Provocative Hypotheses, Odd Notions, and Random Thoughts

Here are some quotes that I have found thought-provoking through the years. Have a look and see what you think. The list is by topic, alphabetically.

Assuming (see also Forgetting)

Modern organizational leadership is all too frequently thought to be conducted in a rational environment seeking the best business outcome. Rarely do we consider the values held by the actors in a decision-making exercise as determining either the outcome of the decision or the basis for a change initiative. It is our contention that this represents a serious oversight when it comes to understanding the nature of the decision -making process preceding any change effort. Understanding the impact of decision makers’ values and moral assumptions also helps explain why seemingly commonsensical change efforts result in substantial resistance. We propose that the leader’s individual value orientation and the dominant collective value orientation of the group of decision makers are the actual drivers of decisions and change programs, and determine the success or failure of those efforts.
–John Nirenberg and Patrick Romine

To a worm in horseradish, the whole world is horseradish.
–Yiddish saying

We cannot feel strongly toward the totally unlike because it is unimaginable, unrealizable; nor yet toward the wholly like because it is stale — identity must always be dull company. The power of other natures over us lies in a stimulating difference which causes excitement and opens communication, in ideas similar to our own but not identical, in states of mind attainable but not actual.
–Charles Horton Cooley

Summers argued that it is economically most efficient for the rich countries to dispose of their toxic wastes in poor countries, because poor people have both shorter life spans and less earning potential than wealthy people. In a subsequent commentary on the Summers memo, The Economist argued that it is a moral duty of the rich countries to export their pollution to poor countries because this provides poor people with economic opportunities
of which they would otherwise be deprived. David C. Korten, When Corporations Rule the World. See also http://www.whirledbank.org/ourwords/summers.html

Routine is not organization, any more than paralysis is order.
–Arthur Helps (1813 – 1875) English historian, novelist, essayist

There is no correlation at all between success and hours worked.
— Seth Godin, author

Abandon the safety of structures. Forget tidy assumptions. Face up to the messy reality of the world. Revel in it.
–Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi

Believing

I believe in aristocracy—not an aristocracy of power based upon rank and influence but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate, and the plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and classes and all through the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, the one permanent
victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos. Thousands of them perish in obscurity; a few are great names. They are sensitive for others as well as for themselves, they are considerate without being fussy, their pluck is not swankiness but the power to endure, and they can take a joke.
–E. M. Forester

I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy among men; the grounds of this are virtue & talents.
–Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, Letter dated 28 October 1813 http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch15s61.html

Changing

Organizational change can help people at work—it can re-attach them to their work—if it doesn’t lecture, teach, or force them. Effective change demonstrates to people the ways in which the values, goals, tools, techniques, processes, skills, or competencies of the change add value to the day-to-day work being done at the most immediate level of customer contact in their jobs. In this way, it experientially positions the changes as an added value to the people expected to change in a manner that simply cannot be duplicated through glitzy announcements, detailed « road shows, » well-sequenced training programs, brown bag lunches, speeches, or accountabilities.

People don’t resist change ; they resist being changed.

Competing

I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.

–Mikhail Baryshnikov

We’re not trying to play music that is better than anyone else, and we’re not trying to play music that’s different from anyone else. We’re just trying to play the music that only we can play.[4]
–Jerry Garcia

Heat and animosity, contest and conflict, may sharpen the wits, although they rarely do; they never strengthen the understanding, clear the perspicacity, guide the judgment, or improve the heart.
–Walter Savage Landor (1775 – 1864) English poet, essayist

The bottom line is that new talent can force everyone to play at a higher level.
— Tony DiCicco, former head coach of the Women’s World Cup and Olympic soccer teams

…But almost never do these companies seem to understand how their continuing attention to obsolete cost-focused imperatives of traditional competition impedes their efforts to acheive global competitive excellence—a state that I define as completely satisfying customers, creating growing opportunities for associates and suppliers (including suppliers of capital), and imposing no undue burdens on third parties in society—while continuously
reducing time and resources.
–H. Thomas Johnson[5]

The best strategy for building a competitive organization is to help individuals become more of who they are.
– Marcus Buckingham, author of “Now, Discover Your Strengths

There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.
–Sam Walton (1918 – 1992) US business executive

