Leadership and Science: Is there a connection?

 I gave a talk on humanistic leadership to a group of teachers a few months ago and one of them asked me, why I mentioned science and critical thinking so often in the context of humanistic leadership.  The answer is simple, you can't do good, if you don't know what is true or false. 

Being a leader is hard. It's not simply about managing people. It's about inspiring people to do their best.  And to be their best, people need good information. 

Most people think about humanistic leadership as being about ethics, and it absolutely is. But it's not enough to want to do good. To actually do good in the world, you have to come up with good reality base solutions to the very real problems you and your team face. 

And to do that, you need science. A good leader must be scientifically literate. If they are not, they are not a good leader. And yes, I'm being blunt. But it's true. 

We humans, are by and large, really lousy thinkers. We take short cuts in our thinking and we don't always reality test our thoughts and ideas.  A good leader will reality test their ideas. Why? Because the only thing worse than being wrong, is continuing to be wrong and causing suffering and death as a result.

I am writing this in late November, from the United States of America during the Covid 19 pandemic. The only thing that will get us out of this, is science. The places where the leadership is denying science, are dealing with high numbers of deaths. We are talking hundreds of thousands of people dying because some leaders are rejecting the science.

Not every decision a leader makes is life or death, but if you aren't prepared to make those decisions using the best information you can get, you should not be a position of authority.  You shouldn't be allowed to manage anything let alone, lead.

Leading people off a cliff to their deaths, is not good leadership.

But I digress. A good leader, uses science for the big and mundane decisions because knowing what is true and what is false is critical to effective problem solving. If you don't know what is really causing your problem and what will really work to fix it, you will waste time, energy and money not fixing your problem. That isn't good leadership.

Want to be a good leader, become a good critical thinker and dedicate yourself to reality based decision making. 

https://humanistlearning.com/realitybaseddecisionmaking/

Don't let Cognitive Dissonance trip you up.

Most people struggle with reality.  We don't like it. We want reality to be different. Unfortunately - we only have a limited ability to change the nature of reality.  The only hope we have - is to accept reality for what it is and work with and around it - realistically.

Today's post is about cognitive dissonance - which happens when there is a disconnect between our beliefs and our behavior and/or our beliefs - and reality.

And yes- this is about personal responsibility.

Here is a short article about cognitive dissonance: https://www.learning-theories.com/cognitive-dissonance-festinger.html

You can cause yourself and others harm - sometimes extreme harm if you reject reality.  Specifically - if you reject the reality of harm you did to others.  

Youi have a belief that - you are a good person. And yet - we all do things - that cause harm to others from time to time.

Most people deny that they harmed others - because - they didn't mean to harm others.  That's not a very effective way of fixing a problem you have.

The more effective way is to - accept you did harm, take responsibility for the harm you caused - and work to fix it.  The more you fight or deny the reality - the more harm you cause to others. 

On top of hurting them - you hurt them more as a way to deny your cognitive dissonance between the reality of your behavior and the belief you have about yourself. 

Good people and good leaders - don't deny the reality of the impact of their behavior. They take responsibility for the impacts of their behavior - and change their behavior in the future.

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone did that?  Of course it would. Start practicing this for yourself and you will see immediate benefits from less stress - less unnecessary conflict and better relationships. 

Sunk Costs:

Another way we cause harm is when we refuse to accept something isn't working.  This is known as a sunk cost fallacy - where we have invested so much into something and it just isn't working (the reality) but we refuse to believe it isn't working because - we've invested so much already.

A definition of insanity that I really like is - doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. 

If you are doing something and it isn't working, don't double down on the stupid. Do a realistic assessment of the situation and make some changes.  YOu may not have to totally abandon the thing that isn't working, maybe you can tweak it. But always be open to the possibility that you just need to abandon it. Because - if it's not working  it's insane to sink more of your time, energy and money into something that isn't working. 

Learn more:

If you want to learn more about reality based decision making - take my course - Reality Based Decision Making for Effective Strategy Development - https://humanistlearning.com/realitybaseddecisionmaking/

Making Sense of Science Reporting

Scientific Literacy is a necessary life skill. It isn’t optional anymore. To be an active citizen and to make sense of your health care choices – you must be scientifically literate. So, a) what does it mean to be scientifically literate and b) how does one become scientifically literally.

