Learning from History, Part I

Basic Business Cents

The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Stowe[1], published in 1997, predicted that in about ten years we would be facing a grave moment of opportunity and danger, including the following:

· Economic distress, with public debt in default, entitlement trust funds in bankruptcy, mounting poverty and unemployment, trade wars, collapsing financial markets, and hyperinflation (or deflation)

· Social distress, with violence fueled by class, race, nativism, or religion and abetted by armed gangs, underground militias, and mercenaries hired by walled communities

· Cultural distress, with the media plunging into a dizzying decay, and a decency backlash in favor of state censorship

· Technological distress, with cryptoanarchy, high-tech oligarchy, and biogenetic chaos

· Ecological distress, with atmospheric damage, energy or water shortages, and new diseases

· Political distress, with institutional collapse, open tax revolts, one-party hegemony, major constitutional change, secessionism, authoritarianism, and altered national borders

· Military distress, with war against terrorists or foreign regimes equipped with weapons of mass destruction

Wow, talk about an accurate crystal ball! The authors made these predictions by studying history and determined that history repeats itself every fourth generation. They described these generations as:

1. High, an upbeat era of strengthening organizations and weakening individualism when old values decay. Current example is the Baby Boomer or Prophet generation, those born between 1946 and 1964.

2. Awakening, a passionate era when the civic order comes under attack from a new values regime. This is the era of the Gen X or Nomad generation, born between 1965 and 1980.

3. Unraveling, a downcast era of strengthening individualism and weakening institutions with the decay of civic order and emergence of new values. This would be the era of the Millennial, Generation Next, or Hero generation, born between 1981 and roughly 2000.

4. Crisis, a decisive of era of upheaval when the new values regime propels the replacement of the old civic order with a new one. This is the era of the Artist or Silent generation, born after 2000.

We can relate to earlier cycles of the Hero generation of WWI followed by the High of the early 20s, the Awakening of the depression, the Unraveling of international accord, and the WWII spawning another Hero generation. The Heros of that generation were born somewhere between 1900 and 1928, followed by a Silent generation born between 1929 and 1945.

From these reoccurring cycles, the authors of The Fourth Turning based their predictions detailed earlier. An understanding of these cycles can provide guidance of action on a global, national, and local level.

Behavior of people within our organizations changes with the changing cycles, and with it management style must change. This is interesting because as managers, we can determine from their age, what cultural behavior to expect from our employees and gain insight on how to motivate and lead them.

In Part II of this article, we will discuss three major leadership styles; authoritarian, participative, and delegative as identified by Kurt Lewin to use with the different groups.

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[1] The Fourth Turning, An American Prophecy, William Strauss and Neil Howe, 1977, Broadway Books, New York

Invest in Learning

Basic Business Cents

Education is an investment that keeps on returning dividends to individuals, their family, their company or organization, and to their community. Education is what made this country and there is a direct relationship with the strength of the economy and the strength of education.

A report by the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress stated in the year 2000, “Human capital is the notion that individuals acquire skills and knowledge to increase their value in labor markets. Experience, training, and education are the three main mechanisms for acquiring human capital, with education being primary for most individuals. Education facilitates the acquisition of new skills and knowledge that increase productivity. This increase in productivity frees up resources to create new technologies, new businesses, and new wealth, resulting in increased economic growth.”

Examining the three mechanisms, experience tends to come from doing the same thing over and over again. Dr. W. Edwards Deming used to say that experience by itself teaches nothing; we need some theory to support or disprove with experience. By making this comparison of theory to experience, we learn to modify or change our theory.

Dr. Richard Bawden of the University of Western Sidney says we have to learn how to learn; that is, to think and develop a theory of what to expect, apply knowledge learned from our training, experience the result, compare that with our theory and modify our theory and keep going around the loop, continually learning. Eventually, he says we need to learn to challenge on a regular basis what we consider to be true.

Families benefit from investment in education with higher earning power during individuals’ lifetimes, greater employment stability, higher self-confidence and esteem, improved living standards, better health and longer life span (due to learning how to take better care of one’s health). Youths that work and attend school are found to have a decreased likelihood of engaging in criminal activities.

