Effecive Business in the 21st Century

A COMPREHENSIVE BUSINESS PARADIGM: EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT FOR

THE 21ST CENTURY

MICHAEL W. GOYNE LEESBURG, VIRGINIA

MBA 599 INDEPENDENT RESEARCHSHENANDOAH UNIVERSITY

TRAVIS SAMPLE, FACULTY ADVISOR

Table of Contents

PREFACE ........................................... 1

DEDICATION ........................................ 2

INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………….4

SECTION ONE

JOEL A. BARKER’S PARADIGMS......................... 6

CHAPTER ONESTRATEGIC VISION................................... 8

CHAPTER TWOREMOVING THE BLINDERS ............................. 14

CHAPTER THREEPARADIGMS ......................................... 20

CHAPTER FOURA GROUP OF INVALUABLE “OUTSIDERS” ................. 27

CHAPTER FIVEMANAGEMENT FOR THE 1990’S AND BEYOND .............. 36

SECTION TWO

PROVEN OPERATIONAL PARADIGMS ...................... 45

CHAPTER SIXTHE EMPLOYEE PARADIGM ............................. 47

CHAPTER SEVENTHE FEAR PARADIGM ................................. 52

CHAPTER EIGHT A PARADIGM OF POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT ……………………….. 56

MOTIVATION ………………………………………………………………….. 56

PRAISE …………………………………………………………………………61

CHAPTER NINETHE ETHICAL PARADIGM .............................. 66

CHAPTER TENTHE MANAGEMENT PARADIGM ........................... 70

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE CUSTOMER SERVICE PARADIGM ..................... 75

SECTION THREE

CONCLUSIONS AND EPILOGUE.......................... 81

CHAPTER TWELVECONCLUSION......................................... 82

CHAPTER THIRTEENEPILOGUE .......................................... 85

BIBLIOGRAPHIES …………………………………………………………... 91

PREFACE

This paper, indeed the entire Masters Degree, would nothave been possible except for the understanding of mywife, Jessie Roth, and my children, Caitlyn andMatthew. I am truly indebted to you for your support.I look forward with great anticipation to having morefree time for each of you in the near future.

I sincerely hope that the work places of the year 2007and the year 2009 respectively will be the place thattoday’s authors picture. Caitlyn and Matthew, I hopeyou enjoy and thrive in that world.

DEDICATION

This paper is dedicated to the fond memory of Dr. C. Ralph Arthur,

President of Ferrum Junior College, a good friend, and a model

administrator. Thanks to him, I was accepted at RANDOLPH-MACON COLLEGE

and a doorway to a more meaningful, more successful life was opened.

Today, my life is much richer and my level of achievement much higher

thanks to the efforts of this very special person. Quite literally, my

life was transformed by the intervention of this extraordinary man.

Ralph Arthur remains the standard by which I measure other leaders and

managers. Some of these standards are as follows:

the ability to develop talent in others; the ability to lead;the ability to mentor; and, that special ability to have time for

everyone.These are the traits that captured my respect in 1968 -1970 and remainin my adult memory of today.

Ralph Arthur had a vision of what he wanted to see happen at FERRUM.

Sent to FERRUM to close it, he threw himself into the act of remaking

FERRUM as a junior college of national acclaim. I believe Ralph Arthur

accomplished that dream before his untimely death in 1971.

Professor Emeritus Franklin B. Hurt (deceased in 1992) shared this gem

of a thought in one of our correspondences shortly after I had left

Randolph-Macon College for Vepco. I think it gets to the heart of my

feelings about Ralph Arthur and his friend and mine, Frank Hurt.

“Remembrance is the guardian of the treasure of friendship” 1.

1 Hurt, Franklin B., personal correspondences with the author, circa 1972.

INTRODUCTION

Total Quality Management (TQM) is increasingly coming to

American business and more or less against the wishes of many old

styled managers and their clones. As business authors have been

quick to point out, the survivors will be those who learn to adapt

to a New World. Even so, many of these “winners” will go kicking,

and fighting, and backbiting into the 21st century because they

fear TQM as a perceived loss of personal power.

This research of paradigms tries to stay away from the issue

of TQM. To be sure, paradigm perception is part and parcel of a

quality program. Yet, one can teach paradigms, and help others

look into the future to identify opportunities and challenges

without wrestling the larger issue of TQM. Paradigm

perception is perhaps the single most needed skill for today’s

managers. Certainly, it is one of the most promising. As such,

it seems only fair to separate this issue from TQM and allow it to

stand on its own merits.

What is left of the 20th century and its tumultuous pace of

change demands managers who are capable of seeing and responding

to new paradigms. As the armed forces have already learned and

accepted, the world of modern military management requires leaders

who can conceptualize and internalize strategic vision, establish

effective command and control systems, and at the same time foster

human relations capability. This paradigm of “whole and total

vision” must be adopted now by our business community. Business

must simply no longer accept single dimension leaders and

managers. We cannot afford to send our finest resources,

employees , into a battle for which they are not prepared . The

U.S. Military learned this lesson the hard way one hundred and

thirty-one years ago this December 13 on a battlefield called

Fredericksburg, Virginia. Here, an incompetent General Ambrose

Burnside sent 10,000 well-trained men (almost one-tenth of his

entire army) on a suicidal charge towards Marye’s Heights. While

our current battlefield is business, it makes very little

difference. Unless we learn to look to the future and there use

paradigm perception to solve problems, we will just as surely fall

before the formidable adversaries of the world market place.

SECTION ONEJOEL A. BARKER'S PARADIGMS

AND THEIR APPLICATIONS TO BUSINESS OF THE1990’S AND THE 21ST CENTURY

CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTORY QUOTATION

“It is an idle dream to imagine that ...automobiles will take the place of railroads inthe long distance movement of ... passengers.”

American Road Congress, 1913. 1

1 Barker, Joel Arthur, Future Edge, William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1992., page 89.

CHAPTER ONESTRATEGIC VISIONCHARTING YOUR FUTURE

One of the certainties of life is that we do not have the

gift of perfect precognition. Indeed, as Kuhn has said in The

Structure of Scientific Revolution, scientists neither fully

understand the real world nor each other 1. The best we can hope

for, then, is to make assumptions about tomorrow based on the

facts known today and our intuition of how items might relate to

one another tomorrow. A few of our projections might just come to

pass as we envisioned them. Most will come to fruition in a form

different from what we had anticipated. The truly important

thing, however, is that we learn to anticipate the future. We

need to search out and consider the rough perimeters of our

impending challenges and opportunities. 2 Hopefully, as we do

this, our ability to more closely match the future to our vision

of the future will manifest itself and strengthen our managerial

skill.

1 Horgan, John, “Profile: Reluctant Revolutionary”, Scientific America, May, 1991, pages 40 and 49.

2 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., page 18.

In his book, Future Edge, Joel Barker talks about process

futurism and content futurism. The salient one here is process

futurism. Peter Drucker uses the analogy of a smooth stream

versus a turbulent one. In periods of turbulent change, you had

better have at the helm a captain who thinks about the rocks, the

currents, the shallows, and a safe route to the opposite shore.

The individual who does this is looking into the future, testing

assumptions mentally, and building backup solutions to compliment

the initial efforts. This is a person capable of strategic

exploration. 1

DEFINITION: STRATEGIC EXPLORATION, the identification of future

scenarios.

In the market places of today and tomorrow, the men, and women who

develop and use strategic exploration and the companies they

manage will all prosper. Those companies and individuals that

continue to see only short-term profits will in all likelihood

disappear.

THE FIVE COMPONENTS OF STRATEGIC EXPLORATION

1 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., pages 21-28.

Barker believes that there are only five (5) components of

strategic exploration. These five as found on the next page are

as follows:

Influence understanding;

Divergent thinking;

Convergent thinking;

Mapping;

and, Imaging. 1

The concepts just outlined above are defined in the following

paragraphs. I have also added to this list a sixth concept, the

ability to motivate others to pursue a common goal.

Influence understanding has to do with our own vision

filters. We see the world based on accumulated life experiences

that are unique to each of us. (Indeed, the study of identical

twins confirms the effects of environment on two genetically

similar individuals.) All Barker is really saying here is that we

must be proactive in our exploration, neutralize personal filters,

and realize a more global view, one which is more open to the

insights of others.

Divergent thinking flows naturally from one being open to

the surrounding world. All that one needs to do is search out,

identify, and assimilate other avenues of action. You learn to


solve challenges by available options rather than historically

channeled solutions. You take the fullest advantage of the

opportunity for multiple solutions.

Convergent thinking skills allow one to select those

multiple solutions that best fit any particular challenge. It

also allows one to prioritize the options. What is the first line

of action? What should be the second? Finally, why is option

number one superior to the second choice? Convergent skills allow

us to pick the best option and to understand why it is the best

solution.

Mapping skills are the mental processes we go through as we

walk a solution from start to finish. It is a road map for

realizing our objectives. What are the steps and what needs to be

done at each decision point along the way if we are to realize the

best workable solution?

Barker’s last component of strategic thinking is called

imaging. It is the ability to convey in words, or drawings, or

models your unique solution(s). With imaging, we share with

others the results of our exploration. Barker ends his discussion

here. 1 I believe, however, that there is really one more step.

It is called many things, but known colloquially as “the vision

thing”.


The “vision thing” is that rare ability to take Barker’s

image and sell it to other individuals. By sell, I mean to

present it with a passion so that others internalize the concept

and basically accept that goal or position as their own. This

step is the natural conclusion of all the others. This to me is

what paradigm perception is all about. Like a book of knowledge

on the shelf, it is of little meaning unless others can pick it

up, comprehend the ideas, get excited about the goal and carry it

forward. One must close the deal.

There is a special case of the “vision thing” that operates

at a macro, i.e. global level. It is called “the common will” and

it is most often thought of as an idea that springs spontaneously

from the general population. My experience is that most of the

ideas said to develop in this manner do not. If one looks deep

enough, you usually find that the events really were directed.

Sometimes those in charge go unnoticed by design or otherwise.

Strategic exploration empowers all of us. It gives you and

me alike the opportunity to reevaluate the world by acknowledging

and limiting our paradigm bias. We need to better delineate the

“ecosystem” of our principles, protocol, routines, habits, common

sense, values, culture, tradition, superstition, prejudice,

rituals, and doctrine. We must know who we are so that we can

evolve in a sociological sense. What stands the test of time and

change? What needs to be replaced and what are the replacement

options? What are the consequences of so choosing? Change is not

an isolated thing. Like the falling trees of a forest, it touches

on the whole of our sociological ecosystem. 1

1 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., pages 36 and 37.

