Ecological Human Services Management

"No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune." One may assume that Plutarch intended this rhetorically, since it definitely isn't literally true. It's hard to say about wetting clay specifically; but starting a job and not finishing it is certainly not uncommon. The fact of the case is that it's business as usual for far too many folks. They probably don't think what they start will be finished by chance and fortune; but they do figure that they won't be the ones who have to complete it. It's likely justifiable to conclude that they see this as good fortune, whether anyone else does or not. Why do people do this? Why do they stop before the job is done? The famous Anon. has been sitting on the answer, "The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places." That's it. They start with the best of intentions but soon discover that intentions are to accomplishments as a hardy appetite is to breakfast. However you like your omelet, someone still has to cr

"Be not simply good; be good for something." -- Henry David Thoreau This is great advice; but try not to be too much of a good for something. There is a Greek Proverb that says, "The excess of virtue is a vice." Overdoing what you do is likely an example of such a vice. You just don't know when to quit. Sure, it makes you feel a bit superior; but as Ts'ai Ken T'an advised, "Water which is too pure has no fish;" and that isn't a good thing. Even Abraham Lincoln said, "It has ever been my experience that folks who have no vices, have very few virtues." As you see, overdoing it definitely has the potential for getting really unacceptable. Fortunately, George Orwell understood the root of the matter, "On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time;" so it's OK to have one of those to do lists so long as you don't overdo it. Here's how to manage the whole thing. Is work piling up and there's just too much to do? Are you getting frustrated with things backing up on you? D

You have a job only you can do. The job you have is being you. At the end of each day you must take a test. Did you give being you your very best? e. e. Cummings had some words that will take you pretty far. "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." The challenge is never giving your courage a rest. That's how you give being you your best. Raymond Hull also had something important to say. "He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away." What that means you've already guessed. You have to be just you to give being you your best. You can't be who other people want you to be. You can't be a spider or a bird in a tree. The spider has its web and the bird has its nest; but you have something special when you give being you your best. Judy Garland didn't find her advice on a shelf. "Always be a first-rate version of yourself…;" and Johann von Goethe's message wasn't a surprise, "If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise." Confucius was a philos

"Are things out of control?" This is a most interesting question. You likely ask yourself this question sometimes and experience pronounced anxiety as you consider the answer. The problem is, of course, if things are out of control, there is no predicting the outcome. The possibility of a huge crash is out there and the prospect is somewhere between alarming and terrifying. Even if things are out of control, odds are that the outcome will be acceptable; but…. Perhaps Mario Andretti had a thought worth remembering, "If everything's under control, you're going too slow." You have both experienced this existential anxiety and have thought about the intense level of uneasiness associated with it. It's indeed uncomfortable and evokes feelings of self-doubt, frustration, and a sense of helplessness. At times, these feelings can be overwhelming and nearly paralyzing. If you run this issue by Sparky (a local guru on the topic) you may be quite taken aback to learn that the question itself is a product of retrograde

"Stubbornness does have its helpful features. You always know what you are going to be thinking tomorrow." -- Glen Beaman Stubbornness certainly has its up side. It's like the famous Anon. said, "Most people are more comfortable with old problems than with new solutions." While you are considering how relaxed you will be though, ponder Doug Floyd's point, "You don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note." The truth of the matter is that it can quickly get down right boring. There is another snag that can seriously temp you to stick to the same ol', same ol'. J. K. Galbraith described it this way, "The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking." Sure, thinking can be painful; but more to the point, it's frequently hard work. As Henry Ford said, "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. " If you were born tired and haven't rested up yet, thinking probably just isn't for you; but…. – and there's always a "but." This par

Do you want to know everything there is to know about success in about five minutes? If so, please press play and learn. If not, well, you're on your own.

