Wow, and good on this trooper for pulling over this Miami cop. And you know, she could have easily looked the other way and followed some kind of a ‘blue code’. But she did not, and she had the courage to do the right thing. I would give her a Jundism award for this one!
Hopefully she doesn’t get any reprisals for what she did, and yet again, that whole ‘blue code’ thing could pop up and her life as a trooper could get real lonely. Still, I certainly hope her department takes the right side of this deal, and makes a point that this is exactly what they want in a trooper, and slam any dork that thinks otherwise.
The Miami cop was also off duty and violating the speed limit because he was late for a job. Talk about an abuse of authority? –Matt
The results are shocking. The experiment showed that today’s society is equally as susceptible as those participants in the original experiment 50 years ago.
Milgram wanted to answer the question on how humans could violate their consciousness and moral code in the name of ‘following orders’. Here is a quote from wikipedia about the experiment:
“Was it that Eichmann and his accomplices in the Holocaust had mutual intent, in at least with regard to the goals of the Holocaust?” In other words, “Was there a mutual sense of morality among those involved?” Milgram’s testing suggested that it could have been that the millions of accomplices were merely following orders, despite violating their deepest moral beliefs.
So here is the really motivating part about this experiment that I wanted to share and get out there. In the show towards the end, they modified the experiment to have two teachers, with one of the teachers being an actor. That actor would refuse administering the shock as it got higher, and the experiment was to see if their fellow teacher who thought this was real, would refuse with them. That they would not follow orders, and follow the path of someone that chose not to shock the learner.
In the show, the non-actor ‘real’ teacher did refuse, and that is very significant to this post.
Jundism is about being the guy that does question authority or leads by example. To be a positive influence within your team, and not fall within the trap of group think. Within a group setting, everyone might have the same doubts about a certain task or person, but until someone comes forward and acts on those doubts, everyone will just go along. It is my hope that you the reader will recognize how important this is. Just watch the experiments if you don’t believe me.
In the video below, this woman was a real participant and practitioner of Jundism, who actually said no right off the get go. She did not go along with the experiment because she actually thought about it. She had the courage to do what is right and go with her guts and moral code.
But she was also very rare, and the show identified how very few people actually said no to giving shocks to the learner. Let alone giving the ‘killing’ or life threatening shock to a learner. It is quite the thing to watch all of these normal everyday people, actually go through the act of harming an innocent person, all because someone said to do it.
What I want to leave the reader with is that if you can fight peer pressure, fight the urge to just go along with the group, and actually question authority or the group, then you could potentially save lives or serious heartache within your company. And it doesn’t have to be serious stuff, and it could be just leadership by example for everyday things like ‘training, fitness, decision making, ideas, innovations, leadership, etc.’. But it could also be leadership by example in ‘integrity’ situations, or deals where a line could be crossed by individuals, and no one else is stepping up to say ‘hey, this is not right’.
There are many facets of a contract and mission where you have the opportunity to show how it is done correctly. If you are the guy that does things right, then you will have a good chance at bringing other folks with you on that path. –Matt
The experimenter (E) orders the teacher (T), the subject of the experiment, to give what the latter believes are painful electric shocks to a learner (L), who is actually an actor and confederate. The subject believes that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual electric shocks, though in reality there were no such punishments. Being separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electro-shock generator, which played pre-recorded sounds for each shock level.
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A recent survey of more than 22,630 soldiers from the rank of E-5 through O-6 and Army civilians showed that roughly one in five sees his superior as “toxic and unethical,” while 27 percent said they believe their organization allows the frank and free flow of ideas.
Very interesting. I have talked about evaluations in the past as a valuable tool for companies to track how policy and leadership interact out in the field. It is a metric, and it is something that most companies of various industries use to great effect–if they are done properly, and used properly….
So I can see where the Army is going with this, and I would be very interested to see the impact of this program. And I also think any leader that truly cares about doing a good job, will actually take a great interest in this kind of feedback from their subordinates. I know I would. It would be really cool if they applied this to NCO’s as well?
