Paradoxes

• We cross each other's path every day. As a result, we communicate less.
• We are in a hurry. That's why we should move slowly.
• We are interested in achieving results so we'd better de-emphasize achieving results.
• We are team mates and thus rivals.
• We are so kind that we are cruel.
• We are so weak that we are strong.
• We are so strong that we are weak.
• We value status so highly that we have lost status.
• We have so much information that we have none.
• We have strict ethical standards that encourage unethical behavior.
• We have no boundaries on our creativity. That's why it's limited.
• We have competitors that are mentors.
• We are so eloquent that we are unpersuasive.
• We are so active that we are inactive.

Quote of the Day

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

- Henry Kissinger

Ethics Class

I'm on the road, teaching an ethics workshop for some public sector managers.

Ethics training is far different from the normal management fare. First off, few executives and managers are comfortable announcing that they want a class in ethics. (That request could raise some eyebrows.) As a result, the sessions are usually mandatory. Secondly, any ethics program can - and should - spark a great deal of introspection. It is not unusual to see a certain amount of discomfort when the class gets into case examples. Participants start to think, "Gee, perhaps my behavior was less than honorable when Charles told me that humorous story about the boss."

I'm not immune from those feelings - things said or did in elementary and high school still induce gringes and - in general - such guilt pangs are probably healthy. One of George S. Kaufman's friends declared that he didn't understand why people wrestled with the accuracy of income tax forms and Kaufman replied that he understood why his friend had no concerns; the man was a crook. Being unabashedly unethical simplified matters.

One encouraging sign that I've noticed in ethics training nowadays is that you encounter fewer people who are afraid to be judgmental. Years ago, you'd find children of the Sixties who couldn't, as Churchill once observed of some opponents, spot the difference between the arsonist and the fire department. Now, people are wary of becoming narrow-minded zealots but realize that being ethical requires the drawing of boundaries.

Reasonable boundaries, but boundaries nonetheless.

Customer Service Update

Lileks writes an open letter to his formerly favorite ice cream company, which has discontinued its carb-free ice cream. An excerpt:

I always worried you'd snatch it away. That's what you people do, with your limited-time-only chipotle-bacon-burgers-on-pita-paninis and your three-decker Steak Crunchitas. You give us something and you make us love it and you snatch it away. Maybe it'll be like the Shamrock Shake, we think. Maybe it'll come back! But I always knew you'd yank Carb Promise when the Atkins diet died, and last week I learned that you'd discontinued the brand.

Do you know what this means? I don't eat sugar. So you've taken away ice cream from my life. Entirely. And don't tell me "it's the cows." I've met cows. They lack the intellectual capacity to make such decisions.

[You'll have to sort through Lilek's Quirk columns to find the rest. The Star-Tribune has put up a screen.]

Quote of the Day

Life is a zoo in a jungle.

- Peter de Vries

And Many Are Wearing Che T-Shirts

Alvaro Vargas Llosa, one of the co-authors of the Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot, notes that the idiots are back.

[HT: Arts and Letters Daily ]

Miscellaneous and Fast

A good, if somewhat academic, explanation of "knowledge management." [HT: Tweblog ]

Amity Shlaes looks at salaries at the World Bank and concludes it's a pretty good gig.
[HT: Instapundit ]

Mark Steyn examines why Putin and Iran think they can get away with it.

The Bloggers' Choice Awards are accepting nominations.

Writing in Commentary, Michel Gurfinkiel wonders if France can be saved.

Fortune examines which American brands are hot in India.

Trizoko sees virtue in chaos.

Business Booth

A minor but not so minor topic: Our office is reviewing the exhibit booths that we have at professional conferences.

We used to have a very complicated booth. It was very creative and drew a lot of attention, but it involved duplicating an office and the set-up was very time-consuming.

This time, the goals are effectiveness and simplicity.

We've always followed ground rules given by a marketing consultant:

• The exhibit booth should be arranged so people can walk into it.


• Company representatives should never sit at the booth.


• They should never eat at the booth.
  

That said, there is the desire to stand out from the other vendors and yet maintain a professional image. Walk aound the exhibit hall at most professional conferences and you'll see a blur. The great firms, large or small, are hard to distinguish from the mediocre ones. Some have gimmicks that gain attention - one firm I know always raffled off a puppy - but our view is that any attention-getter should be linked to the business's products or services.

We're following that approach. I'll keep you posted.

Betrayal

You could tell that he was getting ready to betray them because he was deeply into the process of convincing himself that they did not deserve loyalty.

He'd worked with them for around three years. During that time, he had drifted from one favorite to another; adopting a co-worker as his best new friend, then discovering flaws, and moving on to a new ally. In time, he'd alienated all of his associates. The bosses had given up on him much earlier but they overlooked his testiness because he covered it in their presence. He regarded them as targets for manipulation, not realizing that his efforts were transparent.

In his view, all efforts to reach out to him were twisted into negatives. Kindness was transformed into weakness. Collaboration became conspiracy. Even praise was seen as having an ulterior motive.

One day, he went to the senior managers and blasted the team, painting his boss and his colleagues in the worst terms. The senior managers thanked him, said they would take his remarks into consideration, and then did...nothing. His credibility had evaporated.

The resignation soon followed.

He came back months later and told people how much he enjoyed working with them.

Quote of the Day

He who hesitates is sometimes saved.

- James Thurber