You’ve heard of Cesar Millan, the “Dog Whisperer,” but the item in the article that grabbed me was a quote from another article by Malcom Gladwell in the New Yorker article that “quoted scientists and dance experts analyzing how Mr. Millan’s bearing instills confidence. The conclusion: his fluid movement communicates authenticity better than words could.”

Sadly, the authenticity conveyed by the fluid movements of Jeff Skilling, Bernie Madoff and a host of recent “leaders” proves that authenticity isn’t always the best yardstick.

People are much like dogs, although the words used to describe their reactions are different.

We talk about dogs and other animals ‘sensing’ things; we accept that children have a kind of built-in radar that makes them pull away from fakes and evil-doers.

Adults insist on giving benefit-of-doubt to either their thinking or their gut, which means they frequently get burned.

I’m not saying that we should ignore the rational thinking in favor or instincts or vice versa; rather we should tune in to both equally and include them in our evaluation.

If there is anything we should learn from the people who brought us to the current economic point, it is that our judgment needs to encompass all the data we can accumulate and that we should ruthlessly strip out any assumptions.

We’ve always been told that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it probably is a duck, but these days it may be a hunter with a great robotic decoy.

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Fudge, fib, prevaricate, lie.

“Liar, liar, pants on fire!“

Kids hate liars, but rarely turn in the culprit since that would be snitching, yet that doesn’t stop them from glorying when the liar is caught.

But what about when they grow up?

Fudge, fib, prevaricate, lie.

We’ve seen so much of it the last couple of years, more than in the past—but is that accurate? Or is more just coming to the surface?

In 2007 the Ethics Resource Center found that ethical standards had nose-dived back to where they were in 2000.

According to the 2007 National Business Ethics Survey®

“Over the past year, more than half (56 percent) of employees surveyed had personally observed violations of company ethics standards, policy, or the law. Many saw multiple violations. More than two of five employees (42 percent) who witnessed misconduct did not report it through any company channels…”

According to Dr. Patricia Harned, President of ERC,

“Employees at all levels have not increased their ‘ethical courage’ in recent years. The rate of observed misconduct has crept back above where it was in 2000. And employees’ willingness to report misconduct has not improved, either…”

The good news is that the rate of misconduct is cut by three-fourths at companies with strong ethical cultures, and reporting is doubled at companies with comprehensive ethics programs.”

Got that, “strong ethical culture”—not exactly the type of culture prevalent on Wall Street or in companies whose focus is making the numbers no matter what.

In fact, the only ‘no matter what’ that should be a part of your culture is along the lines of “we will adhere to both the letter and the spirit of the law and make ethical and moral decisions at all times no matter what.”

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Today is Blog Action Day and the topic is Climate Change, so I asked Chris Blackman, who is a strategic consultant specializing finding both private and public funding in the green and clean technology sector, to offer her thoughts on a subject that enrages me every time it comes up—which is more and more often. The subject is the sacrificing of one limited resource for the sake of another.

From Chris…

Would you choose to go hungry and thirsty so that you could have energy?

That choice is the dark side of clean energy.

A ‘clean coal’ power plant uses tens of thousands of gallons of water daily—water that cannot even be reused or recycled—because it is so fouled and contaminated.

To biomass’ benefit the water it consumes is reused over and over again, but turning waste to energy using the aerobic digestion method has a 1:1 ratio—one ton of waste requires one ton of water to process that waste.

In some ways, we have adopted an anything goes approach to producing some green energy and it seems a bit deja vu: using oil products to produce other energy forms.

In this case, it is even worse—it is not only the environmental impact but also the real possibility of going thirsty or hungry if we use our drinking or irrigation water to produce energy.

A recent New York Times article revealed that a solar power company dangled the opportunity to create hundreds of new jobs in a desert community at the cost of “consuming 1.3 billion gallons of water a year, about 20 percent of the desert valley’s available water.”

All that community needs to do is to look at the legal battle being waged right now amongst the states that have access to the Colorado river to vividly understand why they should not sell their water rights, in the hopes of procuring water from their neighbors.

