Do You Believe in Magic?

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EGjDSxZ08qQ/XntvWEdVwII/AAAAAAABMTU/oIR41zYH6wAmbMKmC3cMERbR7G2inlqsQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/David%2BTeniers%2B-%2BThe%2Bmagician%2Bdiscovers%2BCarlos%2Band%2BUbaldo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="1024" height="444" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EGjDSxZ08qQ/XntvWEdVwII/AAAAAAABMTU/oIR41zYH6wAmbMKmC3cMERbR7G2inlqsQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/David%2BTeniers%2B-%2BThe%2Bmagician%2Bdiscovers%2BCarlos%2Band%2BUbaldo.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_Teniers_(II)_-_The_magician_discovers_Carlos_and_Ubaldo,_the_whereabouts_of_Reinaldo_(The_search_for_Reinaldo).jpg">The magician discovers Carlos and Ubaldo, the whereabouts of Reinaldo (The search for Reinaldo)</a></i> by David Teniers the Younger, 1629 (public domain - Wikipedia)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <hr /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <i><b><br /></b></i> <i><b>"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."</b> </i></div> <div style="text-align: right;"> <i>— Arthur C. Clarke, 1968</i><br /> <i><br /></i></div> <hr /> <br /> <br /> If you have the 1965 song by The Lovin' Spoonful as an ear-worm now, I'm sorry.<br /> <br /> But I ask the question for a reason.<br /> <br /> In trying times we need to believe in something.<br /> <br /> I'm not suggesting that magic is a stand-in for religion or other spiritual beliefs.<br /> <br /> Rather, it represents our ability to suspend disbelief — even if just for a few moments — to revel in something mystical, otherworldly, or wondrous.<br /> <br /> Magic has the power to unite us in awe and wonder, as we either marvel at something inexplicable or attempt to unravel the secret behind the illusion.<br /> <br /> Think of the times that you've seen magic shows, whether the rabbit-out-of-the-hat kind at birthday parties when you were a child, street performers who dazzle you with the cup and ball trick, or master illusionists on a Las Vegas stage.<br /> <br /> We invite magical things into our lives, to distract us or to help create an illusion of something fanciful.<br /> <br /> Think about the aptly-named Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World. Strolling down Main Street USA, you're magically transported to a 1910s-era America. The architecture changes as you enter Tomorrowland, or Frontierland, or Adventureland. You're meant to believe.<br /> <br /> <br /> <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </div> <hr style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /> <i><b><br /></b></i> <div style="text-align: center;"> <i><b>"'Tis magic, magic, that hath ravished me."</b> </i></div> <div style="text-align: right;"> <i>— Christopher Marlowe, 1590</i></div> <br /> <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </div> <hr style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /> <br /> Thus Doctor Faustus admits that he is enraptured by magic, as it promises "a world of profit and delight, of power, of honor, and omnipotence."<br /> <br /> Just as the back pages of comic books promised generations of young girls and boys: "Amaze your friends! Baffle your relatives!"<br /> <br /> We stand ready to believe that we can make believers out of others.<br /> <br /> Humanity has a long history of believing in magic—or at least of telling stories about magic.<br /> <ul> <li>In <i>The Odyssey</i> (c. 1190 BC), we find Odysseus and his men were delayed on their journey home, in part because of spells, enchantments, or other magic used on them by Circe, Calypso, and the Sirens.</li> <li>Apuleius' <i>Metamorphoses</i> (c. 160 AD) follow the adventures of Lucius, who is turned into an ass.</li> <li>The legend of King Arthur (1136) is not complete without the central figure of Merlin, the wizard.</li> <li>And speaking of wizards, how much Dorothy and her friends wanted to believe the Wizard of Oz (1900) could help them, even after "that man behind the curtain" was exposed.</li> </ul> <br /> <br /> It's a universal human trait—one that spans the globe over millennia—to put meaning around things that we don't understand or that are outside of our control.<br /> <br /> And in the past, when we couldn't explain something, we called it magic.<br /> <br /> In some cases, we did so because those who wanted to believe didn't have the ability to elucidate what they saw, while the more skeptical among them applied the term "magic" simply as a catch-all phrase.<br /> <br /> It seems like a pretty stark dichotomy: the believer and the skeptic. If you've been following the news in recent weeks, that's exactly how people have lined up with regard to the coronavirus.<br /> <br /> It would seem laughable—perhaps even downright fictional—if we didn't see these opposing views play out right in front of us.<br /> <br /> And yet, there's a story from 100 years ago about two friends whose friendship was destroyed because of how fervently they each dug in.<br /> <br /> <br /> <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </div> <hr style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <i><b>"The purpose of art is the lifelong construction of a state of wonder."</b> </i></div> <div style="text-align: right;"> <i>— Glen Gould, 1982</i></div> <br /> <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </div> <hr style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /> <br /> <br /> In 1920, two of the biggest celebrities of the day met each other: Illusionist Harry Houdini and author <a href="https://amzn.to/2y0lSWD" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sir Arthur Conan Doyle</a>. Both shared an interest in spiritualism.<br /> <br /> Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, would seem to be an unlikely believer in spiritualism; after all, he created the foremost logical and rational thinker the world has ever seen. But after his oldest son died in World War I, Conan Doyle became deeply interested in life after death and became a tireless evangelist for the cause.<br /> <br /> He was no stranger to the fantastical; he used the famous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies">Cottingly Fairies</a> photographs to illustrate an article he had written for The Strand Magazine in 1920. It wasn't until 1983 that the girls who made them revealed that they were faked.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1A7AUFnrP-o/XntzYZSJbYI/AAAAAAABMTg/1WWxm4J645kqnv7t4JOqs9hk054QvJT0ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Cottingley_Fairies_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="381" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1A7AUFnrP-o/XntzYZSJbYI/AAAAAAABMTg/1WWxm4J645kqnv7t4JOqs9hk054QvJT0ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Cottingley_Fairies_1.jpg" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Cottingly Fairies (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cottingley_Fairies_1.jpg">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Houdini, on the other hand (whose birthday was yesterday), seemed the perfect match for the supernatural. He was a noted escape artist and illusionist who made people believe he had special powers.