There is a space between you and me where the balance is just about right, but if the balance gets out of balance, all is not well. That's true whether you are my child, my partner, my employer, or just someone who wants and needs my attention. In this episode of Audio Tidbits, I give some thought and attention to this balance.

orris, Tom. If Harry Potter Ran General Electric: Leadership Wisdom from the World of the Wizards. New York: Doubleday, 2006. The greatest teachers are always masters of their subjects who lead, train, guide, and inspire their student apprentices to their own forms of excellence. They never just pass on information. The master is a model, coach, helper, and motivator as well as a teacher and trainer. The best leaders teach by example and guide with encouragement. What we haven't ourselves received, we can't pass on to others. ... A great mentor is a person who has filtered his or her own prior personal experience, along with the experience of many others, analyzed it fully, and extracted from it the wisdom it contains. Ultimately, he is a great leader because he's a wise man who knows human nature, and who acts in everything he does with great character. Without truth, people can't work effectively. Without trust, people can't work efficiently. The best leaders in most circumstances tend to be just

Come with me now into the heart of the pulsing confusion that passes for reality. There we find all of the experiences that register as real and meaningful. We also register that which we call phantom and fanciful. It is a cauldron of real and not real, possible and not possible, and what we determine to be reality and the other. It’s the other on which we are focusing. We know that our experience goes beyond what we know to be real and meaningful. It is the realm of the other. But how do we distinguish and what are the distinctions? We want to believe that the real is that which we see but we nonetheless invasion that which we know to be of the other. We want to believe what we hear and don’t want our ears to mislead; but even so, we hear sounds and voices that can only be from the other. The other appears to us and intrudes as sound, but still we believe in the real but not the other. The other may come to us through taste, touch, or smell, but we still persist in believing that we can know it is of th

This episode of Audio Tidbits is no more nor no less than you might expect from an episode called Random Wisdom. If you are already wise enough, feel free to skip the episode. But if you can always use a little random wisdom, press play and enjoy.

ockell, Leslie and Adrienne Avila. The 100 Greatest Leadership Principles of all Time. New York: Warner Business Books, 2007. Leadership is a matter of intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage, and discipline. A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others see. - Leroy Eimes The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don' sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit ... This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done. - Peter F. Drucker A leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not. - Anonymous Nobody rises to low expectations. - Calvin Lloyd A community is like a ship: Everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm. - Henrik Ibsen.

In these days of fake news and intentional misinformation, it's easy to wonder if anything we read or hear is true. Maybe even more alarming is our inability to know who to believe, who to trust. And of course, that is the point of fake news and misinformation. The goal is not so much to get us to believe false this or untrue that as it is to fuel mistrust and doubt: mistrust of our political leaders and doubt about the intentions and motivations that underpin our government and institutions. In The Fine Art of Baloney Detection, Carl Sagan was definitely on point when he counseled, "Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication and courage. But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us — and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along." It's harsh but certainly self-evident that "If you don't control you

You've probably heard the advice that tells us that we have to go along to get along. Much of the time, if it's not altogether true, it's at least convenient. Christopher Morley puts it like this, "Lots of times you have to pretend to join a parade in which you're not really interested in order to get where you're going." We have our individual goals and agenda, but much of the time, prioritizing our personal interests requires too much effort or may actually be counterproductive. Michael Korda is on point when he advises, "The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you're playing by other people's rules, while quietly playing by your own." The truth here notwithstanding, there is a very real danger. On the one hand, we run the risk of becoming so accustomed to fitting in that we passively subordinate our goals and agenda to the will and wishes of others; or on the other hand, we are so intent on guarding our individuality that we become inappropriately rigid and inflexible. Finding the middle ground is di

There is a popular notion that advises that we can't succeed without first failing. The idea is that we fail forward to success. There are other variations such as we learn best from our mistakes and this sweeping generalization from Herman Melville, "Failure is the true test of greatness." Since notions like "failure is a prerequisite to success" or "mistakes are prelude to positive outcomes" strike me as absurd, I think I will turn to Buddha for guidance. "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it — even if I have said it — unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." If you are reluctant to take this contrary thinking trip with me, let me remind you of Bertrand Russell's take on contrary thinking. "In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted." Or perhaps this from J K Galbraith, "The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking." Sure, I've made my share of mistake