First – a definition: “Scientific literacy means that a person can ask, find, or determine answers to questions derived from curiosity about everyday experiences. It means that a person has the ability to describe, explain, and predict natural phenomena. Scientific literacy entails being able to read with understanding articles about science in the popular press and to engage in social conversation about the validity of the conclusions. Scientific literacy implies that a person can identify scientific issues underlying national and local decisions and express positions that are scientifically and technologically informed. A literate citizen should be able to evaluate the quality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methods used to generate it. Scientific literacy also implies the capacity to pose and evaluate arguments based on evidence and to apply conclusions from such arguments appropriately. “(National Science Education Standards, page 22)

Or to put it more bluntly – a scientifically literate person knows how to evaluate claims being made to know what is true and what is false.  This has wide ranging implications for all aspects of life, from health care, to jobs, to politics and more.

In many cases scientific literacy is a life and death matter and it is not a joke to not know what is scientifically true and validated.

When people aren’t scientifically literate they make bad decisions.  Those bad decisions can obviously cause personal harm and even death (see What’s the Harm for all the ways people who don’t think scientifically harm themselves http://whatstheharm.net/)

Bad decisions taken by groups can have far ranging consequences for the entirety of society. Pretty much every major civilization that failed, failed because of bad decision making. For those of us who would like to not only live, but live well – we view scientific literacy as the foundation of all good decision making.

Deborah Howell – at the Washington Post – wrote an opinion on – how to make sense of science reporting. Consider this your first lesson in how to be skeptical of science reporting – and really all reporting. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120502959.html   

•       Double check your sources.
•       Always try to read the source material to make sure that the headline matches the actual findings
•       Look for contradicting information
•       Stick with facts and not with opinions.

To learn more - check out my online course: Reality Based Decision Making for Effective Strategy Development. 

https://humanistlearning.com/realitybaseddecisionmaking/

Also available as a streaming video, audio book, dvd, ebook and paperback: 

http://amzn.to/2tkcjir

Reality based decision making - it's important

Came across this graphic the other day and wanted to comment on it. Reality based decision making is important - because it saves lives.

When we have problems it's very easy to make assumptions about what is causing those problems. The problem is - if you don't know what is causing your problem, you won't know what will work to solve it and you can end up making your problem a whole lot worse.

Science based approaches to problem solving help us fix our problems. We should use them and reject non-science based approaches if we actually want to be successful.  

We now use science for medical problems, but we should also use it to help us fix our economy. We don't have to guess. People have studied this. We also know what works with health care policy and what policies make things worse.

So everyone - please push for science based solutions everywhere in every realm of your life, but in particular, the political realm. While making guesses may hurt you - when governments guess - they can end up killing a LOT of people.

To learn more about reality based decision making, consider taking my online course: 

https://humanistlearning.com/realitybaseddecisionmaking/

Business Plan Reviews

I used to be involved in franchise sales and I reviewed countless business plans in that capacity to ensure that our potential franchisees understood not only what they were getting into but that they were properly capitalized so that they would have the best chance of success. I was recently asked about how to take a reality based approach to business planning.

- What sections are the most essential elements of the business plan?

 Income and expenses.  The main thing I would look for was whether the individual had allocated enough money for marketing purposes and whether or not their income and expenses looked realistic.

 - What story should the business plan tell?

Where does the money come from and how is the money going to be spent.  Everything else is fluff. Either the person understands how their proposed business makes money and what they need to do to realize that potential, or they don’t.

- What common business plan mistakes do you see the most?

Most people over-estimate their income and under-estimate their expenses. Business plans are a work of optimism. The problem is – they also need to be realistic. Understanding what is realistic is key.

- What is your advice for startups and entrepreneurs that are writing or refining their business plan for review?

Halve your income and double your expenses. 

- What is the most vital piece of information in the business plan? 

 How long until you realistically break even? Do you have enough capital to ensure that you can make it that far? Too often people over-estimate their income and under-estimate their expenses. Then, just as they are starting to gain traction, their money starts to run out so they cut expenses in the only place they can – which is their marketing. When that happens, they tend to die a slow death.   Understanding, realistically, what has to be invested and how long until you see a realistic return at your break even point – will help you avoid this fate.

- What is your #1 business plan advice?

Halve your income and double your expenses. If you still want to do this with your worst-case scenario numbers, take the leap.

- Anything else that you'd like to add - that relates to the composition of a business plan? 

Make sure you understand your motives for starting a business. Why is it you are doing this?  Without truly understanding your own motivations, you may not have the stick to-it-ness that will help you keep going when things get tough. And… they are going to get tough.

