Honest vs. Dishonest Debate

What did he just say? I am half held in amusement, half held in stunned silence at some of the things that political figures, community leaders, and even nice friends at church may say.  Perhaps it is a good time to take a minute and discern the accidental Freudian faux pas from the intentional circumspection of the truth.  I found an interesting resource with a quick Google search of “honest debate.”  I found a site that you may wish to spend some time with called Intellectually Honest and Intellectually Dishonest Debate Tactics hosted by author John T. Reed, a coach, author, West Point Graduate and Harvard MBA. 

            Very interesting insight in to how to manage the most basic to the most complex conversation and I highly recommend a glimpse at his work.  According to Reed, there are really two kinds of discussion:  One that is intellectually honest and one that is intellectually dishonest.  The measure of the two is simple.  The honest discussion is grounded in fact or logic.  Period, and end of statement.  This means that you can fairly point out an error in your opponent based only on fact or logic.  If you do not use fact or logic then you are being intellectually dishonest, which is a fancy way of saying that you are twisting the truth and even lying.  According to the assessment and lengthy list by Reed, there are a lot of ways to twist or play with the truth to get your way and these methods achieve intellectually dishonest debate.  The goal for the intellectually dishonest debater is to not make his or her point only mind you, but simply to get his or her way.  Think about this next time you are talking/arguing with someone.  Step away from the heat of the moment and try to state only the fact or the logic.  Does your point hold?  Or do you retreat to one of the thirty plus tactics used to get a debate or discussion off track by intellectually dishonest means. 

There are quite a few strategies according to Reed.  They can include name calling, changing the subject, questioning the motives of the person, stating irrelevant facts, quoting hearsay, pulling in an unqualified expert opinion, being vague, stereotyping, cult of personality, sloganeering, creating a scapegoat, claiming privacy to information, arousing envy, innuendo, redefining words, rejecting logic as opinion, fake laughter, intimidation, peer approval, mockery and political correctness are but just a few on the list. 

Let me give you a few examples that Reed shared on his site.  Start thinking about this the next time you watch the news or subject yourself to the ongoing political debates and see how many that you can find now that your eyes are a bit open to the technique.  Keep it in mind at your next board or council meeting too.  Intellectual dishonesty is just second nature sometimes.  “Intellectually-dishonest debate tactics are typically employed by dishonest politicians, lawyers of guilty parties, dishonest salespeople, cads, cults, and others who are attempting to perpetrate a fraud,” shares Reed. 

Name calling and changing the subject is a fairly straight forward technique to derail an argument by minimizing the credibility of an opponent.  “Never mind that the facts are true, let’s just make him look bad” thinks the intellectually dishonest person.  Questioning the motives of an opponent may be clever but it is also insincere when it comes to debate.  “They just want to sell their product,” may be true, but if the facts are accurate then by all means, sell away.

Hearsay or the support of the support of unqualified expert opinion is a technique that should be easy to pick up on, but it can sneak by if you aren’t watching.  Look for the ads in the paper that are set up to read like an article or press release. 

What about sloganeering?  People love to fall for this one.  It is so much easier to grasp on to a slogan or phrase than to take the time to understand the reason or logic.  Does “Change you can believe in” ring any bells.  Following on this idea is the “cult of personality” where instead of sifting though logic and facts to choose a leader, someone votes because “I like him” or “I dislike him less” as the case may be.  Also, look out for “claims of information privacy” in discussions or debate.  Really?  If you can’t divulge that  incredibly private and negotiated contract that is at the heart of the point of decision or purchase, perhaps you should just move on to the next offer completely.

Stereotyping is a technique used to leverage a win too.  If I label you as too Ivory Tower and Too Smart for your own good, then you probably can’t understand the “real world” problem that we are dealing with here, so your ideas aren’t going to be relevant.  It is always best to keep to the facts, and the person that you are overlooking or minimizing may just have the missing key.

