You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2007.
A friend of mine sent me this link some time ago. While I was mulling over it, I realised that what the author was saying was very true to the organisation behaviour of most companies today. Thus I thought it might be a good idea to share it here. It is a age old story about the Emperor’s new clothes.
The Emperor’s New Clothes – Providing Negative Feedback
By David W. Earle, LPC
May 6, 2007
In the fable of the Emperor’s New Clothes, a couple of con men convinced the king that they had magical cloth, which only the wise could see. The king hires these men to make him the most magnificent suit of clothes, declaring that anyone who cannot see this material was a fool. The king was insulated from negative feedback and played the ultimate price; complete and absolute public mortification.
As the fable goes, when the con men unveiled this magnificent suit made of this magical clothes no one wanted to admit all they could see was a half-naked king clad only in his boxer shorts, lest they be branded a fool. It took the honesty of a youth to exclaimed, “The king has no clothes!” before the rest of the kingdom was able to see the reality of the king’s shining nakedness.
Why was this noble taken in by these con men? Does this fable have meaning in today’s sophisticated business world? If so, then this question must be answered and the lessons learned. Fables survive throughout the ages because of the truth they tell. If the businessperson does not to learn this lesson, an embarrassing part of his anatomy, usually reserved for sitting upon will be exposed, metaphorically speaking.
In the parable, being discovered to be naked in public was embarrassing enough but when that small child brought down the veil of denial an even worse fate befell the king. Every one knew their leader was a fool! For now all the kings’ men, all the kings subjects, and even their horses knew their king was a dunce!
In retaliation for being made a fool, retribution must follow! For this public embarrassment of allowing their king to walk naked down Main Street, his trusted advisors would have their heads chopped off; for such is the life of a wise man.
Was the king correct in blaming his wise men, his trusted council for allowing this travesty to occur? After all he did hire them for their wisdom and they let him down. The question is how would the king have taken these advisor’s wisdom had they presented the naked truth to him? Did the king encourage the honest expression of diverse opinions other than his own? Not having the perspective of another point of view creates a very limiting and often disastrous perspective of reality. The attitude of integrity must be cultivated, for except with rare exceptions, this honesty is not freely given.
Feedback is a very powerful concept, which has been misunderstood and misused, but more often under-utilized. In order to see more of reality, everyone needs feedback from others and not just our own limited point of view. No where is the lack of honesty more apparent then in the workplace.
Much has been written about today’s management providing positive feedback to employees. Supervisors have been encouraged to validate and encourage their employee’s work performance, expounding in One-Minute-Management fashion; catching them “doing something right”. However one of the hardest things for many people to do is to provide honest negative feedback. Oh sure, bosses “chew out their employees” all the time and isn’t that feedback? It is true that being called on the carpet is a form of feedback but it is rather ineffective especially when considering today’s work force who seem to thrive when empowered and self-directed.
Today’s effective supervisor must be able to communicate negative feedback to their employees in a fashion, which is conducive to an even honest exchange of ideas, concepts, feelings, and thoughts. To be effective, this exchange has to be two-way and presented on a level playing field. The supervisor must want and create the atmosphere of encouraging what really needs to be understood.
On a basic instinctual level, the reason for this reluctance to provide honest feedback is fear. This fear is the dark cloud swirling around supervisors when confrontation concerning negative behavior is necessary. A performance appraisal is a typical example; ask a group of supervisors if they enjoy performance appraisals, most would respond with an emphatic “no”! Presenting honest response to anyone is usually not a pleasant chore and yet, how powerful it would be if both the employer and employee would provide honest feedback to each other in an atmosphere of understanding and acceptance.
Most people have a desire to be liked, to be part of the in-crowd. Despite some employee’s opinion to the contrary, supervisors are people too. Most people were raised to “be nice” even at the risk of honesty. Most have never developed the ability to present negative feedback in any other terms then in an attack mode. When delivered negatively, this feedback has the subtly of a falling anvil, usually causing the message to be garbled by resentments and anger thus failing in it’s basic efforts to be informative. Compounding that lack of communication is the hole-in-the-gut feeling of annihilation.
The successful business leader needs to be able to give and most of all receive negative feedback. Successful companies will continue to develop this ability in their workforce. Unsuccessful companies without the golden truth obtained from honest feedback, will continue to parade down the street naked!
OK .. to put things into perspective. For those who do not know where I stay, I live on an island known to all as the small red dot. This red dot, is famous for its variety of good food. There are things like the chicken rice, the curry fish head, satay, mee soto, roti john, roti prata … just to name a few. This is an island where people live to eat rather than eat to live … but that is a tale for another time.
The story I am telling today is about a small town somewhere on the east of this little red dot .. and this small town is call Bedok.
Long time ago, Bedok was a very peaceful town run by only 1 war lord. This War lord runs under a red, blue and white banner and is termed NTUC for short. This war lord has absolute control over the supply of food and grocery of the people staying in Bedok.
Not long after, another war lord can to vie for space and control. This war lord runs a orange and red banner and is call Emporium.. This warlord gains some grounds at first. However, it failed to notice the change in technology and the taste of the people and thus he died a natural death.
Over the years, other warlords with different banners, came and went, each trying to wrestle a piece of the territory from NTUC. Among which was Green and yellow Giant, Yellow and Green save and shop, etc. Save and shop was almost down and out … but he consolidated his strength and came back carrying a MacDonald’s color banner. He has been trying to save guard his land since.