<br /> <br /> What brought these two men together was Houdini's desire to contact his dear mother, who had passed away in 1913. He had been overseas when she died and felt that hearing from her one last time would help him deal with the overwhelming loss.<br /> <br /> After two years of correspondence and a meeting of the Society of American Magicians in June of 1922 in Atlantic City, Conan Doyle held a séance with Houdini, to contact his mother.<br /> <br /> Arthur Conan Doyle's wife Jean served as the medium, being "seized by the Spirit," beginning with drawing a sign of the cross after asking the unseen presence if it believed in God. What followed was fifteen pages of scribbled messages from what she claimed was Houdini's mother.<br /> <br /> Houdini, who so deeply missed his mother, desperately wanted to believe. But logic told him otherwise: the scribbled notes were all in English; his mother spoke German. She would not have made the sign of the cross; she was Jewish.<br /> <br /> The common bonds that they two forged over spiritualism were broken forever, and their correspondence devolved into dueling letters columns in newspapers.<br /> <br /> <br /> <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </div> <hr style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /> <i><b><br /></b></i> <div style="text-align: center;"> <i><b>"To ensure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough; a police force is needed as well."</b> </i></div> <div style="text-align: right;"> <i>— Albert Camus, 1951</i></div> <br /> <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </div> <br /><hr style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /> <br /> The reason I chose magic as a topic this week was because I came across the phrase "wave a magic wand" in stories about the coronavirus crisis. Donald G. McNeil, Jr., the New York Times reporter who covers plagues and pestilences, said in "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/health/coronavirus-restrictions-us.html">The Virus Can Be Stopped, but Only With Harsh Steps, Experts Say</a>" and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/podcasts/the-daily/coronavirus.html">March 23 edition of The Daily</a> that epidemiologists said the epidemic would end “If it were possible to wave a magic wand and make all Americans freeze in place for 14 days.”<br /> <br /> It shows the wishful thinking and likely inability for Americans to apply the kind of self-discipline that other countries have enacted. This isn't going to happen naturally, so we seemingly need to turn to the supernatural to see us through.<br /> <br /> Think of the ways we believe our leadership is supposed to protect us. Or at least how the various parts of public and private industry are supposed to be connected. How much faith do we put into our current system?<br /> <br /> Is it any surprise then that magic creeps its way into conversation?<br /> <br /> <br /> <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </div> <hr style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /> <br /><div style="text-align: center;"> <i><b>"The believer in magic and miracles reflects on how to impose a law on nature—and, in brief, the religious cult is the outcome of this reflection."</b> </i></div> <div style="text-align: right;"> <i>— Friederich Nietzsche, 1878</i></div> <br /> <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </div> <hr style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /> <br /> <br /> The human mind, as complex as it is, can be manipulated. In fact, Teller (of Penn and Teller fame) even revealed his secrets with his <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/teller-reveals-his-secrets-100744801/">Seven Laws of Magic</a>:<br /> <ol> <li>Exploit pattern recognition</li> <li>Make the secret a lot more trouble than the trick seems worth</li> <li>It's hard to think critically when you're laughing</li> <li>Keep the trickery outside the frame</li> <li>To fool the mind, combine at least two tricks</li> <li>Nothing fools you better than the lie you tell yourself</li> <li>If you are given a choice, you believe you have acted freely</li> </ol> <br /> <br /> Consider each of those seven principles for a moment. They could just as easily apply to magic, management, or public health, couldn't they?<br /> <br /> <b>Exploit pattern recognition</b><br /> Pattern recognition is what epidemiologists study; by creating routines or expectations, we can guide employee behavior.<br /> <br /> <b>Make the secret a lot more trouble than the trick seems worth</b><br /> When someone takes more time, money and practice to do something, you're more likely to believe. Testing and monitoring is a key part of tracking disease. Employee advocacy depends on the training and culture you build around it.<br /> <br /> <b>It's hard to think critically when you're laughing</b><br /> Making something fun takes the drudgery out of a task. It's equally as difficult to think critically when you're panicked.<br /> <br /> <b>Keep the trickery outside the frame</b><br /> We don’t need to see a debate about numbers, process, or staffing. Doing so spoils the illusion of a well-managed team. If you can present a fully-formed plan and demonstrate results, you'll impress your audience.<br /> <br /> <b>To fool the mind, combine at least two tricks</b><br /> If we participate in a set of actions and they're rolled into what we're already doing, it's less likely that we'll notice what's happening. We've seen this demonstrated in past weeks as people have been instructed to sing a song while washing their hands.<br /> <br /> <b>Nothing fools you better than the lie you tell yourself</b><br /> What you choose to reveal to people can convince them of what you need them to know or believe. In some cases, we don't need to show them everything, but only essential elements that allow them to make discoveries themselves.<br /> <br /> <b>If you are given a choice, you believe you have acted freely</b><br /> No one likes to feel as if they've been forced to do something, whether it's being quarantined or having to take an employee survey. If we can find ways to allow people to reach these conclusions or make decisions themselves, it's more likely to stick.<br /> <br /> <br /> <hr /> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <i><b><br /></b></i> <div style="text-align: center;"> <i><b>"Nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self; for what we wish, that we readily believe."</b> </i></div> <div style="text-align: right;"> <i>— Demosthenes, 349 BC</i></div> <i><br /></i> <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </div> <hr style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;" /> <br /> <br /> These are strange times, my friends. We need to find inspiration and belief anywhere we can get it.<br /> <br /> Do you believe in magic?<br /> <br /> <br /> <i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This originally appeared in the March 25 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. To see the newsletter in its entirety, including links, recommended books, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/do-you-believe-in-magic" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">.</span><br /> <br /> <div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"> If you liked this, I'd love to share more with you:</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"> <iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div> <div> <br /></div>