How about redefining words to suite your agenda and win the discussion?  In this technique the debater uses a word that helps him, but that does not apply, by redefining it to suit his purposes, like calling government spending “investment.”  Taking words or quotes out of context is a common strategy too, like the recent debate of whether or not Romney really “doesn’t care about the poor.”

Words mean things, and it can be a challenge to stick to the facts, and to require our leaders to stick to the facts.  As we move in to our election cycle, stay alert, and hold the speaker accountable.

Washington, Your Vote and the Business Next Door

This week in Business has been particularly focused. The Business Council of Alabama hosted noted political contributor, author and speaker, Fred Barnes, for their 2010 Annual Meeting and Luncheon held at the Harbert Center. As a Beltway Boy who also is the Executive Director of the Weekly Standard, Barnes was the usual great choice by BCA to bring cutting edge, real time information to the business community. I look forward to enjoying the signed copy of his book The Rebel and Chief about his behind-the-scenes look at the George Bush Presidency.


Barnes positioned his discussion of the election outcomes by recalling Reagan’s Washington assessment, as an “island surrounded on all sides by reality.” As Barnes noted, you don’t always get what you expect during an election, and this year was no different for many and exhilarating for others. He noted that interestingly our very conservative state of Alabama had similar election outcomes to the very liberal state of Wisconsin. My goodness, New York even picked a lot of Republicans. According to the Hoover Institute, we are indeed a much more conservative country than we were a few years ago and our concerns over healthcare, spending and debt are more important now than ever. This may not be a welcomed message to remind our Washington front office about at this time, but certainly someone has to break them the news. According to Barnes, it is of striking interest that the Republican Party has emerged as the party of “Hope and Change,” and it is incumbent on the party not to blow it.

Barnes posed the question, “Can the Republican Party maintain the coalition?” Time will certainly tell, but a good beginning will be stick to the drivers that business is recommending which are: putting the break on spending and loosen up on the healthcare demands on small business for a good start. Citing Germany as an example, he revealed that not surprisingly, our current economic policies are to the left of many European countries. Germany has unemployment on the decline at 7.8%, and they did it by decreasing spending, decreasing the length and generosity of unemployment, and decreasing the size of government. The big message here that Washington just seems to have a tough time getting the old brain around is that the New Deal did not work. It did not work for FDR and it will not work for the current administration. All it achieves is creating a stronger government power base.

We know the answer, and it sounds easy at least. Tax cuts and incentives work. Just ask any business owner who is trying to keep the doors open. Looking at business founders from across the globe with at least $1 million in annual revenue, Sally Ernst working for Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) tracks their attitude. These are the business leaders whose hiring and layoff decisions are most likely to drive the economy. Her findings are interesting. U. S. businesses were doing more hiring and making more money in the period from May to October 2010 than they were prior to the last Global Indicator Survey, released in May by EO. It seems that business isn’t bad for U. S. entrepreneurs with over half in the survey reporting a higher profit. However, Ernst said, “Things are improving in terms of their businesses although they see things around them as quite dire.” Continued difficult credit conditions and huge uncertainty over whether the U.S. economic recovery can sustain itself have left entrepreneurs worried. Compare this to half of global entrepreneurs who expect that it will be easier to obtain credit in the coming months. A full 57 percent of American entrepreneurs think it will become more difficult to obtain bank loans.

So where are the most excited entrepreneurs in the world today then, if not the U.S.? According to Ernst, we should look to the East. In the Asia-Pacific region, 78 percent of entrepreneurs are optimistic about the economy, 50 percent plan to increase their borrowing, 70 percent have seen profits rise since the spring, 60 percent have been creating jobs for the past year, and 79 percent expect to create still more jobs in the next quarter. And as we have discussed here  before, their Millennial Generation kids don’t mind doing the tough work, are ready to work and less concerned with work/life balance (NJNews 11/13/10).

