The Buck Stops, er, Somewhere?

“Paralysis by Analysis”

Now there's an age old phrase and tactic used to slow decisions. It is hard to disagree with someone who states “we need more data in to minimize the chance of failure.” On the surface, you would suppose that this tactic could serve us well.
When data was limited, people made decisions based on preparation, experience and intuition. Today, the data is unending, leaving decisions to spin in a tight spiral waiting for the next round of data mining. Today, decisions are based on data that is quantifiable, objective and scientific. Or is it?
Recently we heard how ExxonMobil paid “scientists” to collect data to support their fossil-burning position on global warming. Merck has lost several civil verdicts about its documented safety of the drug Vioxx. High school seniors have received erroneous SAT scores that at the very least made them distraught and stressed. The US Department of Education paid media personalities to extol the potential value of their initiatives.
The problem is our own laziness. “Paralysis by analysis” isn’t a safeguard tactic, it is an excuse. We don’t want to upset our delicate, busy schedules to take the time needed to understand. We need to be as intrigued with data as we are with celebrities.
We need to study the data and understand how it was collected and analyzed, and most importantly, who funded the research. What value does this data have in moving our society forward? Once we understand the data, we need to act based on our ability to think.
We need to practice a “health sense of skepticism.” After “Huh?” our next question should be “Why?”
Published data is a guide, not an answer. But we don’t know the difference if we choose to stay uninformed. Currently, there is no widespread urgency to demand data that enhances our society or our needs. If you want proof, pick a topic and see where the data leads you. The buck stops somewhere and at sometime. Unfortunately, it may be after, “We didn’t see that one coming!”

“I Want Critical Thinking!”

WANTED: SOMEONE TO THINK FOR ME

Recently, USA Today featured a survey that asked CEOs what they wanted most from new employees. Overwhelmingly, the answer was critical thinkers. Annoyingly, their profile of a critical thinker was someone “who could think out of-the-box.” This answer from people who earn 170 times the annual amount of the average worker!

So what is this elusive idea called critical thinking? Is it the “wunderkind” who has an answer for every situation? A “John Wayne” persona who rides into town and instantly improves the financial balance sheet of every company they touch?

Or is it the high-tech Geek who has transformed language into a complicated mess of letters, short-hand and techie talk that few want to understand? At a telecommunications company I used to be associated with, it was amusing watching the double-talk develop as problems were regulated to “wordsmithing of the unknown kind.” It was a fanciful smoke screen.

Well Mr./Ms CEO here it is: critical thinking is the ability to write! People who are good thinkers can write and people who can write are good thinkers. People are visual learners: they need to see words on paper to better understand the dominant idea. America may be the sound bite nation, but we still like to see our ideas on “paper.”

There’s the answer, but now here’s the problem: less than 30% of high school students have basic writing proficiency. Schools don’t have the time (or the faculty) to teach writing skills. Only a very few among those going to college get any practical experience in writing. Probably the hardest assignment for any student, at any level, is to write 10 lines of original material!

CEOs: stop looking for your critical thinkers. As long as America is fascinated with teaching to tests, critical thinking will be your job.

A LEADERSHIP MNEMONIC

F ocus F un
R esponsibility O organized
I nterest O bservations
E nergy D ecisive
D iscipline S elf-improvement

My apologies to those individuals trying to keep their weight down. Certainly FRIED FOODS are everywhere. Now you can associate them with Leadership instead of heart attacks!

A Different Kind of Classroom

What Is Important In Adult Learning?

I. Process
Integrate thinking with learning (need to reinforce new material)
Problem-centered rather than content-oriented (provide tools for future learning)
Incorporate and promote open dialogue (adults bring topical and urgent questions to the classroom)
Demand mutual respect and equality in the classroom (adults represent a diverse group of learners)
Recognize the value of experience in learning
Include projects and active learning (minimize lectures and passive learning)
Monitor for feedback and evaluation (course in continuous reinvention mode)

II. Content
Apply learning to practical applications (if new material can’t be used soon, it will be discarded)
Issue-centered (not data or content-centered)
Multiple/diverse sources of information texts, subject matter authorities and professionals (adult learners need to embrace objectivity that leads to new problem-solving options)
Presented in a variety of formats and media: readings, case studies, simulations and models

III. Helpful Strategies For Learning
Write out your goals and expected time commitments
Establish a good rapport with your instructors
Develop an awareness of how you learn (verbal, auditory, hands-on)

A LASER Lesson on Motivation

What can we learn from a LASER?
Setting aside much of the technical expertise that a LASER employs, let's think about the lonely electron in its orbit around the nucleus. An external stimulus, such as a high intensity flashlamp, excites the electron to a higher orbit, creating a new level of energy. Unfortunately, the electron is unable to hold on to this new level of intensity and falls back to its original orbit. During the fallback, it releases a small burst of energy called a photon that eventually is fine tuned to become the powerful beam of light we call LASER.
From a management perspective, this simplified view of physics can teach us several noteworthy items. First, without stimulation, people will prefer to stay in their existing orbit or comfort zone. We use our leadership and teaching skills to help people achieve a new level of energy, a higher orbit. Hence, as leaders, the operative word is to be engaged.
But, this new level is "uncomfortable" and people will want to return to their defined level of comfort. As leaders, we allow this to happen only after they have released their new found energy. This is the second lesson from the LASER example: allow others to teach others, to share their new found "energy" and to stimulate the new employee/student to a higher level. And then, they relax. Allow a more powerful beam to develop by creating pockets of energy throughout the environment.
The third, and most important lesson, is to allow the person to have a breather. Using external stimulus without the relaxation phase is a recipe for burnout. Balance is achieved when you have your group "firing" and "relaxing" at different intervals that keeps the workplace moving forward as a team.
Athletes know that it is the relaxation phase that creates the building of new muscle, the recovery for greater speed and the mental refreshing that allows for the renewed commitment to excellence.