CHAPTER TWOINTRODUCTORY QUOTATION

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequatefor the stormy present and future. As ourcircumstances are new, we must think anew, andact anew.”

...Abraham Lincoln’s Inaugural, 1861. 1

1 Batten, Joe D., Tough Minded Leadership, Amacom, New York, 1989, page 1.

CHAPTER TWOREMOVING THE BLINDERSA PERSONAL INTRODUCTION TO PARADIGMS

Some twenty years ago shortly after graduating from college,

I visited Austria, Germany, and Switzerland and there observed a

rather curious thing. The buildings that Americans would

construct in a little over a year took almost two and a half times

longer to complete in Switzerland. (Now I know that we will knock

ours down in about fifty years and the Swiss will no doubt be

doing only minor cosmetic repairs.) Superior American work ethic

or so I thought in January 1973. I believed that Americans were

better, more capable, and in general superior to our Swiss

counterparts. You see my paradigm, “America is Number One”, stood

in the way.

DEFINITION: PARADIGM, an idea or concept that fundamentally shapes

the way we perceive our environment. A paradigm controls the way

we see the world and understand concepts. It is ultimately the

way we decode and interpret that world. Such a paradigm is the

road map that takes us through all of life’s experiences. It is

the lens through which we see “our world”. 1

1 Covey, Steven R., The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1989, page 23.

I was doing on my trip just those very things that Kuhn saw

American scientists doing. I was looking to expand my paradigm

and reinforce my beliefs. What I have done in the intervening

twenty years is to challenge that paradigm and replace it with one

more accommodating of other perspectives. The true fact of the

matter is that this one too must be challenged, amended, and one

day ultimately discarded. Tomorrow is another world and its

reality may no longer fit my ever evolving but still imperfect

paradigm. 1

It was only in the past several years that I began to admit

another, equally profound truth. Americans put too much value on

time in both the present and immediate future. We have not been

taught to wrestle with the “more distant futures” of the time

continuum. Many will tell you that this is the result of focusing

on short-term profits. It is to be sure. Yet, it is really

something much broader, much more obviously flawed, and

potentially catastrophic to the American effort at global

competition. We have trained thousands of MBA’S and “generations

of managers” to see no further than the ends of their noses.

Dedicated strategic planning until very recently took a distant

back seat to quarterly profits and loss minimization. In a very

real sense, we lost the financial battle of production. We

liquidated our plants and production lines in the name of

dividends.

1 Horgan, John, Op. Cit., page 40.

In a very similar way, we allowed quality to slip more and

more as we pushed quantity, devoid of quality, out of the back

door and onto the loading docks of America. We sold ourselves on

the concepts of market expansion and capture, economies of scale,

and “big business”. The bottom line was, however, short term

profits. We looked the other way and pretended not to see the

lowering of quality standards. Quality be damned.

Astonishingly, business got away with this practice for a

long period of time. I believe that American corporations enjoyed

a free ride because the buying public was committed to both U.S.

Business and the strongly held conviction of “ America is Number

One”. This dream finally ended when Americans gave up their

illusions and began to buy quality from our foreign competitors.

Yes, you read that right. American business practices pushed

Americans into a paradigm shift.

DEFINITION: PARADIGM SHIFT, a change to a new game, a new set of

rules.1 Essentially, it is a quantum change be it either an

instantaneous process or a deliberate one. 2

1 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., page 37.2 Covey, Steven R., Op. Cit., page 29.

As Steven Covey so identified the process in his book, Americans

woke up and said, “Aha”. 3 Enough is enough. If we want quality

goods, we will have to look to new, i.e. foreign markets, to

provide them.

The arrogance shown to the American consumer was a serious mistake

and one of strategic proportions. No businessman should ever

forget the consequences. Japan did not invent quality; it was a

concept known to both nations. The difference was that Japan had

the great, good sense to apply the concept. We in our unrivaled

arrogance ignored a basic. Americans, not unlike the rest of the

developed world, badly wanted quality. Japan correctly identified

that paradigm, responded to an unsatisfied need, and capitalized

on the opportunity. The rest is history.

I believe that the arrogance of American business is

directly responsible for accelerating both the pace and the

ferocity with which foreign competition is bent on satisfying

American consumer needs for quality (i.e. world-class) goods and

products. We created the need for foreign competition within our

own marketplace. Once inside our markets, Japan, Inc. used this

foothold to reinforce the new paradigm of quality and kick our

collective rears.

3 Covey, Steven R., Op. Cit., page 29.

Meanwhile back in Washington, D.C., President Ronald Reagan,

his staff, and our business leaders ignored the obvious and cried

unfair competition. America, the “Supplier to the World”, had

been blinded by its paradigm paralysis in much the same way that

the Swiss “Watchmakers to the World" had been blind to the

electronic quartz movement.

DEFINITION: PARADIGM PARALYSIS, the inability to recognize change

and the continuation of business as usual. 1

Only later would both business and government admit what the

average man on the street already knew intuitively. Like the

first night of SPUTNIK, a new era dawned. A paradigm shift

occurred and from Pandora’s Box a new paradigm sprang forth and

was set free in the world. America will never again be the same.

1 Baker, Joel A., Op. Cit., pages 15 through 19.

CHAPTER THREEINTRODUCTORY QUOTE

“Flight by machines heavier than air isunpractical and insignificant, if not utterlyimpossible”

Simon Newcomb, 1902 (Astronomer of some note) 1


CHAPTER THREEPARADIGMSJUST WHO IS BRINGING ME MY FUTURE?

Barker feels that there are four questions about paradigms,

which we need to identify and for which we need to seek answers.

These are as follows:

When do paradigms appear?

What kind of individuals are paradigm shifters and whoare they?

Who are the early followers of the paradigm shifters and why do they become followers?

and finally, how does a paradigm shift affect thepeople who go through one?

These are the salient questions business organizations of today

need to answer. A brief description of these questions is

provided in the ensuing discussion.

New paradigms appear in the late stages of an existing

paradigm when only the more difficult questions remain to be

explored and answered. This change normally parallels both a high

level of centralization and a complex hierarchy. The resulting

paradigm shift will bring a more streamlined, less centralized

operation. One can best anticipate this shift by watching those

individuals who are most prone to play with the rules. 1

Who are your organization’s paradigm shifters? The good news is

that three of the four types of paradigm shifters are already

within your business sphere. The bad news is that most

hierarchies, yours included, are unbelievably hard on these people

and often make fun of or pass off their insights. 2 Do you

recognize any of the following people in your organization?

A young person fresh out of college and not yet

programmed to do business by your standards. Their

experience is the theoretical and not at all the

practical, “This is how we do things around here”.

Such individuals are insightful, highly creative, and

unfortunately quite often driven into the ranks of the

entrepreneurs;

The second category of paradigm shifters is the

older achiever who moves into a new field of endeavor.

Barker cites W. Edward Deming, the world-renowned

statistician who moved into a new field of

manufacturing, as one of this group;

1 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., page 47.2 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., pages 40 and 41.

In the third category are the mavericks, those

independent individuals who know that the system is

not up to the challenge and push to change the

paradigm and find new, fresh, competent solutions. As

you would expect, few companies have mavericks on

their payroll. (In those that do, they are not very

well treated.) Yet, mavericks are central to the

pursuit of new paradigms and must be afforded with

protection. This means protection from Senior

Management when necessary;

and, the final grouping encompasses the tinkers.

These are the people who get caught up in unsolved

shelf problems and cannot let go. Life seemingly goes

on hold until they can effect a solution to “their

problem”. The best example given by Barker is Almond

B. Strowger. Strowger was a mortician whose business

was limited by his telephone operator, a close

personal friend of the local competition. It seems

all telephone calls were going to his rival. Rather

than give in to this collusion, Almond began to

tinker, searching for ways to neutralize the

competitor’s friendly telephone operator. Guess what?

He invented the automatic switching device. 1 (You

cannot help but love this man’s resolve.)

1 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., pages 57 through 65.

These are the four categories of individuals who are on the

cutting edge of paradigm shifts. These are the ones we need to

nurture and closely watch so that when the time comes to change

paradigms we are positioned and ready to respond.

All of the groups mentioned above have characteristics that

set them apart from the crowd. Barker calls these people

outsiders. A more adapt description for the 1990’s and beyond

just might be insiders. In the coming years as the flow of

technology and information accelerates, we are going to encounter

a work force that becomes resistant to change, perhaps even

hostile to change. Paradigm shifters are going to be important

because they can break an organization’s status quo by releasing

new ideas into the environment. They are equally important on a

people level where they have the power to keep all of us focused

on beneficial change and enhanced personal development. Human

beings are creatures of habit. We are not accustomed to changing

very quickly. Yet, today, we have no real choice. To stagnate is

to lose our edge. We must change if we are to continue to prosper

in the 21st century. 1

Some say with the cold war ended that the pace of "spin-off"

and applied technology will slow to a more reasonable pace.

1 Scott, Michael A., Editor, Corporations of the 1990’s, Oxford Press, New York, 1991.

Personally, I think not; in fact I suspect it will accelerate.

Nonetheless, Americans will need to find the time to analyze and

accommodate the profound changes that currently inundate both the

work place and the home. Until we come to grips with who we

became in the last half of the 20th century and clarify this new

identity, we like the rest of the developed world will have an

extremely hard time moving on to the more advanced paradigms of

the future. Our job as "managers" is to make sure that our people

and our companies internalize this change.

The chief trait of would be paradigm shifters is their

operational naivete. These individuals’ lack of subtle detail

means in my opinion two things. First, they see the forest as a

complete entity because they are not yet programmed to identify

specific trees. This is very important because many in the

organization focus on specific infrastructure, i.e. functional

levels, and never see beyond their tree or grove of a few trees.

Second, because they are substructure illiterate, they are not

embarrassed to ask wonderfully “dumb” questions. Simply put, they

are wondering about our systems and behavior at a macro level.

This is an incredibly creative process and one all organizations

should encourage for their own good. Yes, substantial

contributions can occur before we tell our employees how to do

their new jobs.

On a less optimistic note, we can even learn from our “on

board individuals” right up until the time they either retire or

walk out of the front door. Good managers take candid exit

interviews to heart, listen, and listen again as they draw on the

experiences of the person leaving the organization. This is a rare

opportunity to get good information that has not been sanitized by

either the system or the filters we normally require to work

within the system. Sadly, most American management has profoundly

neglected this gem of an opportunity.