Daring

“Here’s a little song that tells the truth…” Louis Jordan

Courage charms us, because it indicates that a man loves an idea better than all things in the world, that he is thinking neither of his bed, nor his dinner, nor his money, but will venture all to put in act the invisible thought of his mind.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Deciding

The crux of making good decisions isn’t done in a vacuum ; it’s making sure that you focus on your personal values. As citizens of the information age, we’re overwhelmed with data, reports, facts—much of it noise that we need to filter out before we can figure out what’s relevant to a decision. So I’ve learned to hone my discrimination skills. But if you’re exploring something that has no precedent—an idea, a product, a service—you can’t rely solely on data to guide you. You have to rely on people too. I’ve developed a personal
advisory council that I consult before tackling a big decision, a group of people who are anchored by similar values—though not necessarily by similar perspectives.
–Chris Newell, The Lotus Institute, Lotus Development Corporation, Cambridge, MA.

It’s important in business to be able to say no when you feel like saying yes would mean losing your soul.
–Lionel Poilane of Poilane bakeries

We need to find the courage to say NO to the things and people that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity.
–Barbara De Angelis

Doing

Good people seem to sleep better at night, but bad people appear to enjoy their waking hours more.
–Woody Allen

Always obey your superiors. If you have any.
–Mark Twain

Wisdom consists not so much in knowing what to do in the ultimate as knowing what to do next.
–Herbert Hoover

When sweeping the stairs, always start at the top.

Nothing is so contagious as an example. We never do great good without bringing about more of the same on the part of others.
–de La Roche Foucauld

Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container.
–Wallace Stevens

Recruit your people every day, even though your crew is already on board.
–Mike Abrashoff, founder of Grassroots Leadership LLC

80% of employees today are ‘inactive’: ‘just doing their jobs but unwilling to expend their energy.’
–Wilson Learning Corporation study (1996)

If men can run the world, why can’t they stop wearing neckties? How intelligent is it to start the day by tying a little noose around your neck?
–Linda Ellerbee

We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a *part* of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a *part* of Europe.
–Dan Quayle

Drinking

The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. It is in fact the great exciter of the Yes function in man. It brings its votary from the chill periphery of things to the radiant core. It makes him for the moment one with truth. Not through mere perversity do men run after it. To the poor and the unlettered it stands in the place of symphony concerts and of literature; and it is part of the deeper mystery and tragedy of life that whiffs and gleams of something that we immediately recognize as excellent should be vouchsafed to so many of us only in the fleeting earlier
phases of what in its totality is so degrading a poisoning. The drunken consciousness is one bit of the mystic consciousness, and our total opinion of it must find its place in our opinion of that larger whole.

–William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1901

Feeling

My defenses were so great. The cocky rock and roll hero who knows all the answers was actually a terrified guy who didn’t know how to cry. Simple.
–John Lennon

We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow worm.
–Winston Churchill

We know too much and feel too little. At least, we feel too little of those creative emotions from which a good life springs.
–Bertrand Russell

I’m interested in people’s feelings, not just the latest volume and pricing numbers. I want to know what frustrates them and what they feel good about.

–Craig E. Weatherup, chairman and CEO of the Pepsi Bottling Group
http://robin.fastcompany.com/cgi-bin/nph-t.pl?U=2146&M=37010&MS=6737

Anxiety is the path to character and to credibility, ultimately to your marketability as a leader. Translating anxiety into character is the meaning of growing up. Anxiety is the precursor of autonomy, self-sufficiency and of being a self-starter. It’s a great thing to go through, once you allow it to happen! It is the ultimate miracle. It is the secret of empowerment. We ignore this ancient truth at our peril.
–Peter Koestenbaum[6]

For many of us who work, there exists an exasperating discontinuity between how we see ourselves as persons and how we see ourselves as workers. We need to eliminate that sense of discontinuity and restore a sense of coherence in our lives. Work should be and can be productive and rewarding, meaningful and maturing, enriching and fulfilling, healing and joyful.
–Max Depree

People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel….
— anonymous author.

Forgetting

The greatest difficulty in the world is not for people to accept new ideas, but to make them forget about old ideas.
–John Maynard Keynes

The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out.
–Dee Hock

(For)seeing

You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures.
–Charles C. Noble, US bandleader, songwriter

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.
–Buckminster Fuller

The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.

–Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams (12 May 1780)

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?
–Robert Schuller

Dig a well before you are thirsty.
–Chinese proverb

Why do I stand here? I stand on my desk to remind myself that we must constantly force ourselves to look at things differently. The world looks different from up here. If you don’t believe it, stand up here and try it. All of you. Take turns.
–Robin Williams, Dead Poets Society

We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.
–Decca Recording Co., rejecting the Beatles (1962)

Humor is the good-natured side of truth.
–Mark Twain

By asking for the impossible, we obtain the best possible.
–Italian saying

The journey is the reward.
–Chinese saying

Your manuscript is both good and original, but the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good.
–Samuel Johnson

Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts.
–Dan Quayle

Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet
mind is adequate perception of the world.
— Hans Margoliu

One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is ‘to be prepared’.
–Dan Quayle

I always worry about people who say, ‘I’m going to do this for ten years; I really don’t like it very well. And then I’ll do this…’ That’s a little like saving up sex for your old age.

–Warren Buffett

Greed

It seems fitting that in 1993 the winner in the annual executive compensation package sweepstakes was master illusionist Michael Eisner, chairman of the Walt Disney Company— a corporation dedicated to the creation of fantasy worlds. Eisner’s compensation package of $203.1 million equaled 68% of the company’s total profits of $299.8 million for that year— surely ample to create a few personal illusions of his own.

–David Korten[7]

Growing

What is the most rigorous law of our being? Growth. No smallest atom of our moral, mental, or physical structure can stand still a year. It grows – it must grow; nothing can prevent it.

— Mark Twain

The greatest limitation to growth is the availability of talented global leaders.

–Vijay Govindarajan[8]

Experience is not what happens to you. It’s what you do with what happens to you.

–Aldous Huxley

Business must be run at a profit…, else it will die. But when any one attempts to run a business solely for profit and thinks not at all of the service to the community, then also the business must die, for it no longer has a reason for existence.
–Henry Ford

Profits are like breathing. You have to have them. But who would stay alive just to breathe ?

–Maurice Mascaranhas

In a talk, Peter Senge used the metaphor of gardening to develop an organization. He basically said that you cannot directly demand growth or performance any more than you can demand a plant to grow, much less “better”, “faster”, “straighter”, etc. He said that you had to take an indirect approach and shape the environment, i.e. light, fertilizer, soil mixture, water, etc. It was not too difficult to see mechanisms in an organizational environment analogous to those environmental factors, e.g. leadership or information being analogous to the sun or light, etc.[9]

Learn to be pleased with everything; with wealth, so far as it makes us beneficial to others; with poverty, for not having much to care for, and with obscurity, for being unenvied.
–Plutarch

Guessing

Corporations have been enthroned…An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people…until wealth is aggregated in a few hands…and the Republic is destroyed.[10]

–GUESS WHO (AL)

Imagining

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere.

— Carl Sagan

If I’m allowed to bring in everything I am, all of my off-the-wall ideas, then my employer builds a stronger house.
–Ella L.J. Edmondson Bell, associate professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business in Fast Company’s First Impression Newsletter January 02, 2002

Being yourself is not remaining what you were, or being satisfied with what you are. It is the point of departure.
–Sydney J. Harris in ChangeWisdom, January 2, 2002

Leading

Great leaders honor the people who want to depose them, the assassins in their midst.[11]

–Tom Peters, author and speaker

The instinct to command others, in its primitive essence, is a carnivorous, altogether bestial and savage instinct. Under the influence of the mental development of man, it takes on a somewhat more ideal form and becomes somewhat ennobled, presenting itself as the instrument of reason and the devoted servant of that abstraction, or political fiction, which is
called the public good. But in its essence it remains just as baneful, and it becomes even more so when, with the application of science, it extends its scope and intensifies the power of its action. If there is a devil in history, it is this power principle.

–Mikhail Bakunin [12]

Structure makes learning productive. Hierarchy almost always stifles learning.

— Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, professor of education at Harvard Graduate School of Education

A leader’s goal should be to make himself redundant.
— Simon Walker, managing director of Challenge Business

Listening

When someone says, « You cheated me, » they are really conveying two messages : « I feel cheated » and « I know your intentions. » By defending our intentions, we fail to listen to the first part of their message, and truly understand how our actions caused them to feel hurt…. Good intentions don’t sanitize Bad impact.[13]

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

–Henry David Thoreau

The first law is to listen. They [entrepreneurs] must be meek enough — and shrewd enough – to endure the humbling eclipse of self that comes in the process of profound learning from others.”

