$7.99 Seminar Tao Te Ching the 81 Verses Peoplenology

GregoryBodenhamer@Live.com

Managers In Training PeopleNology

It’s the Golden Age of Pill-Pushers, Charlatans and Truck Driver Recruiters. Fortune 100 Secrets for Human Resource Departments, PeopleNology by Gregory Bodenhamer
It’s the Golden Age of Pill-Pushers, Charlatans and Truck Driver Recruiters.
Fortune 100 Secrets for Human Resource Departments

GregoryBodenhamer@Live.com
The C.D.L. Driver Shortage, across the nation, down the street is affecting every trucking company in America? The driver shortage, the ailment that doctors cant help, money wont cure, newer trucks barely helps at all. There’s a cure for worms, fever and rheumatic pains but nothing on this driver shortage you’re dealing with today? For years now, men and women walking the street, looking for a truck driver, willing to try almost anything, any remedy that promised a driver was tried.
In such a climate of shortage, what’s the real deal here? The quack recruiters keep drawing a pay check, the newspapers getting plump with trucking dollars and driver schools are flourishing around every town.
The pioneer company’s didn’t have this problem. Families were producing truck drivers and the townspeople waved at every truck on the road. Across America a real man was a real truck driver. Long roads and big paychecks. The driver had the most money in his pocket and traveled with respect. The wagon train of freight moved fast day and night. Then something went wrong or right, we’re just starting to understand. Proprietors of motor freight company’s couldn’t find truck drivers. The men took different jobs and their sons wanted a computer. War dances started at every truck terminal in America, deregulation was taking hold and closing trucking company’s by the thousands.
The shows not over but we’re all buying a front row seat. A new concoction of Rewarding and Recognition, Recruiting and Retention systems are taking hold at a few good company’s. It was developed and designed for the intelligent trucking company. Crowds are starting to line up to get this information and its going fast. You cant buy it in a bottle, its not a concoction of herbs, roots or bark its information and its protected.
Become a fast learner and a good teacher and cross the threshold into a better trucking company through your people. Situational focus on cash flow, information technology, advertising, overall fleet management, customer concerns and opportunities leave you little time for the most important thing in your business, all your people. Your trucking company can only flourish and thrive with the help of all your people. People-nology brings about the help to make things a lot easier, more profitable and complaint.
People-nology gives knowledge or develops the abilities of your key people and educates them to improve your business of people. People-nology shows you how to develop and sustain a series of natural occurrences within your employees. The magic of People-nology makes apparently impossible things start to happen throughout your company. Within 90 Working days you will start to see a dramatic shifting of your people and performance. Your new reality will be under construction using the blueprints of People-nology. Starting from the Top Down and the Bottom Up at the same time, organizing People-nology skills within your management group, making sense out of your carrier today, taking clues from your staff, solving the puzzle of your company, identifying people opportunities, processing and applying People-nology techniques our responsibility through your management staff.
Enjoy this introduction to People-nology and discover how your company can prosper and grow into the future. Your companies past experiences, knowledge base of workers, cultural backgrounds, motivations, style of management, expectations are all worthy of better people and a better profitable future.
People-nology
Management
Marketing
Market trading
Mediation
Missionaries
Multi-level Marketing (MLM)
Negotiation
Networking
Parenting
Philosophy
Poetry
Police
Politics
Propaganda
Protesting
Publication
Public Relations
Recruitment
Religion
Romance
Screenwriting
Sales
Seduction
Storytelling
Teaching
Therapy
Trade Unions
Writing
Warning
Peoplenology must be used with extreme caution as it does in fact change people, affect their emotions and their present day self-image. Peoplenology should only be used to help and aspire human beings to become better within their personal and professional lives. Peoplenology can only be used by design and by direct authority to help them within emotions, education levels and have higher level experiences. This is an ADULT program and is restricted by Intellectual Copyright Protection Laws and cannot be distributed without prior written approval. People-nology brings control and influence, control and influence over other people and their actions through understanding their human core values.
Within 90 working days you can create a powerful and profitable culture. Basic human core elements combine creating trust, affection and love like never before. The deception goes away, Up, Down, Near and Far you’ll notice everything looking different, people talking different, working harder and smarter. It won’t be the illusion, it will be people changing for the better.
This powerful People-nology persuasiveness or the ability to influence people’s judgment and emotions also helps key executives, managers and front line supervisors determine or predict per-say what will happen or result in the future.
To persuade what is going to happen in the future or happenings to come is to influence events that have not yet happened. People will pay attention to you, want to hear you speaking, surround your ideas, their awareness moving up dramatically, readiness to respond to your desires, wishes and instructions.
Most management today is based or present conditions or indications based on past experiences. The old way of business management is not good enough to manage the blur of desires and needs of a modern trucking company.People working smarter, not harder, organize their minds so they’re efficient, looking for new strategies when you’re not around.
Imagine being able to form an image in the mind of your employees or some idea of something in the minds of everybody inside your business. Don’t take this knowledge out of context but, you can make people do things, think things, act a certain way, sway their moods and motives, visualize images beyond their conscious awareness. People-nology makes it simple, 1, 2, 3, easy. The highest majority of your employees try and see what you want them to do on any given day. They’re trying to see something that’s not there based on their emotions, education and experiences that surround their core values and beliefs.
This extreme lack of connection to your group causes your instructions to have little or no value or usefulness to the employee. You’ve noticed or have become aware of something or somebody not doing what they’re instructed over and over again. Your company will become what your people think about, feeling sad or angry because of high driver turnover rates, poor billing quality, higher maintenance costs, driver wages and property insurance costs rising will not solve the problems. Take your trucking company off automatic pilot and apply the dozens of People-nology principles for 90 days and see our clearinghouse of ideas come alive. We can get started with a simple 90 minute low cost learning session, so send us an email today for scheduling to PeopleNology@Hotmail.com .
The lack of a logical link or a mental linking association between people, things, or events causes people to leave your company, poor compliance, lower profits and other negatives. People-nology gives knowledge to clients by teaching them the secrets of the mind and application techniques to bring about improvement. People-nology will allow you to impose and apply procedure or skill knowledge used in a task that improves performance levels quickly. You’re going to learn that your people are inspired by emotion, mostly inspired or governed by emotion rather than reason or will-power.
People-nology gives you a special ability, procedure or skill that's needed to create a greater company than you have today. You will have the exceptional talent to create remarkable achievements within your business.
Imagine being able to make somebody sure or certain of something that's very important to you.
Imagine the power to persuade somebody to do something that's important to the organization.
Imagine the power to make somebody believe something, especially by giving good reasons for doing so where they can now persuade other people.
Imagine the easier business if you could urge somebody to perform a particular action using reasoning through their emotions, without pleading or coaxing the employee or supervisor.
Imagine less money being spent all across your business producing your service product creating larger and larger profit margins.
Imagine being able to attract good quality C.D.L. truck drivers,being able to retain truck drivers,find and keep quality supervision,employees smiling and ready to work,customers being satisfied by your people,It’s all inside PeopleNology
People-nology, people involvement in something that brings excitement, profit, or pleasure, subtle manipulative behavior, subtle clever actions and words used to influence a person or group by design, causing a heightened feeling: a strong feeling about somebody or something. Subtle = slight and not obvious, pleasantly delicate and understated, intelligent, experienced, or sensitive enough to make refined judgments and distinctions to build trust, affection and love of another person, cleverly indirect and ingenious.
Behavior = the way in which somebody behaves. psychology response: the way in which a person, organism, or group responds to a certain set of conditions.
Actions = doing something toward goal: the process of doing something in order to achieve a purpose, the way somebody or something moves or works, or the movement itself involvement in something that brings excitement, profit, or pleasure.
Influence = the power that somebody has to affect other people’s thinking or actions by means of argument, example, or force of personality,the power or authority that comes from wealth, social status, or position, somebody or something able to affect the course of events or somebody’s thinking or action.
People-nology will improve or add to the strength, worth, beauty, or other desirable qualities of your business. As you build the perception and attitude of the employee group or understanding based on what is observed or thought your recruiting and retention will improve.Understanding recruiting is enrolling somebody as a worker or member, or to take on people as workers or members is a product of the attraction, the power of attracting or the feeling of being attracted is all explained within the People-nology process programs. Understanding that retention or the holding in of something: the act of retaining something or the condition of being retained is very much an emotional decision made up of many things of importance that you’ll learn.The rewarding of an employee or providing somebody with personal satisfaction or great pleasure keeps the attraction and improves retention. What you’ll find during your instruction is that everything in the human mind is connected one way or the other.
The recognition of a great employee is that persons acknowledgment or validity of their own value as a person and employee. Recognition is something given or awarded as a token of acknowledgment or gratitude and is much more important than money.
People-nology properly applied will lower the cost of your business structure. Productive people are happy people and happy people become friends of other happy and productive people. The process program is a series of emotional and natural occurrences that produce change or development within your human side of business. You're going to create or bring somebody or something into existence by design. People-nology produces somebody who has a close personal relationship of mutual affection and trust with you and other people within the program. You will have friends driving trucks, inputting freight data, sweeping out trailers, fueling your tractors and answering the phone.These productive people will work smarter and harder, follow procedures and help you write new ones if required. Friends do many things for friends without cost or obligations and your staff loyalty will increase dramatically.
People-nology teaches you how people think and how they form thoughts and use their mind to consider ideas and make judgments. You will not be able to know what people are thinking but you will know how they think and consider everything you say or do within the work place.
People-nology allows you to use the Top Secrets of the Mind Learn how to make people do and think what you want to bring something to another persons mind, make them think something,to focus the attention on something through other people,to regard anything you want with care or concern,to regard your company with care or concern at all times,to have other people working the planning of your company,to have others attentive or considerate enough to do something.
The list of benefits is almost borderless for any person or company.People-nology will take you inside the minds of all people using exclusive university quality research from OnLee Research and others. You will also receive the Curiosity of People series that keeps you in touch with your most important asset, your people.
Philosophies
Concepts
Principles
Theory
People-nology seems to be an instant success within the Motor Freight Transportation Segment after 29 years. The pure knowledge you will gain by learning People-nology will make your group better people, gain the ability to create trust, affection and love of other people. These powerful forces within human beings cause great companies. Great companies are not accidents of market forces, just by chance ideas, on and off again work ethics. Greater companies are the creation of minds working and hands working together. One of the greatest assets of any great progressive company is found within the female workforce. Women today are contributing more, helping grow profits and services with little help.
If you’re not delighted with your companies overall performance or simply just want to get a lot better than you’re in the right place. People-nology helps you aspire your entire workforce in a matter of days. All across the United States People-nology gives confidential services, one of a kind instructions, protected process programs workshops and seminars to progressive companies. These exclusive teachings are delivered right to your door in the comfort of your home or office. With high technology today delivery is made simple through PDF file transmission right to your email or you can receive your CD in your mail box. One of the most powerful forces today in the workforce is the development of the ladies within your business.
You’ll also receive the World Aspirations for Women, the unique and one of a kind publication received around the world by Wonderful Working Women.
The wisdom and bedrock philosophies are explored through art and poetry along with the responsibilities of being a working women within the workplace today.
To compete in today’s motor freight environment it’s going to take everybody, each and every person, male or female to create a greater company.
As for your free copy today of World Aspirations for Women People-nology is the improved process, the better educational product and the distance learning company for the trucking segment. You’ve already discovered the extreme cost of advertising for c.d.l. drivers, supervisors, hourly workers and being able to retain a quality workforce. You’ll be able to acquire knowledge of a subject or a new skill set offered exclusively through the education and experience of People-nology.You’ll be able to start using this new knowledge within a matter of days from starting the program. It’s profitable to learn, it’s an activity that provides enjoyment and amazement at the same time.
Within a short period of time you’ll be able to see the difference in your people, their sustained efforts, their appreciation of their assigned activities and their positive results within your own process control system.
PeopleNology works inside Fortune 100 America
Anonymous Business Success by Gregory Bodenhamer PeopleNologist
the truth about cdl truck drivers
PeopleNology Monthly

