Authenticity | Lorne Rubis

The VW Defeat Device

Key Point: Do you actively employ a “defeat device” in your life? I’ve never heard the term “defeat device” before, but I guess the idea has been around forever. It’s a fancy term for cheating, lying, manipulation and deception. That’s what Volkswagen, rated by many pundits as one of the most notable, green and socially responsible brands in the world, was caught doing: Employing a DEFEAT DEVICE. How clever of them.

Most of us have now heard reports that VW used a device which allowed diesel cars to achieve stellar emission tests in the lab, while failing miserably in the real world. According to the Globe and Mail, over 11 million VW diesel cars have been spewing out toxic emissions at levels approximately 35x greater than those achieved in lab results. The negative and far reaching environmental, health and financial impact is yet to be fully determined. The VW CEO was appropriately terminated and the overall impact to VW’s reputation still hasn’t hit the bottom. Further investigation hopefully will provide additional insights and impact assessments, but if one knows anything about the working of organizations, a lot of employees at Volkswagen had to know about this defeat device. I can’t imagine this work being the deceitful and manipulative project of a rouge engineer (or even a few). What makes people gag even more is knowing that VW is actively promoting itself as a leader in developing fuel efficient cars. It even launched the “Fun Theory” initiative a few years ago, where it encourages customers and the public at large to make suggestions on how to connect “fun and green” together. The theory is that people will want to drive environmentally friendly cars if it’s fun to do. Wow!

Why would VW knowingly allow this to happen? As Warren Buffett has famously noted, there is so much money to be made within the boundaries of integrity, why play at the edge? VW is the result of what a collection of actual human beings does. This deceitful behavior emerged from some VW people consciously deciding that a “defeat device” was acceptable. So the idea of a defeat device ultimately begins at a very personal and individual level.

Character Moves:

We are of course all very human and fallible so it might be worth reflecting where we might be aware of or perhaps even be involved in applying a “defeat device” in our personal daily lives; portraying one result in the “lab,” while living another way in real life? Of course, as painfully demonstrated by VW, the “defeat device” eventually lives up to its name… It defeats us personally.

We have an obligation to call out for help and seek counsel when determining the right thing to do in organizations. Defeat devices of any kind are a slippery slope of deceit. When we know it’s wrong in our gut, it likely is. And soliciting the help of others to check our thinking and call it out is necessary. I have to believe that VW wishes somebody or group would have vehemently protested applying a defeat device to trick the emission results. As proven time and again, it takes years to build a valued brand (personal or otherwise) only to have it trashed in minutes/hours based on the wrong behavior. And intentional deceit is a true defeat device, personally, professionally and organizationally.

Against Defeat Devices in the Triangle,

Lorne

One Millennial View: Despite working in the entertainment industry for years and covering every “cheating” scandal since 2011, I still get surprised that some people cut corners and play shady games when they can. Disappointingly, it’s usually people you hope and wish would never… Then, these stories are even worse when obviously people break their moral fiber in order to downplay their risk of negative consequences or legal liability. If you’re a leader breaking the rules, have the self-accountability to make sure you aren’t dragging down the masses with your scummy plan. Punch buggy, no return… I’m glad this VW Bug finally got squashed.

– Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

Hip Hip Hooray for Lies and Deceit?

Accountability Authenticity Organizational leadership

Key Point: Jeffrey Pfeffer is a well-known Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His new book is Leadership BS: Fixing Workplaces and Careers One Truth at a Time. Unless I’m missing something, Pfeffer is apparently suggesting we could all be better off accepting a little more lying, inauthenticity, arrogance and deceit. After all, that’s the real world I guess?

According to a Sept. 9, Stanford blog by Eilene Zimmerman, in Leadership BS, Pfeffer argues that one reason the leadership industry has not been successful is that its recommendations are based on an “ideal world,” rather than the real world. “Among the prescriptions for better leadership is that leaders need to be truthful, when in reality, the ability to lie can be very useful for getting ahead. Pfeffer emphasizes manipulation skills are a foundation of social power. In fact, he says there is a reciprocal relationship between power and lying: The powerful deceive more often, and the ability to deceive effectively creates social power.

In the end, Pfeffer suggests we would all be better off accepting that our leaders are generally not truthful, authentic, modest, or trustworthy. Instead, they’re largely the opposite of the message we get from popular motivational leadership stories we hear. ‘All those stories and the inspiration we get from them change nothing,’ he says. ‘The fundamental problem with this industry is the disconnect between what we say we want from our leaders and how they actually manage organizations.'”

