Values, Attitudes And Behavior

When I taught at the 17^th Air Force Leadership School in the 80’s, we taught our students about the differences of values, attitudes and behavior.

At that time, the US Air Force was at the leading edge of how to successfully integrate people from a wide range of backgrounds into a cohesive harmonized group.

During the 80’s, many large corporations were actually studying the Air Force model to try to build better cooperation and collaboration within their companies. The companies that Forbes listed over the years as companies of excellence, with high satisfaction and productivity among their employees, were companies that had adopted the Air Force model.

Right now, you may not see this so much, but that is because the contract media has been deep into a demoralization campaign for several decades. Mainstream media does not reflect reality.

During that time the military was still early in the process of integrating women into the force. I was at the front edge of that process. I was often the first woman that the men had to work with, and I can attest to the fact that they struggled to make that adjustment.

Real racism was still an issue back then, too.

The Air Force did some research and discovered that it is difficult to influence a person’s attitude.

It’s almost impossible and not worth the effort to try to change a person’s values. But, you can have what is called “standards of behavior” required.

The reason for this is that people’s self-identities are tied to their values, and to some degree to their attitudes. When you try to change someone in a way that they self-identify, it triggers their survival mechanisms, and they resist the change.

Or to phrase it in way used in pharmacy terms, they become antagonistic to the efforts to change them.

The Air Force decided to bypass trying to change a person’s values or attitudes and instead focused on the behaviors. The decision to focus on behavior essentially solved the integration problem for the Air Force.

People could feel or think whatever they wanted, as long as that didn’t show up in their behaviors in the work place.

This is essentially the gist of professionalism.

A way of behaving that allows smooth, harmonious interactions in the workforce.

The natural result is that as people worked more harmoniously together, their attitudes and values shifted to be more respectful of each other.

A couple of rules of thumb came from this research.

• Praise in public. Criticize in private. (To mitigate triggering the brain’s survival mechanisms.)
• When counseling, focus on the behavior, not the person. (Which would include their attitudes and values.)

Patterns In Human Behavior

While there are basic human patterns in human behavior, the way each person is wired inside themselves is unique.

In addition to cultural differences, and differences in the stages of culture a person is operating at, there are also personality differences, communication style differences, temperament differences, and differences in the ways we access information, different learning styles, and so on.

In the 80’s we taught the MaslowHierarchy of Needs.

The idea was that people progressed through the levels as the basic need of each was met, culminating at Self-Actualization.

This is a model, and models, like maps, are tools. They can help us better understand and navigate ourselves and our lives.

Another useful model, is Spiral Dynamics. It’s a group dynamics model. One of the best out there, in my opinion.

Very informative.

In this image you can easily see the relationship of the Maslow Model to the Spiral Dynamic Model

(I prefer the model before Ken Wilber got a hold of it and merged it with his Integral System.)

It’s a curious anomaly; the more you understand and accept yourself, the more understanding and accepting you can be of others.

One critical component of the companies that were able nurture a Stage 5 culture is that they made it very easy for people to learn more about themselves.

They worked with much better models of understanding basic human behavior than companies operating at the other Stages.

There are tons of free tools for learning and understanding more about yourself, and human nature, in general.

Any one can do this, if they want.

Another Example Of Living From The Inside-out

Another example of of how we all live from inside-out comes from my early days in the Air Force.

There was a sign in the shop I worked in, kinda like the memes that people used to fax before, and as they are now shared on Twitter, or Facebook.

It showed a person at the base gate asking, “What’s this base like?”

The answer was a question, “What was the last base you were at like?”

The guy at the gate responded, and was told, “That’s what’s it like here, too.”

I remember reading that cartoonish sign and being a bit perplexed as to it’s point?

I didn’t have enough life experience at that point to grasp it’s meaning.

Maybe it was the shop supervisor who clued me in on it’s meaning.

I’m curious and always asking questions.

It’s a basic observation of human behavior.