Already there are many parts of the country in which the water is already unusable in spite of the Clean Water Act.

In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times. … the vast majority of those polluters have escaped punishment. State officials have repeatedly ignored obvious illegal dumping, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which can prosecute polluters when states fail to act, has often declined to intervene.

I am not in any way advocating stopping our investments in clean and green energy; however, it is tunnel vision to invest in clean energy at the cost of clean water.

There are places in this country better suited, where the solar and water requirements are better aligned: Florida and the rest of the Southeast, at least in most years. (See Chris’ post on how dark, rainy Germany used US-invented technology to become a global solar leader.)

The opening question may seem melodramatic, but I wonder what the former Soviet Republic would give today to have the Aral Sea back, since today it is mostly a dry lifeless bed of blowing salt.

Was its loss, and the salt poisoning of the surrounding lands, worth the measly two decades of cotton they produced while depleting its water sources? The environmental and economic toll of the Aral Sea’s destruction could end up being as costly as Chernobyl.

That is not melodrama, that is precedent.

Want more proof? T. Boon Pickens, who isn’t known for his ‘friend of the community’ attitudes, is betting 100 million dollars that water is the new oil.

‘Oh Father, spare me the need to eat and drink so that I may use these resources for electricity’ – who would ever pray for that?

We still don’t get “the vision thing.”

When will we begin to approach our economy and the environment as a single integrated whole?

When will we balance out the true costs and benefits of our activities?

When will the options we choose from include using less, instead of always inventing new ways to consume more?

When will we learn?

What do you think?

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Today is Blog Action Day and the topic is Climate Change, so I asked Chris Blackman, a strategic consultant who specializes in finding both private and public funding for the green and clean technology sectors, to tell us about a country that has used US-invented technology and incentives to become a global solar leader.

Chris also provides compelling background on a subject that enrages me—sacrificing one limited resource for another.

From Chris…

In 1940 Russell Ohl, a scientist at Bell Labs, invented the photovoltaic cell.

So why is dark, rainy Germany a world leader in installed photovoltaic solar panels and solar manufacturing equipment instead of the US?

I work in the sector and am frankly astonished that anyone would even say the words ‘Germany’ and ‘solar power’ in the same sentence.

Germany became a solar leader by use of a feed-in-tariff. Many panelists at the AlwaysOn going green conference in San Francisco last month derided this promising incentive to encourage the adoption of clean energy technologies.

To learn more I contacted Sebastian Britting, a visiting graduate scholar at Columbia University, who will publish the results of his thesis analyzing all the economic and ecological implications of America emulating Germany’s success implementing this program.

How does a feed-in-tariff work?

Sebastian explained “the utility companies are forced through legislation to accept clean sources of energy generated by individuals, provide access points where the individual can feed the energy into the grid and pay the individual a premium for the energy they have generated.”

Germans quickly latched on to this program because it is a guaranteed source of income. This is clearly demonstrated by the year-on-year increase in solar technology equipment in German homes: 40% for the each of the last three years.

The benefits of adopting feed-in-tariffs in Germany don’t end with personal profit, “Germany created 280,000 new jobs since implementing this incentive and is today at the forefront of innovation in the solar energy industry.”

The same program that rewards customers for generating their own electricity also allows the utilities to reallocate the cost of buying it by spreading it out to all of their customers.

“That price increase was 1.38 [Euro] CENTS per kilowatt in 2008, a price increase of less than five percent.”

Stated another way, the program adds just $1.69 to the average German’s monthly electric bill. The average electricity price increases slightly for everyone but Sebastian emphasizes, “This is not a tax and spinning it as such is attempting to make a deliberate distortion.”

This price increase does not go on forever: “It is temporary and when the newly installed generators pay for themselves which is over a 20 year period, the price increase will phase itself out.”

Tellingly, 97% of all Germany’s solar power is captured using solar photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV is highly efficient under the most stressful conditions offering very little sunlight and little water.

Germany receives about 60% of the sunlight that the United States receives, yet even the brightness of a cloudy day provides enough light for the PV cells to generate electricity.

