• WORKPLACE CONFLICT OFTEN ARISES WHEN POSTURE OR BEHAVIOR OF OTHERS IS AGGRESSIVE, ARGUMENTATIVE, EVEN BULLYING – like bosses who may be aloof, disengaged, micromanaging, stubbornly set in their ways, and/or also within peer groups where everyone considers themselves a leader (think VPs/ Managers/ Boards/ families). When interactions lead to conflict, dysfunction can impact effectiveness and often lead to unwanted outcomes. Surveys find U.S. employees spend several hours monthly engaged in conflict, up to a full day of productivity, but which can be improved by: (1) Developing clarity for acceptable behavior in the business’ culture, and (2) Communicating boundaries with which conformity or non-conformity will impact performance evaluation. DCG can help organizations implement this process, toward an objective of improving productivity, profitability, and team stability. [SMARTBRIEF – 3/6/23]
  •  ENTREPRENEURS PUSHING NEW SECTORS OR PRODUCTS ARE “EXPECTED TO DISTORT REALITY with uncontrolled enthusiasm for their ideas, such that excitement builds and people (particularly execs & investors) fall all over themselves to get on board. But the trick is to do so without overinflating expectations.”  In recent years, that’s what has happened, as technologies blossomed, then withered – consider metaverse, blockchain, crypto, non-fungible tokens, initial coin offerings.  “Exaggerated claims were successful in raising more money in less time than accurate ones; recent examples involve over 100 cryptocurrencies created which use ChatGPT in their name. Indeed, in the short public life of ChatGPT, ‘hype’ helped make it the fastest-growing consumer technology in history, but flaws now attract as much attention… Excitement can both help and hinder.”  Stay cautious.  [ECONOMIST – 3/4/23]
  •  SOCIAL SECURITY & MEDICARE PAYMENTS ARE UNSUSTAINABLE. Period. They currently consume over half of federal revenues, and previously accumulated workers’ funds will run out completely within the next decade. Both Democrat and Republican parties have known this for years, “but are playing ‘chicken,’ and together are monstrously guilty of fostering the fiction that such payments are untouchable ‘Entitlements.’ Reality is that the Supreme Court ruled as far back as 1960 that federal taxes paid do not impose future obligations… Nonetheless, congressional Democrats pretend they can spend as much as they want (the more the better) without unpleasant consequences, while Republicans fear voters will punish any hint of doing the right thing… In the private sector, we jail fraudsters who run Ponzi schemes like this, but in the public sector, we re-elect them.” Most Americans are misinformed and/or unaware that their presumption of future ‘insurance’ for retirement protection is heading toward an abyss. [WASHINGTON EXAMINER – 2/28/23]
  •  “THE GREAT ‘RESET’ IS REALLY GREAT RESENTMENT, with the political left acting out their bottled-up fury at American successes and infuriated at how well freedom is working – the opulence, scientific & technological achievements, personal advancements at every level (even the ‘downtrodden’ compared to the rest of the world). They can see (and deny) how poorly socialist utopian schemes they hold dear are doing, but like spoiled brats they nihilistically seek to overturn everything about this nation that is good and decent and pure… Words are the key. Leftists understand that whoever controls our language controls us, so an entire generation of Newthink terms have entered the public mind, infiltrated newsrooms and classrooms everywhere, which threaten our health and liberty.” [TOWNHALL – 3/5/23]
  •  THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

The latest Disney attempt for box-office numbers by live-action rebooting of classics for ‘modern audiences’ is Peter Pan & Wendy. View a sad 5-minute video to see their strategy – mainlining radical leftist politics with focus on race swaps, feminist messaging and woke overtones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06m2Wb2nxWI

‘Junk Fees’ are added (often ‘surprise’) costs which show up when time to pay for products or services which had not been mentioned in upfront pricing – like ‘Service fees’ for Hotel Resort wi-fi/ gym/ pool, and for Sports & Concert Event tickets, or Early Termination of TV/ internet/ phone contracts. Amounts can be substantial and users/ buyers currently have no alternative, but at least a federal Junk Fee Prevention Act was proposed in last month’s State of the Union address to ban or reduce such fees.

Excerpts from ‘The Gentlemen’s Book of Etiquette’ published in 1875: “Do not be known as an egotist. No man is more dreaded in society or accounted a greater bore, than he whose every other word is I or me or my. Show an interest in all others of themselves, but speak but little of your own affairs…  It is quite as bad to be a mere relater of scandal or the affairs of your neighbors. A female gossip is detestable, but a male gossip is also utterly despicable…  Nothing is worse taste in society than to repeat the witticisms or remarks of another person as if they were your own. If you are discovered in the larceny of another’s ideas, you may originate a thousand brilliant ones afterwards, but you will not gain the credit of one.”