Modern Decision Making

Historically, men have relied upon leaders to make decisions for them, even in the home. Women prefer to travel in packs, relying on consensus instead—everyone is heard and no one gets left out.

Just watch five women deciding on a restaurant. They’ll discuss it for 20 minutes, getting everything they know out, and then settle on someplace where everyone is happy. Men in this instance take less than five seconds. “Where do you want to go, Chuck?” “Well, I saw a steak house back there.” “Okay, okay, okay, okay.”

Men get frustrated by the female style, considering it inefficient. They think it takes way too long (though it usually does produce better results). Women feel the male style leads to control freaks—leaning too heavily on just one person’s preference or opinion. Today, the ladies have won out and the consensus model has become norm. But without a specified leader, balls tend to get dropped. So instead of replacing the old style, we should have morphed the two.

The best method for decision making still involves having a leader because consensus isn’t always right. Consensus doesn’t force the suffering and individual responsibility of true leadership. And it doesn’t force someone to see things through to the very end. Quality has always required great amounts of concentration but within a consensus model no one ever gets that committed. Granted the old leadership role had flaws, so let’s change it. Modern leaders should act more like facilitators, respecting the positions of consensus but continuing to add the components of suffering, personal responsibility, and nursing projects to the end.

What’s best for quality is that we forsake the issue of stepping on each other’s toes and allow one person to take charge. Not everyone can be respected all the time. Maybe we should take turns playing leader, or we could split projects into smaller sections led by pod captains. I don’t know, let’s vote on it.

American History

Many of us walk around in a fog when it comes to American terms and historical references. The media keeps throwing them at us like we’re supposed to know this stuff. So let’s lift some of the mist. The following is a brief synopsis of American history. If you read these pages and watch a few movies, you’ll have it.

Independence

America was initially inhabited by natives, just like Canada, Mexico, and South America. The Mayflower arrived in 1620, around the time of the first African slaves. 41 male passengers from the Mayflower signed an agreement that formed the basis of the colony’s first government. By 1650, there were 50,000 colonial inhabitants.

The American Revolution (the War of Independence) between the British and the 13 colonies (which became the original 13 states) started in 1775 and ended in 1781, when British General Cornwall surrendered to General George Washington. Listed causes of the war include Britain’s imposition of a tax on the colony, and limitations on its commerce and freedoms.

US soldiers were essentially a citizen’s militia (not a formally trained army). Remember, it had been 150 years since the Mayflower landed—the people fighting for America were born there. So it was probably time to spill a little tea and host an uprising.

The 13 colonies, each with their own government, came together (during the war) to sign the Declaration of Independence, primarily written by Virginia representative, Thomas Jefferson. The declaration was signed in 1776, in Philadelphia. It declared the United States to be a free and independent country. It wasn’t until 1783, two years after the war had ended, that Britain formally acknowledged the US. The population at the time was approx. 3 million.

The Constitution

In 1787, the 13 states signed the US Constitution. The US Constitution is the oldest of its kind and originally had seven articles. It was amended in 1791 with ten more articles, commonly known as the Bill of Rights. These amendments include freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and the right of people to petition their government (the first amendment), plus the right to bear arms (the second amendment).

In total, the constitution has 27 amendments. The 13th amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery. Five years later, the 15th amendment gave people of any race or colour the right to vote. The 16th amendment, ratified in 1913, permitted the government to tax income. The 18th and 19th amendments, both passed in 1920, prohibited alcohol and gave women the right to vote. The 18th amendment (prohibition) was then later repealed in 1933 (by the 21st amendment). The 26th amendment, passed in 1971, lowered the voting age to 18 from 21.

Acquisitions

In 1803, the United States paid Napoleon France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory (commonly known as the Louisiana Purchase). This area is huge and much bigger than the state of Louisiana. It’s essentially what America today calls the mid-west. Part, or all, of what became 15 states were purchased including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, and Montana. As a result, the US nearly doubled its size.

In 1812, the US declared war on Britain over British interference with American maritime shipping and westward expansion. The war lasted just over 2 years. The United States suffered many costly defeats at the hands of the British, Canadian, and Native American troops, including the burning of the nation’s capital. But American troops were able to repulse British invasions in New York, Baltimore, and New Orleans. In the end, the British promised to leave Canada’s borders unchanged.

In 1819, Spain ceded Florida to the United States. In 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico. It was then annexed by the US, nine years later (and tons of Mexicans still live there). In 1846, the Oregon Treaty fixed the Canadian border at the 49th parallel. Also in 1846, the US declared war on Mexico. It lasted 2 years. The outcome resulted in the US paying $15 million for the area now known as California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico and Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The rest of New Mexico and Arizona were purchased for an additional $10 million in 1853.

The US acquired Alaska from Russia, in 1867, for $7.2 million dollars.