This also addresses the reality of what today’s forces are composed of. Millennials make up a large component of today’s military, and these guys like feedback. They want to know if they are screwing up or if there is something they can improve upon, and they seek feedback. Part of the reason for this is that technology has kind of molded this generation into a group that appreciates feedback more.
A guy posts a picture of his kit on an online forum or Facebook, and he will get multiple guys giving input about that equipment. You will see all sorts of replies addressing the pro’s and con’s of that individual’s gear. That is just one example, and technology makes it very easy to ask the group what they think.
You see very simple examples of this all over the place. Open source software is stuff built by the crowd, and critiqued by the crowd. It absolutely must have feedback in order to work. And this feedback loop is what a lot of people come to rely upon. Google lives for that feedback, or if you go onto Amazon.com, you see numerous folks giving feedback about all sorts books and products. All of this is very valuable to those who desire to build a better product or buy the best product. ‘Get feedback’ is also a jundism.
But I will hold judgement on this program until it has been applied and tested. The benefits could be many, just as long as it is not abused. Imagine a higher retention rate of troops, all because they have more respect for their management? That they actually feel that their feedback has value, and those in their command actually listen. Or imagine the residual effect of good leaders, and how that rubs off on the subordinates. You would be amazed at how much damage a bad leader can cause with their ‘poor example’.
On the other hand, an evaluation system like this should not be abused to the point where officers feel they cannot do what they gotta do to accomplish the mission. In war, ordering men and women to risk their lives, or to kill people is a reality. Hopefully an evaluation system like this does not weaken an officer’s ability to give those orders or to do the hard things. So we will see if this program actually adds value.
Another point I wanted to make with this is that if a leader is surrounded by yes men, or is plagued by group think with his immediate group of supervisors, then how would they ever know if they are being effective? If everyone agrees with him all of the time, or that everyone thinks alike, then how will that management team ever know if they are doing well? Or how will they sniff out problems, if all they care about is the input of one another? Boyd would call this a ‘closed system’, and closed systems are bad.
By reaching out or by giving your subordinates the means to communicate their thoughts and ideas, you are turning your closed system into an open system. Thus turning it into a system that can reach ‘equilibrium’. Or in the terms of the military or private industry, every one in the unit feels like they are actually part of a team. Problems will not build to a point where things blow up and get ugly. That everyone’s ideas matter, and that they too can help build a better team, a better idea, a better business. Stuff like this is essential for unit cohesion, and that is why I refer to this as ‘feedback gold’. –Matt
Rooting out toxic leaders
By Michelle Tan
Sunday Oct 9, 2011
Soldiers will now be asked — and expected — to rate their bosses.
Effective Oct. 1, officers will be required to assert that they have completed a 360-degree evaluation — where the officer is graded by his subordinates, peers, subordinates and superiors — within the past three years.
Requiring officers to complete 360-degree evaluations should encourage them to grow and, at the same time, weed out potential toxic habits among officers, officials said.
A recent survey of more than 22,630 soldiers from the rank of E-5 through O-6 and Army civilians showed that roughly one in five sees his superior as “toxic and unethical,” while 27 percent said they believe their organization allows the frank and free flow of ideas.
The survey, conducted by the Center for Army Leadership, also stated that rooting out toxic leadership from the ranks requires “accurate and consistent assessment, input from subordinates, and a focus beyond what gets done in the short-term.”
Gen. Martin Dempsey, now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said when he was the Army chief of staff that senior leaders must “change the culture of the Army to embrace 360s” and develop a culture where leaders want to know how they’re viewed by their peers and subordinates.
The 360-degree evaluation now required of officers is called the Army 360 Multi-Source Assessment and Feedback. This addition to the Officer Evaluation Record is among a list of changes the Army is making to the officer evaluation policy. The changes apply to OERs with a “thru date” of Nov. 1 and later.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said he believes “multidimensional feedback is an important component to holistic leader development.”
What a sad deal. Steve Jobs of Apple fame just died, and the world just lost an incredible innovator. With that said, I wanted to post a speech he gave that was incredibly inspirational. I will also be writing this post on my trusty Mac.
Steve Jobs outlines the mental tools or philosophies of his life, that he thought would help these students. He gave three stories that described exactly what he thought was important. Anyone from any industry and walk of life can be inspired by these concepts and lessons.
