Pessimism is learned, and some learn it well.

In Cancun all the ocean facing restaurants are shielded by 3/4" thick glass. In Puerto Vallarta the same restaurants are open to the ocean. The difference is the winds. On the Carribean side the tradewinds blow constantly only to pickup when a storm approaches. You don't see a lot of small sailboats on the water. In Puerto Vallarta the water is calm, lots of small craft.

I slowly exchanged social niceties with a seemingly nice guy. Weather, sun, would you live here, - that kind of thing. A car dealer from Idaho, I should have seen it coming. I tend to talk about nothing until I can figure out how much grief you're going to give me. It's my social reconnaissance flight over what could be enemy territory. Starting a conversation is easy. Getting out of a conversation is a bit more difficult.

How did we get from the weather to what's wrong with the world economy in less than two minutes? This guy new exactly, loudly, and in great detail what was causing what, all the guilty parties and who should go to jail. I'm on vacation, or was, and this energy sinkhole was jarring me back to reality. How absurd. An angry guy is in my face, and he's not even angry at me. Senor, dos cervezas, por favor.

I started thinking about people in companies and how the same condition exists. How angry people work side by side with happy people, in the same company, and eventually wear them down with all their pessimism. Like the car dealer, they forget their good life, their paycheque and vacations, and only choose to dwell on the dark side of everything.

Optimism, pessimism, it's only how people explain life to themselves. It has nothing to with how life actually is. Pessimism is learned.

For managers the problem is that pessimists will stop when work is difficult. Optimists keep going. Pessimists wear other people down while optimists will build them up. Wikipedia has this to add:

"Optimistic people believe bad events to be more temporary than permanent and bounce back quickly from failure. They believe good things happen for reasons that are permanent. They see specific temporary causes for negative events; pessimists point to permanent causes.

Optimists compartmentalize helplessness, whereas pessimists assume that failure in one area of life means failure in life as a whole. Optimistic people allow good events to brighten every area of their lives rather than just one particular area.

Optimists blame bad events on causes outside of themselves, whereas pessimists blame themselves for events that occur. Optimists are therefore generally more confident. Optimists internalize positive events, pessimists externalize them."

Ska, it's happy! The beer is cold. The moon is low over the beach. Where is my woman? I have to get away from this guy. Run Forrest run.

Pessimism is fatal. Choose to work with happy people. It's good for you and good for productivity.

Wolfgang

p.s Book suggestion: Learned Optimism, by Martin Seligman.

Ask for more information about these productivity tools

1. Performance reviews, how to outsource them.
2. Employee opinion testing.
3. Adding an optimist / pessimist test to your hiring practices.
4. Building functioning management teams.
5. Psychometric trait and behaviour testing.
6. Human resources, people issues.
7. Six steps to high moral.
8. Performance coaching tools for mangers

Big Bird, - bait?

Watching the Obama Romney USA presidential election process, I'm completely awed by the duration and scope of what's going on. It's a marathon.

What is new, is the amount of negotiation or tactical brain power both camps are displaying. In itself that's not new, but they are taking it to extremes. Neither candidate can say anything without it backfiring.

Romney talks about PBS cuts, including Big Bird. Obama's next day ads make fun of the idea that Big Bird might be the cause of America's financial woes.

Day 2, the media and Romney's camp observe two things. Americans are worried about jobs and their president is worrying about Big Bird. Ouch!

Secondly, the debate was days ago, Obama lost. Do you think it's smart to remind everyone about your worst moments? Even though the big bird ads are funny, they're about a two hour evening where you were beaten badly. Smart would be to let it pass and deal with issues.

To make matters worse, the Sesame Street people are angry because Obama used their Big Bird trademark character without their consent.

Who knew this was going to ricochet all over the place like a stray bullet?

Did Romney setup Obama hoping he'd take the bait? Did Obama's ego not allow him to see this was a backward step loaded with other problems?

Regardless, a couple of negotiation lessons come out of it.

1. If you can use the other guys points against him, it's supposed to work. But not always.
2. Most end games are limited (prisoner to) the earlier moves we made. How you set it up defines how it ends.
3. Every move you make creates a 'wake,' or backwash. Everything has collateral effects. Turbulence. It pushes both players in some other direction.
4. The more moves, or outcomes you can envision ahead, the greater your chance of reaching your objectives. The problem with exponential possibilities is they soon spin out of control. Ask Bernie Madoff.

Our next seminar is Wed. Oct. 24th, at the Terminal City Club. I have almost no seats left but please ask. Things change up to the last moment.

Let's build great companies together!
Wolfgang