WEBLOG Archive February 2009

TELL IT LIKE IT IS

You can't turn around without hearing the pundits and commentators weighing in, like sportscasters calling a football game, about whether the stimulus plan will work, whether tax cuts will help or hurt, whether nationalizing the banks or car companies would save them or destroy capitalism as we know it.

The diversity of opinion is a good thing, and when people can find it in them to be respectful and civil in expressing their views, it enriches the national conversation.

President Obama is in Phoenix today, where Jamie and I live, because we…

THE ECONOMY ATE MY HOMEWORK

Our depressing economic climate apparently has a silver lining. According to a story in the Style section of Sunday’s New York Times, the economic meltdown gives us a great excuse to do things – or not to do things – without being authentic about it.

Why be straight with the nanny who isn’t working out when you can use the economy as an excuse to dump her and hire a more palatable replacement a few days later? “It’s the silver lining in the recession,” raves the duplicitous woman who preferred lying to the nanny over delivering honest feedback…

SURVEY SAYS: WE CAN'T TELL THE TRUTH

Browsing my Google Alerts today brought up this interesting blog, The Organizational Attitude Survey by Scorecard Metrics for HR, which attempts to sell the benefits of organizational attitude surveys. The author’s message illustrates a fundamental organizational problem that many enterprises encounter, and one that an attitude survey can’t solve.

In organizations with a hierarchal, parent-child culture, telling the truth feels risky – even dangerous.  Consider how a survey exacerbates this very problem. Most organizational attitude surveys…