The best illustration of tapping new hires’ insight took

place at a Marriott Hotel, which Barker refused to further

identify. Essentially, the manager of the location heard Barker’s

seminar presentation on the potential of “illiterate new hires”.

This savvy manager then acted on this information and said to his

new employees, “You are my new eyes and ears. In the next couple

of weeks you are going to see strange things here. We will be

doing things you know how to do much better. You will see ways of

solving problems that will be very different from the way we are

solving them now”. When you do, please come to my office and by

all means let’s talk about them. 1

This manager got new unfiltered ideas because he was open

and honestly listened to his new hires. Best of all, both he and

the organization profited from his acceptance of this new

management paradigm. Additionally, he scored a second coup d’etat

because his “on board” employees became aware of the process, used


the open door, and brought him the benefits of their insights as

well. This became a win, win, and win situation. The successes

of management do not get much better than this.

In closing out this chapter, let me share an old

public realm adage that goes something like this. “A

consultant is someone you pay to tell you the common sense

way to run your own business”. I believe this adage is

better applied this way. “If I cannot comprehend a paradigm

shift on my own, then, get me a tutor who can show me that

world. Thereafter, what I make of this paradigm is totally

up to me.”

CHAPTER FOURINTRODUCTORY QUOTATION

“IF YOU HAD BEEN IN THIS FIELD AS LONG AS I HAVE, YOUWOULD UNDERSTAND THAT WHAT YOU ARE SUGGESTING ISABSOLUTELY ABSURD!”.

THE WIZENED VETERAN 1

1 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., pages 57.

CHAPTER FOURA GROUP OF INVALUABLE “OUTSIDERS”PARADIGM SHIFTERS AND PARADIGM PIONEERS

Paradigm shifters offer us the opportunity to move forward

into a new plane of existence that Kuhn, Barker, and Covey suggest

better defines our world or at least that microcosm wherein each

of us exist. To realize a paradigm shift, however, a critical

threshold must be crossed. Interest, support, brainpower, and

brawn must all be lined up behind the new concept. Paradigm

pioneers is the term Barker uses to identify this group of active

support. These pioneers are no different from their counterparts

of yesteryear. They are the early followers of a new idea.

DEFINITION: PARADIGM PIONEER, “Left brainers” who can access an

idea based on incomplete quantitative data, i.e. intuitives who

can mentally game play a new concept against the unsolved shelf

problems of the prevailing paradigm.1

(Even Barker’s concept of the paradigm pioneer itself is something

of a paradigm shift in that it runs contradictory to the

prevailing methodology of risk assessment through the computer

analysis of accumulated business information. It does, however,

support what many feel on a grass roots level to be true. The


current methodology arrives at a solution too late to be of

significant use. In short, the minimization of risk overpowers

the basic economic need to implement an idea/product/ service and

take advantage of it.)

Paradigm pioneers show up late in the first phase or early in the

second phase of Barker’s paradigm curve. This is nothing more

than a life cycle applied to his particular concept. At a time

when most individuals are well grounded in a prevailing and

working paradigm, these would be pioneers are already frustrated

and looking for new territory to explore. Taking this step,

however, requires no small amount of courage for while it may be a

chance to scale new heights it could just as easily be a career

descent into a black, bottomless pit. These individuals are truly

putting their names and professional reputations behind the

aesthetic appeal of the new paradigm. 1 There is simply not

enough hard information early on to justify what they intuitively

know on the left side of their brain.

Once the new paradigm is put into place, the shifter, the

pioneer, and their firm can leverage the market and gain a

profound advantage. All that they have to do is to respond before

the late arriving competition can put a similar product into that

market place. 2 Barker has chosen to call this late arriving

1 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., pages 72 through 75.2 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., page 78.

competition the “settlers”. The analogy here is that of the safe

risk minimizer yelling ahead to the just reachable risk taker and

saying, “Is it safe there yet?”. Of course, the pioneer never

gave the settler an even break. Just as surely, no pioneer would

rescue a paradigm shifter who did not have the courage of

convictions and wherewithal to push on into new territory. U.S.

business and Japan, Inc. respectively have played out these roles

in recent years. Japan had the correct view of pioneering and

sticking to its goals. America pursued the illusion of short-term

profits. 1

Japan, Inc. has taken the original concept of a paradigm

shift and evolved it even further by marrying it to another of

Japan’s specialties, kaizen.

DEFINITION: KAIZEN, small daily changes that improve both

processes and products.

Kaizen essentially speeds up the pace of a paradigm life cycle by

increasing the slope of the phase two curve. The Japanese strive

every day to implement small improvements (0.01%) that eliminate

problems and improve quality. Over the span of a year this small

improvement amounts to an advantage in the marketplace of 24.0%

as well as a heightened awareness of the paradigm. It means that

Japan can understand a particular market faster than the


competition and that they have upgrades ready for introduction

whenever a competitor seeks to regain market share. Take the Sony

Walkman for instance. It was created and pioneered in Japan, and

then, introduced into the U.S.A. Immediately, Panasonic and Aiwa

introduced a clone, but Sony was ready and introduced an upgraded

miniaturized version. Guess whose products collected dust on the

shelf? Still later, both companies dragged out smaller clones of

the Walkman. Sony was again ready and responded with the addition

of FM radio. You should have guessed by now that Sony has stayed

loyal to the concept of kaizen. Through 1989, there had been

eleven (11) more upgrades of the Walkman.

The moral of this story as stated earlier is simple. “Never

give the late arriving settler an even break”. 1

The key answers to staying on top in this period of rapid

change come down to training yourself to recognize a paradigm

shift in the making and knowing where to look for the individuals

most likely to make it happen. Kuhn correctly identifies this

natural characteristic of current paradigms to create “unsolvable”

shelf problems that are “the stuff”, i.e. the raw materials, of a

paradigm shift. Shelf problems are “unsolvable” within a current

paradigm but only because we lack the tools or the technology or

the combination of both that is the prerequisite for creative


insight. 1 Albert Einstein said it like this in Covey’s book.

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same

level of thinking we were at when we created them”. 2

It is extremely difficult to play tennis before you know the

proper positions and the right way to hold a racket. Yet, the

game is quite simple once you discover these facts by either

reading the manual or by having someone showing you the way it is

played. Paradigm shifters teach paradigm pioneers to do just this

very thing whatever the medium may be.

The three “L’s” for locating these invaluable outsiders are

to listen, listen, and listen. One can never be sure just who

will bring you your future. College and even advanced degrees are

not necessarily an indicator. Experience is not a guarantee.

Gender and race make no difference. You must be tolerant,

persistent, and above all open to surprise from the most unlikely

of places, i.e. the fringes. Not the main stream. Experience

shows that the individual most likely to recognize a new paradigm

is an outsider. It may be this person knows little or nothing

about the existing paradigm. 3 Worse yet, this person may be

experiencing “lock out” by the prevailing paradigm.

1 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., pages 48 through 50, and page 52.2 Covey, Steven R., Op. Cit., page 42.3 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., pages 55 and 70.

DEFINITION: LOCK OUT, the lack of inclusion in the information

sharing structure of an organization.

A significant key to success is to acknowledge your paradigm

blinders and change or discard as necessary the ones that

interfere with paradigm recognition. Find ways to make these

special individuals part of your team.

Why does the business world treat outsiders so poorly? The

key to understanding this apparent contradiction has to do with

what one stands to lose in the parallel and accompanying power

shift. The higher up the corporate ladder one climbs the more one

stands to lose when the “in” paradigm falls from grace into the

corporate trash heap. Basically, we hate outsiders because they

are unfortunately seen as “THE MESSENGERS OF BAD NEWS”, a.k.a.

“THE MESSENGERS FROM HELL”. Remember our earlier discussion about

the innovative mortician who invented the automatic switching

device in order to circumvent the competition and allow the

families of “deceased prospects” to reach him? Do you think for

one moment that the displaced telephone operator or the

competition stopped to speak to him on the streets? No way. The

competition and Corporate America treat these individuals as

pariah.

The filters management puts into place for self-defenses

have become, ironically, the greatest barriers to the future

success of American business. If we do not learn to overcome our

fears, we will be forever saying to the would be paradigm

shifters, “Just who the hell do you think you are.” The

resignation of outsiders to “go destroy” the competition may feel

great for ten minutes. In the end, however, it’s a phyrric

victory. The paradigm perceptive competition will kick your butt

using your own “throwaways”. Ouch! 1 As if things are not bad

enough, “The Board” meets the next day and you are typing your own

resume that evening. This very routine is played out every single

week of the year on television and in our printed media. It does

seem familiar to you, does it not?

The moral of this story is to acknowledge your filters, work

within them as possible, but replace them when they stand in the

way of your success. You must identify the paradigm shifters,

actively encourage the sharing of their insights, and protect and

mentor them through an envious and even hostile work place.

Remember to do the same thing for the would be pioneers. The

first has the vision to see the new mountaintops. It is the

second one, however, that will carry you there.

Along the way, just maybe some of the remaining work force

will find anew its forgotten (or repressed) ability for insight.

1 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., pages 56-57, and 69 for direct quote.

It’s happening all around the globe as more and more innovative

managers remove “out of date filters" from the work place.

CHAPTER FIVEINTRODUCTORY QUOTATION

“THERE IS NO REASON FOR ANY INDIVIDUAL TO HAVE A COMPUTER IN THEIR HOME”.

KEN OLSEN, PRESIDENT,DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION,

1977. 1

CHAPTER FIVEMANAGEMENT FOR THE 1990’S AND BEYONDMANAGE WITHIN A PARADIGMAND LEAD TO NEW PARADIGMS


Old style managers still view management as “...telling

workers what to do and when to do it.” 1 The reality of today is

that employees are organized (or want to be so organized) into

formal or informal work teams that are self-orienting. Herein

lies the greatest dilemma of the American work place of 1993. How

do we reeducate the old styled managers who fill to overflowing

the ranks of lower and middle level management and thereby bind up

the gears of TQM efforts? Something obviously has to be done.

Let’s face facts. Western Europe, Japan and the developing

Pacific Rim nations are a quantum leap ahead of the United States

of America when it comes to implementing TQM and effectively

managing people. So, what do we need to do?

“What are the problems that all my peers want to solve and

we don’t have the slightest idea of how to do it?” 2 The more I

reread this quote, the more I realized how much this addressed

management within a paradigm and as well as within a TQM

environment. This is management that is future oriented and

focused on new horizons. It is a management which realizes the

limitations of the “one man - one way” paradigm and moves forward

to seek out the wonderful diversity of competing perceptions.

