Reap-as-they-sow-Managers

I just heard an interview on the radio with Robert Epstein, the author of the book “The case against adolescence”. His basic point in the book is that we keep our teens from becoming adults and treat them too much as big children. It's not an argument for more freedom but an argument for more responsibility.

The author shows that teenagers have more capabilities than most grown ups are willing to admit.

We coddle our teenagers too much and treat them as if not capable of making sound decisions for themselves. We treat them as stupid. And guess what? That's how they start acting.
So, are they acting irresponsible and stupid because they are or because we made them that way?

Based on the findings of Epstein and my own experience in the “grown up” - world I argue the latter. There is a more universal principle at work here: The principle that if you treat someone a specific way that person will start acting that way. Call it a self-fulfilling prophecy by proxy..

In my encounters in the business world, the world of management, the workforce, I've come across a lot of “reap-what-you-sow” situations. Managers, bosses and supervisors complaining about their irresponsible, untrustworthy staff while not noticing that they themselves are more than anything else the cause for this behaviour.

I once had the pleasure of attending a role playing management game with a twist that proofed this point very clearly. It was one of those games where a simple case was presented with different functions/roles to be played by the participants. It was an airplane manufacturer with a sales manager, an hr manager etc. Each of the participants was given a short (not all the same) description of the situation and a description of the role and responsibilities of the person they were to play. So far nothing out of the extraordinary. The twist was that each of us got a cap and on that cap the facilitators attached a sticker with a character description. It was a short one or two letter description of the type of person we were. The catch was that no-one knew the description. The added instruction was that we had to treat the other participants as per the sticker. We were not to tell the others about the description on their caps.

So there was 'a flirt', 'a comic', 'a tyrant', 'an indecisive guy', and a whole bunch other. And do you know what happened? Within the hour everyone was acting more or less as described on their caps. So the crabby gal was really crabby, the dumb guy was acting dumb and the bossy clerk was bossing everyone around.

I know that this not a scientific exercise but it has learned me very clearly that the old saying “As you sow so shall you reap!” is very true. Especially when applied to dealing with people.

If you treat your people like imbecils don't be surprised when they start acting like that.

Ambidexter.

Should I get it or not?

I am contemplating getting an Iliad by Irex Technologies.

A what?










The iLiad is an eBook.
Apart from being a neat tech-toy it actually would be of use.
It could contain all my digital documents, I could use it for note-taking, I could use it to read books without having to carry them around with me and I could use it to read news feeds with.
It's not a pencil though!

The God Delusion

Believe in god is false because it is believe without evidence.
We should believe things because there is evidence.
The fact that one might argue that it is faith and therefor not factual is not an argument in its favour
What matters is truth.

What is the need for religion, in other words "Qui Bono?"
There has always been a wanting to understand. Before science, superstition and religion emerged as the big explainers.

What baffles me most about religion is that believers accept their believes for true without proof. I guess that's the paradox of religion.

So am I against (a) god(s)?
Before I can answer that question I need to know if there is such thing as a god. No sense in being against rain if rain does no exist.

Is there a god?
Yes and NO.
Yes the god(s) created by man exist(s)
No the god(s) creating man do(es) not exist

Mozilla Firefox Start Page

Mozilla Firefox Start Page

 

Beautifull British Columbia

Business Performance Measurement

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Blackwell Synergy: Home

Publishers site with searchable journals

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Athens State University Library -- Index of Other Resources

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Invisible-web.net - Searchable databases and specialized search engines

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Beep Knowledge System : Home

When looking for some information upon a Canadian Company I found this interesting site. Beep Knowledge System : Home

800CEOREAD.com

Amzon for the executive.
800CEOREAD.com

Management-Issues: at the heart of the changing workplace

research site based in the UK. Looks interesting.
Management-Issues: at the heart of the changing workplace

Road to Perdition

Watched this movie. Best and most depressing scene: Son waits in hotel for father to come home not knowing if and when.
Here are some other reviews.
Google Search: road to perdition review

IDEAS

IDEASOver 300'000 items of research can be browsed or searched, and over 200'000 can be downloaded in full text! This site is part of a large volunteer effort to enhance the free dissemination of research in Economics, RePEc. To see the popularity of these services, browse the statistics at LogEc

MIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home

MIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home A great site for free knowlegde on various subjects. All offered in a course form including notes etc.

The beginning

What we know is what we know
We do not know whether what we know is true.

So it is beter that it is just in pencil

to be cont.