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

Today’s message is simple and should come as no surprise: people are more attuned to what you do than what you say.

Following is an excerpt from a reader who is a middle manager in the health care industry.

“Things have been going pretty well in my world. But boy the bigger my organization gets the less personal it gets. Twice in the last few months I’ve e-mailed the concerns of my employees to higher ups and gotten back the message almost verbatim – “if they aren’t happy, perhaps this isn’t the best fit for them” – with no actually reference made to the concern I brought up.

Another Radiology Manager in the system is leaving because she kept hearing that at her manager meetings too and got sick of it.

Yet some of our evaluation points are about our “work family” and treating each other with respect, etc. and taking initiative. To me it appears we put the right thing down on paper and have an unspoken different approach all together on how to treat employees.”

The problem isn’t one of bigger = impersonal, nor is it exclusive to healthcare or large organizations.

The problem is either

• bad management, using “we are so busy” as a cover for “don’t bother us;” or
• hypocrisy, as in “do as I say, not as I do.”

Which is it?

Bad attitude or hypocrisy?

Does it matter?

Whatever the reason ignoring the problem yields the same result: increased turnover with associated costs, impaired efficiency as new people hit the learning curve and a likely drop in customer satisfaction.

Flickr image credit: carterse

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

The dichotomy between what founders think/say and what they actually do never ceases to amaze me.

I’m not referring to the ‘malice aforethought’ type hypocrites who know damn well that their actions contradict their words, but

• believe no one will notice, AKA, they won’t be caught;
• provide abundant excuses when they are; or
• offer rationalizations to prove why “this time it’s different.”

I’m referring to the inadvertent ones who are totally clueless.

I see this a lot in founders who are so totally focused on short term product development that they ignore or delegate the stuff that will make or break their company down the road.

Culture and business planning, especially staffing plans, are two items that founders often kick to the side or delegate; and while I’m all for delegation some stuff just shouldn’t be.

Culture is the values of the company made visible for all to see. Can you really delegate that with a few notes on a napkin and instructions to a harried colleague?

Founders know that strong financials are necessary if they want funding, but other planning functions, such as staffing plans, often don’t seem as critical, so they are delegated or, worse, procrastinated.

The toll these inadvertent actions take can be huge and often far enough in the future that their actual origins are lost.

This “stuff” can break your social contract.

Do you make time for this stuff?

Option Sanity™ facilitates business planning

Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock process.  It’s so easy a CEO can do it.

Warning.

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Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.

Flickr image credit: HikingArtist

I dearly love the NY Times; it keep me informed, entertains me and endears me to all those to whom I send pertinent articles about their businesses and interests. I read a number of other sources, but NYT is my favorite.

For starters, what happens with a government promotes actions in its own country that it condemns in others?

“British officials and representatives of Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry met Thursday to discuss voluntary ways to limit or restrict the use of social media to combat crime and periods of civil unrest, while trying to dodge charges of hypocrisy and censorship…”

Regular readers know I’m a privacy nut and there’s lots of stuff happening around that subject, starting with the company I love to hate, Facebook, which has once again changed its privacy settings—possibly for the better (maybe).

“…every time Facebook users add a picture, comment or any other content to their profile pages, they can specify who can see it: all of their so-called Facebook friends, a specific group of friends, or everyone who has access to the Internet. … Similar controls will apply to information like users’ phone numbers and hometowns…”

Will the US ever enjoy the privacy choices that Europe does? I and dozens of others have written warnings that what goes on the web stays on the web, but what about your right to have it removed—at least from commercial sites?

“As a general matter, companies in the United States don’t have to recognize your right to be deleted,” says Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a research group in Washington.”

Cellphone and voicemail hacking has been in the news the last few months and I’m getting tired of being told how “that can’t happen here.” Ha! Is that wishful thinking.

“Just how vulnerable are everyday United States residents to similarly determined snoops?
The answer is, more than you might think.”

Enough privacy, on to other stuff.

