Behavior and Attitude

While reading about the Soviet show trials in which clearly devout Communists were forced to confess "errors" and worse before being sentenced to the Gulag or execution, I still manage to be surprised at the importance placed on confessions.

There was, of course, the idea that even if most observers knew the trials were a sham, a confession would trigger just the slightest doubt that perhaps, just in that case, there was an element of guilt. Also present was the totalitarian state's desire that people not simply comply, but also believe. They wanted to reach the mind as well as the body and achieve total conformity.

I was reminded of the show trial technique while watching some executives at a meeting a few years ago. They weren't satisfied with employees who followed the rules. They wanted the employees to believe. They sought to change attitudes.

Big mistake. First off, how a person thinks is no one else's business. How the person behaves, however, can be of enormous concern to an employer. Strive to change attitudes and the employer risks becoming a unit of the thought police. [Many a politically correct diversity workshop has been half-jokingly called "the re-education camp" by cynical employees.]

The secret is to change behavior. That may eventually lead to a change in attitude but, then again, it may not. In the southern part of the United States, attitudes toward racial integration shifted after, not before, behavioral changes.

A frontal assault on attitude will justifiably encourage resistance. An employee who is clearly complying with policies should not be pressured to change his or her way of thinking.

Some of the most oppressive actions in the history of mankind came from people who sought to control thought. It is rather chilling to see such zealotry in the workplace.