The first story is about connecting the dots. Or basically, building snowmobiles. You take everything that you have learned in your past, analyze and synthesize, and build a better idea/product/service/strategy/tactic. Jobs dropped out of college, but took a calligraphy in his final days at that college. Low and behold, he was fascinated with calligraphy and was able to draw upon that class and experience years later when he and his partners created the Mac computer. That bit of knowledge and experience, was like the skies of his ‘snow mobile’ called the Mac computer. He connected the dots of his past to create something new. Quote from speech:
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
The second story is about love and loss. He talks about finding your passion or love, and recognize how valuable that is. And he talks about how valuable failure or loss can be. It forces you to re-evaluate your love affair with your subject, and it also forces you to re-invent yourself and the process. Steve goes into the story about him being let go by Apple at age 30, or to be fired by the company you started. But then talks about the rebuilding process after that incident. That he went on to find other companies that were immensely successful, went on to find his wife, and then years later was brought back on to work at Apple–which was faltering at the time. When Jobs came back to Apple, he breathed new life and direction into the company, and lead a come back of all comebacks.
I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together. I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
The final story is about death. Something this industry deals with in the war, and a reality that Jobs was certainly dealing with at the time of this speech. His view on death as a ‘change agent’, is awesome.
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
Don’t be trapped by dogma……have the courage to follow your heart and intuition….your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Incredible words to live by, and an incredible view about something all of us will face one day. And Steve lived these words until he died. Steve also reminds me of Boyd when it comes to idea creation and battling dogma, and having the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
I really liked the last bit of his speech. It is important to note, because this is what he felt summed up all of his thoughts on life and death, and what will get you through. It is also the back story to the title of this post.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Good stuff, and Steve Jobs is quite the man. Transcripts for the speech here. –Matt
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I am a civilian and on September 11th 2001, my fellow civilians (and citizens) of the US were attacked by terrorists. They were killed at the World Trade Center, they were killed at the Pentagon, and they were killed on Flight 93. My fellow civilians were also maimed in these attacks, and they live with those mental and physical scars every day.
On September 11th 2001, we lost many. This may have been an attack on US soil, but this was not just an attack on the US. Civilians were the main target, and the victims held nationalities from all over the world. On that day, a war was declared on civilians.
We also lost soldiers, policemen, firemen, contractors and federal employees. These men and women gave all in the defense of civilians that day. They did their job and paid an incredible sacrifice, and we will never forget what they did for us.
But my fellow civilians did not go quietly either. On Flight 93, after recognizing what the intent of the terrorists were, they decided to fight. On that flight, civilians came together to stop the evil that hijacked their plane. They charged the cockpit, wrestled control of the plane from the terrorist, and were able to prevent that plane from crashing into the capital of the United States. During that struggle, the plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania and terrorists and civilians alike all perished.
This is something to ponder. A group of civilians on a random flight, coming together for one cause to stop evil and survive. No one trained them to do what they did, no one briefed them on what to expect, no one told them to sacrifice for this country…..but they did. They decided to fight for their lives, and they were intent on stopping this evil from achieving it’s goal.
I think it is still important to pay tribute to all that died. It is a significant world wide memory that is forever seared into all of our brains. But what is even more important to me is to remember this event as a day where civilians were empowered to fight back, and make a difference.
It is human to be sad about such loss, but we should also celebrate the fighting spirit of these civilians. It is that fighting spirit, courage, and resolve that we can all use in our daily lives, and in our world wide war against this enemy. Every flight, every subway, every public gathering should be looked at as an opportunity for civilians to stand up to our enemy. We physically ‘stand up’ by having the courage to fight this enemy where ever they may be, and we mentally ‘stand up’ by not living in fear. And of course morally, we maintain the high ground when the enemy intentionally targets our civilian populations.
We are stronger. We are more determined. We will never forget, and this ends when the enemy is reduced to a pitiful memory. It also ends when the enemy is not able to count on the fear of civilians, or that the enemy fears the very population that it targets. Not only must we never forget the loss on this terrible day, but we must also celebrate the fighting spirit and courage of these civilians on Flight 93. –Matt