Slavery

The battle over slavery was a huge deal in US history. During the mid-1800s there were slave states (like, South Carolina) and free states (like, California). Abraham Lincoln came into prominence through a series of debates held with Illinois state senate rival, Steven Douglas. When Lincoln was elected president, in 1860, on a platform of emancipation (the abolishment of slavery), 11 states succeeded from the Union to form the Confederacy.

The Civil War, 1861-65, was won by the Union (the north) led by Lincoln and all 11 confederate states rejoined by 1870. During the Civil War, President Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg address. The last act of the war saw the surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant. During the war, southerners referred to Union soldiers as Yankees (and southern soldiers were called rebels).

President Lincoln was reelected in 1864 and assassinated by John Wilkes Booth within his first year. 1865 is also the year that brought the 13th amendment to abolish slavery. The 15th amendment, passed in 1870, gave blacks the right to vote.

Jim Crow Laws

In 1898, the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation was constitutional, paving the way for the repressive Jim Crow laws in the South. Jim Crow laws legalized discrimination and stayed in effect until the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The March on Washington, by over 200,000 people, in 1963 (highlighted by Rev. Martin Luther King’s speech, “I Have a Dream”) dramatized the movement, which officially ended with the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

The New Deal

Suffering from the effects of the great depression, in 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt brought in the New Deal. It included Unemployment Insurance, bargaining rights for labour, CDIC deposit insurance, regulations for the stock market, and the Social Security Act, which introduced public pensions (Canada didn’t bring in public pensions until 1965).

Three years later, Roosevelt brought in the Fair Labor Standards Act, which introduced the first minimum wage, the forty-hour work week, time-and-a-half for overtime, and prohibited child labor. These acts permanently changed the federal government’s relationship to the US populace.

Closing

If you’d like more details on topics like the battles of Bunker Hill and Valley Forge, France’s involvement in the War of Independence (through its navy), or the land seized by the British from the Dutch and renamed from New Amsterdam to New York, check Wikipedia or other sources on the web.

HBO has a wonderful seven-part mini-series called, John Adams, co-produced by Tom Hanks. It’s named after one of the founding fathers and America’s second president. It brings to life characters like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. There is also a movie called, Lincoln, starring Daniel Day Lewis; C-SPAN has produced a reenactment of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates; and, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, is a seven-part documentary, released in 2014, that covers the lives of Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt (his cousin), and Eleanor Roosevelt (the influential first lady).

Supply and Demand – Part II

Everyone’s heard that, due to the law of supply and demand, prices increase whenever there’s a shortage of something. That as consumers chase a limited number of goods, the price of those goods will rise. For example, if a bunch of people move to a new city, the price of houses goes up. And everyone says that it’s because of supply and demand. But did you know there’s a second component to this law? One that says as demand stays high, home builders will increase their production until prices eventually come back down?

People don’t know (or forget) about this second part but it belongs to the same economic law. Supply and demand says prices go up when there is a shortage in supply, and then come back down when supply is eventually adjusted.

Let’s continue with the example of home prices. Let’s say Edmonton builds and sells 1,000 homes per year. And let’s say a bunch of Newfies keep moving to Edmonton to alter this demand to 1,200 homes. What happens? Well, the price of an Edmonton home goes up (and a bunch of Newfies end up sleeping on the couch). But something else happens. Home builders expand their output to build more homes and additional companies go into the business. These two actions then increase supply to the point where the city builds and sells around 1,200 homes per year. And, in theory, the price goes back down to where it was at 1,000 homes per year.

So it’s wonderful that everyone understands the first piece of this law, but you should also know about the second.

Elasticity

Total revenue is the result of multiplying quantity times price. Elasticity measures what happens to revenue when price changes. For example, on any given night the Toronto Maple Leafs sell 18,000 tickets, at an average price of $100, to yield total revenue of $1.8 million per game. But what if the Leafs increased their average price, would they sell as many tickets? And would they sell at least enough to make total revenue per game greater than it was?

If after the price increase total revenue per game is higher than $1.8 million, the price of a Leaf ticket is said to be inelastic (insensitive to price). If they sell fewer tickets, to the point where total revenue is less than $1.8 million per game, the price is called elastic (sensitive to price).

This is why essential industries like water and power are always regulated. Their volumes are too insensitive to price.

Evolution Of Management

The very nature of management has shifted over the past few generations.

Back in the day, management happened military style, with one boss barking out orders and everyone doing as they were told. It was appropriate back then since workers were considered peons. And it was efficient since bosses were never questioned or forced to explain themselves. They could just order people around as they wished.

Then along came the Japanese success of the 1970s, and we shifted to a peer-based model where everyone’s opinion was asked for and nobody got yelled at. Though more complicated, this new system yielded better results since it capitalized on existing worker knowledge. It changed not only the way business was conducted, but also the degree of human decency involved. For the first time in history, subordinates were considered valuable, which quickly led to a more civilized society for us all. And the business world became a much more respectful place.