Barker calls this concept paradigm pliancy and sets two standards

for achieving it. The first states that managers who seek to be

pliant must teach their peers to do the same thing. The second

1 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., page 147.2 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., Page 53.

and last is that managers are responsible for mentoring outsiders

and encouraging “cross talk” throughout the organization.

DEFINITION: CROSS TALK, The exchange of ideas between individuals

who work at other levels, in other departments, and even other

divisions. It's stated purpose is to increase understanding within

the corporation. 1

Cross talk is getting people together, talking through

common problems, and looking to each other for insight and

solutions. It is not saying, “Who do you think you are buddy”,

and saying instead, “I have never considered this problem from

your perspective. Tell me how you see it.” 2

As a manager, you need to be continually exposed to new

ideas. In times like today’s with the pace of business so fast

one cannot sit back and let ideas come to your desk. This

technique was only marginally successful in the relative quiet of

yesteryear. Today it is foolish. One has to be proactive and

pursue information. Some call this pursuit “management by walking

around”. Others prefer to call it “observational management”.

While either description identifies the technique, there is a good

deal more to proactive management. A good manager cares about his

1 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., pages 161 and 162.2 Barker, Joel A., Op. Cit., pages 157 and 158, and 69 for thedirect quote.

people and spends a fair amount of his time letting them know that

he is a concerned, caring, human being. One of the best ways to

show individuals that you value their contribution is to seek them

out and listen to their opinions and insights.

Barker proposes that we get out from behind our desks and

solicit one hundred (100) new ideas with the understanding that

only a small percentage of these will be worthwhile. Idea hunting

is similar to cross talk. You talk with anyone from the janitor

up through top management provided you have that kind of access on

either end of the spectrum. Just being exposed to these new ideas

gives you valuable insights into the weaknesses, opportunities,

threats, and strengths (WOTS up analysis) of your organization.

These are the kinds of insights that less proactive managers, i.e.

“the desk bound drones”, tragically never uncover. Remember that

you are the only one in your organization that has been exposed to

these ideas. You are privy to these ideas not because of formal

connections, but, because you took the time to develop your own

effective network. In my opinion, one of the greatest advantages

of this network is its informality. People are less likely to

tell you what they “think the boss wants to hear” and more likely

to share their real ideas and concerns. Naturally, how you treat

this relationship will either improve things or discourage further

exchanges. So, by all means use it wisely.

(Informal networks also help keep you informed whenever “upper

management” adopts a controlling posture of informational secrecy

or partial disclosures.)

Do not be discouraged from your search if things do not

appear to be going well. Just maybe idea number twelve will be a

winner, or perhaps number twelve and one of the other ninety-nine

ideas can be joined together or even naturally compliment one

another. Only you will know this. You alone have this collection

of ideas. You alone know what these ideas suggest and what the

company can do with these ideas. 1

The paradigm pliancy strategy described above is an

incredibly powerful management tool and a strong personal power

lever as well. More importantly, though, it is a patterning that

seeks to reinforce a primary awareness that many solutions exist

and few if any “unique answers”. It is an excellent tool for

keeping your mind open to the paradigms of others. We need

pliancy now in American business.

There also comes a time when our explorations will meet face

to face with an idea that is growing into a paradigm shift. In

such an instance, there is no footprint to contain your efforts


and shape it. You will be going where management has never gone

before and asking other individuals to go along with you. This is

an exciting time when your personal history of exploration becomes

either a vehicle of success or a lesson in humility. People will

not be managed through a paradigm shift. They must be led. A

leader as defined by Barker is “...a person you will follow to a

place you would not go by yourself”, 1 or perhaps more accurately

fear to go. We are all creatures of habit and change interferes

with our accustomed ways of life. A good leader, however, can

take you through your fears and into a tomorrow of new, dynamic

paradigms.

Not surprisingly, the future is never as bleak as our

nightmares present it. In fact, as long as you are not an expert

within the old paradigm, you may find yourself remarkably adapted

to the new order. A study of chess grandmasters proves

conclusively that the masters actually perform less well in the

perceived chaos of the new paradigm than a novice. Why? The

rules that were the basic building blocks of their paradigm no

longer apply. 2 So, think twice the next time that you get an

expert’s opinion. These are the individuals that are absolutely

helpless when the rules change. I sincerely hope that the

following discussion of “worker efficiency” will make this point

clear once and for all times.

1 Barker, Joel A., page 163.2 Barker, Joel A., pages 103-105.

For many years, too many years, management has pursued an

outdated concept of worker efficiency as the only yardstick for

increasing productivity. We told our “employees” the correct ways

to do the job, what tools were needed, and even the way we

expected the task to be performed. Still worse, we even told

these individuals that management and management alone had the

brainpower to determine what were right and what future efforts

would be required. 1 Frederick Taylor in his own time may have

correctly interpreted Maslow’s hierarchy. I personally think he

was wrong even in the early part of the century. I am sure,

however, that he is decidedly wrong for our day and age. To

continue to use his methods today when the world and its

prevailing paradigms have evolved so far is wrong and a losing

management philosophy. I believe that Detroit took Taylor’s ideas

further than the concept should have ever traveled. I do not

believe that automobile problems are solely the result of

“hangover Mondays” and “party yearning Fridays”. What I do

believe is that the sloppy workmanship coming out of Detroit is

the direct result of rational, capable individuals being pushed

beyond the norms of what they feel is fair. No one wants to be an

efficiency automaton.

TQM taught the world a much-needed lesson. There can be no

quality without sincere caring for the individuals that make it

1 Barker, Joel A., page 136.

all happen. 2 The successful companies of tomorrow must get this

message and get it fast. Our finest, most valuable resources are

people. The quickest and surest way to kill the human spirit is

to ask someone to be a part of an effort that fails to recognize

the needs of individuals for self-realization. We must continue

to be aware of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and realize that people

the world over not only seek, but increasingly are demanding, the

mountain top of self-realization. Barker, unfortunately, sees

only mediocre effort as the harbinger of poor performance and

totally misses the need for self-realization. (Incidentally, the

desire for self-realization is getting ever stronger as we finish

out the decade and move into the 21st century.) This is a severe

failing in a text that calls for seeking out new ideas, being open

to arising concepts, mentoring the development of outsiders, and

adapting new paradigms.

To summarize this review of the business paradigm, there are

several key lessons that need to be repeated because of their

importance. These are as follows:

Develop a mindset that is tolerant of new ideas;

Be tolerant of those individuals who bring you these new ideas;

Be especially tolerant of “others” who see the world through paradigms that are different from your own;

Proactively seek out new paradigm shifters and pioneers;

2 Barker, Joel A., page 136.

Listen to what they have to say;

and, finally, grow, protect, and mentor these rare and special individuals.

Doing these six things and doing them well will effectively

position you for managing in the 21st century. In the interim,

doing these same items well certainly will not hurt you.

Remember that there is going to be a great deal of change,

major change, in the remainder of this decade and especially in

the 21st century. People will become impatient with management

because of its paradigm blinders. Whenever this happens, we must

remember that we are the ones responsible for removing the

blinders and moving on to the insights of new paradigms. If we

are paradigm pliant, we will hear the opportunity. If we are

inflexible and glued to the prevailing paradigms of the time, we

will only hear the threats in what might have been beneficial

exchanges. The choice is ours and ours alone. 1

In closing this review of this business paradigm, i.e. the

creative search for realistic and innovative solutions based on

the successful assimilation of divergent paradigms, I should note

that it is supported by Amitai Etzioni’s belief in the “I/We

Paradigm” and his desire to have that paradigm supplant the

existing neoclassical one. Etzioni argues passionately for this

1 Barker, Joel A., pages 210 - 211.

new paradigm, a deontological one, which sees individuals as

competent and rational when they are anchored in a supportive

community and sustained by firm moral and emotional frameworks.

(Sadly, we are notably lacking in moral and emotional

sensibilities just now in America. While we are not yet on the

verge of accommodating Etzioni’s model, we have staunchly rejected

a paradigm of conservative, two parent families. What will

replace it as yet remains uncertain, but a new paradigm, focused

on a clearer vision of “family” is surely coming into focus on the

national level. Let us hope and work for a model that addresses

the moral arena as well. Ethics in business can do wonders for

ethics in the homes and communities of America.)

In a business setting Etzioni’s concept envisions a

community based on a people sorted “we” rather than a management

mandated “they”. It brings to mind the work place developments of

self-directing peer groups, cross talk, and the support for all

peoples who view this world through diverse, yet equally competent

paradigms. 1 The near future and the 21st century in particular

is going to be one of exciting change and great promise for the

self realization of peoples the world over.

It is time that we gather the paradigm shifters and the

pioneers, settle on a new path, and take the leap of faith. To

1 Etzioni, Amitai, THE MORAL DIMENSION, The Free Press, New York,1988, pages ix through 19.

not chart a new path, to not move forward, will ultimately doom

both the competitiveness and the success of American business and

government. The promise of America in the foreseeable future

depends upon our innate but presently repressed ability to

recreate a national identity. I believe it is time to cross talk

the people pliant legacy of Robert F. Kennedy, to cross talk the

ideas of a new more inclusive national identity, and to create the

new paradigms that define this “all inclusive America”. The basic

ideas are present and awash in the consciousness of this nation

for all who will listen.

SECTION TWO

A RE-APPLICATION OFOPERATIONAL PARADIGMS

Paradigms as used in this section does not mean a new concept or idea, but rather, it is the re-application of proven ideas that would partially define a modern management paradigm. It is a packaging of existing ideas, old and new, tried and true, even discarded and reintroduced in new ways, which can create more encompassing, more humanistic styles of management. It is the combination of “tried and true, and still evolving ideas” that management needs to put to work in the American work place of tomorrow.

CHAPTER SIXINTRODUCTORY QUOTATION

“A man takes contradiction and advice muchmore easily than people think, only he will notbear it when it is violently given, even if itis well founded.” JeanPaul Richter 1

1 Ziglar, Zig, Top Performance, Berkeley Books, NewYork, 1987, page 60.

CHAPTER SIXTHE EMPLOYEE PARADIGMEXPECT THE BEST FROM BOTHNEW HIRES AND OTHERS

In all the universe, past, present, and future as we now

comprehend it there is only the one you. Each of us is at least a

trillion times more precious than the rarest diamond on earth.

Small wonder then that each of us lacks the ability to fully

comprehend our own self worth. How can we ever hope to fully

understand one another?