Gregory Bodenhamer’s PeopleNology Curiosity of People
PeopleNology is a protected Gregory Bodenhamer Intellectual Property - All Rights Reserved and Protected 2006
PeopleNology@Hotmail.com Mechanicsburg Pa 17055
Gregory Bodenhamer’s PeopleNology Curiosity of People - Medicine for Your Trucking Company
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AROUND THE WORLD by PeopleNology Gregory Bodenhamer

PeopleNology Medicine for Women by Ph.D. Gregory Bodenhamer
Describing People-Nology sounds easy we know. The mystery of all your people and how they think is revealed through our program systems. We teach you the powerful secrets of the mind, including yours, which allows you to aspire, assist, assure and guarantee full compliant participation. People-Nology understands and teaches the motives of people. Your employees are emotional and base their mysterious actions and thinking on their education, emotions, experiences that surround their core values, their evolutionary inheritance of the past. People-NologyMedicine for Your Trucking Company Imagine knowing how people think. You will be able to predict almost everything about your group which gives you practical control.Knowing the internal process of how a human thinks, what mental steps are taken, the evolutionary emotion triggers that are utilizied gives you great power of influence, persuasion, trust, affection and love. It’s power over people. You can become, very quickly, the new and improved model of your trucking company. Understanding why people do things, how they think, what makes them think certain things in certain order within certain conditions gives you tremendous influence and power concerning that particular person. At this moment in time you do not know how your people think and cannot predict what they may or not do at any moment. Predicting behavior within a group also gives you the ability to predict the performance, habits, commitment level of the group and individuals. People-Nology is based on scientific research, scientific application results and is not based on guesswork. Your people base everything they do or don’t do, unfortunately, on what they want and need within their evolutionary drivers or individual mandates. We’ll explore these predictors with you as to allow you to control the direction of the group. At this moment in time you are overestimating your people based on your experiences and their performance based on your goals. At this very moment in time their deciding to work or not, care or not care, cheat or be honest and are only reliable if it serves their needs. You will be able to apply People-Nology Principles, Applications and Systems in real life during any given set of circumstances and control the person, their effort against some activity you manage and measure their results agains your reasonable goals. Is there a realtionship to what people do at work with what they think about? The answer seems obvious but this truth is mostly neglected except at larger, profitable and progressive companies. Your company can only become what you think about. Your employees can only become what they think about. It’s a good idea and very profitable for you to help them think, plan and take actions within your organization. People-Nology will allow you the blueprint for relationship building. You’ll be able to build trust, affection and love within the company like never before. Your operating ratio, your driver turnover rate, your compliance, accounts receivable balance, revenue growth, on-time services, customer services has a direct correlation to what you and your people think about. Control the mind and you can control the body.Evolutionary Psychologistshave identified 26 Behavior Traitsthat all humans on earth share. People-Nology has taken advanced research, principles, theory experiments and tested the mental processes that influence what people say and do at home and work. We understand and can apply for your benefit, through the influence of People-Nology principles and applications so your company is more creative, able to make better decisions, better problem solving skills and how to control your people systems much better than you do today. As you can imagine these 26 Behavior Traits are everywhere today inside your company. Your trucking company survives today, one day at a time. Progressive and more profitable companies reach out into the future, proclaim the power of People-Nology and survive and prosper because they are the fittest idea or company in the market. People-Nology will teach you the most important of these evolutionary drivers and behavior traits so you can become more aware and therefore control the natural tendencies of your social and working people groups. All human beings have minds but the culture of the environment produces slightly different versions. This variant is called the Sociocultural Perspective.You see an example of this mostly on a daily basis. One trucking doing great and the other one doing good. One company growing and buying equipment and the other one trying to find drivers, fix flat tires, answer the phone and collect the money.The winning trucking companies in the market have created a culture of winning and you can do the same thing starting right now. What your company may allow today may not be allowed in another company down the street. Your people’s feelings, thoughts and behavior are influenced by the culture you control.Every human, me and you, have these 26 evolutionary traits. They are inside us and we cannot decide about them but, we can control them, understand them more, influence and persuade people to our way of thinking using the magic of these traits.We can also create a culture from our own perspectives to influence how other people think, act and do their job tasks. All your people come to work with these traits and do not understand them. They are playing a role, decided by your culture, designed by policy and procedure, following rules and being socially acceptable. People-Nology Medicine for Your Trucking CompanyLet’s quickly review the Psychology of People-Nology so you can have a better understanding of your future. The school of People-Nology teaches us that they’re many different disciplines and benefits to our programs.Motor Carrier Social EngineeringTeaching - Applications - Research SocioculturalConsulting & Counseling Motor Freight Transportation ManagementEducational and Organizational Structures - Sytems - Process Controls People-Nology is used, as a private consulting practice, employed by motor freight transportation companies, as a provider of unique services and programs to improve the business. We diagnose and treat system disorders predominantly in trucking through the education of the ownership, executive staff and managers of the company by the way of consulting or by direct participation. We repair impairments arising from people failures which fail a system or process using copyright proteced People-Nology programs.These impairments are found mostly within D.O.T. compliance, profit, service, growth, retention, recruiting, rewarding, recognition and the communications area of the business. We apply psychological knowledge known as People-Nolgy, to assist the company as experts and consultants within transportation management. We help through direct involvement in communications, policy structure, freight movement systems, workshops and seminars to bring about a community of people to grow a healthy organization. We develop specific programs for our carriers drawing from our extensive research and previous experience. We work toward the improvement of the trucking company, improved operating results. We teach what we know and continually research for improvement. We conduct independent research that may influence performance levels and the cultures of our clients. We assist, assure, aspire and guarantee to help people function at some optimally acceptable level within the work place. We understand the process and help in the personnel selection and training and marketing and advertising of our clients. We are employed or retained by commercial organizations within private consulting. PeopleNology@Hotmail.comSend PeopleNology an Emailand recieve our free pdf executive introduction by return email or ask any question, schedule appointmentor just hello. People-Nology@Hotmail.com Medicine for Your Trucking CompanyMechanicsburg Pa 17055Send People-Nology an Email Todayand receive a FREE Issue of some of our most popular issuesWorld Aspirations for WomenFrom Bedrock, Bedroom to Boardroom,Poetry, Instruction, Beautiful Art WorksWonderful for Adult Working Womanalways free, around the world.Curiosity Of PeopleThe amazing truth about peopleconcerning Philosophy Concepts, Principles and TheoriesOur Most PopularWorkbook People-NologyExecutive IntroductionExplains our consulting programsworkshops, seminars, workbooksfor Motor Freight Transportationthat you can afford. People-Nology You can request any of the listed publications 100% free with no obligations. You can select all 3 if you like with our thanks. We’ll send them to you via e-mail asap contained within safe and secure pdf files. Enjoy them and feel free to request our free NewsLetter delivered free to your email. All People-Nology publications are protected by International Copyright Protection Laws 2006 and cannot be altered or duplicated without prior approval of the publisher. You are allowed to email to your friends and business associates under the same copyright restrictions.Warning People-Nology should not be used without proper instructions. These programs are powerful emotional tools to increase profits and inspire human beings. Improper use can cause harm to individuals and extreme caution should always be used using our applications. PeopleNology The Best Guidance for Transportation People Retention - Recruiting - Rewarding - RecognitionService FailuresEquipment DamageProperty DamageCompliance ViolationsClaims - Charge backsCost Moving Up QuicklyBehavior - DisciplineCash FlowProfit PressureSalary GroupCulture BreakdownVendor ProblemsEverybody LookingLoyalty GoneExtreme CustomersLoss of AuthoritySystem ConfusionInvestment DangerAll Harmony RemovedObjectivity RemovedMarket Perception

5 minutes past midnight PeopleNology

PeopleNology Medicine for Women by Ph.D. Gregory Bodenhamer
Describing People-Nology sounds easy we know. The mystery of all your people and how they think is revealed through our program systems. We teach you the powerful secrets of the mind, including yours, which allows you to aspire, assist, assure and guarantee full compliant participation. People-Nology understands and teaches the motives of people. Your employees are emotional and base their mysterious actions and thinking on their education, emotions, experiences that surround their core values, their evolutionary inheritance of the past. People-NologyMedicine for Your Trucking Company Imagine knowing how people think. You will be able to predict almost everything about your group which gives you practical control.Knowing the internal process of how a human thinks, what mental steps are taken, the evolutionary emotion triggers that are utilizied gives you great power of influence, persuasion, trust, affection and love. It’s power over people. You can become, very quickly, the new and improved model of your trucking company. Understanding why people do things, how they think, what makes them think certain things in certain order within certain conditions gives you tremendous influence and power concerning that particular person. At this moment in time you do not know how your people think and cannot predict what they may or not do at any moment. Predicting behavior within a group also gives you the ability to predict the performance, habits, commitment level of the group and individuals. People-Nology is based on scientific research, scientific application results and is not based on guesswork. Your people base everything they do or don’t do, unfortunately, on what they want and need within their evolutionary drivers or individual mandates. We’ll explore these predictors with you as to allow you to control the direction of the group. At this moment in time you are overestimating your people based on your experiences and their performance based on your goals. At this very moment in time their deciding to work or not, care or not care, cheat or be honest and are only reliable if it serves their needs. You will be able to apply People-Nology Principles, Applications and Systems in real life during any given set of circumstances and control the person, their effort against some activity you manage and measure their results agains your reasonable goals. Is there a realtionship to what people do at work with what they think about? The answer seems obvious but this truth is mostly neglected except at larger, profitable and progressive companies. Your company can only become what you think about. Your employees can only become what they think about. It’s a good idea and very profitable for you to help them think, plan and take actions within your organization. People-Nology will allow you the blueprint for relationship building. You’ll be able to build trust, affection and love within the company like never before. Your operating ratio, your driver turnover rate, your compliance, accounts receivable balance, revenue growth, on-time services, customer services has a direct correlation to what you and your people think about. Control the mind and you can control the body.Evolutionary Psychologistshave identified 26 Behavior Traitsthat all humans on earth share. People-Nology has taken advanced research, principles, theory experiments and tested the mental processes that influence what people say and do at home and work. We understand and can apply for your benefit, through the influence of People-Nology principles and applications so your company is more creative, able to make better decisions, better problem solving skills and how to control your people systems much better than you do today. As you can imagine these 26 Behavior Traits are everywhere today inside your company. Your trucking company survives today, one day at a time. Progressive and more profitable companies reach out into the future, proclaim the power of People-Nology and survive and prosper because they are the fittest idea or company in the market. People-Nology will teach you the most important of these evolutionary drivers and behavior traits so you can become more aware and therefore control the natural tendencies of your social and working people groups. All human beings have minds but the culture of the environment produces slightly different versions. This variant is called the Sociocultural Perspective.You see an example of this mostly on a daily basis. One trucking doing great and the other one doing good. One company growing and buying equipment and the other one trying to find drivers, fix flat tires, answer the phone and collect the money.The winning trucking companies in the market have created a culture of winning and you can do the same thing starting right now. What your company may allow today may not be allowed in another company down the street. Your people’s feelings, thoughts and behavior are influenced by the culture you control.Every human, me and you, have these 26 evolutionary traits. They are inside us and we cannot decide about them but, we can control them, understand them more, influence and persuade people to our way of thinking using the magic of these traits.We can also create a culture from our own perspectives to influence how other people think, act and do their job tasks. All your people come to work with these traits and do not understand them. They are playing a role, decided by your culture, designed by policy and procedure, following rules and being socially acceptable. People-Nology Medicine for Your Trucking CompanyLet’s quickly review the Psychology of People-Nology so you can have a better understanding of your future. The school of People-Nology teaches us that they’re many different disciplines and benefits to our programs.Motor Carrier Social EngineeringTeaching - Applications - Research SocioculturalConsulting & Counseling Motor Freight Transportation ManagementEducational and Organizational Structures - Sytems - Process Controls People-Nology is used, as a private consulting practice, employed by motor freight transportation companies, as a provider of unique services and programs to improve the business. We diagnose and treat system disorders predominantly in trucking through the education of the ownership, executive staff and managers of the company by the way of consulting or by direct participation. We repair impairments arising from people failures which fail a system or process using copyright proteced People-Nology programs.These impairments are found mostly within D.O.T. compliance, profit, service, growth, retention, recruiting, rewarding, recognition and the communications area of the business. We apply psychological knowledge known as People-Nolgy, to assist the company as experts and consultants within transportation management. We help through direct involvement in communications, policy structure, freight movement systems, workshops and seminars to bring about a community of people to grow a healthy organization. We develop specific programs for our carriers drawing from our extensive research and previous experience. We work toward the improvement of the trucking company, improved operating results. We teach what we know and continually research for improvement. We conduct independent research that may influence performance levels and the cultures of our clients. We assist, assure, aspire and guarantee to help people function at some optimally acceptable level within the work place. We understand the process and help in the personnel selection and training and marketing and advertising of our clients. We are employed or retained by commercial organizations within private consulting. PeopleNology@Hotmail.comSend PeopleNology an Emailand recieve our free pdf executive introduction by return email or ask any question, schedule appointmentor just hello. People-Nology@Hotmail.com Medicine for Your Trucking CompanyMechanicsburg Pa 17055Send People-Nology an Email Todayand receive a FREE Issue of some of our most popular issuesWorld Aspirations for WomenFrom Bedrock, Bedroom to Boardroom,Poetry, Instruction, Beautiful Art WorksWonderful for Adult Working Womanalways free, around the world.Curiosity Of PeopleThe amazing truth about peopleconcerning Philosophy Concepts, Principles and TheoriesOur Most PopularWorkbook People-NologyExecutive IntroductionExplains our consulting programsworkshops, seminars, workbooksfor Motor Freight Transportationthat you can afford. People-Nology You can request any of the listed publications 100% free with no obligations. You can select all 3 if you like with our thanks. We’ll send them to you via e-mail asap contained within safe and secure pdf files. Enjoy them and feel free to request our free NewsLetter delivered free to your email. All People-Nology publications are protected by International Copyright Protection Laws 2006 and cannot be altered or duplicated without prior approval of the publisher. You are allowed to email to your friends and business associates under the same copyright restrictions.Warning People-Nology should not be used without proper instructions. These programs are powerful emotional tools to increase profits and inspire human beings. Improper use can cause harm to individuals and extreme caution should always be used using our applications. PeopleNology The Best Guidance for Transportation People Retention - Recruiting - Rewarding - RecognitionService FailuresEquipment DamageProperty DamageCompliance ViolationsClaims - Charge backsCost Moving Up QuicklyBehavior - DisciplineCash FlowProfit PressureSalary GroupCulture BreakdownVendor ProblemsEverybody LookingLoyalty GoneExtreme CustomersLoss of AuthoritySystem ConfusionInvestment DangerAll Harmony RemovedObjectivity RemovedMarket Perception