I am reluctantly considering the conclusion that much of what I have believed for as long as I have believed anything may represent far more hope than truth. Sure, I admit to taking it for granted that things actually are the way I have always thought they are, that my reality is valid and based on the true and factual, and that my sense of what's real is correct and axiomatic. Naive? Simple-minded? Perhaps dangerous? Indeed. But nonetheless, I believed. I take some comfort in knowing that a preference for belief over thoughtful consideration didn't just start with me. The Roman philosopher Seneca observed that "Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment." It's likely that the "exercise" part of exercising judgment is the showstopper for many, if not most of us. For me at least, it has been easier to relax and believe. Robert Brault got it right when he pointed out that "An old belief is like an old shoe. We so value its comfort that we fail to notice the hole in it." To my surprise and disappoint

I'm tempted to initiate our conversation by saying, "There are two types of people: …." Since my plan is to talk about advice and attitudes, I think it will suffice to simply remind us that there are people who ask for advice and those who actually follow it only when the advice we offer is an exact fit with what they wanted to hear. They are usually the same people. Hannah Whitall Smith understood the key to advice giving when she pointed out, "The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right." If that adequately sets the stage for both of us, let me suggest that attitude matters, and quite often, attitude is all that actually matters. If you doubt the truth of this putative fact of life and living, let me share the perspectives of some other folks who have given a lot of thought to the notion. From there, you can and of course, will draw your own conclusion. In turn, I will remain p

alciccioli, Greg. The Enemies of Excellence: 7 Reasons Why We Sabotage Success. Crossroad: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2011. Few people consider how to sustain their success because they're too busy trying to achieve it. Most leaders want to be the best people they can be and to lead with excellence. They want to thrive, and they want the people around them to thrive. They have the best of intentions. Success is inherently unstable. The skills it took to establish success cannot sustain it. A high-profile leader is surrounded by people who are hungry for the leader's success. They want him to succeed, and if the price for that is to overlook a few red flags here and there, so be it. The greater the success, the greater the danger. To deal the fatal blow to egotism, you must identify what you desire as the outcome of your life and leadership. You need to ask yourself: Are you striving to reach just another self-centered summit, or are you leading people and the organization you serve towards som

According to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, they believe actions speak louder than tweets. I don't know the context for their mentioning this, but I definitely agree. How about you? I will leave you to your own speculation about who or what comes to mind when the subject of tweets comes up. I only caution you to avoid conflating tweeting with doing, tweeting with thoughtful discourse, tweeting with reality. Although tweets and tweeting are fairly recent innovations, the idea of communicating through compact pronouncements is not. Let's try a few examples that would have worked quite well as tweets, had the option been available at the time. I have picked out examples that may have best been directed to today's most prolific tweeters. May I suggest that you focus on a specific tweeter, if one comes to mind. That will help when considering the fit between tweets and action, as KLM suggested. #JohnLocke "I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts." #BenjaminFranklin "Well don

There are many reasons why some of us succeed while others of us are only getting by. One of the more hidden reasons is directly related to how successful people - yes, all of them -- communicate. They always have smart conversations. While others are having simple conversations, the successful are doing smart, without anyone noticing. Do you communicate for success? I doubt that you ever do otherwise. I am assuming that you are too smart to be that dumb. Listen and hear how it works.

an Vugt, Mark, and Anjana Ahuja. Naturally Selected: Why Some People Lead, Why Others Follow, and Why It Matters. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2011. If you're concerned about the amount of time your underlings spend around the water cooler - don't be. Gossip is an entirely natural and frankly ineradicable method of winkling out unsuitable managers, although you might not be so keen on office hydration if you're an office ogre. Still, the fact is that we are ancient brains trying to make our way in an ultra-modern world; when shiny new corporate ideas rub up against our creaking, millennia-old psyches, the clash can make us feel uneasy. ... nobody wants workplaces to become havens of primitivism, but we do seem happiest when our working environments echo facets of ancestral tribal life - a close-knit structure governed loosely by trusted elders, in which every member was valued for his or her unique contribution to group living and survival. Every human society that has ever been observed co