Ever wonder why management the world over cannot find a way

to screen out the “losers” who apply for (or already work in)

jobs at any particular institution? The workforces of America are

“a buzz” with concerns over entry screens that just do not get the

job done effectively. Why do “losers” slip through the review

process? The problem does not stop here however. Managers are

equally unhappy with those “on boards” individuals who are not

living up to what is expected of them. Why has their performance

standards slipped?

The global need to find, hire, and keep top performers is

particularly acute now mainly because the specter of world class

competition looms so large. This trend will only accelerate in

the 21st century as the current workforce of “baby boomers”

starts to retire. Top managers the world over are beginning to

understand the seriousness of both the competition for good

workers and the dwindling pool of skilled workforce. Personnel

systems and other management devices that fail to identify and

successfully attract competent and productive individuals make

their companies susceptible to the competition. Beware. We all

know what happens to companies that cannot compete. They go

broke and out of business. Good employees are the winning edge

that creates your company’s economic success.

How then do we screen out the “losers” and hire the best?

How do we remake the current work force into a more productive

one? Managers the world over should be struggling right now to

decide these very complex issues.

Andrew Groves in his book, High Output Management, talks

candidly about the need to establish meaningful rules for doing

business and ways for employees to measure themselves. 1 Zig

Ziglar takes Groves’s idea a little further in Top Performance and

points out that we must first “expect the best” and then inspect

to be sure we are getting the best. To do so, however, requires

proactive management, which investigates its environment and

tracks down the activities that constitute top performance.

1 Groves, Andrew S., High Output Management, Random House, New York,1983, page 170.

Simply put, we must measure first and manage second. 2 We also

need to be aware of Groves’s observation that workers today are

nearing the top of Maslow’s pyramid and have an unfulfilled need

to be self-directing. So, let the employees track their

respective performance against a performance standard. When done

effectively, it is a win-win initiative.

Ziglar expands on the aforementioned concept with a

measurement system he calls the “Performance Value Package”. Step

One sets that level of performance that basically allows an

individual to keep the job. I do not interpret this to mean that

the performance standard is static, but rather, it can be adjusted

up or down based on both pre-existing conditions and those special

circumstances that arise in all of our lives. We will never

achieve top performance from our employees unless we as managers

humanistically relate to these individuals and make conscientious

efforts at accommodation. (Remember, if these individuals were

not on board, the odds are that we also would be out of work.)

Setting a minimal level of acceptable performance is a very

important step. It says to the employee that their future is tied

to a previously identified level of performance. If it is not

achieved, first the employee is in jeopardy and then so is the

business. (By definition, the business cannot be making its

competitive goals if its employees are not successful.) As

2 Ziglar, Op. Cit., Pages 46 and 81.

managers, it is up to us to monitor the situation and prevent a

lose-lose situation.

Step Two is that level of performance that both the employee

and the business realistically expects to achieve. After all, we

do not ask our plants and equipment to go 100% all of the time.

Why should our employees to do something that we already know is

not realistic? Why should you? We all need time to think, ponder

other ways, and hopefully think about, if not discover, new

paradigms. We also need time to just be average and recharge our

batteries if we are to prevent burnout. Level Two recognizes the

needs of individuals.

Step Three, the last one, deals with performance that goes

better than planned. Basically, the employee excels in all areas.

We need to reward this exceptional behavior and for that matter

any and all performance that goes better than expected. After

all, it shows others that such performance can be achieved and in

so doing removes the paradigm blinders that normally keep other

employees from this level of achievement. This is a win-win

initiative. Do not pull back and do not take this performance for

granted. Reward this behavior and harvest the additional fruits

of your efforts and the labors of the fine individuals that

achieve more than is expected.

The advantages of Ziglar’s “Performance Value Package” are

obvious and numerous. There are, however, several points that I

feel need to be outlined in this review of the “Expect The Best”

paradigm. The four points are as follows:

Management spends directed time in specific discussionabout job performance;

The manager and the employee get to know each other and identify expectation levels through discussions;

A base level of minimum performance level is established so that neither the employee nor the business is put in jeopardy;

and, the manager in discussions with the employee identifies the level of performance the employee wants to reach.

Ziglar noted a very important finding from companies that have

adopted this “Performance Value Package”. First and foremost, the

process works. People have a natural desire to make goals that

they perceive are fair and equally applied. Second, a business

almost never has to fire anyone. In very rare cases, a

nonperforming individual will see the “handwriting on the wall”

and choose to leave ahead of the process. Such a development

should, however, be rare when this “Expect the Best” paradigm is

correctly implemented and monitored. 1

1 Ziglar, Op. Cit., pages 74 through 76.

CHAPTER SEVENINTRODUCTORY QUOTATION

“ ...(L)ove respects the dignity of the individual. Heart power is the strength of your corporation”

Vince Lombardi 1

CHAPTER SEVENTHE FEAR PARADIGM DRIVE FEAR FROM YOUR ORGANIZATION

In their book, Beyond Quality, Bowles and Hammond make four

powerful observations about business that I feel are to the point

and sadly true about American business in general. These are as

follows:

1 Ziglar, Zig, Op. Cit., page 290.

Fear to speak out exists at all levels;

Seventy percent of all employees do not speak up because ofthe fear of repercussions;

A basic mistrust exists between bosses and their employees;

and, most managers unconsciously threaten their employees.

(More than a few others do it deliberately.)

To make matters even worse, employees “...feel they cannot afford

to be seen as not being a team player or as acting in an

unprofessional way (however unfounded that reality may be)”. 1

How does management correct these misgivings and move on to a more

productive relationship?

First, we need to identify some of the actions that produce

both fear and fear attitudes in individuals. Ambiguous behavior

is probably the worst mistake that management can make. Secretive

decision making, uninviting behavior, the lack of communication or

indirect communication, and the lack of responsiveness to employee

initiatives and suggestions are all actions that create distrust.

The next most cited behaviors are abrasive and abusive conduct,

brevity and abruptness in dealings with employees, snubbing or

ignoring people, insults or put downs, blaming and discrediting

others, aggressive behavior, controlling behavior, yelling and

shouting, threats about the job, and physical threats. This

1Bowles, Jerry and Hammond, Joshua, Beyond Quality, G.P. Putnam and Sons, New York, 1991, pages 94 and 95.

rounds out the list of inappropriate behaviors that either

contribute to or cause fear in the work place. Surprisingly, a

large percentage of American companies still do business in this

self destructive manner even today. (Overall most of the input

for this paper is five years old and much is only one to two years

old.)

The first step that management must take is to acknowledge,

however non-judgmental, that fear is a part of the work place and

that management is responsible for its existence. Until fear is

neutralized, all other management efforts at improvement will be

ineffectual. Leading companies are doing exactly this and are

displacing fear by opening up their companies to “others”. (This

is exactly what Barker’s paradigm concept suggests.) Leading

companies are open to new ideas, the sharing of information,

emphasizing the open quality of their work place, and

acknowledging that employees, not plant and equipment, are their

most valuable assets. 1 This is what it takes to be successful in

today’s world not the world of 2001. If you want to talk about

2001 begin by asking yourself this question about your company.

“If we continue to manage as we do now, how will we attract good,

competent people in the future.” The answer is you will not.

You will already be out of business.

1 Bowles and Hammond, Op. Cit., pages 95 and 103.

Old styled management tends to view business success

as exclusively its own domain. The reality could not be

more different. Success, the idea, is simply finding a

need and filling it. Your employees, however, are the ones

that make it all possible. So, if you truly want success,

create an environment that lets your employees accomplish

this goal. 1 The true leaders of tomorrow are those

managers who are able to inspire others and make a cohesive

group out of an increasingly diverse work force. These

leaders have the security of self to delegate and let their

people make mistakes. After all, as you and I both know,

we learn by our failures and not by our successes. Let

your people make mistakes, and when it happens be sure to

encourage it. 2 Be a coach, a friend, a facilitator, a

mentor, and a champion to your people. When you do these

things, you will drive fear from your organization and you

will install in its place an empowered, participative work

force.

1 Bowles and Hammond, Op. Cit., page 106.2 Batten, Joe D., Tough Minded Leadership, Amacom, New York,1989, page 123 and 130.

CHAPTER EIGHTINTRODUCTORY QUOTATION

“THREE BILLION PEOPLE ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTHGO TO BED HUNGRY EVERY NIGHT, BUT FOUR BILLION GO TO BED EVERY NIGHT HUNGRY FOR A SIMPLE WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT AND RECOGNITION.”

CAVETT ROBERTS 1

1 Ziglar, Zig, Op. Cit., pages 64 and 65.

CHAPTER EIGHTA PARADIGM OF POSITIVE REINFORCEMENTMOTIVATION AND PRAISE

MOTIVATION

Life is a non-linear function; we move ahead, we fall back

to earlier levels of achievement, and we move ahead once again.

Take for example the introduction of computers into the business

world. All of a sudden there was a new and powerful arena in

corporate life. People, who only yesterday had good, insightful

people skills fixated on number crunching. Remember Secretary of

Defense MacNamara in the Kennedy Administration? His generation

believed that they could manage the war in Vietnam with raw

numbers fed into this magic box. Their measures were ton of

bombs, the numbers of Vietcong and American troops killed (i.e.

body counts), and mini-max theory in general. All the while North

Vietnam said something to this effect, “...we will lose ten of our

people to one of yours and in the end you will tire of war and go

home”. While I was in college there was an apocryphal story

circulating that Washington had entered all the numbers into their

computer and arrived at a best guess of when America would win the

war. That date was several years in the past.

Business needs to rely less on staffs and committees, and to

forget about the reports and rules that add no value to American

products and services. In short, business needs a renewal in the

selfsame way that the U.S. military rebuilt after Vietnam and the

soul searching that accompanied that tragically flawed effort.

Business in America has to become the America that went to war in

Kuwait and proved itself all over again. To do so, we have to

start from the ground up and relearn the lost art of people

skills. We must “...once again depend on people, rely on their

insights and divergent paradigms, and create ownership and

enthusiasm for the tasks at hand”. 1 We must also learn to lead

with praise and motivation and do so within the parameters of an

ethically founded structure. We should do so both because it is

right and because it works very well. There is no other rational

choice on the horizon.

A common thread that runs through the better-managed

companies of our time is the ability to see employees as unique

and special individuals and not just faceless automatons. As

Peters and Austin are quick to point out, people are emotional

beings who care, and love, and feel pride and experience slights.2 Given such traits, how can we expect even mediocre performance

if the experiences of the work place are not satisfying one? The

answer is we, as managers must not leave these experiences to

1 Peters, Tom and Austin, Nancy, A Passion For Excellence, Random House, New York, 1985, page 293.2 Peters and Austin, Op. Cit., page 277.

happenstance. If it requires our intervention in the form of

motivation and praise so much the better for all.