So what’s a gloomy U.S. entrepreneur to do? Certainly you can look abroad, but let’s not forget to do a little house cleaning here at home. Work to prevent those Bush tax cuts from expiring by contacting your representative or congressman. That would be a nice start. Get informed, stay involved, and remember, take care of your customers, or someone else will.

Pick your Ally to Change the Change: BCA, US Chamber, NAM

            Change.  Not just a buzzword during the Presidential elections, but a word that rose to a frenzied mantra.  Now that the smoke is clearing from our  recent mid-term elections, we are beginning to get the clear picture that something really has changed in the collective conscience of the country, and it may not be what some in Washington had hoped for or envisioned.  It would seem that previous to the 2008 elections, it was enough to ask the civic minded person to engage and vote.  Now that is just not enough.  Gone are the days of passive involvement, and trust in leadership whether it would be corporate leadership (with a now 20% approval rating) or political leadership (with a now 11% approval.)  Enter the Watchdog.  Welcome the Self-Advocate.  All Hail the civic minded, highly engaged voter who not only shows up on Election Day, but is highly informed and ready to get involved.  

I want to share this thought with you on the heels of my participation in the recent Committee Days for the Business Council of Alabama (BCA).  Committee days are key to driving the Pro-Business Agenda that BCA supports for our state.  In their commitment to our legislative process, BCA looks to the business volunteer leadership who has led BCA for over a quarter of a century with vision, courage, integrity and commitment.  This weeks Committee days were filled with heavy hitter leadership participation from all business sectors for Alabama.  If your company supports BCA, your organization has taken a serious step toward not only civic engagement, but having personal ownership in driving the drivers of legislation and leadership. 

            Two key speakers supported the Committee days this week, and their messages were on target with the mission of BCA.  In attendance to support this event were Jay Timmons, Executive Vice President of the National Manufacturers Association (NAM) and Katie Hays, Executive Director of Congressional and Public Affairs for the US Chamber of Commerce. 

Timmons spoke to the need for “clearing the bureaucratic brush”.  According to Timmons, American companies want to compete and win in the aggressive war of competition, and do not need to be encumbered by taxes and legislation that is a functional anvil on the backs of manufacturing.  The United States is second now to Japan, but soon to be the highest in corporate tax rate with a cost to do business in the US at 17% higher than other countries.  NAM supports better policies to create jobs and bring us out of the recession, and it advocates for the Free Market System.  Timmons expressed concern that voters are less and less educated on benefits of a free market.  “We will not survive as a service economy alone, and a manufacturing economy born in innovation, advancement and competition is crucial to building tangible wealth and strength for us,” said Timmons.

Hayes gave an election recap with recognition that there is certainly a lot of new blood in office with 13 new senators and 30 new governors.  “The role of the new governors is clearly significant as they work to interpret for the state what is happening at the national level and as well they should,” said Hayes.  As we exit this week from our Lame Duck Session with only one more session this year, there is a lot to accomplish in a very short period of time.  According to Hayes and the US Chamber of Commerce, President Obama must signal openness to compromise.  If the 2001/2003 Bush tax cuts expire, we will experience one of the largest tax hikes in America’s history.  $3.8 Trillion will be placed in the government’s hands only 45 days from now unless action is taken.   There is a lot of legislation in limbo in addition to the expiring tax cuts.  Other business tax provisions that are a priority for businesses are card check legislation, climate change legislation, transportation funding (SAFETEA-LU) reauthorization, discussion of the Debt Commission's budget report suggestions, immigration legislation (the DREAM Act), cyber security bill, trade legislation, and Medicare insurance legislation. 