Do You Believe in Magic?

The magician discovers Carlos and Ubaldo, the whereabouts of Reinaldo (The search for Reinaldo) by David Teniers the Younger, 1629 (publi...

Read more »

Pulling Together — Separately

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NxRdtdRI3Hc/XnGoamuhKkI/AAAAAAABMLk/EcXCWh5QntAxr3F-lKB0eFXEhhkTSSZswCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Edward%2BHopper%2BRedux%2B-%2BNighthawks%2BQuarantined%2B2020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="880" height="344" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NxRdtdRI3Hc/XnGoamuhKkI/AAAAAAABMLk/EcXCWh5QntAxr3F-lKB0eFXEhhkTSSZswCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Edward%2BHopper%2BRedux%2B-%2BNighthawks%2BQuarantined%2B2020.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> <hr /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <i><b>"Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!"</b> — Herman Melville, 1856</i></div> <br /> <hr /> <br /> <br /> With those words ends the short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street."<br /> <br /> The story was a tale of a clerk/copyist in a law firm who eagerly took a job, but eventually refused to do the work that his employer demanded of him, responding always with "I would prefer not to."<br /> <br /> The lawyer eventually moved out, but Bartleby remained and new tenants found him there, always preferring not to do what they asked him to do. He ended his days in prison, dying of starvation because he preferred not to eat.<br /> <br /> Themes of isolation and depression recur throughout Melville’s story, and they reflect a life and workplace that was becoming more common in the mid-1800s.<br /> <br /> And we're seeing them play out again in the present day.<br /> <br /> Before the coronavirus / COVID-19 crisis hit, the open office was becoming more accepted; over the last five years it rose in popularity.<br /> <br /> Really, it wasn't that much different from office settings in the past, where there was a large room, and desks were laid out next to each other. <br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VmYX99LpkZI/XnGo6v0GP9I/AAAAAAABMLs/sVGV4CQ8FIoabINmhJQOYClCaJz9IG2ZQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1200px-Blythe_House_preparing_totals_for_daily_balance_1930s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VmYX99LpkZI/XnGo6v0GP9I/AAAAAAABMLs/sVGV4CQ8FIoabINmhJQOYClCaJz9IG2ZQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/1200px-Blythe_House_preparing_totals_for_daily_balance_1930s.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blythe_House_preparing_totals_for_daily_balance_1930s.JPG" target="_blank">Blythe House preparing totals for daily balance 1930s</a> (public domain - Wikipedia)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> The difference in modern times of course is that everyone is sitting at their station with noise-cancelling headphones on, blocking each other out.<br /> <br /> Now, we're seeing large swaths of employees working from home, (in)voluntarily practicing social distancing from humanity.<br /> <br /> With the array of technologies at our disposal, it's not surprising that it's easier than ever to accommodate remote work. In fact, some think that this crisis may result in <a href="https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/14/how-coronoavirus-could-lead-to-a-permanent-remote-workforce/">a permanent remote workforce</a>.<br /> <br /> While the flexibility and freedom may seem enticing, there are concerns. As we saw with Bartleby, <a href="https://qz.com/1815671/coronavirus-is-making-older-people-even-lonelier/">isolation can lead to depression, particularly in the elderly</a>.<br /> <br /> When working from home, it's important to take steps to remain connected with humanity, whether it's by taking walks outside, picking up the phone, <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2018/11/human-emotions-win-every-time.html">writing letters</a>, or video calls.<br /> <br /> You probably recognize the painting above — it's a ghost of Edward Hopper's <i>Nighthawks</i>. The <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artworks/111628/nighthawks">original</a> has three patrons sitting at a diner counter and the busboy behind it. Themes of loneliness and predators have been associated with it.<br /> <br /> Someone Photoshopped the original, removing each of the humans, and creating a surreal yet accurate portrayal of restaurants today, as closures hit.<br /> <br /> Hopper was known for his paintings of lone individuals, with recurring themes of solitude, loneliness, regret, boredom, and resignation. Themes that will become part of our lives as we practice social distancing and remote working.<br /> <br /> Someone on Twitter wasted no time in noting that life is imitating art:<br /> <br /> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center"> <div dir="ltr" lang="en"> we are all edward hopper paintings now <a href="https://t.co/gpcmSiavkD">pic.twitter.com/gpcmSiavkD</a></div> — Michael Tisserand (@m_tisserand) <a href="https://twitter.com/m_tisserand/status/1239618422079660034?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2020</a></blockquote> <br /> The process to get us to embrace social distancing has been anything but smooth. Even now, people are still finding it hard to wrap their heads around.<br /> <br /> There's a certain swath of humanity that will always look out for one another (more about them in a moment). <br /> <br /> But there are others who simply don't seem to care — <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/newt-gingrich-i-am-italy-amid-coronavirus-crisis-america-must-act-now-act-big-opinion-1492270">until they're personally affected</a>.<br /> <br /> Just yesterday, as many states (including the bordering Ohio) were closing down restaurants, the governor of West Virginia was <a href="https://twitter.com/adamkraymond/status/1239639462696685568">encouraging people to go to them</a>: "Go to the grocery stores. If you want to go to Bob Evans and eat, go to Bob Evans and eat."