PeopleNology by Bodenhamer

the human record is written not only in alphabets and books, but is
preserved in other kinds of material remains in cave paintings, pictographs, discarded
In recent years, paleoanthropologists have found perhaps as many as five species that
are older than A. afarensis—in some cases much older.

Just last year, Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers, in France, and his team of
explorers announced that amid the sand dunes of the Sahara they had found a species
between 6 million and 7 million years old:
Sahelanthropus chadensis.

These new fossils have thrown cherished orthodoxies into question.

"We saw human evolution as a nice, straight line," says Leslie Aiello of University College
London. Now some researchers are arguing that human evolution looked more like a
bush, with lots of species branching off in different directions.


No new orthodoxy has gained enough strength yet to take over the old one. Instead,
there's lots of debate.

Some paleoanthropologists, for example, have declared Sahelanthropus to be on the
line that led to gorillas, not humans.

"That's crazy," replies Brunet, who points to small teeth and other key traits that link the
creature with hominids rather than apes.

But while Brunet is confident he has discovered the oldest known hominid, he doesn't
think it's possible yet to make grand pronouncements about the shape of the hominid
tree and its various branches.

"You can't say that it's bushy," he says. "Maybe it is; we don't know. Our story has just
doubled in time, and we're just beginning to understand it."

Something about midnight Human Resource Secrets of Fortune 100 PeopleNology Bodenhamer

Anonymous Business Success
PeopleNology by Gregory Bodenhamer Ph.D. Nollijy University


Seminars - Workbooks - Publications - Classroom - Consulting - White Papers

Translating PeopleNology Techniques


Social and System Motor Freight Trucking Engineering

Write for FREE information; PeopleNology@hotmail.com

Culture is a perennial problem in change projects and needs to be carefully understood, especially if there is any expectation or desire to change the culture as a part of the project. Culture includes common values, attitudes and consequent behaviors. It directs how people make decisions and how they react to change. It can also vary within an organization, for example a 'leading edge' attitude may be found in research departments and 'customer first' value in service areas.
There are many areas of preferences that people have that shape cultures. There are, within these, a few which are of particular influence around change.


There are many reasons learn and use peoplenology;

Motivation: The overall subject of what drives us.

Processing: The thinking that leads to action.

Behaviors: That result from our decisions.

Culture: How we socially act together.

Learning Theory: How we get to make sense.

Personality: What makes us who we are.

Power: Our capability to act. Where we get it and how we use it.

Social Research: philosophers, philosophies and the search for meaning.

Stress: What winds us up.


Fear of retribution

Following out of fear is not so much following as being tugged along at the end of a rope.

Blind hope

Here, the follower is desperate for some solution, and what the leader is offering is either the only option they see or the best of a relatively weak set of choices.

Faith in leader

In this situation, the follower is blind to the solution but is following because they have such faith in the leader, they believe that they will, by some magic or genius, provide the answer to the follower's needs.

Intellectual agreement

Here, the follower understands the logic of the argument that the leader is putting forward and hence is following the rationale rather than the leader as a person, who they may respect but are not blindly following.

Buying the vision

When people buy a vision, they are emotionally closing on a view of the future that is appealing to them in some way and pulls them forward.

Followers and Respect

When a person is evaluating a situation and deciding whether to collaborate (and hence become a follower), they judge both the leader and also the solution the leader is offering to determine what action they will take.

Respect for the leader

When the leader is respected, which means they are at the very least trusted and probably liked as well, then this enables the leader to make proposals that followers will take seriously.

Respect for the solution

When the solution is respected, then the respect for the leader is not as important, although if the leader is not respected then the followers may doubt the ability of the leader to make the right choices along the way.

Followers and Trust

People follow those they trust.

Care and concern

We all have a very basic need for safety, which we can get either by taking control ourselves, or, as followers do, ceding this to our leaders.

Passive concern

Leaders make choices that can harm people. If you carefully avoid harming me, then I can trust you.

Active care

Beyond a passive concern is the active care where you may take deliberate action, which you would not otherwise take, to look after and actively care for me.

Reliability

Leaders need for their followers to trust that they will do as they say they will do.

Keep your promises

A simple rule for leaders is : 'Do what you say'. Keep your promises.

Honesty

The problem with honesty is that the short-term implications can be bad for leaders.

Tell the whole truth

If you always tell the truth, including the unvarnished whole truth and bad news that others might hide, then I know that when you say something, I have the complete story.

Followers and Liking

If I do not like you, then I will not follow you.

Goodness

If I judge you to be good, then I know you have similar values to me.

Similarity

We use external similarity as a short-cut to determine if a person is like us on the inside.

Vulnerability

We see ourselves as vulnerable, often with the sense of being a child that we all have to some degree. We see our failings, our limitations, and weaknesses.

Followers and Support

People follow those that help them.

Goals

Where the personal goals of the followers are aligned with the direction that the leaders is pointing, then it seems like a good idea to follow the leader, especially if it looks like they will be able to help me get what I want.

Support

I will also follow a person who actively helps me to get what I want.

Followers and Ideas

People will follow an idea, but not constraining objectives, then I may do it, but not in a way that makes me want to follow you.

Objectives as instructions

Objectives are useful in most organizations, of course, but they are often presented as fixed instructions, telling people what to do and how to do it in so much detail that it leaves little to the imagination.

Objectives as ideas

Objectives can be used to motivate and leaders can make effective use of formal systems of objective-setting to provide effective challenge and stimulation that will motivate people not only to do the work but also to follow the leader.

Ideas as inspiration

Inspiration occurs when an idea both aligns with my values and also gives me a sense of possibility, of what is not now but which could be in the future. It might thus change my beliefs and mental models.


Context Analysis

When investigating change it is important to understand the context within which the current situation is operating.

External context

The external context that affects the organization provides the forces to which the business must react and are common root causes of the need for change.

PESTLE forces

The broader business climate includes the external sea in which the business and its competitors must swim and provides the ultimate playing ground.

Market forces

Within the chosen markets, forces as price pressures, competitive shifts, customer demands and so on may be creating business tensions.

Internal context

As well as the external context, there are many contextual factors within organizations that can lead to the need for change.

Driving objectives

Out of the external forces and internal ambitions, business leaders identify the key purposes and objectives that they want to achieve and hence achieve success in the organization.

Organizational alignment

An aligned organization has its processes, technology, reporting structures and individual objectives all aligned with one another.

Organizational capability

As well as alignment, an organization needs its people to be able to complete work given to them.

Leadership

Leadership is a subject which includes a great deal about changing people's minds, often in fundamental ways.

Followership

The nature of leadership can perhaps be best understood by turning the coin over and studying followership.

The Leader-Follower loop

Leaders who want to create true followers do not just stand at the front of the army, yell 'charge' and then run forward.

Followers respond

Followers are seldom blind. They are human.

Gossip

If the leader does something that concerns them, then they will voice these concerns to one another long before letting the leader know.

Pack response

There may well be some level of pack response from followers.

Leaders adjust

If leaders do not do anything about the situation, then followers, who are volunteers, remember, will abandon in droves.

Noticing

At some point in the proceedings, the leader notices that followers are not as inclined to follow as they once were.

Diagnosing

When the shift in follower behavior is noticed, the next step is to figure out why, and particularly to know whether and how to connect this to the leader's own words or actions, or at least to external events that have shifted the playing field.

Adjusting

When you know where it is going and why it happened, then you can do something about it.

The dance continues

And so the band plays on. It is a closed system, with followers responding to leaders, who themselves adjust in response to this. Leadership and followership is thus an ongoing dance.

Structural Analysis

There are many structures within an organization which influence people's behavior. 'Function follows form' is a relevant saying.

Organizational structure

The hierarchical organization with its 'scalar chain of command' is at the heart of most organizations.

Process structure

People work within processes, which may stretch across functions or be contained within them.

Motivational structure

There are deliberate structures in the organization that seek to motivate people. Typically, this is based on financial reward.

Social structure

Overlaid across the organization is another invisible structure which is made up of the many and complex social relationships across the company.

Physical structure

The physical structure of the organization can have a very significant effect on the social structuring.

Causal Analysis

An excellent question when analyzing around change is 'why?' Causal Analysis seeks to identify and understand the reasons why things are as they are and hence enabling focus of change activity.

Root causes

The basic principle of causal analysis is to find causes that you can treat rather than treating symptoms (which, as all doctors know, seldom effects a lasting cure).

Ask why five times

The trick with seeking root causes is to keep looking. When you ask 'why' of something, you will get a nearby direct cause. If you keep asking 'why' of each answer, you will eventually get to a cause that you can act on.

Cause-effect diagram

The Cause-effect Diagram is a simple hierarchical tool that is used to break down cause into a tree-structure, allowing you to follow individual streams of possible cause.

Circular causes

Many causes are not linear but instead act in circles, much as births lead to population increase which leads to even more births.

Systemic cause

In systemic problems, the cause is found in the whole system, with the problem distributed across multiple related causes, all of which conspire together to cause the identified effect.

Vicious spirals and virtuous circles

Circular cause leads to exponential increases or decreases that are very difficult to interrupt.

Creating a positive culture

A positive culture is the holy grail of many change activities.

