• GIVING EMPLOYEES NEGATIVE FEEDBACK IS GENERALLY UNPLEASANT, so too often “leaders keep kicking the can, hoping the issue will go away. But avoiding these conversations both abdicate responsibility to develop the employee, and also risks letting down the whole team – because culture of an organization isn’t what you say it is, but rather the behavior you can consistently tolerate.” A few critical steps to optimize delivery of feedback: (1) Clarify the objective — whether for improvement of performance, specific relationships, client service, to foster trust between team members, etc.; (2) Commit to listening well and staying focused. Prepare to receive conflicting data points, and to consider relevant info might challenge and necessitate reconsidering your position; (3) Ensure he/she feels ‘heard’ by rephrasing employee’s response and giving them chance to respond; (4) Set timelines for change, with specific date to follow up on issues. DCG can help; call us for courtesy consultation.  [KELLOGG INSIGHT – 3/23/23]

 

  • TODAY’S BIG PROBLEM IS NOT MISINFORMATION, IT’S KNOWINGNESS. “Humans generally believe themselves to be unique among all who have lived and always right, thinking that in this Information Age all human knowledge is always at our fingertips (on a device in our pocket) …‘Knowingness’ serves as the glue of social discourse – e.g. common words of sympathy (‘I know what you mean’), attempting to make others feel more understood. In public life, the posture of already Knowing is useful if the goal is to build an audience, or to promote group cohesion among those ‘in the know’ who ‘get it.’ But this poisons honest deliberation and the quest for Truth… Purporting to know the answers before the question arises is a particular danger for people whose job is to inform us… It is why present-day culture wars are so boring: No one is trying to find out anything, as the false claim to knowledge makes it impossible to learn anything new, despite no common agreement about the facts. Yet everyone acts as if all matters of fact are already settled.”  [PSYCHE – 3/29/23]

 

  • THIS PROBLEM IS COMPOUNDED BY ‘INNOVATION’ AND ‘DISRUPTION’ BEING THE MANTRA OF TODAY’S ACTIVIST LIBERALS. Especially the media, exemplified by Time Magazine’s intro to its 100th-anniversary issue that “spirit of innovation and disruption inspires us every day,” remaining in sync with Obama’s campaign for Hope and Change, and continuing to fuel the “Leftist commitment to Change for its own sake, which then justifies disdain and misapprehension of conservative perspective – actually defined as: ‘to preserve, conserve and protect from loss or harm’… The most important characteristic of Conservatism is simply to maintain what is best from the past, versus jettisoning past greatness and replacing it with mediocrity, as has been done for half a century in literature, art, music, and in the moral sphere… What could be more innovative than ‘men give birth’ or that sex/gender is completely subjective? … Change and Innovation have become Left-wing gods, so people on the left assume that anyone who opposes Leftism opposes change & innovation, per se… Reporting the news as Truthfully as possible is accordingly not just boring. It’s worse than that. It’s Conservative.” [DENNIS PRAGER – 3/28/23]

      

  • EFFECTIVE NEXT WEEK (April 1), THE LOS ANGELES ‘MANSION TAX’ on real estate property sales – supposedly to create affordable housing as a way to combat homelessness – is 4% on gross sales above $5 million, and 5.5% when above $10 million. UCLA research suggests that tax will impact mostly developers and flippers of high-value properties, but also up to 3% of single-family home or condo sales, and 4% of commercial transactions. Opponents think that the tax will discourage investors, developers & builders from creating much-needed housing, at a time when inventories are extremely low, while costs have skyrocketed; also, that the tax will be passed on to multifamily housing tenants in the form of higher rents.

 

  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

“A Chinese start-up has invented a long-distance Kissing Machine that transmits users’ kiss data collected through motion sensors hidden in silicon lips, which simultaneously move and warm up slightly when replaying kisses received, named MUA – the sound people commonly make when blowing a kiss.”   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpXC277yCNA

“The failure of our university academic system to produce mature and well-rounded citizens has become painfully evident. Students are closed-minded, irrational, struggle to comprehend high-school-level literature, and are too busy shouting down speakers with views different from their own to consider whether theirs are well-founded. In short, they are ill-prepared for the real world where people with all sorts of beliefs, religions & backgrounds have to interact and get along – where challenges are the norm rather than the exception.”  [WASHINGTON EXAMINER]

Consider: As a practical matter, “War is a racket. The Military Industrial Complex is an ever-growing ecosystem of lobbyists, defense contractors, and flag-level military officers approving budgets in the Pentagon for the very companies they will advise as members of their Board in retirement. Politicians and their relatives provide ample fodder as well, with elected officials who enter politics making between $100K – $200K a year, yet somehow amass wealth in the tens of millions over their tenure in government – aside from being humble public servants, apparently also being astute investors. Politics is big business.”  [Author JACK CARR]