Seeing is NOT Always Believing

The recent sighting of a suspected missile launched off southern California created a brief news sensation and brings up an interesting crisis management point to examine—seeing is not always believing.  On November 8, 2010 a Los Angeles based airborne helicopter news crew videotaped what appeared to be and was described as a missile plume and be object climbing in the late afternoon western sky.

Here's my initial reaction to it:  http://video.foxnews.com/v/4411459/

But was it really a missile? This unusual visual imagery captured by this excited crew caused many to believe a large missile was being fired up into the sky. When organizations, particularly US government agencies, began to deny any responsibility, awareness or confirmation of the event as a missile the news media and some of the public were more than doubtful. Conspiracy theories began to build because “seeing is believing”—a natural human condition.

But as facts became known it was finally described as an optical illusion created by the atmospherics that day of a high flying aircraft though not specifically confirmed due to inability by anyone to exactly pinpoint the time and location to correlate it to known flights. But by process of elimination it could not have been anything else.

How does this happen? The human body has a set of senses critical to its central nervous system. This sensory system is normally made up of vision, hearing, taste, smell, feel [touch], balance & acceleration, temperature, pain, direction, kinesthetic sense, and other inner senses. For most of us, sight is often the strongest of these senses in sending messages to our brains that make us believe what we see. We know we can be tricked in other ways so we sometimes hold a healthy skeptical view of what we hear or even read but seeing real life events happen before our eyes – even on video – almost always gives us an overpowering sense of believing it must be real. But optical illusions can and do happen in everything.

As a pilot, I was taught to trust my instruments when flying jet aircraft because the sensations in my inner ear can convince my brain of something untrue as well as visual references that make me think I know which way up is or where the horizon is when they are visual illusions. When there is no horizon for a pilot, as when it’s pitch black or inside clouds, we’re taught to focus on with a practiced “scan” and accept the readings of our instruments as fact—a sophisticated form of fact checking by believing your instruments instead of what your eyes and other senses might have your brain believe.  Sometimes it is a tough thing to do.

But this skill kept me alive many times over my years as an aviator. It also became evident to me that the same held true in much of life—you can’t always believe what you see. I now know this applies in business as well. Recognition of this phenomenon in business is equally important as situations develop rapidly and demand quick reactions. But it is imperative not to make snap judgments unless you believe in the “strategies of hope."

The object lesson is to realize, especially in stressful situations that arise in crises, one has to have a minimum of facts to verify what is seen to go beyond the ‘belief’ into the ‘actual.’ One has to take the time to get it right even if it means disregarding your strongest sense, sight. One of the things I learned many times as a senior military leader is the first report is invariably wrong—certainly not fully informed. Taking the time to verify even a few facts is critical to override the senses that tell the brain to believe what you see. Having enough data to base a decision is always important but one must be cognizant to demand facts before jumping to belief based only on sight.

Here are some tips that can help the manager faced with a case of “seeing is believing:”

1.    Intentionally under-react to a stressful situation – recognize the adrenaline rush under stress can cause snap judgment, e.g. “I saw it so it must be true.”

2.    Tell yourself that what you saw is just like the first report delivered from a subordinate – there must be more to the story than what met the eye.

3.    Ask good questions – even if you were the only one to have seen it [the event], somebody else knows something about it.

4.    Resist the natural temptation to jump on the conclusion your eyes [may have] tricked your brain into believing as fact.

Certainly initial impressions are important for an eye witness and should guide a line of questioning.  One cannot dismiss the apparent obvious but it must be verified with enough data to ensure your senses do not lead you to a wrong conclusion, decision, or belief.  Doing this will reduce the number of later regrets and make you a better manager, a better leader and a more successful executive.

What's the Message?

So here we are at the USA’s midterm elections, those between the national elections of presidents. The fever gripping American citizens over these political elections is altogether fascinating and exhausting. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Tea Partiers, Moderates, Activists…all are trying to capture the imagination of the electorate through popular issues. And due to the news cycles and marketing air time available, these messages are reduced to sound bites—reportedly just as we Americans like them. But what is the message?


I, for one, am having difficulty finding it, or recognizing it. Like others I can certainly see the various positions, e.g. government bigger or smaller, tax the rich or renew the tax breaks, universal health or not, pro-life/pro-choice, etc. But these are just issues and not a message that rings across the land or even overseas.

Who are we…what do we stand for?

