A few years ago I share how a manager turned his organization around by learning to laugh at himself.

Is laughing at oneself becoming a lost art?

Has ideology—management, political, religious—become so entrenched that people are losing their perspective?

99+% of the time you will be better served by sitting on your dignity than by standing on it.

Why?

Because you will learn far more sitting; people will talk to you for the simple reason of believing they will be heard.

Moreover, you will not come off as a pompous ass to your team, which, in the long run, will mean more creativity, higher productivity and less turnover providing you with better reviews, improved compensation, more opportunities, an enhanced career path and a happier life.

So go ahead; sit already.

Flickr image credit: headexplodie

A note from a reader posed this question.

Although I find the articles you link to interesting and probably would never see them if you didn’t I do not understand why you don’t link to more bloggers and other online stuff instead of the NY Times, Fortune, Wired, Inc, etc.

He obviously does read me, since that’s a very accurate list of media to which I frequently link, so it’s a fair question.

I partly answered it in an old post referring to what I term the games required by social media, but there are much larger reasons—facts, depth and veracity.

Let me give you an example.

On August 6^th the NYT published an article about HCA, a giant for profit hospital chain taken private by a group of private equity firms and since gone public again. HCA was involved in a Medicare fraud case and paid $1.7 billion in fines and repayments; now it’s back on the hot seat for performing unnecessary cardiac procedures to drive up profits.
(The bold is mine.)

Details about the procedures and the company’s knowledge of them are contained in thousands of pages of confidential memos, e-mail correspondence among executives, transcripts from hearings and reports from outside consultants examined by The Times, as well as interviews with doctors and others. A review of those communications reveals that rather than asking whether patients had been harmed or whether regulators needed to be contacted, hospital officials asked for information on how the physicians’ activities affected the hospitals’ bottom line.

A week later The Times followed up with another article showing how HCA has become a role model for hospital profitability; not better care, but more money.

I’m sure the blogging and commentary world that follows Medicare and healthcare in general has been weighing in, but what they don’t do is the research.

They don’t have the time, money, skill, patience and probably not the desire to wade through the paperwork.

So-called old media also seems to set the ethical bar higher and with greater consequences to those who choose to lie and cheat.

Finally, bloggers and commentators read these investigative stories and offer their opinions and spin on them just as I do.

Many of these have good value, it’s just that I would rather discuss and opine on the original than comment on the commentary.

Flickr image credit: IvanWalsh.com

Remember the line “these are a few of my favorite things” from Sound of Music? I have favorite words. They have varied meanings, but all have one thing in common; they are fun to say and feel good in your mouth. So without more ado, here are seven of my favorite words along with what they mean and some irreverent commentary from moi.

Bumbershoot = umbrella. I learned this word when I was really young and just like to say it; try it, it will cheer you right up.

Humongous = extraordinarily large. This one is fun to say and useful, too.

Utterly = completely; absolutely. I use this mostly in response to something about which I feel strongly.

Adamant = utterly unyielding in attitude or opinion in spite of all appeals, urgings, etc. A good description of most public figures (especially politicians) these days.

Boondoggle = work of little or no value done merely to keep or look busy. This is actually the secondary definition, although the one people are most familiar with. The primary definition is “a product of simple manual skill, as a plaited leather cord for the neck or a knife sheath, made typically by a camper or a scout.” That’s not nearly as much use as the other, but either way it’s a word that’s fun to say.

Scallywag = a scamp or rascal, but that’s the informal definition. The formal definition was news to me: “(after the US Civil War) a White Southerner who supported the Republican Party and its policy of Black emancipation. Scallywags were viewed as traitors by their fellow Southerners.” Take your pick or just say it fast three times for fun.

Scrumptious = very pleasing, especially to the senses; delectable; splendid. Great meaning and tastes great as it rolls off your tongue.

Elan = dash; impetuous ardor. The perfect way to live your life.

What are some of your favorite words?

Flickr image credit: ercwttmn

The world is certainly changing and not necessarily for the better. Not just banks, those constant whipping boys and deservedly so, but tech and the general population.

Google is a good example. It seems to have sidestepped its “do no evil” mantra simply by redefining ‘evil’ as it moves forward.

Google has increasingly found itself in the regulatory crosshairs as privacy advocates decry how it handles users’ personal information as it looks to maintain its dominance in search, which still makes up the bulk of its revenue.

Right up there on the privacy evil yardstick is Facebook, not in the US, where privacy is a joke, but in Germany where it’s law. Facebook claims that it is outside Germany’s jurisdiction, because only marketing is done in its German offices, while engineering is done in Ireland. Not everyone agrees.