–Andrew Carnegie

Living

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.

–Henry Brooks Adams (1838 – 1918) US historian, author

Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is.

–Erich Fromm

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?

–Voltaire

We set our sights on a destination beyond the distant horizon, and then ‘we make the road by walking.’

–Myles Horton & Paulo Freire

The big print giveth and the fine print taketh away.

–J. Fulton Sheen

Live in the present. Do all the things that need to be done. Do all the good you can each day. The future will unfold.

–Anonymous

When one has great gifts, what answer to the meaning of existence should one require beyond the right to exercise them?”
–W. H. Auden

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.

–Dr. Seuss

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.
–Joseph Conrad

In order to survive in these wild times, you’re going to make a total fool of yourself with incredible regularity. If you can’t laugh about it, then you are doomed.”

— Tom Peters, author and speaker

As for the doctrine of reincarnation, it does not exist in Buddhist teaching…The Buddha’s enlightenment was the discovery that, in truth, there is no such thing as a person or self.
–Buddhadassa

Measuring

Not everything that is important can be measured, and not everything that can be measured is important.

–Albert Einstein

Persuading

The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders.

— Eric Hoffer (1902 – 1983) US writer, philosopher, longshoreman

Praising

There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of a man as criticisms from his superiors. I never criticize anyone. I believe in giving a man incentive to work. So I am anxious to praise, but loathe to find fault. If I like anything, I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise.”

–Charles Schwab

Profiting

Business must run at a profit, else it will die. But when anyone tries to run a business solely for profit, then also the business must die, for it no longer has a reason for existence.

–Henry Ford[14]

Relationships

Total relationship marketing is a comprehensive concept that considers a company’s total networks of relationships—not just customer relationships—as a basis for efficiency, profits and survival. Return on relationships is an umbrella concept for various approaches of assessing the value of relationships. Financial capital must exist in every business but its antecedent is intellectual capital, all those assets that are not readily measurable in financial terms but open up for future profits. The balanced scorecard registers not only financial capital but also intellectual capital. [18]

Dogs belong to that elite group of con artists at the very pinnacle of their profession, the ones who pick our pockets clean and leave us smiling about it….If we had a roommate who behaved like this, we’d be calling a lawyer, or the police.”

— Stephen Budiansky, The Truth About Dogs

Risking

Going into business for yourself, becoming an entrepreneur, is the modern-day equivalent of pioneering on the old frontier.

–Paula Nelson, US economist

Thinking

All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.
–Thomas J. Watson

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few people engage in it.
–Henry Ford

I have not lost my mind; it’s backed up on disk somewhere.
–Bill Gates

An entirely new system of thought is needed, a system based on attention to people, and not primarily attention to goods.
–E. F. Schumacher

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.
— Clive James

The odds against there being a bomb on a plane are a million to one, and against two bombs a million times a million to one. Next time you fly, cut the odds and take a bomb.
–Benny Hill

Congealed thinking is the forerunner of failure… make sure you are always receptive to new ideas.

–George Crane

If you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.

–Words are emblazoned on the trucks of many Body Shops around the world.

Separated at Birth ?

The worst thing that you as a leader can do in the decision-making process is to voice your opinion before anyone else can. No matter how open and honest your people are, stating your opinion first will short-change the discussion process and taint what you hear later. When I have a decision to make, everyone I know has to give me an opinion. I also listen to that think called intuition. Intuition offers a way to integrate and synthesize, to weigh and balance information. I, ultimately, listen to my intuition. I postpone a decision until I wake up one morning and know where my gut is going.

–Deborah Triant, CEO and President Check Point Software Technologies, Inc . Redwood
City, California

When making a decision, don’t listen to your intuition. Intuition will lead you astray, it’s drastically overrated. Intuition might be fine for the small decisions in life—like what kind of ice cream to buy. But when you get to the biggies, you need a more systematic thought process.

Max Bazerman, J. Jay Gerber Distinguished Professor of Dispute Resolution nd
Organizations, Kellogg
Graduate School of Management, Evanston, IL.