Then along came the computer industry’s challenge of Y2K, and we changed again. This time, due to increased labour specialization, bosses had to start kissing everybody’s butt to keep them from quitting. In this new world order, workers became regarded as difficult to replace and were duly acknowledged for it. As a result, today’s companies put great effort into ensuring employee satisfaction.

And this new paradigm has affected the home.

First, spouses and children no longer subscribe to the military model of being ordered around. As a matter of fact, they’ll no longer stand for it. They can’t live in a civilized world during the day and come home to Fort Bragg at night. Second, the peer-based Japanese model is better since two heads actually are better than one. And third, it’s now apparent that we must recognize the importance of others.

Yelling, barking, screaming, and issuing verbal threats are now obsolete as managerial tools. Basic human interaction has changed—we’re now much more civil towards each other. So get on board and be nice to people. Otherwise, you’ll never get anyone to work for you.

Power, Pleasure, Purpose

There are three popular schools of thought pertaining to what motivates people and drives our personalities (called the three Viennese schools of psychotherapy). They are the beliefs of Alfred Adler, Sigmund Freud, and Viktor Frankl. Adler believed we’re driven by power, Freud said we’re driven by pleasure, and Frankl believed we’re all driven towards some type of purpose. So let’s talk about them.

Adler

Adler (1870-1937) was an Austrian medical doctor who founded his own school of psychology. He broke away from Freud’s theories to ascertain that personalities are driven by our feelings of inferiority and that we spend much of our time combating (and trying to surmount) these feelings.

His most famous concept is the inferiority complex, which speaks to the problem of self-esteem and its negative effects on human health. He believed such complexes led to becoming egocentric, power-hungry, and aggressive (or worse). He also thought such complexes sometimes produced a paradoxical superiority striving. Adler was concerned with overcoming this superiority/inferiority dynamic and was one of the first psychotherapists to discard the analytic couch in favour of two chairs. He also believed in preventing future inferiority issues in children through democratic family structures and no corporal punishment (like, hard spankings).

Freud

Freud (1856-1939) was a neurologist who created a method of dealing with mental disorders through a dialog between doctor and patient. He’s also known for defining and introducing the unconscious mind, and inventing words like ego and id.

His pleasure principle was first discovered while watching Italian guys messing with chicks at a beach. And the man was spot on. Now Sigmund said and did many great things, but for the purpose of this article he said the mind has a strong tendency to seek pleasure and avoid pain.

Frankl

Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) was a holocaust survivor who wrote Man’s Search for Meaning. This book is divided into two sections. The first describes his life inside a World War II concentration camp, the second presents his views on what motivates people. The summary of his beliefs is that we’re all driven to achieve some kind of purpose.

Frankl compares his analysis to the other two schools as follows: The striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man. That’s why I speak of a will to meaning in contrast to the “pleasure principle” (or will to pleasure) of Freud, or the will of power stressed by Adler.

Who are you?

Much of psychology was formulated during this time. And it’s now becoming apparent that, when it comes to describing the human mind, one size does not fit all. Today, we accept multiple theories to describe multiple types of people.

When you think of it, there are probably all three motivations living inside us. Don’t we all seek pleasure? Doesn’t everyone have a bit of an inferiority complex? Don’t we all search for meaning? And if you think even further, we could probably identify with one as being dominant. Most people could say something like, “I’m 70% pleasure, 20% purpose, and 10% power.” So who are you?

Status

I once came up with a theory on life but my friend, Tim, invented one that’s even better. My version says life is an exercise in survival and we survive both physically and emotionally. Status is a big part of surviving emotionally. But my friend, Tim Maslow, says there are five stages—all in a hierarchy. The first two involve physical. Stage 1 is the need for food, shelter, and clothing; stage 2 adds physical safety. The next two address emotions. Stage 3 says we need a peer group; stage 4 says that, once attained, we need to stand out within that group.

Stage 3 is interesting because it explains the preoccupation we all have with “keeping up with the Joneses” and why some kids will stab a complete stranger in order to join a street gang. Nature dictates that everyone needs a peer group and we’ll use our most innate skills to obtain one. It’s part of being human.

Stage 4 says that once you get into a group, you somehow need to distinguish yourself within it. We have to stand out so people don’t forget about us. Mike the Italian guy, big Bill, Mary with the red car. Everyone needs to be identified in some unique way. A good example can be seen inside a men’s locker room. There’s always the rich guy, the smart guy, the funny guy, the one who’s best looking, the best athlete, etc.

