I saw this sign at a store in New York City a few weeks ago, reminded me of a beautiful lesson. When you steal, you have to justify what you’ve done to yourself, even if you don’t feel the need to answer to anyone else. In stealing you have two options for how you assess your actions: Denigrate yourself –…
Month: October 2015
Sacrificial budgeting
Routinely I hear people talk about industry benchmarking in terms of setting budgets. For example, if your competitor spent 5% of revenue on IT, or if most organizations your size spend $500K yearly on IT, and then you proceed to set your budget for IT at 5% of revenue or $500K. This reminds me of ancient rituals of animal sacrifice.…
How to avoid polarization
Our minds are hardwired to generalize and stereotype just about everything in life. It’s the blessing and the curse of the human mind. All of us do it, and if you think you’re somehow immune, well, therein lies the answer to how you can avoid it. What does generalization have to do with polarization? Generalizations lead to labeling. For example,…
Inadvertently hurting yourself
Most people find the idea of helping yourself in the process of helping others palpable. At least after they’ve had some time to reflect upon how they have changed as a person as a result of helping others in the past. But, what’s often not so obvious is the inverse of this principle. And people often disagree rather stubbornly. Here…