Develop a sense of history

History is important to people, giving them a sense of identity and belonging. Just look at how genealogy becomes more important to people as the grow older.

Create a sense of one-ness

Leaders who bring people together talk about 'us' more than 'I'. They propagate the stories of history and present stories that create a sense of togetherness.

Promote a sense of membership
Belonging also comes from the benefits that people gain, so work on the reward and recognition system.

Increase contact and exchange

Help people stay in touch with one another. This is particularly important in a global or otherwise distributed organization.

Social distance

We like to keep our distance from others and there are very specific social rules about how close we can go to others in particular situations.

Why the distance

Regulating the distances between us and other people provides us with several benefits.

Social distances

The social distances here are approximate, of course and will vary with people.

Public Zone 12 feet

The public zone is generally over 12 feet. That is, when we are walking around town, we will try to keep at least 12 feet between us and other people.

Social Zone 4 - 12 feet

Within the social zone, we start to feel a connection with other people.

Personal Zone 2-4 feet

In the personal zone, the conversation gets more direct, and this is a good distance for two people who are talking in earnest about something.

Intimate Zone < 2 feet

When a person is within arms reach or closer, then we can touch them in intimate ways.

Varying rules

The rules about social distance vary with different groups of people.

Town and country

People who live in towns spend more time close to one another and so their social distances may compact somewhat.

Different countries

Different countries also have different rules about social distances.

Preferences

What makes us different?

Preference scales

There are many scales of preference. Note that there are two styles that are commonly used.

Feedback and reward

A major driver of people in companies and hence their culture is the general feedback and specific rewards that tell them they are doing a good or bad job.

Risk

Uncertainty and risk are something that some people hate and some people thrive on.

Solidarity

Solidarity is the degree to which people think together in the same ways, sharing tasks and mutual interests.

Sociability

Sociability comes from mutual esteem and concern for ones colleagues.

What is culture?

Culture is the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another. Culture in this sense is a system of collectively held values. Culture is the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic ‘taken for granted’ fashion an organization's view of its self and its environment.

A simple way of defining culture is: Culture is a system for differentiating between in-group and out-group people.

Culture as shared meaning

Culture is very much about groups, and a basic need of groups is to be able to communicate, both at a superficial level (for which ordinary language largely suffices) and also at a deeper level of meaning.

Culture as behavioral rules

When a group of people are to exist together, they need a set of rules that helps everyone know what to do in various circumstances, from arguing with one another to dealing with outsiders.

Change Complexity Analysis

Change Complexity Analysis seeks to identify how difficult a change project will be. The more complex the project, the more carefully the project will need to be managed.

Elements of Culture

What are the visible attributes of culture? What are the elements that you can point to and say 'that is there to show and sustain this culture?

Artifacts

Artifacts are the physical things that are found that have particular symbolism for a culture. They may even be endowed with mystical properties.

Stories, histories, myths, legends, jokes

Culture is often embedded and transmitted through stories, whether they are deep and obviously intended as learning devices, or whether they appear more subtly, for example in humor and jokes.

Rituals, rites, ceremonies, celebrations

Rituals are processes or sets of actions which are repeated in specific circumstances and with specific meaning.

Heroes

Heroes in a culture are named people who act as prototypes, or idealized examples, by which cultural members learn of the correct or 'perfect' behavior.

Symbols and symbolic action

Symbols, like artifacts, are things which act as triggers to remind people in the culture of its rules, beliefs, etc.

Beliefs, assumptions and mental models

An organization and culture will often share beliefs and ways of understanding the world.

Attitudes

Attitudes are the external displays of underlying beliefs that people use to signal to other people of their membership.

Rules, norms, ethical codes, values

The norms and values of a culture are effectively the rules by which its members must abide, or risk rejection from the culture (which is one of the most feared sanctions known).

People complexity

The major additional complexity that change projects add over other projects is the potential problems around people.

Scope of impact

When some things are changed, they have a significant ripple on other things. Thus, for example, changing a company policy or an organizational goal will have a very broad impact on whoever is involved.

Amount of work

The 'what' of change equates to the amount of work that needs to be done. This does not necessarily equate to how many people are affected.

Complexity of work

Some work is easy to do, whilst other work requires significant expertise, such as when new products or complex IT systems need to be developed.

Who is changed

The most difficult work of change is often around people.

Numbers of people

When you have to change a lot of people then, even if the change is small, the job will not be that easy. When you have a lot of people to change, then you may find that someone, somewhere will be more trouble than the rest of people put together.

Degree of resistance

If you are going to implement a change that will highly unpopular into an organization where authority is devolved to a low level (for example where most people are 'professionals'), then you must expect a significant level of resistance.


Sponsorship of change

In change projects, the normal hierarchy of management control is often broken as the project stretches across many parts of the organization.

Initiating sponsor

This is the person who starts the change project and may well be the person with whom you meet at the first meeting.

Key sponsor

This is one person (often the most senior manager) who can resolve the stickiest of problems, such as differences between other primary sponsors, and who provides the ultimate authority for the project.

Primary sponsors

This is a small group of managers whose support is critical and who have sufficient clout to unblock most problems, including problems with secondary sponsors.

Secondary sponsors

These are managers whose support is needed, albeit at a limited level. They are important at least as they have the ability to block change.

The role of sponsors

The sponsors of the project can play a number of roles in the change project.


Sponsorship trap

Mismanaging sponsorship is perhaps one of the main reasons why change projects fail. A common sponsorship trap occurs where sponsors see their role as an early agreement, but with no further engagement.

Power Words

There are words that are hardly noticed. There are words that stand out.

God words

Sometimes words arise in a society or even across societies which, like a God, demand absolute obedience.

'In' words

Within companies and specific social groups, God words if I say 'this is profitable' to an executive, he or she will be hard put to turn me down.

God talks jargon

Jargon words can very often be God words, as they have special meaning to closed groups.

Devil words

Just as God terms give you power, there are also words which will sap your power. Using these in a positive sense is taking your life in your hands.

Devil word repulse

Devil words are so repulsive and so scary, people will quickly turn away from them.

Non-PC words

Non-politically-correct words were once quite acceptable, but as society's values changed and people realized that they were using something unacceptable, it made them run even harder away from them.

Insults

Beyond non-PC words, variations can easily become pejorative and intended to insult, denigrate and belittle.

Charisma words

Between God and Devil words are words that invoke particular effects on other people and can make you appear to have a mystical persuasive charisma.

Context counts

The power effect of the words you use depend on the context within which you use them. 'Profit' is very likely to be a God word in most companies, yet in the public services it may well be a Devil word.

Don't over-do it!

If you are going to use power words effectively, then they should have a subtle effect.

Persuasive language

All use of language can act to persuade, and there are many other pages in the language section of this site that include persuasive elements.





Motivation: The overall subject of what drives us.

Processing: The thinking that leads to action.

Behaviors: That result from our decisions.

Culture: How we socially act together.

Learning Theory: How we get to make sense.

Personality: What makes us who we are.

Power: Our capability to act. Where we get it and how we use it.

Social Research: philosophers, philosophies and the search for meaning.

Stress: What winds us up.

Culture

Culture is what happens when people get together. It tells us how to behave and agree. Understanding the culture of a team, organization or country can make a lot of difference when you want to change minds.

Retention techniques

When a person is converted to a particular set of beliefs, then it has been found that, particularly if coercive or authoritarian methods were used, then most people will, if there is no effort to sustain the change, will drift back to their original beliefs.


Diagnosing change

When you are faced with a situation where change seems to required, one of the early activities is to investigate more fully, to understand context, causes and so on, so you can plan to implement changes that will actually improve things.

Historical Review

Much of the reasons why change is required is rooted in the history of the organization. History can also give you lots of very useful information about how your plans may go astray. For these and more reasons, it can be a good idea to look backwards before you look forwards.

Look at the external climate

When times are ripe and the pickings are easy, then companies do not have to be very innovative to thrive.

See the innovation and change

Companies often start with innovation, but this does not always continue. Look at the great new products that appeared and how they wowed the market. Look for incremental innovation that shows a sustained push to stay ahead of the curve.

Watch for the curse of success

When you have a successful product range, it can last for such a long time that you forget how to innovate.

Look at the records

Companies may have many records that tell you a story, filling the details and confirming or disconfirming your suspicions.

Look at the finances

The finances of the company will tell you about the fundamental ups and downs. They will show you the profitable and less profitable times and where change became an imperative rather than a possibility.

Look at the words

Written records such as company reports, meeting minutes and so on will also tell a story. Especially those around times of change, you will see what the real priorities of the organization are.

Listen to the people

The people of the organization are perhaps the best resource for finding out about the company history.

Listen to the old timers

Find the people who have been around since the year dot. Most organizations have people who have survived the ups and downs and who are, to a large extent, the living historians of the company.

Hear the range of stories

Get to people in all positions, high and low. Listen to the stories of power and politics.

Hear the critical events

Listen for the critical events of change within the organization and what happened next.

Look at the history of change

In looking through the areas above, most of all look at how people and the organization as a whole managed change.

Watch for change readiness

A change-ready organization is alert and ready. Change does not faze it. People do not fear different things, but look forward with interest and excitement to the challenge of the new.

Watch for change capability

It is one thing to be ready for change -- it is another to be good at it. Look at the history of change success and change failure, and try to determine the critical factors that made the difference.

Driving objectives

Out of the external forces and internal ambitions, business leaders identify the key purposes and objectives that they want to achieve and hence achieve success in the organization.

Organizational alignment

An aligned organization has its processes, technology, reporting structures and individual objectives all aligned with one another.

Organizational capability

As well as alignment, an organization needs its people to be able to complete work given to them. This is often assumed to be largely about motivation and skill but, although these may be factors, they are often not as significant as initially assumed.

Culture and change

Culture is a perennial problem in change projects and needs to be carefully understood, especially if there is any expectation or desire to change the culture as a part of the project. Culture includes common values, attitudes and consequent behaviors. It directs how people make decisions and how they react to change. It can also vary within an organization, for example a 'leading edge' attitude may be found in research departments and 'customer first' value in service areas.
There are many areas of preferences that people have that shape cultures. There are, within these, a few which are of particular influence around change.

The focus on task or people

Understanding the balance of focus on task vs. person will help you understand the way the leaders of the organization are likely to make decisions.

Task first

When there is a focus on task before people, then change may well be harsh and thoughtless. People will be hired and fired without a second thought.

People first

When the leaders have a people-first focus, then they may hold back from difficult decisions that will hurt others.

The focus on risk or safety

Depending on the risk bias, people will seek or avoid risk. Change often appears to be very risky.

Risk-seeking

A company where there is a focus on innovation and taking risks will find change more acceptable and easier to adopt. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

Risk-averse

A company that is risk-averse will likely try to put off change for as long as possible, at least as long as it takes for not changing to be become riskier than moving, and possibly longer.

The focus on self or others

When people focus may vary between self and others, particularly in the stress of change, then their approach may vary significantly.

Self-centered

When people who put themselves first are faced with change, then they will happily sacrifice others in order to save themselves.

Other-centered

When people put the well-being of others before themselves, they will sacrifice themselves before others.

Helping them change

In helping the company find balance, then your influence will depend on their start point. If they are task first, then show them how ignoring people will lead to tasks done badly or not at all.

Emotions

Emotions are our feelings. Literally. We feel them in our bodies as tingles, hot spots and muscular tension. There are cognitive aspects, but the physical sensation is what makes them really different. Emotions affect and are a part of our mood, which is usually a more sustained emotional state. Mood affects our judgment and changes how we process decisions.

Motivation

First of all, motivation are 'e-motions'. They act to motivate us. Without emotions we would probably not do very much and hence would not survive - at least in the evolved form we are in now.

Internal signals

Internally, for example when we are trying to make understand something or make a decision, we use our emotions to deduce whether what we have concluded is a good idea.

Social signals

We generally wear our hearts on our sleeves as our inner emotions are displayed on our outer bodies. Our faces, in particular, have around 90 muscles, 30 of which have the sole purpose of signaling emotion to other people.