The big thing now is to check reviews on sites such as Yelp, before trying anything new. This attitude is predicated on the basis that “the wisdom of the crowd” is authentic and trustworthy—which seems to be just another cyber-myth.

“Determining the number of fake reviews on the Web is difficult. But it is enough of a problem to attract a team of Cornell researchers, who recently published a paper about creating a computer algorithm for detecting fake reviewers. They were instantly approached by a dozen companies, including Amazon, Hilton, TripAdvisor and several specialist travel sites, all of which have a strong interest in limiting the spread of bogus reviews.”

My final offering proves that I do read stuff other than the NYT.

How do you ask for money, whether loan or repayment? While most do it in person there is a small minority that totally wimp out.

“Of the 1055 polled, 6% of respondents said they’d prefer to ask for money via text message, and 4% said they would do it via email.  A sad and lonely 1% of respondents said they would do it through social media.”

Have a wonderful weekend!

Flickr image credit: pedroCarvalho

Ethics. Integrity. Both words weave their way through most business and political news these days. So I thought is would be fun to see what some famous folks have said about them over the years.

As I read through dozens of quotes I couldn’t help wondering at the hypocrisy of so many in politics and the financial industries had ever done the same—or if they would even recognize themselves if they did.

Think about it; Albert Camus said, “A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.” If that is the case there are a lot of beasts running around these days.

If it’s true that “integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching,” I wonder what it means when people skip, ignore or just don’t bother when people are watching—maybe that’s the real definition of arrogance.

If Samuel Richardson was correct when he said, “Calamity is the test of integrity,” then Washington and Wall Street fail miserably and they certainly don’t believe Anon’s common wisdom that says, “Don’t worry so much about your self-esteem. Worry more about your character. Integrity is its own reward.”

Perhaps they aren’t guilty by reason of insanity—that is if we concur with Nietzsche, “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.”

The last word goes to Albert Einstein, “Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.”

Join me tomorrow for a look at why flexible ethics are what really pave the road to Hell.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/erdogan/3112323705/

There is a major disconnect for many managers between what they think others do, what they say they do and what actually happens. It is a disconnect that affects not just their own teams, but spreads like ripples in a pond when a stone is tossed.

Most managers are unaware of it and are horrified when it’s brought to their attention—once they stop trying to rationalize it.

‘It’ refers to deeds and actions they condemn in others, but practice themselves.

It the idea that when ‘they’ do it it is unfair, immoral, or illegal, but if ‘we’ do it it’s OK—and it’s happening everywhere.

We see it in

• political and religious leaders who preach high moral codes while practicing immorality;
• parents who demand better education and then condemn any teacher that doesn’t give their child a good grade;
• business leaders who preach ethics and practice them only as long as it’s convenient;
• colleagues we condemn for filching company supplies even as we use company time to shop, update Facebook and Twitter; and
• friends who, much to our dismay, share our private information even as we share someone else’s.

When managers do it it can damage, even destroy, the team, because it is a form of hypocrisy; hypocrisy kills trust and without trust there is no team.

A vicious circle that only the manager can break by listening carefully to the feedback she doesn’t want to hear.

Image credit: ravasolix on sxc.hu

I like stories of people who make lemonade out of the lemons that life hands out, not just the major rising from adversity kind, but the small triumphs. I thought I’d share some recent ones with you.I’ve written several posts about Mark Sanford’s excessive hypocrisy, but what about Jenny Sanford? Considering the lemon she married she is doing just fine.Lemons often go together with love, but is falling in love with your cousin still the lemon it once was? Apparently not, and before you start thinking about genetically messed up kids, remember that we’re not talking about generations of interbreeding, just the occasional accident of birth and love.Guys have little blue pills to deal with the lemons they often receive as they get closer to the sunset, but what about women? They actually have a higher rate of those lemons than guys do, but no one has bothered coming up with a little pink pill for them. But there is help, Virginia, and it’s not Santa Clause.Finally, there is the NY Times weekly lemon to lemonade love story. I make a point of reading them for the lift they give—here is the most recent.(PS If you need a culture fix today you can find it here.)Your comments—priceless Don’t miss a post, subscribe via RSS or EMAILImage credit:  nono farahshila on flickr

Hypocrisy has had a high profile on my blog this summer, especially as it relates to the emerging attitudes of young people.