Vince Lombardi, one of the manliest coaches I can remember,

never was one to shy away from caring. Clearly, Vince Lombardi

had a rare and special gift. He knew intuitively that people

“...reason by means of stories not mounds of data”. 1 He

understood that people make decisions more than they are willing

to admit on emotional values as opposed to logic.

A prime example is the following story about Johnny Unitas,

the then star quarterback for the Baltimore Colts.. Unitas liked

nothing better than slipping out of training camp after curfew to

womanize and to drink. The first time that Lombardi caught him he

gave a warning and told Unitas that he would impose a fine of two

hundred dollars ($200) if Unitas got caught again. Well, the very

next night, Unitas got caught. Lombardi fined him the $200 and

told him that the next fine would be $1,000. Unitas always the

womanizer got caught by Lombardi still again several days later

and paid the $1000 fine. This time, however, Lombardi set the new

rate at $5,000 and told Unitas that if she was worth the money to

come and get him. He would have to see her to believe it!

Johnny finally got the message.

The lesson here should be clear. Lombardi’s caring is what brought

individuals together as an optimally productive team .

1 Peters and Austin, Op. Cit., page 278.

Ziglar believes that there are three steps we must take in

order to improve our self-esteem and that of others. First, we

must make out a list of our personal victories and keep track of

these successes. (John Proe did something very similar to this

with one of his foundation courses here in Leesburg. Essentially,

he gave out a gift, a small pocket sized note pad, and encouraged

every one of us to daily record at least one deed we were proud of

and felt good about.) It really is a good buffer for those “bleak

midwinters of life” that we all experience. Second, each of us

has to be willing to grow every day and every moment of that day.

When one responds to the world in such a manner it is impossible

not to see the opportunities and fresh challenges. Third and

last, we need to focus our attention on others and do our best to

provide them with positive motivation. Top managers have a

naturally developed talent for finding and encouraging the good in

others. Far too many others unfortunately remember only the bad.1

Positive, well-aimed reinforcement works and works well when

it is provided immediately after a meritorious action takes place.

When so done, it helps others remember the good and fosters an

appetite for additional winning performances. This is the essence

of effective management. Draw on your own experiences. Remember

that you are where you are only because someone helped you. So,

1 Ziglar, Zig, Op. Cit., pages 96-99, and 48.

go out on the floor and give others the reinforcement that they

sorely need and deserve. 1 A good manager understands the

importance of planting motivational memory seeds.

Even in the worst of times, we know that well considered,

positive reinforcement works! Take for example the situation that

General Patton found when he arrived in North Africa in 1942.

Patton came on board to find troops that had been badly beaten in

battle by the Afrika Corps under Rommel. They were mentally

defeated and had been robbed of their self-esteem. The “army” was

in shambles and in fact was an army only on paper. Patton wasted

no time. He set about restoring self-esteem by focusing on

housekeeping chores, physical fitness, and uniform maintenance.

Patton successfully restored self-esteem to the army because he

gave his men small meaningful goals that were realistic given the

total breakdown of morale. The goals were realistic and the

successes of his people were rewarded promptly. Most people

forget to associate Patton with the “rewards” he handed out. This

is a great shame. Positive reinforcement literally rebuilt this

army and in point of fact built his next command into the world’s

finest fighting machine of its day and age.

(What far too many people remember about General Patton is

the slapping incident that involved a “shell shocked” soldier.

This incident reinforces a lesson noted earlier in this paper to

1 Ziglar, Zig, Op. Cit., page 59.

which I now call your attention. Please refer to the Introductory

Quotation for Chapter 6, page 47.)

One final note about motivation before going on to the

special circumstance called “Praise”. It is very, very important

that your positive reinforcement be well thought out and

consistent. Employees naturally monitor the efforts of management

and they diligently watch for any inconsistency. 1 So, be

deliberate, be fair to all, and most importantly keep up the

effort. The results will make a believer out of even the most

skeptical.

PRAISE

The more I read about participative work places, the more I find

that Ziglar, Covey, Batten, Naisbett, Cohen, et. al., all

fundamentally agree with the findings of Bowles and Hammond.

Beyond Quality strongly suggests that one of the most important

strategies for a participative workforce is providing formal

recognition of a job well done. Quality organizations realize

that employees who feel good about themselves and their work

produce better goods and services than the less well-motivated

employees of so-so organizations do. The follow-up and obvious

second question is then, “What type of recognition best rewards,

1 Peters and Austin, Op. Cit., page 277.

supports, and reinforces self-motivation?”. There is not one,

but, three answers to this question. Money is conspicuous only by

its absence. The top responses are:“Let me do more”;“Recognize my efforts more”;and, “Listen to my ideas for improvement”.

No surprises here. Individuals are hiking towards the top of

Maslow’s pyramid of self-realization in a brisker, more mentally

fit manner. One should not overlook the parallel here with

physical fitness. The two are related and definitely compliment

one another. These findings come from a 1990 American Society for

Quality Control conducted by the Gallup Poll. 1

Praise, honest and sincere praise, is what individuals want,

and basically need to continue up the climb up the mountain of

self-realization. When the opportunity presents itself, give

praise, make sure that all who qualify get praise equally, and

never, never use praise to criticize someone else. The

opportunities for giving praise are quite ample once you remove

those old, worn out paradigm blinders. As Ziglar noted in a witty

moment, “. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day”. 2 Just

think how much more wonderful people are by comparison. Give

praise to individuals whenever possible. Help people to grow.

Help individuals achieve self-realization.

1 Bowles and Hammond, Op. Cit., pages 108-109.2 Ziglar, Op. Cit., pages 53, and 59-60.

CRITICISM

The other side of this gift called praise is criticism. Criticism

is hard on everyone, potentially wrong, but alas sometimes right

on target. Nonetheless, we need to be mindful of what Dr. Norman

Vincent Peale had to say, “...the trouble with most of us is that

we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism”. 1

(Arguably, his definition of “saved” is much broader than that

with which we as business managers need to deal.) Suffice it to

say a little criticism travels a very long way. So, by all means

use it sparingly. Remember to give only constructive criticism

and, then, be sure you do it in private.

In closing this discussion of motivation and praise, two

important points stand out like none others. I know in this

particular case that I cannot say them as well or any better than

the authors did. So, here in the authors’ own words are these two

important points:

“...(T)o brag on any person’s project whichrepresents less than a person’s capability is toencourage mediocrity and the corporate world isalready oversupplied with that commodity”; 2

and this one,

1 Ziglar, Zig, Op. Cit., page 45.2 Ziglar, Op. Cit., page 47.

“The fact that we have trouble rememberingpositive reinforcement is a terrible indictment of oursociety and should emphasize to each of us theimportance of sincerely pointing out the good we seein others.” 1

Motivation and praise are formidable cards in the hands of a

21st century manager. Make no mistake about it. So, the next time

some politician or high power executive tries to say that the deck

is unfairly stacked by competition from either Europe or the

Pacific Rim be sure to think about the cards you are playing. It

is always easier to blame others for our own miserable failings

than to accept the fact that we are human beings capable of “no

small amount” of trial and error. Accept your fair share of

criticism and do not advance the cause of racism and bigotry. The

world already harvests too much of these bitter crops.

One of the strengths of paradigm perception is that we allow

ourselves the same opportunities we allow others. “Carpe Diem”.

Seize the initiative and give it your best shot. If you fail,

graciously accept the blame and learn from your failings. Get up;

sort out the pieces, but keep on trying. We all learn a lot more

from our failings than we do from our successes. Failings give

others a clearer window into a person’s true self. Failings also

tell that individual just what sort of character the other person

truly possesses. As some wag once said, “In every silver lining

there is a black cloud”. The line between a failing and failure

1 Ziglar, Op. Cit., page 35.

is indeed small. I believe it is better defined by our own spirit

rather than by someone else’s scorecard.

CHAPTER NINEINTRODUCTORY QUOTATION

“I HEREBY RESIGN THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT OF THEUnited States of America.”

RICHARD M. NIXON (PUBLIC DOMAIN)

CHAPTER NINETHE ETHICAL PARADIGMIT’S UP TO MANAGEMENT (FIRST AND FOREMOST) TO RESTART THE ENGINE.

Ethics as my generation understands it has many teachers.

We are one of the first several generations of Americans to miss

the primary influence of family and community. World War II, the

rise of large corporations, and an increasingly mobile society all

drastically reduced the impact of family values and the influence

of community. I seriously doubt that today’s generation will ever

fully comprehend the sense of community that our parents

intuitively understood. As for me, I have been far luckier than

most and have known a family dedicated to honest, ethical

behavior. My experience, however, is by no means “the rule” for

my generation and it is just possibly a special subset of that

rule. One thing we all have in common though is the influence

that business and “business ethics” have played in our ethical

maturation and that of following generations.

Decision making in business today as in past years is

dominated by a concern for precedents, legalism, and more often

than not some type of government oversight and regulation.

Management is far too dependent on the lawyers as its source of

knowledge and wisdom as it runs the formidable legal gauntlet.

What is right? What is wrong? We constantly defer to the

judgement of the legal community and ask them to make the

decisions for us. Of course in making our decision for us, the

lawyers do so within their own paradigm and thereby confuse ethics

with legalism and that behavior appropriate under the “laws of the

land.” 1

1 Miller, Lawrence M., American Spirit, William Morrow & Company, Inc., New York,1984, page 18.

Through this method of legal solutions, ethics has been and

continues to be severely eroded in the work place. Many of our

peers give in to the easy route and abdicate their personal

responsibility to set ethical standards. It starts at the office

and carries over into the home and the community. Other peers

forget to mentor ethical conduct in others and by so doing send

the message that it is a thankless task. What happens is that

once thinking individuals learn “to react” to legalese and “to

pretend” that there is no ethical heart to the business concerns

of the day. Sadly for our friends who buy into this defective

logic, there is no more thinking about ethics.

Business in the waning years of the 1980’s became

increasingly concerned about ethics in the work place and took

various steps to improve it. Some of these efforts were,

unfortunately, only public relations. Take for example those

businesses that wrote a code of ethics, displayed it behind the

receptionist’s desk, and expected this effort and this effort

alone to be effective. Such actions had no purpose except to

“keep up with Mr. Jones’ business” and buy the company false and

illusory good will within the community. Still other companies

wrote their code to enforce chain of command and to damage control

embarrassing moments. A few even did so to “jerk the chain” of

“whistle blowers”. Sadly, we know all too well the examples in

our community, in our business, and in our governments.