Emotional Intelligence

'Emotional Intelligence' is a neat metaphor that borrows from the notion of IQ. It implies that some people are better at handling emotions than others. It also hints that you might be able to increase your EQ.

Self-awareness

Being emotionally self-aware means knowing how you feel in “real time.” Self-knowledge is the first step in being able to handle emotions.

Emotional literacy

Emotional literacy means being able to label emotions precisely. This includes the emotions of others and especially yourself.

Empathy & compassion

Empathy is the ability to feel and understand the emotions of others. If you can empathies, you can engender trust, as people desperately want to be understood at the emotional level.

Balance

The ability to balance emotion and reason in making decisions leads to good decisions. Emotion should not be abandoned, lest cold and callous decisions are made.

Responsibility

Emotional Intelligence means taking primary responsibility for your own emotions and happiness. You cannot say that others “made” you feel the way you feel.

Association and emotion

An interesting phenomenon is that when we put ourselves mentally into a person or situation, we experience the emotions of that person more strongly.

Putting yourself in the picture
Personal history

Take an emotional experience from your past, and think back to that time. Put yourself in the picture, so you are re-living the experience (not standing back or looking down on yourself). See the situation 'through your own eyes'.

Empathizing

We can do the same with other people - when we empathize with them, we are putting ourselves into their body and their experiences.

Standing back

The reverse of association is dissociation. Take that same emotional experience and now move to a position above the scene, so you can see yourself in it. You will now most likely experience the emotion far less.

Feeling what other feel

Empathy is the ability to not only detect what others feel but also to experience that emotion yourself.

It's not sympathy

Empathy and sympathy are very close and are sometimes used as synonyms. The easiest way to separate them is to remember that empathy is about feelings whilst sympathy is about actions.

It's definitely not psychopathy

A defining element of a psychopath is that they do not and probably cannot empathize with other people. They are often good at imitating this, but in doing so they are using it in a cold and manipulative way.

It has many benefits

The value of empathy comes not from understanding the other person's feelings, but what you do as a result of this.

Empathy builds trust

Empathy displayed can be surprising and confusing. When not expected, it can initially cause suspicion, but when sustained it is difficult not to appreciate the concern. Empathy thus quickly leads to trust.

Empathy closes the loop

Consider what would happens if you had no idea what the other person felt about your communications to them.


Emotion and decision

We make many decisions, and sometimes we are more or less logical about them. And it is arguable that all decision are, ultimately emotional.

Logical vs. emotional decision-making

Decision-making is a cognitive process where the outcome is a choice between alternatives. We often have different preferences as to our preferred, approach, varying between thinking and feeling.

Logical decision-making

When we use logic to make decisions, we seek to exclude emotions, using only rational methods, and perhaps even mathematical tools.

Emotional decision-making

There is a whole range of decision-making that uses emotion, depending on the degree of logic that is included in the process.

Emotion and rationality

Emotion and rational thinking are, to a certain extent, mutually exclusive.

Primary emotions
What is felt first

Primary emotions are those that we feel first, as a first response to a situation. Thus, if we are threatened, we may feel fear. When we hear of a death, we may feel sadness. They are unthinking, instinctive responses that we have. We will typically see these in animals also, which confirms our suspicion that they have an evolutionary basis.
Typical primary emotions include fear, anger, sadness and happiness (although it is worth noting that these can also be felt as secondary emotions).

Secondary emotions
What is felt next

Secondary emotions appear after primary emotions. They may be caused directly by them, for example where the fear of a threat turns to anger that fuels the body for a fight reaction. They may also come from more complex chains of thinking.

Greed

Something not needed
Greed is when I want something that I do not really need. I want it just to possess it.

Something for nothing

Greed is also a form of hope where the expected reward is typically far in excess of the time and cost expected to be invested.

Hope

Hope happens when someone sees something, decides that it is desirable, realizes that they may not get it, but believes that there is still a chance of getting it.
To put it tersely, though perhaps in a complex way, hope is expectation moderated by probabilistic estimation of a desired event.


Envy

Envy is often associated with the color green and is portrayed as 'the green-eyed monster'. It is wanting what others have, desiring to possess what they possess. You can be envious of tangible and intangible things, including their wealth, their good looks and their innate intelligence.

Envy and jealousy

Jealousy is slightly different from envy as it involves a third party. It can involve potential loss, such as when we are jealous when someone threatens to woo away our boyfriend or girlfriend. Envy is always about potential gain.

Desire

Desire happens when we want something. The strength of that desire can range from weak 'would like to sometime' to a raging thirst to possess something now.

Triggering desire

Desire is triggered when we see or think about something we want.
Desire increase when what we want is visible, but just out of reach. It may also increase when we have closer contact with the item, but which we still do not possess.

Love

Love is a massive motivator and can lead people to perform all kinds of self-sacrificial acts.

Conversion

Conversion is the changing of beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviors of individuals into different ideologies. These pages are largely drawn from studies of destructive cults and brainwashing, although the methods used are surprisingly common elsewhere, including in religions, social groups and organizations.


Asset-stripping

One thing that most groups need to survive is money, and one source of this is new members. If the group can strip them of their assets.

Dematerializing

In their focus on what it right and wrong, the group removes material wealth from being worthwhile and good from their list of values. It is seen as a distraction from the core ideology and purpose of life in the group.

Reframing wealth

Assets and their pecuniary value are re-framed as being useful not to the individual but to the group and its purposes.

Confession

Confession may seem like an odd part of conversion, but it is particularly effective at enabling people to put an undesirable past behind them. As well as a conversion technique, it is also useful for retention.

Agreeing the rules

The basic idea behind confession is that there are some things which are bad, and which contravene defined rules and values.

Starting easy

Agreement over rules typically starts with generalized rules with which it is hard to disagree, for example 'people should help one another'.

Tightening the rules

These rules may then be gradually tightened over time. As people accept the basic premise, additional judgement criteria are added.

The assumptions of guilt and atonement

A basic assumption (and by implication a rule) that is often unspoken is that the person in question is already guilty. Guilt is an effective lever that casts the person as imperfect and inferior.

Confessing sins

Having agreed what the rules are, individuals are encouraged to confess past 'sins'.

The tension of guilt

This creates a tension between the person's actions and their stated belief that the action is bad.

Release and atonement

Confessing thus leads to a blessed relief, especially when the tension has been exacerbated by declarations of how terrible sins are and how the person is understood to be basically good.

The subtle lever of authority

A subtle implication of all this is to position the sinner as inferior and the person to whom they are confessing as superior.

The building of trust

Confessing sins is to expose vulnerability, which requires trust. Confession thus acts to increase the bonding of the individual to those hearing the confession, as consistency principle provides the argument that if I am confessing, then those listening must be trustworthy.

Public confessions

The whole effect may be intensified by making the confession public. It both increases the hurt of discomfort and also enables a greater rescue effects and consequent relief.

Entrancement

Entrancement is used during conversion to open the mind to suggestion and limit rational consideration.

Altered states

It can be argued that we are always in some kind of trance, and that we dip in and out of deeper states as we daydream and fixate on things in our normal lives.

Individual and social

You can go into a trance individually. You can also become entranced as a group. Crowd effects are well known, for example at large sports events whole swathes of the audience will emote and act as one.

Suggestibility

During the altered state, the person is likely to be susceptible to suggestion. That is, they may accept something with limited or no cognitive challenge or thoughtful reflection.

Hypnotic possibilities

If a person is hypnotized, will they do things they would not normally do? One theory states that we will not do things outside our morals. Yet in the 1950s, the CIA were exploring the use of hypnosis.

Rhythm

Repetitive rhythm has an interesting effect on us. Perhaps it is something primitive, but a repeating rhythm tends to send us into a trance state. Think about music, dancing, drumming and chanting. These are used in many religious meetings as well as the clubs and dance-halls where social groups gather. Singing may be about group tenets.

Ritual

Repetition not only happens at the speed of clapping - it also happens as we repeat familiar rituals. If I perform various acts that end up with going into a trance, then next time I start the same sequence, I will be most of the way to the trance before I get there.

Prayer and meditation

In prayer and meditation, the person concentrates on a particular theme and seeks to exclude all other thoughts.

Guided thinking

The final method of entrancement discussed here is where the person gives up control of where they are thinking to someone else who tells them what to think and feel.

Isolation

One of the methods by which groups convert and retain members is by separating them from influences that enable or encourage them to think in contrary ways.

Entrapment

One of the first dilemmas for groups seeking to recruit new members is how to get them in one place long enough to apply sufficient persuasion to cause them to convert (or at least take the next step in the right direction).

The weekend session

One of the most effective ways of doing this is to invite them to a 'weekend in the country'. The event may be framed as getting to know more friends, discussions, education or other attractive purposes.

Social events

Another method is through shorter-term sessions, perhaps lasting just one evening, where it may appear that there are a number of other recruits who all are persuaded - whilst the truth might be that they are already full members of the group.

Individual relationships

An even slower method is to build one-to-one relationships, which may even be romantic in nature or may just be based on apparent friendship.

Excluding contrary influence

If a person is provided with persuasive arguments, they may be dissuaded from joining the group or even persuaded to leave by contrary arguments (particularly if the original arguments are shaky).

Physical isolation

The first stage is to isolate people from external influences by moving the people physically away from them. Hence the weekend session is most effectively done when there is no way for the people to escape (for example they were transported there by group members and it is a long way home).

Mental isolation

There are many ways that a person can be made to feel alone, and hence seek the attention of whoever is there. If they are told that all they have once held to be true, then they will start to feel uncertain.

Control of media

Once physical isolation is achieved, a further step is to use information control to ensure that no contrary messages appear by accident. Thus newspapers, television, books etc. may all be removed, censured or controlled. These can then be replaced with confirming and persuading literature and other media.

Social confirmation

Perhaps the most persuasive message is one that you are told in the corridor by friends who seem not to have any particular axe to grind. Social confirmation occurs when everyone else confirms the core message.

Guilt

When values are involved, then the choices are not just between agreement or disagreement - they are about good and bad. Any thought that is against group values and rules is framed as bad, which carries a heavy guilt penalty.

Thought-stopping

Thought-stopping includes various methods of stopping thinking by distraction or dissuasion.

Keeping busy

A very simple method that groups use to retain their members is very simply to keep them busy.

Every minute of the day

The people in the group have their days planned out for them, such that they have hardly a moment to themselves during which they may think about leaving of disobeying.

And into the night

What many of us call 'night' can also be a period during which people are kept busy. Group members may go to bed late and/or get up early. Groups may also wake people up at various times during the night for assorted rituals, from prayer to 'important revelations' from the leader.

Everything is provided

When first joining the group, it can be a great relief to find that everything is provided for you. After the weight of responsibility of life outside, where you are constantly faced with difficult choices, it can be marvelous to find that you don't have to do everything for yourself.

Rites of passage

A classic method that groups and gangs use is a rite of passage where initiates have to perform embarrassing, difficult or painful tasks, that can range from body mutilation to fasting to suffering ritualized abuse.

Every detail of living

The more the person gets into the group, the more even the smallest decisions may be removed from them.

Polarization

One way in which groups lock in their members is by creating a simple, but powerful, black-and-white picture of the world in which sharp choices have to be made.

Lionizing the group

The group is presented as representing or seeking ultimate good. This may start with the notion of a socially caring and harmonious society, but then positions itself as being superior to the rest of the world. In fact only an idiot would consider leaving such a paradise.


Demonizing the out-group

Anyone who is not a member of the group is cast either as innocent and 'to be saved', or bad and either to be shunned or to be fleeced or otherwise taken advantage of.

Punishing offenders

By association, anyone who expresses any thoughts about leaving the group is effectively saying that they prefer the company demons to the company of gods. This is just cause for judgment and punishment to 'cleanse' them of such evil thoughts.

Special language

Language and words are how we encapsulate meaning. Hence, if you control language, you control thought.

The meaning of words

Words are little capsules of meaning. They are symbols upon which we hang bagsful of inferences and understanding. We think in words and sentences.