And since the only water required by PV cells is for cleaning the panels from time to time, a little rain acts as an automatic maid.

America invented this technology, so why haven’t we capitalized and profited from it?

What do you think?

Image credit: Blog Action Day

It is in Germany

Tomorrow is Blog Action Day, be sure to come back to learn about the down side of solar.

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Now take a look at US solar

Tomorrow is Blog Action Day, be sure to come back and learn
how Germany became a global leader in solar power.

Image credit: Schwarzerkater on flickr

Yesterday I shared emails from a reader who, at the end of the day, realized that he was over-reacting, his boss was insanely busy and nothing was wrong.

Today I want to share another story with you, only this one happened shortly after I entered the workforce.

There were seven of us in the office, everyone pulled their weight and we were a very congenial group often going out together for lunch or a drink after work.

One day “Jenny” didn’t come in and the next day she was late. Over the next few months she became cranky and very touchy. Her work slipped and the rest of us found ourselves picking up the slack. People started grumbling and, as they always do, the grumbles got back to our boss.

Fortunately, we had a very smart, proactive boss. He called a brief meeting on a morning that Jenny was absent and explained to us that her mother had been diagnosed with cancer; she was getting treatment, but in the meantime Jenny had to fill in for her.

We all knew that Jen had two younger sisters and that her dad had been out of the picture for years, so suddenly the dark circles, grouchiness, and missed days all started making sense. He told us that Jenny hadn’t said anything because she wasn’t looking for pity and the best thing we could do was to wait until she told us herself. In the meantime, he would appreciate it if we would desist from the grumbling and not-so-subtle comments.

That episode taught me a great lesson.

From then on, when someone didn’t do as expected or let me down in some way, my memory would flash to Jenny and I would take a deep breath and stomp on my reaction, because I didn’t know what was going on in their world.

I’d love to say that I always did this, but that would be a lie. But the older I got the more successful I was and I never regretted it. If the behavior continued I look for reasons and more often than not I found them.

Sure, there were times nothing was wrong and the person was just taking advantage of me and others, but more often they were under the gun, whether a derringer or a bazooka, and I was glad I didn’t make it worse.

So the next time someone lets you down, think about Jenny and cut them some slack; you’ll be glad you did.

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Yesterday marked my 1000th post here at MAPping Company Success—a milestone in the blogging world.

That milestone reminded me of an email I received asking me how I stayed motivated when I rarely receive comments.

It’s a valid question and one I ask myself occasionally, but I keep writing because I know from feedback I have gotten that there are people out there who find it useful.

They may not have time or desire to add/agree/argue with what I write, but if it occasionally helps solve a problem or overcome a challenge then the blog is doing what it’s meant to do.

I’m not good at playing the blogging game (I’ll comment on yours and you’ll comment on mine) primarily because I’m not really writing for others in my industry, although I know that some read me, just as I read them. And I’m not great at using the trendy words that Google loves, although I’m working on that.

My work and writing has always been geared to line managers at all levels who set and interpret culture and work daily to hire, motivate, and retain their people.

A good deal of what I write revolves around MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™), because all the great information available to you through blogs, books and seminars is unusable if it isn’t synergistic with your MAP.

In celebration of this milestone I’d like to reiterate an offer I made today to a new subscriber and that I’ve made before—feel free to suggest a specific subject you would like me to write about or a question you would like discussed.

You can leave a comment, email me or if you like to talk, call me at 866.265.7267.

I look forward to hearing from you!

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I want to share a series of email with you today because they show up a very important point and apply to employees at all levels. The emails are from ‘Brian’, an aMillennial, who writes me on and off when he wants a sounding board or, at times, advice.

Before I had time to respond to the first one, the next two had arrived.

