Garfunkel School of Cyber Technology in Des Moines.
Well, it was time for another send-off party and everyone gave it their best, albeit a bit begrudging. They knew Billy was glued to his Computer, so maybe, just maybe he would find his Role in Life.
After a big Party, more but smaller gifts and send-off speeches Billy jumped on the train to Des Moines.
Nothing was heard for several months and then, one night, he was back in town. Well, things had not gone as planned, etc.
Dad Lester was not Pleased, having footed the Bill for the Bakery School and for the School of Cyber Technology. Mom was happy to see Billy but wondered about his Appetite and not cleaning up after Himself. She was wondering, since he knew how to work a computer, how come he knew Nothing about a Washing Machine or a Vacuum?
After a few Weeks, Lester asked Billy for the Rent and Billy said he had really found a Career - this time he was going to go off and become a
Phlebotomist and get a degree at the nearby Leech Institute for Phlebotomy just across the State line.
No farewell party this time, Billy snuck off on the late Train.
Halfway, an Airplane crashed into the train and the airline compensated the Survivors each a million dollars. Billy, a Survivor, put his money in the bank, and no one ever again asked him about his life ambitions.
He no longer lives with Lester and Momma; they live with Billy (and Sue) on the Lake in a Mansion a lot like Graceland with a fulltime Housekeeper and a herd of llamas.
Everyone admires Billy, especially around gift giving holidays.

Moral. Sometimes flunking out of Bakery School is a good thing.

* Billy first appeared
in 2016 as a Friday Fable. He (Billy) is based on a fellow student from when I was at Braintree High School outside of Beantown (aka Boston, MA). He, I forgot his name, did go away to Bakery School with a celebratory sendoff but was never heard from again.
For more by and about George Ade, America?s fabulist, go to this link.

***********
FOR MORE FABLES and much more, order this book!

And, for how to bring out the best in Billy, read this book:
null
Leading from the Middle, is available at Amazon.

Copyright John Lubans 2016 & 2024

Democracy: The Mustard on the Hot Dog

Posted by jlubans on May 08, 2024  •  Leave comment (1)

null
Caption: Charlie, the Sneezing Dog.

Achoo! Charlie, daughter Mara's pooch, eager to get out, sneezed. It reminded my daughter of a study
about wild dogs and how they seem to vote by sneezing.
Enough sneezes and the pack goes on the hunt.
Too few sneezes and the pack goes back to sleep.
So, like democratic bees, these animals suggest they favor democracy.
Which all reminds me of our human quest for democracy. I wrote about it in 2016 and it appears, revised, below.
Its reappearance is timely; 2024 is another election year.
We, in America, are already seeing two diametrically opposed political philosophies clash and do battle to get four more years.
While some dead people will vote in November, for the most part America's elections are honest and the results can be largely trusted.
Rampant dishonesty, alas, appears most in campaign propaganda. There are no more partisan people than those behind their candidate and anything pretty much goes.
Mudslinging is centuries old and sometimes the mud sticks but most often the electorate lets it slide and votes on what the candidate can do for him or her.
While we can have differences about how best to govern - some preferring a monarchy, some a dictator, some an elected government, and some to be left alone, self-governing.
There has been some global erosion of democracy. Some of that decline is self-inflicted.
The ancient Greeks did their duty by serving in their government for a set time and then leaving. Nowadays there are millions of permanent government employees doing the job those proto-democrats did for the Hellenic state.
The bureaucracy redefines democracy.
All those FTEs do things, especially regulating the rest of us. Many rules are good and essential but many are arbitrary, developed and enforced without open discussion or vote.
I have seen the rule making in a nongovernmental organization. It is what we do as we impose our world view on others and we justify doing so, always for the greater good.
Alas, sometimes that greater good is for someone's personal satisfaction in telling and mandating how others are to behave.
Hence the decline in personal freedom and responsibility!
So, what is democracy?
E. B. White - in wartime England - was asked to write a statement on the meaning of democracy. His response was enlightening and entertaining - indeed Australianesque.*
I have separated out and annotated White's defining points I think especially relevant and illuminating for the democratic workplace.
The Meaning of Democracy:
It is the line that forms on the right.
Egalitarian, democracy is. If you break into line, someone will mention it to you, probably not in the kindest of words.
It is the don't in don't shove.
Mind your manners; say please, thank you, and would you mind? As a boss you have no inherent right to push people around. In stressful times, keep a sense of humor.
It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which sawdust slowly trickles.
This, my favorite element of White's democracy, addresses the narcissism inherent among the people who believe they are God's gift and the Saviour of humanity, be it at a national level or in a McDonalds in Des Moines.
Democracy anchors the easily inflatable, like a boss, down to earth. The boss who claims full personal credit for the people doing the day-to-day and making the wheels of industry hum, does so at his own ego-tripping risk. The stockholders will believe the stuffed shirt in good times, but the workers - no sycophants, they - know better, much better.
It is the dent in the high hat.
You bet; enjoy your high hat; just do not expect everyone to think you are somehow above the rest of us, the hoi polloi. If you do, your hat - in a democracy - becomes a magnet (and target) for the stray slingshot.
As bees and wild dogs will aver,
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
In the workplace, the best boss knows her idea can only get better if she shares and builds on it with ideas from the people doing the work.
It is the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere.
Libraries have changed since the internet but when you go into one and think about it, yes, there is a communion in the hallowed purpose and tradition of the peoples university.
As for vitality, that is in scarce supply these days. However, I did observe plenty of vitality (and a surfeit of communion), at a Vermont town hall meeting, a walking, talking, breathing example of democratic decision-making.
It is an idea which hasn't been disproved yet.
Abraham Lincoln?s unfinished work at Gettysburg comes to mind: It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. Democracy in the office is also unfinished work.
It's the mustard on the hot dog.
That is the piquant sense when people feel equal and effective, when they stress We over Me and mean it. It is when the group achieves what no individual can and everyone concludes, Wow, we did it!