<br /> <br /> At the time, West Virginia had no known cases of COVID-19. Today, with their first case, he reversed course.<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yDRxtpogBDE?start=32" width="560"></iframe><br /></div> <br /> The bottom line is this: <a href="https://medium.com/the-full-monty/individualism-has-no-place-in-a-pandemic-57af9c587e7a">Individualism has no place in a pandemic</a>.<br /> <br /> We are better than this.<br /> <br /> <hr /> <i><b><br /> </b></i> <i><b>"However selfish man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others."</b> — Adam Smith, 1759</i><br /> <i><br /> </i> <br /> <hr /> <br /> Have you noticed how, in times of disaster, society seems to simply do the right thing? Such as when the Twin Towers came crashing down on September 11, 2001, and the whole world seemed to act in solidarity with America?<br /> <br /> Or more recently when the cathedral of Notre Dame suffered a massive fire, how the world watched in horror and then pledged to fix it?<br /> <br /> In Adam Smith's <a href="https://amzn.to/2x0tcBb"><i>The Theory of Moral Sentiments</i></a>, he contrasted man's selfishness with his ability to put humanity first. He asked us to think of an earthquake in China and how a man of humanity in Europe might respond.<br /> <br /> He would first express sorrow for their misfortune, then he might consider how it would affect the commerce of Europe and the world more broadly. But he'd sleep fairly soundly. <br /> <br /> But he goes on to wonder:<br /> <br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <b>"When we are always so much more deeply affected by whatever concerns ourselves than by whatever concerns other men, what is it which prompts the generous, upon all occasions, and the mean upon many, to sacrifice their own interests to the greater interests of others? It is not the soft power of humanity, it is not that feeble spark of benevolence which nature has lighted up in the human heart that is thus capable of counteracting the strongest impulses of self-love. It is a stronger power, a more forcible motive, which exerts itself upon such occasions. It is reason, principle, conscience, the inhabitant of the breast, the man within, the great judge and arbiter of our conduct."</b></blockquote> <br /> Ah humanity! There it is again.<br /> <br /> It manages to seep through, regardless of any external force, natural or man-made, that tries to suppress it.<br /> <br /> Empathy and compassion are a package deal with us.<br /> <br /> It's not uncommon to find altruism in a disaster zone. At the height of the Cold War, experts worried that a nuclear disaster would destroy social bonds and throw communities into chaos. And then, a devastating earthquake in Alaska showed that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-disaster-response.html">natural disasters could bring out more kindness than selfishness</a>.<br /> <br /> <br /> <hr /> <br /> <b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Related: <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2019/10/the-superpower-in-every-leader.html">The Superpower in Every Leader</a></span></i></b><br /> <br /> <hr /> <br /> <br /> It shouldn't surprise you then, to learn that already companies have begun to get ahead of this crisis by making gestures that acknowledge the difficult times ahead.<br /> <br /> These include Comcast and T-Mobile making unlimited data available to all customers; publishers like the Washington Post, New York Times, and The Atlantic all making their coronavirus coverage accessible behind the paywall; and Uber Eats suspending fees.<br /> <br /> In fact, the list was growing so quickly, I created a Google Doc to capture <a href="https://bit.ly/covid-good">Corporate Goodwill Efforts During the COVID-19 Outbreak</a>, and opened it up to the public to edit.<br /> <br /> In addition, Jeremiah Owyang and I collaborated on crowdsourcing another document of <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XB4-xLE58vxLfRgottOTKkHksKoFnwEiQf1muXk3LKs/edit?fbclid=IwAR0Vvu0hk31ExId6jgH7aGL74Ky5YWFDK1sq3l1RfMqXXcA0qCSQ84YJGwE">free resources such as software, classes, and online events companies</a>, to help people upskill as they may be facing difficult choices.<br /> <br /> <br /> While there may be pain ahead, so too will there be good. Humanity has battled war and weather, plagues and pestilences, and disasters and depressions, and we've emerged as renewed, resilient, and reinvented.<br /> <br /> There's every reason to believe that we'll emerge stronger together on the other side of this.<br /> <br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <b>"It is he who shows us the propriety of generosity and the deformity of injustice; the propriety of resigning the greatest interests of our own for the yet greater interests of others, and the deformity of doing the smallest injury to another in order to obtain the greatest benefit to ourselves. It is not the love of our neighbor, it is not the love of mankind, which upon many occasions prompts us to the practice of those divine virtues. It is a stronger love, a more powerful affection which generally takes place upon such occasions, the love of what is honorable and noble, of the grandeur and dignity and superiority of our own characters."</b> — Adam Smith, 1759</blockquote> <br /> Courage. Resilience. Kindness. Generosity.<br /> <br /> These are the traits of leadership and humanity that will see us through.<br /> <br /> --<br /> <br /> <i>This originally appeared in the March 18 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/hashtagtimeless" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. To get the edition that includes links, recommended books, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" target="_blank">please click here</a></i>.<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> If you liked this, I'd love to share more with you. I also publish an additional essay each Friday:</div> <div style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"> <iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div> <br />