One of the current hypocrisy poster boys is Senator John Ensign, who really drove home what is acceptable and not acceptable in the prevailing attitudes of those who claim the moral high ground.

The Senator, who roundly condemned then-President Clinton’s sexual peccadillo and subsequent lying to a grand jury, said, “I haven’t done anything legally wrong.” (My emphasis.)

Which mean that if Clinton had admitted screwing around with Monica Lewinsky it would have made it a “distraction” (Ensign’s term for what he did.) as opposed to the felony created by lying.

Ensign is prominent member of the Promise Keepers leadership, which lists seven basic tenets, the third being, “A Promise Keeper is committed to practicing spiritual, moral, ethical and sexual purity” and the fourth, “A Promise Keeper is committed to building strong marriages and families through love, protection and Biblical values.”

Ensign violated both and compounded the violations by having his parents pay off his mistress.

These don’t count, since Promise Keepers isn’t a legal entity and, obviously, lying to your followers and constituency isn’t illegal—just unethical and immoral.

What kids will absorb is that there are no real repercussions; Ensign still holds his Congressional seat, will probably win reelection, hasn’t changed his role in Promise Keepers, and is still cheered when he gives a speech. And if reporters dare to raise additional questions, his response is “I’ve said everything I was going to say about that.”

We may ring our hands and lament the lack of accountability of society in general and the Millennials in particular, but we don’t have to look very far to find the cause.

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: philosophygeek on flickr

I have two special stories for you today, the kind that make you realize that there really are rays of hope piercing the hypocrisy so prevalent these days.

Special because they highlight two very different people and their accomplishments against the odds.

First is the story of a company and its employees who really do live by the professed corporate values. The employee is Jim Sinocchi who broke his neck and was paralyzed from the neck down. Instead of walking away, Sinocchi’s employer created a position for him; he is now director, Workforce Communications at the corporate headquarters. That was 28 years ago, long before passage of the ADA or advent of politically correct actions. The company? IBM.

The second is definitely a story of our times.

Management Today named Kate Craig-Wood one of its 35 Women Under 35 2009: Heroines For Hard Times. Here is what they say about her.

“Craig-Wood began her career at Arthur Andersen. She co-founded web and IT hosting provider Memset with brother Nick in 2002 – it now turns over £2m. In 2008, transsexual Craig-Wood won a NatWest Everywoman award. She was the first woman to tandem skydive onto Everest.”

What’s the big deal?

Kate Craig-Wood was born Robert Hardy Craig-Wood.

If they can do it, so can you!

Image credit: MykReeve on flickr

There was an interesting, if cynical, article in the Kansas City Star on teams.

“That’s how some corporations have come to think of themselves. As teams up against a lot of other teams in a never-ending season of profit and loss.

And those on the payroll, why, they’re members of the team.

Remember when the worker bees were simply referred to as employees, whereas everyone else was in management?

The relationships haven’t changed. Only the terminology.”

And in far too many cases it is only words.

University of Missouri-Kansas City sociology professor Deborah Smith says, “Workers aren’t stupid. They know this is a gloss.”

Also true, people aren’t stupid.

In large companies each person is a member of multiple, distinct teams. The teams nest, much like the dolls you see.

The smallest team is composed of the immediate people who work together, several similar teams form a group, several groups form the department and multiple departments form the company.

No matter the corporate culture, each team is a product of the manager’s MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™)—the source of it strength or its hypocrisy.

The article presents the idea of teams as a management sop to the masses; a sop that shows its true colors when things go bad and there are layoffs.

I disagree. I’ve known too many people who’ve been laid off and still have strong, positive feelings for the various teams they were on, but it was totally dependent on each manager.

So the next time you’re thinking about how to improve your team building, start by looking in the mirror and asking yourself this question, “If my manager treated me as I treat my people would I want to be on his team?”

Image credit: scx.hu