In March, in response to the dispute, the European Union’s top advisory panel on privacy, the Article 29 Working Party, released an opinion that the collection of biometric data without the explicit consent of users was illegal.

For 20 years Craigslist has been held up as an example of doing good by doing well, but don’t kid yourself. It’s just another hypocritical bully that cons its users into thinking it’s one of the good guys.

This isn’t the first time Craigslist has claimed such violations. The Internet is littered with digital carcasses that once built on top of the listings site. Their pixelated tombstones are inscribed with one-liners that Craigslist killed access without any notice, or they were sent a cease-and-desist letter by Perkins Coie, a top corporate law firm that frequently represents Craigslist.

And now a word from the more personal side.

Cheating and using performance-enhancing drugs is nothing new in sports, but the blatant hypocrisy of Melky Cabrera took it to new heights. After he was named MVP in the All-Star game he said, “I think the one person that has the most influence on me is the Lord. He is the one that embraced me in terms of playing better.” I wonder if the Lord told him to embrace  testosterone—he was suspended for 50 games—but he apologized, which these days makes it all OK.

What is your reaction to a coach who talked more than trash to one of his own players and excused his actions by saying sexual harassment was acceptable because it is part of the sport’s culture?

Over six days of competition, though, her team’s coach, Aris Bakhtanians, interrogated her on camera about her bra size, said “take off your shirt” and focused the team’s webcam on her chest, feet and legs.  He leaned in over her shoulder and smelled her.

Of course, there is the easy accessibility of Twitter where people can revile their past employer or, from the comfort of their armchair, sit in judgment of those whose feats are so far beyond them 140 characters at a time.

Finally, a fascinating profile of Bruce Schneier and a look at trust in the digital age.

He is a cryptographer, blogger and iconoclast in the world of computer security, and his latest subject of inquiry is trust: how it is cultivated, destroyed and tweaked in the digital age.

Enjoy!

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

The following story spans the time from ancient Rome to modern day space travel and provides a case study in just how far “that’s the way X did it” can travel.

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used?

Because that’s the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US Railroads.

Why did the English build them like that?

Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that’s the gauge they used.

Why did “they” use that gauge then?

Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?

Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads?

Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads?

Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.

The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever…

So the next time you are handed a spec and told we have always done it that way and wonder what horse’s ass came up with that, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses.

Now the twist to the story…

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.

The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is bout as wide as two horses’ behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse’s ass.

The take-away here is that the next time you or one of your team push to do something a certain way give some thought to why that’s the way to do it—no one wants to be accused of channeling a horse’ ass.

Hat tip to my model RR friend John who sent this to me.

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Flickr image credit: HikingArtist

Back in the 1980s and before and maybe after recruiter was the entry point for a career in HR.

As you may imagine, this contributed little-to-nothing to that all-important first impression on candidates.

What was ignored so often back then (and still is) is that whoever is the first direct contact with the outside world, whether customers, vendors or candidates, IS the company.

Internal recruiters, customer service, tech support, receptionists, etc., create that all-important first impression—think Zappos—the impression that lives forever in the back of the mind no matter what happens after.

Computers and mobile haven’t changed this, only now it is often your UI that creates that oh-so-important first impression.

The thing that entrepreneurs, especially young ones, need to understand is that unless their target audience is limited to the tech-savvy or nerds who rate learning new programs right up there with chocolate and visits to the amusement park a UI that doesn’t provide obvious labels and simple instructions is going to turn off a large number of prospective customers.

No matter how sophisticated your app, website or program that sophistication needs to be totally transparent.

People are creatures of habit; many hate change most have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the new whatever.

Simplicity, honesty and transparency go a long way to eliminating that resistance as well as to creating a great first impression.

That’s why first contact points aren’t always the best place to have a newbie learning—not so much the job, but the importance of external players and first impressions.

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Flickr image credit: Geek and Poke

An article about new research on what makes for good and bad parenting by Dr. Carol Dweck, a social and developmental psychologist at Stanford University, caught my eye, most importantly because it explains so clearly the problem with much of today’s workforce.

Starting around three decades ago it became the norm for parents to compliment kids for anything and everything and ‘help’ them with things that were a bit beyond their reach.

Turns out that has the opposite effect as the one desired.

This may seem counterintuitive, but praising children’s talents and abilities seems to rattle their confidence. Tackling more difficult puzzles carries the risk of losing one’s status as “smart” and deprives kids of the thrill of choosing to work simply for its own sake, regardless of outcomes.

It’s the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.

Now look at the workplace needs of so many (not all) who came of age over the last 30 years.