Pulling Together — Separately

"Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!" — Herman Melville, 1856 With those words ends the short story "Bartleby, the Scrive...

Read more »

Going Viral

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-veg8sOGcia8/XmhSnOXs1FI/AAAAAAABMHY/HjzDRdHTXws7cx2GiMyNuMkl5IDLckkwwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Michel%2BSerre%2B-%2BPeste%2BCours%2BBelsunce%2B1720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="1280" height="458" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-veg8sOGcia8/XmhSnOXs1FI/AAAAAAABMHY/HjzDRdHTXws7cx2GiMyNuMkl5IDLckkwwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Michel%2BSerre%2B-%2BPeste%2BCours%2BBelsunce%2B1720.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michel_Serre-Peste-Cours_Belsunce.jpg" target="_blank">Vue du Cours pendant la peste de 1720</a></i> by Michel Serre, 1721 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <br /> <i><b>"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."</b> — Charles Darwin, 1871 </i><br /> <br /> <br /> There was once a dreaded statement / request heard in marketing conference rooms across the corporate world:<br /> <br /> <i><b> "We need a viral video!"</b></i><br /> <br /> Now it's more likely to be: <br /> <br /> <i><b>"We need to cancel our conference or event sponsorship because of coronavirus!"</b></i><br /> <br /> In each case, it's a reactionary statement, uttered after built up frustration or emotion has overtaken other thought processes.<br /> <br /> But the two approaches differ in one key area: the level of considered thought that went into each.<br /> <br /> With the viral video, it's a GMOOT request ("get me one of those!") that's trying to satisfy the lust for a shiny object. It’s the clarion call of the harried executive, looking for a quick win.<br /> <br /> It misses the point that most viral videos are more luck than anything else, and comes across more like a marketing get-rich-quick scheme. You can't shortcut the hard work that goes into developing a community that cares about you.<br /> <br /> <br /> With the many events that have been canceled in recent days, there's been a considerable amount of hand-wringing that's gone into the decisions around events like SXSW. But these hard decisions have been made precisely because we care about the communities we've developed.<br /> <br /> As the United States scrambles to update its emergency response to the virus, disruption will be the norm in the weeks ahead. It will affect business, school, and daily life.<br /> <br /> <br /> If you follow how viruses spread online versus how they spread in real life, there's a startling number of parallels there. <a href="https://flip.it/FsY3g7">Seth Godin laid out a few</a>: <br /> <ul> <li>They're contagious;</li> <li>They spread when you don't know if you have the disease;</li> <li>There's a difference between a virus' impact and its virality; and others.</li> </ul> That last point can be visually understood in this illustration from the <i>New York Times</i>:<br /> <br /> <a href="https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F466c3570-d6b4-4db0-8b02-021e006540b6_920x544.png"><img height="378" src="https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F466c3570-d6b4-4db0-8b02-021e006540b6_920x544.png" width="640" /></a><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The reaction we've seen has spanned the spectrum: from the panic-induced runs on toilet paper and hand sanitizer (isn't it amazing how we've suddenly learned the importance of hand-washing?) to the sceptics who view this as a media hoax (impressive that the media has been able to run up the death toll and quarantine multiple countries).<br /> <br /> The panic buying isn't helping, nor is the head-in-the-sand approach. <br /> <br /> COVID-19 doesn't care about your fears and it doesn't respond to angry tweets or ignorance. It just keeps doing its thing.<br /> <br /> If anything, at this time, what's more harmful than an epidemic is an <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/infodemic-when-unreliable-information-spreads-far-and-wide-11583430244?mod=djem10point&fbclid=IwAR2km1aI32sOvH8ddnjW2xyDYfWelbsFzD5ShYPpBmOJdrnNASLTrGC80ic%20">infodemic</a>: when unreliable information spreads far and wide. One of the most important things you can do is to seek out reliable sources of information. [See below for a section of resources.]<br /> <br /> But it’s coming. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/10/coronavirus-what-matters-isnt-what-you-can-see-what-you-cant/">This story about lily pads</a> illustrates how it seems like nothing for a while, then hits all at once.<span style="font-family: "spectral" , serif; font-size: 25px;"><br /></span> <br /> <br /> <br /> <h3> <b>The strongest weapon against a pandemic is the truth.</b></h3> The fact is, we're not used to this kind of upheaval, because we've been protected from such disturbances in recent history. But it hasn't always been the case.<br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/medicine/maps/contagion" target="_blank"><img height="473" src="https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1b9ac4d2-222a-470e-877c-6d558647ee31_2646x1959.png" width="640" /></a><br /> <br /> In his <i>History of the Peloponnesian Wars</i>, Thucydides chronicled the plague that hit Athens in 430 B.C., wiping out one-third of the city. Without a recognized treatment, there was "utter hopelessness" that led to people losing "their powers of resistance."<br /> <br /> In those days, attending physicians knew they could be overruled by the chief resident: death.<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> “In the face of the inevitable defeat, nobody was in the business of performing miracles; what they did perform, the patients as well as the doctors, were the acts of kindness tempered with courage, knowing…that the strength to confront suffering was to be found in the thought that you will not die because you are sick but because you are alive.” (“<a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/medicine/god-machine">The God Machine</a>”—Lewis Lapham, 2009)</blockquote> <br /> <br /> Daniel Defoe wrote a fictionalized account in <i>A Journal of the Plague Year</i> about London's famous bout with the Black Death in 1665. He noted cancellations of "Plays, Bear Baitings, games, singing of Ballads, Bucker play, or such like causes of Assemblies of People, be utterly prohibited." Londoners also practiced quarantines (called "Sequestration of the Sick"):<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "As soon as any Man shall be found…to be sick of the Plague, he shall the same Night be sequestered in the same House, and in case he be so sequestered, then, though he afterward die not, the House wherein he sickened should be shut up for a month."