Hey Miki, I just want your opinion on this…

I had just finished a large project that had been assigned to me by my boss’s boss.  I had completed it last week, doubled up on my work, went over it with my boss, and gotten it approved to bring in front of HIS boss.  So we do, she liked it, end of that story.  This report was to be presented to some important people within the company during a meeting that was on Monday.  That same day I got this request from my boss to make printouts of some pages – actually, 6 custom printouts.  Basically this was to be about 6 copies of a 10-12 page packet.  He to add headers to my project spreadsheet (which was 8 worksheets) and get those printed out for the big meeting.  I said “Alright, I can do that” and began my task. He was setting me up for failure.

10-15 minutes later he comes rushing up to my desk asking for the printouts.  I wasn’t finished because I had to make a custom header for 8 worksheets, print out about 60 pages of about 4 different files (while other people were printing), and then customize the packets for each of the individuals in the meeting.  This didn’t sit well with him and he made some snarky comment like “How long does it take to print out some sheets? Jeeze.” Fast-forward to today and he hasn’t spoken to me unless I speak to him first (which was once and it was a simple question).

The kicker is he has a printer on his desk, the files are online, and everyone has a laptop.

So I feel I was set up for disaster.  I am the lowest paid in the department, the most tech-savvy, and a pretty well-rounded employee…except for the fact that I just got out of college and need more

Direction than your average employee, it feels like I am on the verge of getting fired… or sorry, I mean “rolled off” – I forgot contractors can’t get “fired.”

Miki

He recently (about 30 minutes ago) sent me an email stating: “Please take a look at this and make an action item log (excel) ….I want you to help me ensure that all of these items get completed.  Bring this to the 3:30 meeting as well (if you can have it by then)”

This is a list of about 8 items… does this come across as condescending to you?  I really don’t have any other tasks at the moment and I asked him for more stuff to do.  I finished it in 10 minutes… if that.

Is this a reasonable assumption or am I being melodramatic?

Well I have a meeting with him at 3:30 today to talk about some documents I have edited – it is an hour meeting.  I am hoping he will bring something up then.  At this point I am in “freak out” mode.

After reading these three, my response was, Freaking out will only upset your digestion:) Treat this like any class you took with a tough teacher. Listen carefully and try not to interpret as you do. Doing that will make you miss stuff. And don’t freak if he doesn’t bring anything up. We can talk on your way home.

Hey Miki – I talked with my boss and he has just been INCREDIBLY busy – maybe I am over-analyzing.  I may give you a call tomorrow – I think I should just sleep things off.

Brian’s realization that it was his boss’ schedule as opposed to his (Brian’s) work that was at the bottom of what happened is the first step to intelligent adulthood—a state at which many folks never arrive.

No matter your age or position, the unanswered email, the unreturned phone call, the forgotten whatever often have nothing to do with you, but everything to do with what is happening in the other person’s life.

So before you freak out or get down on a person take the time to find out what’s going on in their world; most of the time you’ll want to cut them some slack.

More on this tomorrow at Ducks In A Row.

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As I’ve said before, the best way to do anything is to KISS* it.

Now comes more proof, via Peter Bregman at Harvard Biz. He talks first about losing weight, but then illustrates the principle with a couple of business examples.

“Typically, people overwhelm themselves with tasks in their eagerness to make a change successfully. But that’s a mistake. Instead, they should take the time up front to figure out the one and only thing that will have the highest impact and then focus 100% of their effort on that one thing.”

Got that? Just one thing. One.

And once you focus your people (or yourself) on that one thing don’t go changing or adding or modifying it—directly or in some sneaky manner.

Not only is that unfair, but you will lose the benefit of the original thing because it won’t happen. Worse, trust levels will plummet, your people will be frustrated and you could end up going down instead of up.

This also means not listening to all the well-meaning advice you’ll get once you embark on your course or giving up at the first bump in your path.

Knowing what the right one thing is requires you to do good analysis, not just a casual once-over or going with your gut feel; either of those is likely to lead to disaster.

So the next time you need to do something, KISS it:

1. Analyze the situation.
2. Determine the one thing that offers the greatest return.
3. Fully communicate it to your people (or yourself).
4. Don’t mess with it after you commit.
5. Prepare to be blown away by the results.

*Keep It Simple, Stupid

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