While seeming confident, they often require far more in the way of instructions, feedback and kudos just doing their job. Initiative is frequently missing and risk looms large.

Prior research by Diana Baumrind, a clinical and developmental psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, found similar results.

“…reasonably supporting a child’s autonomy and limiting interference results in better academic and emotional outcomes.”

The same is true in the workplace.

It’s so prevalent that it was the basis for Wally’s conversation with his PHB.

The upshot is that today’s managers are stuck providing “good parenting” management to new hires, because their hovercraft parents didn’t give them room to make mistakes or stand on their own two feet.

The real irony, however, is that many of the mangers who complain most vigorously are the ones who hover at home.

Flickr image credit: The Nothing Corporation

Yesterday I told you how a company squashed my friend’s initiative by giving him a bonus that had no relationship to the value he provided them in annual savings.

This reminded me of something that happened back in the early 1980s when sales was truly dependent on the skill, relationships and reputations of salespeople.

Another guy friend, another incredibly stupid company.

In a nutshell,

• Guy outsold every salesperson both internally and at the competition. He had years of experience; relationships with customers that didn’t quit and unmatched skill at understanding customers and convincing them that his company (whichever it was) had the best solution available.
• One day guy was called into the CFOs office and told that his commission was being capped.
• He was on track to earn more than the president and that was unacceptable; he asked if they were sure that was the only solution and told yes.
• Guy proceeded to write a resignation letter on a sheet of paper he borrowed from the CFO.
• He left the offices without speaking to anyone.
• By the time he reached home there were three name-your-own-terms offers from competitors on his voicemail.
• He started with his new company the next day.

Over the years I’ve found that actions like these usually come from the company’s bean counters. (In this instance, ‘bean counters’ is definitely a derogatory term.)

Apparently, some bean counters involved never learned to do the math.

In both cases the actual cost was zero, since they were funded from direct actions well beyond anything expected of the employees involved.

The lesson here is that you never cap a commission and the reward for saving $5 million annually should be at least 1% of one year ($50,000) as opposed to .001% ($5,000).

I realize it’s difficult for some financial types, executives and managers to understand, but that is why bonuses and commissions are called incentives—not disincentives.

Flickr image credit: Finsec

Are you familiar with the saying “let the punishment fit the crime?”

It’s a valid approach, but it’s just as true that the reward should fit the action.

A friend of mine works for a Fortune 1000 company in a tech support role. He’s well respected lead tech in his group.

Last year he developed an idea on his own time and gave it to his company.

As a result, he was flown to annual dinner and presented with an award and a $5000 bonus.

Sound impressive?

His idea will save his company $5 million or more each year.

Still impressed?

My friend isn’t.

He has a friend who is very impressed, but that’s because his company doe nothing; no recognition whatsoever.

My friend feels that a $5K reward for saving the company $5M or more every year, while being better than nothing, is still just short of an insult.

Other than being disappointed what’s the fallout?

He likes his job and his boss, so he’s not planning on leaving, but…

He has another idea that he’s not going to bother developing.

He’s still one of the most productive people they have, but that extra edge is gone.

What do you think his employer should have done?

Join me tomorrow for another look at how, to quote another old saying, companies keep cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

Stock.xchng image credit: dinny

I hope you had a wonderful Saturday; I did. In fact, it was so great that I totally forgot to find good quotes for today. So I thought I’d hit the archives and share one of my favorite sets from that great philosopher Calvin. If you are too young to have known Calvin and his sidekick, Hobbs (a stuffed tiger) you have my sympathy! Calvin and Hobbs was done by Bill Watterson (who never allowed any merchandising, etc.) and as I’ve said before of all the comics I’ve read over the years it’s my all-time favorite. I even own most of the collections in book form. I also did Watterson quotes back in ’08.

First, you have to understand how Calvin sees himself and, in doing so, you’ll understand a great truth of the modern world. “People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don’t realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.” Although true, I’ve always reminded myself that for every person I think is an idiot there are at least two others who think I’m one.

It may not be original, but I have always like Calvin’s description of life, “Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine, and valleys of frustration and failure.” That fits my life, except that the summits were all bunched together, with the last decade one continuous valley; I could do with a few more flats.

Calvin says, “History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction,” whereas I think that order and direction comes from within.

I’ve always thought that Calvin’s comment, “Careful. We don’t want to learn from this,” would make a great Wall Street motto.

But it is his thoughts on the possibility of other intelligent life in our universe with which I most heartily agree. In fact, I was saying something similar a couple of decades earlier.

“Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.”

Here’s a sample (probably illegal) in case you really aren’t familiar.

Flickr image credit: feloniousrambler