</blockquote> <br /> The 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic was the most severe spread of disease in recent history, with death estimates ranging as high as 50 million worldwide. To give you a sense of relativity, that's more deaths than WWI and WWII combined. <br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/not-even-soldiers-death">Watching the 1918 flu from a ship deck</a> in Willa Cather’s novel One of Ours, we realize how epidemics don't care what our priorities are. Such diseases are "recognized…as an ultimate intervention, an unpredictable factor that reverses plans and disrupts missions."<br /> <br /> Then, just as today, the virus doesn't care about your opinions. It only responds to action.<br /> <br /> <br /> <i><b> “A pestilence does not have human dimensions, so people tell themselves that it is unreal, that it is a bad dream that will end.” </b>— Albert Camus, 1947</i><br /> <br /> <br /> Public health, epidemiology and medicine have made significant advances in the last century alone, as has our understanding of them. But there's still a sense of the unknown about an epidemic, which gives rise to fear. (Now would be a good time to review <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2020/02/when-fear-works-and-when-it-doesnt.html">our essay on fear</a> from a few weeks ago.)<br /> <br /> What's been fascinating to observe during this time is the leadership, creativity, and community-minded collaboration that's been happening from various individuals and entities. <br /> <br /> For example, we've seen companies like <a href="https://www.qsrmagazine.com/employee-management/chipotle-offer-unlimited-pto-enhanced-parental-leave">Chipotle</a> and <a href="https://www.grocerydive.com/news/trader-joes-offers-employees-paid-sick-leave-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/573796/">Trader Joe's</a> offering unlimited paid time off and parental leave to its employees, who as hourly workers, are among the most at-risk financially. They need to be healthy in order to work. <br /> <br /> The tech sphere has been pitching in as well: Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter all <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/6/21168395/coronavirus-tech-hourly-workers-pay-amazon-google-facebook">pledged to keep paying hourly workers</a>, even if they were told to stay home during the outbreak.<br /> <br /> A number of airlines stepped up to ease their rebooking policies and more. Delta in particular gave us a masterclass in executive communication, crisis communication and customer experience with <a href="https://news.delta.com/coronavirus-update-ed-bastian-now-and-always-were-ready-when-you-are">CEO Ed Bastian's heartfelt and thorough letter</a>. In it, he spoke of Delta's decade-long preparation, its cleaning process, and filtration system, in addition to other steps being taken for public peace of mind.<br /> <br /> <h3> <b>Crisis communication principles</b></h3> <div data-pm-context="[]"> As far as crisis communications go during a time like this, there are a few essentials to remember:</div> <ol> <li><strong>Always rely on credible sources. </strong>Whether looking for or providing information, be sure you have information that makes you more trusted.</li> <li><strong>Be honest.</strong> It's okay to be vulnerable in this time; people will understand. Honesty will help keep rumors to a minimum and build a sense of sympathy with and from your audience.</li> <li><strong>Make recommendations that matter.</strong> People need reassurance and they need to be kept from more harm. Reliable information and meaningful action can help them from doing more damage.</li> <li><strong>Use experts to share information.</strong> The last thing people need is an amateur mouthing off like they know everything. Let the adults in the room do their thing.</li> <li><strong>Consistency of messaging.</strong> If multiple spokespeople are saying different things, it's going to hurt your plan. Keep the messaging simple and consistent.</li> </ol> <div> <br /> <br /> Drastic measures are necessary as we brace for this together. Such steps may feel like overreaction, but our collective action will help keep the number of cases from spiking and overwhelming our system.<br /> <br /> Just as the medical professionals who bravely show up at work with fortitude and compassion in times like these, all of us — leaders in particular — have the chance to lead with empathy.<br /> <br /> We should perform acts of kindness tempered with courage.<br /> <br /> Every day.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> --<br /> <br /> <h2> <b>Resources</b></h2> Information is our best ally. In addition to corporate responses, individuals have stepped up. <br /> <ol> <li>A 17 year-old <a href="https://ncov2019.live/data">created this site</a> to track the spread of COVID-19.</li> <li>Christopher Penn has been doing a public service every day with his <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cspenn/posts/10163487264335122">Lunchtime COVID-19 updates</a>.</li> <li><a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/">This site has a comprehensive set of cases</a> broken down by country with powerful graphs that tell the story of what's happening.</li> </ol> <br /> Please remember: practice social distancing and frequent and thorough hand washing.<br /> <br /> <i>This originally appeared in the March 11 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/hashtagtimeless" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. To see the newsletter in its entirety, including links, recommended books, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/going-viral" target="_blank">please click here</a></i>.<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"> If you liked this, I'd love to share more with you:</div> <div style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"> <iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div> </div>

