Being Point

Tag: commitment

  • Risk Is Often Presented As A Justification For Command And Control

    Among the primary reasons advanced for command and control cultures is risk management – that is, how does a group best prevent bad things from happening while doing it best to accomplish its mission?

    Perhaps the most notorious command and control entity was the Soviet Politboro which famously created the Soviet Five-Year Plan for Agriculture in the belief that results could be mandated and commanded. Dismal crops year after year proved that their assumptions were wrong in large part because motivation was missing.

    Margaret J. Wheatley writes: “Successful organizations, including the military, have learned that the higher the risk, the more necessary it is to engage everyone’s commitment and intelligence.”

    Do you ever buy into the idea that command and control is “necessary” for the “benefit of all concerned”? How does that square with your personal values? How do you believe these kinds of risk-reward questions are best resolved? How, if at all – in your personal life and / or your professional life – do you engage the “commitment and intelligence” of others?

  • What Would You Teach Your Children About Trusting?

    Headlines over the last few years have been saturated with stories about trust gone bad. Confidences broken, tales told, sacred commitments thrown away.

    Trust is a complex topic. Trust is faith and belief in the veracity of a human being or in a human organization. Knowing who to trust is among the most important decisions for anyone. Whom do you trust? And on what bases?

    The flagship British Petroleum gas station at the corner of Olympic and Robertson in Los Angeles – the one that was so futuristic with the big green and yellow flower BP logo (“beyond petroleum” – supposedly so “green”) – is now, suddenly, an Arco station.

    No BP signage anywhere. An interesting trust issue since BP owns Arco. It’s just a simple name change. Can’t say that it makes me trust BP any more – probably a little less trust in that its intent seems to be to deceive.

    Have you ever experienced an individual or a business trying to gain your trust – and then deceiving you? How do you make the decision about whom to trust? What would you teach your children about trusting?

  • Uncertainty And Its Pull Toward Fear Of Failure

    Every human being has experienced difficulty when uncertainty became fear, and we’ve found ourselves disillusioned. One of our amazing readers writes:

    “I think as we grow older and take the knocks and defeats of life, we start compromising and then we get to the point where we settle. We let our fear of failure blind us from taking leaps of faith. We become more frail to setbacks than we did in our youth.”

    Guarding against or minimizing the potential negative effects of uncertainty is a valuable strategy. Uncertainty can be channeled into commitment rather than being allowed to hold us back.

    Think of a time when uncertainty stopped you from taking action and making a change. What did you do about it? What did you learn from it?

    Can uncertainty be a good thing if used to create more clarity and focus? Have there been significant times when your uncertainty prevented your taking action, and you were glad it did?

  • “The only lost cause is one we give up before we enter the struggle.” ~ Vaclav Havel

    Loyalty to so-called “lost causes”? Who me? Who you? Most likely, each of us has at least one cause to which we remain loyal no matter what. It could be anything: a sports team, a family member, a political issue – a belief in something that you refuse to give up.

    Czech activist and the first President of post-Communist Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, said:

    “The only lost cause is one we give up before we enter the struggle.”

    Havel’s point was to remain loyal and not to give up on what we believe in. His struggle as a leader for Czech freedom is legendary – and, at the time, most would have said it was a lost cause.

    What is it that keeps you loyal to people and situations that seem to others to be lost causes? How can we explain our commitments? Is this blind or misplaced loyalty – or is it something deeper?