I also hear and see a lot of the ‘what’ but not much of the ‘how.’ Assuming I represent the majority of Americans, e.g. not extreme in my views, I would love to hear how we are going to grow the economy, retire the debt and deficit, enable sustained job creation, and generally provide for the well being of our people. For sure we are witnessing and involved to some degree in the sausage making of democracy—we may not like watching it being made but we surely enjoy partaking in the product.

We the voters are being bombarded by a lot of stuff as incumbents and newcomers all vie to become everything to everyone. In NASCAR—“to finish first, first you have to finish.” In political parlance—you have to get elected before you can do any good. But what is missing from the discourse is the big message…what’s it all about?

Most in the political arena believe they are sworn to represent their constituents and do well by them. But I believe a bigger message is missed and the American people as a body are unsatisfied without it. Polls continue to measure our anger, frustrations, and anxieties about our elected officials are disconnected from us on the important things and that they are more responsive to party politics than to us. That is NOT a good message.

Regardless of the outcomes of our midterm Congressional and local elections, the one thing that is likely to be a given is we are not going to see that much change no matter who is elected. Some argue it’s likely because most Americans are centrists and, therefore, most politicians will govern generally towards that body whatever their party affiliation. Others argue our system of government itself is inherently designed to be obstructionist and extremes are checked in the process. Still others argue the seniority system within the halls of the Congress mandate only one way to get things done—“you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” Some even argue it’s not the system, it’s who is drawn to politics in the first place, e.g. moths drawn to the flame, and are predictable how they act once near the centers of power.

All of this is true to some degree. But the one thing missing is the strategic message that should be guiding us instead of the actors.

In this arena, I confess I do not have the answer but I do have a strategic communications perspective. My view of this is that there should be a strategic vision of what this country should look like from our politicians.

Then a series of planned steps to get from where we are today to that vision where actions and words are matched along the way. Then, metrics (measures of effectiveness and their subordinate measures of performance) should be developed and utilized to report on how it is going to the public.

Like in football, a player can’t make substantial gains on the field unless he knows where he is at relative to the goal line, has a strategy to get there, makes a series of plays to execute advancement of the ball, can adjust to stiff opposition, and never gives up. Oh yeah, and we usually like it when there’s not excessive endzone celebration after a touchdown (subliminal message to some politicians).

So, what’s the message? 
What do we want our country to be? 
How do we want to fit into the international community? 
What are the most important principles in taking care of our people—all the people? 
Where do we want this nation to be in years hence?

I believe Americans want to know what the message is. If we do not know what we want the future to be, how are we ever going to attain it? We want to have a vision for our kids and grandchildren, not to just make their lives better than ours but to deliver to them a world as an inheritance they can build on for future generations. Maybe the message should be given to politicians—and replayed back—something like this…

Desired End State

• What we want our nation to be—a country that is always improving and leading the world in providing for life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. 
• A government that continuously provides security conditions to enable the people to attain these sovereign rights. 
• And a people dedicated to the rights of individuals while guarantying the benefits to all.

Strategic Vision

• How do we get there—that this state exists 10 years from now and forever more. 
• That those who govern are dedicated to the people over party loyalties and naturally want and work to accomplish through compromise. 
• That we become a nation that does what should be done instead of waiting until we are forced to do it.

A Plan

• Steps from today to the desired tomorrow—citizens must continue to build depth of knowledge and passion as we are beginning to see now and raise the level of feedback to our officials. 
• We need to get our neighbors involved through peer pressure in voting so the entirety of our citizenry votes. 
• We need to be heard instead of our politicians so they respond to our needs and wants instead of money and votes.

I don’t believe there should be bi-partisan agreement on major issues but struggle that always results in compromise—just as our founding fathers intended. I also don’t care about the nature of politics, I care that those who govern deliver accomplishments for the benefit of us. We also need to grow beyond appearing to be satisfied with casting our votes for the best of the worst available which, if modern history is indicative or predictive, is really the worst of the best.



Measurement

• How we learn where we are in the progress of attaining our future.
• We demand to be kept informed how the country is moving toward that goal through measurable effects with policies, laws, reports, and the press. 
• We need to know just as business leaders in minding their companies do, where the country is, is it on track in meeting goals, and what are the obstacles to be dealt with.

Adapt and Overcome

• We take responsibility for our happiness and not allow ourselves to be beholden to others for it.
• As I head to the poll to pull the lever underwhelmed as to what I see, I am hearing a lot of stuff from politicians. 
• But I am not hearing the message and I want to hear it from them. 

This is what I will be calling for as we head from this exercise in democracy into 2012...

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.
There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

                                                             — John Adams