Going Viral

Vue du Cours pendant la peste de 1720 by Michel Serre, 1721 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons) "Ignorance more frequently beget...

Read more »

Focus (A Tale of 3 CEOs)

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--ferPoLASio/Xl8MRJcedtI/AAAAAAABMDs/PEs-R4tneEQE5t8zVO9lFJcZ00kxPljfACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Claude%2BMonet%2B-%2BThe%2BHouses%2Bof%2BParliament%252C%2BSunset%2B1904.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="1600" height="546" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--ferPoLASio/Xl8MRJcedtI/AAAAAAABMDs/PEs-R4tneEQE5t8zVO9lFJcZ00kxPljfACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Claude%2BMonet%2B-%2BThe%2BHouses%2Bof%2BParliament%252C%2BSunset%2B1904.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houses_of_Parliament_(Monet_series)" target="_blank">Houses of Parliament at Sunset</a></i> by Claude Monet, 1904 (public domain - Wikipedia)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <i><b>“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”</b> — Will Durant, 1926</i><br /> <br /> <br /> If you want to improve at anything, you need to put in the effort. And that means what you don't do is just as important as what you choose to do.<br /> <br /> As CEO, part of your job is Decider-in-Chief. A number of decisions land in your lap.<br /> <br /> And there were two legendary CEOs in the news this week, who made major decisions at critical points in their companies' fortunes.<br /> <br /> I was reminded of a series of decisions that Alan Mulally made shortly after he joined Ford as CEO in 2006.<br /> <br /> When he was ushered into the executive parking garage beneath Ford's World Headquarters building in Dearborn, Michigan, Alan marveled at all of the vehicles lined up there: Jaguars, Aston Martins, Land Rovers, Volvos — all brands that Ford Motor Company owned at the time. But not a single Ford, Lincoln or Mercury, the core brands that built the company.<br /> <br /> He wondered how a group of executives planned to turn around a company when they weren't even driving the brands that were central to its heritage. And he realized that he was sitting on a house of brands. In fact, Ford had 97 different models available at the time.<br /> <br /> Knowing that the only route to global excellence in automotive was to have a mainstream brand and a luxury brand (think: Toyota/Lexus, VW/Audi, Honda Acura), he embarked on a plan to reduce Ford's brands to Ford and Lincoln only. The rest of the brands were sold off or divested.<br /> <br /> And Alan often talked of the "<a href="http://www.autoextremist.com/current/2008/7/22/rants-455.html" target="_blank">laser-like focus</a>" on what we were doing. It allowed us to avoid distractions and put everything into what would drive the strategy forward.<br /> <br /> <br /> <i><b>“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”</b> — Alexander Graham Bell</i><br /> <br /> <br /> Back to those two CEOs this week. Each provided a lesson on the importance of focus, albeit in very different ways.<br /> <br /> <b>Jack Welch</b> <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/02/jack-welch-obit-ge.html" target="_blank">passed away</a> on March 2, 2020. He was the CEO of GE from 1981-2001 and earned the moniker "Manager of the Century" from Fortune. Over the course of his twenty years at the helm, he took the company from a market capitalization of $12 billion to $450 billion.<br /> <br /> He did this very methodically, through market leadership requirements, applying the vitality curve to personnel, and by acquisition. Here's what each of those means.<br /> <br /> <br /> <ol> <li><b>Market Leadership:</b> Welch required that for every market in which GE competed, it would be #1 or #2 in market share. How that was measured varied, but that was the requirement.</li> <li><b>Vitality curve:</b> Employees were all ranked, with the top 20% was filled with passion and made things happen; they received stock options and bonuses, the vital 70% in the middle was key to the company and were encouraged to strive for the top tier; and the bottom 10% were eliminated. The company went from 411,000 people to 299,000 in Welch's first five years.</li> <li><b>Acquisition:</b> Much of the growth of the company was due to acquisitions, where the company found itself with a TV network, a consulting firm, a financial services arm, and more. During Welch's time, GE became a true conglomerate, with over 600 acquisitions.</li> </ol> <br /> <br /> What was Welch's focus during that time? Numbers. Performance. Numbers are what they were measured by, and numbers are what drove decision making.<br /> <br /> <i>Side notes:</i><br /> <ol> <li>If you don't standardize your measurement process across divisions, you'll have unequal factors of success. How do you define the market? How is the category segmented?