So I guess Stanford should add “Effective Lying and Manipulation 101” to their elevated curriculum? Why? That’s the “real” world? I must admit that that I have not read Pfeffer’s entire book, so maybe the summaries I’m reading miss some key context. However, I do agree with one thing he says: There is too much of a disconnection between what we say we want from our leaders and how they actually manage organizations. Still, I strongly feel the answer is MORE authenticity, modesty, truthfulness and trustworthiness: NOT less! I am part of a profitable 77-year-old company with leadership that absolutely believes and behaves that way. And we make lots of money for our shareholders too. We’re not perfect, but people who intentionally lie, manipulate, act arrogantly or breed mistrust, will not succeed in our workplace; regardless if Pfeffer thinks that’s the real world.

On a related note, Pope Francis, who is in the spotlight as he visits the U.S. this week, is the leader of a large institution and community. Authenticity and transparency has been his personal theme and one that has not always been the way of his predecessors. His personal behavior from the very moment of taking on that role is consistent with that theme, and he’s definitely driving spiritual and even social change among his constituents. I’d be deeply disappointed if in his private life he dined nightly while sipping Henri Jayer Richebourg Grand Cru, etc. I just believe he’s the real deal, whether I agree with his religious tenants or not. He’s proving to be a very effective leader to date. I hope I’m missing something in appreciating your work, Dr. Pfeffer, but let’s not give up on authenticity, truthfulness, openness, and humility because you think it’s not real. Let’s just all get better at leading that way. We need more leaders demonstrating that we can achieve extraordinary results without having to compromise ourselves.

Character Moves:

Authentically stand for values that are genuinely meaningful to you. Accept that you are human and will occasionally lapse. Forgive yourself, and get back on track. If you think someone “gets ahead” because they’re better liars, more manipulative, skilled actors and arrogant, well…?

You and I deserve to work for an organization with top leadership that declares in detail what it stands for and acts that way most if not all the time. This does not mean hollow plaques and words on the inside of an annual report.

Truth in The Triangle,

Lorne

One Millennial View: You know when you watch network news and they’re desperately trying to fill their 24/7 media agenda with stories or polls that are clearly just ridiculous time fillers or devil’s advocacies? This research seems similar. Millennials like myself may not always be in the “know” with the inner workings of upper management, and can be quick to be cynical and distrust the information that is trickled down to us. Being uninformed why a deal didn’t go through, or why some new project disintegrated can be fuel for this, but we don’t HAVE to assume it’s because we’re being manipulated or lied to.

– Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

The Spirit of a Great Leader

Abundance Authenticity Purpose

Key Point: I strongly believe one cannot be a GREAT leader unless you lead spiritually. I’m not talking about religion or human perfection because you and I both know that’s a contradiction. As people, our very imperfection defines our humanness. I believe really GREAT business leaders, in spite of their imperfections, achieve profit more often through abundance than scarcity. They are more interested in growing, expanding, creating and giving than taking from others. They are more driven by the sustainable, people value they create than simply beating a competitor.

I appreciate the viewpoint of Rev. Scotty McLennan who is a minister, lawyer, author and the former dean for religious life at Stanford. As a lecturer in political economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business, McLennan uses literature to help students explore the moral and spiritual issues in their own careers and he emphases the following in a recent Stanford blog:

“Business people spend the majority of their waking hours at work, and many of them want to find it meaningful. I wrote a book with a colleague at Harvard Business School where we tried to help readers integrate their spirituality and ethical commitments with their daily work lives. Ultimately, I believe this leads to more successful businesses and to greater satisfaction of customers and other stakeholders… Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn, has spoken and written about how he has been influenced by the Buddhism of the Dalai Lama. He considers the number one management principle in his own work life and for his company to be managing compassionately. This goes beyond empathy to walking in another’s shoes and taking collaborative action together. He is convinced that compassion can be taught not only in school, but also in corporate learning and development programs. A fellow minister who heard Jeff Weiner speak on ‘The Art of Conscious Leadership’ at the 2013 Wisdom 2.0 conference in San Francisco described Weiner as making the most inspiring contribution to the conference. Not only was his spiritual commitment to his employees and customers strongly evidenced, but also he has a business leadership dream to expand compassion worldwide through his powerful social media company.”

Character Moves:

What is your spiritual IQ? This is every bit as important as your IQ, EQ, PQ (Positive Quotient). If you want to measure this, the best work out there is by Cindy Wigglesworth. Take her SQ21 assessment. It’s an eye opener.

Develop or refresh your organization and personal purpose statement around the concept of making things better for people. If you do that, most employees will rally around the business. If your purpose statement is only or primarily about creating shareholder financial value and return, I promise your organization will eventually stumble. Why? Very few people jump out of bed in the morning to dedicate themselves to making shareholders richer. On the other hand, many feel terrific when their meaningful work creates sustainable value… Including a strong shareholder return.