Recently all hell broke loose when a super strong warlord who loves to sing broke into the scene. People flocked to him and called him affectionately as Sing Song. Now this warlord is competing with NTUC head on. The prices offered are extremely competitive and thus NTUC is bleeding and loosing territory every day.
Because both Sing Song and NTUC are fighting for the same dollar in my wallet, I did the most “uncle” thing I could do. I compiled a list of all the items that I would normally buy and went around checking prices from Sing Song and NTUC.
Trouble came when an NTUC auntie employee caught me inputting prices into my list. She came over and told me “I know where you are from. You cannot do that. Please note that taking down prices are strictly prohibited. You can use any methods but taking down of prices are strictly prohibited.”
I was literally at a lost of words … never in my 30 years of shopping had anyone told me that I cannot take down prices to make comparison … Oh my God .. where is my consumer rights and freedom? Can someone enlighten me if comparing prices at super markets is allowed?
The words “clean and green energy”, “global warming” and “recycling” are certainly creating a buzz recently. The effect was also heightened by the unusual bouts of weather we are facing currently, for example droughts and then floods and I swear I do not need to go to the Antarctica or the Artic to see the effects of global warming … I can feel in in my everyday life. The difference in temperature has never felt so great between an air conditioned office and the open air car park. It never felt that hot during this period of the year and I do not remember getting sun burnt just by walking under the sun for an hour.
The earth is slowing changing…. Paranoid you might say but it is true … you can see it with your own eyes…. And in my humble opinion it is due to the human race using too much of a certain resource, causing imbalance in the whole eco system. Humans are like parasites, they multiply fast, used up a lot of resources and lay waste to the places they occupy.
Thus the need for cleaner energy . Something that gives off less carbon dioxide when consumed. Something that is renewable. And in comes vegetable oil, in the form of peanut, corn, plam tree, sugar beet and many many more. Clean and green these alternative sources of fuel may be … but what are the cost to the environment? Big areas of primary and secondary forest and perhaps swaps are being cleared for the production of these so called clean and green and renewable energy source …but did any one notice the cost?
The forest and swamps absorb carbon dioxide, the trees in their natural photosynthesis releases oxygen and you are clearing all of it away just to build something that gives off lesser CO2 … for some one who did the benefits and cost analysis … I am sure this had never some into the picture … perhaps all that the decision maker sees is just dollars and cents and GDP.
Normally I do not talk about such petty stuff, but the behavior of some one I met on the street just now really piss me off.
I was walking my dog as usual in the evening along the beaten path, which is a small garden below my block of flats. Along came a scrawny small kid, about 4 to 5 years old, acting like a big ah beng. He was chasing cats around the garden, screaming at the top of his lungs, making the high pitch sound which kids at his age seems to love making.
Find you chase cats, that is your bloody business …. I never have much liking for cats anyway. However, when he saw my dog, he rushed towards my dog, screaming at the top of his voice… At that time, well, my dog was literally minding his own business, pooing on the grass patch and when he saw and heard the raving lunatic running towards it, it obviously got cold feet and ran and hide towards me.
I tot the kid would be satisfied and leave my dog alone … but who knows he started to run towards me, again screaming … This time round, my dog, who was hiding behind me all the while, started barking and ran between my legs to stand guard in front of me .. (he is so sweet and such a darling right? But that is beside the point)
The kid was so taken aback that he fell down and started crying … and that attracted the attention of his mother. ( I guess his mother must have been partially deaf from all his high pitched screaming for she only reacted to his pathetic crys) She came around, comforted the kid and led him away. Before leaving, she gave me a “it is all your fault look”. My god!! I cannot stand it … My dog did not ask for your kid to lavish him with the kind of attention in the first place … If you are that attention hungry, be prepared to accept the consequences that come together with it.
Anyway for those who are wondering what my dog looks like ….
Yet another poor kid drowned in a man-made pool. My heart goes all out for the family and I offer my sincere condolences. However, looking at the statistics, within the past week, this is already number 4th case. Basically for more than half the week there is someone drowning everyday …. This makes me wonder if there is really a trend ….
I am not sure about you guys, but for me, swimming or learning how to swim is one of the most basic survival skills that a child must have or would have picked up along the way while growing up. This is
Singapore and we are an island surrounded by a pool of water. Even if you are not an accomplished Olympic swimmer, at least you should be able to float or paddle to stay afloat.
My personal feeling is that kids nowadays are a whole bunch of deprived lot. Maybe the Mummys and Daddies beg to defer. They would say “No, my kid is not deprived. Instead, my kid’s life is very enriched…. They go for tuition classes, enrichment classes, ballet classes, singing classes, etc” and the list goes on and on and even toddlers go for pre-school classes to give them a head start before they hit the academic road. But wait a minute, why aren’t there classes for self exploration, for example: climbing trees, catching guppies / fishes by the big drains, interaction with other children of other races / religion, playing catching or marbles?
Engaging in simple activities like those I had listed had prepared and equipped me with the skills I need for life. Recognizing danger and learning the skills like climbing or swimming to overcome that danger. Maybe those activities do not enrich my wallet, but they had certainly enriched my life but to many parents out there, perhaps those activities maybe a total waste of time and dangerous. The basic survival skills now is to cultivate skills that fill up the wallet ….
Random Tots 