Now some people cruise through life always in possession of status—for once you’ve competed in the Olympics, it stays with you. But most of us have to continually earn it. For example, when you meet parents at a school group or start a new job, you must be first accepted into the group and then will naturally wish to establish yourself within it. They say kids are constantly seeking status while older folk can’t help but reinforce their own. It’s like status is a condition we don’t seem to recognize and outgrow. Its quest is always at the center of social interaction, especially when meeting new people. Try this. Go for lunch with friends and do nothing to evoke your own status. Just yield to theirs. You’ll be amazed by what you find. You’ll see status is everywhere in conversation. It’s like we’re slaves to it.

Status is also productively used by advertisers. Our search for identity has now led us into being a BMW man or an Apple guy. In one sense it can be viewed as sad and in another it’s just life. Either way, it’s important to identify with people’s desired status and sometimes nourish it. You may also need to analyze what it is you wish from your own, and why.

By the way, Stage 5 in Maslow’s Hierarchy is when you outgrow the need for social status and self-actualize (but nobody ever does it).

Opinions

Do you ever wonder where opinions come from? And why so many of us see things in different ways? The answer lies in understanding how people’s thoughts and opinions are derived. Your opinions come from four primary sources:

  • Instinct
  • Personal experience
  • What you’ve learned (or been taught)
  • What you’ve figured out for yourself

You feel (or think) the way you do because of what your tummy tells you, what you’ve seen, what you’ve learned (through reading, listening, or watching things on TV), and what you’ve sat down to figure out.

The strength of your opinion should always correlate to its quality. If you feel strongly about something, I hope you’ve either seen a lot in this area or have researched it completely. But often times we haven’t. Most of us have no idea about the effort that goes into holding a qualified position. Add to this the need many feel to attain intellectual status and you see why we’re constantly being subjected to air bags spewing nonsense.

Let’s dive deeper into the four components. There are some interesting points to make.

Instinct and experience

All tummies don’t work the same way. Just because your instincts make you see things one way doesn’t mean others agree. The value of everyone’s instinct is equal—no one’s is any more valid. For example, do you instinctively feel this person is trustworthy or qualified? I’m not saying logically feel (where you present an argument). I mean, using only your natural instincts, what’s your tummy telling you?

The same goes for personal experience—we haven’t all seen the same things.

What you’ve learned

If you wish to hold a strong position, you must evaluate whether you know enough about the topic. If you want a big opinion on something like politics, you’ll need to do some reading. And not just from one book about one side. You’ll need a wealth of information from all kinds of sources, including high quality lectures from experts (not just left or right-wing newspapers).

There is no substitute for quality knowledge, especially on topics that have been well documented. Ask around for good material and get yourself started. (P.S. It’s always good to look into a subject’s history.)

What you’ve figure out

There is no stronger opinion than one you’ve figured out. Instead of always following the teachings of others, consider the thoughts of many and incorporate them into your own. Try putting things together your own way, instead of always repeating somebody else’s words (that you probably don’t fully understand).

Burn a few brain cells until smoke begins to appear. It’s good to focus and concentrate. Then keep thinking until you experience a little epiphany—a sensation that’s truly remarkable.

Summary

Our society spends too much time arguing and not enough time learning and understanding. It’s like we’re more interested in shoving our views down somebody’s throat than using that somebody to make our opinions better.

How do they instinctively feel? What have they seen? Where is their knowledge coming from? All great questions to pose an adversary. Their responses become fodder for your thoughts. And if they grant you the same courtesy, you’ll be engaging in an intellectual discussion instead of an unfriendly fight.

Book of Knowledge

I feel people today are poorly educated. I’m not talking about the kids, and I’m not saying people in the past were any better educated. I’m just saying that no matter what schools have taught you, you can’t remember it all. And herein lies the problem.

I think every person, whether formally educated or not, should carry around with them a book of knowledge. Their very own, with summarized information they’ve attained throughout the years. And that this book should be reviewed from time to time.

Other than your day job, what do you really know? Take the subjects of history, political science, and economics. Are you qualified to teach or debate any of the three? Probably not. But I’m sure you’re capable of learning and summarizing exactly what you’d like to know. And of reviewing this from time to time, just to keep up your intellect.

Most of us see a task of this nature as daunting. We don’t like the idea of re-reading old textbooks or spending hours on the web, so I’ll give you a push. Here is my book, which I’m happy to share. Take it and move forward as you wish.

Why is this notion so beneficial? Have you ever tried arguing with someone on something like politics? It’s impossible since few of us stand on the same foundation. What we need is each other’s basic understandings. For example, what do you feel is the difference between a liberal and a conservative? What have you read and been taught? And what have you figured out for yourself? All fundamental data I need in order to understand your position. So give it to me.

Everyone needs their own personal book of knowledge. Here’s a preview of mine. Let’s start with a few pages on American history. We hear references made to it all the time. What you’re about to read won’t make you an expert on this topic but it’ll provide a decent working knowledge. Pay special attention to the War of Independence, Abraham Lincoln, and Jim Crow laws.