Fortunately though, not all efforts are this skeptical. Some

of our better-run businesses clearly see the problem for the

serious failing that it is. These businesses take positive steps,

arguably of varying degree, but all aimed at restoring ethics to

the work place. They do not stop with a written code, but rather,

begin here and go forward starting with a top level reappraisal,

followed by the prerequisite management training, formal

reintroduction to all other remaining levels of the company, and

follow-up seminars dedicated to strengthening ethics in their work

place. Additionally, these fine companies are dedicated to a

continuous need for improvement and monitor that improvement to be

sure they stay on the right track. The management of these

corporations goes the extra mile and gets to the ethical heart of

corporate decisions. They realize that employees watch their

efforts and hold them accountable to the community’s code of

ethical conduct.

Note that I said community’s code. It truly must be a

community owned effort for ethics to be viable. There can be no

dichotomy of response. Ethics must apply to everyone equally. It

is imperative, therefore, that management not only plays by the

same rules, but also, does so in a manner, which is above

reproach.

As for the future, management will be placing increasingly

higher levels of trust into the individuals that run their

companies. It should come as no great surprise, then, that future

executives will have to be even more ethical than their

counterparts of today. How do we get there? We must first put

together a learning process that teaches young managers to act on

a superior belief system. It says basically, “Do that which you

know is right and correct as opposed to that which is legal and

expedient”. Why is this the correct approach? I think it has to

do with letting individuals see that they are involved in a worthy

process, that their ethical actions have special meaning and

purpose, and that they are ultimately building a future of which

they can be proud. 1 In many ways, it goes back yet once again to

Maslow and his pyramid. If we are going to realize highest order

needs, we can do so only in an honest, ethical manner.

I hope there is a code of ethics at work in your business.

If there is, it is truly deserving of your support. Always

remember that the continuum of ethics is extremely fragile. It is

only as strong as the weakest link. Your efforts, both good and

bad, have a profound impact on other individuals and ultimately

the success or failure of your community's code. One cannot turn

a blind eye to an ethical concern without destroying part of that

special community.

1 Miller, Lawrence M., Op. Cit., pages 132-133, and 19.

CHAPTER TENINTRODUCTORY QUOTATION

“PEOPLE MUST BE FIRST AND TECHNOLOGY SECOND.”JOE BATTEN 1

CHAPTER TENTHE MANAGEMENT PARADIGMMANAGE PEOPLE AND THE ASSETS OFTHE COMPANY TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES

We stand at a crossroads in American business. The national

work force has changed so much in makeup, education, and ability

that old-styled manager are no longer effective. Worse yet, they

1 Batten, Joe D., Op. Cit., page 5.

are becoming a hindrance to achievement. Similarly, rigidity of

thinking, defensive actions, orderly and sterile work environments

are out. We now know that all of these lead to the

disillusionment of people and ultimately that of our customers. 1

In America’s better-run companies, management by control is

being replaced with management through leadership. Leadership is

the right tool because it gets the best from people and because it

responds quickly to change. Effective leadership wins loyalty,

achieves commitment, and earns the respect of employees and peers.

Finally, such leadership accepts “as a given” that in today’s work

place people must achieve personal goals as part of the ongoing

process of achieving company goals.

Sherry Cohen in her book, Tender Power, discusses the

attributes of today’s best bosses. Some of these are as follows:

“Self-confidence;the ability to share glory;a caring personality;a decisive nature;a commitment to colleagues and projects;and, the courage to surround oneself with people more skilled than oneself.” 2

1 Batten, Joe D., Op. Cit., pages 3 and 4.2 Cohen, Sherry Suib, Tender Power, Addison-Wesley

Publishing Company, Inc., New York,1989, page 59.

There is not one trait of an old styled manager in this list. All

of these fit the current description of a manager as a leader.

The future clearly belongs to managers who achieve goals

through the understanding and motivation of their people. This is

borne out in numerous readings, in discussions with peers, and in

work place observations. The only real problem is that the change

is so slow in coming. American management historically and even

today adheres to the classic “Type A” categorization of lazy,

unmotivated employees who must be told what to do and how to do

it. While nothing could be further from the truth, old (bad)

habits die slowly. The business obituaries are loaded down with

companies that died rather than give up on control styled

management. One would think that such death notices would cause

the management of still viable companies to open up their firms to

others, to change their approaches to business, and to go with new

paradigms better suited to the needs of today’s work place. That

they have not is clear testimony to the strength of a first and

second level management that refuses to meet the challenges of the

21st century. It is this fear of losing control (as well as the

fear of the unknown) that has for the most part robbed America of

creative, productive, work places.

We are only as strong as our weakest link and that link

appears to be management. If American business is to compete

effectively in this era of world class competition, then,

management must rededicate itself to the goal of all encompassing,

employee nurturing, and idea sharing work places. Management

must also learn that the only true asset each of us controls is

our time. Some of the nation’s forward looking companies like

Convex have taken the unprecedented step of giving managers and

employees alike offices of equal size just to underscore the worth

of individual contribution in the realization of corporate goals.1

1 Bowles and Hammond, Op. Cit., page 107.

Chapter ElevenIntroductory Quotation

“Basically, our reputation for quality isenhanced or destroyed by the way we handleproblems and emergencies.”

Beyond Quality 1

CHAPTER ELEVEN


THE CUSTOMER SERVICE PARADIGMA SATISFIED CUSTOMER IS THE ONLY TRUE BOTTOM LINE

Customer service in the 1990’s and beyond is remarkable only

in that it is returning to the basics. While many seem to believe

that the McDonald's Corporation is a benchmark of customer

service, I personally do not. It is grossly overrated and it has

definitely passed its peak. Take a trip to the Leesburg store

and experience long lines, no “fast” food, and a drive-through

that is neither fast nor capable of delivering whatever it was you

ordered. The real champion of customer service is none other than

L.L. Bean, Inc. who has been doing the job right since early in

the 1900’s. It was in fact manually processing orders at that

time with a truly remarkable accuracy level of 99.89% 1. Xerox

was so impressed with L.L. Bean, Inc. later in this century, that

it made the company their icon to be copied. Pun intended.

A second reason that L.L. Bean Inc. is my champion, however,

is that it stands behind its founder’s reputation and replaces

products that fail just like the “real McCoy” did shortly after

the turn of the century with his miserable failure, the Maine

Hunting Shoe. One could make a pretty convincing argument that

old L.L. prospered thereafter because of the honest, customer

oriented way in which he handled his early failure. Only


recently, the Marketing Sciences Institute rediscovered this

truth, “... the way non-routine problems are handled is more

likely to be remembered and passed on to others ... than the

(normal) every day occurrences.” 1 Businesses not unlike people

have to find their own way. Each, unfortunately, learns a lot

more by experience than by shared experiences of others. L.L.

Bean knew he had to replace the failed Maine Hunting Shoe or close

his shop. He learned, however, that customer service is what

makes even faulty shoe producers great. Fortunately for us all,

he never forgot this very important lesson.

By way of closing out this review of customer service, let

me say that I personally have never had an order lost, or

mishandled by L.L. Bean, nor have I had to return a defective

product. I have, however, returned items that looked somewhat

different from the pictures of them, two in twenty years. L.L.

Bean accepted each back without a second thought. L.L. Bean is

an ethical, easy to deal with company that does not force or

cajole customers. Simply put, their customer service

representatives sell trust and confidence in the Bean name. They

are fair and equitable, reliable and responsive, and very, very


sensitive to their customers’ satisfaction. 1 2 This is the

epitome of customer service. But, it is not all-inclusive.

Recently, I had my twenty plus year old pair of Maine

Hunting Shoes replaced, for the first time, from the leather

uppers downward at a great price. Why go cheap when L.L.Bean

will keep these moderately priced, original boots going in good

condition for at least another 20 years? This leads to the last

customer service benchmark, the value to price relationship.

Personal experience has shown me time and time again, that

many businesses never really know why their customers are loyal to

them. The majority believes that the L.L. Bean effort shared

above defines customer service and bestows customer loyalty.

Nothing could be further from the truth, even though the above

items are absolutely critical to its success. Customers are loyal

“... only to that value that most exceeds its price.” 3 The last

and most critical step in a successful customer service program

is, then, the value to price relationship. It does not respond

well to qualitative analysis. While marginal cost equals marginal

revenue gives you a competitive edge; it may be nothing more than

an illusion. Value to price perception is what is called a “fuzzy

1 Hanan, Mark and Karp, Peter, Customer Satisfaction, Amacom, New York, 1989, page 156.2 Bowles and Hammond, Op. Cit., page 68.3 Hanan and Karp, Op. Cit., pages 155 and 157.

skill”. It is realized by listening to your customers’ emotional

needs and value judgements of the day. Value to price intuition

is a living, constantly changing continuum here in America and

throughout the developed world. If there is an analogous

situation, it is the wine taster who goes looking for that one

“prize” in perhaps a hundred different wines that appear to the

eye as one bottle, one wine, one color, and more or less one

price.

The inability of Detroit to step out of its control centered

paradigm and give customers their desired value to price comfort

zone is the missed opportunity of the 20th century. Japan Inc.

sells its cars in America at, or above, or even dumped below GM’s

prices because Americans like the “up town” customized packages

(to use Detroit own jargon), the better feel of carefully crafted

fabrics, the good looks of a “rich looking” vinyl that

approximates the visual appeal of leather, and the “styling” of

wheels and wheel covers that shouts out “class”. Americans also

know that there is a second payoff, which comes after the sale of

the car. Unlike American models, they can depend on their foreign

built vehicle to perform without repeated trips to the dealer for

expensive fixes. (Only recently has this after the sale gap been

narrowed by U.S. automakers that have finally started to

incorporate quality into the production process.)

And just how does General Motors respond to the value to

price relationship? More often than not, this paradigm blind

jackass asks the buying public to foot the bill for the extended

insurance policies that make GM competitive with Japan. As

America quickly learns, these insurance policies benefit the

selling dealership a lot more than they benefit the buying public.

The latest and most recent development in customer service

is called simply, personalized production. Personalized

production will take on additional significance in the near future

as the production processes become flexible enough to accommodate

the needs and taste of the individual customer. 1 At the present

time, some bicycle manufacturers can build a bike and custom fit

it to your own specific physical dimensions. Their production

process is already that far along. For the trout fisherman who

relies upon chest waders to stay dry, it is now possible to have

these waders custom fitted to your exact body contours. The cost

is only slightly more and this small margin may well disappear in

the next several years, as the various outfitters become more

familiar with the process.