The list is daunting, but chins up; Washington is listening now and now is our time to change the change.  We are the small-business bloc which is code for the “hardworking voter” or the “everyman.”  It is rare to find a small business person that does not complain about competition against the Big Box Company so here is your word of caution.  Politics is now truly big business.  More money from outside groups has been spent on the 2010 midterms than was spent in 2004, which was a presidential election year.  Don’t think about this as money spent buying votes, but think instead of the broadcasters, publications, campaign ads, event companies, restaurants, and the political consultants that help to bring it all together.  It may continue to be a tough fight for the small business bloc to compete with big politics in this type of financial arena, so square up with some good allies.  BCA may be that great lineman to your business big or small when it comes to the pro-business grid iron.

Millennial Generation: We raised these kids, why can't we manage them?

“We raised these kids, why can’t we manage them,” was the salient quote from the recent lecture by Ron Alsop at the quarterly breakfast meeting provided by the Samford Brock School of Business. Alsop is certainly a noted and long time writer, and you may recognize his name as the business editor for the Wall Street Journal. He speaks frequently on the topics of corporate reputation, business education, and career development, but on this day, we learned about the “Millennial Generation.”


In his book entitled, “The Trophy Kids Grow Up,” Alsop writes at length on his research concerning the dynamic known as the millennial generation. Millennials are young adults born between 1980 and 2001. They are heralded to comprise a full 35% of our workforce in the next three years. Now is the time to appreciate how this huge driver of our workforce has been formed and what they have to offer. But first, take a pause and appreciate how they are different, and it doesn’t take long to see that the differences are marked.

Looking back since the early 1920’s we have seen several transitions in workforce trends. The Traditionalists (born 1925-1945) are clearly some of the most patriotic of our work force. The Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) are those workaholics like me who take on way too much and wonder why there is so little free time. We love the effort and enjoy the output of our labors. Following the Boomers is the Generation X’ers (born 1965-1979) and they have a trend to tech savvy and latch key independence. Enter now to the workforce and the playground, the Millennial. This group has high self esteem born in the “they all get a trophy” competitive environment. Tech savvy? Please. They are tech savvy, multi-tasking super geeks with limited work place loyalty, but a parallel high civic mindedness. Dutifully watching over their millennial off spring is the seemingly ever present Helicopter parent. The Helicopter parent has been known to not only arbitrage for grades on behalf of their child in high school, but to attend a college interview when the child had a sporting event, and even ask to sit in on a job interview or two. Alsop reported parents that had requested that their travel to their child’s job interview also be covered, and how about an occasional “Parent Day” at work for good measure. This is truly an amazing shift as Alsop reminisced about us Baby Boomers being dropped off for college with a kiss, a wave, and a “see you at Thanksgiving.”

The young millennial in your office or home that are now nine years of age to thirty years of age are a force to be reckoned with as they are driven to succeed, prone to job hopping, and yet have very close parental ties. They seem to be less cynical at work than their predecessors, and because they like their parents, they also seem to like and get along with their managers. They are highly concerned with work life balance, and will take less money in the trade off for more fun. In a world where global competition is the name of the game, we would be advised to keep this in perspective as their Asian Millennial friends report that they are in fact less concerned with work/life balance and are ready to work. Time will tell, but this dynamic may change with work choice scarcity in the current recession for our job hopping, fun seeking employees.

A typical Millennial will state that they look at the work place as a social organization, not just a job, and they need to have fun. They report to be very credentials driven which is not surprising given their high self esteem. This group does not seem to have patience “paying their dues” and are not likely to desire the true entry level job. (It is this writers opinion that this is a great opportunity for the displaced Boomer who just love to work.) This seems to have been born in the environment where the driver is to get into a “good” college and all of the competition that goes along with this. Alsop reported that one parent interviewed had kept a spreadsheet of all their child’s accomplishments since kindergarten for inclusion in the interview process for college. Thus this group views the world as a “meritocracy” where you merit the advancement, and as such they are constantly asking for feedback. The challenge for employers is going to be a big one to retain the talent once you invest in the training of this group. Millennials want to be casual and enjoy work, and they make it clear that their lives come first, and jobs come second. Where did they get this idea? Probably from us workaholic Baby Boomers that give everything to work because “it matters”, only to find out in this current economy, you can in fact not just be replaced, but displaced and the company can do more with less.