</li> <li>If you treat employees like numbers, they're going to treat you that way too.</li> <li>Acquiring companies may look fine on the balance sheet, but merging cultures is no easy feat (see #2).</li> </ol> <br /> <br /> It was a ruthless yet effective machine. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-general-electric-rise-and-downfall/" target="_blank">Until it wasn't</a>.<br /> <br /> <br /> The other CEO in the news was <b>Bob Iger</b>. Bob was the CEO of Disney from 2005 until he abruptly stepped down last week.<br /> <br /> Iger deserves some credit because he's overseen Disney during an uncertain period filled with disruption in global media markets. He must have wished upon a star, because under his leadership the company's market capitalization grew 5X.<br /> <br /> Throughout his term, Iger kept his focus on the <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3048046/the-secret-to-walt-disneys-corporate-strategy" target="_blank">core strategy</a> of Disney. It's a strategy that the company has pursued for over 60 years, and it's best expressed in this famous strategic plan, sketched in 1957:<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5n1VriREQ_4/Xl8MvzHKLfI/AAAAAAABMD0/exhE62XSiM4MCkupeHhNAT3qCNjnyg4lgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Disney%2BStrategy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="896" data-original-width="1024" height="560" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5n1VriREQ_4/Xl8MvzHKLfI/AAAAAAABMD0/exhE62XSiM4MCkupeHhNAT3qCNjnyg4lgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Disney%2BStrategy.png" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> What is Disney? Simply put, it is a content machine. In a recent financial disclosure, Disney wrote that it's Studio and Media Networks divisions are "the content engine of the company."<br /> <br /> And Iger's acquisitions have backed up that strategy. Some of the largest — and most successful — have been other movie studios: Pixar. Marvel. Lucasfilm. 21st Century Fox. ABC. Maker Studios. BAMTech.<br /> <br /> Those all contribute directly to the core mission and strategy of Disney.<br /> <br /> Disney has limited the number of films it produces each year, thus focusing its production and marketing budgets on being able to deliver billon-dollar movies.<br /> <br /> And they also feed into the plan above. The distribution channels in 2020 are a little different (and much more diverse) than in 1957, but it's a self-feeding machine. Merchandising. Parks. Television (that's right: let's not forget Disney+).<br /> <br /> Walt's original strategy was sheer genius. He created a content-rich empire and then built experiences to bring that content to life.<br /> <br /> He debuted a television show (called Walt Disney's Disneyland) on ABC (which Disney later bought) from 1954-1958. He was able to use television to reveal and promote the Disneyland park when it opened in 1955.<br /> <br /> He used his characters in a variety of media, and dealt in happiness. Who doesn't want happiness?<br /> <br /> But it all came back to content.<br /> <br /> And Iger ensured that the strategy was central to everything Disney has been doing over the last 15 years.<br /> <br /> <br /> The classics major in me won't let you leave this piece without taking a quick look at the origin of the word focus.<br /> <br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <b>focus</b>: A hearth. From Latin <i>focus</i>, hearth, fireplace; fig. home, family; of unknown origin. Used in postclassical times for fire and disease; used in the mathematical sense of a point of convergence by Kepler in 1604. First recorded use for the transfer to center of activity or energy, 1778.</blockquote> <br /> <br /> In ancient times, the hearth was the center of the house. Which makes sense that it would evolve into meaning something that it at the center of our actions.<br /> <br /> In the same way, our emotions and passions are felt most deeply in our hearts — at the center of our body. Is it any coincidence then, that our focus should be on those things which we're the most passionate about and can pursue with single-minded effort?<br /> <br /> Even among some of the world's largest brands, where it's easy to lose focus, the lesson comes back over and over: singularity of purpose, of mind, and of heart, will lead to success.<br /> <br /> <br /> <i><b>"Lack of direction, not lack of time is the problem."</b> — Zig Ziglar</i><br /> <br /> <br /> <div style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"> If you liked this, I'd love to share more with you:</div> <div style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"> <iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div>

Focus (A Tale of 3 CEOs)

Houses of Parliament at Sunset by Claude Monet, 1904 (public domain - Wikipedia) “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is n...

Read more »