We have a lot of what-if forecasts of where we want to be. But much of this business comes down to instinct.

Richard Stammer, president and CEO of Cabot Cheese http://www.fastcompany.com/online/53/cabotcheese.html

Rules, Tools, and Flexercises

? Get out of the box

Try this exercise : Take a sheet of paper and list all the tenets that you have adhered to in your professional life. Be thorough ; loyalty, working the chain of command, the value of a precedent, collegiality, career building, whatever they happen to be. Next, write down at least one example of why each didn’t work : The chain of command didn’t respond when you proposed an auto vacuum that would plug into the car’s cigarette lighter ; you attached your career star to this senior vice president rather than that one only months before your would- be champion walked to the competition. Now—carefully observing the local fire codes and conditions, and all admonitions never to play with matches—take the list outside, set it on fire, and watch it blacken and shrivel into nothingness. Yes, you will continue to attempt to be reasonable ; yes, you will continue to try to impose reasonable solutions on an irrational
world. You will continue to hunger for a career. There things are not to be avoided or even rued ; It is useful for a prisoner to remember the scrape and drag of shackles. But until you expunge everything that holds you where you are, you cannot move on to where you need to be.[15]

Build unrules into the structure
Then hold employees accountable for their performance. What does it matter if your star employee wants to go to a movie during the workday so long as she gets back the time at night ? What does it matter if she files the report from her laptop while staring at the sunrise from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro so long as the report—the great report—does get
filed and the job does get done. Okay, Kilimanjaro is extreme, but unrules recognize the growing merger of work and leisure. More than that, unrules recognize that the most creative, most productive employees are going to break whatever rules are imposed. In a chaos environment, that’s exactly why they are the most valuable players. Instead of disciplining by rules, discipline by motives that are consistent with the employees’ greatest self-interest. Then employees will be disciplining themselves.[16]
How To Squelch Innovation

Innovation cannot flourish and endure in a driven, directive, tight, screwed-down climate. Here are some negative ways to ensure that you’ll evolve into or remain a sterile, drifting, noninnovative organization :

1.Be defensive and cautious at all times.
2.Require documentation and proof of everything proposed.
3.Require total compliance and conformance from your team.
4.React to symptoms rather than seeking causes.
5.Be preoccupied with weaknesses and apostrophe-t’s.
6.Base compensation on seniority, activity, education, color, race, and personal flattery.
7.Look out for number one—yourself—at all times.
8.Let people know what you’re against.
9.Engage in negative listening. Hear them out and then say what you were going to say
anyway .
10.Withhold praise at all times.
11.Make sure your people know you are a « knower » rather than a « learner. »
12.Encourage your people to compete with each other rather than with their own self-generated goals.
13.Require rigid compliance with all forms of organizational protocol.
14.Go by the book.[17]

CONSENSUS

WHAT IT IS : An agreement which each group member understands,
supports, and is willing to implement. Building a consensus
decision involves everyone having the opportunity to be heard.

FALLBACK : For consensus decision-making to work, a fallback
decision-making method must be agreed upon at the outset, in case
consensus cannot be reached . In hierarchical groups (groups with
a final decision maker), the fallback would be for the leader to decide
with input. In horizontal groups (such as a task force where no one
individual has the final decision-making power), the fallback would
be some form of vote (majority ; two-thirds, one-third,
majority/minority reports).

IMPORTANCE : Consensus decision-making utilizes the full
potential of group ideas and knowledge. When people participate in
making a decision, commitment and support for the decision and its
implementation are increased.

RATINGS

1)I can say an enthusiastic yes to the decision.

2)I find the decision acceptable.

3)I can live with the decision, but I’m not enthusiastic about it.

4)I do not agree with the decision ; however, I do not choose to
block the decision .

5) I do not agree with the decision, and will stand in the way of its
being accepted.

6) We should continue our conversation on this topic because we
have no sense of unity in the group.

Got a favorite bit of wisdom or snappy quote?

Share it with my by e-mail and we’ll feature it here!

Web Hosting by Hostking

jon@jonathanross.net

Jachymovska 1323/26, Reporyje
Praha 13, CZECH REPUBLIC 155 00
phone numbers: +1.678.999.2141 +420 737.997.677