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DISCO DUCK4/19/2024 My husband hated drivers who disco-ducked into the gas station just to get ahead. If there's a vacant station, in front of another vehicle gassing up, the next one in the line will not wait but maneuver its way, however dangerous, to the vacant station. Drivers these days risk banging other vehicles causing mayhem by not giving just a few minutes for both stations to be free. Looking at these maneuvers as a spectator could cause a senior person to have a heart attack. The utter disregard for civility and respect is just out of this world. Civility and decency, folks are surely becoming rarified virtues these days. It's not that you will actually be ahead of others, you just want to prove the point that you're too busy (or important) to be waiting for your turn, properly. This is played out, unfortunately, in larger arenas of life, career, and business. People wanted to be ahead without putting the work and energy into it. People want to dismantle the systems so that they will feel truly uplifted and made equal with the rest. That folks, is the recipe for anarchy, disorder, through revolution without a just cause. I was the real Diversity worker from 2010-2015. I was in the trenches working with diverse elements of my community to bring harmony and connections among these groups. At that time, people scorned the idea that diversity could be a staple form of service under human resources. The words 'Diversity and Inclusion' weren't sexy enough to harbor more visible support than an implicit understanding that this practice helps the bottom lines. Nowadays, DEI experts mushroomed in matters of two to three years. The battle cry is to topple anyone or any symbol that goes against the current standards of morality and ethics. This is like saying, "We know what happened in the past, thus we declare you all guilty of being complicit to the reason our current lives are miserable." On their moral high-horse, this is an emblematic of a generation who are fed by social media thinkers and intellectuals, who don't know any better. I'm very sad that DEI has become a billion-dollar industry run by revolutionaries who bought houses and expensive cars, and hired their relatives when they received vast sums of corporate money. I lament how this had turned out and the miseries of people of color, immigrants, and those living in marginalized conditions continue, unaddressed. I suspect that this hijacking of this practice is all about wanting to get ahead of the line, getting power (and all that comes with it), and believing in their hearts of hearts that they can get away with it. That they truly deserve to be elevated. My husband hated disco ducks. I don't blame him at all. PS. Disco Duck is a popular song in the 70s with a catchy tune and comical lyrics. Google it out!
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BENEATH THE SURFACE12/11/2023 I am watching the news regularly as soon as the October 7th massacre in Israel happened. I have read and watched some very objective and critical analyses of the Israel-Hamas war and I believed that there's more to the propaganda stories in the media today. For example, alliances and allegiances shift easily. As Egypt and Jordan do not want more headaches in their territories if refugees spill easily in their borders. Majority of the Arab nations want an end to the war but they themselves wash their hands on the obligations and responsibilities such as not supporting, funding, using their bases for terrorism, to name a few. Morally apprehensible actions that violate international law should be condemned, no buts and ifs, and yet even that is not heard across the region. What we see here is a double-standard as what most learned and informed analyst would say. If Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, or Iraq were being bombed to dust, nobody gives a damn in the Arab world. But if an Arab is in conflict with the Jew, hell will come down on earth. Behind all the condemnations on Israel's military action, the Arab region and some of them, the champions of the Palestinian cause are better off without Hamas or any terror organizations that are a threat to regional peace and security. Governments do not want to be heard siding with Israel and therefore undermining the public opinion of their population. They want to keep in power as long as possible but benefit from another country's efforts to rid of their 'problems.' The extremists encamped on many sides of these issues are laughing at the world. What does this got to do with business, leadership, and life? For all the talk about a certain policy, program, or actions by management, know that it's not what is heard, it's what's seen by staff, employees, and the public. Behind the scenes, what intentions and assumptions are used to make decisions? What resources are being deployed to ensure effective implementation? Who is saying what to whom? Are communications as clear and unconvoluted as possible? Who is not keeping pace and what can you do about it? Ask yourself this question, "What is really going on here?"
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DERISKING11/27/2023 When failure is inevitable, politicians, policy-makers, executives, and leaders of organizations try to belittle their efforts so as not to appear a failure. That what they have done is a soft launch, an experiment, pilot, a test-case, so on and so forth. This happens in so many situations where the first few efforts are being calibrated based on a possibility of failure, not of success. De-risking becomes the favorite word these days. But in the broader sense, de-risking is the other side of courageous work. If you hedge against failure, you will instinctively become protective of what you have, therefore you will play not to lose. But if you play to win, derisking increases its value to you and what you're trying to accomplish. It creates more success conditions because you're aware of the possible traps and pitfalls but yet, moving forward with greater resolve. Derisking shouldn't be used if trying is not even an option. If you want to derisk, why not just hide under the covers and wait for a better day, which is in my book, you may have to wait for a long time. |