Migrating To Human's Lib Blog

I have started a new blog, called Human's Lib which will have a very similar focus as this one, so I'm moving my Need Satisfying Life blog posts to Human's Lib. I hope you like the new design and layout.

Good Behavior by Decree? « Sharing thoughts, ideas and suggestions on hardwiring success

Good Behavior by Decree? « Sharing thoughts, ideas and suggestions on hardwiring success
Quint Studer has some good advice about making a better workplace by establishing a standard of behavior for all, from the CEO on down to the temps. I commented, but those are awaiting moderation. In case they are not approved, here they are in their entirety:

I think the organization needs to agree upon a standard of behavior guideline and then allow departments to create specifics based on the standards. For example, how the Nursing staff implements those standards may look very different than how the IT Department implements them. One works on the floors with direct patient interaction (and public view), the other works in cubicles usually with little interaction with patients or public.

There are many situations where the behavior standards would be exactly the same across the board. For example, knocking before entering applies the same for Nursing as it does for IT. Other things though, like key words, are very different in these departments.

I believe the standard needs to be both rigid and flexible. Rigid in that these are the basic essentials we expect for everyone. Flexible in that each department may customize them differently. Again, some things will be the same across all departments; some will be unique.

Where I see the real problem, and think most people need help… is in implementing these standards in an organization where there have been no hard and fast rules previously. The change management is the difficult part. How do you enforce these things?

Quint Studer's advice is usually worth keeping. I don't know if he follows or understand cognitive behavioral psychology or Dr. William Glasser, but I know many of his ideas have their roots in Dr. Deming's work in Industrial Management. Glasser was a student of Deming, so there is a tie in here.

One of Quint's essential ideas is to create a need-satisfying workplace by promoting "worthwhile work" and the concept that what we do makes a difference in the lives of people. This works because it is need satisfying on many levels: power / significance, belonging and sometimes even freedom and fun.

I think this article works because we need rules to establish the expectations and the parameters within which we will behave. This gives workers their expected behaviors, while giving manager's a tool to work with.

Malwebolence - The World of Web Trolling - NYTimes.com

Malwebolence - The World of Web Trolling - NYTimes.com
Trolls are scary creatures in fiction and in cyberspace. Some just want to get a reaction and hurt your feelings, but others want much more than that! Ultimately, this is need satisfying behavior to them. It meets their needs for power of course, but also, fun, freedom and even belonging. Since it is so completely need satisfying, we will be hard pressed to help these folks find others ways to meet those psychological needs in a manner that is more acceptable to the norms of society. Clearly, trolling behavior is a strong picture in their Quality Worlds.

The Connection Between Personality and Learning

Chief Learning Officer magazine - The Connection Between Personality and Learning

Interesting short read from Chief Learning Officer magazine online, auther Brian Summerfield. I agree personality plays a role in learning. It's a question of how we view learning and how it fits into our Quality World. Not all learning has to be "book learning" - which some find extremely boring, yet others find invigorating. So we may have to debate what we mean when we talk about "learning". We don't necessarily mean "formal learning", but even formal learning doesn't have to entail book reading and lectures only. Those who are skilled at Instructional Design can make a learning situation meaningful to the learners, which tends to make it interesting and, I daresay, even fun!

Why Are People Like Sheep? Part Three

Continued from the previous post, Why Are People Like Sheep?, part two, the question is what happens when our self-identity conflicts with what others think of us, or when we realize we aren't the people we thought we were? One option is: we change ourselves. Another option is...

We Change Our Friends
Another choice we can make when our self-identity is in conflict or others' opinions of us are in conflict: devalue the opinions of those people who don't see us the way we want to be seen. In other words we begin to take those people out of our Quality World. This is commonly called "denial."

If we choose to devalue the opinions of those who are in our Quality Word, we are really choosing to take those people out of our Quality World. Those types of relationships are doomed to eventual failure.

The alcoholic from the previous example can realize that the effort required to make a real change is too great. He can instead choose to say to himself, "those people don't understand me; they don't understand my pressures and stress; if they did, they would understand that its OK for me to drink like I do."

Real Life Example
An example occurred during the presidential race of 2008 when former Hillary Clinton supporter, Paula Abeles, chose to "break ranks" and support the Republican nominee, John McCain, instead of the Democratic nominee, Barak Obama, when Clinton was not chosen as the Democratic nominee.



Paula's self-identity was in conflict because she had thought of herself as a Democrat. But when her chosen nominee was not the Democratic nominee for President, she chose to deal with the identity crisis by switching friends, and learning to accept her new identity (no longer a died in the wool Democrat, but rather a Democrat in some ideology but not everything).

Paula's old "friends" certainly helped her to feel good about that choice when they reacted with hatred and threats. I'm sure Paula took them out of her Quality World as fast as they took her out of theirs.

Why Are People Like Sheep? Part Two

Continued from the previous post, Why Are People Like Sheep?, the question is what happens when our self-identity conflicts with what others think of us, or when we realize we aren't the people we thought we were?

We Change Ourselves
We change ourselves by changing our total behaviors so that our behaviors align more closely to our expectations or the perceptions of the other people (whose opinion is so important to us for whatever reason). This choice requires real work and effort on our part; a commitment many people are not prepared to make.

A perfect stereotypical example of this is when an alcoholic is confronted by his closest friends and family members in an "intervention." Then the alcoholic chooses to take control of his problem and change his behavior patterns. He does this because the people confronting him are in his Quality World; their opinions of him are important and he wants their opinion of him to closely match his own self-identity.

Perhaps he has always thought of himself in a certain way (his self-identity does not include being an alcoholic). Now his self-identity is in conflict with what others think of him, as well as what he thinks of himself. This conflict is usually an emotionally painful event causing great frustration. The frustration is usually sufficient motivation to create a change in behavior, e.g., the alcoholic promises to change.

I'll explore the others options in the next post...

Why Are People Like Sheep?

Penn and Teller point out (in the video below) the reality of the cult of personality and the fickle nature of humans desiring to be a part of a "Cause" for which they must stand up and defend. This simply validates Dr. Glasser's ideas on The Identity Society.



The Identity Society
Dr. William Glasser says we are an "Identity Society." We constantly strive to conform to the identity of ourselves which we have created in our own minds, in our "Quality World". We tend to see ourselves the way we wish to be (we're very optimistic), and not necessarily the way we truly are. We see ourselves the way we want others to see us, and when that reality and our own self-identity are in agreement (or close to agreement), then we are pretty happy.

But what about when our self-created identity and other people's perceptions of us are in conflict? We tend to all follow one of a few established behavioral patterns:

• We change our behaviors.
  
• We change our friends.
• We change our self-identity.
  

More about each of these choices in another post...