New words for new meanings

When something new is discovered, then we give it a new word. This separates the new thing from other things. Having a separate word makes it a separate thing, with different meaning.

Old words for new meanings

The reverse can also be done, in that existing words can be redefined to have different meanings. Teenagers and advertisers regularly do this, and superlatives from many different domains have been pressed into new service. 'Fabulous' means 'like a fable'. 'Fantastic' means 'like a fantasy'. And so on.

Words that control

Using special words and language can lead to significant influence and control of other people.

Emotional control

Words contain and trigger emotions. Think about swearing, children, crime, movie icons and more. With a few choice words, it is possible to evoke most emotions in other people. Power words are a typical example.

The allure of special words

Groups and leaders often keep special words for use only within inner circles of power. These then become symbols within the inner group of its exclusivity and also become attractors to others who want to join the inner group and learn these special words.

Striving

A way that members of groups are retained is by assuring that they never reach completion, and that they are constantly striving for more.

Creating hope

Jonathan Swift said, 'It is better to travel hopefully than arrive'. Hope is a key part of striving, along with a belief in better things to come for those who strive.

Ultimate promises

The group typically dangles a carrot in front of the person in the form of the promise of enlightenment, riches, being 'saved' and so on. Framing what the person once thought as unattainable as now a real possibility awakens a deep longing in them.

Early success

Early successes serves to bond the person further into this goal and serves to amplify their hope. This may often be created by a self-fulfilling prophesy - if you believe in something enough, it is surprising what you can achieve.

A sequence of rewards

A more controllable form or reward is given with promotion within the group to higher levels, for example by giving them a new status name (acolyte, traveler, master, manager, director, etc.)

Unattainable perfection

Individuals are constantly encouraged to constantly push towards this ultimate but unattainable perfection.

The leader knows perfection

The leader of the group is the ultimate judge of what perfection is and how well or badly the person is progressing towards it.

Imperfection into punishment

The unattainability of the ultimate perfection can then used to induce guilt and show the person to be sinful and hence sustain the requirement for confession and more ardent obedience to those higher than them in the group's order of perfection.

Thought stopping

The principle of 'thought stopping' is first to stop people thinking about those things which will distract or dissuade them from what they are supposed to be thinking.







Anonymous Business Success
PeopleNology by Gregory Bodenhamer Ph.D. Nollijy University


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Social and System Motor Freight Trucking Engineering

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Culture is a perennial problem in change projects and needs to be carefully understood, especially if there is any expectation or desire to change the culture as a part of the project. Culture includes common values, attitudes and consequent behaviors. It directs how people make decisions and how they react to change. It can also vary within an organization, for example a 'leading edge' attitude may be found in research departments and 'customer first' value in service areas.
There are many areas of preferences that people have that shape cultures. There are, within these, a few which are of particular influence around change.


There are many reasons learn and use peoplenology;

Motivation: The overall subject of what drives us.

Processing: The thinking that leads to action.

Behaviors: That result from our decisions.

Culture: How we socially act together.

Learning Theory: How we get to make sense.

Personality: What makes us who we are.

Power: Our capability to act. Where we get it and how we use it.

Social Research: philosophers, philosophies and the search for meaning.

Stress: What winds us up.


Fear of retribution

Following out of fear is not so much following as being tugged along at the end of a rope.

Blind hope

Here, the follower is desperate for some solution, and what the leader is offering is either the only option they see or the best of a relatively weak set of choices.

Faith in leader

In this situation, the follower is blind to the solution but is following because they have such faith in the leader, they believe that they will, by some magic or genius, provide the answer to the follower's needs.

Intellectual agreement

Here, the follower understands the logic of the argument that the leader is putting forward and hence is following the rationale rather than the leader as a person, who they may respect but are not blindly following.

Buying the vision

When people buy a vision, they are emotionally closing on a view of the future that is appealing to them in some way and pulls them forward.

Followers and Respect

When a person is evaluating a situation and deciding whether to collaborate (and hence become a follower), they judge both the leader and also the solution the leader is offering to determine what action they will take.

Respect for the leader

When the leader is respected, which means they are at the very least trusted and probably liked as well, then this enables the leader to make proposals that followers will take seriously.

Respect for the solution

When the solution is respected, then the respect for the leader is not as important, although if the leader is not respected then the followers may doubt the ability of the leader to make the right choices along the way.

Followers and Trust

People follow those they trust.

Care and concern

We all have a very basic need for safety, which we can get either by taking control ourselves, or, as followers do, ceding this to our leaders.

Passive concern

Leaders make choices that can harm people. If you carefully avoid harming me, then I can trust you.

Active care

Beyond a passive concern is the active care where you may take deliberate action, which you would not otherwise take, to look after and actively care for me.

Reliability

Leaders need for their followers to trust that they will do as they say they will do.

Keep your promises

A simple rule for leaders is : 'Do what you say'. Keep your promises.

Honesty

The problem with honesty is that the short-term implications can be bad for leaders.

Tell the whole truth

If you always tell the truth, including the unvarnished whole truth and bad news that others might hide, then I know that when you say something, I have the complete story.

Followers and Liking

If I do not like you, then I will not follow you.

Goodness

If I judge you to be good, then I know you have similar values to me.

Similarity

We use external similarity as a short-cut to determine if a person is like us on the inside.

Vulnerability

We see ourselves as vulnerable, often with the sense of being a child that we all have to some degree. We see our failings, our limitations, and weaknesses.

Followers and Support

People follow those that help them.

Goals

Where the personal goals of the followers are aligned with the direction that the leaders is pointing, then it seems like a good idea to follow the leader, especially if it looks like they will be able to help me get what I want.

Support

I will also follow a person who actively helps me to get what I want.

Followers and Ideas

People will follow an idea, but not constraining objectives, then I may do it, but not in a way that makes me want to follow you.

Objectives as instructions

Objectives are useful in most organizations, of course, but they are often presented as fixed instructions, telling people what to do and how to do it in so much detail that it leaves little to the imagination.

Objectives as ideas

Objectives can be used to motivate and leaders can make effective use of formal systems of objective-setting to provide effective challenge and stimulation that will motivate people not only to do the work but also to follow the leader.

Ideas as inspiration

Inspiration occurs when an idea both aligns with my values and also gives me a sense of possibility, of what is not now but which could be in the future. It might thus change my beliefs and mental models.


Context Analysis

When investigating change it is important to understand the context within which the current situation is operating.

External context

The external context that affects the organization provides the forces to which the business must react and are common root causes of the need for change.

PESTLE forces

The broader business climate includes the external sea in which the business and its competitors must swim and provides the ultimate playing ground.

Market forces

Within the chosen markets, forces as price pressures, competitive shifts, customer demands and so on may be creating business tensions.

Internal context

As well as the external context, there are many contextual factors within organizations that can lead to the need for change.

Driving objectives

Out of the external forces and internal ambitions, business leaders identify the key purposes and objectives that they want to achieve and hence achieve success in the organization.

Organizational alignment

An aligned organization has its processes, technology, reporting structures and individual objectives all aligned with one another.

Organizational capability

As well as alignment, an organization needs its people to be able to complete work given to them.

Leadership

Leadership is a subject which includes a great deal about changing people's minds, often in fundamental ways.

Followership

The nature of leadership can perhaps be best understood by turning the coin over and studying followership.

The Leader-Follower loop

Leaders who want to create true followers do not just stand at the front of the army, yell 'charge' and then run forward.

Followers respond

Followers are seldom blind. They are human.

Gossip

If the leader does something that concerns them, then they will voice these concerns to one another long before letting the leader know.

Pack response

There may well be some level of pack response from followers.

Leaders adjust

If leaders do not do anything about the situation, then followers, who are volunteers, remember, will abandon in droves.

Noticing

At some point in the proceedings, the leader notices that followers are not as inclined to follow as they once were.

Diagnosing

When the shift in follower behavior is noticed, the next step is to figure out why, and particularly to know whether and how to connect this to the leader's own words or actions, or at least to external events that have shifted the playing field.

Adjusting

When you know where it is going and why it happened, then you can do something about it.

The dance continues

And so the band plays on. It is a closed system, with followers responding to leaders, who themselves adjust in response to this. Leadership and followership is thus an ongoing dance.

Structural Analysis

There are many structures within an organization which influence people's behavior. 'Function follows form' is a relevant saying.

Organizational structure

The hierarchical organization with its 'scalar chain of command' is at the heart of most organizations.

Process structure

People work within processes, which may stretch across functions or be contained within them.

Motivational structure

There are deliberate structures in the organization that seek to motivate people. Typically, this is based on financial reward.

Social structure

Overlaid across the organization is another invisible structure which is made up of the many and complex social relationships across the company.

Physical structure

The physical structure of the organization can have a very significant effect on the social structuring.

Causal Analysis

An excellent question when analyzing around change is 'why?' Causal Analysis seeks to identify and understand the reasons why things are as they are and hence enabling focus of change activity.

Root causes

The basic principle of causal analysis is to find causes that you can treat rather than treating symptoms (which, as all doctors know, seldom effects a lasting cure).

Ask why five times

The trick with seeking root causes is to keep looking. When you ask 'why' of something, you will get a nearby direct cause. If you keep asking 'why' of each answer, you will eventually get to a cause that you can act on.

Cause-effect diagram

The Cause-effect Diagram is a simple hierarchical tool that is used to break down cause into a tree-structure, allowing you to follow individual streams of possible cause.

Circular causes

Many causes are not linear but instead act in circles, much as births lead to population increase which leads to even more births.

Systemic cause

In systemic problems, the cause is found in the whole system, with the problem distributed across multiple related causes, all of which conspire together to cause the identified effect.

Vicious spirals and virtuous circles

Circular cause leads to exponential increases or decreases that are very difficult to interrupt.

Creating a positive culture

A positive culture is the holy grail of many change activities.

Develop a sense of history

History is important to people, giving them a sense of identity and belonging. Just look at how genealogy becomes more important to people as the grow older.

Create a sense of one-ness

Leaders who bring people together talk about 'us' more than 'I'. They propagate the stories of history and present stories that create a sense of togetherness.

Promote a sense of membership
Belonging also comes from the benefits that people gain, so work on the reward and recognition system.

Increase contact and exchange

Help people stay in touch with one another. This is particularly important in a global or otherwise distributed organization.

Social distance

We like to keep our distance from others and there are very specific social rules about how close we can go to others in particular situations.

Why the distance

Regulating the distances between us and other people provides us with several benefits.

Social distances

The social distances here are approximate, of course and will vary with people.

Public Zone 12 feet

The public zone is generally over 12 feet. That is, when we are walking around town, we will try to keep at least 12 feet between us and other people.

Social Zone 4 - 12 feet

Within the social zone, we start to feel a connection with other people.

Personal Zone 2-4 feet

In the personal zone, the conversation gets more direct, and this is a good distance for two people who are talking in earnest about something.

Intimate Zone < 2 feet

When a person is within arms reach or closer, then we can touch them in intimate ways.

Varying rules

The rules about social distance vary with different groups of people.

Town and country

People who live in towns spend more time close to one another and so their social distances may compact somewhat.

Different countries

Different countries also have different rules about social distances.

Preferences

What makes us different?

Preference scales

There are many scales of preference. Note that there are two styles that are commonly used.

Feedback and reward

A major driver of people in companies and hence their culture is the general feedback and specific rewards that tell them they are doing a good or bad job.

Risk

Uncertainty and risk are something that some people hate and some people thrive on.

Solidarity

Solidarity is the degree to which people think together in the same ways, sharing tasks and mutual interests.

Sociability

Sociability comes from mutual esteem and concern for ones colleagues.

What is culture?

Culture is the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another. Culture in this sense is a system of collectively held values. Culture is the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic ‘taken for granted’ fashion an organization's view of its self and its environment.

A simple way of defining culture is: Culture is a system for differentiating between in-group and out-group people.

Culture as shared meaning

Culture is very much about groups, and a basic need of groups is to be able to communicate, both at a superficial level (for which ordinary language largely suffices) and also at a deeper level of meaning.

Culture as behavioral rules

When a group of people are to exist together, they need a set of rules that helps everyone know what to do in various circumstances, from arguing with one another to dealing with outsiders.

Change Complexity Analysis

Change Complexity Analysis seeks to identify how difficult a change project will be. The more complex the project, the more carefully the project will need to be managed.

Elements of Culture

What are the visible attributes of culture? What are the elements that you can point to and say 'that is there to show and sustain this culture?

Artifacts

Artifacts are the physical things that are found that have particular symbolism for a culture. They may even be endowed with mystical properties.

Stories, histories, myths, legends, jokes

Culture is often embedded and transmitted through stories, whether they are deep and obviously intended as learning devices, or whether they appear more subtly, for example in humor and jokes.

Rituals, rites, ceremonies, celebrations

Rituals are processes or sets of actions which are repeated in specific circumstances and with specific meaning.

Heroes

Heroes in a culture are named people who act as prototypes, or idealized examples, by which cultural members learn of the correct or 'perfect' behavior.

Symbols and symbolic action

Symbols, like artifacts, are things which act as triggers to remind people in the culture of its rules, beliefs, etc.

Beliefs, assumptions and mental models

An organization and culture will often share beliefs and ways of understanding the world.

Attitudes

Attitudes are the external displays of underlying beliefs that people use to signal to other people of their membership.

Rules, norms, ethical codes, values

The norms and values of a culture are effectively the rules by which its members must abide, or risk rejection from the culture (which is one of the most feared sanctions known).

People complexity

The major additional complexity that change projects add over other projects is the potential problems around people.

Scope of impact

When some things are changed, they have a significant ripple on other things. Thus, for example, changing a company policy or an organizational goal will have a very broad impact on whoever is involved.

Amount of work

The 'what' of change equates to the amount of work that needs to be done. This does not necessarily equate to how many people are affected.

Complexity of work

Some work is easy to do, whilst other work requires significant expertise, such as when new products or complex IT systems need to be developed.

Who is changed

The most difficult work of change is often around people.

Numbers of people

When you have to change a lot of people then, even if the change is small, the job will not be that easy. When you have a lot of people to change, then you may find that someone, somewhere will be more trouble than the rest of people put together.

Degree of resistance

If you are going to implement a change that will highly unpopular into an organization where authority is devolved to a low level (for example where most people are 'professionals'), then you must expect a significant level of resistance.


Sponsorship of change

In change projects, the normal hierarchy of management control is often broken as the project stretches across many parts of the organization.

Initiating sponsor

This is the person who starts the change project and may well be the person with whom you meet at the first meeting.

Key sponsor

This is one person (often the most senior manager) who can resolve the stickiest of problems, such as differences between other primary sponsors, and who provides the ultimate authority for the project.

Primary sponsors

This is a small group of managers whose support is critical and who have sufficient clout to unblock most problems, including problems with secondary sponsors.

Secondary sponsors

These are managers whose support is needed, albeit at a limited level. They are important at least as they have the ability to block change.

The role of sponsors

The sponsors of the project can play a number of roles in the change project.


Sponsorship trap

Mismanaging sponsorship is perhaps one of the main reasons why change projects fail. A common sponsorship trap occurs where sponsors see their role as an early agreement, but with no further engagement.

Power Words

There are words that are hardly noticed. There are words that stand out.

God words

Sometimes words arise in a society or even across societies which, like a God, demand absolute obedience.

'In' words

Within companies and specific social groups, God words if I say 'this is profitable' to an executive, he or she will be hard put to turn me down.

God talks jargon

Jargon words can very often be God words, as they have special meaning to closed groups.

Devil words

Just as God terms give you power, there are also words which will sap your power. Using these in a positive sense is taking your life in your hands.

Devil word repulse

Devil words are so repulsive and so scary, people will quickly turn away from them.

Non-PC words

Non-politically-correct words were once quite acceptable, but as society's values changed and people realized that they were using something unacceptable, it made them run even harder away from them.

Insults

Beyond non-PC words, variations can easily become pejorative and intended to insult, denigrate and belittle.

Charisma words

Between God and Devil words are words that invoke particular effects on other people and can make you appear to have a mystical persuasive charisma.

Context counts

The power effect of the words you use depend on the context within which you use them. 'Profit' is very likely to be a God word in most companies, yet in the public services it may well be a Devil word.

Don't over-do it!

If you are going to use power words effectively, then they should have a subtle effect.

Persuasive language

All use of language can act to persuade, and there are many other pages in the language section of this site that include persuasive elements.





Motivation: The overall subject of what drives us.

Processing: The thinking that leads to action.

Behaviors: That result from our decisions.

Culture: How we socially act together.

Learning Theory: How we get to make sense.

Personality: What makes us who we are.

Power: Our capability to act. Where we get it and how we use it.

Social Research: philosophers, philosophies and the search for meaning.

Stress: What winds us up.

Culture

Culture is what happens when people get together. It tells us how to behave and agree. Understanding the culture of a team, organization or country can make a lot of difference when you want to change minds.

Retention techniques

When a person is converted to a particular set of beliefs, then it has been found that, particularly if coercive or authoritarian methods were used, then most people will, if there is no effort to sustain the change, will drift back to their original beliefs.


Diagnosing change

When you are faced with a situation where change seems to required, one of the early activities is to investigate more fully, to understand context, causes and so on, so you can plan to implement changes that will actually improve things.

Historical Review

Much of the reasons why change is required is rooted in the history of the organization. History can also give you lots of very useful information about how your plans may go astray. For these and more reasons, it can be a good idea to look backwards before you look forwards.

Look at the external climate

When times are ripe and the pickings are easy, then companies do not have to be very innovative to thrive.

See the innovation and change

Companies often start with innovation, but this does not always continue. Look at the great new products that appeared and how they wowed the market. Look for incremental innovation that shows a sustained push to stay ahead of the curve.

Watch for the curse of success

When you have a successful product range, it can last for such a long time that you forget how to innovate.

Look at the records

Companies may have many records that tell you a story, filling the details and confirming or disconfirming your suspicions.

Look at the finances

The finances of the company will tell you about the fundamental ups and downs. They will show you the profitable and less profitable times and where change became an imperative rather than a possibility.

Look at the words

Written records such as company reports, meeting minutes and so on will also tell a story. Especially those around times of change, you will see what the real priorities of the organization are.

Listen to the people

The people of the organization are perhaps the best resource for finding out about the company history.

Listen to the old timers

Find the people who have been around since the year dot. Most organizations have people who have survived the ups and downs and who are, to a large extent, the living historians of the company.

Hear the range of stories

Get to people in all positions, high and low. Listen to the stories of power and politics.

Hear the critical events

Listen for the critical events of change within the organization and what happened next.

Look at the history of change

In looking through the areas above, most of all look at how people and the organization as a whole managed change.

Watch for change readiness

A change-ready organization is alert and ready. Change does not faze it. People do not fear different things, but look forward with interest and excitement to the challenge of the new.

Watch for change capability

It is one thing to be ready for change -- it is another to be good at it. Look at the history of change success and change failure, and try to determine the critical factors that made the difference.

Driving objectives

Out of the external forces and internal ambitions, business leaders identify the key purposes and objectives that they want to achieve and hence achieve success in the organization.

Organizational alignment

An aligned organization has its processes, technology, reporting structures and individual objectives all aligned with one another.

Organizational capability

As well as alignment, an organization needs its people to be able to complete work given to them. This is often assumed to be largely about motivation and skill but, although these may be factors, they are often not as significant as initially assumed.

Culture and change

Culture is a perennial problem in change projects and needs to be carefully understood, especially if there is any expectation or desire to change the culture as a part of the project. Culture includes common values, attitudes and consequent behaviors. It directs how people make decisions and how they react to change. It can also vary within an organization, for example a 'leading edge' attitude may be found in research departments and 'customer first' value in service areas.
There are many areas of preferences that people have that shape cultures. There are, within these, a few which are of particular influence around change.

The focus on task or people

Understanding the balance of focus on task vs. person will help you understand the way the leaders of the organization are likely to make decisions.

Task first

When there is a focus on task before people, then change may well be harsh and thoughtless. People will be hired and fired without a second thought.

People first

When the leaders have a people-first focus, then they may hold back from difficult decisions that will hurt others.

The focus on risk or safety

Depending on the risk bias, people will seek or avoid risk. Change often appears to be very risky.

Risk-seeking

A company where there is a focus on innovation and taking risks will find change more acceptable and easier to adopt. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

Risk-averse

A company that is risk-averse will likely try to put off change for as long as possible, at least as long as it takes for not changing to be become riskier than moving, and possibly longer.

The focus on self or others

When people focus may vary between self and others, particularly in the stress of change, then their approach may vary significantly.

Self-centered

When people who put themselves first are faced with change, then they will happily sacrifice others in order to save themselves.

Other-centered

When people put the well-being of others before themselves, they will sacrifice themselves before others.

Helping them change

In helping the company find balance, then your influence will depend on their start point. If they are task first, then show them how ignoring people will lead to tasks done badly or not at all.

Emotions

Emotions are our feelings. Literally. We feel them in our bodies as tingles, hot spots and muscular tension. There are cognitive aspects, but the physical sensation is what makes them really different. Emotions affect and are a part of our mood, which is usually a more sustained emotional state. Mood affects our judgment and changes how we process decisions.

Motivation

First of all, motivation are 'e-motions'. They act to motivate us. Without emotions we would probably not do very much and hence would not survive - at least in the evolved form we are in now.

Internal signals

Internally, for example when we are trying to make understand something or make a decision, we use our emotions to deduce whether what we have concluded is a good idea.

Social signals

We generally wear our hearts on our sleeves as our inner emotions are displayed on our outer bodies. Our faces, in particular, have around 90 muscles, 30 of which have the sole purpose of signaling emotion to other people.

Emotional Intelligence

'Emotional Intelligence' is a neat metaphor that borrows from the notion of IQ. It implies that some people are better at handling emotions than others. It also hints that you might be able to increase your EQ.

Self-awareness

Being emotionally self-aware means knowing how you feel in “real time.” Self-knowledge is the first step in being able to handle emotions.

Emotional literacy

Emotional literacy means being able to label emotions precisely. This includes the emotions of others and especially yourself.

Empathy & compassion

Empathy is the ability to feel and understand the emotions of others. If you can empathies, you can engender trust, as people desperately want to be understood at the emotional level.

Balance

The ability to balance emotion and reason in making decisions leads to good decisions. Emotion should not be abandoned, lest cold and callous decisions are made.

Responsibility

Emotional Intelligence means taking primary responsibility for your own emotions and happiness. You cannot say that others “made” you feel the way you feel.

Association and emotion

An interesting phenomenon is that when we put ourselves mentally into a person or situation, we experience the emotions of that person more strongly.

Putting yourself in the picture
Personal history

Take an emotional experience from your past, and think back to that time. Put yourself in the picture, so you are re-living the experience (not standing back or looking down on yourself). See the situation 'through your own eyes'.

Empathizing

We can do the same with other people - when we empathize with them, we are putting ourselves into their body and their experiences.

Standing back

The reverse of association is dissociation. Take that same emotional experience and now move to a position above the scene, so you can see yourself in it. You will now most likely experience the emotion far less.

Feeling what other feel

Empathy is the ability to not only detect what others feel but also to experience that emotion yourself.

It's not sympathy

Empathy and sympathy are very close and are sometimes used as synonyms. The easiest way to separate them is to remember that empathy is about feelings whilst sympathy is about actions.

It's definitely not psychopathy

A defining element of a psychopath is that they do not and probably cannot empathize with other people. They are often good at imitating this, but in doing so they are using it in a cold and manipulative way.

It has many benefits

The value of empathy comes not from understanding the other person's feelings, but what you do as a result of this.

Empathy builds trust

Empathy displayed can be surprising and confusing. When not expected, it can initially cause suspicion, but when sustained it is difficult not to appreciate the concern. Empathy thus quickly leads to trust.

