Dan Erwin

What Really Makes Work Meaningful--or Meaningless?

It was Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, shortly after it was published in 1959 that first put that question in my gray matter. Actually, it was a conversation in a theology class by an esteemed professor that first intrigued me about the subject. And here I am still writing and thinking about it in 2018. Funny how some ideas are always intriguing. And this one was intriguing enough to impact my behavior ever since...

Are There Really Generational Differences in the Workplace?

A lot of people have made a lot of money selling their so-called expertise in generational differences and how to work with younger generations in the workplace. But the supposed generational differences in the workplace are largely hokum.

[Definition: hokum—nonsense, bunk, false or irrelevant material introduced into an essay in order to arouse interest, excitement or amusement. Hokum is an Americanism, probably a blend of hocus-pocus and bunkum.]

Recently, the Center for Evidence-based Management (CEBM) completed a study on the evidence for (assumed) generational or age differences in the workplace. They did a system wide search of more than 80 studies. The studies focused on quantitative, empirical research, not qualitative.

One of the more useful pieces of info for me is that they actually labelled and dated the generations. I’ve added that info for those of you who are curious about the subject.

               Generations                      Born between

               Traditionalists                   1925-1944
               Baby Boomers                  1945-1964
               Generation X                     1965-1979
               Millennials                          1980-2000

Generational differences are supposed to influence work outcomes because of differing values, work ethics or expectations about organizations.

They drew a number of conclusions.  

The Michael Scott Syndrome

The incompetent rarely know it. Dunning and Kruger have the evidence.

This morning I was having coffee with a number of coffee cronies and one asked me about the kid from Texas who was handcuffed for taking a clock he made to school, and got rewarded with a trip to the White House to meet with Obama. This 14-year-old freshman is partial to tinkering, technology and NASA T-shirts and wants to go to MIT.  But he’s also a Muslim Black American. The handcuffing and three days of being suspended from school are a classic case in unreasoned prejudice and pernicious stereotyping: of teacher and police cluelessness.

My coffee colleague wanted to know why he was invited to the White House. I opined that it was a nice example of a “come to Jesus party for the backward Texas culture.” “Whaddya mean?” he asked....

The Arc of Policy Is Long But Bends Toward Justice

But the current statistics are quite problematic. And not easily sloughed off.

I’ve read the journal, Foreign Affairs, off and on for more than thirty years. It’s neither Conservative nor Liberal—and also presents opposing perspectives. Sometimes the different perspectives are in the same journal, other times they appear over a few months. But they are inevitably written by an expert in the field, an academic, government official or a business expert. And here’s one on which every business person needs to do some reflecting.

The article to which I refer in the title, America’s Social Democratic Future, is by Lane Kenworthy, Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Arizona. Kenworthy initially steps above the fray to look at the national policy over the past 100 years, demonstrating that the opponents of our unique, American-style social democracy are fighting a losing battle. But then he digs into the current problems we face. I’ve reread the article at least three times, not least because his economic, statistical interpretations are especially meaningful.

Here is his interpretation of three problematic issues we currently face.

First, the United ...

Is Where You Are More Important Than Who You Are?

 

Is the All-or-Nothing Marriage Like the All-or-Nothing Job?

Since the middle of last month, I’ve been nearly fixated on a pre-research article by Northwestern’s Eli Finkel on the All-or-Nothing Marriage. Although I’ve been out of the marriage counseling business for forty years, I found the ideas and conclusions fascinating—but both delighting and discomforting. While skimming through the article just this week, I began to see a recurring pattern and wondered whether it applied to situations other than marriage. My answer is a big YES. What’s true about marriage today is also true about jobs. And that, too, is both delighting and discomforting.

Finkel and his colleagues ask the question whether marriages today are better or worse than they used to be. As he indicates, the question is usually answered in one of two ways. The marital decline camp says that marriage has weakened. Higher divorce rates are indicative of a harmful lack of commitment and a decline of moral character.

That phrase “a decline of moral character” was an interesting reminder. It’s the same term that Charles Murray and William Bennett have used to sell the wrong-headed idea that the moral decline of many in the ...