Decades later, when I ran my own business, I used this understanding in my interview process,

“Tell me what your last job was like?”

A very effective question in determining if the person was going to be someone I wanted to hire.

Where ever you go, there you are.

The Center Of Life

Life is very interesting in that somehow, in all forms of life, from a microbe, to a spider, to a whale to a human, every one experiences life as if they are the center of the universe.

People talk about narcissism, or ego, but the fact is, the perception that we are the center of our lives, is hardwired into all lifeforms. I find this fascinating and curious.

There is a mathematical construct beneath this that I would like to understand better.

An artifact of this is that most people think and feel that the way they experience the world is the way everyone else experiences the world.

There are common patterns to be sure, but the assumption that I think this way, therefore it IS this way is not really accurate.

Because I’ve done a lot different jobs in my life, and have lived in many different places, I’ve been able to see how the same patterns repeat in various spaces.

Or maybe, I’m just wired this way. When I was a kid I had more fun organizing my toys than playing with my toys. I was always sorting by different patterns.

I’ll offer an example of what I’m talking about from when I worked as a pharmacy tech in a retail pharmacy.

There was this very bizarre requirement from the corporate level that the pharmacists were to always say that the script would be ready in 5 minutes. Which is unrealistic. But, the pharmacists did what they were told.

The reason why the corporate level had this bizarre requirement probably came from some MBA fresh out of school, with lots of book smarts and no real world experience. It was goals oriented. Which often loses sight of “effectiveness.” Goals are easy to measure, effectiveness, not so easy.

The result was that people stood around waiting because they thought their script would be done in 5 minutes.

However, most of the time it was put in a queue of the scripts ahead of it and on a good day would take at least 15 minutes.

So, customers would hang out in front the of the pharmacy waiting for their script and getting increasing impatient in their energy, because they had been told it would be 5 minutes.

There’s this thing called the 2 minute rule. I remember learning about this when I was teaching leadership while in the Air Force. I’ve heard and seen this applied in all sorts of ways.

True to the 2 minute rule, the customer would realize at about 13 minutes, this is taking longer than 5 minutes and I may as well go take care of something, and leave.

This was frustrating the pharmacists to no end. They felt that people were hovering and glaring at them while they were working. And when the script was finally ready, the customer was no longer there.

After watching this a bit, and seeing the level of stress and tension building and building in the pharmacists. And this is a fairly common reaction among pharmacists which I’ll explain in a bit.

I pulled them aside and suggested a few things to help them better understand the situation.

I suggested that they ignore company policy and tell people the truth. If it will be 15 minutes before the script is done, tell them it will be 15 minutes. If the queue is so huge that’s it’s going to be 45 minutes, tell them it will be 45 minutes.

The truth is actually more respectful to the customer. Every one lives busy lives and and feels stretched for time. No one enjoys waiting unnecessarily.

I also explained that the customers waiting in front of the pharmacy was not thinking at all about the pharmacist. They were thinking about what they were going to make for dinner, or the argument they had with a co-worker that day, or what they need to do next on their to do list, and so on.

People live in the center of their lives.

A lot of people spend an enormous amount of time, energy and focus judging against something that is simply human nature. It’s not good or bad, it just IS.

Lots of suffering comes from resisting what IS.

It’s not effective to try to fight reality, it’s much more effective to work with it.

I remember reading this adage once, and it’s spot on.

Don’t worry about what people are thinking about you, because they’re not.

Another rough draft: Section of Confessions of a New Age Christian

Confessions of a New Age Christian

“When science begins to experiment with non physical phenomena it will make more progress in a decade than all it’s previous centuries combined.” -Nikola Tesla

When I was around tens years old I had an obscure experience that seemed like nothing at the time, and yet, in retrospect, looking back as an adult, I now see was a turning point for me. A tiny experience that in the long term changed my whole world view.

In a bit I will share with you the story of this experience but before I do I want to share with you something else I noticed from that same time frame.