An organization’s priority and purpose should center on creating meaningful value for humankind, followed by a commitment to team members, customers and finally shareholders… In that order!! What is your purpose and value being created for other people?

As I’ve noted repeatedly in recent blogs, put your technology away for a few minutes each day, and find time to quietly refuel. A little meditation will contribute to your spiritual quests.

Be an intentional spiritual leader and be proud of it.

Spiritual leadership in The Triangle,

Lorne

One Millennial View: It may sound cliché or over preached, but there is a certain value and benefit that attaches itself to helping others. When you do it, it “feels” great, which in turn sparks that spiritual connection to the task. You hear about businesses doing a little something extra for their clients or customers, and that little “something” makes all the difference. It keeps your customers returning, and in turn, you profit in more ways than just through monetization.

– Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

Sadness as a Superhero!

Authenticity Respect Well-being

Key Point: Emotional Intelligence includes each of us becoming acutely aware of our own emotions and the feelings of others. Mental wellness at work/life (how could we possibly separate these?) is finally getting the attention it deserves. That’s one reason I love Pixar’s new “kids” movie, Inside Out. Drawing on real neuroscience and the latest psychological research, the movie goes where no animated film has gone before; into the inner workings of a young (11-year-old) girl’s mind. Early in the movie’s production, its brilliant director Pete Docter, invited well known psychologist Paul Ekman to brief the crew on the nature of emotions. According to Ekman, there are seven emotions with universal facial signals—the five that ended up in the movie, plus contempt and surprise.

Spoiler Alert – If you want Inside Out to be a complete surprise….don’t read until after seeing it.

The movie focuses on Riley, a happy, hockey-loving girl from Minnesota who is abruptly confronted with a family move across the country. Most of the action, though, takes place inside her head, where her staff of personified emotions — Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear and Disgust — are in charge of operations. As Joy (Amy Poehler) vies for control, she and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) get lost deep in the recesses of Riley’s mind, leaving Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) at the helm. Riley is left angry and sullen to the outside world until Joy and Sadness make peace and return to their positions inside central control, “headquarters.”

As one might expect, Joy is always positive and full of bounce. And Sadness just wants to lie down and kind of feel her feelings. Yet Joy and Sadness come to appreciate their need for each other. There is a touching moment in the film where Sadness sits down next to a character that is upset about something. Joy’s first instinct is to distract the character, try to cheer him up and talk over him. However, Sadness quietly sits down next to him and says, “I’m very sorry that you lost something that you love. That must make you very sad.” Of course that empathy is what the character needs to cheer up and move forward.

As Poehler reveals during an interview about the movie: “We tell ourselves that the constant pursuit of happiness is what we need to do, and if you’re not doing it, you’re doing something wrong. Instead, this big concept of feeling your feelings and trying to stay true to who you are and what you want, that’s the journey…”

Character Moves:

Get closer to your emotions and be honest about them. I have come around to appreciate the goodness that can come from pursuing happiness (as long as it stops well in advance of narcissism). I have learned that chasing happiness is empty without paying advance attention to meaning, vocation and humility. However, what’s perhaps most important is appreciating without judgment, that a rich life has a place for all the emotions. Knowing what we are honestly feeling is most important regarding connecting with our authentic self. When we ignore or suppress joy and sadness all we are left with is anger, fear, and disgust.
Perhaps, thankfully what’s most different from a mind of an 11-year-old is our ability to have more command over the emotion “control panel.” As adults, we have the additional capability to acknowledge our feelings and make choices before we act on them.

Sadness is real, raw, genuine and a gateway to having the necessary empathy and compassion for yourself and others. In that regard, sadness and joy are full life partners. At the end of the movie, the core emotions were richer because they were infused with more than one emotion – they became multi-colored balls rather than the simplistic one colored balls they began with. We must know and appreciate our emotions and how they interact and enrich our lives. Frankly, at work we will all benefit from being more “feeling,” present with others and ourselves. What do we notice? How do we feel? What are others around us feeling? Some days sadness is and deserves to be a superhero… It’s the bridge to reconnecting with joy.

I’d recommend you see the movie. You can see the trailer here.

Sadness as a superhero in The Triangle,

Lorne

One Millennial View: As a generally, sometimes perpetually “good mood” person, I haven’t always understood or validated “sadness.” Sadness, to me, is reserved for life’s (fortunately) occasional dark moments. I’d think, “you’re sad? Ok, do something to cheer yourself up.” Well… To many, that isn’t fair. In fact, it’s freaking annoying. I had to learn that people are “allowed” to be sad, and you can’t “tell people how to feel.” No matter how “trivial” the situation may seem, that’s not my judgment to make. Now, I’m far from perfect at this, but it’s a work in progress. Sure, Inside Out might be animated, but it sounds like it’s about as real as it gets.

– Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

Work is ‘Love Made Visible!’

Abundance Authenticity Contribution

Key Point: I am so attracted to the idea of using every day to create something important, even beautiful. When people start the day thinking of themselves as story creators, they thoughtfully paint, craft, hone, sharpen, build, and compose. I feel saddened when I hear people grumble about their work and often about many other things. They behave in ways that Pope Francis refers to as a “pickle face.” What a graphic picture. So what are the thoughts of two eminent philosophers and ancient mystics on the matter of daily work & living?

Kahlil Gibran, the Lebanese-American writer, poet, and philosopher noted the following:

“Put love into your work.

“Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day.”

He also stated:

“Your attitude towards life will determine life’s attitude towards you.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.”

“You are what you do every minute, hour, day.”

The very respected spiritual philosopher, Richard Rhor, in a recent daily meditation wrote about the desert fathers (Abbas) and mothers (Ammas); Mystics who chose solitude in the desert to achieve a deeper encounter and presence with their spiritual selves. Rhor notes:

“Through their solitude, the abbas and ammas learned to be sparing and intentional with their words and to preach more through their lifestyle than through sermons. There were few ‘doctrines’ to prove at this time in Christianity, only an inner life to be experienced. Abba Isidore of Pelusia said, ‘to live without speaking is better than to speak without living. For the former who lives rightly does good even by his silence but the latter does no good even when he speaks. When words and life correspond to one another they are together the whole of philosophy.’

An old abba was asked what was necessary to do to be saved. He was sitting making rope. Without glancing up, he said, ‘You’re looking at it.’ Just as so many of the mystics have taught us, doing what you’re doing with care, presence, and intention is prayer, the very way to transformation and wholeness. As other master teachers have taught in many forms, ‘When we walk, we walk; when we chop wood, we chop wood; when we sleep, we sleep.’ As you know, this is much harder than it first seems.”

Character Moves:

1. Many organizations use this time of the year to conduct engagement surveys with employees. Their intent is usually noble. They want to create conditions for people to thrive. Excellent! What organizations also need to become great at, is to attract and retain people who come and put love into their work. That is a totally winning combination: Organizations creating an environment for people to love work and having employees who approach their work, whatever it is, with love. Where do you fit and contribute on this continuum?

2. When we work with care, presence and intention, the path for what’s next most often shows up. It is perhaps counterintuitive but most often true. When our heads are too much in the past or future we may stumble. The desert mystics were powerfully insightful: “When we walk… We walk.”

Walking with love in the Triangle,

Lorne

One Millennial View: I’m going to focus on the “And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy,” part, because it stands out to me… Sure, I think we’re all striving to work with love. We’re hopefully taking stepping-stones to get there, but sometimes it might feel more like back breaking labor than that majestic match. That’s ok. It’s not just supposed to be handed to you. Unfortunately, unlike for the desert mystics, it’s 2015… If we just quit cause the “love” isn’t there yet, the “gates of the temple” could be our parent’s basements, or friend’s couches, or worse… And our “alms of those who work with joy,” is what? A bunch of credit card debt? No thanks! Guys, let’s absolutely all strive to love our work, but I bet if we work hard, suck it up, and stop complaining so much about “Bob in reception’s sighing problem,” we’ll get there faster and certainly with more appreciation.

– Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

Straight Talk From Kids: Just Breathe

Authenticity Respect Well-being

Key Point: Kids are such great teachers. We could all benefit from hanging out and really being present with them more often. After spending a few days visiting with our 8-year-old grandson, it reinforced the beauty of an easy smile, the joy of learning, the tenderness of a hug and sweetness of unabashed silliness (mine and his). So my gift to you is to take 3:41 to watch the embedded video. It aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network’s Super Soul Sunday program, April 12, after Oprah’s interview with the mindfulness pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Character Moves:

Please watch the video. Embrace the kindergarten kids’ insights and self-awareness.
Hang out and be present with some little kids. They like straight talk. Ask them questions with authenticity and then just listen.
Let your “brain jar” settle and… “Just breathe.”

Big little people in the Triangle,

Lorne

One Millennial View: This video was a little bit (ok, a lot) more serious than I expected it to be. But considering children less than 10 years old are explaining the complexity of brain function and behavioral patterns, it’s refreshing to know that this upcoming generation is going to be just fine. When I was that age, I think my main expertise were Star Wars action figures, cartoons on Nickelodeon and recess.

– Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis