Watching the painful gyrations of our government over the past few weeks, it convinces me that there is one most important leadership principle in this age. This is true not only for our government, but for our corporations, teams and families. And, it is not new. It only needs renewal.

The Bible, as well as every other Holy book of every great religion, sought to promote unity even if its followers failed to understand or act accordingly, as they usually did. “And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.” (Mathew 12:25) And the Apostle Paul said: “If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another” (Gal.5:15). The primary mission of Mohammed was to unite the warring and fractious Arab tribes under the banner of One God. The subject of spiritual unity and the connection of all living things is a predominant theme of Buddhism and Hinduism as well. “He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye,” Buddha is reported to have said.

In future posts I will explore the key characteristics that promote unity within the organization.

I hope the tragedy of the killing of the husband and mother of Judge Joan Lefkow in Chicago may bring some appreciation to the service provided by Federal Judges, and all Judges for that matter. (I wrote this before the murders in the Atlanta Fulton County Courthouse, which only strengthens my feelings further.)

Our three branches of government are all supposed to be co-equal. The President parades and pontificates every night on television. Members of Congress are on television promoting their bills and causes constantly. Judges, on the other hand, toil away in relative anonymity and are very often the subject of attack by the other two branches of government. How many times in the last few years have you heard politicians attacking those “unelected judges” who interpret the law. Of course it is their job to interpret the law and now and again we should be reminded that they are due some measure of respect for the daily judgments they must make, and the dangers the face in doing so, for our benefit. It is time for some appreciation of the unity of our three branches.

I am deep in the passion of re-writing my soon to be book. I have had a big breakthrough, a rather significant redirection of its focus. I won’t say the proposed title (it has not been sold to a publisher yet and they always change the title anyway) but the subtitle is something like “How to Create Unity of Effort and Energy in a Fractured World.” The subject of how companies and cultures build unity or disintegrate is much on my mind and it is central to the ability of either a company or culture to remain competitive.

The downfall of every civilization and corporation is not the work of an attack by external enemies, but internal disintegration and loss of will. Internal competitors, blind to their own deeds, raise the dagger and strike their own heart, thinking they are attacking their opponent but failing to realize that they are in the boat together, rapidly circling in a descending whirlpool of debate. The Bible, as well as every other Holy book of every great religion, sought to promote unity even if its followers failed to understand or act accordingly, as they usually did. “And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.” And the Founder of the Bahá’i Faith said, “So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.”

George Washington, in his great Farewell Address that should be read carefully by every citizen who loves his country, said “The Unity of Government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is the main Pillar in the Edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home; your peace abroad; of your safety; your prosperity; of that very Liberty which you so highly prize.”

Washington was extremely concerned about the divisions political parties would create, “Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effect of the Spirit of Party, generally.” “One of the expedients of Party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other Districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much from these misrepresentations. They tend to render Alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.” And today it seems that the number one tactic of the parties is to do exactly that against which Washington warned, to misrepresent the opinion and aims of the other to acquire influence.

It is those who pride themselves in this spirit of party, and who are the most strident voices in misrepresenting the views of the other, who are the subversives and cancer among us. Let’s at least take the moment of this tragedy to recognize those public servants who rise above party, our judges, and serve the people with their courage and convictions.

“To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs” - Aldous Huxley

“How often we recall, with regret, that Napoleon once shot at a magazine editor and missed him and killed a publisher. But we remember with charity that his intentions were good.” - Mark Twain

“Even Napoleon had his Watergate.” Yogi Berra

“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.” Mother Teresa

Our national conversation is dominated by polarity politics - left or right, blue or red, liberal or conservative. Is this two dimensional linear view the way we should discuss problems?

A few years ago there was a popular management book by Joel Barker on “Paradigms” and paradigm shifts. It was a useful foray into our mental models and how they change over time. Mental models, which are often reflected in our language, can create either competitive advantage or disadvantage.

Consider the paradigm or mental model that must exist in the minds of young Muslim men educated in the madrasa schools run by clerics who have little or no education beyond their own Holy Book. Just as software conditions the processing of data, mental paradigms condition the processing of information in the human brain.

How are Americans trained to think? Do we assume our paradigms are the one and only “right” way to think about issues. What paradigms are making us economically competitive or damaging our position in the world? And, how does that affect behavior in the corporate world? The answers to those questions could fill a book, but a few quick thoughts.

It seems that every television news show has become “Crossfire” with someone on the left and someone on the right. Every issue is discussed with the assumption that there is a liberal view and a conservative view; a red state and blue state perspective. All you have to do is choose which your team is and you can root for someone to win the contest! It has become the national sport.

Are issues really defined by this bi-polar paradigm? Is there any other model that may more fully describe reality? Instead of a two dimensional, left-right paradigm, could reality be more multi-dimensional, perhaps up and down, as well as left and right? Is there a matrix of possible views, or even a three dimensional model? Is the solution to funding social security in the future, a future when on average people will be living to over a hundred, one defined simply by left or right? Is the fight against terrorism one that belongs to left or right? Is the growing deficit, an effective tax on our children, solved by simple left/right knee jerk solutions? I don’t think so.

Left and right, liberal and conservative, is not only an inadequate paradigm, it is mental laziness, simplistic thinking, and it can draw groups, even our nation, into false choices and bad decisions. On MSNBC today, on “Connected Coast-to-Coast” a talk show host, representing the “right” said to Ron Reagan “you on the left are all God hating…” Can anyone actually be so simple minded as to believe that everyone who considers them self liberal is “God hating?” It is not possible!

Unfortunately, political discourse today (and it is done on both sides) seeks to label the other side in the worst possible way. This is how the game is played. This process of irrational labeling should cause our citizens serious concern. Hitler labeled Jews as “vermin”; during WWII the Japanese had similar labels for the Chinese; and we called our enemies “gooks” in Vietnam. The process of labeling makes it easier to hate, to kill an enemy or scapegoat. Why not kill “vermin”? It happened in Bosnia and Rwanda. And with language that defines almost half the country as “God hating” this labeling is a danger to our culture, if not our democracy.

Perhaps instead of simply liberal/conservative there is a matrix with those who seek to divide others on the bottom; and those who seek to create unity on the top. Great leaders seek unity, not division. Alexander the Great made great efforts to unify Persian and Greeks by wearing Persian clothes and marrying 1000 inter-racial couples. George Washington was a unifier and feared the effect of political parties and the division they would cause. Leaders like Sloban Milosevic rose to power by creating fear in one half of the citizens against the other half. Ethnic cleansing and the death of tens of thousands followed.

Consider that the mental paradigm of division versus that of unity may be much more significant than that of right and left. The strength and survival of the United States may depend on expanding our paradigm possibilities beyond the simple minded linear dialogue that dominates our dialy landscape.

New products, new technologies, new management processes, the innovation that has been the fuel of the American economy, is founded on “out-of-the-box” thinking, the refusal to adhere to simple and traditional thought patterns. If the American economy is going to continue to thrive we must develop new generations of revolutionary thinkers who refuse to be hyptnotized the boringly repititious nightly debates. And if we can somehow get our political and media leaders to practice some pattern of conversation that breaks out of the restrictions of the current lef/right assumptions, we might just solve some of the pressing public policy issues facing this country.

Authentic happiness conributes to business success

One of the best books of the past year is Authentic Happiness by Martin E.P. Seligman. Read it and be happy. In fact, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for every manager to buy it for his or her employees. It will pay off in performance.

When I first began consulting in manufacturing plants in the 1970’s management was dominated by, not just men, but by genuinely tough men – men’s men. To rise through the management ranks from the shop floor to senior management at J.P Stevens & Company, Cannon Mills or Millikan & Company, no wimps need apply.

When I was consulting with Continental Can Company, at which long battles between the company and the Steelworkers and Machinists Union had hardened everyone, to the point that managers glared at each other. Someone pointed out to me that the CCC managers had “gunslinger eyes” and they would sit around a table at lunch with their hands under the table, out of site, and then suddenly draw and point, getting someone by attacking what they had said. This may sound absurd now, but it was the norm of American manufacturing culture and it is one of the reasons for the decline of manufacturing in this country.

These were not happy places to work. I once interviewed a Vice President, the only woman member of a twelve person senior management team, and I asked her about the “glass ceiling” that might prevent women from rising to senior management. She immediately responded, much to my surprise, that there was no glass ceiling. She said women were promoted. But, when they got there, the environment was so anti-social, so unfriendly, that they couldn’t understand why anyone would want to be there, and they left.

In the past, the idea that we had any burden to create “happiness” at work would have been viewed as some socialistic absurdity. But now there is very good evidence, hard data, that suggests that people who are “authentically happy” perform better than those who are not. Authentic happiness is not simple pleasure. Eating ice cream brings pleasure, but sitting around all day eating ice cream does not make you authentically happy. It will soon make you miserable. Similarly, the data shows that an increase in income from $20,000 a year to $40,000 a year will make you happy because you may be able to afford a better home, care for your children, etc. But, does an increase in salary from one million to two million, or ten million, make you any happier? Very unlikely.

Martin Seligman is the founder of what is now called “Positive Psychology”, essentially the study of mental and emotional wellness. He says that there are three domains of happiness, each of which can be measured.

The first is The Pleasant Life: which he says is “Having as much positive emotion as possible and learning the skills to amplify the intensity and duration of your pleasures. But the capacity for positive emotion turns out to have a genetic set range that is hard to push around: lottery winners and paraplegics revert to their usual level of good cheer or grumpiness within a year following the event that changed their lives.” In other words, there isn’t much you can do about your capacity for this type of positive emotion.

The second type is The Engaged Life: “Being “one with the music,” absorbed and immersed in your work, love, friendship and leisure. The central skill to have more engagement is to identify your signature strengths and virtues and re-craft your life to use them more often. By deploying your highest strengths and talents, you can have more intense absorption in more areas of your life.”

Over the years, and this may sound a bit silly, I have believed that the work we have done in setting top-to-bottom systems of team management in which every employee takes ownership of his or her work processes, communicates with customers, plots data, and is empowered to make decisions, has made employees and managers happier. It just felt this way. And, this always went along with improvements in performance. Seligman’s work helps understand this connection between management systems, psychological engagement, and productive workplaces.

And the third is The Meaningful Life: Seligman says that this “Adds one more element, transcending the self, to the engaged life: The central skill is to identify your signature strengths and virtues and using them to belong to and to serve something that you believe is larger than you are.”

There is good data suggesting that people who are religious, who have a strong set of values and beliefs, are happier than those who do not. Meaning matters. Purpose matters. Serving something that you believe is larger than yourself is the essence of all religion and is a cornerstone of the spiritual enterprise.

One of the most useful areas of research (if I were advising you management or psychology students) is how the processes, systems, and culture of organization can be structured to reinforce these three attributes of authentic happiness.

Visit Seligman’s website and take his happiness test. You will find it interesting.

Just in case any of my former associates, clients, friends or enemies check in here and wonder what this guy has been up to… a brief report on the past six years.

More than six years ago, and I remember the moment it happened, I decided to sell my company, the Miller-Howard Consulting Group, and quit. The moment was in a Ramada Inn in Cleveland, on a December night, probably around the 16th or17th. I was there to do a talk, to heaven knows who, and I made my promised and ritualistic call home. Now, keep in mind that I had been in the consulting/speaking game for around twenty five years and I spent a lot, and I mean A LOT, of nights in lousy hotel rooms (not implying that this one was notably lousy).

The lightning bolt struck when I realized that my daughter, Natasha, who was to be married a week later, was spending her last night at home, ever. And, it was snowing in Cleveland. That was it. It only happens a few times in your life when you just know you have to do something; when you are confronted with life events in a way that demands that you sit up and take notice and do something different. Change! I thought I had enough money and knew my talks so well I had out of body experiences where I could hear the words coming out of my mouth, but my mind was somehow in a different place. That’s another clue!

At that moment I decided to sell my company and do something different. It took a couple years to pull it off, but Towers Perrin bought the firm. Jennifer Howard, my long time partner, and all of the consultants, merged into TP. I also became Principal of TP, but after six months of trying to fit in and make myself useful, I realized that I just could not fit into their culture. I was gone.

For the past six years I have used that incredibly uncomfortable phrase “I am semi-retired” to describe my status. I have split my time between play (sailing to Maine, Bermuda, etc.) and working with non-profit organizations. I have spent more time with AIESEC International than any other. AIESEC is a great organization, formed after WWII to promote international understanding. It is entirely student run. That statement requires some reflection. This organization of about thirty thousand students in 87 different countries has survived for more than fifty years without any professional, adult, management. Each year the local chapters on university campuses elect a leadership team, then a national leadership team is elected, and there is a once a year international conference at which they elect a new global President and leadership team. So, every year, a new group of young men and woman, in their early twenties, move to Rotterdam and provide coordination and leadership to this global organization. For the past five years I have been their “change management” consultant as they have redefined “The AIESEC Experience” as a life-long learning process and designed all the necessary processes, structures, systems, etc.

Every organization is unique and presents its own challenges. Needless to say, AIESEC was challenging, unique, and a lot of fun to work with. I won’t bore you with all of my other adventures, but they include serving on the board of small university in Switzerland, born of great ideas and dedication, but lacking any viable business model. I was drawn into a half time job (no pay!) in Switzerland, working to rescue this poor child. But, I am afraid the finances were beyond repair.

So, now a new chapter begins. I have had enough sailing, realized my wife is not going to sail to Tahiti with me, and spent enough time with non-profits. Now back to “real” work. I have just finished the draft of a book in search of a good title (it was The Discipline of Common Sense, but my agent has decided that doesn’t work).

My great ambition now is not to rebuild a consulting firm with offices, staff and consultants flying all over the place. I would much rather do the fun part …work directly with clients, assisting good people work their way through the process of improving their culture, their teams and their service to clients. That is the fun part.