The Right and Left Brain Blog

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

Abraham Lincoln

“The individual who knows the score about life sees difficulties as opportunities.”

Norman Vincent Peale

“The desire not to be anything is the desire not to be.”
Ayn Rand

We are in a rut that seems to be self-defeating. Everyone I talk to is frustrated, scared, pessimistic and more afraid than confident. Madoff, bank bonuses, housing defaults have replaced the excitement of people like Buffet, Gates and Jobs. My argument is that until our attitudes improve, the personal, corporate and financial malaise will not subside. While there is a whole circular argument going on, we need positive thinking at all levels. This does not mean to ignore realities but it does mean to find the opportunities where the glass may be half full. Here are some examples of the potential for success:

Positive thinking can become self-fulfilling. We need to believe that we can overcome anything. Positive thinking is also enhanced by support. Successful organizations seem to breed success with their energy, openness, and resources to succeed. One concern today is that in today’s difficult situations, many leaders are reverting to pressure, privacy, and indecision rather than sharing, support and problem solving. This involves a balance between recognizing the need for change such as downsizing and also focusing on the things that are working.

I posted a note on Facebook requesting people to describe good things that are happening. Within about 10 minutes, I got three responses from people who are planning weddings. It is as important to get positive thinking in our personal lives as well as organizational. One positive outcome of the current period is that people are replacing superficial efforts with meaningful activities. A recent report of consumers by COMSCORE describes how people are spending more time with families, socializing and exercising than before. They are spending dramatically less time buying jewelry, expensive purses, eating out and attending expensive events. Unfortunately, they are also smoking and drinking more.

One key unintended positive consequence of the economy may be a restructuring of several industries to become better and more efficient. Poor and excess products and structures need to disappear. Pontiac, Home Depot Express, Linens and Things, Bear Sterns, Circuit City, Domino Magazine and others have been struggling for years and their demise should make other companies stronger in the long run. For example, Pontiac sales have been declining for 20 years. More companies need to eliminate unproductive products and efforts.

Breaking rules, tolerating what can be considered almost deviant behavior, allowing minor responsibilities to fall through the cracks are characteristic of what is needed. I am working with the apparel division of a search firm named SRI Search. They have packaged a group of resumes of their top applicants who are willing to face the realities of the job market. They are then successfully marketing them at reduced compensation to companies who need short term highly skilled staff and new innovative solutions.

A marketing firm named Egg Marketing has developed unique PR and social marketing programs for small companies. They have signed up two new clients in the last few weeks and get 1000 clicks per month on their sites through social marketing.

A project I have been involved in has experienced a withdrawal of emotional and financial support from management. This week we received three new leads and launched what appears to be a successful new product that has been in the works for a year. Frankly, I just ignored them and went on my own. They are back on the bandwagon on at least one project.

In short, we need to stop blaming anyone and everyone. We also need to stop waiting for miracles, government or everything to go back to the way it was 2-4 years ago. Rather what we need as Emerson says is “to believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men.”

Please share your successes so others can get some ideas.

Discussions of the stimulus package are extremely frustrating regardless of political perspective… Everyone agrees we have a problem and need to do something significant. However among 535 independent Congressional members who are dedicated to doing the best thing for America, only three initially determined that they could cross party lines.

The reasons and issues are less relevant than the fact we are stuck in black and white perspectives. If you watch Rachel Maddow and Hannity & Colmes any night discussing the exact same issues, it is like they live on different planets. It is not just Congress and newscasters. Even before all the arguments and research are completed, one can usually predict individual votes of the Supreme Court. There was even an article in the New York Times Style Section about hostesses being afraid to invite Republicans and Democrats to the same party.

Similarly, any discussion of social media like Facebook and Twitter usually produces the same example of this enthusiasm versus resistance. While many adults don’t know about them, over one hundred millions people visit these sites every day. That and the fact that a majority of young people under 25 spend a significant amount of time on them make social media a factor in our society. Many of those young people find them a valuable places to interact, learn, meet people, express their true feelings, etc. In contrast many adults unsuccessfully try to block it and unknowingly think that everyone on the sites are deviants. In the middle are the marketers who are faced with declining media audiences in vehicles like T.V. and newspapers. These people, who could care less about the social values, are primarily concerned with the opportunity to sell something.

The result of this Black and White orientation dramatically affects our day to day lives. Instead of lively discussions of alternatives, we settle for developing solutions that we know the key decision makers will buy into. I am currently involved in negotiations on a project where the subordinates of each group spend most of their time developing solutions their superiors will accept rather than trying to develop innovative solutions that will fly with all parties. Similarly, even the bank executives acknowledge that they didn’t get it and have been working in an old reality. However the openness, looking at alternatives, and understanding others perspectives seem missing from most decisions.

There are some simple recommendations to reduce the black and white perspective:
1. First, get alternative approaches on the table then try to evaluate them objectively.
2. Take the time to understand the reasons and goals for different perspectives. Specifically, put yourself in the other person’s shoes instead of just rejecting the approach.
3. Be willing to consider new ideas and realities particularly when some of the old ones aren’t working.

Do you have other suggestions?

There is no question that there is more communication than ever today. In our daily lives, many of us receive a myriad of communications from multiple sources - emails, TV, podcasts, phone conversations, work meetings, the Internet… and we somehow still have time for our families. The problem, though, is that our sources of communications have clearly increased significantly, while our ability to “hear” has decreased. As the old saying goes, a good conversationalist is a good listener.

In the last week, several incidents have convinced me that we have a hearing crisis. We tend to communicate on the basis of “need to know,” rather than on a foundation of openness and participation. The most blatant example is corporate communication of layoffs. These decisions always seem to be arbitrary and made in a vacuum by consultants and HR staff that have no actual understanding of the business. This is of course the perception of the employees and to an extent, this is due to the lack of active engagement and conversation by management with staff.

We need to try new methods. For example, rather than simply laying people off, why not retain some at lower wages and let them join teams to develop new methods to reduce costs, generate new income and create new positions for themselves? Organizations that have an ongoing two-way conversation with employees will find that cutbacks, although certainly not welcomed, to not be as arduous since it will not be the first time that they have discussions with employees. Smart managers read the landscape and begin preparing employees as part of their regular communications. Even in a bad economy there is hiring, although limited. Transferring an employee to an open position in the company is a win-win situation.

A more revolutionary step is allowing employees to discuss cutbacks and recommend solutions. In other words, engage employees early on in the process to work towards a solution.
• Are there cost-saving measures that could be implemented that management is not aware of?
• Do the employees have any ideas on how to cut out costs outside of layoffs?
• Do employees have ideas about other revenue sources?