Once again we see the relevance of Maslow’s hierarchy of

needs. This time in the context of customer service. Forward

thinking companies have moved upscale and are delivering (or

making ready to deliver) goods that address the wants and desires

of individuals who are close to the top of the self-realization

pyramid. These companies have removed the blinding paradigms of

control oriented management and tapped the wealth of ideas and


know-how that naturally flow from participative, “others

encompassing” work places. Tomorrow belongs to the firms that

listen to their customers and act to provide the goods and

services that meet or exceed customer expectations. 1 The follow-

up use of the Kaizen process will then deliver better and improved

products, and a customer perception of additional value. The end

result is a higher level of customer satisfaction, the only true

bottom line and the only meaningful competitive advantage. 2

1 Bowles and Hammond, Op. Cit., page 12.2 Hanan and Karp, Op., Cit., pages ix through xii.

SECTION THREECONCLUSIONS AND AN

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER TWELVECONCLUSIONS

Controversy continues to surround the concept of paradigms.

There is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes a

paradigm and apparently no hope of one in the immediate future.

The major argument seems to center around just what is the

requisite minimum conceptual threshold. While I find this lack of

a universal definition unfortunate from an academic perspective,

it does not in my opinion deter one from a pragmatic use of the

concept. Why differentiate between Kuhn’s grand and spontaneous

insight and another equally valid form of change, one analogous to

the sum of everyday kaizen, which eventually creates an

evolutionary change? It is a clean look, a fresh insight, that I

feel is important. and not some speculative threshold of thought.

For the purpose of this review, then, a paradigm “became” both a

new way of thinking and a fresh approach to contemporary thought,

which refines and redirects our sensibilities about existing

paradigms.

Section One, therefore, addresses the world of Kuhn and

Barker’s further development of these ideas by focusing on “yours

to be found” paradigms. It lays out pathways which the author,

Barker; feels can bring you a better, more complete understanding

of your work place. The purpose of this effort is to build a

dynamic, encompassing work place open to all ideas and peoples,

and capable of outperforming serious world class competition. It

is a major departure from the control-oriented management that

represents the mainstream of today’s business. It can empower

people, and realize hereto-unforeseen successes in both

individuals and business. It can remake paper managers into

people managers. Precisely for this reason, it is an effort that

less adept lower and middle level management (good ole boys if you

like) will stonewall and try their best to subvert. Make no

mistake about it, lower and middle management due to their

critical mass of numbers constitutes a formidable threshold that

is drastically slowing the introduction of these concepts. In

the end, however, the concept will work because it is America’s

best and maybe only hope for the turbulent 1990’s and the soon to

arrive 21st century.

Section Two returns to contemporary business and addresses

the proven operational paradigms that all businesses must do and

do well in order to survive and adapt in times such as these. It

makes the heartfelt point that we have no rational choice except

to constantly monitor and refine the existing paradigms of today’s

business. Only in this manner are we capable of redirecting these

truths to accommodate the evermore explicit, and “others”

encompassing ways that both the future and world class competition

are forcing upon us. In essence, this is the sum of the “kaizen”

process that ultimately leads to profound, evolutionary change.

This is maturation and adult learning at its best.

Together these two separate and equally viable forms of

insight and evolution constitute what is in my opinion a pragmatic

framework of management ideas, arguably broad and narrow, which

advances that collective body of thought we call “business

management”. The synthesis of these ideas at this point in time

appears to offer the best chance of realizing a tomorrow in which

the American work force is prepared and fully capable of dynamic

competition. When the chips are down, theory no matter how grand

or obscure must “pass muster” in the work place. I submit to you

that seldom in this century have the chips been piled so very high

on the table. America simply cannot afford to lose. We must also

not self-destruct by neglecting to pursue flexible, “others”

encompassing, work places. American management has the tools. We

can break out of this mold of controlling, people stifling

management. We must if only to secure a commonly successful and

bright future.

CHAPTER THIRTEENEPILOGUE

The characteristics of the American family are evolving

significantly in the last half of the twentieth century. The days

of a working dad and the “unrecognized, working at home” mother

are over for most of the populace. The Cleaver family is an

endangered species if not an outright extinct one. A “both

parents work” household is the rule today and not the exception.

An important corollary to this rule is the one parent household

where total responsibility for childcare resides with a single

parent who struggles to raise a family and make a livelihood

simultaneously. Child care for these families and their firms is

becoming a major concern of the decade. So too is family care.

Sensitivity to family needs is a 1990’s paradigm that is

going to come to pass in America within the decade. Trendsetters

did it first and the more astute companies followed their example.

The rest of the pack now has to fall into line with the industry

or it runs the risk of severely limiting its ability to obtain and

hold good employees. Childcare makes excellent sense from a

competitive standpoint of dollars and cents. It makes even keener

sense from the standpoint of warm-blooded, concerned, and people

loving management who knows it shapes employees’ attitudes and,

yes, performance. Childcare is a given. Your firm had better do

it lest your people decide the firm has no heart. No one should

need to tell you what that reputation will do to your company’s

future.

Family care is another idea whose time is come. The

Virginia State Police do an excellent job of providing this

benefit and in so doing appears to be a trendsetter. This police

department chooses to acknowledge rather than stonewall the

demands placed on their employees’ families. It strives to

nurture family bonds by giving its people up to two weeks of leave

each year just to take care of family members who are sick. It

does so without reducing either sick leave or annual leave. 1

Would such a plan not make you a very proud and loyal employee?

Of course it would, and this is one-reason businesses everywhere

can afford to go the extra mile and provide family care benefits.

What a great employer! What a great show of heart power!

The 1980’s and early 1990’s saw America’s better

corporations open their doors more widely than ever before to

women, and blacks, and other minorities. The trend-setting

companies like XEROX and IBM to name but two local ones heard and

took to heart what the Federal Government had to say about equal

access and equal opportunity for all peoples. For these fine

firms, empowering minorities became not just a task of complying

1 Tollett, David, Capt., Retired, Virginia State Police, general discussions with the author, fall and winter, Leesburg,1992.

with federally enacted legislation, but rather, a heartfelt

realization that within such is the future of this nation. Today

these firms have within their management ranks individuals who can

be advanced on their own hard won merit not just EEO and

Affirmative Action considerations. Sadly, it is not so in the

remainder of American business.

The rest of corporate America seems to me to be lost in a

deep quagmire of indifference to peoples, and women. These firms

either did not advance women, blacks, and other minorities when

they could have or they created glass ceilings which ensured that

these individuals would never share in power. These firms are now

well on the road to increased competition, re-organization, and

downsizing. They are confronting a harsh reality, their

stereotyping is seen almost universally as wrong, their old styled

management is legendary for its inability to inspire and lead, and

their "bush league managers" as having their own agendas. Good

people (the future of any organization) are leaving; often for

less pay, certainly for a more creative environment, and striving

for self-realization under more "Enlightened Leadership". Old

styled corporate America need not "leave the light on" for this

aspiring workforce.

I believe this unfolding conceptualization portends

important happenings in the American work places of the 21st

century. The American work force, being better educated than ever

before, needs new mountains to climb, new frontiers to cross, and

a new vision of personal success if it is to continue to climb

Maslow’s pyramid (or whatever supplants it in the 21st century).

I believe this must translate into work places that are productive

but more people centered, ones that promote creativity as a means

to both productivity and feelings of self-worth, and ones which

provide ample room for personal growth and self-realization in the

pursuit of corporate goals. The ideas and the concepts for such a

work place have been around for a long time. Some have been

tested; if not accepted on a large scale and some have not been. I

believe that it is now time to gather the paradigm shifters and

the sturdy pioneers and walk through the portal of change into a

new business paradigm. As Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “We

have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

I believe this will happen early in the 21st century and

well within my lifetime. I continue to hope it will happen in the

United States of America. Like the historic and missed

opportunity in Eastern Europe, this is a rare opportunity and one

we may not see again in our lifetimes. We should gather the

paradigm shifters and the paradigm pioneers, and re-invent our

workplaces. If you and I do not, our replacement certainly will!

MICHAEL W. GOYNE

BIBLIOGRAPHIESBIBLIOGRAPHY OF GENERAL CONVERSATIONS

Tollett, David, Capt., Virginia State Police, (Retired, 1992),general discussions, fall and winter of 1992.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LETTERS

Hurt, Franklin B., personal correspondences with the author, circa1972.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MAGAZINE ARTICLES

Horgan, John, “Profile: Reluctant Revolutionary” (Thomas H. Kuhn),Scientific America, May 1991.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKSBarker Joel A., Future Edge, William Morrow and Company, Inc.,1992

Batten, Joe D., Tough Minded Leadership, Amacom, New York, 1989

Bowles, Jerry and Hammond, Joshua, Beyond Quality, G. P. Putnamand Sons, New York, 1991.

Cohen, Sherry Suib, Tender Power, Addison-Wesley PublishingCompany, Inc., New York, 1989.

Covey, Stephen R., The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Simon& Schuster, New York, 1989.

Etzioni, Amitai, The Moral Dimension, The Free Press, New York,1988.

Groves, Andrew S., High Output Management, Random House, New York,1983.

Hanan, Mark, and Karp, Peter, Customer Satisfaction, Amacom, NewYork, 1989.

Miller, Lawrence M., American Spirit, William Morrow & Company,Inc., New York, 1984.

Naisbitt, John and Aburdene, Patricia, Megatrends 2000, WilliamMorrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1990.

Peters, Tom and Austin, Nancy, A Passion For Excellence, RandomHouse, New York, 1985.

Scott, Michael A., Edit. Corporations of the 1990’s, Oxford Press,New York, 1991.

Ziglar, Zig, Top Performance, Berkeley Books, New York, 1987.

OTHER BOOKS

Harris, Philip R., and Moran, Robert T., Managing CulturalDifferences, 2nd Edit., Gulf Publishing Company Book Division,London, England, 1987.

Loden, Marilyn and Rosener, Judy B., Workforce America!, R.R.Donnelley & Sons Company, U.S.A., 1991.

Thiederman, Sondra, Ph.D., Bridging Cultural Barriers ForCorporate Success, Lexington Books, New York, 1991.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Kleeman, Rosslyn S., Dir., Federal Workforce, Future Issues, (TheChanging Workforce: Comparison of Federal and NonfederalWork/Family Programs and Approaches), GAO/GGD-92-84, APRIL 23,1992.

Effecive Business in the 21st Century

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