Communities benefit from investment in education with a workforce better to attract new industry, increase the vitality of the community, grow the population and therefore the tax base, and to keep promising youth in their hometowns. Data suggest that there is reduced reliance on welfare and public assistance programs among those with higher levels of education. It would seem to be a better investment in education rather than in criminal incarceration and welfare programs.

Employers’ organizations benefit from investment in education by the ability to attract better employees which increases productivity, quality of goods and services, and at a lower cost. Turnover of employees can be expected to be reduced with a more stable, educated workforce. The more education individuals acquire, the better they are able to absorb new information, acquire new skills, and familiarize themselves with new technologies. Education is becoming increasingly more important in our new information economy.

Knowledge is based on theory and we develop our theories by continued learning. The days are long gone when we “finish our education”. Technology, communication, and knowledge of what we deem to be true are changing so fast that we need to continue formal education as long as we live.

Today that is difficult for us in this community except for e-learning over the web but we have an opportunity. Minnesota State Community and Technical College is offering college courses in Park Rapids at the Frank White Education Center. Office hours for consultation are Wednesdays from 9:00am to 3:00pm. They are offering a curriculum leading to Associate of Arts and Associate of Applied Science degrees plus other diplomas and certificates. Other courses can be offered as needed by local businesses or just interesting topics for adults. They just need a critical mass of students in each class; currently the thinking is that fifteen students are enough to make a class a go.

The important question facing us is what we need to do to make MN States presence in Park Rapids successful. I believe it is tremendously important to the future of our community to have a local source for continuing education. I would like to see a concentrated effort to raise scholarship funds for local students. I think service clubs, foundations, businesses, and individuals could endow scholarships or make yearly contributions.

We proposed a Junior College in Park Rapids in 1966 and it never came to pass. Let’s not blow another opportunity to get higher education in our community for the benefit of our families, community, and organizations. We have the opportunity to reap huge dividends from modest investments by sharing the knowledge that this opportunity exists, by subsidizing employees to continue their education, by creating scholarships for local students, by investing in our children, and by enrolling ourselves.

It will happen if we make the investment to put people in the seats.

Achieve Your Dream Career

Basic Business Cents

What position would you like to hold or what would you really like to be doing at the peak of your career? That will probably come in your late 50s and it is probably time to put plans in place to make sure that dream comes true. There is an old saying that if you don’t know where you are going; any road will get you there. It is best to know where you want to go and then make sure you are on the right road.

First, close your eyes and visualize what that might be, what it will look like, what the environment is like, and what your life will be like. Where will you be located, will you own your own business or be an executive for some organization, will it be in private business, government, education, a non-profit working to improve mankind, or something else? What makes you happy?

Are you on the right path to get there? Do you have sufficient education, experience, or talent? Are you currently with the right organization or field to get there? What is important to you; is it money, recognition, power, family, or what?

About halfway through my working years, I attended a seminar titled, Work Life by a psychologist who promoted a balance between work life and home life. We spent three days doing a lot of visualizing of what we really wanted to happen in our lives. Until that time I had spent over 20 years as a manager and executive for large corporations. What I began to realize during the course of the seminar was that this is not what I really wanted in life; I wanted to start and lead my own company. I guess I sort of knew that but the seminar was the catalyst to get me started to make my dream come true.

Some questions to ask ourselves are: how do we balance our work life with our family life, what is really important to us, what will give us pride in our work and pride in our life, and what will give us a sense of accomplishment. Another factor today is whether we can do our dream job from home so we have more time with our family instead of being away from home or on the road. The Internet is revolutionizing marketing and other aspects of business.

Once you have visualized what you want to be at the peak of your career and you are satisfied it will achieve a proper balance between your work life and home life, then you need to plan to get there. First, get on the right road to get there and then be flexible but always keep your eyes fixated on the end goal. Be visible, don’t be a braggart but don’t hide your light under a bushel either. Be a leader; leaders lead! Don’t sit in a fetal position hoping you are going in the right direction but get out in front and make things happen. Listen! People will tell you what they want to hear if you keep quiet long enough to let them. Listen, assimilate, and take action.

One of the most important assets you have in your career advancement is your network. Keep a current contact list of friends but more importantly people you have encountered that may be in a position to help you someday. It is very, very important to develop and nurture your own personal network.

At the peak of your career, I hope you can look back with pride and accomplishment and say, “Wow, what a ride!”