There is a saying, “God gave you kids, because he isn’t finished with YOU yet.” This may be worth thinking about as we spend time raising and managing our Millennials.

Business Information: Check your source

Pay attention and be mindful of how you get your information. As our grandparents have said, “Don’t believe everything that you hear, and half of what you see.” With this simple, yet straight forward admonishment, I want to delve this week into watching more than the numbers with your business. My daughter has been studying about atoms at school and it can lend us a lesson. That big solid paperweight sitting on your desk turns out to be made of billions of atoms. According to Micotrends, this is the ultimate way to conceptualize the true micro trend. It reminds us to not miss the tree, because of the forest.

Here is an example. When President Clinton was elected into office, it was the general theme that “It’s the Economy, Stupid!” The basic idea was that the economy was horrible, and there were no new jobs being created. Once November statistics from 1992 came out, the period showed actual growth. Attitudes prior to the election had been stirred to be quite negative in a time of actual growth. The public was sold on the idea of doom and gloom based on “the forest has a problem” message when in fact their own personal tree was probably not doing so badly.

I bring this fine, but significant point out as we begin to emerge from the recession. The reminder is to check your attitude. At risk of sounding like a bad scene from “The Office”: Attitude is Amplitude. Cliché, but true. The challenge is to collect your information from multiple sources to include your own instincts as you move into 2010.

According to Robert Guest writing for the Economist, we are indeed emerging from the recession, and many companies will do so leaner and stronger. Households will emerge leaner as well. Not surprisingly, consumption patterns are predicted to continue to change in response to the slimmer side of buying patterns. Though the United States will continue as the biggest economy, over-stretched American consumers will no longer drive the world economy as before. Expansion bent markets will continue to look to China, Brazil and India for growth. This will push trade issues directly to the front, and the risk of a protectionist sentiment may arise. We have seen governments work together to contain the global financial crisis, but will they do so when it comes to trade? We should take a moment to think about the impact of this if China decides to stop lending us money. Hmm… Compound on this the harbinger of rising taxes as a method to ease budget deficits and the ultimate affect on not just corporations but business owners, and you can perhaps agree that now is a time to REALLY pay attention.

We have discussed in previous articles here that there is a growing distrust of government and big corporations. Think about the impact on the bottom-line when consumers retract further from spending due to a “pass through” tax that makes its way from the corporation to the consumer in the form of price increases. This should certainly stop us and make us think as it creates serious concern of back sliding into recession again with an economy that looks like a “W” instead of a “U”.

The challenge is to stay informed and to take control of the controllable. One big controllable is in fact your attitude as mentioned above. Would Vietnam please come to the front of the class? Again, Micro trends research shows us that much of the success of Vietnam in recent years is due to their abject optimism. Gallup World surveys show that 9 out of 10 Vietnamese Citizens state that this year will be better than the last. (Greece was the most pessimistic, edging out Iraq.) We would be wise to recognize the distinct differences between Capitalism and Democracy as presented by Vietnam. According to author Mark Penn in Micro trends, doi moi is the secret. Doi Moi is a series of market based reforms designed to stimulate the Vietnamese economy. Their constitution (Yes! They too have a constitution!) was amended to guarantee equal treatment for state and private companies, and eliminate bureaucracy. While all is not perfect in a country that we still view as an “Authoritarian” state, that rate of economic progress is still stunning in a country that has been so very war torn, and speaks to the serious entrepreneurial force that has brought it to this path. A quick look in our own towns of Fultondale and Gardendale will give us strong examples of the burgeoning nail shops that our Vietnamese friends own, and manage.

Take some time this week to seek out information as it pertains to your National, State AND local political decisions. It will impact your business sooner or later, so jump in there now and get involved.

And remember, take care of your customers, or someone else will.