Empathy closes the loop

Consider what would happens if you had no idea what the other person felt about your communications to them.


Emotion and decision

We make many decisions, and sometimes we are more or less logical about them. And it is arguable that all decision are, ultimately emotional.

Logical vs. emotional decision-making

Decision-making is a cognitive process where the outcome is a choice between alternatives. We often have different preferences as to our preferred, approach, varying between thinking and feeling.

Logical decision-making

When we use logic to make decisions, we seek to exclude emotions, using only rational methods, and perhaps even mathematical tools.

Emotional decision-making

There is a whole range of decision-making that uses emotion, depending on the degree of logic that is included in the process.

Emotion and rationality

Emotion and rational thinking are, to a certain extent, mutually exclusive.

Primary emotions
What is felt first

Primary emotions are those that we feel first, as a first response to a situation. Thus, if we are threatened, we may feel fear. When we hear of a death, we may feel sadness. They are unthinking, instinctive responses that we have. We will typically see these in animals also, which confirms our suspicion that they have an evolutionary basis.
Typical primary emotions include fear, anger, sadness and happiness (although it is worth noting that these can also be felt as secondary emotions).

Secondary emotions
What is felt next

Secondary emotions appear after primary emotions. They may be caused directly by them, for example where the fear of a threat turns to anger that fuels the body for a fight reaction. They may also come from more complex chains of thinking.

Greed

Something not needed
Greed is when I want something that I do not really need. I want it just to possess it.

Something for nothing

Greed is also a form of hope where the expected reward is typically far in excess of the time and cost expected to be invested.

Hope

Hope happens when someone sees something, decides that it is desirable, realizes that they may not get it, but believes that there is still a chance of getting it.
To put it tersely, though perhaps in a complex way, hope is expectation moderated by probabilistic estimation of a desired event.


Envy

Envy is often associated with the color green and is portrayed as 'the green-eyed monster'. It is wanting what others have, desiring to possess what they possess. You can be envious of tangible and intangible things, including their wealth, their good looks and their innate intelligence.

Envy and jealousy

Jealousy is slightly different from envy as it involves a third party. It can involve potential loss, such as when we are jealous when someone threatens to woo away our boyfriend or girlfriend. Envy is always about potential gain.

Desire

Desire happens when we want something. The strength of that desire can range from weak 'would like to sometime' to a raging thirst to possess something now.

Triggering desire

Desire is triggered when we see or think about something we want.
Desire increase when what we want is visible, but just out of reach. It may also increase when we have closer contact with the item, but which we still do not possess.

Love

Love is a massive motivator and can lead people to perform all kinds of self-sacrificial acts.

Conversion

Conversion is the changing of beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviors of individuals into different ideologies. These pages are largely drawn from studies of destructive cults and brainwashing, although the methods used are surprisingly common elsewhere, including in religions, social groups and organizations.


Asset-stripping

One thing that most groups need to survive is money, and one source of this is new members. If the group can strip them of their assets.

Dematerializing

In their focus on what it right and wrong, the group removes material wealth from being worthwhile and good from their list of values. It is seen as a distraction from the core ideology and purpose of life in the group.

Reframing wealth

Assets and their pecuniary value are re-framed as being useful not to the individual but to the group and its purposes.

Confession

Confession may seem like an odd part of conversion, but it is particularly effective at enabling people to put an undesirable past behind them. As well as a conversion technique, it is also useful for retention.

Agreeing the rules

The basic idea behind confession is that there are some things which are bad, and which contravene defined rules and values.

Starting easy

Agreement over rules typically starts with generalized rules with which it is hard to disagree, for example 'people should help one another'.

Tightening the rules

These rules may then be gradually tightened over time. As people accept the basic premise, additional judgement criteria are added.

The assumptions of guilt and atonement

A basic assumption (and by implication a rule) that is often unspoken is that the person in question is already guilty. Guilt is an effective lever that casts the person as imperfect and inferior.

Confessing sins

Having agreed what the rules are, individuals are encouraged to confess past 'sins'.

The tension of guilt

This creates a tension between the person's actions and their stated belief that the action is bad.

Release and atonement

Confessing thus leads to a blessed relief, especially when the tension has been exacerbated by declarations of how terrible sins are and how the person is understood to be basically good.

The subtle lever of authority

A subtle implication of all this is to position the sinner as inferior and the person to whom they are confessing as superior.

The building of trust

Confessing sins is to expose vulnerability, which requires trust. Confession thus acts to increase the bonding of the individual to those hearing the confession, as consistency principle provides the argument that if I am confessing, then those listening must be trustworthy.

Public confessions

The whole effect may be intensified by making the confession public. It both increases the hurt of discomfort and also enables a greater rescue effects and consequent relief.

Entrancement

Entrancement is used during conversion to open the mind to suggestion and limit rational consideration.

Altered states

It can be argued that we are always in some kind of trance, and that we dip in and out of deeper states as we daydream and fixate on things in our normal lives.

Individual and social

You can go into a trance individually. You can also become entranced as a group. Crowd effects are well known, for example at large sports events whole swathes of the audience will emote and act as one.

Suggestibility

During the altered state, the person is likely to be susceptible to suggestion. That is, they may accept something with limited or no cognitive challenge or thoughtful reflection.

Hypnotic possibilities

If a person is hypnotized, will they do things they would not normally do? One theory states that we will not do things outside our morals. Yet in the 1950s, the CIA were exploring the use of hypnosis.

Rhythm

Repetitive rhythm has an interesting effect on us. Perhaps it is something primitive, but a repeating rhythm tends to send us into a trance state. Think about music, dancing, drumming and chanting. These are used in many religious meetings as well as the clubs and dance-halls where social groups gather. Singing may be about group tenets.

Ritual

Repetition not only happens at the speed of clapping - it also happens as we repeat familiar rituals. If I perform various acts that end up with going into a trance, then next time I start the same sequence, I will be most of the way to the trance before I get there.

Prayer and meditation

In prayer and meditation, the person concentrates on a particular theme and seeks to exclude all other thoughts.

Guided thinking

The final method of entrancement discussed here is where the person gives up control of where they are thinking to someone else who tells them what to think and feel.

Isolation

One of the methods by which groups convert and retain members is by separating them from influences that enable or encourage them to think in contrary ways.

Entrapment

One of the first dilemmas for groups seeking to recruit new members is how to get them in one place long enough to apply sufficient persuasion to cause them to convert (or at least take the next step in the right direction).

The weekend session

One of the most effective ways of doing this is to invite them to a 'weekend in the country'. The event may be framed as getting to know more friends, discussions, education or other attractive purposes.

Social events

Another method is through shorter-term sessions, perhaps lasting just one evening, where it may appear that there are a number of other recruits who all are persuaded - whilst the truth might be that they are already full members of the group.

Individual relationships

An even slower method is to build one-to-one relationships, which may even be romantic in nature or may just be based on apparent friendship.

Excluding contrary influence

If a person is provided with persuasive arguments, they may be dissuaded from joining the group or even persuaded to leave by contrary arguments (particularly if the original arguments are shaky).

Physical isolation

The first stage is to isolate people from external influences by moving the people physically away from them. Hence the weekend session is most effectively done when there is no way for the people to escape (for example they were transported there by group members and it is a long way home).

Mental isolation

There are many ways that a person can be made to feel alone, and hence seek the attention of whoever is there. If they are told that all they have once held to be true, then they will start to feel uncertain.

Control of media

Once physical isolation is achieved, a further step is to use information control to ensure that no contrary messages appear by accident. Thus newspapers, television, books etc. may all be removed, censured or controlled. These can then be replaced with confirming and persuading literature and other media.

Social confirmation

Perhaps the most persuasive message is one that you are told in the corridor by friends who seem not to have any particular axe to grind. Social confirmation occurs when everyone else confirms the core message.

Guilt

When values are involved, then the choices are not just between agreement or disagreement - they are about good and bad. Any thought that is against group values and rules is framed as bad, which carries a heavy guilt penalty.

Thought-stopping

Thought-stopping includes various methods of stopping thinking by distraction or dissuasion.

Keeping busy

A very simple method that groups use to retain their members is very simply to keep them busy.

Every minute of the day

The people in the group have their days planned out for them, such that they have hardly a moment to themselves during which they may think about leaving of disobeying.

And into the night

What many of us call 'night' can also be a period during which people are kept busy. Group members may go to bed late and/or get up early. Groups may also wake people up at various times during the night for assorted rituals, from prayer to 'important revelations' from the leader.

Everything is provided

When first joining the group, it can be a great relief to find that everything is provided for you. After the weight of responsibility of life outside, where you are constantly faced with difficult choices, it can be marvelous to find that you don't have to do everything for yourself.

Rites of passage

A classic method that groups and gangs use is a rite of passage where initiates have to perform embarrassing, difficult or painful tasks, that can range from body mutilation to fasting to suffering ritualized abuse.

Every detail of living

The more the person gets into the group, the more even the smallest decisions may be removed from them.

Polarization

One way in which groups lock in their members is by creating a simple, but powerful, black-and-white picture of the world in which sharp choices have to be made.

Lionizing the group

The group is presented as representing or seeking ultimate good. This may start with the notion of a socially caring and harmonious society, but then positions itself as being superior to the rest of the world. In fact only an idiot would consider leaving such a paradise.


Demonizing the out-group

Anyone who is not a member of the group is cast either as innocent and 'to be saved', or bad and either to be shunned or to be fleeced or otherwise taken advantage of.

Punishing offenders

By association, anyone who expresses any thoughts about leaving the group is effectively saying that they prefer the company demons to the company of gods. This is just cause for judgment and punishment to 'cleanse' them of such evil thoughts.

Special language

Language and words are how we encapsulate meaning. Hence, if you control language, you control thought.

The meaning of words

Words are little capsules of meaning. They are symbols upon which we hang bagsful of inferences and understanding. We think in words and sentences.

New words for new meanings

When something new is discovered, then we give it a new word. This separates the new thing from other things. Having a separate word makes it a separate thing, with different meaning.

Old words for new meanings

The reverse can also be done, in that existing words can be redefined to have different meanings. Teenagers and advertisers regularly do this, and superlatives from many different domains have been pressed into new service. 'Fabulous' means 'like a fable'. 'Fantastic' means 'like a fantasy'. And so on.

Words that control

Using special words and language can lead to significant influence and control of other people.

Emotional control

Words contain and trigger emotions. Think about swearing, children, crime, movie icons and more. With a few choice words, it is possible to evoke most emotions in other people. Power words are a typical example.

The allure of special words

Groups and leaders often keep special words for use only within inner circles of power. These then become symbols within the inner group of its exclusivity and also become attractors to others who want to join the inner group and learn these special words.

Striving

A way that members of groups are retained is by assuring that they never reach completion, and that they are constantly striving for more.

Creating hope

Jonathan Swift said, 'It is better to travel hopefully than arrive'. Hope is a key part of striving, along with a belief in better things to come for those who strive.

Ultimate promises

The group typically dangles a carrot in front of the person in the form of the promise of enlightenment, riches, being 'saved' and so on. Framing what the person once thought as unattainable as now a real possibility awakens a deep longing in them.

Early success

Early successes serves to bond the person further into this goal and serves to amplify their hope. This may often be created by a self-fulfilling prophesy - if you believe in something enough, it is surprising what you can achieve.

A sequence of rewards

A more controllable form or reward is given with promotion within the group to higher levels, for example by giving them a new status name (acolyte, traveler, master, manager, director, etc.)

Unattainable perfection

Individuals are constantly encouraged to constantly push towards this ultimate but unattainable perfection.

The leader knows perfection

The leader of the group is the ultimate judge of what perfection is and how well or badly the person is progressing towards it.

Imperfection into punishment

The unattainability of the ultimate perfection can then used to induce guilt and show the person to be sinful and hence sustain the requirement for confession and more ardent obedience to those higher than them in the group's order of perfection.

Thought stopping

The principle of 'thought stopping' is first to stop people thinking about those things which will distract or dissuade them from what they are supposed to be thinking.