Influence

ByHeather

You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.

— John Morley

How many times have I wished that I had this pithy little quote on a card in my purse, ready to be handed to a belligerent blowhard, or an incessant evangelist, on a moment’s notice?

One of my First Principles is what I call “Diversity of Thought.” It is very important to me to engage in stimulating dialog and entertain differing opinions. I assume that other people’s positions are valid and am always curious as to the line of reasoning or emotional journey that has led them to embrace such opinions. When people challenge my ideas it only “sharpens the saw” as Stephen Covey would say.

But occasionally I meet the bloviator who seeks to make their point solely through volume and brute force. At these times I realize that “diversity of thought” is not an option and I retreat to silence. At these times I wish I had a small card in my purse with a pithy quote . . . 🙂

Similar Posts

  • Calculating the Distance to California

    ByHeather

    Something like 90% of the nations fruit and vegetables are grown in California’s Central Valley. Here is a simple calculator to determine how far you are from this fertile land:

    1. Buy a 1/2 pint of raspberries from your local supermarket
    2. Count how many raspberries are moldy
    3. Multiply the number of moldy raspberries by 250. This is your distance in miles from California.

    For example, I am in Northern Michigan this week. I counted at least 9 moldy raspberries in the pack. 9 x 250 = 2,500. This is the approximate distance from my location to California’s Central Valley.

    Q.E.D.

  • Change

    ByHeather

    If you want to defeat any kind of vicious fraud–comply with it literally, adding nothing of your own to disguise its nature.

    — Ayn Rand, Spoken by Francisco d’Aconia to Hank Rearden in Atlas Shrugged

    I have been a leader in a number of organizations that were in dire need of change. Building a “case for change” is usually difficult. People seem compelled to continue in their dysfunctional ways despite their inefficacy or discomfort. I have learned that sometimes you have to let things fall to the floor and break before you can pick up the shards and create the change that the organization so desperately needs.

    Atlas Shrugged struck me as a testament to this approach to change management, albeit with a more poetic and metaphorical approach.

  • Consumers Go On Strike

    ByHeather

    As the economy continues to sour, consumers have gone on strike. For the past few months, I have been contemplating the following economic and social trends that seem to explain why.

    • American productivity has risen almost 20% in the last decade (Source)
    • Real median income over the same period has declined (Source)
    • Executive compensation has risen astronomically (Source)
    • Consumer debt has risen substantially (Source)
    • Consumer spending comprises 70% of GDP

    Rising productivity is what enables companies to increase employee’s pay. Increases in pay result in the overall rise in our standard of living. However, in the last decade, this relationship between productivity and rising employee pay seems to have been fractured.

  • Canada Relations

    ByHeather

    Geography has made us neighbors, history has made us friends, economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies.

    — President Robert F. Kennedy on US / Canada relations.

    The US President’s first foreign trip is highly symbolic. Yesterday President Obama reinforced a long standing tradition and made Canada the destination for his first foreign trip. President Bush’s first foreign trip was to Mexico. US / Canada relations were strained throughout his entire term. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford never visited Canada at all.

    Granted, this trip was more than a pit stop than an extended visit. He arrived in the morning to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, ate through a working lunch, held a joint news conference, met briefly at the airport with the leader of Canada’s opposition party, and was back home in the White House in time for dinner.

    Even though he only had time to pop in for a quick chat, I am glad that my native country is back at the top of the list for our new US President.

  • TV Ads – Too Many?

    ByHeather

    We are in the business of providing the material that prevents the commercials from all slamming together . . . that’s what we are doing here. That’s what we are doing on the West Wing set. We gotta deliver them twelve minutes of stuff to separate the Chevy commercials.

    — Lawrence O’Donnell, Jr. Executive Producer of the The West Wing. Quoted in an NPR interview, January 2006.

    I counted forty-two ads in last week’s episode of Lost. And that does not include any that aired before the show started or after the credits started to roll. Just forty-two ads in five breaks squeezed between six seven-minute segments of content. There were almost nineteen minutes of ads in a sixty-two minute time slot. That’s almost 30% of the air time dedicated to noise from advertisers.

  • Dear United: It Didn’t Have To Be This Way

    ByHeather

    Last summer I had a Delta flight out of La Guardia bound for Detroit. It was a Saturday morning and the airport was swarming with passengers, the gate area for my flight was like a mosh pit. As we approached the time to board, a gate agent announced that the flight was oversold by seven passengers. An audible groan rippled through the waiting area as we all clutched our boarding passes and jockeyed further for position in the boarding process. This was not going to be easy.

    The Delta / traveler negotiation process began when the agent offered the usual $400 travel voucher for anyone willing to take a later flight. In a delightful New York accent, a lady standing beside me smirked, “They’ll pay more.” Sure enough, moments later they announced that a $500 voucher was now available to any travelers with flexible travel plans. I smiled as I acknowledged the prophetic power of my fellow traveler. As my plans did not feel flexible, I gratefully made my way onto the plane.

    After the plane was fully loaded, with the last few passengers jamming bags into the overhead bins, a voice rang out over the airplane announcement system that Delta still needed one more passenger to give up their seat. This time, however, they had upped the ante.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.