The best motivations are working to help other people. If all you want to do is make money, then you probably won’t stick it out when the going gets tough. If you want to help people, nothing will stop you.

To learn more about how to make better more realistic decisions, take my online course; Reality Based Decision Making for Effective Strategy Development.

If you want to learn more about humanistic management – take the short self-study problem – Principles of Humanistic Management

Accepting Reality

Reality: the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them.

Another way to think of reality is that it is objectively true as opposed to subjectively true.

Objectively true means that it can be tested to be true. Subjective truth is something you think is true, but that may not be true for other people.

When people talk about “their” truth, they are talking about subjective truth.  Subjective truths are very powerful things.  But objective truths are even more powerful because they don’t go away when people stop believing in them.

Objective truth matters because reality matters.  We cannot solve our problems effectively unless we accept the reality of our problems.

I write about this a lot because it turns out that accepting reality is something we humans don’t like to do when reality sucks.  Life is hard. People die and are hurt and there are things that happen that can’t be undone. It is comforting to think that we can just magically make all these bad things go away.

But that’s not how reality works. Reality doesn’t go away just because we have decided to ignore it. We ignore reality at our own risk.

 To solve our problems, we must be brave enough to accept the reality of our problems so that we can tackle them. Realistically.  The more realistic we are about our problems and about solving our problems the more effective we are at actually, solving them.

To learn more about how to engage in reality based decision making – consider taking this course.

Verifiable Business Ethics

Do your business ethics result in veritably good outcomes?

My friend August Berkshire said, “When it comes to deciding what is ethical behavior, all actions should be based on verifiable consequences.”  I think this is a very good rule to live by.

Ethics are our values. They help us make decisions by helping us to define what a good or bad outcome is. If we don’t based good or bad on – the outcomes, then we risk doing bad things for good reasons.

One of the reasons Humanists focus so much on science based problem solving and reality based problem solving is because we want to make sure our actions are good, not just in intent, but in outcome.

When business leaders talk about metrics, they are talking about verifying outcomes. All I ask is that you add a moral metric to your decision making as well. Is this outcome good, not just in terms of money made, but for the people doing the work and the customers as well.

To learn more:

• Reality Based Decision Making for Effective Strategy Development
• Principles of Humanistic Management

Rational Decision Making vs. Bullying based decision making

One of the reasons to reject bullying as a leadership style is because bullying leads to bad decisions.

People often ask me why I talk so much about bullying in the context of humanistic leadership development. The answer is that the anti-dote to bullying leadership styles is humanistic leadership.

Bullies lead through aggression and intimidation. They get people to agree with them by basically threatening them if they don’t. This isn’t true leadership, though it often is mistaken as such. Some people do follow bullies voluntarily, but they are usually trying to gain access to resources denied the victims of the bully. It’s a calculated decision to either align with the bully or become a victim of the bully.

True leadership doesn’t require bullying to gain followers.  True leaders are followed because what they are saying and doing makes sense and people can see how they benefit from it.

The topic of this post is about the difference between rational decision making and bullying based decision making.

Working with and supporting bullying leaders usually leads to segregation and hoarding of resources and this in turn causes harms to the “have nots” because bullying is about power and about marking people as either in (haves) or out (have nots).

Decisions made in a bullying framework aren’t about solving problems. They are about hoarding resources, which has nothing to do with solving problems. Bullying, as a leadership style, is a really bad approach to problem solving.

Lots of people are attracted to bullies. They think – here is a guy who can force a solution. And the bully often can. The problem is that the “solution” rarely solves the problem, it just empowers the bully more.

Rational decision making, on the other hand, is unconcerned with power. It’ s concerned with problem solving and using whatever tools are available to solve those problems.  The reason humanistic leadership is more effective is precisely because it doesn’t divide the “human resources” into in groups and out-groups. Everyone has a seat at the table and all potential solutions are considered and people are mobilized, not to pettily segregate people, but into teams that are working collaboratively to solve our problems.

If you are in a working environment with a bully, understand that while they seem to wield power, they aren’t wielding it for the good of the organization. And that fact alone is reason enough to no longer tolerate their behavior.


Learn how to stop bullying in the workplace - https://humanistlearning.com/retaliation1/

And the 7 principles of Humanistic Management - https://humanistlearning.com/?p=2237

Finally - learn about reality based decision making - https://humanistlearning.com/realitybaseddecisionmaking/

Don’t fall for fake news: A guide for leaders

There is a saying in computer programming: Garbage In, Garbage out. It doesn’t matter how good a system is, if you put garbage data into it, you will get garbage out.

What you believe to be true matters. Leaders cannot make good decisions with bad information.  Unfortunately, we have all been dealing with a fake news problem and it’s getting harder to tell what is true and what isn’t.

I was asked how to tell fake news from real news. So here are some critical thinking guidelines to follow.

1)      Is the website click bait? What other headlines do they have? For instance – yeah – this might be a political story – but if the other headlines are ridiculous or there are lots of articles regarding bizarre health claims, it’s not a real news site.

2)      Look at the about section. Fake news sites are often surprisingly honest about the fact they are fake. Abcnews.com.co for instance has information on how to create fake news, fake press releases. How to link to other sites that look real so it looks like your article is real.

3)      Look at the name of the person who wrote the article. See what other articles they have written. Do a google search on them. Find out if the name is a pseudonym or real.

4)      Whois search the domain name. Real news sites have real listings and don’t hide their identity.

5)      Don’t like or share articles unless you have actually read them. The headline claim isn’t always supported by the article.

6)      If it is an article opinion on another article – click through to the originating material to see if they are quoting it properly. If the click doesn’t go to another article – it’s fake. If it does, you then have the ability to read the original source material to see if the opinion is supported by actual journalism or not.

7)      If they don’t quote anyone but say someone said something – they didn’t.

8)      If they make assertions but don’t give you any evidence – it’s probably fake.

9)      If no major news outlet is covering the story – and it’s really scandalous – it probably didn’t happen. All news outlets are vying for viewership including the mainstream news outlets. They aren’t going to not cover a scandalous story if it is real. They might spin it to fit their political narrative, but they will cover it if there is evidence for it.

10)   Demand evidence. Don’t just accept a claim as real because they link through to some source material. READ the source material and find out if you agree with their conclusions. For instance, the stories regarding Hillary’s Wikileaks – were almost never supported by the actual leaked emails. It was truly amazing to see how people made up stories on really flimsy evidence.

11)   Finally – if it’s making you really upset, question whether it’s real. Click bait is designed to upset you or scare you or excite you in an extreme way so you will share it. The more outraged, upset or giddy you feel, the more likely what you just saw is click bait and not real.

If you want to learn more about reality based decision making for humanistic leaders – check out this course: https://humanistlearning.com/realitybaseddecisionmaking/

The emotional benefits of accepting reality

The price of rejecting reality is high.

I have a course I teach called “Reality based decision making for effective strategy development (see https://humanistlearning.com/programsoffered/  for details).  Failure to accept reality means your plans, whatever they are – are likely to fail. Sure, you could get lucky, but I’d rather be smart and strategic than lucky. Smart and Strategic tends to yield better results.

The problem with reality is that it can be scary.  Accepting reality means not always knowing how things are going to turn out. It means confronting uncertainty and the unknown. It means accepting that despite all your good intentions and strategic approach and smarts, you still may not succeed.  That’s reality.  And it sucks. I’m not going to lie to you about that.

But this post is about the emotional benefits of accepting reality. Why on earth am I telling you how scary accepting reality is?  Because – despite how scary it can be, accepting reality is emotionally satisfying. It really does help your mental health to remain grounded in reality – even when reality sucks.

Here is my rule. You cannot solve your problems until you acknowledge you have a problem. And as long as you aren’t solving your problem, you will continue to have a problem. And having problems sucks. I would much rather confront my fears so I can confront my problems that stick my head in the sand and hope for the best.  Again, I could get lucky, but sticking my head in the sands means I don’t see the dangers coming and I can’t protect myself from those dangers.

I am a Humanist. I refuse to leave my fate up to fate. I am a proactive doer. I can get things done. I can change the odds in my favor. I refuse to hope for the best. Not when I can be doing something constructive to create positive change for myself.

One of my favorite quotes is “If you are going through hell, keep going.” From Winston Churchill.  Accepting reality is scary. But staying stuck in a living hell is even scarier.  Accepting my present reality is an act of courage. It puts me in a position to change my current reality and make a new one. Accepting reality, however bad it may be is empowering. And being empowered is good for your emotional health.

The Price of Rejecting Reality is High – Cupping Edition

The Olympics are now over and its time we talk about the rather dangerous woo on display.

Athletes, like all humans, can be very superstitious. Pretty much every Olympics there is some “health” fad that American athletes swear by. This year it was cupping.

Cupping is an “ancient’ practice where you basically use suction to give yourself rather large hickeys all over your body. The premise is that suction draws out – toxins of some sort from your body. It’s pseudo-non-science because it seems plausible. You are – after all – creating suction.  But it is wooey non-science regardless.

What’s the harm?  Oh – let me show you – it’s kind of gross though, so I’m only giving you the link. http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2016/07/01/whats-the-harm-cupping-edition/ 

Basically – cupping breaks blood vessels in your skin and damages your skin. I have no idea why anyone would think this feels good or would be good for them. It’s broken blood vessels!  Do that enough often enough and the damage caused can be compounded and made permanent.

Depending on how the cupping is done, you can also get very serious burns on your skin. Which is also skin damage and again, I can’t imagine why anyone would do this to their body intentionally. If you didn’t click though – the article I linked to has pictures of a guy with burnt holes in his back that go all the way through the skin.

The worse part about this is that there is zero medical benefit from this at all. ZERO! So even if you don’t get burned or damage your skin, you are still wasting time and money on a treatment that is basically a placebo.

The price of rejecting reality is indeed high.

The Importance of Science Literacy in Health Care

There is no area of life where critical thinking is more important than in your health care choices.

Unfortunately, cutting through the clutter to the science is not easy. I am a member of a woo free mom’s group online. A group of moms who are dedicated to ensuring we make science based choices for our families and ourselves when it comes to health decisions. And we struggle with it.

The most often asked question is – is this woo or not.  (Woo is information that looks sciencey – but isn’t).  If we have trouble figuring it out, it’s not easy.

So why make the effort? Because your life may depend on it.  Is salt good or bad for you? How much fat can or should you eat? Who can we trust when the science seems to change all the time! First fat is bad, then it’s good then it’s only sort of good but only if it’s certain types of fat – but wait – isn’t coconut oil good, maybe not – depends on what you are using it for and whether you have heart health problems. (sigh)

My husband recently had to have some heart stents put in.  Ok – so I research them. Find out well yes, the new stents that prevent reclosing of the artery also increase risks of blood clots slightly – which is why you have to take blood thinners for at least a year afterwards.

Why risk this? Because with no stent, the arteries reclose 30% of the time and with non-medicated stents 25% of the time, but with the new medicated stents they reclose only 10% of the time. So in the risk reward analysis – the slight increase risk of blood clots is outweighed by the benefit of reduced likelihood of needing to do the procedure again.

Of course, if you really want to improve your chances, you have to eat right too otherwise your heart disease will continue to be a problem.

So – what have I learned from our recent medical journey?  That I need to trust the doctors!  I can do all the research I want and totally freak myself out with fear and confusion, or ... I could just ask the doctor who is actually trained on these things and understands the science because – that’s his rather specialized job (I am saying he because my husband’s cardiologist is a he).  Asking this doctor questions taught me more than all of my own research.

I’m not saying don’t educate yourself. I’m saying Doctor Googles isn’t always reliable. (see http://io9.com/i-fooled-millions-into-thinking-chocolate-helps-weight-1707251800)  If you are confused after consulting Doctor Googles, which you probably will be, consult an actual professional. They really do know more than you do.

3 Strategies to Help you Make Better Decisions.

Three ways you can eliminate bias in your decision making process.

Question: 

Do you have to make important decisions all the time? How does one get better at making them, and feeling confident with their choice?

Answer: 

I always encourage people to do their best to make reality based decisions. The task is to try and eliminate confirmation bias and figure out whether what you think you know about something is really true or not.

Something might look good in a brochure or in a commercial, but until you see it in person, your judgment may be clouded by wishful thinking.

Here are 3 strategies I use: 

My mother always encouraged me to make pro and con lists – consider the benefits and the downsides to all my options and then use those as a guide to help me prioritize what is really important to me.  This works wonderful.

Sometimes you just have to give it a little time. If all things are equal in my mind and the pro and con list didn't help, I will often decide not to decide right now, if I have that luxury.  What usually happens is that my true preference becomes clear within a few weeks as my brain relaxes out of decision making mode and starts to contemplate what the future might be like. And it usually really likes one of the options. So – that’s what I go with. Again, I only use this method when I have no other way of making a decision or when I find I’m too confused to make a decision.

Finally, there has been some recent research that suggests if you don’t have a good reason for making a decision, you may be better making a random decision. So, if all things are equal – go ahead and flip a coin and see what happens.

Feel like you don’t make good decisions. Learn how to integrate your ethics and science into your decision making process with my Living Made Simpler Course:
https://humanistlearning.com/livingmadesimpler1/