*By Australianesque I refer to the national healthy anti-authoritarian bent. Yes, they have rules, some silly - which few obey - and while the population can be overly dependent on government services they hesitate not to cut down the tall poppy or deflate the overblown boss.

Copyright John Lubans 2013, 2016,2021, 2024

But Where Are the Fads of Yesteryear?*

Posted by jlubans on May 01, 2024  •  Leave comment (0)

null
Caption: Presumably, if you alter skin color and appearance you will have a better group. Not depicted: political, ideological and intellectual diversity.

No, my fads are not naked stadium streakers, pet rocks or Garbage Pail Kids. Rather my focus is on management fads.
How many do you remember?
Here are several including a couple duds for you to spot:
Theory X and Theory Y
MBO (Management by Objectives),
One-Minute-Management
Rank and Yank
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
TQM (Total Quality Management
ZD (Zero Defects).
Scientific Management,
Self-Managing Teams
Holocracy
Humanocracy
MBWA (managing by walking around)
Hierarchy/Bureaucracy
All of these so-called fads had one thing in common: a desire to improve productivity, to improve quality, and to streamline work processes; and for several, to involve workers in decision making for improving products and services.
For me, the best parts and philosophies of the substantive fads live on. I used them and had very good results with individuals and groups who were willing to take a different approach to the status quo.
For example, TQMs focus on and for the client, the customer, can be seen to this day in American hospitals and their close attention to patient experience.
Alas, many workers mistrust change and adopt the "I'll wait it out" strategy, and confound the desired result, no change. Hence, the idea fades away through practiced disinterest.
Lately, I am thinking management fads are in short supply.
That's not to say there are no fads. There are current fads which have little to do with work but more with the feelings of those who do the work. I refer to
DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion),
ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), and
Wokeness (politically correct speech)
If faddish, is DEI different from the fads of yesteryear?
Significantly, none of the three mentioned have much to do, at least explicitly, with improving work flow, production and service delivery for a better bottom line or happier customers/clients.
Asking the question "what's the payoff for the bottom line?" risks my being targeted as a non-believer and in urgent need of re-education.
And, there is an assumption that all but the woke are ideologically lacking and must be trained to become racially aware, to appreciate and celebrate differences and to stop making decisions dominated by an alleged white supremacy. Indeed, ambition and showing up for work on time, and taking work home are to be avoided.
While management fads like MBO and TQM are about keeping an eye on the fries, DEI and ESG seemingly ignore the bottom line. Some claim that ESG improves value for the stockholder, but many others describe just the opposite, a drop off in value and a burdensome additional regulatory and reporting requirement.
While making claims of greater productivity, these belief systems add complexity and cost to production and service.
If George Orwell were alive, I fear he would find acres of fertile ground for writing a DEI Animal Farm expose:
All workers are equal.
Some workers are more equal than others.
All three of these require, indeed mandate, commissars and regulators to assure adherence and to shame the disaffected and uncooperative.
At one time HR had a mini-office of Affirmative Action to nudge us in the right direction for fairness and equal opportunity; now, in some large organizations the DEI commissars number in the hundreds.
While no doubt their efforts are well intended, I have to ask what value do these enforcers add to the organization's product?
Would not promoting and practicing the ten-word Golden Rule across the organization have a more powerful positive effect?
Crassness alert: If you cannot abide the biblical Golden Rule, how about a pan-organization No Dickheads policy?
I got a taste of how the DEI commissars insinuate themselves.

null
Caption. Dilbert at Implicit Bias Re-education Camp.

I serve voluntarily on a national project review board. When I termed one proposal to export DEI to the third world as being vague on outcomes, I was encouraged to complete a questionnaire about my implicit bias. If I failed to pass, I would need to be re-educated or dismissed from the panel.

*Francois Villon, 15th century, asked, "Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?"(But where are the snows of yesteryear?)

***********
STEAL THIS BOOK, if you can.
 :

And, for examples of effective workplace collaboration with clients:
null
Leading from the Middle, is available at Amazon.
Copyright all text John Lubans 2024