You see, it was also around the age of ten that I began telling anyone who would listen – Shoot, I even told people who wouldn’t listen. I repeated over and over, to everyone, (I was nearly obnoxious about this, lol), 

“In the future, science and mathematics would prove the existence of the soul.”

I was adamant about this.

I knew the truth of this statement down to the depths of my bones. It was an unshakable belief and understanding. At ten years old!?!

It wasn’t until I was well into my forties, as an adult, reflecting back on my life, that I made the connection. Maybe my newfound certain belief and understanding that science and mathematics would prove the existence of the soul when I was ten was in some way related to the obscure experience that happened around the same time.

Life happens that way, you know. 

As a child we take things in without really questioning them. Most everything we experience seems “normal” to us, because we haven’t yet learned how to step out of our experiences and reflect upon them. That happens later in our development, when we and our brains have matured more.

I’m sure that you have noticed simple patterns in your life. Experiences that you had as a child that you didn’t necessarily notice at the time.  Yet, later in life took on more meaning, as you remembered those experiences from a different and more mature perspective.

I find this is so. 

Nearly everyone I talk to, when I ask them, remember odd experiences from their childhood. Experiences that aren’t neatly explained by the boxes of our current mainstream culture. When I first start talking with people, they are hesitant to remember these experiences. Or if they remember them, they are hesitant to talk openly about them. 

This is changing though … more and more, people are becoming comfortable with themselves, their whole selves, not just the bits and pieces that fit into the culturally acceptable boxes of our past

Go ahead, think about those times, right now.

Jot down what comes to your mind in the journal I suggested you start back in Chapter 1. Pop on over to my website or any of my social media channels and share these stories if you want. (See the links to these in Appendix B)

Come along with me on this journey of self-discovery, self-appreciation and self-understanding. Remember you matter.

Mockingbird Media

I have a confession to make.  

Last year I didn't follow the election much.

I had a lot on my plate and really didn't feel supportive of either of the main candidates.  I thought the election was already rigged in Hillary Clinton's favor.  And therefore, not much our votes would do. 

I figured that whoever won the election won.  And I would deal with the fallout of it, once it happened.  And kept my nose to the grindstone of several projects I was working on during that time.  I completely missed all the hate-fest of the election cycle.  And was probably much happier for it, too.

I knew a lot of people who were going to vote for Trump.  And I understood their reasoning.  But I didn't feel good enough about Trump to support him with a vote.
Come election day, I didn't vote for anyone on the ballot for President.  Even though this was tantamount to throwing my vote away, I decided to write in Rand Paul.  He wasn't even qualified.

Rand Paul ran on the platform of Audit the Fed.  And I feel very strongly that we cannot truly address the hi-jacking of our government if we do not take a serious look the Federal Reserve.  And all the central banks for that matter.

I wanted to put it out there in the universe in some way, to take that stand. Let's reign in the whole central bank control system. 

A few days after the election, we were contacted by a family member asking us for help with their daughter. ...

OUR Future

The Wave

The 'breakdown' of the 'globalist new world order initiative' has long been forecast as 'unleashing' a huge wave of 'creativity', and 'sparking' a 'global renaissance'.

clif high ALTA Report Feb 2017, p10

~~~ 賁 ~~~

I was one of those kids who saw weird visions.

By this, I mean around the age of 3 - 4.
After a while, I somehow managed to turn off the visions, so I could function in the mundane world.
I blocked what I saw from my memory. I honestly don't remember them now.
But, I've lived with the knowledge of them my whole life. It's made me odd to say the least.
It's a part of my beautiful weirdness.

Even now, when I ask my Mom about the visions I used to tell her about when I was a kid, she gets uncomfortable. 
She'll say, "They were disturbing." And won't tell me any more.
Because of my knowing, I have a sense of what they were about, and can understand why she would find them disturbing.
A key element though, that she has confirmed for me was "the wave".
I've been inherently curious to try to understand this for as long as I can remember.
 

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