Outside the Mainstream

To a significant degree much creative and innovative thinking is a rejection of conventional knowledge. Indeed, a strategic orientation to creativity may target conventional wisdom as a fundamental tactic. Outside the Mainstream will regularly bring articles, columns and research that challenges the conventional.

Adam Grant, 5 Myths About Introverts and Extraverts at Work Get ready to be challenged. Grant shoots down a number of old chestnuts built primarily on the MBTI. Long overdue, his research deals with how the two styles approach matters as diverse as networking, public speaking, relationships and even sales. So you won't want to forget the ambiverts in the middle of the continuum. This will curdle some stomachs.

Susan Dominus, How to Get a Job with a Philosophy Degree. I've been holding this for February, about when graduating seniors start to get really serious about their job hunt. The recommendations don't just apply to philosophy. And this is not just for seniors, but also for their parents. Maybe we need to learn not to be totally focused on ...

Perfectionism Is Not All Bad

Unlike many personality traits, perfectionists usually recognize their perfectionism. And if they don’t, then their co-workers do. Colleagues of a perfectionist readily surface the information in an expletive format like, “god, what a perfectionist!” That translates, most don’t need to be told, as “what a pain in the butt.”

Historically, perfectionism has been viewed as a personality style that includes striving for flawless performance, meeting excessively high standards and overly critical evaluation of one’s own behavior. Of course, some perfectionists are quietly proud of that personality trait. And though they might make self-deprecating comments or laugh about themselves, they have not the slightest interest in rejecting the category. After all, most perfectionists believe it’s gotten them a lot of kudos and opportunities in their career.

Is perfectionism all negative?
The dominant view through the 1980’s was that perfectionism was pathological, the sign of a neurotic and disordered personality. Perfectionism, psychologists believed, was driven by concerns over mistakes, doubts about actions and fears of rejection. These researchers stressed that unhealthy ...

You Will Never See a More Direct, So Straight-To-The-Point, No-BS Take on the Rich. But, Thankfully, It's Not Always True.

If people are highly successful in their professions they lose their senses. Sight goes. They have no time to look at pictures. Sound goes. They have no time to listen to music. Speech goes. They have no time for conversation. They lose their sense of proportion--the relations between one thing and another. Humanity goes. 

             --Virginia Woolf

Woolf's insight supports research from as early as 1925. Indeed, you can generalize from Freud's comment in "Those wrecked by success" that the highly successful occasionally fall ill precisely when a deeply-rooted and long-cherished wish has come to fulfillment. That "illness" is highly prohibitive, and can lead to the loss of senses and proportion.

There's a terrific amount of research clarifying the notion that wealth leads to selfishness. Paul Piff and Dacher Keltner of Berkeley ran several studies looking at whether wealth and prestige influences how much we care for others. In one study they discreetly boserved the behavior of drivers at a busy four-way interestection. The results were revealing: they found that luxury car drivers were more likely to cut off other motorists rather than waiting for their turn. This was . . .

Racism, Business Diversity and the Ballot Box

In Saturday’s NYTImes, Charles Blow provided his readers with an exceptionally articulate statement on Disrespect, Race and Obama. Blow’s insights are accompanied by fascinating data from the 2012 election revealed by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a Harvard PhD student in behavioral economics. Reflecting on Blows insight and using the data from Stephens-Davidowitz, it strikes me that there is a more significant than usual interpretation of the current political scene—and business diversity. 

In the 1970’s and ‘80’s, Virginia Satir was one of the most respected and revered psychotherapist in the country, and for good reason.  Widely known as “The Mother of Family Therapy,” Satir took a family systems approach to counseling, an approach that was just gaining credibility. Indeed, her change processes are still applied successfully to organizations. But one of Satir's most novel ideas at the time, was that the "presenting issue" or "surface problem" itself was seldom the real problem; rather, how people coped with the issue created the problem. This approach is supportive of systems problem solving in business. Thank you, Peter Senge, et al.

And it’s an insight that applies. . .